Non-fungible tokens, commonly known as NFTs, recently took the crypto industry and the art world by storm. Many artists and celebrities monetize NFTs, and rake in millions of dollars selling digital artworks. According to reports, the most expensive NFT sold, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, was for $69.3 million!

NFTs offer great potential for creating huge income streams, though more focus has been on digital images. But what other opportunities are there in this new space?

What Are NFTs?

NFTs are tokens to represent ownership. They serve as units of data stored on a blockchain that certify that a digital asset (such as a video, image, audio, and other digital files) is unique, and thus it can be bought and sold.

NFT Use Cases:

Provenance: Track ownership of a unique digital asset or file

Authentication: Enable easy storage and verification of digital files

Claim on Digital Artwork: Leverage blockchains to eliminate counterfeiting

Through tokenization, millions of dollars are spent on artwork, viral images and even memes. However, there are a lot more ways creators can leverage this new way of valuing digital files.

The value of an NFT is subjective, creators do not determine how much a digital file can be valued. Value depends mainly on how the audience appreciates what has been created. Here are a few ways of monetizing NFTs:

Monetize NFTs Through Content Creation

The NFT opened a whole new way for content creators to earn money. If you create any kind of content that resonates with a particular audience, you have an opportunity to thrive in this new model of tokenization.

Video content or a blog post could earn a lot. You get paid once by a social platform based on engagement. Then, you may be paid again if you are sponsored by a brand. If fact, if you continue to drive high demand for your digital work you could receive payment many times over.

How it works:

Create unique content and put it on sale as an NFT. The value will be determined by the level at which the audience appreciates your content and are willing to pay for it. Someone may decide to throw in hundreds or thousands of dollars that will give automatic value to your content.

An example is a video on TikTok – if it gains much interest, you will have a revenue stream from the content. If the video goes viral and gets more popular, the value of the NFT will go up, this means more profit when it is resold. As the original creator, you can also earn a percentage of the proceeds and any subsequent resell.

Musicians and authors can put albums or books for sale as NFTs. If the work is successful, early adopters may record huge earnings as the value grows, and the creator can earn commissions perpetually on every secondary sale.

Leverage the Creator Economy

BitClout is a social crypto network that enables creators with their own coins. Social followers can now buy and sell the coins of their favourite creator. Your Creator Coin price goes up the more people buy it. The platform also offers creators a way to generate cash flow through something called a Founder Reward. Rumour has it that the core development team are working on NFT features as well.

Editor's Note: CulturePledge is big on BitClout. Read our recent post 'How the Creator Economy Can Truly Benefit the Arts' to learn more about our initiatives there including our Alchemy Program ?

Monetize NFTs Through Community Enhancement

If you are a celebrated creator or artist, you can give your fans next-level access to your brand, work, or yourself with NFTs. This will enable them to benefit from your success.

VeeFriends by Gary Vee is a good example. It has a collection of 268 characters that can be bought with tokens that grant special access to events and gifts.

If there is a future rise in the demand for the VeeCon event (an exclusive conference for VeeFriends token holders), the value of the NFT will also increase. Early adopters of this token will create a stream of wealth by trading their assets. The creator will also benefit by earning commissions on all secondary sales.

As a creator, you can think about how you could connect with your audience and offer them benefits.

Make it something you can start quickly and easily. Here are a few ideas:

• A coaching event where you can teach a small group of individuals once or twice a month
• An exclusive group of a few fans
• One on One chats
• Early preview of your content before it goes public

Don’t forget that the value of your content and how much you can make depends on how your audience values it. So, you would do well to create the type of content that can stir the interest of your audience.

Make Money Tokenizing Collectibles

Physical collectibles like trading cards can also be sold as digital collectibles. The price of a digital trading card can be much higher than a physical trading card. So, it is a great chance for brands selling these physical collectibles to make more money.

The most popular type of licensed NFT collectibles are sports cards. Initially, people could trade licensed NFT sports cards of footballers. Now the NBA has also launched its own cards collection. Other sports organizations are likely to launch their own in the future and create opportunities for people to buy and sell exclusive digital merchandise.

NFTs enable good storage, security, and verification of collectibles. Physical trading cards can be easily damaged, NFTs allow storage in the blockchain, which can never be altered or damaged. Meanwhile, some creators are even monetizing physical NFTs.

Monetize NFTs with Video Games

Video Games offer great potentials to make money with NFTs but these opportunities are still untapped. Gamers are already in tune with spending a lot on virtual items, all these markets are already high in value.

Games like World of Warcraft and League of Legends are already worth so much that if the game companies decide to sell these games as NFTs, it will make a huge impact on the blockchain and the gaming industry.

Compared to other areas of tokenization in sport such as trading cards, in-game items are most advanced. In fact, there is already a $21 million crypto gaming venture to monetize NFTs through buying and selling virtual items.

Stay Tuned for More Monetized NFTs

These non-fungible tokens have great potential and offer huge opportunities for creators to improve their economic situation. You can adopt any of the methods mentioned to potentially create a stream of income – or let us know other methods in the comments!