How To Create Free NFTs

Gm, friend!

In this weeks edition of 1000 True Friends, I'm diving into how to create and distribute free POAPs. This is a value packed breakdown that you can implement throughout your web3 creator journey too.

* Mint your FREE NFT at the bottom of the email!! *

In my first newsletter post I tried to give away a POAP for every subscriber to claim and unfortunately I ran into a problem right after hitting the send button...

The POAP link only worked for 1 person to use, NOT everyone.

At first I was so upset. My first newsletter post already had a problem. But upon reflection, this makes for a great learning opportunity. For myself and for all of you too. I truly believe the best teacher is someone one step ahead of you. So in todays email let's dive into how to create a FREE NFT with POAPs. I'll cover:

• What is a POAP?

• Why should I make one?

• How do I make one?

• How do I distribute them for minting?

POAPs Are Free NFTs

What is a POAP?

POAP stands for "Proof Of Attendance Protocol". They are digital mementos meant to be created and collected in celebration of shared memories or experiences. When you attend an event (art gallery show, movie screening, protest, concert, first day of class, playoff game, Twitter space, live podcast, wedding, high school reunion, conference, weekly email newsletter, etc) you can collect a POAP to commemorate it.

Why should I make a POAP?

POAPs are free NFTs. Free NFTs are a strategy web3 creators should implement to grow their crypto native community. It's a way to give before you take. There are different ways to create free NFTs, many of which I'll be covering over time in this newsletter, and POAPs are one of the top options to use.

But there's another really important reason distributing free NFTs like POAPs are a valuable strategy for web3 creators - it gives you access to your collectors public wallet address. This allows for many creative engagement strategies such as:

1. Airdropping free NFTs to their wallets

2. Token gating experiences for exclusive content accessible only to collectors

3. Insight into your communities NFT collecting strategies (through tools like Bello)

POAP Creation Breakdown

How do I make a POAP?

Finding the link to create a POAP was weirdly difficult. POAP has a lot of rules around what events qualify for POAP creation so I think they make it hard to fill out the request form on purpose. But I gotchu!

Use this link for creating your first POAP!

How do I distribute POAPs out to my community?

So this is the step I failed at last week. I created a POAP and only requested 1 mint link. I didn't realize that each mint link is only redeemable for 1 POAP claim (which I used myself when testing that the link worked before sending it to all of you lol).

There are 4 main ways to distribute POAPs:

1. Create a standard POAP drop: When creating a POAP drop you'll be prompted for how many mint links you want. This is what I did last week when I only requested 1. Remember - each link is unique, only redeemable for one POAP, and will need to be sent to each collector individually. For this newsletter, I created a standard drop with 200 links that I sent to the first 200 1000 True Friends subscribers using my newsletter tool.

2. Set up a POAP delivery: A delivery allows you to whitelist which Ethereum wallet addresses can receive your POAP. This method is only possible when you already have a list of all the addresses of your community members. It's a great way to surprise and delight them when celebrating an event. This ensure you're not spamming anyones wallet because they still have to claim the POAP once created vs just airdropping it to them automatically.

3. Set up a website for POAP distribution: Websites are good for providing one link to all your collectors. In retrospect, this might have been what I wanted to do last week when sending out the genesis newsletter POAP. A downside of this is that if your website url gets leaked, anyone can mint the POAP. There are POAP pirates (aka farmers) out there who will mint anything and everything - so be careful!

4. Set up a POAP secret: A secret is the word or phrase collectors will need in order to collect their POAP. Just like the website setup method, to avoid having your POAP farmed by people who did not attend your event, keep the minting period as short as possible. Once approved you'll get a unique code or link that needs to be distributed to each collector individually that they'll need to access in order to mint the POAP. This method is great for podcasts, Twitter Spaces, and live events.

How did I create the art and distribute the POAP in today's newsletter?

This could probably be answered 100 different ways and the distribution seems to be the trickiest part of the whole process. This is how I'm doing it via email newsletter:

1. Created my POAP artwork in Canva

   1. Make a 500x500 slide

   2. Create a design + save it

   3. Create a new slide

   4. Drop a "circle frame" element on it (this is how you get the art in a nice circle since POAPs display in a circle format)

   5. Drag your art into the frame and size it appropriately

   6. Save the asset with a transparent background

2. Created my POAP drop, uploaded the custom artwork, and requested 200 mint links for the first 200 subscribers to 1000 True Friends!

3. Using Beehiiv as my email newsletter tool, I imported a CSV with two columns: subscribers, POAP_link. Each subscriber is now assigned a POAP claim link next to their email in the CSV, and I can drop that link into the newsletter directly, which I am doing today! This way I can send out the unique minting links to each email adress and you can actually get your POAP this time :)

Mint Your Free POAP NFT!!!

🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉

Click the link below to mint👇

default link

🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉🎉 🎉

Thank you so much for collecting this NFT! This is the first time I've ever (successfully) created and distributed an NFT and I'm stoked to experiment with creative ways to give back to everyone who collects. Tag me on Twitter @justwavyj when you collect it - would love to hear your reaction.

I really hope this breakdown was informative and you're able to take these insights and put them into practice. If you do - let me know! I'll collect your free NFT too!

** One disclaimer - only the first 200 subscribers to 1000 True Friends are able to mint this NFT. In the future, I'll be experimenting with other NFTs that everyone will get. But in this case, I wanted to thank my earliest friends for supporting my content. Those that joined after #200 will see a link back to the newsletter.

Unstoppable Alpha

In every newsletter, I'll be linking a recent podcast interview, video, or Twitter thread I've created that will help you on your web3 creator journey. Check out this thread I published on free NFTs from my interview with Adam Levy:

See you in the metaverse, friend!

Josh