If you’re starting to get into Web3, you might want to know how to create an NFT. With all the tech jargon surrounding crypto, it can be a little daunting. Initially, you need to have a few specific skills, such as how to create digital art, how to get a crypto wallet, best NFT marketplaces, and, lastly, how to market NFTs in general.
Whether you are a skilled artist or someone with no artistic abilities, if you wish to make your own NFT but don’t know where to begin, this guide is for you. Creating an NFT has never been so easy with this step-by-step guide. You too can be an incredible NFT creator!
What is an NFT?
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are unique digital assets representing digital or real-world objects, whose ownership is stored on a blockchain. Non-fungible, means non-interchangeable. These unique tokens cannot be copied, or destroyed. Furthermore, as ownership and transaction details are stored on the blockchain, anyone can easily verify the authenticity of a piece. If you want to know about the specifics, check out our guide on what an NFT is and how it works.
Now you’ve got an idea of what it is, let’s talk about why you should make one. Actually, there are lots of reasons why creating an NFT is a great idea for artists.
How To Create an NFT: A Step-by-Step Guide
Since NFTs are authenticated on the blockchain, digital artwork alone is not sufficient to create your NFT. Here’s what you’ll need to do to make an NFT:
1. Choose your type of NFT
When creating an NFT, first decide on the type of digital asset you want to tokenize. NFTs aren’t limited to just images or art. They can be anything digital – like photos, music, videos, and even virtual real estate.
In fact, any digital content, from sports clips to social media posts, can be turned into NFTs. If you’re an artist, creating digital artwork might be ideal. If you’re a musician, consider turning a song or album into an NFT.
Some creators even explore hybrid options, where an NFT represents ownership of a physical asset. For instance, selling a physical painting could come with an NFT to confirm its authenticity, giving the buyer exclusive ownership rights.
2. Choose the Right Blockchain
As mentioned before, blockchains are at the heart of NFTs. Thus, before you hop on the NFT bandwagon, it is crucial to understand the pros and cons of different blockchains.
Ethereum
The Ethereum blockchain, for instance, is home to the majority of NFT and DeFi projects and has been dominating the industry. However, due to higher network activity, the gas fees on the blockchain are much higher. Additionally, while Ethereum is the most secure (since it uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to validate transactions) and is more reliable, it has greater energy consumption and low scalability.
Polygon, meanwhile, is an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution that offers low gas fees, fast transactions, low energy consumption, and higher scalability. Immutable X is another layer-2 solution that offers scalability and gasless transactions.
Solana
Similarly, Solana is fast, scalable, and enables cheaper transactions as it uses Proof of History (PoH) to to confirm transactions. However, its main net is currently in beta and is less decentralized compared to Ethereum.
Flow
Like Ethereum, Flow operates via the PoS that supports NFTs. However, it is more easy to use and cheaper than Ethereum, with more eco-friendly, efficient workload distribution.
An important thing to note here is that each blockchain has its own token standard and only supports certain wallets and NFT marketplaces. For example, if you create your NFT art on a Solana blockchain, you won’t be able to sell it on marketplaces that do not support Solana.
3. Set up a crypto wallet
The first thing you need before you set out to create your NFT is a crypto wallet, where you will store your NFTs and cryptocurrencies. An important factor you have to keep in mind while choosing a crypto wallet is whether it is compatible with your NFTs and the NFT marketplace you will use to trade your NFTs.
Broadly, crypto/NFT wallets are classified into software or hardware wallets. While the former is a digital wallet and stores your NFTs online, hardware wallets are physical wallets that store NFTs offline, making them more secure. Some of the most common wallets are MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Enjin, and Coinbase Wallet.
If you want to explore further, you can check out our guide How to get a crypto wallet.
Buy crypto from an exchange
On most NFT marketplaces, you have to pay some “gas fees” to mint your NFTs. These are the fees paid to miners to process and validate transactions on the blockchain (Here’s when these gas fees are the cheapest). Thus, you need to buy some cryptocurrency from an exchange to cover this cost. However, make sure it corresponds with the blockchain and marketplace you will use.
Additionally, if you’re selling NFTs through Polygon, you may need to use a bridge. A bridge is a connection that enables the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another. It is a common mistake to send your crypto to the wrong address. If you do this, then your crypto is pretty much lost forever.
4. Choose a Marketplace
Now, you need an NFT platform that supports the blockchain that you choose. Here are some NFT platforms that allow you to mint NFTs:
OpenSea
OpenSea, the first peer-to-peer NFT marketplace, has the most mainstream following. It allows code-free minting, and is user-friendly, especially for newcomers. Here, you can sell your NFTs either via a fixed-price listing or an auction. For auctions, you can choose either of the two types: sell to the highest bidder or sell with a declining price.
LooksRare
LooksRare is currently the biggest competitor to OpenSea. The platform rose to fame after its airdrop for OpenSea users. Basically, depending on the volume of NFTs you have traded, you got a certain amount of LOOKS coins in your wallet. Users could then exchange the coins for ETH and take profits or stake it on the site for rewards that the platform gifts users on a daily basis.
In recent months, LooksRare has introduced some new attractive features. For example, they let you see the floor price for each individual trait. In addition, the platform has added a transfer function that warns users to delist NFTs. Plus, they integrated Etherscan chat.
Rarible
Rarible is another popular NFT platform. If you don’t use the lazy minting feature, then you will have to front the costs to mint. It allows code-free minting, offers a simple and attractive interface, and has good customer service. Here, you can ‘put it on sale’ to receive bids or set an ‘instant sale price’ where teach token is sold at a fixed price.
Solana
Solana NFTs are becoming increasingly popular these days. If your blockchain of choice is Solana, you can try fast-growing Solana NFT marketplaces like Solanart, Magic Eden, and SolSea. As opposed to Ethereum marketplaces, Solana allows you to mint and list NFTs at low costs and high transaction speeds. This gives your art a chance to succeed without the heavy transaction costs on Ethereum. Moreover, Magic Eden raised $27 million to challenge OpenSea.
If you want to know more in-depth, read our in-depth article on the top NFT marketplaces for buying and selling NFTs.
5. Create an NFT
Now you have the artwork and an NFT marketplace, you can actually make NFT. For simple NFT art, you don’t need any coding skills and can easily mint them on several NFT marketplaces. OpenSea and Rarible both support this feature.
Most marketplaces and generators have their own steps to mint NFTs but they tend to follow a similar theme:
- Make sure your marketplace supports the file format.
- Connect your wallet: Create an account on the marketplace and connect your crypto wallet to it.
- Create a smart contract by selecting the ‘Create’ option, then ‘Create a new collection’.
- Create the NFT: Upload the digital file with your artwork, give a name and description, and add properties and unlockable content (if applicable). Click ‘Create’ and you finish the NFT creation.
Different Ways to Mint An NFT
NFTs are “minted” onto the blockchain. Apart from the common method above, there are some other ways to do this. Each one is preferable for a different type of collection.
If you are minting a simple NFT collection, you might want to stick to a no-code minting method.
Lazy Minting
Marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible also offer the lazy minting feature, which is well-suited for creators. This means that you don’t mint the NFTs the moment you create them, as is the case normally. Instead, it is minted during purchase. This means that instead of you, the buyer pays the transaction fees.
Hire an NFT Developer
To mint NFTs you need to store something on the blockchain and that involves code. So, it might make you wonder: Do I need a developer?
Well, a developer is necessary if you want to make more complex generative art NFTs, like Cool Cats, Doodles, and World of Women. Perhaps you might have complex conditions on the purchase. Maybe you want to store your art on chain or create games or interactive communities! These will all require a developer’s help.
NFT Creators and Generators
NiftyKit is another great no-code way to launch NFT collections. This is a SaaS (Software as a service) platform, where you can mint directly on both Ethereum and Polygon. There are also plenty of other NFT creators and generators that can help you make something truly impressive.
6. Sell Your NFT
After the NFT creation, you can now sell your NFT by entering a price and click “sell.” Note that there could be a transaction fee to sign your crypto wallet, depending on which blockchain your NFT is on.
To learn more about how to sell NFTs, make sure you check out our detailed guide on selling NFTs.
How To Price Your NFT
For different blockchains, you have to pay different upfront costs. That means OG collections on expensive blockchains (like Rare Pepe on Bitcoin and CryptoPunks on Ethereum) tend to fetch high prices. While proof of stake blockchains are faster and cheaper, the cheap fees mean they are rife with bots. These kinds of blockchains include Polygon, Tezos, Solana, and Cardano.
If you create an NFT on one of these cheaper blockchains, you’ll have to price it accordingly. However, don’t expect that selling it cheap will help cut through all of the noise! Often, the safer option to sell anything at all is to drop on Ethereum.
Pricing NFTs by Rarity
The next factors to consider while pricing your NFT: rarity and scarcity. If it’s a 1/1 unique edition or comes in less supply, price it what you think it is worth! If it took you hours, let a collector pay you for it. Top artist XCOPY dropped 1/1 pieces fetching millions of dollars!
For 1:1 pieces of unique artwork, we would not recommend listing below 0.1ETH. Collectors are willing to pay much more and even for art from relatively unknown artists too!
Pricing NFTs by Benefits and Perks
Then, will you offer extra benefits for holders? Some good examples of benefits include membership, metaverse land, exclusive merch, and events. For these type of artworks, people are more than willing to pay incredible sums.
Some services also allow you to manage the utilities of a minted collection. One such service is Tropee. Tropee allows users to easily and simply give NFT collections utilities including physical utilities (like merch or events) and digital utilities like allowlists, raffles, one-to-ones, or exclusive content and more. The best news? You don’t need any tech expertise to use the intuitive platform – no code required.
Why you should create NFTs?
Firstly, you can guarantee royalties every time it’s sold on. In short, smart contract guarantee the correct percentage of money is sent to the correct party. That means, you can reap profits indefinitely. However, most marketplaces will still charge a small fee.
Secondly, unlike the traditional art market, you don’t have to rely on a third party. Instead of paying auction houses or art galleries a cut of the profit, you can do it on your own with a few clicks. Plus, galleries and auctions are extremely expensive. Making your art into an NFT gives you the liberty to decide how much money you make. Not only that, you also get access to buyers from across the globe.
We’re quickly realizing that pretty much anything can be an NFT! While this guide focuses on how to create NFT art, check out our guide on music NFTs. Beyond artwork, video highlights, memes, collectibles, gifs, and even a tweet and full-length feature films have become non-fungible tokens too.
FAQs
How much does it cost to create an NFT?
The cost to create an NFT varies based on the blockchain and marketplace you choose. Ethereum-based NFTs often come with high gas fees, which can range anywhere from $10 to $30 or more, depending on the blockchain’s activity.
On the other hand, some blockchains like Polygon or Solana offer much lower gas fees (around $1). Keep in mind that some platforms also charge for minting and listing your NFT, while others offer “lazy minting”, where you pay fees only after a sale.
Can I generate an NFT for free?
Yes, you can create an NFT for free by using lazy minting on platforms like OpenSea and Rarible. Lazy minting allows you to defer the gas fees, so the buyer covers the cost when they purchase your NFT. It’s an accessible option, especially if you’re just starting and don’t want upfront costs.
Is creating NFTs still profitable?
NFTs can be profitable, but it largely depends on factors like market trends, the uniqueness of your NFT, and your ability to attract buyers.
High-profile NFT artists and collections have made significant profits, while smaller creators may need to build a following first. With more people entering the NFT space, it’s competitive, but there’s still potential for creators who bring something unique to the market.
