It seems like every day there’s a new thing on the internet – a craze everyone is raving about. If you’ve spent any time browsing the web recently, you may have heard of the latest craze: NFTs. Some talk about how these tokens are revolutionizing the digital arena to bridge the gap between digital and physical assets. Others hope their NFTs are enough to score them millions of dollars like other artists have made.
This one-of-a-kind, non-fungible token is a digital art piece that combines cryptocurrency with the art collection world. Maybe you’re an artist trying to make ends meet. Or perhaps you’re trying to score it big like Grimes, Beeple (AKA digital artist Mike Winkelmann).
Either way, if you create digital art, you may as well flex your style and jump into the NFT market to see if you can sell it and make some money.
Below is our guide to everything you need to know about selling your NFT to earn cash.
How to Mint an NFT
Minting your NFT refers to the process. The name comes from minting metal coins and putting them in circulation.
To make your NFT available to purchase, you first must mint your NFT tokens. Your digital artwork is represented as an NFT, so it can then be bought and traded in the market and digitally tracked as it is resold or collected again in the future.
Of course, the first step to minting your NFT is to create a digital asset in the first place. This is where your creativity comes in handy.
It can be anything from that Gucci Ghost to surrealist digital art like this. Either way, let your creativity soar to make an appealing art.
Perhaps the most exciting part of NFT is that there are so many different buyers. Like with any art, create something personal that resonates with you. If it resonates with you and if it’s personal, it will resonate with other buyers.
After creating the digital asset and creating a wallet, you must choose a trading platform.
You can mint your NFTs on multiple cryptocurrency platforms, such as Opensea, Superrare, and Rarible. Minting your NFT is how it becomes part of the blockchain.
When browsing what platforms you want to use, make sure to pay close attention to the number of fines each platform charges. Fines are how these platforms make most of their money, and they have a way of adding up if you don’t pay attention.
Some users express frustration in the number of fines; others lament that they have sold NFTs but actually lost money in the exchange due to heavy fines.
Three popular platforms to host your NFT are:
For more info, check out our article on the best NFT marketplaces.
How To Mint On OpenSea
Minting your items on the Opensea NFT marketplace is a simple process, and Opensea allows you to mint more than one NFT piece at once as part of a collection. To add a new collection, you must go to the “My Collections” page and hit the “Create” button.
After you click the “Create” button, you’ll go to a page where you can add new NFT pieces. Add a single item or a collection and fill in the required information such as name, logo, and description.
Make sure that you upload a high-quality representation of your art to entice buyers to purchase your piece. After you’re satisfied with the name, external links, description, and image, you can hit the “Create” button.
How To Mint On Superrare
Superrare boasts pretty impressive stats. Like, for instance, the fact that artists have earned a whopping total of 71 million dollars on their site. Or that they report 37 million in secondary sales and a 5,931% average resale value. With numbers like that, it’s easy to give Superrare a second look.
And they’ve raised quite the talk; having been featured in platforms like The New York Times, Vice, Forbes, and more, more and more digital creators are looking to Superrare as their next trading platform.
However, they only use vetted artists, so you need to have a pretty significant social media following in order to get approved for their space. If you’ve carved a name for yourself in the art or digital world, it’s worth applying to Superrare to see if you make the cut.
Their fees are relatively mild; the buyer pays a three percent transaction fee for every purchase. For primary sales, there is a 15% commission (creators receive 85%). For secondary sales, creators receive a 10% commission (aka royalty), providing passive revenue from an artwork if it continues to trade on the secondary market.
If you’re interested in using Superrare, the minting process is simple. First, you must make sure that you are accepted to Superrare’s platform first. There is a file limit – so make sure your piece fits within the file limit before trying to upload. You can use applications such as Final Cut Pro to compress the file down to an acceptable size.
Once you upload your image, you will fill out a series of questions, such as the year of creation, the name of the creator, the name of the piece, a description of the piece, relevant tags, and so forth. Fill out all of the questions and then click “issue token.”
You’ll have to confirm that the art piece is original and all of the information mentioned above is correct. You also must guarantee that the artwork posted will be displayed on Superrare only as the platform does not allow you to use the artwork on other platforms (whereas some do. Make sure to keep that in mind before uploading your artwork to the website.
There is a minting fee (which depends on the Ethereum gas price), and you’ll have to pay that once the piece is minted. Once the tokenization goes through, you should always check the market to double-check that your piece is online and on the market.
How To Mint On Rarible
Rarible is a popular, uninhibited NFT marketplace that allows users to create, buy and sell NFT without prior coding knowledge. So, if you’re interested in joining the current NFT craze, Rarible is a great way to get your feet wet in the NFT game.
To mint your piece of art on Rarible, the process is pretty much the same as using other platforms. It’s very simple, and the website will guide you through everything step by step.
First, you must either create a wallet or connect your wallet to Rarible. They work with a variety of wallets. You can choose between:
- Metamask
- Fortmatic
- Walletconnect
- Coinbase Wallet
- Myether Wallet
- Torus
If you don’t have any of these wallets, it’s pretty easy to create one. Choose your wallet and accept the connection. When you begin the minting process, Rarible gives you the option to mint single pieces or mint a collection. For more experienced digital artists, this is a great tool to use if you want to mint more than one piece at once.
Then, upload either the image, audio file, or whatever type of digital art piece you plan to mint. Fill in all of the information, such as the piece’s title, if you would like people the option to buy your work, description, royalties, and so forth.
Royalties are very important because many times, buyers will resell the piece. This way, you get a percentage of their sale. With Rarible, you get the option to put in what percentage of royalties you want to make. You can choose between 10%, 20%, and 30%. Keep in mind, the higher your royalty fee, the less money the seller will make, which may influence whether they purchase your piece in the first place.
After you fill out the form, you can create your item. Once you hit create, you will see how much Ethereum gas price you will have to pay. Again, the gas prices fluctuate based on what’s happening in the current market. You may want to do a quick Google search before you mint your piece to see if the gas price is reasonable. If it’s too high, you may want to consider waiting until the price drops a bit. To save money, you can pick a slower upload time.
Also, make sure there are enough funds in your wallet before you continue. You may have to add currency to your wallet if the price is too high when you mint your piece.
Once you’re happy with the above information, click confirm and sign the sell order. Check to make sure the funds have been taken from your account, and then make sure the piece is on the marketplace and you’re all set: you’ve officially minted a piece on Rarible!
How Much Does It Cost to Mint an NFT?
As mentioned previously, the process of minting depends on Ethereum gas prices. Ethereum comes from the Ethereum blockchain, where all NFT is held (platforms like Superrare are derivatives of Ethereum).
Additionally, different marketplaces charge different fines. On many marketplaces, the price to mint an NFT is free. Some, however, charge fees.
On OpenSea
Opensea does not charge a specific minting price. However, they do charge on transaction and auction prices. As of now, Opensea charges a 2.5% fee on the final sale price. They also charge initialization fees, which is a one-time process that costs about $50.
On SuperRare
Superrare does not charge specific minting fees, although you will still have to pay gas fees as well as Superrare’s own transactional fees. At SuperRare, you will have to pay 15.00% in gallery fees when you are the artist. We do not know of any other NFT platforms charging higher gallery fees than this. However, there are a few platforms that charge exactly that (15.00%). For secondary sales, the creator receives a 10% royalty per sale.
The buyer of an NFT also has to pay fees to Superrare. For the buyer, that fee is 3.00%. That 15% fee is certainly high as opposed to other NFT Marketplace.
However, Superrare attracts many buyers to their marketplace because they boast such high-caliber names and well-known NFT creators and artists. As a result, by hosting and minting your digital pieces on Superrare, you have a higher chance of attracting actual buyers who intend to spend some money on NFT.
On Rarible
Rarible does charge a service fee on both ends of any transaction called the listing fee. This fee is 2.5% for each sale (meaning both the buyer and the seller pay the fee). However, the seller can pay the entire fee to entice buyers, which will cost 5% of the final sale price.
Rarible then charges a transaction fee to mint a token once the buyer possesses the piece. It’s also worth noting that Rarible only accepts ETH. Only accepting ETHs means that if you don’t have ETH in your wallet, Rarible will make you cover the costs of converting the two cryptocurrencies.
How to Sell an NFT
Once you have uploaded and minted your NFT to the marketplace, the next step is to sell your NFT. When someone purchases your NFT, they typically will pay in either Ether and other ERC-20 tokens (the most cryptocurrencies you can sell your NFTs).
However, the specific type of crypto or Bitcoin depends on the marketplace where you host your NFT. Some platforms only support the token of the blockchain on which they were built. For example, VIV3 is a Flow blockchain marketplace and only accepts FLOW tokens.
For the most part, when you wish to sell your NFTS, you need to find the piece in your collection and then click the “sell” button. Once you do this, you can adjust the price of the piece, if you would like to sell it under an auction, and which kind of auction you’d like to use.
Additionally, most platforms will allow you to add on for royalties at this page, as well as which ERC-20 token you’d like once you sell your NFT. Again, it’s important to adjust for royalties; playing it right can create large passive income for long amounts of time. That’s why it’s so important to think of smart contracts when signing up for a platform.
Since each platform does this process a little differently, we’ll take you through Opensea, Rarible, and Superrare so you can get a better idea of how all these platforms do it.
OpenSea
Opensea has a pretty easy way to sell pieces through its website. To begin the selling process, click the button “sell” on the top right-hand corner. Then, choose the price and then the type of auction.
The type of auction is an important step: you can choose between an English auction and a Dutch auction. An English auction means that the highest bid wins at the end, whereas a Dutch auction means that the price of the piece will keep falling until someone buys it. For more information on the distinction between an English and a Dutch auction, read about it on Opensea’s website.
Once you have chosen which type of auction you would like to use, click on the button “post your listing.”
An important note during selling: during the auction, Opensea covers the gas price of the transaction unless you cancel the auction before the time has run out, in which case you must pay the gas price out of your pocket.
Rarible
To sell on Rarible, you must simply go through the process of minting. Once you’ve created the NFT, you can offer it to buyers, but you don’t have to. Many pieces of art on display on the site are currently “not for sale.”
Now your NFTs have been minted! Click the “…” button to list it on OpenSea. Go to OpenSea to set the price and the auction type for your NFTs. You can sell at a fixed or declining price. Or auction to the highest bidder. If you have a collection of NFTs, you can also group this one with others to sell. Connect your wallet, post your listing. Your NFT auction has been successfully launched!
You’ll earn the full purchase price of the NFT fewer service fees charged by the Rarible platform. If you choose to sell an NFT with commissions, you earn commissions when (or if) the NFT resells.
An important note during the selling process: you can adjust the price once your NFT is posted. To change the NFT to a lower price, you can do so at no cost. However, to increase the price, you must remove it and re-enter it with the new price on the Rarible market.
SuperRare
Superrare has a system that allows buyers to purchase your NFT in a multitude of ways. The most straightforward way is you can simply set your piece for auction. They have two types of auctions: reserved auctions and scheduled auctions.
The reserved public reserve price is set, which, when met, kicks off a 24-hour countdown timer to auction end, allowing other collectors to bid before the time is up. Reserve Auctions are suitable for when you’re not in a hurry to sell work but want to get at least a certain amount of money for it. Once the reserve price is set, there is no specific timeframe to meet it, but the timer kicks off when it is.
Specific start and end times are chosen in a Scheduled Auction, along with an optional starting price. The auction will start and end at approximately the specified times, whether or not any bids meet the starting price. Scheduled auctions are good for when you know you want to sell a piece during a specific time frame, as part of an event, or in order to make the auction an event of its own.
Additionally, buyers can also purchase your NFTs by making an offer – even if your piece is not under auction. That’s the only time they can make an offer as they cannot offer when your piece is in an auction. It’s good to know, though they can withdraw their offer at any time.
The third and final way to sell a piece is to simply list your piece as Buy Now. Buy Now purchases involve setting a list price for which people can purchase the artwork. If you have a price set, you can still receive and accept offers on the piece. Setting a price is a good idea if you don’t want to run a timed auction but know what price you’d like to get for an artwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about NFTs.
Can You Get Royalties from NFT?
It depends on the site that you host your NFT. When browsing platforms, you must make sure to make smart contracts when putting up your NFT – and that includes royalties.
Can You Make Money with NFT?
You can, but it’s a lot harder than you might think. Many cryptocurrency platforms charge fees; some users have warned that they had to pay more in fines than how much they made selling one of their NFTs.
How Much Does It Cost to Create an NFT?
It’s a bit of a weird question because, really, you’re creating your NFT independently on any site. Create your NFT for free. Minting your NFT (putting it on the Ethereum blockchain for it to be sold) varies in cost depending on which platform you host it on.
Many popular NFT wallets let you mint for either low prices or completely free. Others charge basic fees (about $70-$120) to get started.
However, during peak times, costs jack up quite a bit. Some users have reported seeing costs rise to $200-300. This increase is why it’s so important to really do your research and due diligence when searching for a new platform to mint your NFT in the first place.
What Is a Gas Fee?
To mint, or buy an NFT, you must pay for mining costs for the piece to go live on the Ethereum network. The mining costs are referred to as a “gas fee.” For the piece to be confirmed on the network, miners must compute and verify the transaction by solving complicated math problems.
Gas fee prices fluctuate based on how much traffic is happening on the blockchain, as well as how big your digital piece is. It’s always a bit of a gamble trying to predict the gas price at any given moment. So, if you’re looking to go easy with racking up charges on your credit card, you may want to wait until there’s as little traffic as possible; some people wait until early in the morning or very late at night to avoid heavy gas fees.
Some users get into the habit of keeping small amounts of ETH in their wallets at any given moment. This way, you’ll always have some on hand in case you need to update the price of your NFT in a hurry or if you want to list pieces for sale.
Knowing exactly how much you will have to spend on the ETH gas fee is a bit of a guessing game until the actual “gas bill” comes due. (Usually, there is a speed option. If you want your NFT minted quickly, it costs more, but you opt for the slower, more affordable option).
What NFTs Sell Best?
It’s hard to tell. That’s the kicker – you never know what artwork is going to sell. If we did, we’d all be millionaires. But, we can talk about what NFTs have sold the best in the past. For whatever reason, people have swiped up the market. Of course, it helps to have a big name.
For example, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold an autographed tweet for over two million.
How Do I Get My NFT Art Noticed?
There are lots of ways. Use social media platforms, partner with influencers, create teasers, get featured on the marketplace, or think of a creative way to tap into the market to generate buzz about your projects.
Where Can I Upload My NFT?
On any NFT marketplace! You can use the platforms we mentioned (Opensea, Rarible, Superrare), or you can use a different site as well.
Final Thoughts
There are lots of different options for selling NFTs. Whether you want to mint a meme, a piece of digital art, a creation inspired by a video game, or a creation from another muse, it may be worth uploading your NFT to a platform to see if your art can make you some cash.
Make sure to be aware of all fees from each platform before choosing which website to use. Of course, we believe that Opensea, Superrare, and Rarible are amongst the best in the current market, but make sure to do the research on your own to find the perfect fit for your NFT. You never know: you might just hit it big and earn tons of money for your art. After all, crazier things have happened on the internet.