This blog post may contain affiliate links to products or services that pay us a commission if you make a purchase. We never recommend products that we haven't personally used ourselves and encourage you to read more about our affiliate disclosures here. 

Introduction

About 8 months ago, I finally took a deeper dive into NFTs and started the way most of you are: furiously trading to see if I could land on a big hit NFT project.

At the time, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that if I didn’t take action, it would be gone forever.

And now, 8 months later, we just saw Moonbirds go from 2.5 ETH to 19.49 ETH in just a few days. To put that in perspective, that's $7,500 to $58,740 or a 683% return.

There's still plenty of opportunity in the NFT and web3 space.

The problem is that not everyone has a lot of liquid ETH or the resources to get it and gamble on NFT projects. And not everyone is a good trader nor do some of you want to be.

This space is rapidly growing and the technology behind the blockchain and NFTs is big.

So big that you don’t need to be a trader to extract value from the market.

I want to show you what I’ve been doing to generate value while earning money and hopefully inspire you and help you think outside of the box.

I’ll never forget that when I started college in 2007, there was no web2. Social media managers didn’t even exist.

By the time I graduated, I worked at a social media marketing company that we later sold.

I think there are jobs that don’t exist today that will in the future (it’s already happening).

So let’s break down where my earnings came from.

Voyager - $100 / month

Let’s start with the simplest one.

I earn passive income from Voyager paid out monthly. I’ve written about it here in detail but I currently earn about $100 per month paid out in USDC, a stable coin pegged to the US dollar.

For anyone who has made some money in NFTs but wants your earnings to safely work for you, this is one of the best ways to do it.

I’ve passively made $400 by using Voyager since November with their 9% APY for staking USDC that pays me every month.

It’s not a fancy play that will 10x your money, but it is one of the highest safe returns you can make in the web3 space.

You can sign up to earn $25 of free Bitcoin when you download the app and trade at least $100 here. 

You can also use my referral code for $25 of free Bitcoin when you sign up: 96A2D1800

PS - because the APY is paid out monthly at a rate of 9%, your total earnings for the year are actually closer to 11% as it's compounding. E.g. when I get paid out $100 every month, I start earning 9% APY on that $100.

PPS - I created this handy Voyager Interest Payout Calculator for USDC Here so that you can view payouts on principal investments ranging from $100 to $20,000 month-by-month for a 12 month period and total earnings after a year.

Writing NFT Articles for Publications like ONE37PM - $222 per month

Some of you are good writers, podcasters, TikTokers, YouTubers, Substack writers, etc.

I can’t emphasize enough that there aren’t a lot of experienced and talented content creators in the web3 space . . . yet. Note: there are a bunch of talented people, but not enough to meet the current demand.

I know this because I get hit up frequently about writing gigs and have had to turn a lot of them away because I simply don’t have the bandwidth.

If you are deep in the NFT space, I’d bet you have some knowledge that is valuable to other people even if you don’t realize it.

You can submit your work to publications like ONE37PM and others and get paid for it!

I’ve earned over $2,000 alone from writing NFT articles and it’s led to more paid opportunities helping NFT projects.

Sponsored Posts on StartWithNFTs.com - $222 per month

Back in July, I launched StartWithNFTs.com and now the site regularly hits 40,000 monthly views.

It has an audience and NFT project creators reach out to me to do detailed project breakdowns, which are often used as Discord resources and in some cases, make it into Wikipedia as a source.

I charge anywhere between .3 and .5 ETH to do a detailed interview and article breakdown.

That’s netted me over $2,000 so far and that’s just from organic reach out.

I’m fact, if you refer a project to me who signs on with me to do this, I’ll pay you a $250 referral fee.

It might not be Moonbirds gain level, but highlights other ways to earn money in the space.

NFT projects need help with marketing and storytelling is so crucial to make these types of projects work. So many people are looking to understand why they should buy an NFT and talented creators can help explain that why in an entertaining and educational way.

NFT Analyst / Research Reports - $9,000 Total Earnings

If you are deep in the NFT space but don't have a lot of liquid capital to trade, you could use your research skills to benefit different alpha groups or your own paid subscription.

It's difficult for anyone to predict the future, which is why I've stayed away from directly offering an alpha subscription, but I've had opportunities to do detailed research and analysis for other well-known groups.

When I get these requests, I take them seriously - $9,000 is a lot of money, but I bring hundreds of hours of in-depth research I've accumulated in the past 9 months to the able.

Given that I can write in a concise and clear manner, I think the value here is saving people time versus making profitable calls day in and day out.

These earnings reference 1 report I put together and spent close to 70 hours working on.

I predict that there will be demand for analyst reports like this from brands and VCs entering the space (I already know it's happening) but if you know NFTs, this could be a big opportunity.

Affiliate Links and Display Ads - $80 per month

I wasn’t aggressive about advertising as I built my audience and am only now ramping it up more.

I earn $1.50 per day using Ezoic premium Display ads and earn about $25 every two weeks with affiliate programs.

That’s about $80 per month.

It should ramp up as Ezoic uses AI to figure out what ads will convert well with my audience, and I am considering direct ad deals to NFT projects or software that would net more premium pricing.

For now, this is a bit of a backburner focus but plays into the marketing ecosystem that is an opportunity for many of you reading this article.

Software Products — WenAlphaText.io - $30 per month

Micro projects can be a great way to help you learn about business, products, marketing, etc.

I spent about $4,000 developing WenAlphaText.io, which sends you text alerts when an NFT wallet buys an NFT.

You can track up to 3 wallets for $10 per month and it’s meant to be an entry-level product much cheaper than alternatives in the market.

Without much marketing, I have 3 sign-ups to earn $30 per month.

It’s nothing crazy, but it was an awesome experience builder and rewarding to see the adoption of a product you created.

It taught me about design, copywriting, marketing, business, product management, and development.

Paying $4,000 to go through the process of building was worth every penny.

At $30 per month, it would take me a long time to earn the money back, but I haven't even started marketing the tool yet!

Conclusion

There's so much opportunity to create value and earn money in the web3 / NFT space without having to gamble big dollars on NFT projects.

The Ethereum and Solana ecosystems are still growing rapidly, and any time you have a paradigm-shifting technology, you get the chance to reinvent yourself.

Most people have been in the space for a few years or less - there aren't many 10+ year industry veterans and frankly brands and companies need to learn from people in this newly formed subculture.

I hope this gives you a window into where you can earn money and inspires you to take action to use your skillset to build in a way that makes you happy and can also earn you money with much less risk.

I am not a financial advisor and anything included above is not a guaranteed result. These are illustrative of my efforts over the past 8 months but any decision you make to spend money is yours and yours alone.