The 6 most important things to consider when building an NFT collection

Despite the problems associated with ushering in a new era of true decentralization — namely that moving from centralized businesses and organizations requires a paradigm shift that will take time and require strong collaboration among blockchain developers — there is no denying that the green shoots of this exciting new industry have taken a firm hold.

Web3, the new incarnation of the internet, is well underway. And one of the most prolific entrants to this nascent digital space arrived just a few years ago in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Hailed as a new form of digital asset, NFTs grabbed the attention of everyone, from celebrities and gamers to large-scale investors and speculators. The initial perception was that NFTs were just a form of digital art. But as the sector has evolved, more people are realizing there’s much more to this niche element of blockchain technology than meets the eye.

In short, the use cases of NFTs are many and varied, from digital art, event tickets & VIP passes to gaming, fashion, luxury goods, and more. This article takes a closer look at what NFTs can do and covers the 6 key things to consider when creating a collection.

Building a community

One of the most important things that determine the success of any NFT project is the community behind it. Community is the driving force that can elevate an NFT collection to great heights or leave it wanting.

Building a community takes time and dedication. That’s why it’s crucial to start far in advance of the collection’s launch. Strong marketing is required to raise awareness and gain exposure. This element alone can make or break the uptake of an NFT collection, so making sure you’ve got the right marketing strategy in place should be your first priority.

Interacting with the community in a genuine way and being open and transparent about the project will allow you to naturally grow your audience and the number of potential buyers for your NFT collection. People like being a part of a group, and NFTs provide plenty of discussion points and opportunities to stimulate and engage people. In short, when it comes to the success of an NFT collection, your community is vital.

Providing utility

For a long time, people with an untrained eye considered NFTs to be little more than pictures on the internet. Certainly, NFTs can be a form of art, but they also have the potential to be so much more. Nowadays, NFTs often have some form of utility baked into their code, and it’s often one of the things that users and investors look for when researching projects and their collections.

Questions they’d want to find answers to before might include: What is your project about? How is the collection tied to it, and why would users want to own one of your NFTs? These are the same questions you should be asking yourself when you create your NFT collection.

NFT utility can come in many forms — from exclusive access to events, merchandise, and features to using digital assets in blockchain gaming and the Metaverse. The opportunities are endless, and it’s up to the development team to create the right narrative for its community.

One example where NFTs really excel is in marketing, as they allow brands to enter Web3 and reach a wider audience easily. Thanks to NFTs, companies can make advertising subtle and fun instead of running annoying ads that clutter the user experience. Gaming projects can incorporate NFTs as in-game characters, skins, or items that allow users to customize their journey and unlock rewards and in-game loot online. In short, because of their inherent immutability (they are forever stored on the blockchain), NFT-associated tasks can be timestamped and verified via smart contracts, which is where their real value lies.

Choosing the ideal number of NFTs

If you’ve been trading NFTs, you’d often notice that the floor price of each collection can be drastically different. While the reasons vary depending on the success of each project, there’s still one variable you can directly impact — supply and demand. The more NFTs you have in your collection, the higher the supply. This gives you more assets to work with in potential giveaways and events, but it also makes the whole collection less scarce.

Having a high number of NFTs in your collection will, in most cases, lead to a lower price range. On the plus side, the collection will be more accessible to your audience. Minting a collection with fewer NFTs in it can increase the price of each individual asset, but there’s a high chance that’ll impose a barrier to entry for many market participants.

At the end of the day, you’ll have to make a choice between making your collection widely accessible with a higher number of NFTs or giving it a more exclusive feel. For a long period of time, 10,000 was the norm, but many projects are now setting the limit much lower, at or around the 5,000 mark. In the end, it depends on what it is you want to achieve. Some projects, such as the artist, Beeple, produce one-off pieces of work that sell for huge sums. Others need greater volume to keep large online communities happy. This is why, when it comes to creating NFTs, it’s vital to start with the premise of marketing intent and what you want to achieve.

Pricing your NFTs

Speaking of price and accessibility, it’s essential to price your NFT collection carefully and correctly. Setting a high minting price can discourage many community members. Why? Much like the cryptocurrency market, prices in the world of NFTs can be prone to huge swings in the secondary market.

It’s about finding the right balance between meeting your own funding goals and setting the price in a range that’s attractive to the community and the wider NFT audience. While deciding on the right price, you should also consider the state of the crypto market. For example, if you’re minting on Ethereum, the price of ETH will be the determining factor when minting. Sudden drops in crypto prices are not uncommon, and this might drastically affect the revenue you receive through NFT minting.

It’s also worth noting that there’s a dedicated speculative market for NFT collections comprised of users that have little interest in the project itself. They’re only there to buy low, sell high and make a profit. The risk to consider is that certain individuals can acquire a large amount of NFTs. Fortunately, projects can get around this problem by limiting the number of NFTs that can be minted per wallet.

Creating an exciting roadmap

A clear and exciting roadmap with visuals is one of the best ways to capture the hearts and minds of your community. Things to include in your roadmap are:

• Mint Date
• Secondary Market release
• Community Events
• NFT utility examples
• Other upcoming milestones

But remember, while setting up an exciting roadmap is one thing, it’s also crucial to deliver on your promises. Failing to do so can lead to a lack of confidence in the project. It’s better to have a short, clear, and structured roadmap that doesn’t just deliver but delivers on time. Bloated roadmaps with unrealistic timeframes are an immediate turn-off to the initiated. That said, even the best and biggest projects have to delay launches. So, if a milestone gets pushed back, the most important thing is to remain transparent with the community and build trust by explaining what’s happening and why.

Choosing the right marketplace

Last but not least, there’s the platform you choose to publish your collection. There are numerous reputable NFT marketplaces that you can select from, so you need to decide which one will best suit your needs and those of your community. Ethereum is, of course, still the biggest and most active blockchain network with the most NFT projects on it. While this is great, it can also turn out to be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, any Ethereum-based marketplace will give you access to the widest possible audience. On the other, you may have to put up with slow transactions and high gas fees unless you use a Layer 2 scaling solution such as Myria.

Choosing an NFT marketplace based on a different blockchain can have some benefits, such as less competition and better conditions. Things to consider when looking for the best marketplace include:

• Transaction fees
• Platform security
• Wallet support
• Auction support
• User onboarding process

If your project is just making its entrance into the ever-expanding world of Web3, creating an NFT collection can be a great way to establish a community. One way to make NFTs even more attractive is to handle the gas fees and make minting free, but this also means the collection will generate less revenue in the marketplace. Alternatively, you can just choose a platform with no minting fees, such as Myria.

The Myria ecosystem has been designed from the ground up with one thing in mind — community. Myria’s Layer 2 solution utilizes ZK-Rollups technology, enabling 0 gas fee transactions and free NFT minting, making it the perfect place for your collection.

Are you interested in launching your NFT collection on Myria? Get in touch with us, and we’ll help you make it happen.

About Myria

Myria is a blockchain game development studio and an Ethereum Layer 2, built to scale digital assets, NFTs and blockchain gaming. The Myria platform utilizes ZK-Roll-ups powered by StarEx to deliver rapid scaling with high transaction speeds and zero gas fees.