NFTs have revolutionized the art world with a new form of creating digital art that, at a steady pace, is catching up with the sales of traditional art, forcing many to reconsider their ways of making art and becoming NFT artists. With NFT art reaching the mainstream media, more and more people are eager to acquire a slice of the proverbial cake.
While many people are keen to become NFT artists and profit from this growing trend, they may face a major obstacle – the added expenses that come with it, including commissions and gas fees.
However, there are now alternative methods to minimize costs, as certain platforms enable you to mint NFTs without any fees. This means that any NFT artist can list their NFT art for free and avoid the need to invest money upfront.
That’s what you are going to learn today. In this article, we will show you how you can mint and sell an NFT without paying gas fees upfront, thanks to the implementation of “lazy minting.”
This article is part of a broader guide describing the steps to selling NFTs.
What is an NFT
Let’s remind some of the basics. NFT stands for “Non-Fungible Token,” a unique digital asset enabling verifiable digital ownership. It is a piece of data stored in a blockchain. It can take many forms of media, like images, audio, GIFs, videos, codes, and whatever you can think of. They can also be used to represent physical items in the real world.
As you’ve already learned, there are different forms of NFTs, so it’s worth exploring other design ideas that can be sold using NFTs.
NFTs possess a distinct quality – they are entirely unique, setting them apart from cryptocurrencies that are divisible and interchangeable. The most prominent attribute of NFTs is their uniqueness, making them highly desirable for collectibles and other scenarios where originality is of paramount importance.
These digital assets gained popularity due to their increasing value. They can be traded and exchanged on NFT platforms as a new income source. This has opened the door for a new wave of NFT artists to rise and showcase their NFT artwork, earning royalties from their NFT sales and avoiding any sort of intermediaries.
NFT Minting
Minting NFTs is referred to the process of creating and producing a new NFT on the blockchain. Whatever form of media you choose to upload your NFT (an image, video, audio, etc.), the minting process remains the same.
However, unlike uploading a video on YouTube, an audio clip on Streamcloud, or any other file on different platforms, minting NFTs will require you to pay gas fees upfront most of the time.
This is due to the process the blockchain must go through to upload any digital asset. Also, the gas fee price will vary depending on when you are minting your NFT.
Lazy Minting
This new method started to gain popularity in late 2021 as a new form of free minting your NFTs due to the increasing concern from NFT creators about the gas fees, especially to those new in the industry.
This process allows creators to mint NFTs and pay their cost after the first NFT is sold. Your NFT will be in the blockchain and listed for sale without additional cost. Once it is sold for the first time, the transaction will cover the gas fee.
Essentially, it allows you to create and sell NFTs without paying upfront costs and waiting until a sale is secured.
The Best NFT Marketplaces to Sell NFT for Free
A word of caution: not every NFT marketplace allows you to implement lazy minting. You should research and check if your chosen NFT platform supports this method. Luckily, two of the most popular NFT marketplaces – Opensea and Rarible – give you the option to create NFTs using lazy minting.
OpenSea
OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace for buying and selling NFTs online. It supports a lot of blockchains, mainly Ethereum and Polygon. You will find millions of NFTs available in many forms, allowing creators to mint their NFT collection for free and pay the gas price after the item sells.
Also, OpenSea takes a 2.5% commission, where the buyer has to pay it for fixed-price items, while the seller has to do it for their auctioned items.
Rarible
The second option is Rarible. It is another well-known NFT marketplace with one of its most appealing features, earning royalties from selling NFTs. This allows you to earn a passive income, receiving a cut every time your NFT is re-sold.
Rarible also takes a commission fee, where the buyer and the seller pay 1% each from the transaction.
The First Step of the Process: An NFT Wallet
The first thing you will need to create and sell your own NFT in any NFT market is to have a crypto wallet ready. This will be needed to receive any payment, store the location of your NFTs, and pay the fees that will appear after you sell your NFT.
Which NFT Digital Wallet Is the Best?
Among numerous cryptocurrency wallet options, there are two that, according to our experience and user reviews, have proven to guarantee the best user experience and utility.
Metamask
We recommend using MetaMask wallet. It is one of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets. It works as a browser extension with your device and is free to download.
If you already have a MetaMask account, you can import your crypto wallet using the secret recovery phrase. This phrase will be given to any new account during the creation process.
Coinbase
If you are looking for another alternative, we also recommend using Coinbase. This crypto wallet also uses a browser extension, the account creation process is similar to MetaMask, and both have a mobile version available to download for Android and iOS. Make sure to have the secret recovery phrase written on pen and paper. Secure it if you need to recover your account for any reason.
Set Up Your Wallet
For both Coinbase and MetaMask, the process is the same. Once you have created your account, you must download and add the browser extension.
You just need to click the “download” button on their respective websites. You will be asked to confirm the process, and it will be a simple matter of going through terms and conditions, creating a password, and other security measures until your account is set up.
Choose a Platform and Connect Your Wallet to It
We will use Rarible and OpenSea as examples, but this process is the same for both. Once you are on their website, you can connect your wallet by clicking “Connect Wallet” on the top-right corner of your screen.
Then, it will ask you for your wallet provider. Select your chosen one, and a pop-up will appear asking to confirm such a connection. Follow the instructions, as the process is pretty straightforward. Once you are done, you have done the first step in creating an NFT.
How to Sell NFTs For Free on Rarible
Now that you have your crypto wallet connected to the NFT market and ready to use, let’s go with the minting and sale process of an NFT.
Of course, you will need to create an account on Rarible. It is a simple process as you click the “Sign In” button on the main page and follow the instructions. Once you have confirmed your account, you are ready to move on.
Create a New Item
On the Rarible site, click the “Create” button at the top-right corner. Then, you will have the option to select the blockchain you want to mint your NFT on. Ethereum is the most popular, so we recommend choosing ETH.
Once you have selected your blockchain, you can create a single NFT or submit multiple if you have an NFT collection ready to be sold. For this example, we will be using “Single.”
Now you need to upload your digital file that will become an NFT. Rarible supports several formats up to 30MB in size. Once you upload it, you will see a preview of its appearance on the NFT market.
Select The Form of Your NFT Sale
With our NFT saved for upload, we now need to choose how we will sell the artwork. Rarible gives you three different options:
- Fixed Price: It allows you to set a singular price and sell the NFT instantly.
- Timed Auction: It is an auction that lasts for a certain period (that you can establish). The best bid until the time is over gets it.
- Unlimited Auction: It is another auction that is over whenever you accept the best bid.
Most NFT marketplaces have the first two options available. After that, you need to set your price, which can be tricky. A high price will leave you out of any proper sale, while too low can lead to missing opportunities.
You also have the option to “unlock once purchased.” If you enable this option, the buyer will get the full, high-resolution version of your NFT, with additional material through a secret download link or a secret web page if you wish to include it.
Then, you have the “Choose Collection” option, where you need to leave it on “Rarible” to have the lazy minting option available later.
Describe Your NFT
Now you need to add a title and description for your NFT. Think about it as it should properly reflect your intentions and what this NFT represents.
After that, you will be asked to consider a percentage of royalties you wish to claim each time your item is re-sold in the future. Try to not go too far with this, as many might consider resale.
The NFT won’t be bought unless people can gain some value from it too.
Then, there is an additional field to add your file’s properties. When you finish this process, you are ready to move to the minting.
Choose RARI to Mint It for Free
As we said, you must select the Rarible collection to enable the lazy minting option. Also, before creating your NFT, you have to enable the free minting option as well.
After filling out all the requirements and double-checking everything, you can scroll down and click the “Create Item” option. Once it is done, it will be listed on Rarible, and it will appear in the blockchain once it is purchased and the gas fee is paid.
How to Sell NFTs For Free on OpenSea
Once you connect your crypto wallet to OpenSea, create a new account to use in the marketplace. This process is quite similar to the one on Rarible, so you just follow the steps until it is done.
Upload Your NFT File
Once you are done with your OpenSea account and have your wallet connected, you can move on to minting your NFT.
It is very simple on OpenSea. You need to click on the “Create” tab to be redirected to a new page to upload your digital file. You also need to fill out all the information about your NFT, such as the title, description, and other details.
Set Up Your Price and Method of Purchasing
On OpenSea, you can set the number of royalties you wish to earn for any future sale of your NFT. Then, you should also introduce your price tag and how you want to proceed with the sale.
OpenSea only has “Fixed Price” (where you will sell the item directly from a one-time purchase) and “Timed Auction” (the best bid wins on an auction that will last for a certain time). The decision is up to you which one you should choose. And, of course, if you set a high price tag on your digital asset, you better have something to back it up, such as the quality of your artwork and its uniqueness.
Mint It With the Polygon Blockchain
Here is the most important part to free-mint your NFT on OpenSea. You need to select the Polygon blockchain instead of Ethereum (which is the one selected by default).
Polygon has low gas fees and fast transactions in general. But most importantly, it enables you to choose the lazy minting option in OpenSea. Select this option and click on “Create” to mint your NFT.
List Your NFT
While your NFT is already minted, it isn’t listed for sale yet. Once you have created it, select the “Sell” tab to list your NFT. Set the ideal cost of it, together with all the information required. And after you have done it, click on “Complete Listing.”
Now your NFT is minted and listed on the OpenSea marketplace.
Is It Still Safe to Invest Time in NFTs?
The booming of NFTs over the last few years would be just the beginning, as it is expected to reach a total market value of 13.6 billion USD by 2027, according to Yahoo Finance. There are still a lot of possibilities to be explored in the NFT industry, and many artists have already made significant returns on their digital works.
NFTs provide something unique to the art world: the concept of scarcity and uniqueness. As NFTs are built on the blockchain, these concepts can now be written in code, and everyone can see them. It also completely changes the concepts of ownership, authenticity, and subjective value.
It is an industry worth the time invested in, as it requires a fair set of knowledge and skill sets to make the most of it. And the more you stay, the more you will find something that is worthwhile for you. Ultimately, it is another unique opportunity for artists and creators to develop their craft and run their businesses as they wish.
Key Takeaways
If you are interested in selling art in the form of NFTs, you must have clear core concepts. Are you already an artist? Great! That’s a big boost to start.
Many artists transcribe their physical art, paintings, and drawings into NFTs, while others start directly creating them digitally first. But, overall, you need to have three key layers clear to dive into the world of NFTs as an artist:
- Which pieces of artwork are you going to sell? What makes them stand out? What makes them unique? Popular NFT art collections have a good amount of artworks displayed, sharing common themes, with slight variations for certain pieces.
- Before getting into it, you will need to learn a bit about the crypto industry. Research blockchains, crypto, NFTs, marketplaces, and anything related to the industry. This article will give a head-start if you are new to this world.
- Think about the utility that your NFT will provide. Think of the artwork as a token. While some NFTs have succeeded due to their quality and rarity, many other projects provide their owners with additional value through royalties, access to exclusive drops, memberships, and anything you can think of.
The NFT space is big and evolving daily, with many things yet to be explored. There is still a lot of potential in this industry, and there isn’t a better time than now to jump into the NFT wagon.
