How to create and sell NFTs?
Step 1: Pick the item
NFT is the representation of any digital file. That digital file can be a picture, painting, music, meme GIF, or a tweet but keep in mind that the item needs to be yours i.e., you should own the intellectual property rights. Creating an NFT for the item that you don’t own can get you in legal trouble.
Step 2: Choose blockchain or platform
After selecting the digital file that you want to convert into NFT, you have to first mint into an NFT, and to do that select the blockchain technology you want to use for your NFT. The most popular and widely used NFT among artists and creators is Ethereum though there are other options available Tezos, Polkadot, Binance smartchain, etc.
(These chains are nothing but IOS/android version of web3 world)
Step 3: Set up a digital wallet
It is an application that stores your cryptocurrencies which will be needed to mint digital items into NFT or want to buy an NFT at the same time. Metamask’s wallet is one of the wallets that’s widely supported by Ethereum based applications like Foundation, Opensea, etc. (these are decentralized applications where you can buy and sell the NFT that you have created). You can download Metamask as a free app on your iPhone or Android smartphone and it is very user-friendly at the same time.
Step 4: Select the marketplace for NFT
After setting up your digital wallet, you have to decide the marketplace where you want to create or mint the NFT and sell. Opensea is a widely used marketplace for NFT though there are other NFT marketplaces like Axie where you can shop accessories specifically for top NFT games. After selecting the marketplace, you need to connect it to your wallet (Metamask) to transact or pay fees to mint your NFT.
Step 5: Create your NFT
Select the digital file that you want to convert to NFT. It is important to note that when you attempt to create NFT, you will be charged a fee (gas) for converting your digital file into NFT, and in order to pay that fee, you must first purchase the cryptocurrency (Ether) and deposit it into your digital wallet. Platforms like OpenSea and Rarible let you create NFTs without paying any fee; the concept is called “lazy minting” systems. It lets you create or mint an NFT and put it up for sale on blockchain without being written to the blockchain, thus avoiding any fees. When somebody buys it, the fees for writing or minting your NFT to the blockchain will be combined with the fees to transfer it to the counterpart or buyer. It helps you dodge the circumstances where you pay $20 to $500 or even more to mint an NFT that no one ends up buying.
Step 6: Setting up the price of NFT
After creating the NFT, you have to decide at what price do you want to sell in the marketplace. There are generally three ways in which you can set the price of your NFT:
- Fix price — You can set a fixed price for the NFT and whosoever is willing to buy at that price will buy it.
- Timed auction — In this, buyers or interested parties will bid for the NFT in the limited time frame allocated to it.
- Unlimited auction — In this, bidders will bid for the NFT but the time frame for the bid is indiscretion with the seller or creator of the NFT i.e., whenever he/she decides to close the auction window.
Whenever you decide the price for the NFT, keep in mind the fees (gas) that you have paid to create or mint your NFT. You can set the royalty for your NFT if you are willing to do it. Royalty means you will be earning a certain percentage of money every time your NFT changes hand in the secondary market. E.g., if someone purchased your NFT for 2 ETHs and later or some time in the future sold in the secondary market for 10 ETHs, initially you set the royalty of 10% of the sale then you will get 10% of 10 ETHs i.e., 1 ETH as a royalty.
