NFT Trading 101: How To Mint

Creating an NFT is as simple as uploading your files, inputting your collection’s description and making your profile, determining your royalties and completing your listing. If this sounds daunting, follow our five steps to get started.

Best app to create an NFT

There are plenty of platforms available when it comes to minting your NFTs.

Minting NFTs on OpenSea

When creators say that OpenSea is the best of all the NFT platforms, it’s hard to question them. The mammoth marketplace has shown mad growth during the NFT boom of 2021, going from barely known to the first name on people’s lips when it comes to NFTs. With it’s 1 million+ wallets created, so you're freshly minted NFT art is guaranteed to get eyeballs. People aren’t calling OpenSea the eBay for NFTs for nothing.

What’s more, OpenSea’s easy interface makes creating an NFT easier than setting up an Instagram profile. Just make sure you have an Ethereum wallet already setup (we’ll talk about these later), as it makes the process super smooth. The best way to familiarize yourself with OpenSea is to take a look, so have a browse.

Minting NFTs on Rarible

Although OpenSea is the leader in the space, there are other platforms that could breed success for your project too. Take Rarible, for instance— with its reliable services and community-driven platform, Rarible is a top place to mint your first NFT.

But why would you choose it over OpenSea? Well, although Raible is smaller, unlike OpenSea it offers users the opportunity to receive RARI tokens. RARI is earned by using the platform and can be used to curate content and vote on platform upgrades.

At the same time, Rarible is humble enough to know that OpenSea holds much of the market, so has introduced OpenSea integration. This means making sure that your listed NFTs can also be viewed on OpenSea, which is pretty cool. We’re all friends in the NFT space.

Minting on Magic Eden

Unlike OpenSea and Rarible, Magic Eden allows NFT creators to create on Solana. Solana has a high throughput, which means creators pay a lower fee (2%) across all NFT sales. This also lends itself to the kind of NFTs that you can create on Magic Eden, which is known for its in-game asset NFTs in the web3 gaming space.

Magic Eden is also favored for its built-in Launchpad, helping creators more easily mint, launch, and market their NFT projects.

Step-by-step: How to create an NFT

Follow this step-by-step guide on how to create and mint an NFT.

Step one: create your art

To create your NFT, the first thing you need to decide is the purpose and concept behind your work. This will dictate everything from the style it's created in and the buyers it’s marketed to.

Choosing your concept should be simple. Deep down, you know what you want to create and what message you want to send. Whether it’s for pure creative expression, fun and entertainment, or sending an ideological message, there are limitless opportunities when it comes to your concept.

Keep in mind, that the NFT projects that harbor the most success tend to be the ones that have a strong sense of community. To appeal to a community, the art usually carries a potent message.  A great example of an NFT project with an amazing purpose is the World of Women. When WoW launched in July 2021, its goal was to diversify the NFT space by attracting more women into it. Projects like these are the ones that create the most buzz and are likely to get noticed.

Once you have a strong sense of purpose, next you need to think about the NFT creation itself. What type of art do you want to create? What style would align best with the concept? There are multiple options for this, whether it’s photography, abstract, pixelated, or cartoon-styled. If you’re stuck for inspiration, it may be worth taking a look at previous successful projects.

Step two: choose where to mint your NFT

Once you know what kind of project you want to create, your next step is to choose a platform for your NFT to be minted on. NFT platforms are big marketplaces, a bit like Amazon or eBay, that allow your NFT to be seen and purchased by others. Some popular choices include OpenSea, Variable, and Magic Eden.

Step three: connect your wallet

Once you've chosen your platform, your next task is to connect your wallet. For OpenSea and Rarible, you need to use an Ethereum wallet such as MetaMask. You could also use Base App, WalletConnect, or Magic. It doesn’t really matter,  as long as ETH is supported.

Let’s say you chose MetaMask. Once you've downloaded the wallet, add the MetaMask extension to your Chrome browser, and return to your ETH-based NFT platform. You can use this wallet as a login, and it makes the process of minting (and even buying) NFTs really simple.

If you opt for Magic Eden, you’ll need to use a Solana wallet such as Solflare or Phantom. All of these wallets will connect to Solanart, allowing you to mint your first NFT on the platform. It’s the same principle, just different blockchain networks, and different digital wallets.

Step four: mint your NFT

Minting a token on the blockchain means including the information about the smart contract of the NFT and its metadata on a block in the blockchain.

Once you connect your wallet, you can go to a page that will allow you to set up the conditions of your NFT. For OpenSea, this means clicking ‘Create’ in the top right hand corner.

This is where you complete your listing. You can add details like the name of the project, the names of individual NFTs and of course, upload the NFT in whatever format it comes in (ex. JPEG, MP4).

Another detail you need to add is the royalty rate. This is the amount submitted within the smart contract that determines the percentage of sales you will take from further sales. The percentage for this is usually between 10-15%— but you get to decide.

So, to explain more clearly, let’s say you sell your NFT to its first buyer for $1,000. Then, further down the line, that owner goes and sells it for $1,200. Now, you’d get 10% from that sale ($120). This is how Larva Labs, the geniuses behind CryptoPunks, have made so much bank despite initially giving away the CryptoPunks for free in 2017.

Step five: share your NFT project

Congratulations, your NFT is minted! You can now show your friends, show your family, your parents (not that they’ll have a clue what you’re showing them)— and the rest of the NFT-loving world. Your project is up and running. You can now put ‘NFT creator’ on your X bio and act like you’re cool.

Now, when it comes to business, the next step is all about building a community. If your concept and purpose are in sync as we discussed before, this task becomes a whole lot easier. So let’s assume you’ve created your NFTs for a particular community. You know exactly who your project is for, who to market to, and therefore where to market to.

So get your hands dirty. Get in the X threads. Create a discord. Get yourself involved in the NFT community and contribute to conversations and parallel projects. Join forces with other projects, make friends, and attend events. An NFT project becomes a brand, and if you’re the face of it, you need to get people interested in that brand. Most NFTs are ‘just JPEGs’ at the end of the day, so if you want people to invest their hard-earned crypto into them, you need to connect with them in a very special way.

Right, now that we’ve got these steps covered, let’s jump into a few extra resources that you may find helpful before you begin.

Most platforms will charge a small fee to mint an NFT on their platform. However, this fee is next to nothing compared to the biggest expense when it comes to NFT minting: gas fees.

Do you pay gas fees to create an NFT?

Whenever you go to create your first NFT, you’ll have to pay gas fees. To create an NFT, you have to mint its token on the blockchain. As it requires you to interact with the blockchain, you’ll need to pay gas fees.

When minting, you only need to pay a gas fee on the first NFT you create. However, when purchasing NFTs, you need to pay a gas fee every time.

Gas prices fluctuate depending on how busy the Ethereum network is. The more congested it is, the more expensive the gas fees get.

This is why it is cheaper to make NFT on the Solana blockchain since there are next to no gas fees. The train seats are in less demand. The downside is that the market for SOL NFTs is nowhere near as big as the Ethereum NFT market.

The good news is that creating an NFT isn’t a taxable event. It’s only when you sell, swap, or sometimes gift the NFT that you’ll have a taxable event.

However, while you’re here, you might as well get to grips with the general tax rules surrounding NFTs. Loads of creators have been caught out, and the IRS has even claimed that people owed billions in NFT taxes. Get ahead of the game and know your stuff before you’re caught red-faced.