How to Make an NFT: A Complete Beginner’s Guide 2023

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have firmly entered the global economy, becoming an integral part of the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, it is no surprise that many people are wondering how to create an NFT and then sell it at a good price.

In 2021, the NFT acronym became the most searched word on the internet, according to a Collins Dictionary report. The same year, renowned artist Beeple sold his painting ‘Everydays: the First 5000 Days’ as NFT for $69 million. This is not an isolated case but a stable pattern. According to IntoTheBlock, over the past year (by the end of summer 2023), the NFT market has more than tripled.

In fact, anyone can create an NFT since this doesn’t require special knowledge and significant investments — you don’t have to be Beeple to start making money with NFTs. So, where to begin? Just continue reading our article to find out!

How to Get Into NFT: What Is NFT?

To understand how to make an NFT, a picture or another digital object, you need to have at least a general idea of what non-fungible tokens are. These tokens are similar in their properties to any other cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin. The difference is that BTC and ETH number in the millions, and each NFT is unique — that’s why these tokens are called non-fungible. All NFTs exist in a single copy, but they are bought and sold like regular cryptocurrencies.

In fact, an NFT is a digital certificate that confirms the right to own a digital asset via a unique signature, which cannot be changed or forged. By owning an NFT, you own 100% of the asset and only lose ownership if you sell it. Now, to understand how to create NFT art, let’s delve a little into the terminology.

NFT Terminology Clarification

The process of creating an NFT online is called minting, which takes place on the blockchain, i.e., a distributed database that records and verifies transactions. Examples of blockchains are Ethereum, Polygon, or Binance Smart Chain. They are decentralized, independent, and cannot be hacked, but at the same time, all transaction data is open, although strictly anonymous.

NFT creation, in turn, takes place on NFT marketplaces. An NFT marketplace is a platform where everyone can list, buy, and sell non-fungible tokens. Most of the top NFT marketplaces, like OpenSea and Rarible, run on the Ethereum blockchain.

However, the tokens themselves are not stored on marketplaces — crypto wallets designed specifically for storing cryptocurrencies are used for this purpose. An example of a popular crypto wallet is MetaMask.

So, you create (mint) NFT on the marketplace, get a crypto wallet, and connect it to your account on the platform where you will sell your tokens. Most platforms allow users to create NFTs for free, but you will have to pay a gas fee for using blockchain resources. The size of fees always changes and depends on how actively a blockchain is used.

How to Create an NFT: Step #1 Choose a Digital Product

Which NFT is the most profitable to create for free? In fact, it’s a matter of your skills. If you draw, just sell digital art. If you write music, feel free to convert your compositions into NFT. Do you do 3D modeling? Make avatars or digital objects and mint non-fungible tokens from them. Anything that exists digitally can become an NFT.

The question is, how popular will your product be? As mentioned before, you don’t have to be Beeple to make money from your work. But your art should be attractive and unique. Just put your artworks on ArtStation and see user reactions.

Everydays: the First 5000 Days by Beeple

Therefore, the very first step is to decide what you will mint and sell. Your product should be interesting or useful. Continuing the topic of digital art, it first makes sense to advertise yourself on social networks to gather some regular audience so that people start talking about you, albeit in rather narrow circles for now.

The author’s popularity directly determines the value of NFTs. That is, the token will grow in value as your popularity grows.

Step #2 Set Up a Crypto Wallet

A non-fungible token, like any other token, needs to be stored somewhere — this is where crypto wallets come into play. There are quite a few of them, but we recommend using MetaMask wallets — it’s free and can be installed as a mobile app or as a browser extension. MetaMask is convenient and allows you to make cryptocurrency transfers in just a few clicks. In addition, MetaMask easily connects to popular NFT marketplaces.

Most importantly, MetaMask supports the storage of NFTs, but only those created on the Ethereum blockchain. Keep in mind that although the Ethereum blockchain is the most popular, other blockchains also allow the creation of non-fungible tokens. That is, make sure that your crypto wallet supports the blockchain format on which you will create your NFTs.

Step #3 Buy Crypto Through an Exchange

Once you’ve created a wallet, it’s time to buy some cryptocurrency so you can pay gas to mint your future NFTs. The best way to do this is to create an account with a reputable exchange.

If you’re wondering which crypto exchange to choose, you should definitely think about buying some crypto at Switchere. On our platform, you have an opportunity to buy all leading cryptocurrencies with fiat using any available payment method (Bank Card, SEPA, SOFORT, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and local Asian banks). Moreover, we offer some surprising bonuses! Users of our platform enjoy a 0% service fee for the first order.

Now that you have an account, you can log in and buy some crypto. For NFT minting, you need to buy Ethereum (ETH) or Solana (SOL) coins depending on which blockchain you want to mint. Once done, just transfer your coins to the wallet you set up in the previous step.

Step #4 Choose a Marketplace

So, you have decided on a product you will turn into NFT, registered a crypto wallet, and topped it up. Now you need to understand how to create and sell NFTs with the highest profit. The profit size depends, among other things, on the marketplace conditions. There are many popular and reliable marketplaces, such as OpenSea, Rarible, and Polygon. Just go to the official website of each platform and study the conditions for NFT authors.

In this example, we will make an NFT on OpenSea, one of the leading free platforms, which only works with digital images. Therefore, if you are about to digitize music or 3D objects, you will have to find an alternative. However, you can still fully use our guide since the minting process is technically the same for all marketplaces.

Step #5 Linking a Crypto Wallet and a Marketplace

There is no need to describe the registration process on the marketplace — just click ‘Register’ on the main screen and follow the instructions. In our example, we will link MetaMask and OpenSea:

- Install the MetaMask browser extension and sign in to your account.

- Sign in to your OpenSea account and click on the profile icon (top right of the screen).

- Select MetaMask from the list of wallets and follow the instructions.

Yes, it’s really simple, and the process is similar on other platforms. Important note: to create an NFT for free, you need to verify your account on a marketplace and a crypto wallet, which you will use to store your assets and pay for the platform’s services.

How to Make NFT Art: Step #6 Mint a Token

In our example, we are creating an NFT image. Again, you can convert any digital object into a non-fungible token. The minting algorithm will differ in technical nuances and marketplace interfaces — still, the general sequence of actions for all NFTs is the same.

Each NFT marketplace has a detailed guide. When you register for OpenSea, make sure to read the documentation on the website. In your Personal Account, find the form for uploading a file from a PC (for OpenSea, this is the ‘Create’ button in the upper right corner of the screen).

If you are thinking about how to make NFT art collection, just click ‘My Collections’ and then ‘Create Collection’ in the OpenSea profile. You can combine any number of uploaded images into a collection. Each image will be a separate NFT, but the token’s properties will indicate that it is part of a collection. In most cases, the value of collectible tokens is higher than that of independent NFTs.

When you click the ‘Create’ button, OpenSea will prompt you to upload the file and enter its description. Important note: the title and description cannot be changed in the future. Enter the price of your NFT and then choose whether it will be minted on Ethereum or Polygon. Other marketplaces may have a different list of available blockchains. Polygon is optimal for beginners since there is no gas fee on it, which means you create an NFT token for free.

When you enter all the data, carefully double-check them. If you are sure that everything is correct, just click the ‘Create’ button, wait a bit, and you will see a message that your NFT has been successfully created.

Step #7 Sell Your NFT

On OpenSea, everything is as simple as possible. When you create a token, it will appear in your profile list. Click on a token to open its card. The card has a ‘Sell’ button. Click on it to put the token up for auction. We mentioned above that when creating an NFT token, you can set its price. Still, it is not necessary to do this right away — when putting up NFT for sale, you will, in any case, need to enter or change the initial price.

Tokens on NFT marketplaces are sold in two ways through an auction or at a fixed price. The auction is considered more preferable — for example, this is how Beeple sells his artworks. In the case of an auction, you set the first bid, and then users place their bids. You must sell the token to the highest bidder within the allotted time. The sale will be carried out automatically, and funds in the user’s account are blocked when they make a bet. As a result of the sale, you will receive a payment in cryptocurrency (for example, in ETH) to your wallet, and the platform’s commotion fees will be charged.

If you’re looking for a detailed guide on how to sell NFTs on OpenSea, we already have one — here, you can find everything you need to know about creating NFTs on OpenSea, with lots of screenshots and detailed instructions.

Conclusion

Now you know how to make an NFT. Whether it’s a picture, a song, a GIF animation, or a digitized building, any digital object can be made a non-fungible token. It is convenient, practical, and safe. NFTs have already become an integral part of the metaverse, the global cryptocurrency market, and the entire IT industry.