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How to Make Money with NFTs

By Wei Zhang
4 min read
Five NFT Challenges
Five NFT Challenges
In this article (14)

With the explosion of cryptocurrency and the blockchain over the past few years, NFTs have grown too. While they may not be as popular as most cryptos, many experts believe NFTs will play a huge role in our future online world.

While NFTs don’t have the best reputation, they are certainly something that is only going to get better with age. If you don’t know what they are or you are looking for ways to make money with them, this post is for you.

What is an NFT?

If you had to Google “NFTs explained,” you may be hit with a wall of content you don’t quite understand. However, in simple terms, an NFT is a unique digital asset that can be bought and traded, much like a painting or a baseball card.

Owning a digital asset means you can make money from it, and it can grow in value. It is also not possible for someone to own it unless you sell it to them. There is also the common misconception that having a picture of an NFT is the same as owning it.

Think about this example; there is a big difference between owning an original Banksy artwork and simply downloading a photo of it onto your phone; that is also how NFTs differ, except the original is online too.

What can you sell as an NFT?

When it comes to what can be an NFT, the sky’s the limit. Almost anything can be an NFT, a photo you took on holiday, or the characters of a video game you made. The most popular NFTs nowadays are pieces of art, art collections, and video game assets.

NFT flipping

The first way to make money with NFTs is to flip them. Flipping and trading are slightly different, with flipping being the process of minting NFTs at a very low price and then selling them for a large profit.

Flipping can be risky, though, as minting costs money, and there is no guarantee if or when the NFT will sell. While this type of risk is true for all kinds of investments, minting requires more of your money, which makes it a slightly bigger risk.

NFT collections

Instead of selling individual NFTs, one of the more attractive investment opportunities for investors is to offer collections. If you have a great NFT, you are more likely to make a greater profit selling a collection than an individual asset.

Take Pokemon cards, for example; selling a random card from a collection is far less appealing than selling the complete collection.

Flipping can be risky, though, as minting costs money, and there is no guarantee if or when the NFT will sell.

NFT investments

You can also play the long game when trying to make money with NFTs and choose the investment route. NFT value goes up and down just like any other crypto, and there are several out there that are still very sought-after.

You can also choose to invest early in a new project, and while this takes a bit more knowledge and research, it is a great way to get in at a very low price and maximize your profits.

Make game assets

This is one area that is seeing a lot of growth within the world of NFTs. Crypto and blockchain-based video games are exploding in popularity, and designers are using NFTs to fill their games and create value by making unlockables, like skins and characters, NFTs that can be bought and sold.

Creating a game character, for instance, can net you a very healthy profit if the character was to grow in popularity. Once again, this requires skill and knowledge, but nothing that can’t be learned online.

NFT rentals

While this one may sound a bit bizarre, you can rent out your NFTs. Depending on what type of NFT you have, there is the chance to rent it out for others to use for a particular purpose. This can range from videos to video games or content in general.

NFT staking

If you have been in the world of crypto for a while, you probably already know what staking is. In simple terms, staking is locking your NFT asset into a smart contract or DeFi protocol, which then yields you rewards and financial gains.

You essentially use your NFTs as collateral, but in exchange, you retain ownership of your assets, and you are able to make money from them.

NFT trading

Finally, you can go the much more simple route and trade NFTs. Unlike flipping, you aren’t part of the minting process at all; instead, you are using our crypto to buy NFTs, wait for them to increase in value, sell them for a profit, and buy more.

As mentioned, the NFT market works in the same way as the stock, forex, and crypto market; prices are constantly fluctuating, allowing you to get in low and sell high almost whenever you want.

 

Questions & Answers

Q.

What is the key difference between flipping NFTs and simply trading them?

A.

Flipping involves minting NFTs yourself at a low cost, hoping to sell them for a large profit later. Trading, however, means buying existing NFTs with cryptocurrency, waiting for their value to rise, then selling them for profit without being involved in the initial minting process.

Q.

How can someone generate income from an NFT they already own without selling it?

A.

Owners can rent out their NFTs for others to use in various contexts like videos or video games. Alternatively, they can stake their NFT asset by locking it into a smart contract or DeFi protocol, which then provides financial rewards while retaining ownership.

Q.

What common misconception do people often have about owning an NFT?

A.

There is a common misconception that simply having a picture of an NFT means you own it. The article clarifies this by comparing it to downloading a photo of an original Banksy artwork; owning the digital asset is distinct from merely possessing its image.

Q.

What types of items are most commonly sold as NFTs today?

A.

While almost anything can be an NFT, the most popular items currently are pieces of art, collections of art, and assets from video games. This includes things like characters or unlockables within blockchain-based games.

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