The Easy Guide on How to Make an NFT

Suppose you're a creator making music, photography, video or digital art. In that case, it's time to get your work onto the blockchain and start making money. Hopefully, this guide will give you insight into everything you need to make an NFT and start selling your digital creations online on any NFT marketplace.

Getting started making NFTs in 2022

We'll assume that you've got a passing familiarity with the blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs for this post.

Instead of the basics, we'll focus on the following things.

To make an NFT, you'll need:

• Your digital creation(s) (photo, artwork, video, audio, 3D models)
• A marketplace to sell your NFT
• A digital wallet
• Ethereum (it's going to cost us some eth to make your NFT)
• Choosing what to make into an NFT

Although you can make almost anything into an NFT, there are some restrictions.

First, you'll need your creation in a format accepted by the NFT marketplaces.

Depending on which marketplace you choose, some or all of the following are accepted.

gif, jpg, png, svg, mp4, mp3, WebM, wav, glb, ogg, gltf

Remember, even offline works can be translated into one or multiple formats.

Now that you've got the correct file type, it's time to choose the artwork. Keep in mind that, as in the offline art world, what you decide to make into an NFT and sell should have some value to others.

• How rare is the piece?
• Is it part of a more extensive collection?
• Are you an established artist?
• Have you done anything to build an audience?
• Is your art aesthetically exciting or fun?

Not just any old thing will sell.

Most importantly, and it should go without saying, do you own and have the right to use and profit from the sale of the piece as an NFT?

Now let's choose where to sell.

The market for NFTs is exploding, so too are the choices for where to list your NFT for sale.

Some of the most popular NFT marketplaces are:

• Mintable
• Rarible
• OpenSea
• OneOf
• Atomic Hub
• Magic Eden
• LooksRare

For today, we'll use OpenSea (the largest marketplace).

Head to opensea.io and click on the wallet icon in the very top right of the page.

Here is where you'll connect your digital wallet and create an account.

As you know, a digital wallet is where you hold your cryptocurrency. Today, it's where you'll deposit the funds to pay for making your NFTs and where you'll receive payment once you've made a sale.

If you've already got a wallet and it's on the following list, buy some ethereum (we'd suggest at least $100USD worth), add it to your wallet and move on to the next step.

• Metamask
• Coinbase
• WalletConnect
• Formatic
• Kaikas
• Bitski
• Venly
• Dapper
• Authereum
• Torus
• Portis

If you don't currently have a wallet, we're going to suggest you go with either Metamask or Coinbase. They're two of the most popular and both easy to use.

Sign up for whichever wallet you prefer and buy or add some Ethereum.

Now go back to OpenSea, click the top-right icon, select your preferred wallet and follow the steps to connect to the OpenSea market.

You're now ready to make your NFT.

Minting and listing an NFT on OpenSea

Click the 'Create' button on the top navigation on OpenSea.

This page is where you'll mint your NFT.

Minting is the process of taking your artwork and turning it into a non-fungible token on the blockchain, ready to be bought and sold.

Everything on this page is pretty straightforward. Fill in as much detail provide as much information about your artwork as possible.

When you've finished filling out everything you can on the page, click the 'Create' button at the bottom of the page, and your NFT has been minted.

We're not done yet, though.

To put it up for sale, you're going to have to put in a few more details (price, how long you want it listed, etc.) and agree to the 2.5% service fee OpenSea will charge you when your NFT sells.

Once you've completed this step, click 'Complete Listing', and you'll be presented with the cost (gas) of completing your listing.

This is where things can get a little tricky.

The cost of performing a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain is gas. Miners establish gas prices depending on supply and demand for the network's processing capacity, which is required to perform smart contracts and other transactions.

These gas fees can get expensive fast.

To save eth, you'll want to look for periods of low usage on the network (you can Google this) and complete this final step during a period when the gas fees are the lowest.

Once you've found a price you're comfortable with, complete the process, and you're done.

Congratulations. You've learned how to make an NFT and that NFT is now for sale.

Making an NFT is just the beginning.

Like anything else that can be bought and sold, this isn't a process where if you build, they will come.

To get a sale for your NFT (or ongoing sales), you'll need to drive attention and traffic to your listing.

Share your NFT on social media, tell your family and friends, send out emails to people you've sold your art to in the past.

Anything you can do to drive interest will help your NFT sell.

Check out our drops for some great ideas at Nifty Drops.