TLDR: Action Points:

For Artists using NFTShowroom:

• Higher Quality Work.
• Higher Quality Projects.
• Better Collaborations.
• Better Marketing.

For NFTShowroom:

• Better Curation.
• Better Presentation.
• Axe those shitty low rez thumbs.
• Better Distribution Integration between NFTShowroom and Peakd Posts.

.:.

Thanks Riverflows.

I'm a pretty critical person, and I'm aware that people don't really appreciate that, and that it's easier to criticize others, than it is to criticize yourself and make changes.

So, I was a bit hesitant, but I figure if I'm honestly having difficulty referring what I consider to be talented people onto NFTShowroom, then it's something that's worth bringing up.

I think people like Phazed would bring a lot of value to HIVE and to NFTShowroom, and I hope that they join up -- but it's kind of just a sober admission, that I think they would make more money and experience more prestige if they built up a cryptoart career with makersplace or superrare or Blockchain Art Exchange.

So it's like -- If that's what's going on, at least in my own view of things -- then, what is the reason that NFTShowroom isn't in a place to compete with those other platforms?

What is it about NFTShowroom, that I'd have to convince people to 'take one for the team' just to join up.

There is no team if you're just joining up. -- You're just looking at competitive offers, and if the offers aren't top then you're going to need to find a better solution.

-- Even though competitively it has solid offers with:

• NSFW artwork
• HIVE Ecosystem + Blog + Communities + Post Rewards.
• Low Token Costs.
• Free and Fast Transactions

Even with these things it still lacks the prestige, professionalism, and earnings potential of the top ETH Cryptoart Platforms.

Which in my mind is not going to be going anywhere -- It's just going to winnow out people further, so that the rewards for the top are outstanding, but that they only go to a select few -- and the costs of Gas fees and curated market exclusivity just end up furthering that divide.

This isn't a surprise, because all markets end up working this way.

80 percent of rewards go to 20 percent of people.
The remaining 80 percent of people, only get 20 percent of the total rewards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution

It's like this on Kickstarter and Patreon, and it's like this on Cryptoart.

The challenge is that when you are attracting talent, you are trying to attract people who are interested in getting those rewards, and you actually want to find people who are getting those rewards.

That way they send a signal to the others in the ecosystem, that "This is a place where high quality work, gets high quality rewards."

One of the ETH Collectors who came over here @rektdoteth - actually said something recently about NFTShowroom.

Something like:

"@NFTShowroom is more for memes, and @Pix_Eos is more for Fine Art - these are the alternatives give the ETH Gas problems."

But when you look at the top activity on Superrare and Makersplace and BlockchainartEX -- you don't see memes. You see High End Art, demanding High End Prices.

And you're just going to see more of that as time moves forward.

Already, the recent superman and batman comic work that did so well on Makersplace, ended up attracting comic people who've got work with IDW. People are watching, and success is going to build up on more success.

And if you want an example of a sub-optimal marketplace, just look at Memefactory.

https://twitter.com/factory_bot

That's their Twitter Bot Factory Feed, and you'll even see a couple of my paintings there.

MOST of what is selling there is selling between $3 and $15. which at today's gas rates wouldn't even cover costs of minting.

These are "Memes", and the sales numbers are extremely similar to the work that is being sold on NFTShowroom.

.:.

I think Brady Mckenna, the community manager of Memefactory is great. I love talking to him. I can learn a lot from him. I wish he'd join HIVE, I wish he'd talk with HIVE people. I've actually sold the majority of my work through memefactory, and they were the first to integrate NSFW, and their priority on decentralization is laudable.

HOWEVER.

When I am trying to onboard an artist that I respect, like Phazed, and I'm trying to think of a way that they can benefit, I don't recommend memefactory.

• Because the art is not high quality.
• Because the platform doesn't have the same sort of grace and quality of display as the other sites.
• Because there aren't really a collector group that focuses on Memes.
• Because the Memes are really only useful in conjunction with utilities that would need to be coded into the platform - such as delivery to people within ETH or integration into Cent.co posts distribution, or the github newsletter distros.

And they have gotten into that more, and they will get more into that - BUT -- It's not the same thing as classy artwork, that attracts high end collectors, on a site that is clean and displays the artwork in a super clear way.

NFTShowroom needs to consider where they want to be positioned in terms of the larger market alternatives.

And since HIVE is a decentralized EcoSystem, NFTShowroom / HIVE Artists, need to consider what sort of place they want to create with NFTShowroom, since there is very little being done in the way of curation based censorship to filter out low quality work, and there is not a dedicated team of marketers who are being paid to interact gracefully with the community and find talent.

Nobody is getting paid on HIVE. And even NFTShowroom is not getting that much money from the sales. Mostly at this point cause the sales are not that significant - and they've already diverted funds toward referrals in the hopes of catching more high end talent.

But again --

Why would high end talent want to come here?

What's on the table for them?

People who are minting on NFTShowroom now, need to think about who it is that buys their artwork.

If they don't have collectors, its because people don't want to collect their work. If they don't have collectors who are willing to pay premiums, it's because their work isnt' cutting it.

Mine included.

So, What is the solution?

For Artists using NFTShowroom:

• Higher Quality Work.
• Higher Quality Projects.
• Better Collaborations.
• Better Marketing.

For NFTShowroom:

• Better Curation.
• Better Presentation.
• Axe those shitty low rez thumbs.
• Better Distribution Integration between NFTShowroom and Peakd Posts.