How To Sell NFT Art

Over the past couple of years, the art world has been transformed by the rise of the non-

fungible token and NFT collections of art have sold for incredible amounts of money,

attracting buyers, sellers and curators alike from many walks of life.

With so much attention and focus on the technology, several artists are wondering about

how the blockchain can potentially work for them to help them sell their art digitally,

especially if they are making the transition from the physical art market to digital art.

Because of the inherent complexity and barrier to entry, as well as the sheer speed of the

market, it can be difficult for many artists to distinguish signal from noise, especially as

each day brings with it dozens of stories, drops and unique projects.

To try and get around this, we are going to cover all the information you need to know to

sell pieces of art as NFTs on the blockchain, how these technologies work and why the

technology may be the right choice for digital artists.

What Is NFT Art?

We need to start right at the beginning by explaining each element of NFTs, and that starts

with this very acronym.

NFT stands for non-fungible token and to understand what that is we need to understand

tokens, fungibility and the blockchain.

A token, in a cryptocurrency sense, is a digital item that you can use in digital transactions

on the blockchain and give, receive or trade to others, much like you may trade physical

items to others.

Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin are examples of tokens and are sometimes called

cryptocurrencies due to their intended use for buying and selling other items on the

blockchain.

The blockchain is a digital record of transactions that are linked together using

cryptography, hence the term cryptocurrency or just crypto. This blockchain, which is

unchangeable and distributed across an entire network of computer systems, does not

have a central owner.

The individual blocks are groups of transactions that are stored together until they reach a

maximum capacity before code links it to a new block that stores the next set of

transactions.

However, blockchains, because they effectively store code, can be used for more than

simply distributing digital coins, and this is where non-fungible tokens come in.

Unlike cryptocurrency, which is seen as fungible (ie one bitcoin is the same as any other),

NFTs are non-fungible and are thus unique; any given NFT can only have one owner at

any specific time.

This means that you can link this NFT to another type of asset, both physical (to the point

that someone sold their house as an NFT) and digital (such as audio, video and artwork)

as part of the creation of the NFT.

NFTs are best seen as a receipt of digital ownership rather than being inherently the object

themselves, although this can vary depending on the project.

With digital art, this is a lot simpler; the NFT is a receipt of ownership of a given art piece,

and this means that even if a piece of art has already been shared digitally, its digital

ownership as represented by its NFT still has considerable value.

Here is how to sell your NFT art.

Step One: Get Your Art Ready

Whilst digital art can be anything, from music, text, animation, graphic design or anything

in between, typically there are three different types of NFT art that are commonly sold:

• Digital art sold similarly to its real-world equivalent on marketplaces and at auctions. This includes, for example, the work of Beeples, one of the first artists to mak esignificant money with NFTs
• .NFT collections, which typically use a base template and several different traits of varying rarities to create large collections of digital art assets, often using an automated process. These are increasingly common and include famous names such as Cool Cats and Bored Ape Yacht Club
• .Either of the first two types that are linked with another asset, either digital or physical. This can include items in video games, plots of land on an island and other perks and assets. For a while, the most popular example of this was Axie Infinity which sold the eponymous critters as NFTs to use in the game.

Once you have your idea in mind, get your artwork, collection or perks together, have art in

a common format ready to upload and get ready to launch.

Step Two: Set Up Your Crypto Wallet

As NFTs are on the blockchain, the main currencies they are bought and sold for are

cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Bitcoin or Ronin, and to use these you need to set up a

compatible digital wallet.

This is effectively a cryptographic key that is used to store your crypto and record

transactions on the digital ledger, so you can trace the sales of a given token very easily.

The wallet is anonymous, but this wallet represents your money and your transactions.

There are many different wallets but the most popular ones for NFTs include Coinbase and

MetaMask, each of which has a different set of features and connect to the NFT

marketplace in slightly different ways.

The main point to bear in mind is that nearly all NFT systems use the Ethereum

blockchain, so ensure that your wallet is compatible with this before you start.

Step Three: Buy Some ETH

To get starting with creating NFTs you will need to buy a small amount of Ether to pay the

costs involved with getting the NFT on the blockchain and in selling it to others (otherwise

known as ‘gas fees’ and can fluctuate based on demand).

Typically, about £100 is enough to get you started but that can vary depending on how

many NFTs you plan on minting.

Step Four: Choose Your Marketplace And Link Your Wallet

Once you have some crypto in your wallet, it is time to choose a marketplace. OpenSea is

the largest out there, but there are several others available as well.

Create your account, which usually involves linking your wallet to the platform and

verifying some details, and you are ready to get your art ready.

Step Five: Create Your NFT

Creating your NFT on a marketplace is as simple as uploading your art, adding it to a

collection, setting its price (either a fixed sale price or via an auction system), your rate of

commission (how much kickback you receive from each sale thereafter, and finally paying

the listing, gas and minting fees.

Once these steps are completed, your art is successfully listed as an NFT and can be

promoted, bought by others and sold on the blockchain.

Welcome to the new digital art world.