How to Mint NFTs

The latest development in internet culture, especially for Web 3, makes it possible for photographers, poets, artistes and other creators to put out their expert pieces and get a reward for them. This is done through NFTs as it provides unique, irreplaceable ownership of digital assets like art and music among others, thus leaving artists to earn millions from music, collectibles, and designs.

Non-fungible tokens, popularly called NFTs are a technology through which artists and general creatives can own their work and determine their royalties. The NFT era started with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and other NFT 1.0 projects that were mere pictures on the blockchain technology. However, like every other form of technology, NFTs are being upgraded to better versions and news has it that the next version of NFTs (2.0) is in the works.

NFTs are fast becoming an irreplaceable part of the blockchain technology. But as it’s a blossoming industry, even founders admit to the fact that you have to remain in the midst of a learning curve to stay updated with NFTs and how they work. This is because it is a big thing that would likely remain relevant in the next ten years. That said, how exactly can you own NFTs? What steps do you need to take to mint NFTs?

Anyone can mint NFTs, but you can only do that on NFT marketplaces. These marketplaces include OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare among others. Many of these marketplaces are built on the Ethereum network, so you must have its native currency Ether and a wallet compatible with the Ethereum network. Each marketplace also has a different process to mint NFTs. However, most of the steps mentioned below are generally applicable to them with the only difference in the fees they charge.  

Here’s a step-by-step and practical guide on how to mint NFTs

1. Choose a Concept

Starting a business needs proper market research and analysis. It is also necessary to re-examine the product or service which such business hopes to sell and compare this with the possibility of acceptance by potential customers. In the same way, you have to selectively choose a concept through which you can express yourself and mint NFTs on the blockchain technology. To do this you have to create a unique name and theme for your NFT collection. This could be in line with general art topics like peace and revolution, childhood, alien activities and political illustrations among others. After you have creatively selected a concept for your NFT collection, you can then begin to work on going live.

2. Get a Crypto Exchange account and Wallet

If you don’t have an account with a crypto exchange, then you will need to sign up for one based on the blockchain technology used by your desired platform. Most platforms use Ethereum and so you simply need to open an exchange account. A crypto wallet is also essential if you want to buy or sell NFTs in any NFT marketplace. The most popular crypto wallet used with OpenSea, for example, is Metamask which is an easy to set up browser plugin. You can download the wallet plugin from the Metamask website and use the wallet to directly buy Ether from it. Once you have set up your wallet and exchange, you need to send Ether from your exchange to your wallet. All exchanges have the option to send crypto to a wallet with a public address and you will be able to see your wallet's public address when you open your wallet plugin on the browser.

3. Choose a Platform

Many people think that you need some extraordinary tech skills to mint NFTs. While this is not completely true at the basics, many platforms like OpenSea and Rarible have made it easy for any creative to mint NFTs with little or no knowledge about technology. Creativity in itself is enough brain work and putting the knowledge of tech as a condition to earn from creativity may be a barrier. That is why these platforms have introduced a sort of fun way to ease your entry into minting NFTs. For most of them, once you have opened your wallet, you simply need to go to the website of the platform and click on the profile option. You will see an option to connect your wallet with the marketplace. After connecting your wallet, you will have an unnamed profile and will need to enter your email address and a username to verify your account. After verifying, you will be set to mint an NFT. A few beginner-friendly platforms where first-time creators can mint NFTs include:

• OpenSea: Built on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, OpenSea is popular and easy to use for all types of NFTs. Although the Ethereum blockchain is notorious for charging high service fees popularly called “gas”, OpenSea has a lazy mint option where creators can upload their artwork, mint it to their profile and list it for sale without paying gas fees. When the collector buys it, they pay the gas fees and these creator fees amount to about 2.5% of your sale. To get started on OpenSea, you simply need an ETH wallet (e.g. MetaMask, Coinbase or dozens of others).
• Rarible: Rarible is built on the Ethereum, Flow and Tezos blockchains. Creators use Rarible to mint NFT creations, whether they are books, music albums, digital art or movies. Rarible has fun features such as the ability to show a “sneak peek” of your creation to everybody who comes to Rarible but limit the full project to purchasers only. Rarible also considers itself a community-owned NFT marketplace and using Rarible’s unique token (ERC-20 RARI), you become an owner of the Rarible project. To mint NFTs on Rarible, you need a wallet compatible with your choice of blockchain. The creator fees on Rarible also vary depending on the blockchain you use, but you can choose to continue your free minting.
• Objkt: Popular among literary NFT creators and created using the Tezos Blockchain technology, Objkt originally functioned as a secondary marketplace by allowing artists and creators to mint directly on its platform.. To use Objkt, you need a compatible wallet and you can choose from Spire, Temple Wallet, Galleon, Kukai Wallet, Umami or the AirGap Wallet. Also, the creator fee is capped at 2.5% for all successful sales.
• Holaplex: This operates on the Solana Blockchain. The Solana network has mixed reviews from Ethereum loyalists while artists and creators report that it is fast, has high performance and is cost-effective with negligible fees (creator fees can fluctuate but are really low for about 0.000005 SOL to $0.00025 per transaction). Solana’s speed and efficiency also cuts down on energy usage, therefore giving it a reputation as a new, less environmentally damaging alternative to Ethereum. To mint NFTs on Holaplex, you need a Phantom wallet and Arconnect Wallet.
  

4. Connect and build Community

Every business needs community and marketing to sell. You must have a target audience and that is best built as a community. To successfully mint and sell NFTs, you must be ready to connect, network, and grow a community of collection lovers. You can do this by joining active Twitter communities and signing up on Discord, a Slack-like chat platform for crypto lovers. Through these communities, you can build authentic relationships and so, when you’re ready to sell your NFTs, expect your community to be your number-one marketing resource. An advantage of these communities is that you wouldn’t need to spend a lot of money on marketing tactics to create a successful project. Regardless of how low or high the market is, a community is every ready and enthusiastic about any product.

5. Create your art

Every creator has their own process. While it is true that you cannot put a price tag on creativity because it is relative, you must also consider how your art will translate digitally. To create your art, you may use materials and tools you already have or decide to invest in new technology. You can also search for other creators and learn from them. While doing these, consider the audience you think will like your work and keep them in mind as you create. You must also decide whether you want your NFTs to have visual, audio or written components – or all three and then choose a file type – OpenSea for instance, accepts JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB and GLTF. Another thing you need to consider is the file size and accessibility. OpenSea’s file limit is 100MB and for accessibility, you can give your art pieces subtitles so that your reach will not be limited by language, including people with visual and/or hearing impairments.

6. Mint and Share

To mint NFTs on any platform, simply look for the create button. You will be redirected to a page where you need to upload your NFT. Before uploading, ensure that the NFT you are minting is in a file format which is allowed on the marketplace site (PNG, JPG, GIF and other acceptable file formats as mentioned above). After naming your NFT and uploading it, scroll down and click on the create option. Your NFT will then be on the marketplace, but you still need to list it for sale.

In OpenSea, the minting process is easy. You simply need to upload your files, input your collection’s description and complete your profile, determining your royalties (for later, when your art is sold in a secondary marketplace) and completing your listing. You can choose to mint your NFT on Polygon, which has no fees and immediately you do, it appears on your profile. It appears on your profile because blockchain data is public and accessible by anyone so this means that your NFT's buying and selling history will be available forever, helping you and prospective investors track its price. Usually, Etherscan is where you can see all the transactions (coming in or going out) that have happened in the Ethereum blockchain. The fact that everybody has access to these public records is what allows blockchains to operate without a central authority or bank. However, if you don’t want everyone to know how much money you have and other details of your transactions, you may use pseudonyms or create multiple wallets (this is totally legal in the blockchain world.)

7. Selling your NFT

After minting, you can list your NFT for sale. On the NFT page, you will see the option to sell and when you click on it, you will be redirected to a page where you will find the option to auction your NFT or sell it for a fixed price as desired. You can then complete listing to finish the process. Before the NFT is listed for sale, the platform will ask you to initialise your wallet. Finally, you need to confirm the selling price through the wallet. That done, you should wait for orders to start rolling in by leveraging the community you have built.

Conclusion

As artists and other creators gain unique, irreplaceable ownership of digital assets like art and music among other things, while earning millions from music, collectibles, and designs, it is the bet to say that NFTs have come to stay. While we hope for the improvements in new versions of the NFTs, it is safe for creators who choose to digitize their art to explore the benefits of the NFT reward cycle by minting today.