How to create and sell an NFT: a complete guide

If you’ve been too tempted by the news of people paying big bucks for NFTs and want to sell your own art, here’s a step-by-step guide!

Creating and selling NFT art has moved digital artists from caution and distrust to extreme curiosity. This becomes especially evident when there are many stories of creators selling their art on the NFT marketplace and raising thousands of dollars. And so more and more content creators are asking themselves: “Well, I can create graphics, so how do I sell on NFT?”

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So, here’s the story: NFTs are all the rage among the creative and gaming community today. Users are willing to pay fabulous amounts of money for each unique digital asset, and it’s not just words. One of our most respected digital artists, Beeple, sold his NFT art, the collage Everydays: The First 5000 Days, for $69 million in early 2021. This was the largest deal in NFT history, but there is more evidence of people spending millions on NFT art, which is what makes this field so attractive and adventurous for many artists and content creators around the world.

Another great example that makes content creators think about selling and NFTs is the fabulous CryptoKitties game. It allowed you to breed, collect, and trade rare kittens. The most expensive kitten sold in this game was Dragon, sold for 600 ether ($172,000 at the time) a month after its birth.

Therefore, the potential for raising thousands or even millions of bucks makes artists create NFTs in the hope of joining the lucky ones. They don’t just sell art, such as images and GIFs. In fact, an NFT can be any multimedia file, such as video, audio, in-game collectibles, or even a tweet.

What is NFT?

An NFT, or non-fungible token, refers to a cryptographic asset on a blockchain that represents an intangible and unique digital item, like a work of art, that cannot be replaced due to its exceptional properties. An NFT allows the buyer to own the original item and contains built-in authentication that serves as proof of ownership.

So, what do you, as a digital artist, have to do to create and sell an NFT?

6 steps to sell your first NFT

Step 1. Create a product for sale
Step 2. Buy some cryptocurrency
Step 3. Set up your digital wallet
Step 4. Choose an NFT marketplace
Step 5. Create an account and upload your content
Step 6. Start selling (don’t forget about listing fees!)

Now let’s take a closer look and help you sell your first NFT!

1. Create a product for sale

This step may be obvious, but your entire NFT journey will begin with it. So start by choosing a unique digital asset that you want to turn into an NFT. It can be a custom illustration such as a picture, image, or GIF, but also any other digital file, meme, video game collection, or anything else. Make sure you own the intellectual property rights to the item you want to sell as an NFT, as using items you don’t have the rights to or selling someone else’s work can cause legal problems.

The value of NFT art is determined by its uniqueness. So if you want to put up for sale a series of your identical or partially identical works, you should offer different versions, some more exclusive than others. You should also determine how many identical copies of a particular NFT you will include on the blockchain. This number will be fixed, and you will not be able to change your NFTs once created on the digital marketplace.

Процес створення NFT називається карбуванням. Minting NFT означає процес перетворення частин цифрового мистецтва в активи на блокчейні або незмінні токени. Процедура схожа на створення грошей. Оскільки банкноти та металеві монети виготовляються та додаються в обіг, карбуються цифрові активи. Після завершення карбування мистецтво NFT стає захищеним, і маніпулювати ним буде складно. Як токен, він тепер доступний для продажу та покупки, а також відстежується при перепродажі, що робить усі маніпуляції з предметом видимими та безпечними.

Whichever NFT marketplace you choose to sell your digital content on (we’ll share some options with you a little later), you’ll need to first purchase cryptocurrency to pay upfront for its minting and sale. Additionally, you will need your cryptocurrency wallet to access several NFT selling platforms to sign transactions and manage their balance, so this is not a step you can put on a waiting list. There are many cryptocurrency wallets available as a standalone program or browser extension, and these are just a few of them:

Coinbase wallet
Result.
Built-in Opera Crypto Wallet
Crypto.com
Trusted wallet
MetaMask wallet

The aforementioned cryptocurrency wallet programs are available on smartphones as a mobile app and/or browser extension. Additionally, most platforms, such as the popular Coinbase wallet, Metamask Wallet, are designed for a wide audience, including beginners, and can guide the digital artist through transaction fees, security, and privacy. This will be especially valuable if a content creator is about to buy their first cryptocurrency to start selling NFTs and need a step-by-step guide to get started and understand what’s involved.

Before you set up your wallet, don’t forget to make sure that it matches the cryptocurrency used on the platform you choose to sell your NFT collections on. Most NFT platforms accept Ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain platform, so check if your chosen crypto wallet is available for it (in fact, most of them are). Don’t be surprised by this choice of a universal NFT cryptocurrency: the Ethereum blockchain platform was the first to introduce coin-based NFTs.

Finally, you can buy your own cryptocurrency. This can be done in a digital wallet program, and you can use Apple Pay or a debit card to pay. If you already have cryptocurrency, connect it to your newly created digital wallet.

3. Choose NFT Marketplace

Now comes the most crucial step that will eventually lead you to selling NFTs. You’ll be fascinated by the wide selection of NFT marketplaces and auctions that allow digital artists to mint their creative works and meet their potential buyers. Here are the most popular options:

• OpenSea
• Axie Marketplace
• Larva Labs/CryptoPunks
• NBA Top Shot Marketplace
• Rarible
• SuperRare
• Nifty Gateway
• Mintable
• ThetaDrop
• VIV3
• BakerySwap
• NFT ShowRoom

Make sure to learn more about the platforms to be sure they are suitable for your content and NFT file type. The popularity of the NFT marketplace also makes sense. For example, Nifty Gateway is designed for NFT creators and brands that intend to sell limited edition and high-quality NFT collections exclusively on this platform. By the way, it is on this platform that Beeple sold most of its NFTs.

Or there is the Axie Marketplace, the official marketplace for the Axie Infinity game. On this platform, you can sell various items and digital collectibles used in the game. So, again, make sure you choose an NFT marketplace that perfectly matches the fine art you intend to sell.

When checking the list of NFT marketplaces, you should pay attention to several things:

• Listing fees and other charges that you will have to pay for minting NFTs and selling them on the platform of your choice. If you are just planning to sell your first NFT, you may find that the prices on some NFT marketplaces are too high to start with.
• The digital art format accepted by the platform. You can sell almost any digital file as an NFT collection or art, from tweets to GIFs, so just make sure the marketplace is right for you and you should be able to find your buyer there.
• Go for big names if you can. Big NFT marketplaces, such as the aforementioned Nifty Gateway, have a wide audience, and it can be fun and interesting to create and market your own NFT with them. In addition, they offer great promotion options that will be especially valuable for talented artists who are just planning to create NFTs for sale.

Once you have chosen the platform on which you will create and sell NFTs, you should connect it to your digital wallet. This way you will pay the listing fee for your first NFT and accept payments.

4. Upload your digital assets

Finally, you can set up the minting of your art and create NFTs. No matter which NFT marketplace you choose to do this, it will provide a step-by-step guide on how to create and sell NFTs on its platform. There will be nothing superficial or complicated: just follow the instructions provided.

Generally, NFT platforms ask you to upload the file you intend to sell as an NFT and supplement it with a title and a short description. Your digital asset (JPG, PNG, GIF, MP3, or any other file type) will then be converted into an NFT that can be sold. And right after you upload the item, the platform will ask you to choose whether you prefer to mint a single token or a collection (check step 1 to learn more).

5. Start selling and pay attention to NFT sales options

We are sure that you will be very excited to reach the last stage of the NFT creation process, which is to decide how you want to monetize your first NFT and set a price for it.

In fact, choosing the minimum price is always the most difficult part, which is even more challenging than creating the digital asset. For content creators who have previous experience selling their digital assets on any other marketplaces, this dilemma should be particularly familiar. If the price is too high, there is no guarantee that the digital asset will ever be purchased. And selling NFTs at too low a price while paying huge fees will be unprofitable. The fees for mining and selling NFTs can be expensive, and depending on the market, you may have to pay a listing fee, an NFT mining fee, and a sales fee. Fees can fluctuate due to the volatility of the cryptocurrency exchange rate.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. However, we recommend checking other providers in the same market and finding out what prices they set for their NFTs. At the very least, this will allow you to estimate the average price you can start with.

It is also important to keep in mind that there are two options for selling NFTs: fixed price or auction. A fixed price sale is when content creators specify the price for which they want to sell NFTs. Auctions are a gaming way of selling NFTs. Most platforms allow three types of auctions:

1. English auction. Buyers will have a limited time to submit a final offer. This is a rising price auction, so the highest bid wins after the time is up.
2. Dutch auction. Similar to the English timed auction, buyers have a limited time to offer their bid. This is a descending price auction where the price drops until someone buys the NFT.
3. Unlimited auction. Doesn’t set a time limit, so the digital artist can stop the sale whenever they want. The second type is a Dutch auction, also known as a falling price auction, in which the price drops until someone buys the NFT.

6. Advertise your NFT

This step is 100% optional, and it’s perfectly fine to start selling NFTs and not bother with promotion. However, it’s wise to know how you can increase sales and meet your buyer – especially when there are many other digital artists who want to create and sell NFT art (and make a lot of money doing it). Depending on the content you create, your promotion strategies may vary. Whether it’s gaming collectibles, tweets, or graphics, some specifics have disappeared. Still, there are some general tips:

• Spread the word on social media. If you have a lot of followers on Twitter or Instagram, this is your chance to spread the word about your new NFT. You can also try teaming up with larger accounts to run a promotion – Twitter has a lot of giveaways and cross-promotions, so your feature will be a natural fit and likely attract more community interest in your NFT.
• Add your illustration to the NFT Calendar. NFT Calendar is the first calendar on the digital marketplace where the best NFT drops are collected in one place. It is a great, if not the best, platform for NFT collectors who don’t want to check dozens of marketplaces for a decent release. And it’s completely free for you and as an NFT creator! The process only takes a couple of minutes, all you have to do is fill out a basic form on the website.
• Use online advertising. There are many ways to promote your newly created NFT. For example, you can publish a sponsored post in niche media, get a mention in a crypto podcast, or simply make a promo on social media.
• Go to the offered drops on the market. This type of promotion is set up directly on the platform where you have chosen to sell your NFT. Each NFT marketplace has its own features: some, such as KnownOrigin, create a page for the offered winnings every week with a countdown to the release. Nifty Gateway publishes the schedule for the upcoming week on its website and Twitter. In any case, once your NFT becomes popular in the market, you will also get promotion on social media, which gives you double the spread.

In fact, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of social media when trying to sell an NFT collection. Experience shows that most of your target audience uses Twitter. Therefore, if you haven’t put enough effort into developing your account, it’s time to dedicate some time to it. Let it grow as if it were your Behance and Twitter, and get to know the users who will first like your style and eventually get your NFT illustrations.

Many years ago, blockchain technology was treated with great distrust and was supported by numerous enthusiasts. Now, more and more investors have their own digital wallets and are watching the cryptocurrency market fluctuate. The same thing is happening with digital art and how it follows new trends. It is unlikely that you will be the first NFT seller or a pioneer in creating an NFT. However, it’s a great time to try your hand at it and meet potential buyers of the digital art you’ve been developing and looking to monetize.

If you needed a sign, here it is! Perhaps joining a few NFT marketplaces and selling your NFT collection is just the way to help you make your name and develop a whole new medium for creative exchange.