How to create and sell your NFTs in India
NFT or non-fungible tokens are all the rage nowadays in the digital world. Especially after artist Mike Winkelmann, who goes by the name Beeple, sold his artwork, Everydays, for a whopping $69.1 million in March 2021 at Christie’s, a London-based auction house.
‘Everydays: the First 5,000 Days’, is a mosaic of every image that artist Mike Winkelmann, made since 2013. The artwork is attached to an NFT, a digital certificate of authenticity that runs on blockchain technology.
Nowadays it seems that the floodgates of NFTs are open and many geeks are fishing in the troubled waters and if lucky, are making thousands of dollars for seemingly artless digital creation.
So, some of you might be wondering about making some quick bucks from them. But how to actually create and sell an NFT? In this article, we’ll walk you through the nitty-gritty of the process.
You may have heard of people selling NFTs for thousands of dollars but they’re very much an exception. On top of that, even if you are able to make good money, in the end very little portion of that money may come to you, that’s because multiple fees are charged to NFT artists by the cryptocurrency companies that enable the transactions and other platforms that generate and maintain the NFTs. So, be careful what you wish for.
How NFTs are made in practice
If you are willing to take the risk? Then read on, as we list out the steps of actually navigating an NFT platform.
For better understanding, we’ve chosen to do this via the NFT platform Rarible and the cryptocurrency platform MetaMask, although there are many other providers to consider like WazirX launched their NFT marketplace in India a few days ago. So it works like any eCommerce marketplace, the more users, the more exposure your NFT gets.OpenSea, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, VIV3, BakerySwap, Axie Marketplace, and NFT ShowRoom are some other NFT platforms, whereas other payment platforms include Torus, Portis, WalletConnect, Coinbase, MyEtherWallet, and Fortmatic.
Following are the 8 step DIY process you need to follow to make and sell your NFT, or you can reach out to us and we’d be happy to assist you through the whole process:
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To begin with: Cryptocurrency required
One needs to pay a platform to ‘mint’ or generate an NFT. And most platforms want this paid in Ethereum, a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. To buy Ethereum, you first need to create a ‘digital wallet’ and then connect it to your NFT platform of choice. There are various digital wallet services, but for illustration, we’re going to use MetaMask.
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Creating a crypto digital wallet
Go to the MetaMask website and click on the blue ‘Download’ button in the top-right corner. The browser extension is also available if you are using a desktop computer otherwise you can do so using its mobile app. Next, you’ve to confirm that you wish to ‘create a new wallet and seed phrase’.
Say yes to that. Then it’s just a matter of agreeing to the terms, creating a password, working through some usual security questions, and you’ll have your account created.
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Adding your money to the wallet
A wallet without money in it is useless. You will need to add some ETH to your digital wallet. This bit is pretty simple: click on the ‘Buy’ button, and then select the option ‘Buy ETH with Wyre’. A new screen will pop where you can buy ETH with either Apple Pay or a debit card.
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Connecting your wallet to an NFT platform
ETH deposited in your wallet can be used to pay the necessary fee for using the NFT platform to mint yours. For illustrative purposes, we’ll use Rarible, although other NFT platforms are also available. Visit Rarible.com and in the right-hand corner of the screen, a button titled ‘Connect wallet’ will be visible. Click on it, and the subsequent screen will ask for your wallet provider.
A popup box will appear and will provide you the option to connect your MetaMask wallet with Rarible. Click on ‘Next’, then on ‘Connect’, and then accept the terms of service.
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Uploading your digital work
Finally! You’re now ready to create your NFT. First, click on the blue button titled ‘Create’ situated at the top right corner of Rarible.com. You’re then presented the options of creating a single, one-off work or selling the same file multiple times. We’ll choose ‘Single’.
You can now upload the digital file you want to turn into an NFT. On Rarible, this can be any of the following file-formats including, PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4, or MP3 file, and up to 30MB in size.
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Setting up an auction
In the next part, you are provided with three options to sell your NFT artwork.
Firstly, ‘Fixed price’ allows you to set a price and sell it to any suitable buyer immediately. Under ‘Unlimited Auction’, people can keep making bids until you accept one. Finally, under ‘Timed auction’, the auction takes place for a fixed time.
Now comes the important part: setting a minimum price. If you set your price too low, the enormous fees will eat up your profit and you may end up losing money overall. So a safer bet would be to set your price at an ambitious 1 ETH and give hopeful buyers seven days to make their bids.
Next, you get an option of ‘Unlock once purchased’. This gives you the opportunity to provide your prospective buyer with a full, high-resolution version of your art through a secret web page or download link. Below that lies an option on the form, titled ‘Choose Collection’, for the sake of convenience let the default option untouched, which in this case is ‘Rarible’.
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Describing the NFT
Next, you have to name your digital creation and add a description for your listing. You’ll need to spend some thought over it in order to attract its destined buyer and increase your chances of selling your NFT.
Then, you’re asked to provide what percentage of royalties you want to claim if any resale of your art is done in the future. Again, this is a tricky choice, as a higher percentage will fetch you more money per sale, but it will also deter people from reselling your art in the first place, as they’ll be likely to make less profit.
Finally, there’s an optional field related to adding your file’s properties, and then you’re nearly done.
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Paying the fee
Click ‘Create Item’, and you’re invited to connect with your wallet to pay the listing fee. If you don’t have sufficient funds in your wallet, just click the wallet icon in the top-right corner of the screen, and you’ll be given the option to add funds directly within Rarible.
Before you do so: be warned. The listing fee may seem low but this is only the beginning of the fees you’ll be charged.
Before you can go any further, you have to agree on a further fee to actually generate your NFT, which in our case would have been $42.99. Then if someone does buy your NFT, there’ll be a commission fee on that sale too, and a transaction fee will also be further added for transferring the money from the buyer’s wallet to your own. Rarible’s website isn’t very clear about these hidden fees.
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Exploring other NFT platforms
Each blockchain has its own NFT token standard, as well as wallet services and marketplaces that are compatible with it. If you make NFTs on the Binance Smart Chain, for example, you can only sell them on sites that accept Binance Smart Chain assets. As a result, you wouldn’t be able to sell them on an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace like OpenSea.
You can look into other NFT platforms besides Rarible because you already have Ethereum, the largest NFT ecosystem. Let’s look at how to make and sell NFT on another popular NFT platform, OpenSea.
On OpenSea, the world’s largest Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, this is how it works.
Click the “create” button. This will take you to a screen that asks you to connect your Ethereum-based wallet. Once you’ve entered your wallet password it will automatically connect your wallet with the OpenSea. You may have to digitally sign a message to show ownership of your Ethereum wallet. This doesn’t incur any fee.
Hover over “create” in the top right corner and select “my collections.” Then, click the blue “create” button. A popup will appear that will allow you to upload your artwork. You are then required to add a name and provide a description.
Now you will be required to add a banner image to represent your collection. This collection is akin to a folder in your computer, where you will keep multiple NFTs in it. You add this banner image to the page by clicking on the pencil icon in the top right corner.
Now, you’re ready to create your first NFT. Click on the “Add New Item” button and sign another message using your wallet for verification purposes.
You’ll arrive at a new webpage where you can upload your image, audio, GIF or 3D model, which you want to create NFT of.
When you’re done, click “create” at the bottom of the page and sign another message in your wallet to confirm the NFT’s creation. After that, the digital NFT will be added to your collection.
Our Verdict
Calculating the cost of making and selling your NFT is impossible due to the perplexing nature of blockchain technology, the wild fluctuations in cryptocurrencies, and the lack of transparency from the platforms themselves. So, to be honest, you’ll have to wait and see how much you’ll be charged in total. If it is your lucky day then your NFT could make your wallet heavy overnight, otherwise multiple transaction fees could make it lighter even quicker. So be prudent in dealing with NFTs as it appears for now to be a double-edged sword.
In case you find navigating through all these steps overwhelming then there is one more option to consider, reach out to us at internetshine.com and we’ll guide you through all the process for a minimal fee and save you the hassle of going through the technical jargon of the world of NFTs.
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