Lessons I learned after 6 months of being in NFTs

Here are some key takeaways from my first 6 months in web3 and NFTs:

• Don't let FOMO be the only reason you make a decision
• Expect to spend a lot of time educating yourself before putting your hard earned money into something you regret
• Understand the scammer landscape and educate yourself on how to keep yourself safe
• Only trust information from vetted sources, just a username in Discord isn’t enough reason to listen to someone 
• Know the difference between an art project and an investment into a utilitarian project
• Have a clear strategy, are you a HODLer or a flipper?
• Never spend what you can’t afford to lose 
• Don’t let the words “FREE NFT” coerce you into thinking you’re getting something of value
• This is not a 100% accessible space for everyone
• The opportunities are endless!

Some back story first

In web2 I’m a UX specialist, UI designer, creative director, front end enthusiast, and certified digital accessibility professional. I enjoy building and creating experiences everyone can benefit from and I’m hoping to translate this into the world of web3. For anyone who is listening to my words and wants to verify your source of content, feel free to check me out on LinkedIn! 

Now let’s get into the real reason we’re here. What did I learn trying to get involved in this space, and how can you use it to help you, a newbie to NFTs, figure out what the heck to do!

A little bit of how I gained the advice to give you today

Free NFTs aren't always what they seem

The first project I saw that was new and I had opportunity to be visible in I jumped at. This means, a small discord, limited Twitter followers, but hey I got a free shiny NFT for showing up and being dedicated. I honestly don't even know how I found it, but what I did was create a Twitter and Instagram account to follow all the hashtags related to crypto, metaverse, nfts that I could find. Somehow I ended up in this project that was brand new, and what I thought was my opportunity to strike gold.

I didn’t know what doxxing was. I didn’t understand the grind culture. I didn’t understand the impact of paid vs organic growth. I saw "new" and I saw "free" and I thought that was my moment. My unawareness of all of those things slowed down my attempt to do anything productive with NFTs. But a lesson learned for me, can be a preventative measure for you.

It taught me a valuable lesson - a free NFT has no value if the project as a whole does not succeed. That group that I spent countless hours and sleepless nights grinding in to be in the top 18 was nothing more than an experiment for me. It had a mint price of .08ETH and I got one free one, and bought another. The floor price now? .01ETH. 

What’s sad is the project seemed good - and it was two young kids trying their chance and making something wonderful. I read the roadmap, because that's what my research told me to do, and I wanted to be part of their end product. How they built the community and the grind culture in their Discord completely destroyed the actual value and utility being offered. It resulted in a Discord of 30k people with zero intent to buy. My mind was blown, how could 30,000 people all not buy in to something they spent tons of time grinding in? 

Then it hit me - they were ALL in it for the flip. In order for flipping to work, there has to be a strong culture of people who value the core values of the project, and raise the floor price up. The less people selling, the more valuable the NFT. This did not happen, and everyone seemed to want to use this as their flipping moment.

Full transparency any advice I give you here is from the lens of a HODLer, I tried flipping once and it’s not for me

Not all free NFTs are part of the OG collection

The words FREE NFT also imply other things as well. Sometimes projects use those words to grab your attention and what they are giving out is something called a PoAP. A PoAP (or Proof of Attendance Protocol) is a very specific way of giving a badge or award to community members for participating in something. Some projects don’t use that platform, but air drop you “free NFTs” that are simply that - participation awards. You aren’t getting a free NFT from the upcoming mint, and I find that those giveaways are often times misleading you to believe they are.

There is nothing wrong with PoAPs, and sometimes projects will use the collection of PoAPs to reward members in other ways, so I don't want to give them a bad name. I just want you to be prepared to uncover what exactly that FREE NFT you might be winning or trying hard to win is. Check if it's worth the effort to you.

Slow down and do the research

That first NFT project I "joined" taught me another lesson, to slow down and focus. I’ve never jumped into something at full speed like I did with web3 and NFTs. It was because I felt like I was behind and missing all the right moments. With very little understanding of the space, and not knowing anyone else “IRL” (in real life) to confide in, I just learned by doing. It’s a great method if what you are using to learn is a verifiable and trustworthy source of information. It's not a great idea when you're not doing all the proper research upfront.

What I didn’t realize is I was only doing damage to the time I had to invest by investing it in the wrong places. Not making sure I was learning from folks who were verifiable educators and jumping at the first glimpse of a few paid advertisements and Tweets really took me down a rabbit hole I wish upon no one. 

I learned the hard way that FOMO is a toxic culture that we are accustomed to and let control our actions and cloud our decision making process. What I want you to do, is take a lesson or two from me and push yourself to slow down and dedicate true time to research. 🧐  If I had done that I wouldn’t have been spending months grinding in Discords playing games for a pfp project that never sold out, or a pfp project that failed to deliver on its roadmap. 

I sometimes let the fun in Discord cloud the actual project mission or project team and that is very risky business. It is very discouraging when you put actual effort into things that don’t pan out like you’d hope. 

Make sure you know who you're taking advice from

I also took advice from strangers, not knowing anyone in web3, and some of that advice I really wish I did more homework on. I was all to willing to accept information from anyone who would give it to me.

Prepare for launches in advance

I messed up a few good opportunities days after I decided to dive into the space too. I found a good project and timed everything all wrong. I was trying to mint NFTs on devices or with platforms the project wasn’t compatible with. I learned the hard way to not wait until the last minute to try to figure something out. Making sure I did my due diligence to simply read project information and “the instruction manual” I’ll say, really could have saved me a lot of heart and headache. 

This is not an accessible space

I’ve noticed we are sadly not taking an inclusive approach to the transition into web3. Many don’t quite grasp what it means to say accessible or inclusive and think they’re nailing it by being accepting of all gender, ethnicities, etc. However, when I speak to accessibility (a11y for short) I mean that there are folks who cannot access our platforms and products and service offerings due to a technological barrier to entry. There are so many ways to consume content in the digital landscape, and we are building with one singular method in mind, because it is the method of the masses. 

So the last lesson to leave you all with is that we are leaving so many eager and intelligent folks behind just by not providing additional means to interact with our content. Folks who use screen readers, need captioning, use mouth sticks, or need to zoom to read are just surface level examples of what I’m talking about. We should be building our communities with that in mind. Educating those on what it means to be an inclusive community member and project owner, and giving folks the freedom to choose the methods that work best for them is part of that process as well.

Don't let any of this scare you

The last, and most important, thing I want to leave you with is to feel empowered to go out there and get to it! This space is ready for newcomers like you, and now you're more equipped with the knowledge you need to be successful.

Have questions? Feel free to reach out to me on my Twitter, Instagram, or Send me an Email.