Business + Marketing


NFT Art Sales: Lindsay Adler Shares Best Practices

April 29, 2021

By Hillary K. Grigonis

© Lindsay Adler/AdoramaTV

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, aren’t new to people out there who are selling things like Cryptokitties, but the blockchain-based digital art scene is still pretty new to most photographers. Besides the new process and currency, success with selling NFTs is more likely when you incorporate steps like networking and building a story. After sharing insight into what NFT art is and how to list NFT art for sale, portrait and fashion photographer Lindsay Adler recently shared her guidelines for best practices for this digital art realm. Part three of the video series is now live on Adorama’s YouTube channel.

[Read: 10 Random Questions for Lindsay Adler]

At the start of the video, Adler shares her experience from her first sale. While she details the actual cost of things like gas fees in an earlier video, the photographer says that she actually has now covered those fees because Ethereum (known as ETH, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin) has increased in value since. Adler says she received her first bid in 20 minutes, then heard crickets for 24 hours. Her first piece eventually sold for 1 ETH. She now has another listed and is currently working on three more.

© Lindsay Adler

New to the NFT art space, Adler asked other photographers using the Foundation platform for tips, then built a list of ten best practices for NFT photographers.

1. Develop an artist statement.

Adler says your bio on the NFT platform should be personal. Include information about yourself and your artistic style.

2. Create work with a story.

The bio shouldn’t be the only personal element on your NFT platform. Your work, Adler says, should tell a story. Maybe that’s a personal story, maybe that’s a statement about current events, or maybe something else. But a story will help your work sell—and give you plenty of inspiration to build the description when you mint.

3. Find balance between new and you.

Learning a new platform is a great time to experiment with something new, from animating your work to new genres. But, Adler warns, make sure that you remain true to your own style.

4. Promote your work.

Like with any professional photography, you need to get your name out there. Adler—and the photographers that she talked to—suggests engaging with collectors on social media, including Twitter and Clubhouse. Most NFT art platforms also have a Discord channel for chatting with other artists and collectors.

5. Share other art that inspires you.

Don’t let your social media feeds turn into a boring scroll of ads for your art. Share work from other artists that you admire.

6. Stay in contact with collectors.

Once your work sells, Adler suggests continuing a relationship with a seller. Follow them on social media and develop a relationship. After all, you already know that they value your work.

7. Don’t stop at just NFTs.

Some NFT artists sweeten the deal with more than just the NFT. Some send actual physical art to go with the NFT, or an extra download of a high resolution file. Including more may help your work sell.

8. Don’t overload your NFT platforms.

If a collector is looking at your profile and sees lots of unsold work, he or she may be inclined to think that your work doesn’t have much value. Avoid putting massive amounts of new artwork up before you’ve sold what’s already listed.

9. Avoid too many editions.

Art that is scarce is more valuable. While you don’t have to sell only one copy of everything, Adler suggests avoiding too many editions of your NFTs or the value will drop.

10. Know your value.

With a new platform, it’s easy to underprice yourself. Adler says that, just like when you create a price list as a portrait or event photographer, you should avoid undervaluing your own work. Explore what other art is going for in a genre similar to yours.

For the full list of Adler’s NFT best practices, watch her latest video. For a refresher on what an NFT is or how to list your first NFT, take a look at the first and second videos in the series on AdoramaTV.