1. Contract Selection
The contract standard is a set of rules that you follow when creating an NFT. NFTs issued based on different contract standards will have different features and functions.
The following are some common NFT contract standards:
（1）ERC721
The most common NFT contract standard, ERC721, emphasizes the uniqueness of NFT, that is, one Token ID corresponds to only one NFT.
（2）ERC721A
The ERC721 optimization protocol was proposed by the blue chip project Azuki. Its main function is to reduce the gas fees required for users to mint NFTs. It is suitable for a large number of addresses to mint NFTs at the same time or for the same address to mint multiple NFTs. It can reduce the gas fees for users by 50%-70%.
（3）ERC721R
Another optimization protocol of ERC721, proposed by GameFi project CryptoFighters Alliance, allows users to refund after minting NFT. ERC721R can effectively reduce the risk of project owners running away or subsequent poor management.
（4）ERC1155
A semi-homogeneous NFT standard, a Token ID in ERC1155 represents a category, which can correspond to multiple NFTs, commonly seen in game props or Open Edition versions of artworks. ERC1155 is suitable for scenarios where the difference of NFTs is not required.
2. Art Design
There are many categories of NFTs. Here we take artworks as an example, such as avatars, paintings, videos, generative art, etc.
The choice of art design generally depends on two things: what you want to express or the group you want to target. If you are an artist who already has your own style, you can create according to your own ideas; if you want to design art according to market preferences, then you need to consider what kind of users you want to attract.
For example, European and American users may prefer the rough American comic style of BAYC, the delicate Japanese comic style of Azuki or the cute style of Doodles may be more successful in the Asian market, and there is also the "ugly and cute" curious style of Goblintown. Aesthetics vary greatly, so there is no standard answer in the choice of art design.
3. Route Map Planning
The roadmap is the story you tell about the NFT you issue, including the direction of the project, the timing of major events, the benefits (empowerment) of investors holding, etc. Most users in the market buy NFTs with the expectation of future appreciation. If you want investors to grow with the project, the roadmap is an important tool to keep them confident in long-term holding.
Therefore, you develop a detailed roadmap for your NFT, such as a grand narrative (what is the purpose of launching NFT), a clear and credible mission (what is provided to users through NFT), market-competitive selling points (what makes the project unique), and specific plans for implementation, so as to establish fans' recognition of the brand value.
Last year, many "three-no" products with "no team, no copyright, and no roadmap" appeared, and the market performance was also good. However, it should be noted that the so-called "no roadmap" of these projects is just a marketing gimmick, not really doing nothing. In fact, they not only have it, but also play it very well.
4. Sales Strategy
After preparing the above matters, the next step is to consider the sales strategy of NFT, which simply means “how much to issue” and “how to issue”.
1. Issue quantity and price
The number of NFTs issued involves the total amount and distribution plan of NFTs issued. For example, is there an upper limit on the number of NFTs you issue? If so, what is the total amount? Do you want to keep some NFTs as treasury funds for subsequent promotional activities? How many rounds will the NFTs be issued in, and what is the quantity in each round?
Pricing needs to be considered comprehensively in combination with the overall situation of the project and market sentiment. For example, when selling in rounds, how to set the price for each round; when using an auction, how to set the starting price; how to set the price when the market is good or bad, etc.
2. Release form
(1) First come, first served
As the name implies, whoever casts first gets it first before the casting quantity reaches the upper limit. The first-come-first-served model can also be classified according to the entry threshold, such as the permissionless model for all users and the whitelist model for specific users.
(2) Dutch Auction
A Dutch auction is an auction method where the price is called from high to low. For example, you can set the starting price of your NFT to 10ETH, the price floor to 1ETH, and then the price drops by 0.1ETH every 5 minutes until all NFTs are sold or the price reaches the floor.
Azuki used a Dutch auction, and because the project was so popular, they sold out within 5 minutes at the starting price of 1ETH.
Compared with a fixed price, the final revenue of a Dutch auction is extremely uncertain, so adopting a Dutch auction generally requires confidence in the project.
（3）Free Mint
Free Mint is a popular distribution method, which allows users to mint NFTs completely free of charge (excluding gas fees). For example, the CryptoPunks with a floor value of more than 60 ETH is actually issued in the form of Free Mint.
For the issuer, since it is sold for free, the source of income for the Free Mint project is generally the royalties generated when the series of NFTs are subsequently traded in the secondary market.
(4) Noun-style auction
An experimental issuance method based on English auction invented by Nouns DAO.
Nouns DAO issues a new NFT on its official website every day. The auction lasts for 24 hours, during which users can bid. The highest bidder wins at the end of the auction. Nouns has auctioned more than 600 NFTs in this way, and the current floor price is stable at around 20 ETH.
Using Noun-style auctions allows project owners to gradually build a community during the issuance process and use auction revenue (community treasury) to plan some activities for the project. However, the extremely limited supply may lead to excessively high prices, making it difficult for ordinary users to participate.
（5）Open Edition
Open Edition is a distribution method that allows users to mint NFTs without restrictions within a specified time. Open Edition can be minted at a fixed price or free minted. Its characteristics are low price and large issuance volume, and every user has the opportunity to obtain the desired NFT.
The threshold for Open Edition is low, and almost no coding skills are required to issue it, making it easy to start. However, due to the large issuance volume and low expected value, OE is generally more suitable for project parties or artists who already have a certain fan base.
3. Release rhythm
The release rhythm refers to how you coordinate resources and plan corresponding activities at various points in the sales process to achieve better sales results.
After completing the preliminary art design, contract deployment and website development, event promotion will become the focus of the next work. The cooperation between AMA and KOL is the key, including the selection and quotation of AMA partners or KOL, the determination of cooperation methods, the preparation and distribution of promotional materials, etc.
For example, before the sale, you need to release some project information to let users know about you. At this time, you may need to post some information about the artist's creative process on social media, or let the artist tell users about the background of the creation in the AMA, share the story of the creation, and convey the vision of the project, etc., so that users can resonate. During the sale process, you may need KOLs to create a bigger voice for NFT on social media to mobilize market sentiment.
The release rhythm and activity planning are actually determined by the positioning and roadmap of your project. For example, some Open Edition projects may not need other promotional methods, and can achieve very high minting volume as long as a particularly influential KOL or OG brings the product.
4. Channel building
The purpose of channel building is to allow more people to know about your project and convert them into your purchasing users.
（1）Social Media
The most important social media is Twitter. Twitter is the largest information distribution center of Web3 and the place where most users get first-hand information. Twitter Space is also the most commonly used AMA tool by project parties. In addition, Discord, Telegram, Instagram, etc. are also common.
(2) Blue Chip Community
The community composed of blue chip project holders is the group with the strongest purchasing power in the circle. The blue chip community can bring good buying volume to the project, but in contrast, the blue chip community will also have higher requirements for the project.
(3) AND
The most influential group of people. We often hear that some projects were not popular at the beginning of the release, but were quickly sold out after a certain OG minted them. For example, a single call from Pun#6529could bring thousands of mintage to the project.
(4) Exchanges
Exchanges are where the most users gather, and many exchanges, such as OpenSea, have Launchpad functions, which are equivalent to playing the role of screening and platform. If you can cooperate with the exchange, you can at least ensure that your project can be seen by most users in the market.
(5) Whitelist tools
Whitelist tools refer to a type of tool that assists users in obtaining whitelists and minting NFTs. Common ones include Premint, Alphabot, etc. For users, whitelist tools can help them save some tedious operations and simply and safely complete the acquisition of whitelists and the minting of NFTs; for project owners, they can set some conditions through the tool (such as how much ETH the address needs to hold) to filter out some robots or users who are trying to get something for free.
In the process of channel distribution, you also need to pay attention to the issues of address screening and conversion rate. For example, if you issue a Japanese anime-style NFT, you should pay close attention to the addresses collected from the Azuki-related community. You can allocate more whitelist quotas to these eligible addresses, because these users are likely to complete the Mint action, which will bring you a good conversion rate.
5. Community Management
NFT is social, and behind each NFT series is a community of like-minded people. After the sale is completed, you will also have such a community, and your next job is to do a good job of community management and keep the community vibrant, with the goal of bringing people together and encouraging them to hold for the long term.
(1) Community Design
Establish the goals and values of the community. Tell the community what you will lead them to accomplish, what your roadmap and plan will look like, what each community member will gain in the process, etc. Let each community member recognize this project and community and contribute to it.
(2) Community Management
Assign roles and permissions to community members. For example, initially let some active users serve as administrators to promptly deal with fraud, FUD, quarrels and other discordant information in the chat; later, you can also discover some people with special skills among community members, such as copywriting talents, translation talents, business talents, etc., and then assign them corresponding roles and incentivize their contributions through treasury funds.
(3) Community participation
Treat every community member seriously and increase member participation. For example, design a welcome ceremony to welcome each new member and arrange for old members to help them quickly familiarize themselves with the community; regularly distribute benefits (tokens, NFTs, peripherals, etc.) based on the contribution to the success of the community; and regularly arrange some small activities (guessing puzzles, singing competitions, etc.).
(4) Community co-creation
Give full play to the creativity of community members. For example, hold a secondary creation competition, and the winning users can participate in the design of the next series of works of the project; or let community members participate in voting on major events of the project, which is actually a way for the project and the community to develop together.
The above content can be understood as various puzzle pieces about building an NFT project. In actual operation, it is like putting together a puzzle. Various combinations can be made according to the characteristics of the project itself, or they can be modified and optimized on the original basis to make the entire plan more in line with the actual needs of the project.
