NFT for Dummies

Yes, this is business, you will need money to invest. To be precise, you need Ethereum, a crypto currency like Bitcoin. You can get crypto currencies via various websites or apps. I personally recommend Coinbase, because it is easy to set up and the interface is very user friendly. Head over to their website (or download the mobile app) and create an account. Once that is done, you need to set up your payment method. If you use online banking, you can simply connect Coinbase to your bank account. If you do not use online banking, then you will have to verify it manually. This takes time, so be patient. After connecting your bank to your Coinbase account, you can start buying Ethereum. I recommend buying at least USD$100 worth, because everything costs money (you will find out as you read on).

This is a very confusing step. I did not understand it myself at first. Basically, you have the money now but you are still not ready yet. You need to put that money into a digital wallet to use it. I will continue to recommend Coinbase since it is easy, so go download the Coinbase Wallet app and set up your account (I made the mistake to use Fortmatic instead and it was confusing af). After that, go back to the Coinbase app and send Ethereum to your wallet. Now you are ready. From this point on, you will use your Coinbase Wallet app heavily so keep that accessible as you truck on.

There are many options to choose from but the big ones are OpenSea, Rarible, Mintable (Mark Cuban uses this one), Showtime, and Cargo. You can do some research and see the pros and cons of each platform, I am not going to elaborate here. Going with the user friendly route, you can start with Rarible. Go to the Rarible website and connect your Coinbase Wallet. Once connected, you are ready to create your first NFT.

Click the create button and get started. You can choose Single or Multiple. To keep things simple, you can start with single. Upload your file and put it on sale. You may choose to set an instant price. This is kind of like eBay. It allows people to bid but one can also straight up buy it at a price. You can also set up an unlockable, which is pretty neat. For example, you can list a song for sale and then set the instrumental as an unlockable. Then you can choose a collection to put your item in, I’d just leave it in the Rarible collection but you may do more research on this and create a collection if you feel comfortable. Lastly, you fill out information about your item and set a royalties %. Each time your item gets sold and resold, you will get royalties.

Before you click the button to create your item, you should check the gas price. Like I mentioned earlier, everything costs money. You need gas to list an item, and you need gas to mint an item. And gas costs money. Use Gas Now to keep an eye on it. Once you think the gas is cheap enough, hit that create button. First it will show you how much it costs to list the item and then how much it costs to mint it. If you feel good, confirm it. Keep all of these costs in mind as you create more NFTs. You do not want to price your items too low that you actually lose money to paying gas.

Congrats, you just dropped your first NFT. Now what? Honestly, I do not know too much from here, but the sensible thing to do is to promote the hell out of it. Share it on all the social media platforms, and most importantly, join the Discord of the particular NFT marketplace and post in the appropriate channels. Keep in mind though, do not go hassling art collectors to look at your NFTs. If your work is good, you will get noticed. Don’t be annoying.