How to Create, Sell, and Buy NFTs: Our Detailed Guide

There’s no doubt that non-fungible tokens have become omnipresent. We can see how the new trend is penetrating multiple spheres and exerting a special influence on the sports, gaming, and art industries. These days, celebrities and top companies the world over are joining the NFT boom, tokenizing and selling their unique collectibles and memorable moments. Paris Hilton, Shawn Mendes, and Lindsy Lohan are just some of the stars who have hopped on the bandwagon.

According to one NFT report, the NFT market increased by approximately 300% in 2020, and it’s almost certain that in 2021 the numbers will be even bigger as NFTs continue to explode in popularity and draw more participants.

If you feel like jumping on the NFT bandwagon too, we will gladly help you with that. This time we will share how to create, buy, and sell NFTs to make sure you’re on the winning side and will get the most out of your NFT campaign.

Or, in case you wish to go the extra mile and be ahead of the game, watch this video about NFT marketplace development. You will find out why it is a good idea to create your own NFT platform and what the entire development process looks like.

What is an NFT? Yes, once again

You may have come across an explanation of NFTs in the news or social media a thousand times (a big hello to the TikTok generation), and in all probability, you’ve learned it by heart. But practice makes perfect — so let’s solidify that knowledge once again.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable digital asset created on the blockchain. It represents real-world objects like art, music, virtual lands, collectibles, videos, GIFs, images, and in-game items.

NFTs are a ground-breaking notion in the crypto space. They enable artists and content creators to easily monetize their works, without having to rely on galleries and auction houses. This means that artists no longer need to turn to intermediaries to sell their wares. Instead, they have the ability to sell them directly to the consumer in the form of an NFT and get paid for what belongs to them.

As far as NFT buyers/owners are concerned, what’s noteworthy is that they can enjoy the uniqueness of the acquired NFT. Plus, given that non-fungible tokens are based on the blockchain, it’s possible to track their entire history. This provides better transparency as well as provenance and verification of their authenticity.

Whether you like it or not, NFTs are here and they are here to stay. So instead of grumbling and nagging, perhaps it would be wiser to come up with your own idea of what to tokenize 😉

What to consider before creating NFTs

You might be surprised to learn that the process of creating an NFT is rather straightforward and doesn’t require particular skills or extensive expertise — literally anyone is able to successfully launch an NFT campaign.

Before that, though, you will have to give due consideration to some points.

First of all, you are required to choose the blockchain that you will use for issuing your NFTs. These days, the number of blockchains used in NFT campaigns is abundant. Apart from Ethereum — the leading one — you can consider many other options such as Flow, Tron, Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, Cosmos, EOS, Tezos, and WAX. Take into account that each of them possesses its own token standard, compatible marketplaces, and wallet services. So, if you create an NFT on Flow, for instance, you will be able to sell it only on platforms that provide support for Flow’s assets.

As well as this, it’s important to bear in mind gas fees. The majority of marketplaces support NFTs that operate on the Ethereum blockchain. Consequently, the increasing popularity of Ethereum is resulting in higher gas fees.

There is a viable solution to this, though: you’ll be better off if you select the less (or least) active times of the week. It’s been established that on average the best time to submit transactions and thereby save on Ethereum gas fees is between 2 pm and 8 pm NYC time.

There is one more tip we are eager to share with you. If you are going to mint your NFT art on the Ethereum blockchain, for instance, you will need to choose a suitable wallet that will provide support to Ethereum-based assets and be compatible with ERC-721 standards. Currently, the most notable wallets are MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase.

How to create NFTs

These days, you can come across multiple NFT marketplaces that will help you create your NFT art pieces and join the big game. As of today, the leading and most widely-used of these are OpenSea, Rarible, Mintable, Foundation, KnownOrigin, AtomicMarket, BakerySwap, Portion, Nifty Gateway, and NBA Top Shot.

In this particular article, we will look into how to create, sell, and buy NFTs on OpenSea so that you have a good understanding of what the process looks like here.

Spoiler alert: it’s a cinch.

Now let’s check out the sequence of steps needed to successfully launch your NFTs.

NB! All the screenshots in the article have been taken from the official OpenSea website

• Once you have set up an OpenSea account, go to your profile and choose “My Collections”. Note that if this is your first ever listing on OpenSea you will be asked to pay gas fees associated with the setup of your account.

• Choose “Create a Collection” to launch a new collection. NB! When you have created several collections, you will be able to view them here too.

• Provide a collection name and description and upload an image logo. It is always possible to update these details since you are not making NFTs at this point.

• Now that you have created your collection, you can get down to adding items to it. Select “Add Items”. You can use a host of formats for NFT art works, including images, audio, videos, and even 3D models. Remember that you’ll have to consider crucial parameters such as accepted NFT file formats and sizes. The maximum file size is 40MB, though the platform’s admins recommend keeping it to 20MB to ensure faster load times.

 

• If you wish to update your banner image, you should choose the pencil icon in the top right corner. Given that your banner will look different on different devices, try to make sure that the dimensions are around 1400 x 400 pixels. As well as this, it’s best to avoid any text.

• Once you have uploaded your NFT files, you can also decide on a category for your collection. This will be helpful for other platform users to search for your file on OpenSea. It’s also necessary to provide social media links to your project. You can include links to the following resources: your personal website, Discord, Twitter, Instagram, Medium, and Telegram.

• When you are done with all these fields, you can decide on the percentage for royalties. To do this, go to “My Collection” and specify the percentage — it is possible to set a fee up to 10%. Then provide the payout address where you wish to receive those fees. The OpenSea platform cannot split royalties to multiple addresses.

As you can see, the process of NFT art creation on OpenSea is quite simple. And it is not only OpenSea that allows for effortless NFT creation. Many other NFT marketplaces such as Rarible and Mintable also enable users to smoothly engage in the NFT-making process and get their campaigns up and running.

The moral? Don’t be afraid of creating and listing your NFTs on marketplaces — it’s as easy as one-two-three.

How to sell NFTs

No matter which marketplace you use for selling your NFTs, you will be better off if you follow some handy tips that will ensure smooth sailing. We suggest looking at the strategies that have been followed by experienced digital artists. They will give you some insights into how to promote your digital NFT artworks on NFT marketplaces and make them more visible.

Check them out!

1. 1. Post the info about your NFT on Twitter and Instagram. These are particularly good platforms for showcasing your NFT artwork and allowing users to share their feedback about your NFT. Plus, thanks to the Retweet functionality in Twitter, it is possible to help create a robust community and network of artists who can interact and promote each other.
2. 2. Use appropriate hashtags. You can increase your chances of being noticed by collectors and other artists by using appropriate hashtags. Currently, the most widely used hashtags include #nft #nftart #nftartist #nfts #nftcollector #nftcommunity #cryptoart #cryptoartist #nftphotography #nftanimation #nftvideo #digitalart.
3. 3. Share your digital works via Discord and Reddit. Apart from simply chatting, Discord provides professional features such as sharing and storing different materials and documents. Plus, you can join different crypto galleries that have their own chat rooms with restricted access. The biggest content aggregator, Reddit, has special artist community threads like reddit.com/r/CryptoArt with almost 8 million users — so you can share your NFT artworks here too.

Right, you’ve got it.

Now we’ll delve into how to sell NFTs, again usingOpenSea as an example.

• To sell your NFT, you will need to click on your profile image in the top right corner and choose “My Profile”. Then select the NFT that you want to sell from your wallet.

• Click on the “Sell” button in the top right corner.

• After that, you will be asked to specify the price and type of auction as well as other parameters. Once you have fulfilled these steps, select “Post Your Listing”.

• The final step is to confirm your listing. The platform warns that if you have never conducted transactions on OpenSea before, you will have to initialize your wallet. Also, if the listed item was minted via a custom contract, you might need additional approval that will enable OpenSea to trade the NFT on your behalf.

To date, Ether and ERC-20 tokens remain the most popular cryptos you can sell your NFTs for. However, some platforms support only the native tokens of the blockchain that they have been built on. So, for instance, the Flow-based VIV3 marketplace accepts only FLOW tokens.

After successful completion of the steps outlined above, you are ready to sell your NFTs.

How to buy NFTs

If you’ve set your sights on acquiring NFTs, you’re strongly advised to take into consideration the following points before venturing into NFT purchase:

• The marketplace where you will buy NFTs from
• The type of wallet you need to download and connect with the chosen marketplace
• The crypto that you will have to fund your wallet with to complete the transaction.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

• Buy the corresponding supported digital cryptocurrency from a crypto exchange and fund the wallet
• Look through the chosen marketplace listings and select the NFT that you wish to obtain
• Take part in the auction/bidding process of the selected token. Note that the NFT being auctioned is awarded to the highest bidder. What’s more, on OpenSea, for example, the ongoing bid must be at least 5% higher than the previous one.

Now let’s find out how to buy NFTs on OpenSea.

Here, you can buy NFTs at auctions and for a fixed price.

Let’s explore how to buy NFTs for a fixed price.

• First, select the “Buy Now” button and follow the instructions provided in your wallet. When the transaction has been completed, the NFT item will automatically be transferred to your wallet and its seller will receive the funds. Bear in mind that apart from the actual NFT price you will also have to pay transaction fees.

• To view the NFT in your wallet, go back to your profile and choose the “In Wallet” button on the left.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! It only takes a couple of clicks to buy an NFT and become an owner of the desired artwork.

Common NFT scams to be aware of

NFTs are taking the crypto world by storm, enabling literally anyone to become a game-changer.

However, it’s not all rosy. In the tech world, with every innovation comes the possibility of fraud. And unfortunately, NFTs are no exception.

The crypto space has been dealing with scams for years already and with the advent of NFTs, wrongdoers found a new loophole for their skulduggery. Being a new and underexplored trend, NFTs have become the target of a number of scams.

Below we provide an overview of the most common NFT scams that you need to know about when creating, selling, and buying NFTs.

Artist impersonation

Artist impersonation has been the most prevalent scam so far. It refers to the situation where someone steals a work from a digital artist and presents it as their own. Scam artists normally sell popular NFT artworks at a low price and manage to take in credulous fans.

A good example of this is the recent Banksy scam where the buyer paid more than $300,000 in ETH for a fake Banksy NFT (luckily, the hacker returned all the money to the collector ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to check if the artist you are buying from or the artwork itself is verified. This is possible to do with the help of special NFT provenance platforms.

Phony storefronts

Multiple fake storefronts have become a widespread thing in the NFT space. Their URLs usually look the same as those of the original stores. On top of that, the site itself is almost identical to the normal one. Wrongdoers might thereby trick you into buying a fake NFT or granting them your private key.

Watch out for suspicious URLs and the way in which you are directed to the website. Additionally, if you have run into a fake storefront, report it immediately.

Fake giveaways/airdrops

Crypto has always been a magnet for fake airdrops. Thousands of such scams are reported on a daily basis. Scammers use popular brands and personalities associated with cryptos and target enthusiasts by offering them free NFTs, tokens, and other cryptocurrencies. One of the most infamous cases so far was the fake giveaway of Rarible tokens.

As sad as it sounds, this trend is bound to continue. Scammers make use of communities on social media platforms such as Instagram, Discord, and Telegram and try to catch the attention of users with tempting offers, such as giving away fake and non-existent NFTs for free.

If somebody sends you a link to join such a community, simply verify it by searching on Google or Twitter. If there is no information about them on the official websites/pages of marketplaces, this means that those accounts are fake.

These are just some of the examples of existing scams. Forewarned is forearmed — be careful and don’t take the bait!

Closing thoughts

Non-fungible tokens open up new and unlimited horizons for artists and collectors. Their popularity is growing at breakneck speed and judging by this it’s safe to say that NFTs are here to stay. Though they are still nascent and face some challenges, improvements are being made on a regular basis. For now, remember that discretion is the better part of valor — so try to avoid any doubtful or suspicious NFT-related activities which might lead to unfavorable consequences.

If you are a newcomer in the sphere and eager to kickstart your NFT journey, we have you covered. Our team of seasoned NFT developers at PixelPlex possesses all the necessary skills and the breadth of expertise to turn your NFT campaign into a roaring success. We are well-versed in the development of NFTs as well as their marketplaces, wallets, and lending platforms, and can create a robust NFT platform complying with all your requirements.

Drop us a line now and let’s start working together on groundbreaking projects!