You can technically create and sell NFT art for free by lazy-minting. But to set a price or auction your NFT, you’ll need to mint it formally. This requires paying gas fees which need to be paid in cryptocurrency. This article will cover how to buy crypto and use it to pay gas fees to mint your NFT on OpenSea!
Just because you can create your own crypto coins and NFT doesn’t mean you should, because success is not guaranteed. I suggest doing a lot more research before venturing into the world of NFTs and crypto. Or, save money and buy these inexpensive handmade crypto earrings instead!
How to Make Your Own NFT & Sell It on OpenSea: Step By Step
The following steps will teach you how to create NFTs from start to finish! If you are curious about the earlier steps of how to make an NFT, read this. While there are other platforms and crypto wallets, in this example, I will be using OpenSea and MetaMask.
How to Mint Your NFT to Sell or Auction It
If you wish to put your NFT up for sale or auction, you must mint it (just as a physical coin is minted), which requires a payment called a gas fee. NFT minting can be a little confusing, and the cost depends on many factors; plus, it changes every 30 seconds. You’ll need to get to the last step of the minting process to get a ballpark idea of how much it will cost. If you don’t wish to invest any money into it, the good news is your NFT is already lazy minted.
Lazy minting means the NFT is created and visible, but it isn’t officially up for sale. Even though others can see your NFT in the marketplace, they cannot buy it. They can make an offer that you will have to accept to complete the purchase. When you accept the offer, you or the buyer will need to pay the gas fee. If you only wish to lazy mint because it is free, you are done; you already know how to create NFTs! Skip to the share and edit your NFT section below.
If you wish to proceed with official minting or see the minting fee:
- Go to https://opensea.io.
- Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right.
- Select Account.
- Next, tap Profile.
- Under Collected, you will see your NFT.
- Tap the three dots under the NFT.
- Select Sell.
- Tap Sell.
- Pick if you wish to sell at a Fixed Price or a Timed Auction. You can tap the i icon to find out more about the options. In general, auctions may have a lower gas price, but you need to decide which option is right for you. For this example, we will go with Fixed Price.
- You will see the currency in the dropdown menu. I will go with the default ETH.
- Type the price you wish to sell the NFT for. You will see the conversion to USD right underneath. Deciding how to price your artwork is never easy, but keep in mind that you can always lower the cost during your sale, but you can never increase it.
- Next, you have to select the duration of the sale. Pick from the default options or set a custom time period.
- Next, you’ll be able to toggle on sell as a bundle if you wish to sell several NFTs together. I’ll leave this toggled off.
- You can also toggle on Reserve for specific buyer. I will leave this toggled off.
- The service fee for selling your NFT is 2.5 percent, you cannot change this, but you can read more about it by tapping the i.
- Double-check everything, then tap Complete listing.
- Now you’ll see the estimated gas fee in USD and ETH. This will change every 30 seconds, and I’ve seen it jump between $70 and $160 in no logical pattern. You have to pay this fee even if your NFT isn’t sold.
- If you already have a balance and wish to proceed, tap Confirm. Make sure to have your adblocker off because you need to sign a popup window to complete the transaction. Before you do this, make sure you are certain you wish to proceed.
- If you want to wait for a lower gas fee, tap Reject for now.
The auction has a similar process with different fees. One benefit of an auction is that you don’t need to pay any gas fees if you get a bid of over 1 ETH. Speaking of paying ETH, the next section will teach you how to buy cryptocurrency.
Buy Cryptocurrency to Pay Your Gas Fees
If you are happy lazy minting, you don’t need to worry about this. If you wish to sell or auction your NFT, you’ll need to have cryptocurrency in your wallet. I have already shown you how to set up your MetaMask wallet, and the following steps will show you how to add money. Don’t forget that you need a debit card (not a credit card) and a driving license.
- Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right.
- Select My Wallet.
- Here you will see your total balance. Tap Add Funds.
- Here you can transfer funds from another wallet. If you don’t have any, you’ll have to tap Buy with card.
- Tap here to read the Cookie Policy. If you agree, tap Allow third-party cookies.
- If your cookies weren’t automatically allowed, you can manually turn them on. Or, tap Try on MoonPay.
- Under Currency, select a currency.
- I selected ETH – Ethereum.
- Next, select the amount. You will see the price in USD below and the fee to make the purchase. The exchange rate refreshes every few seconds.
- Once you have the amount you need and have double-checked the total with fees and are content, tap Continue.
- Tap Connect.
- Your Wallet address will autofill. If not, you can find it in your MetaMask account and paste it. Then tap Continue.
- Enter your email address. Tap Continue.
- You will be emailed a verification code; enter it.
- Make sure to read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy before you check the I agree with MoonPay’s terms and conditions box.
- If you wish to receive news and offers from MoonPay, you can check the second box, but this is optional.
- Tap Continue.
- Enter your personal information. This needs to match your driving license, so make sure it is correct. Tap Continue.
- Enter your billing address. This should be the same as the billing address you have registered with your bank. Tap Continue.
- If you are in the USA or a country with similar regulations, you will have to enter your cellphone number. Tap Continue.
- You will get a verification text. Enter it and tap Continue.
- Next, you’ll have to verify your driving license. Tap Continue.
- Tap the upload icon. You will be walked through the steps of uploading the front of your driving license and the back of your driving license.
- Next, you’ll have to take a selfie. This requires you to allow for MetaMask to have access to your camera. Tap OK. You can always disable Camera permissions later on.
- You will also have to allow OpenSea to use your camera. Tap Allow.
- Make sure your face is clear, as it will compare it to your driving license, and tap the shutter button.
- Check the selfie and if it is good, tap Confirm. If you need to retake it, tap Redo. Remember that this is for verification only and won’t show up anywhere on the app.
- Now you can enter your card details. Remember that you must use a debit card, not a credit card. Tap Continue.
- You will get a recap of how much you are buying and the fees involved.
- Read the Terms of Use and check the box to agree to them.
- Tap Buy Now.
- You may need additional verification from your bank. This is common, so don’t be alarmed. Call the number on the screen, and your bank will fix this issue. This is a different type of verification, so you will not get any suspected fraud texts or alerts in your banking system; you have to call to get it sorted.
- It may take some time to process your transaction. In my case, it only took about a minute.
- You will get confirmation when the crypto has been delivered!
Once you have the money in your wallet, you can make officially mint the NFT. Follow the steps under section four and this time, tap Confirm. If you wish to auction your very first NFT, you’ll have to do an additional wrapping step, explained here. Keep in mind that the value of cryptocurrencies can change, so the USD amount you see at the time of purchase may increase or decrease with time.
Share (or Edit) Your NFT to Get It Sold
OpenSea is not like Etsy. Simply creating a listing or NFT won’t guarantee a sale. It is essential to network and promote your NFT or collection to potential buyers. This requires a whole different set of skills. To share the link to your NFT or to make edits:
- Go to https://opensea.io.
- Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right.
- Select Account.
- Next, tap Profile.
- Under Collected, you will see your NFT.
- Tap the three dots under the NFT.
- To edit, tap Edit.
- To share it, tap Copy link.
Now you can paste it wherever you wish to share it!
Video NFT Tips
When you create a video NFT from your iPhone, you may have to battle with the Photos app. Any videos in it automatically become QuickTime movies, this makes them an unsupported format.
You can double-check that the file is an MP4 by finding it in the Photos app and tapping the i button. 
Next, tap the share button and select Save to Files. Then, when you return to the first step of uploading your video in section 3, select Choose File and select it from the Files app.
If you wish to create a thumbnail for your video, you can take a screenshot and crop it. If you prefer a gif, open the Shortcuts app and search for gif. Tap Make GIF and select the video. Your GIF will be created automatically and will be saved to the Photos app. The thumbnail can be selected directly from the Photos app without any problems.
That’s it; now you know how to make an NFT art collection entirely on your iPhone or iPad! This, of course, is the easy part because to have successful NFT auctions or sell NFT art at a direct price is an entirely different challenge.
Just because you can create your own crypto coins and NFT doesn’t mean you should, because success is not guaranteed. I suggest doing a lot more research before venturing into the world of NFTs and crypto. To do this, I recommend starting by exploring OpenSea or other NFT websites and marketplaces.OpenSea is a great NFT art website for creators and buyers, offering valuable tips. If you are seriously interested in being a creator, you should also take the time to learn how to make NFT digital art that actually sells. For this, you’ll have to get familiar with NFT trends and explore NFT apps that help create and sell this form of art. I wish you luck with your NFT projects!
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