NFTs are revolutionizing, transforming, amazing, and everything a collector looks for. Long gone are the days when appreciation alone brought a twinkle to the eyes of the artist. If your art or creation doesn’t bring money, is it even worth it? If you’re an artist who’s getting inspired by the buzz of NFTs, then we are here to guide you to mint your own. In our step-by-step guide, we’ll be directing you on how to mint an NFT and all the important things you need to consider before you mint an NFT.
Eminem brought a Bored Ape NFT for nearly 500,000 USD and it might be surprising to many, but for folks like us looking at NFT Market trends? The answer would be NO! In fact, all digital artists and creators are very well aware of the perks that NFT creation can bring. If you’re curious about minting tokens and coins, or minting vs mining, view more on CoinEx blog.
Buying an NFT art and even selling one is nothing but a good investment strategy in this virtual world. And what do you need to start? A plan and a person to guide you. Luckily, we can give you both! Minting an NFT is an important step before selling your NFT and inviting the potential buyer to bid for your creation. It is a process by which you make a space for your creation in the digital world and announce that you are the owner of it.
BAYC and CryptoPunks are setting the bars high and if you’re aiming for a higher place than that, then here’s what you need to know. In our guide, we will be directing you on how to mint an NFT and the most important things you need to consider before doing the same.
What Is NFT Minting?
NFTs or Non-Fungible tokens are uniquely coded identifiers that are attributed to a virtual or tokenized asset and are stored on a blockchain. They are the proof of ownership (or cryptographic evidence) of virtual or physical assets that have been tokenized and are unique in nature.
Now! You might be wondering how an NFT can be minted if they’re a token, unlike a coin? The answer is quite simple here. You mint your NFT on a blockchain. To be very specific, you add your creation (an art or anything) to a blockchain technology which is a public ledger holding evidence of all the transactions being made through it.
Therefore, NFT minting is a process by which you make it known that you hold the exclusive rights to your creation by adding it to a blockchain. Once your art has been transformed into a unique NFT, you can sell it and the records of the transactions (and future transactions by third-party) will be stored on the blockchain as evidence.
Primarily, most of the NFTs are minted on Ethereum blockchain as it is the technology where they initially developed. However, you should know that there are many other Blockchains where you can mint your NFT at. Although Ethereum is a secure and trustable blockchain, the prices (Gas Fees) are astronomically high on the platform.
If you’re a newbie artist minting an NFT, then it won’t be incorrect to say that minting NFT on the Ethereum blockchain will suck you dry. Noting the transaction fee involved in the process, Ethereum is an expensive blockchain technology where you need to have hefty funds before you can gain through the sale proceeds from your NFT collection.
Thus, here comes the alternatives! You should be aware of other available options before you proceed to mint an NFT. Blindly following the trend will lead you nowhere. Hence, below we have elaborated key points that you need to consider before minting NFTs.
Things To Consider Before Minting NFTs
Here are the important points that you need to consider before minting an NFT.
- Have a unique NFT
- Choose the right Blockchain
- Choose the right NFT marketplace
- Know the costs involved
- Have a marketing strategy for your NFT
- Know the risk and time involved
Also Read: How To Buy NFT Art | A Guide For Beginners
How To Mint An NFT?
Now that you know the essentials of minting an NFT, let’s move further to know how to mint an NFT. Minting an NFT is an easy process and if you have chosen a secure NFT Marketplace, then there’s nothing that can go wrong with the process.
Follow the below-mentioned steps to mint your first NFT. Here, we have taken the example of OpenSea to show you how to mint an NFT. So without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Create A Crypto Wallet
Before you actually mint an NFT, you need to have a full-functioning crypto wallet with Ether in it. As NFTs are mostly built on Ethereum blockchain, you need to have a Crypto wallet with Ether to pay expenses involved in the process of minting NFTs. The prices of Ether keep on fluctuating and at the time of writing, 1 Ether stands to be 3,452.03 USD.
There are many crypto wallets available in the market right now, however, you should be careful while choosing one due to online frauds and other faulty practices. Below we have mentioned the names of a few crypto wallets that you can consider while minting an NFT.
- MetaMask
- Exodus
- Electrum
- Mycelium
- Ledger Nano X
- Opolo
- Coinbase Wallet
- Trezor Model T
- Ledger Nano S
2. Choose An NFT Marketplace
Once you have created a Crypto wallet with Ether, the next step is to choose a secure NFT Marketplace. Selecting a safe NFT Marketplace is vital to the process of minting as it ensures the NFT minting (and all other tradings in NFTs) goes as smoothly as possible while providing you with a rich experience.
An NFT Marketplace is a platform that specializes in the trade of NFTs and makes use of stable blockchain technology to monitor transactions. Thus, you need to choose the NFT Marketplace very carefully. There are many NFT Marketplaces that you can choose from.
Below is the list of some of the best NFT Marketplaces.
- OpenSea
- Axie Marketplace
- Rarible
- Larva Labs/CryptoPunks
- Mintable
- SuperRare
- Theta Drop
Also Read: How To Make Money From NFTs? 5 Ways To Earn Passive Income!!
3. Add Crypto Wallet To Selected NFT Marketplace
After you have decided on an NFT Marketplace, the next thing that you need to do is to connect your crypto wallet to the platform. Connecting your Crypto wallet is important as you need to pay the minting fee for uploading your asset on the marketplace and paying all other fees required while listing your NFT for sale.
4. Mint The NFT
Once you are done setting your NFT Marketplace account, now comes the real deal! As you have successfully completed all the prerequisites to minting an NFT, you can now mint an NFT by uploading your creation to the marketplace. In your chosen NFT Marketplace, you will upload your unique asset and add all the information pertaining to your art/creation that will define your NFT.
This process will add your NFT to the blockchain where the proof will stay un-tampered forever. Below we have made a complete step-by-step process of minting NFTs on the OpenSea platform.
Step 1: Go to OpenSea and create a collection by clicking on the “Create” tab on the top-right corner.
Step 2: Hit on the “Create a new collection” option and add a logo, name, and description of your collection. Tap on “create” afterward.
Step 3: Tap on the “Add a new item” under your collection to mint an NFT.
Step 4: If you’re using a MetaMask wallet, then a pop-up notification to sign in will appear. Click on the pop-up to sign in.
Step 5: After signing in, tap under the “Create a new item” tab to mint your NFT.
Step 6: Once your unique asset is uploaded, add a name, external link, description, properties, etc of the uploaded asset. If you have something additional to add about your asset, then you can do that under the unlockable comment bar. If there’s nothing, then you simply slide the unlockable comment button to turn it off.
Step 8: Hit the “Create” button below after you’ve added all the necessary details.
Step 9: A pop-up sign-in will appear again if you’re using the MetaMask wallet. Click to sign in and then hit the create button again.
This is how you can mint your first NFT. Now, if you wish to sell your NFT, then you will have to hit on the “Sale” option on the top.
Also Read: Convincing Reasons Why You Should Invest In NFTs | The Future Is Here!!
5. Pay Gas
If you’re simply displaying your NFT on OpenSea, then you don’t have to pay anything. However, if you are planning to sell your minted NFT, then you have to pay a Gas fee which is the transaction fee for all the transactions that are carried on the Ethereum blockchain.
Moreover, you need to know that unless your NFT is bought by someone, your NFT isn’t successfully minted on OpenSea. OpenSea makes use of the process of “Lazy Minting” which means that unless someone buys your NFT, your NFT isn’t successfully minted. Thus, in short, to successfully mint an NFT on OpenSea, you need to post it for sale and pay a Gas fee.
Besides, for all the sales proceeds you will receive on the sale of your NFT, OpenSea will charge 2.5% as a commission fee. So practically, nothing is free! You need to pay a certain amount if you want to successfully mint your NFT and that goes for all notable NFT Marketplaces.
On a side note, we would recommend using Rarible if you do not want to pay while minting as it is a comparatively cost-effective platform than OpenSea. But the downside to Rarible is that it doesn’t receive as much traffic as OpenSea and that’s an important factor if you have listed your NFT for sale. No matter what NFT marketplace you choose, in the end, it all comes down to your unique NFT asset and your promoting strategy.
With a good promotion strategy, your NFT will be sold in a matter of seconds!
Wrapping Up
NFTs are providing creators and digital artists an opportunity to monetize their efforts. From 2020 to 2021, the market for NFTs has continued to grow and is continuously expanding where folks are rigorously creating a wide collection of NFTs to earn better.
With NFT arts being sold at astronomical prices, many traditional artists are now looking at the perks of going digital. If you’re one such artist or creator, then we hope you found this guide helpful.
Mint more NFTs and create a wide collection that makes a name in the list of most expensive NFTs ever sold. Good luck!
Featured Image Credits: The Crypto Town
