NFTs are all the rage right now, with the space seeing volumes of up to $25 billion in 2021 alone. There are many ways to create and sell NFTs, and we are going to cover them in this post to get you started.
If you’re a newbie, you probably have a vague understanding of NFTs. NFTs are non-fungible tokens stored on the blockchain. NFTs have unique properties that identify them apart, meaning they cannot be exchanged for another due to their unique properties.
Fungible tokens on the other hand, can be exchanged for another based on their values. For example, when exchanging dollars for euros, you’re exchanging the tokens based on their value, meaning you don’t care what euro note you’ll receive as long as it’s of the right value, going by the exchange rate.
With the explosion of NFTs, many platforms have emerged to support the ecosystem. Before creating the NFT, you’ll have to decide on the type. An NFT can be in the form of:
● Digital Art
● Physical Art
● Virtual Land
● Game characters
● Video
● Music
● Domain Name
● Collectibles represent real-world items.
● Domain Name
● A tweet
The list is endless. As long as you can store your NFT on the blockchain, it can be sold.
The most popular NFTs are art NFTs. These can be 2D art, 3D art, or physical art pieces.
The most popular NFTs are art collections. Popular examples include Bored Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Punks, which have seen millions of sales since their inception.
Other creators have also made millions selling pieces of their art. A good example is Beeple, who sold his art, “Everydays — the First 5000 Days” at a Christie’s auction for $69 million.
So let’s get down to it. How can you make art?
If you’re an artist, you can draw your art the manual way on a canvas and either scan it or trace over it in a drawing software to convert it to digital art and sell it as an NFT.
You can also sell your physical art as NFTs by using digital objects like cards or other representative items as a placeholder in marketplaces or websites, then shipping the physical art to the buyers.
Most NFTs are digital art created using software like Photoshop, Krita, Clip studio, and many others. If you’re an artist transitioning to digital art, tutorials for these software are available all over the web.
These software are also beginner-friendly for newbies trying to learn digital art. Tutorials can be found on platforms like YouTube, Udemy, Skillshare, and on the software through the inbuilt tutorials.
Another type of art that features NFTs is 3D art. These are created with software like Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, 3DS Max Design, and others. Tutorials for these are also available all over the web.
If you already have skills in creating art, the next section covers how to turn your creation into an NFT.
Most NFTs are 2D art created into PFP collections. PFP collections involve thousands or hundreds of images shuffled algorithmically to generate unique art pieces. They are usually created using a base layer and different attributes shuffled to create unique variations.
3D NFTs are also catching up in space. These collections are shuffled just like 2D art to create variations from a base design.
The first step in selling your NFT is creating a wallet. Depending on the chain you’ll be using, you’ll have to get specific wallets.
The table below lists the most popular chains and corresponding suitable wallets.
Blockchains(Chains)
Wallet
Ethereum: Metamask, Coinbase
Polygon: Metamask, Coinbase
Solana: Phantom, Solflare
Cardano: Daedalus, Yoroi, Coinbase
● Note down on paper the seed phrase to aid in recovery, in case you lose access to your wallet.
● Don’t share the private keys.
● Don’t connect your wallet to random sites.
● Spread valuable assets in separate addresses or on a hardware wallet.
For more security tips in the NFT space, check out our comprehensive post here.
Listing on marketplaces is pretty easy if you want to sell a few pieces of your art. Popular marketplaces like Opensea, Rarible, and LooksRare, have made it as simple as setting up a typical social media account.
While the sites may feature different user interfaces, the summary of listing your NFT includes:
● Creating the name of your NFT.
● Setting links to external URLs featuring more information about the NFT, e.g., a website.
● Description — What is the NFT about? Is there a story behind it?
● Inputting NFT attributes.
● Setting the total supply (the number of times it can be purchased).
● Choosing the Blockchain — where the proof of creation, purchase, and ownership will be stored.
● Uploading the NFT.
● Setting the Price. Most marketplaces allow you to set a fixed price and a timed auction. Potential buyers can also make offers on your art.
You can also sell NFTs through a personal website. But you’ll have to figure out how to drive traffic to the site.
To add blockchain functionalities like wallet connection and minting, you will have to hire an NFT smart contract developer on Upwork or Fiverr to install them for you.
If you wish to launch an NFT collection made up of thousands of art, you will have to create the base for the character, followed by the attributes, then use a program to generate variations.
For example, if you were drawing art of a male character. You will have to start with the base layer, which is the naked body. You can progress from there by creating attributes such as different shirts, trousers, shoes, glasses, and chains. Attributes can be customized further to include types of smiles, pose, etc.
If you don’t know how to draw, you can either learn through YouTube tutorials or buy artwork from marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork.
You will then have to get a smart contract to store the NFTs and manage the minting (buying process). There are also different smart contracts depending on the chain. Ethereum and Polygon use Solidity smart contracts, while a chain like Solana uses Rust on their smart contracts.
To sell NFTs, most collections rely on DApps (decentralized applications) linked to the smart contract. They allow users to visit the site and purchase their NFT. DApps are usually included in the NFT collection website or linked through a landing page.
Again, you will need a dev to set this up if you’re not a coder or learning how to code with online tutorials.
The next step would be to upload the art variations to IPFS or Pinata. These are decentralized storage services that store your NFT by dividing them into blocks and distributing them across different nodes. That way, your NFTs will be accessible if one or several nodes go down.
OpenSea, Metamask, and other NFT platforms rely on services like IPFS to retrieve the artwork and display it on their platforms.
You will need to hire a dev to set up a smart contract and handle IPFS integration for you.
For your PFP collection to be successful, you have to promote your NFTs to increase awareness. One way to do this is by submitting your NFT collection to us. We offer free access to over 200,000 users a month on our website and many more on our social media pages such as Twitter, Instagram, and Discord.
You can also promote your collection by creating a collection page on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, NFT Calendar, etc.
Other ways include looking for influencers like YouTubers and Twitter users with huge followings in the NFT space.
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