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RANKING-IMAGES

Best NFT Images

If you are an artist or someone passionate about art, NFT images are definitely an interesting opportunity for you. We are living in a digital era, and it was only a matter of time when art was going to turn fully digital.

Well, that time has arrived with the blockchain technology paired with NFTs. We’ll tell you everything about the best NFT images, and explain how you can profit by turning your images into NFT, so keep reading.

By Kresimir | December 16, 2021

Best NFT Images Reviews

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

The First 5000 Days

The First 5000 Days NFT Image currently holds the record for the most expensive NFT art ever sold. Until selling this NFT image, Beeple had only sold a print for 100$. This NFT art is composed of 5,000 different images. Each of those digital images were made by the artist, day after day.

ARTIST

Beeple

PRICE

$69 Million

STYLE

Image Collage

MARKETPLACE

Christie's

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Replicator NFT

Replicator represents a photocopier that used to be one of the most used tools in offices but is now almost forgotten. Mad Dog Jones has created a smart contract on the blockchain that actually self-generates new NFTs based on the replicator. There is a small programmed chance of the “photocopier” jamming, which would prevent it from making a new NFT.

ARTIST

Mad Dog Jones

PRICE

$4.1 Million

STYLE

Animation with sound

MARKETPLACE

Phillips

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Fidenza #313

Fidenza #313 is an image that was autogenerated by a computer. It’s a part of the Art Blocks Curated collection where artists can write their own algorithms and the computer will randomly generate art based on the algo. Fidenza #313 turned out to be beautiful as if a human has painted it.

ARTIST

Tyler Hobbs

PRICE

$3.3 Million

STYLE

Computer generated image

MARKETPLACE

OpenSea

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Doge

Doge is photography of a dog that gained mass popularity on the internet. It was made into a meme, then into a cryptocurrency, and finally, the owner of this photo has posted it up for a sale as an NFT. What started as a joke, soon became one of the most recognizable photos on the web.

ARTIST

Atsuko Sato

PRICE

$4 Million

STYLE

Pixel Art

MARKETPLACE

Zora

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OVERALL
RATING
4.3

World Wide Web source code

World Wide Web source code is an NFT made by Sir Tim Berners-Lee that represents the source code for the web we use today. Don’t be afraid, the owner of this NFT doesn’t get to own the internet. What’s interesting is how there was an error found in the “code” as soon as it was published.

ARTIST

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

PRICE

$5.4 Million

STYLE

Screenshot

MARKETPLACE

Sotheby's

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Crossroad

Crossroad is a controversial art made by Beeple during the elections. It depicts Donald Trump laying naked in the grass with graffiti all over him after losing the elections. If he had won, the image would show Donald running through flames with a crown on his head.

ARTIST

Beeple

PRICE

$6.6 Million

STYLE

Animation

MARKETPLACE

Nifty gateway

7
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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Save Thousands Of Lives

Save Thousands Of Lives is an initiative started by Noora Health to save the lives of newborns in South Asia. The program is run in 165 different hospitals and by their calculations, they can save 1 life with each $1,235 raised. The image has grossed $5.1 Million, which is a lot of saved lives.

ARTIST

Noora Health

PRICE

$5.1 Million

STYLE

Photography collection

MARKETPLACE

OpenSea

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OVERALL
RATING
4.9

Stay Free

Stay Free is an NFT made by Edward Snowden, the man who exposed the surveillance program the NSA was doing. This NFT is made out of text art that portraits Edward Snowden. The texts used for the art are actually the documents that show the court decision which has ruled that the mass surveillance the NSA was doing, violated the law.

ARTIST

Edward Snowden

PRICE

$5.4 Million

STYLE

Text art

MARKETPLACE

Foundation

9
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OVERALL
RATING
4

The First Tweet

The First Tweet is an NFT Image art that’s actually a screenshot of the first-ever Tweet, made by the founder of Tweeter, Jack Dorsey. The Tweet says “just setting up my twttr”. Even though the owner of that NFT can’t change the text of this tweet, we can think of it as a virtual autograph.

ARTIST

Jack Dorsey

PRICE

$2.9 Million

STYLE

Screenshot

MARKETPLACE

Valuables

How do we evaluate the best NFT images?

Our team of researchers had to develop a criterion which use to create the best NFT images ranking that you can see above. We could have ranked the images by their value, but instead, we have decided to rank them by how impactful they are.

This is our criteria:

  1. Impact – Did this art help the NFT world gain more popularity? Does it have a real-life use case? We give advantage to those projects that made a difference, both in the digital and the “real” world.
  2. Artist – Was the artist famous before creating his first NFT art or he became known afterwards? We give advantage to “hidden gems” that are not previously known artists. Everyone deserves a chance, and NFT certainly increased everyone’s chances to become a well-known artist. Beeple for example wasn’t that known before selling his NFT art for $69 Million.
  3. Price – Another important aspect of the best NFT images is the price. The higher the price, the better. This is the case when we talk about images, however, if we talk about collectibles, price can fit into both pros and cons, depending if you are an artist or a buyer.

As you can see, “Doge” is pretty high on our list. The reason for that is because Doge has successfully combined a community and a real blockchain project. That’s something most NFT and crypto projects fail to achieve.

The Doge blockchain project became so popular that the founder of Ethereum, Vitalyk Buterin, and Tesla/PayPal founder Elon Musk have joined the Dogecoin board.

Nothing of this would be possible if Atsuko Sato didn’t take a picture of her “Doge” and posted it online. Now, she has sold that photo as an NFT and if that’s not impactful art, nothing else is.

What are NFT images?

When the first NFTs were published, people have criticized them because “Everyone can download that image to his PC, why would someone pay for it?”. Well, everyone can download a picture of the Mona Lisa as well, does it mean that you own it then?

NFTs are a brand new way of verifying ownership of a unique item. NFT Images are one category of NFTs and they are also stored on the blockchain. To keep it simple, let’s just say that NFTs are unique items that you can securely store in your digital wallet.

Ever since this technology became more widely known, artists from all over the world have decided to try it out. Some have “succeeded”, others have yet to find their luck.

But, what actually defines success as an artist?

If we measure success by how much money they made, let’s just say that thousands of overnight millionaires were made just because of their NFT images.

For some, it took years to earn anything, and some didn’t make anything at all. NFT images have been around since the first one published in 2014 called “Quantum”.

While some creators like Edward Snowden made just one NFT and made millions, others like Greg Mike have sold over thousand different images and made millions in total.

What categories of NFT images are there?

As you may already know, there are different categories of NFT images. If you are a creator, you are probably wondering what categories you can sell as NFT images, so let’s find out:

  1. Images – The most usual, static, digital or drawn images. You can sell all of them in all sorts of formats, depending on the marketplace. For example, OpenSea supports around 13 different formats (5 of which are for images). These can be anything, from 8bit characters to drawn planets.
  2. Animations – Some of the most expensive NFTs such as Crossroad are animations. You can create both GIFs and animations with sound such as the Replicator NFT. Feel free to be creative and showcase you best skills.
  3. 3D Models – You can even design 3D models that can be used in a game or even VR/AR projects. One example of such file format that’s supported on some of the marketplaces like the OpenSea is glTF.

Even if your native image format is not supported, you can always include it in the “Unlockable content” if the marketplace supports it. That way when the owner makes a purchase, he’ll have access to the files you have provided.

We believe that as the NFT world expands, more and more file formats will be supported. If you are wondering which marketplace to sell on, take a look at the best NFT marketplaces rankings we have made.

Can you turn a photo into an NFT?

Yes, you can turn a photo into an NFT.

The NFT marketplaces have made it as simple as uploading a picture on Facebook. All you have to do is upload your image, give it a name, write a description if you want and set the price.

That’s of course if you have already created an account with the marketplace and set your NFT wallet. If you haven’t done any of that, make sure you read the article from our NFT University, how to create your own NFT.

If you have already set up everything, well then let us give you a couple of tips for selling a photo as an NFT.

Tips for selling your photo as an NFT

  • Always upload the highest quality. Since a photo can lose quality when re-uploaded a couple of times, make sure you upload only from the original source, whether that’s your phone or a camera.
  • Host the image elsewhere and provide a link through unlockable content. If the marketplace has a maximum file size and your photo is bigger than that, you can host it elsewhere and provide a link. Wouldn’t that beat the NFTs whole point since it’s not on the blockchain? Well not exactly, you would still sell that image as an NFT, but they’ll able to see it in the highest quality possible.
  • Provide a good description and categorization. Sure, there are exceptions where artists have sold millions worth of NFTs without writing anything special about the art, but they are EXCEPTIONS. Almost all of the NFT art that’s sold has a clear description explaining what’s the meaning of it. NFT collectibles usually have a greater plan and their description is actually their selling point. On the other hand, categorization will help you reach new buyers when they are exploring the marketplace. Make sure you put your art in the right category.
  • Keep the prices realistic. Just because Beeple sold his art for $69 million, doesn’t mean you should set the price of your first NFT at $10 million. Try to set a realistic price that will help you grow into a known artist amongst the NFT “circles”.

Why are NFT images so expensive?

This is a common misconception that NFT images cost a lot. Sure, there are some pieces that sold for several million dollars, but does it mean they all do? The majority of NFT images are not expensive.

You can compare it to the real world paintings, is every painting necessarily expensive? No, especially if the artist is not a well-known one.

What defines the price is like with everything else art-related, a mutual agreement. Sure, it’s strange to see these simple 8bit CryptoPunks selling for millions of dollars, but they are amongst the first NFT collections ever.

There is an old saying “the early bird catches the worm” and that’s the case of collections like “CryptoPunks” and “Bored Ape Yacht Club”. Because they were amongst the first ones to utilize the NFT technology, their collection is amongst the most valuable ones as well.

The prices for NFT Images can range from under a dollar to several million dollars. That being said, NFT art with a price of several million dollars doesn’t always sell. If we are talking about how much an average seller makes, that’s about 100$ to 200$.

This could sound surprising as the majority of statistics will tell you it’s in the range of $1,000 to $4,000, but what’s the catch? The problem with these statistics is that they include the extremes such as Beeple into the calculation.

Imagine if Beeple sold one art for $69 million and the other for $1, that’s an average of $34.5 million per art. Do you get what we are saying?

There is not enough NFT art yet to show a realistic average price as the majority of total sale volume belongs to a couple of big NFT projects.

Why you should sell your art as an NFT?

You might be feeling confused about all the technicalities connected to the NFT world, but we are here to help you out with that. The pros of selling your art as an NFT far outweigh the cons as you will see.

We are still in the early age of blockchain. You have a higher chance of succeeding than someone who’ll join in a couple of years. As always, early adopters have a mass advantage over late ones.

Right now you have a chance to make a name for yourself as an artist, or even as a collector. There are many success stories of artists who were barely surviving when selling real-life art, but now raking in millions.

If you are concerned about the technicalities behind NFT, don’t be. We have developed NFT University which has everything you need to compete in this space.

Now, let’s go through the pros and cons of selling your art as an NFT.

Pros

  • Become an early adopter – Since NFTs are quite new, you can start selling right now and gradually build your following. The competition is way smaller than in the physical art space, so that’s a bonus as well.
  • Lower fees – Not just the auction commision fees, but the shipping process as well. If you are creating paintings, you can decide if you are going to ship it out to the NFT owner of not. The fees at the best NFT marketplaces range from 0% to 15%. Physical auctions tend to charge 20-30% + VAT.
  • Simple marketplaces - The marketplaces are very simple to use as we have previously mentioned. They usually have a categorization and a search filter. That way everyone can find an art that suits him, including yours. All you would have to do is think of an extra marketing strategy that would help you sell your art easier.
  • Stay anonymous – If you would like to keep your privacy and focus on the art creation process, NFTs are ideal for you. You don’t have to reveal your real name, only your username.
  • Get paid in crypto – In some countries you don’t have to pay tax on cryptocurrency. This means that you can sell your art tax-free. Since cryptocurrencies change their value, you can potentially make some extra money if you decide to hold the funds in your wallet.
  • Copyright – Nobody can sell your art piece and claim it’s his. Once you create an NFT, it’s on the blockchain forever. You can check the blockchain to verify the ownership and authenticity of an art.
  • Smart Contracts – Other than the easy way to verify ownership, what also makes NFTs special are the smart contracts. You can program smart contracts to receive a royalty each time someone re-sells your art.

Cons

  • Security – When you sell your NFT art, funds are stored inside your digital wallet. Someone can steal funds from your wallet if you don’t take care of your private keys. Sure, someone can steal money from a bank, but it’s less common nowadays.
  • High transaction fees – Sure, it depends on what blockchain you are selling your NFT art, but the fees can get pretty high. Right now the Ethereum blockchain, which is the most popular one, has scalability issues which results in high transaction fees (Mostly for the buyers).
  • Exchanges - You’ll have to find an exchange that you trust. There are certainly some reputable ones, but it’s still not as simple as selling the art and getting your dollar bills.
  • Environment – Scientists argue that blockchain technology is not sustainable due to high electric consumption. By selling your art as an NFT, you are contributing to it. However, there are two most used consensus mechanisms, Proof of Work (POW) and Proof of Stake (POS). POW (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin) spends more energy as miners are required to verify transaction, POS (Cardano, Polkadot, Tezos) is a cleaner technology. This means that environmental impact can be reduced by using POS blockchains when you create your NFT. It’s also worth to mention that Ethereum is moving to POS soon as well.

What are the fees to list NFT Images?

You must be wondering, well how much will this cost me? The fees to list NFT images depend on the marketplace, but usually, it’s free. However, there are commission fees and they usually range from 0% to 15%, with an average of 2.5% per sale.

Mostly, the registration on a marketplace won’t cost you anything. You’ll usually pay a fee only when you sell an NFT. For example, OpenSea will let you sell for free, however, once your NFT has been sold, they will take a 2.5% fee.

When we compare this fee to the usual 20% fee + 30% VAT that you’ll have to pay in most physical auction houses then this fee is close to nothing. You can grow as an artist and keep 97.5% revenue of your NFT Images, how cool is that?

There are also transaction fees involved, but on most marketplaces, these will be paid by the buyer. If you want to keep it as cheap as possible for the buyers, choose marketplaces that support blockchains other than Ethereum.

For example, if you sell your NFT Images on the Polygon blockchain, buyers will have close to no transaction fees.

Some marketplaces will not allow you to sell your NFT Images unless you are invited. Others have a system where your art has to be voted by the community or moderators as worthy first. These “verifications” don’t cost money, but they will cost you your time.

Are there any risks when buying or selling NFT Images?

As with everything in this world, there are always certain risks involved. The risk of buying or selling your NFT is mostly related to the fact that your wallet may be stolen if you are not careful enough.

When you are making your NFT wallet, you’ll get a “seed phrase” that consists of 12 to 24 words. These words are your private keys, meaning that you can restore your wallet with them.

However, if somebody else found your keys because you didn’t put them somewhere safe, your funds can be stolen. Hackers will then use these words to “restore” your wallet, and they’ll be able to send the funds to their wallet.

This is more of a risk related to the blockchain technology rather than the NFT Images, but it’s still a risk. Imagine selling your NFT art for a couple of million dollars, only to discover that the funds have been stolen.

Other security threats are related to the NFT marketplaces. Always buy and sell only on the trusted NFT marketplaces, and be cautious when you give access to your wallet. You should always verify the amount and the address you are sending your funds to is correct.

Scammers love blockchain technology as it is more complicated than the usual internet stuff. When you decide to buy or sell on a certain marketplace, you should do research to see if it’s legit. We suggest you stick to the marketplaces we have put on our best NFT marketplaces list.

Other than the marketplaces, you should also beware of where and how you store your cryptocurrencies. When handling your cryptocurrency, don’t do it on a PC everyone else uses, think of it as waving your wallet in the favelas.

Tips to keep your digital wallet safe

  • Don’t keep your funds on an exchange. However safe they may seem, exchanges are always prone to cyber attacks which could result in you losing your money. In 2014. the biggest crypto exchange Mt. Gox, which was handling over 70% of all BTC transactions was hacked. It is estimated that more than 850,000 bitcoins were stolen. That’s A LOT of money. To avoid making this mistake, always keep your crypto in your own wallet and move to an exchange only when necessary.
  • Store your seed phrase somewhere safe. Seed phrase, or seed recovery phrase are those 12 to 24 words that you’ll get when making a new wallet. As tempting as it is to save it in a notepad right on your desktop, don’t do it. If someone gets an access to your PC, you can easily lose it. Instead, you should write the words down on a piece of paper (or even two) and hide it somewhere safe. Just make sure you don’t lose those words.
  • Diversify your funds. Since creating wallets is mostly free and there isn’t a limit of how many you can have, diversify it. For example, you can create two separate wallets and split your funds amongst them. You’ll have a bigger chance of keeping at least 50% if someone ever hacks you.
  • Beware of phishing apps. There are many mobile wallets that are free and easy to use, however, beware of fake applications that will steal your money. Always double-check the developer behind the app, and don’t trust ratings either as they might be fake.
  • Consider using a hardware wallet. This type of wallet encrypts and stores your private key and it is the safest method to store cryptocurrency. If you don’t know which wallet to use, check our best NFT wallets ranking.

Can you combine physical art with NFT?

If you are creating physical art such as paintings, photography, sculptures, literature, or anything similar, you might be wondering if it’s possible to combine that with NFT? Yes, you can combine physical art with NFT.

There are a couple of ways to do such a thing. The first and the obvious one is to simply take a photo of your art and sell it like that. Obviously, the person that buys it won’t care since art is in the eye of the beholder.

However, there are ways to provide the buyers with a much better customer experience.

For example, certain marketplaces like OpenSea have that already mentioned “Unlockable content” feature. You can use this feature to your advantage. For example, you can put a contact e-mail in there, so the person who buys it can contact you.

Once the buyer contacts you, you can ship out your item to him. There is one problem with this approach though, and that’s related to the future owners. Once you have successfully sold the NFT and shipped the art, you can no longer impact where the actual physical art is.

To fix this, you can put a description claiming that only the first buyer will get the physical art, and later he can do whatever he wants with it.

For those of you selling NFT Images that are made digitally, you can simply include the download link in the “Unlockable content” part, if the marketplace has it.

On the other hand, if your images are actually photographs, you can ship them out as we have explained above.

Whatever approach you decide to take, remember that customer experience is as important with the NFTs as it is with physical art.

What are good marketplaces for NFT Images?

There are so many different marketplaces to choose from so it can be hard to decide where to sell your NFT images. In case you are wondering which are the best NFT marketplaces in general, make sure you check out our rankings.

However, if you are an artist who plans to sell images as an NFT, then you should consider a marketplace that focuses on NFT images.

Ephimera NFT Marketplace

One example of such a marketplace is the Ephimera. This is an NFT marketplace built on Ethereum blockchain technology. On Ephimera, you can find only two categories:

  • Photographies
  • Videos

This marketplace is ideal for those of you who want to show your art to the world through camera lenses. Multiple editions are not supported on this marketplace, only unique pieces. Original creators will get 10% as a royalty on each re-sell.

Foundation

Foundation is another marketplace ideal for NFT image creators. The difference between the previous one and this one is that the Foundation has many more different categories. From animations, photographs, digital drawings to 3D objects.

There are over 91 thousand NFTs on this marketplace, and it’s growing every day. Foundation runs on Ethereum blockchain and it charges a 15% seller’s fee.

There are some very talented artists on this marketplace, so prepare for competition. Foundation has auction-style sales only, but you can set the reserve price. Unlockable content is no longer an available feature, so that’s a minus if you want to provide additional things for your buyers.

Hic et Nunc

This NFT marketplace runs on Tezos (XTZ) blockchain which means much lower minting fees than most other marketplaces. Their website design is pretty different than what you are used to, but their search function works great.

What separates it from most other marketplaces is that you can even post nudity on Hic et Nunc. This is great news if you are an erotic photographer or if you create such images.

Services fees are only 2.5% which means you get to keep most of the profits. Also, you can use many different XTZ wallets such as:

  • Spire
  • Temple
  • Galleon
  • Kukai

KnownOrigin

This marketplace is not invite-only, but you have to be verified by the KnownOrigin to be able to sell on their marketplace. This is both good and bad, as it increases the quality of NFT art on their marketplace, however, it also prevents beginner artists from trying to sell their art.

KnownOrigin has a primary and secondary marketplace. The primary marketplace includes original art made by the creators, while the secondary marketplace is where resellers can sell the art they own.

Original creators will receive 85% of each sale (15% commission fee). Resellers will also receive 85%, but in that case, 12.5% goes to the artist and 2.5% commission fees goes to the marketplace.

There are different categories of NFT art sold on KnownOrigin, but the majority are images, including animations and GIFs, and videos.

Mintable

Mintable offers gasless minting, which means you don’t have to pay any fee when you create your NFT. Gas fees are actually a part of the selling price, buyers pay for it.

There are many different categories on Mintable, such as:

  • Art
  • Videos
  • Collectibles
  • Game Items
  • Music
  • Domains
  • Templates

Fees will vary depending on the type of NFTs that you create. If you choose gasless minting, it’s a 5% commission fee, while it’s only 2.5% for normal items.

If you decide that you will do a collection of 500 different NFTs, printable series is your best option. You’ll need to submit 1 transaction to create the collection, but you can add any amount of NFT images that you want. There is a 10% commission fee for the printable series.

There are plenty of other marketplaces where you can sell your NFT Images. Don’t just limit yourself to these above, however, these specialize in NFT Images and similar art.

You should also take a look at the best NFT marketplaces ranking we have posted, as it has many advantages.

Can you earn royalty fees with NFT?

Yes, you can earn royalty fees with NFT. The majority of the NFT marketplaces have made it possible for the artist to make money even when their art is re-sold many times.

For example, on OpenSea, creators can choose what royalty fee they want to charge for up to 10%. This means that if your art is re-sold for 1 ETH, and you have set the royalty at 10%, you’ll get 0.1 ETH in royalty fees.

On the other hand, marketplaces such as SuperRare have a fixed royalty fee of 10%. Each time your art is re-sold, you’ll get that royalty fee.

This is a great way to make a passive income if your art has the potential to be re-sold. It’s also a big advantage in comparison to the classic auction houses where you’d have to sign a contract and put them as a mediator.

Such deals with auction houses can make you lose a big portion of your earnings in the process, while in the NFT space it’s all about the artists.

A whole new world is here for digital artists, and we love that we are a part of it.

List your NFT Images

Do you want to promote your NFT Images? We will gladly help you out.

Great marketing is a big part of every successful artist. You shouldn’t rely on the “explore” function on the marketplaces. There are way too many NFT images to wait for someone to discover your art on the marketplace.

Sure, you can advertise your work on social media, but do you want to optimize it all the way? If you do, let us help you gain the attraction you need.

Our team of people are experts in the NFT and Crypto space. If there is an ongoing NFT trend, we probably already know about it.

We can take a look at your NFT Images and if they are good enough, we’ll gladly promote them for you on our website BestNFTs.com.

If we think you are not yet ready, we’ll give you tips on what aspects of your art to improve in order to achieve maximum success. There are many different features that you have to consider when creating art, but the main are:

  • Image title – Is it catchy? Does it represent your style or your brand?
  • Description – What is the point of your art? What are you trying to achieve?
  • Price – Is it realistically set? Are you trying to become a millionaire overnight, or you really create art that’s worth the price?

If you don’t have an answer to these, we can help you out with it as well. So, what are you waiting for?

Kresimir Ilicic, Author

The world of NFT is expanding every day. What started as a way to verify ownership of digital collectibles has expanded to serious utility including passive earning. Some projects have even created their own P2E (Play-To-Earn) games with the help of blockchain and NFT.

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Bryan Klein
2 years ago

From the very start of the project DMA’s design team admitted that our existing website looked like it was straight out of the 90s. A lot of that stemmed from the fact that it was indeed originally built in the 90s. We let them have a lot of free reign to tell us how different parts of the website should be designed and organized since they were the experts. The whole project took around 11 weeks to complete, but we noticed an immediate improvement in our sales process within just hours of launching the new website. We had previous customers reach out to us congratulating us for joining them in the 21st century and even some of our competitors thought the website was beautiful. Needless to say our sales processes and customer trust have both improved incredibly.

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