Hi Everyone,
It’s been a while. The last time I wrote, I was living in Milan (during the pandemic) with designs on documenting my ex-pat existence. Well, that idea faded like so many during the pandemic. It was just too hard to work, parent, and create something new.
That’s changed.
I’m back in New York and have recently dove deep into NFTs, which is why I’m writing. Before I go too far if you have no interest in this and are thinking: This is not what I signed up for! Click here, or click unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.
For the rest of you who might be curious, here’s some backstory. I launched The Hand & Eye back in 2013 with the goal of documenting and telling the stories of makers, designers, and creatives. I ran the website, newsletter, and e-com shop for almost eight years. Some of you have been on board since the beginning (Thank you!).
During that time we’ve seen a lot of change online, especially for creatives and independent creators. Instagram, which was promising at first, ultimately evolved into something less than inspiring. Influencer culture came and sort of busted. Affiliate linking became a thing. Branded content got hot and now sort of sputters along. Banner/online advertising peaked and still struggles. And subscription models, which are the newest media trend, are looking like a positive evolution, but are still not a fix for a much bigger broken system.
Bottom line: Creating revenue from content online is hard, especially for those without massive scale.
I’ve partaken in almost all of the revenue models mentioned above (micro-influencer stuff, affiliate linking, e-com shops, advertising, subscriptions, etc) and none of it has really moved the needle. This is partly operator error, but also these are just hard streams of revenue to create.
Throughout all of this, the work of creatives has been devalued. The Instagram model, for example, is literally to create content for free and let a large corporation monetize it, without any revenue share. Same with YouTube pretty much. The hope for creators is that maybe by gaining enough followers, one can parlay that into something else (a book deal, branded content work, influencer stuff, etc.) For many of us, the means to the end just are not worth it.
Enter NFTs, something you’ve probably heard about and maybe been curious about. NFTs are a way to sell and trade digital art online with crypto currencies. It’s a way to commodify your creative output, which is great. Instead of selling your audience’s attention, you’re actually selling your work. Also, creators get a cut of the sale of their NFTs every time it sells again. So if a collector buys an NFT from an artist, and sells it months later for two times as much, both collector and artist see a financial upside. That’s an extremely positive thing! It incentivizes collecting and creation.
I’m very new to the NFT thing and I was a HUGE skeptic for a long time. But I spent some time reading and learning about the opportunity creatives now have online, and I was able to create an account on Foundation (you can find it here). I’ve “minted” a few images. That means I’ve paid to put them online on the blockchain where they can be traded. (I’m trying not to get too technical because it is a bit confusing).
I haven’t sold any yet! But I’m just very optimistic about the opportunity. It’s an incredible time to be a creative. It’s the first time I’ve been truly excited about the internet since I first started blogging (over ten years ago), which is why I’m blowing the dust off of this newsletter. I’d like to keep documenting this creative journey here and I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks,
John
Recommended NFT reading and listening:
Chris Dixon and Naval Ravikant — The Wonders of Web3 (The Tim Ferriss Show)
NFTs Explained (The Verge)
Why Web3 Matters by Chris Dixon (a16)
Welcome back John!
Great to see you online again!