Following my article ‘Are PFP Projects Dead’? You may have decided that a PFP project is not the best route for your NFT collection and are now wondering what your other options are?
Let’s run through the pros and cons of the top 3 (non PFP) options for you to consider.
Access Pass
With an Access Pass, someone that holds your NFT is getting value via access to a service, or assurance of future development. That could be an exclusive membership to a network/community, events, access to software and systems or discounts/perks.
All users' art is the same, but it can allow you to potentially introduce a PFP or additional art later on in exchange for a burning of this pass.
To see successful examples of these, check out the Proof Collective Pass, WAGMI United, and the Premint Collector Pass.
The Pros:
With a generative PFP project, you run into the intricacies of rarity, high listings, and focus on each art piece. With an access pass, the focus goes away from the art and the possibility of someone not relating to the PFP, and the focus goes directly towards value and building community.
The Cons:
For a PFP project, the art can be a massive foundation. You often find you’re able to focus the community on the traits of a collection. Meela from Robotos described how much the community, built lore around different Robotos traits, and that sub-communities were formed around them. When you take the art away and go strictly for access passes, you can lose that engagement.
Limited Edition or 1/1 Art Drops
If you are coming into the Web3 space as an artist and looking to grow your community using NFTs as a tool, Limited Edition or 1/1 Art Drops work as a great tool.
As an artist, you can drop; 1/1 art with a reserve auction price, open editions with a set price or even limited 50-100 piece drops.
This approach gives you freedom to create at your own pace and build an audience/community over time, versus targeting a mass group of individuals that may not be interested in your art without the hype or speculation that surrounds your project.
The Pros:
You get to build your community from the ground up, and start small without bringing in thousands of individuals who don’t necessarily have your progress at heart. You can control the experience for your community and build intimately with them in mind.
The Cons:
It is a slow game at first. Organically building your community and audience takes a long time - especially if you do not have much experience as an artist. As an artist, you'll need to also master how to market your work and storytelling over time.
Evolving / Dynamic Metadata – NFTs that change according user interaction.
The most obvious example of this recently executed is "The Potatoz" collection. What started as a free mint of a plant, has then evolved stages depending on how long the user has staked their Potato for. Over time, it has been alluded that Potatoz holders will be granted an allowlist into the highly coveted project, Memeland - depending on how long their Potato has been staked for.
Other projects that have developed this style of artwork include Rubber Duck Back Party and Cool Pets.
The Pros:
Changing and adapting your Metadata over time allows you to keep your community engaged, while also buying you time to build out more tangible deliverables within your project.
The Cons:
When you get more involved and deeper in the storyline, it becomes harder to incentivize new users to buy into your project, and they can feel left out of the latest development. As a project founder, it is important to balance keeping your existing community engaged and find ways to bring in new users.
To conclude, there is no single-best solution or option for project founders outside of a PFP project. Each option has its benefits and costs, that depending on the goals, community, and project founder, can each be an avenue to explore as they build their own brand in Web3.
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