How to Create, Store and Sell NFT on Opensea for Free

NFT is an acronym for Non Fungible Token, and this is a term that is used to describe a piece of art or other forms of creatives that has been registered on the Blockchain.

This process is usually made possible through the technology known as smart contracts that exist on the Ethereum blockchain.

The Ethereum blockchain represents a public ledger that holds decentralised records of all the transactions on the network.

This public ledger is used to certify ownership of digital assets that have been recorded on the network.

With NFTs and the blockchain, every unique digital asset can be traced to the original creator and ensures proper credit for creators.

Using this technology, a creator can set the amount of royalty that they want to receive for their work even after it has been sold many times over on the blockchain.

There are many marketplaces where NFTs can be created/minted and sold and each of the platforms have their own features and methods of listing different works of creators.

Examples of these platforms includes; Opensea, Mintable, Rarible, Superrare, Foundation.app, Binance and many more

However, for the sake of easy understanding, i am going to based this article on how to Mint an NFT on Opensea 

How to Setup a Crypto Wallet for NFT

First of all, before you can do anything on any of the NFT Minting platforms you will have to get a crypto wallet.

And  for the sake of using this NFT platforms there are certain wallets that will make the process easy and seamless and this includes: MetaMask, Coinbase wallet, Trust wallet and alot more.

However, from my experience, I like making use of Metamask because I found it to be easy to use on different devices.

For instance, My Trust wallet only works well on mobile devices and does not work well on the desktop.

So to make use of Metamask, all you have to do is to download the app on your phone and set it up.

While for your computer you just have to download the chrome extension and install it.

How to connect a Metamask Wallet to Opensea

The first step is to download it on your device: if you are on mobile device, just go to the app store or play store and download it.

However if you are on computer, go to Metamask.io and download the browser extension.

It will lead you to the extension page, go ahead and install the extension on your browser 

(I have already install it on my browser)

After setting up the Metamask you can now proceed to connect your wallet to the Opensea platform.

How to Connect your wallet to Opensea

Goto opensea.io and click on the wallet icon on the extreme right and then proceed to choose your wallet which in this case is Metamask (or any other one you choose to use)

If you are making use of a mobile device, it will prompt you for a wallet option to connect with and you can choose the Metamask that you have already installed on your device.

Your profile will be automatically created once you log in with a wallet, all you have to do is to complete your details as you desire.

In your profile you have space to talk more about yourself and also add links to your other resources like your website and social handles.

More so, you get to add your wallet address where you can receive payments to, from your NFT sales and other transactions.

To add a wallet address to your profile, go back to your Metamask account and copy out your wallet address.

Make sure to always copy and paste, never try to type it out because if you get even one letter wrong, your coins will be lost forever.

How to create an NFT collection on Opensea

Creating a collection is very important because it helps to organise your work and make it easy for people to see all your projects that are related in one place.

So, the first thing I will advise, even before going on to create any NFT, is to set out on what your goals are and decide what the content of your project is going to be about.

On the collection page, you will need to upload a logo for the collection and also a featured and banner image.

If you are not able to create different images for this, you simply use the same image and then change it later on in the future.

If you know what kind of content you intend to create, then you can go ahead to name the collection based off of that.

For example, you could decide to name your collection “Smart Dogs Club” and then proceed to make NFT art about Dogs that features smart and bright dogs.

Social links can also be added if you have any, but if you don’t it doesn’t matter.

NFT Royalty Earnings

The creator’s royalty earning is the section where you can specify what percentage you intend to earn as royalty upon the sales of your NFT in the future.

The majority of people put in 5%, but you can go as high as 10%, that is the maximum allow royalty threshold.

I like using 10% personally for some of my NFTs and that is just a personal preference.

What this means is that even after you have sold the NFT, whenever the piece undergoes any transaction in the future on the blockchain, you will be paid 10% of any whatever amount it was sold for automatically.

This royalty system is one of the things that makes NFT very interesting and rewarding for artists and creatives.

For the Blockchain section, this is where you can choose on what Blockchain you want to mint your NFT.

On the Opensea platform, the major ones are Ethereum and Polygon although some new one have just been added as at the time of writing this article.

The new ones are Klaytn and Solana. But the popular one to mint on is the Ethereum Blockchain.

The only hold back for the Ethereum blockchain is that you will be required to pay a gas fee before you mint your NFT.

But for the sake of clarity, the fee is just for the first time and the amount can vary depending on the time of the day.

Some people have found that minting at night or earlier hours of the morning is a bit cheaper than during the day when the network usage is high.

However, if you don’t have any Ethereum to pay for gas fee, you can still mint for free on Opensea.

How to Create Your First NFT

To create a  new project on Opensea, click on the “Create” icon on the home page or go to your newly created collections page and click on “Add Item”

This will open a new page where you can upload and name your artwork. 

Note: Minting NFTs does not apply to only Images but rather it covers a variety of digital items like music, videos, scripts and many more.

On this page you will get to set a name for your NFT and also add an external link to your website if you have any.

The description box is where you write a brief description of the work and what it represents and also where you believe the project is headed to in the future.

The collection is where you get to add the items to the collection that you have already create.

Furthermore, you proceed to fill out the other qualities of the art piece and if you have any content or file that you would like to share with the person that will buy the NFT, you can add it to the Unlockable content section.

Proceed to add supply, supply of an NFT means the amount of pieces that you will like to mint, if you mint one, it means that only one person can have it at every giving time.

While, if you mint more than one, then that will be the amount of copies that will be available for purchase by more than one person.

How to Mint NFT For Free on Opensea

To mint your NFT for free on Opensea, all you have to do is to choose the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain when you want to mint rather than Ethereum.

This method works well, although many people don’t like using it because they believe it doesn’t give your work as much credibility as the Ethereum blockchain.

But, from personal experience I really don’t see much of an issue with it, because I have minted a lot of NFTs on the Polygon blockchain and I really haven’t noticed anything different.

After deciding on what network to mint, you now have to specify which token you want to sell your work for.

There are a variety of available tokens that you can accept, you can decide to accept payment in all tokens available or you can specify a particular token.

Something to note is that, there are some tokens you may not be able to cash out directly, so you will later have to convert it to Ethereum before withdrawing.

When you are done with all the necessary details, then you can click on “Complete” and viola! you have minted your first NFT.

How to List Your NFT for sale on Opensea

After minting your NFT, the next step is to decide if you want to list it for sale or not.

If you decide that you don’t want to sell your NFT just yet, then you can leave it (stored) on the platform and you will be good.

However, the way the platform is designed, even though you did not list your work, people will still be able to see them and they can also make an offer to you just like in the Twilight Monkey NFT below.

And you don’t have to accept the offer if you don’t want to.

However if you do decide that you want to list your NFT for sale immediately, then you will have to do the following;

Click on the Item you want to list and click on the sell button. 

Decide on what token you want to list your item for; Ethereum is most popular, but you can select anyone and then add an amount to it.

To sell your work, you either decide to do a direct sale where you set a fixed selling price and you are done or you can decide to make it an auction sale.

If you make it an auction sale, then you will have to choose the duration for which the sale is to last before it expires.

Proceed to choose the duration you want to list your item for;

Finally, click on “Complete Listing” and you now have your item listed for sale on the world’s biggest NFT marketplace.

When you make a sale, Opensea will deduct a trading fee of 2.5% of the NFT sales price for using the platform.

Note: If you had chosen to mint on the Ethereum blockchain, this is the time a gas fee will be deducted from your wallet, so you need to fund your account with some Ethereum before completing your listing.

More so, when a sales transaction goes true, a gas fee will be deducted from your wallet also, this is used to register the sales of the NFT on the Blockchain.

Note: Every time a process is to be registered to your wallet, you will  be prompted to sign the request, it’s a normal process and nothing to worry about.

How to Fund your Metamask wallet

Funding your Metamask wallet is just like funding any other wallet. If you want you can pay for your transaction by purchasing your Ethereum from the Opensea marketplace with a credit card. Or

You can also decide to fund your metamask by transferring Ethereum from another wallet to your Metamask wallet.

To make a transfer to your Metamask, you have to copy out your wallet address to which you want to receive your funds and paste it on the app where you want to transfer ethereum from.

How to Promote you NFT

Minting an NFT is great, however if you intend to make a sale then you have to promote it at some point.

A lot of times your work can be discovered by others on the platform and they may buy it, but also many times you will have to promote it to people.

A good way of promoting your work could be through social media like; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, creating a subreddit and so on.

However, engage with people is good option and let them know what your plans are and asking for feedback with which you can further increase the quality of your arts.

Also, even if you Minted your NFT on Opensea, you can also cross post and sell it on a different marketplace like Binance NFT marketplace.

So don’t be limited by one marketplace. Although at some point you might need to pay some fees, it can still be worth it if you do it right.

Finally, I hope that you found this article about NFT helpful and if you are looking to try out the world of NFT then go for it.

Also I am working on my NFT collection known as the “Art Canvas NFT” you can check it out here and support me.

If you have any further questions please asked them on the forum and i will be glad to assist in anyway I can.

Good Luck!