The Easy Algorand Creator Onboarding Guide
Algorand is a great blockchain to launch an NFT Project on. It is cheap, fast, secure, and environmentally conscious. With all this being said, there is no real launch pad currently on chain, and this guide is to help you not only mint and launch, but also add utility for economical prices! With these steps, you can mint, distribute, have a utility token, and have utility with minimum payments that the average person can afford.
Sponsored by Evil Tools
Before we begin, Thurstober Digital Studios has been building a suite of tools and guides for Creators to use. We currently offer the following Tooling: Mass Opt In/Out, Mass Send, Mass Metadata Update, Find Collection Holders, Find Collection Information, Mass Mint.
Minting
The most custom launchpad comes from Evil Tools! Here you can enter whatever you want into a spreadsheet, including the metadata. The Asset will be minted with all the parameters. This is very useful for pre-generated images. You can find the guide here: https://medium.com/@loafpickle/evil-tools-mass-mint-tool-d06b8fc054b1
If you are looking for a more customized launchpad with conditional trait allowance and Mint on Demand, HighForge is your answer. On this marketplace you can easily set your series parameters and link traits, while minting in both ARC69 and ARC19! You can find a write up of it here.
Metadata
If you did not use High Forge to mint and want to easily add it to your series, Evil Tools is the answer. In this free to use creator tool website sponsored by Thurstober, you can download collection information and upload new metadata information quickly and easily! https://evil-tools.thurstober.com/ is offering an expanding set of tools as well including downloading holder information to make Whitelists and Holder Utility Perks easier than ever!
Discovery
Now that everything is minted, you need to let people know about the collection. The best way to do this is by registering with https://www.nftexplorer.app/verification. NFTexplorer is the leading sales aggregator and artist directory on the chain. Here you can provide links and information about your project and view the sales, listings, and activity of any series on the chain.
In addition, https://app.nf.domains/mint is the main naming service on Algorand that is adopted by the ecosystem. This acts as another easy directory for your project to be discovered as you can add even more information to help new collectors find and discover your project.
Distribution
All set up and ready to sell? This is the easiest part of Algorand. First steps would be to apply to be listed on Rand Gallery which is the top marketplace on Algorand using this form: https://airtable.com/shriwPidixEP30caj. You can also have your collection registered on other marketplaces like AlgoGems, and AlgoxNFT.
If you get approved you have more options on ways to distribute, but the most common way is through the instant shuffle which is getting a random NFT out of the ones available. You can list on https://instantshuffle.com/ which is a 1% fee or https://algoxnft.com/shuffles which is a 2% fee. The AlgoXNFT shuffle also allows you to set a limit per wallet which instantshuffles.com does not support. AxN is recommended for Allowlist Shuffles.
If you want to have a shuffle using your token or NFT Allowlist pass, you can use the VRF shuffle developed by RunVNC.
Arc 0019 Updater
Use the Bulk ARC0019 Updater from Evil Tools!
Discord
Most projects on Algorand operate from a Discord and Website combination. If you need help setting up a discord, feel free to reach out to me and I can get it set up for a low cost. There are plenty of guides online to help you get it set up yourself as well. Discord is important to provide a quick snapshot of your project and the bots on Discord allow you to easily host giveaways and have membership perks for your holders.
I recommend the following non-NFT bots:
Giveaway Bot: https://giveawaybot.party/
Twitter Connect: https://tweetshift.com/
Server Stats: https://serverstatsbot.com/
Discord + NFTs
The tech behind Algorand discord NFTs has been fleshed out to cheap/scalable solutions.
Discord Holder Bot
The Holder Bot allows a user to register their wallet. Once registered, the bot will scan the wallet for the NFTs held and will grant a role based on the # held. This allows for Holder Only chat rooms and giveaway rooms. I recommend the following bot which gives you: unlimited wallet and roles, leaderboards, flex commands so people can show off their NFTs, and more.
Thread highlighting all the features: https://twitter.com/NFTDiscordPal/status/1559715628545613827
In addition, there are other developers that offer holder bots:
Front end web verify: https://www.algoverify.me/
Open Source script: https://github.com/parkerblast/Algorand-Discord-Verification-Bot
Holder bot with tipping: https://twitter.com/kylebeeeee
Marketplace Bots
If your collection is approved by https://www.randgallery.com/, you can reach out to them on twitter to get free listing, offer, and sales bots. In addition you can reach out to https://algoxnft.com/ on their discord for their free marketplace bots.
Staking
Looking for a site to host staking rewards for your holders? Look no further than https://www.downbad.farm/, https://www.algohaven.app/, or https://www.flippingalgos.xyz/. Here your holders can soft stake (does not need to leave wallet) for the ASA reward of your choosing.
If you
Utility Token Bot
Looking for a way to check your token balances and tip any of the registered assets right from Discord? The Evil Corp Bot does everything you need. Reach out here: https://app.nf.domains/name/evilcorp.algo
Utility Token
If you want project utility, having a token is the most efficient way to implement it.
Minting A Utility Token
I recommend creating a new wallet for the token itself before starting. After that is done, head to https://app.algodesk.io/ and log in with the wallet. Simply give it a name, a total supply (I recommend a high number) and post the IPFS link in the URL Field (I recommend using https://nft.storage/ for IPFS pinning). Leave Clawback on and press create. You now have a token!
Distribution
The most common way to distribute the token is through dropping a certain amount of token a week to each asset in your series held. You can easily do this by filling out the form for https://thealgofaucet.com/ which is free, or sending the utility token to https://twitter.com/CavernaTech for an extremely fair price per airdrop. Once your holders opt into your utility token, they can receive weekly or bi-weekly airdrops based on the # of assets from your series held. This creates the demand for people to hold multiple assets to get more tokens.
Flipping Algos also offers an airdrop service: https://www.flippingalgos.xyz/
If you need an easy way to send any asset of any amount to any wallet that is opted in, we created a free Evil Tool to do just that! https://medium.com/@loafpickle/evil-tools-custom-mass-airdrop-3d5902dd1c94
Raffles
Raffles are the most common form of utility function on the chain at the moment. Here projects can replace their giveaways with Raffles to not only make use of their token, but to give users more control over what giveaways they want better chances on. If your token does not have a Liquidity Pool, you can apply for application to https://www.rafflebees.com/. Here holders can upload their NFTs for raffles and use tokens from around the ecosystem. If you have a Liquidity Pool, there are developers in the space that can make one specifically for your project.
Flipping Algos is also another place to launch Raffles (They support for ALGO Raffles): https://www.flippingalgos.xyz/
Coin Staking
Want to reward people for holding your coin or holding Liquidity Pool Tokens? You can use https://www.flippingalgos.xyz/ to set up staking rewards.
Vending Machine
Want to load up a wallet and have people pay your utility token to shuffle for assets? You can commission one from https://www.flippingalgos.xyz/.
Conclusion
Go from minting to utility using these tools and get your series running right out of the gate. There isn’t one set place to get all of this done, but hopefully this guide acts as a good replacement for the lack of a true launchpad on the chain.
*Disclaimers:
Using Burn to Mint Requires using a Logic Signature which can be potentially harmful. Recommend using a burner wallet for any logic signature signing to collectors.
I do not take finders fees for any of the services mentioned, but the developers have tipped me in the past.
Using third party services always carry it’s own risks*
