How to Get Started Selling NFTs
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are digital assets that are either rare or unique. A fungible item is one that can be easily exchanged for commonly accepted equivalents. A $1 bill, for example, can be substituted for another $1 bill, four quarters, or a hundred pennies. NFTs can be unique objects, which means that only one of them will ever exist. They can also be rare, which means that only a limited number will ever exist. There is no restriction on what an NFT can represent. With NBA Top Shots, the NBA has used NFTs to represent video clips of highlights from basketball games.
NFTs can also be used to prove ownership of physical objects such as limited edition handbags. They can also provide a trail of ownership, or what is known in the art world as “provenance.” If NFTs can be linked to physical objects, they can also be linked to in-person experiences, such as access tickets to concerts or private performances. Future revenues from secondary sale transactions can be programmatically diverted to the original creator or “minter” of that NFT, which is a very powerful feature of NFTs. This means that even if an NFT is resold several times after the initial sale, the original creator will still receive revenue or royalties.
How to make and sell an NFT
These are the steps involved in using an NFT platform. For the sake of clarity, I’ve chosen to demonstrate this using the NFT platform Rarible and the cryptocurrency platform MetaMask. This is not an endorsement of either service, and there are other options to consider.
Other NFT platforms include OpenSea, VIV3, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, BakerySwap, Axie Marketplace, NFT ShowRoom, and payment platforms such as payment platforms Torus, Portis, WalletConnect, Coinbase, MyEtherWallet, and Fortmatic.
You will need cryptocurrency
The first thing to understand is that you’ll need to pay a platform to ‘mint’ (generate) an NFT. And most platforms expect this to be paid in Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the open-source blockchain platform Ethereum. The value of Ether can fluctuate dramatically like Bitcoin, another major cryptocurrency.
To purchase Ethereum, you must first create a ‘digital wallet,’ which you must then connect to your preferred NFT platform. There are numerous digital wallet services available, but for demonstration purposes, we’ll use MetaMask, which is available as both a browser extension and a mobile app.
Create a digital wallet
To make a digital wallet with MetaMask, visit the website and click the blue ‘Download’ button in the top-right corner.
Following that, you are asked to confirm that you want to ‘create a new wallet and seed phrase.’ It is not essential to understand what a ‘seed phrase’ is, but it is essentially a list of words storing blockchain information.
After that, all you have to do is agree to the terms, create a password, and go through some tedious security procedures to have an account.
Add money to wallet
Now that you have a MetaMask wallet, it’s time to fund it with ETH. This is a simple process: click the ‘Buy’ button, then select ‘Buy ETH with Wyre.’ You will then be directed to a screen where you can purchase ETH using either Apple Pay or a debit card. (Note: if you don’t want to part with any money right now, you can actually postpone this stage until later; it just takes a little more effort.)
Connect wallet to NFT platform
Other wallets operate similarly. Once you’ve deposited some ETH in whichever wallet you’ve chosen, it’s time to head to the NFT platform and spend some of it. Rarible will be used as an example, but as previously stated, other NFT platforms are available.
Go to Rarible.com and look for the ‘Connect wallet’ button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. When you click that, the next screen prompts you to enter your wallet provider, which in this case is MetaMask.
A popup box appears, allowing you to connect your wallet to Rarible. Click ‘Next,’ then ‘Connect,’ accept the terms of service, and confirm you are over the age of 13.
Upload your file
You are now ready to start working on your NFT. To begin, go to Rarible.com and click the blue ‘Create’ button in the upper right corner. You are then given the option of creating a one-time, one-off work or selling the same item multiple times. For explanation purposes, we’ll go with ‘Single.’
You can now upload the digital file that will be converted into an NFT. This can be a PNG, WEBP, GIF, MP4 or MP3 file up to 30MB in size on Rarible.
Set up an auction
You’ll need to choose how you want to sell your NFT artwork in the next section of the form. Here, you have three options. ‘Fixed price’ allows you to set a price and instantly sell it to someone. People continue to place bids in an ‘Unlimited auction’ until you accept one. Finally, a ‘Timed auction’ is an auction that only lasts a certain amount of time. That is the option we will use in our example.
The tricky part now is deciding on a starting price. If it is too low, the enormous fees will eat up your profit and may cause you to lose money.
The option to ‘Unlock once purchased’ appears next on the form. This allows you to provide your eventual buyer with a full, high-resolution version of your artwork, as well as additional material, via a secret web page or download link.
Below that is the form’s most puzzling option, titled ‘Choose Collection.’ This is a highly technical question about how the blockchain works. The default option here is ‘Rarible’.
Describe your NFT
Following that, you will be able to add a title and description to your listing. If you want to maximize your chances of selling your NFT, you’ll need to invest some time polishing this.
You are then asked to consider what percentage of royalties you want to claim on any future resale of your art. Again, this is a balancing act, as a higher percentage will net you more money per sale, but it will also discourage people from reselling your art in the first place because they will be less likely to make a profit.
Finally, there is an optional field where you can enter the properties of your file. And then you’re almost finished.
Pay the fee
When you click ‘Create Item,’ you will be prompted to connect with your wallet to pay the listing fee. Don’t worry if you don’t have enough money in your wallet: you won’t have to start over. Simply click on the wallet icon in the top-right corner of the screen, and you’ll be able to add funds directly within Rarible.
The listing fee may appear to be low. However, this is only the beginning of the fees you will face. Before you can proceed, you must agree to pay an additional fee to generate your NFT. Then, if someone buys your NFT, there will be a commission fee on the sale as well as a transaction fee for transferring the money from the buyer’s wallet to yours.
Conclusion
Before purchasing an NFT from one of the many NFT marketplaces, you must first set up and fund a crypto wallet. However, once you’ve completed that, you’ll have almost everything you need to mint and sell your own NFTs.
