You could be the best digital artist in the world, but there’s an important process involved in turning your piece of art into an NFT on the blockchain. It’s called minting – you know, like this NFT is new and “fresh” on the blockchain. Ok, maybe not. 

Minting can sound like a complicated process, but it’s nothing to be intimidated by. You’ve already created the artwork, so the hardest part is done! We’re here to walk you through the rest!

1. Choose your marketplace

The first step in minting your NFT is choosing your marketplace. While OpenSea is the largest out there, it also means there’s lots of competition, meaning there’s hundreds of thousands of NFTs available, so it may be hard for yours to get discovered. Other options include Coinbase NFT, Mintable, Rarible, and SuperRare, to name a few.

The important thing to note here, is that every marketplace will have a slightly different minting process, although they are all fairly similar and therefore these steps still apply.

2. Create a wallet and add funds

For this section, checkout steps 1 and 2 from our “How TF Do You Buy NFTs?” article to set up your web3 wallet and purchase your first ETH.

One thing to note here: you must purchase a contract to operate on the Ethereum network. So, if you were to mint an NFT on OpenSea but have not yet made any transactions you will be charged an initial gas fee for listing your NFT. After that, it is free to mint and list NFTs on OpenSea.

Marketplaces often have transaction fees too – they have to have some way to get in on the action, of course. Transaction fees vary between marketplaces, but each should list them – this is something to consider when choosing where to list your creations. Transaction fees don’t apply to minting, but they do apply to the sale of NFTs. We didn’t want you having any costly surprises!

3. Connect your wallet

Now that you’ve got a wallet and an NFT that’s ready to hit the market, you’ll have to connect your wallet to the marketplace. On OpenSea, this can be done using a QR code scanner on your phone, or when creating an account it will prompt you to connect your wallet and follow with instructions. 

On OpenSea (and on the vast majority of marketplaces), you can create a profile complete with avatar, bio, and social links (or some combination of the sort) so you can tell the world just how special your creations are.

Get started by clicking “Create” or on the profile logo in the top right hand corner of OpenSea’s homepage. You will be prompted to connect your wallet, and once completed you can set up your profile details to your liking.

4. Mint your NFT

On most marketplaces there will be a “Create” option. On OpenSea this can be found in the top right corner of the page.

From here, you’ll be prompted to upload a file, for example, a JPEG or PNG in the case of graphic NFTs.

After uploading, you’ll be asked to provide a name and description for your artwork, as well as a link to your website (although this is not required).

You can also describe the rarity of certain qualities – for example, an alien CryptoPunk or a solid gold Ape from the BAYC.

Finish the minting process by clicking “Create” and voila! You have just minted your NFT! Congratulations.

Now, if you’d like to sell, click “Sell.”

This is where you’ll set your price, whether or not you’ll set a fixed price or sell based on an auction, as well as royalties. This way, as your NFT is sold and traded in the future you’ll receive royalties on the future sale of your creation (usually 5-10% is considered standard).

Once you’re ready to submit your artwork to the open market, you can click “Complete” or whichever option your marketplace has to complete the listing process. At this point, a transaction will be initiated on the blockchain which will likely open your wallet to request final approval. Remember, this will cost a fee for your first listing on OpenSea, but is a free feature afterward.

Once completed, your artwork will be available for sale to the public. Good luck, and keep creating!