I have a lot lot lot of artists friends. I'm guessing 80% of my friends are some kind of artist or creator, and maybe half of those are visual artists.

When I first mentioned NFTs...I wasn't the best salesman. To be honest, I'm not into hype and trends and that's a big part of the NFT space. At the same time though, hype is a big part of what makes artists successful, and can be the difference between doing what you love and going back to working a job you hate.

All along, I've had friends asking me about NFT's. Usually I just tell them to open a twitter account, open a Hive account and connect with people they like. That's some pretty vague advice though.

I noticed @stellabelle was having a talk called "How to sell crypto art without shilling". Perfect! I missed the talk, but then she re-directed me to a thread with the talk available at the end of the thread.

@stellabelle is OG in the NFT space, she started doing crypto art projects in this community back before NFT's were a thing.

Still Stella is one person with one perspective...

I'd like to get some other perspectives.

How do you think one can go from 0 followers to being recognized in the NFT space?

I don’t think my friends are looking to hit it rich, they’d just like to be able to reach more people and supplement their income because it’s not easy to earn money as an artist. Some loyal followers who aren’t close friends would be enough (because most of their friends are also “starving artists”).

Some friends were a little turned off by the “hype” factor and so they were late to the boat but now they realize that NFTs aren’t going anywhere and they are starting to understand the technology a little better. A few of them who are less capitalistic and competitive in their thinking found it very uncomfortable. Others are kind of morally opposed to hype to the point where I don't think they'll ever join in with NFTs, and that's ok. Some have viable plans to make money and some don’t but I'll still support them in their journeys if I can.

Right now I have two particular friends who are making NFTs and one who is trying to earn from collecting NFTS. I'm more focused on helping the artists create good strategies that don't feel empty and don't exploit anyone and can be more fun and meaningful than just spamming their work.

The best advice I had for them at first was to get active on Twitter, find a few people they like every day and connect with them. I told them I'd make this post and see if I could get any more good advice.

One friend jumped into the space without any expectations. We came up with a few great collaborative ideas but all of them felt a little bit too exploitative, and so for now he just wants to promote his series somehow. It's called...

The Fortune Cat

The Study Hard Tiger

.05 ETH

The Meditating Tiger

.1 ETH

This dude is a really talented artist who actually works on a lot of different styles, usually event posters and comic books but other things too. I want to buy one soon…first have to get set up on Metamask. I think he really has a lot of potential in the NFT space. He’s totally someone who could design the next big NFT.

—-

Another friend is a photographer who takes all kinds of shots from Tokyo, including a lot of underground culture and raw moments seen on the street. He also finds interesting spots to shoot whenever he goes back home. He's one of my few good gaijin friends here in Tokyo.

3 HBD to anyone who recognizes his face and can tell me where you've seen it before, I'm curious if @belemo @acidyo @txmek, and any other gamers that follow me know who he is (if you do, plz just treat him like a normal cool dude, I'm pretty sure he'd like that more than being fawned over).

Mark J Hill / Tokyo Tableaux

on twitter
superrare
opensea
And coming to Hive soon?

Edit: @tinsol2022 on Hive

Tokyo Vintage Arcade

at Superrare

Shootout

at opensea

Mark was actually coaxed into doing NFT's by a friend who is in the art scene and wanted to help him market his work. I love his work but I don't know how well photography is doing in the NFT space. Maybe you have some ideas for him?

I do think that if more people see his work, they'll really love it, so I’d love to help him turn his NFT’s into an overall marketing tool. I was telling him he should make some collections because I would buy one (NFT collections or collection books, I'd buy either).

I haven't invested in NFT's but as a way to help my friends market and earn money together with them, I do plan on buying one of Mark's eventually if he decides to stay involved in the space.

---

Also....if you think I might get famous one day, you might want to invest in my silly ass NFT's. My more serious artwork (novels, and music) have always been done under the name I+Everything. I still don't think this work fits the NFT space, at least not my vision for it... but I really want to make something that fits this name, Self Help for Trolls. That was the inspiration for this first NFT.

Self Help for Trolls

City Life

10 Hive

In any case, I've recommend both of these friends start Hive accounts so they can connect with others in the crypto space through their art, without all the noise of twitter. Obviously there is also NFTshowroom, which is where I put up my Troll piece.

It seems like NFT's are like an investment in someone's reputation. If you believe in someone's ability to reach more people, you can buy one and profit from it, or just support them cause you want to. I wonder if there is a fun and effective way to play this whole game though?

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My work:

📕 Confessions of the Damaged psychedelic spiritual fiction

🎸I + Everything - ambient folky music

🎬Self Help For Trolls - vlog

Confessions of the Damaged 1.1 - Out now!

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