The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Selling Your NFT’s.
How to Create, Sell, & Buy Non-Fungible Tokens.
NFT’s are part of a new technological innovation which can be the next big thing after cryptocurrencies. This article is a guide from A — Z on everything you need to know about NFT’s and the motives behind their buying and selling.
I have just released a new book after the success of my previous one “The Book of Trading Strategies”. It features advanced trend-following indicators and strategies with a GitHub page dedicated to the continuously updated code. Also, this book features the original colors after having optimized for printing costs. If you feel that this interests you, feel free to visit the below Amazon link, or if you prefer to buy the PDF version, you could contact me on LinkedIn.
Creating the Ethereum Wallet
A wallet is where you store your cryptocurrencies. We will consider an Ethereum wallet in our quest for creating and selling an NFT. As a reminder, Ethereum is a cryptocurrency and can be regarded as the second largest one after Bitcoin. The aim is to create a Ethereum wallet in order to link it to the NFT market place which will be discussed in detail in the next section. Let us start step-by-step:
Add the MetaMask extension to your google chrome browser as shown below. MetaMask is wallet that allows you to store Ethereum. You will be given a wallet address and a recovery password that you must guard.
Create the wallet by choosing the right button shown below. In case you already have a wallet, you can click on import wallet and follow the instructions.
Agree to the terms and conditions of MetaMask.
Create your password which you will be asked occasionally. Do not put a lengthy and complex password since you will always be inputting it.
Learn about the secret recovery phrase which is basically the most important thing in your wallet. It is the master key that gives you access to your wallet as can be explained in the image below.
Receive the secret recovery phrase and save it. You will be asked later to write it.
And voilà, you now have an ETH MetaMask wallet. We are now ready to go to the market place of NFT’s which in our case will be OpenSea. Normally, in your account you will see 0 ETH with your wallet address.
Creating an Account on OpenSea & Minting Your First NFT
OpenSea is one of the largest NFT marketplaces. This is where the magic happens. A huge number of NFT’s are created and traded here. Our aim now is to create an account and publish our first NFT to be sold in this market place. Let us start:
Head over to OpenSea website and click on create as shown in the red box in the image below.
Connect the MetaMask wallet you have just created to OpenSea. This is what will allow you to create an account with them.
After connecting, you will be taken to some pages where you will put information of your profile like your name and other quick details. Now, when you click on create you will be taken to the below page. Let us create our first NFT. This process is also known as minting the NFT. A relatively easy process that does not require more than a few minutes. We will take as an example one of the NFT’s I have created (Which will be discussed in a later section).
The difficult part is determining what you want to sell. Is it art? collectibles? GIFs? photos? And if you come up with a decision, then which items will you offer? These are the questions you should be asking yourself.
Choose a name for your NFT and describe it briefly for buyers. You can also add the reasons to buy it.
Choose some attributes and properties for your NFT. These will be used to assess the rarity and advantages of your NFT.
Select the number of NFT’s available for sale. For rarity and originality, I recommend you set it to 1. Also, I recommend you select Polygon as the blockchain so that you reduce your fees.
Choose Sell in order to set a price for your NFT. This will take you to a new page.
Choose a selling price for your NFT. The price will be shown in Ethereum. The duration will be the period of sale which is modifiable so you do not have to worry about it much. The service fee is OpenSea’s cut.
And voilà, now you have a fresh NFT on the marketplace ready to be sold and traded. Let us head over to the reasons of creating and selling NFT’s.
If you are also interested by more technical indicators and strategies, then my book might interest you:
Reasons to Create & Sell Your NFT
Obviously the main reason to create an NFT is to sell it but that is not the only motive. Generally, people want to create pictures, art, and collectibles and then put them up for sale to interested people. The prices vary greatly between simple pixelized images reaching $300,000 and others around more reasonable prices such as ~ $40. The main reasons for creating and selling an NFT are the following:
Creating a social following base: Followers of art are loyal to the artist or the developer and expect her to constantly innovate and create. By regularly posting new art and making airdrops, you will gain a number of followers and this will help you gain followers. Also, remember to give back to the community by checking out other people’s art and if you like it, why not invest in them?
Selling for a profit: Naturally, every seller would like to sell his NFT for a reasonable price. This forms the biggest reason for doing so. There is generally a floor price that you set. For example 1 ETH can be the minimum price of your NFT. Then, people will make bids to buy your item. The advice here is not to set the price too high as that might hinder any buying activity.
Getting regular royalties: Whenever a creator of a certain NFT sells its creation, he receives the counterparty’s funds but also each time that creation is sold to a secondary buyer, a pre-determined percentage is sent to the creator. As a creator of an NFT, you can select a royalty percentage such as 3% of the buying price that you will receive each time your art is traded between other parties. This can be an interesting source of passive income if there is enough liquidity and enough volume of your items circulating in the market.
People are buyers of risk in this era of disruptions and constant volatility. Everyone wants to hop on the wagon and yours truly is no exception. However, you have to remember that people will only buy your NFT’s if they like them and believe they have utility. This brings us to this small parentheses I would like to open and talk about my new limited NFT collection: The Society of Light which is a set of pixelized and named avatars that each serve a specific cause such as supporting brain cancer research or helping domestic abuse victims. Here is how:
Each NFT sold will have a percentage of its price donated to a specific charitable cause depending on the avatar. The rest of the price will be re-invested in the marketing efforts to allow for price increase in the secondary market thus augmenting the wealth of the buyer.
Before buying one of the avatars, check its properties. There you will find the cause where the money will be sent, the white veil rate which is the percentage donated, and the white veil royalty rate which will be discussed later.
You can filter to find a cause that is valuable to your heart.
If you believe there is a missing cause, you can send me a direct message on LinkedIn and suggest the name of the charity and I will make an NFT with a percentage of sales going directly to that charity.
The above NFT is one of the avatars I have created and called Vinny. As you can see, Vinny has nice blue eyes a skin condition called Vitiligo that makes him more handsome. Buying his NFT will give you a unique creation as only one of Vinny will be made and also a label that you have donated to a Vitiligo charity.
The percentage given to charity will increase by the increase of the sales. This is to stimulate the buying and selling of the NFT’s in order to raise more money to different charities. The more they trade, the more benefits charities and causes get.
I should also point out that whenever my NFT’s are traded on the secondary market, a percentage of the royalties will also be donated to the initial charity (This is the white veil royalty rate). This means that the first sale will generate money to the charity attached to the NFT but also the secondary sale will generate royalty money to the same charity.
Let’s make NFT’s a part of a better world.
Reasons to Buy NFT’s
People may ask themselves: what is the purpose of buying images or digital things that can mostly be replicated by users. The answer can be complicated, but nothing like a bullet point to highlight the reasons why would one want to buy an NFT, be it art or a collectible:
Financial gain through speculation: Many people believe that the values of the NFT’s they buy will go up in value and in many instances, they are right. Something that is this hot and new is bound to have more liquidity and an increase in value. Therefore, some people will buy a lot of high-potential NFT’s to sell them for a profit. This is an extremely interesting method of portfolio diversification. Art trading is seeing a new dawn.
Unlockable items: Many NFT’s such as the ones I have created offer an unlockable item. An unlockable item can be a link to a book, a movie ticket, or even an access to a prestigious yacht club. In the case of The Society of Light, the unlockable item is a PDF version of my latest book priced at $24 on Amazon. The avatar serves as a proof that you have made the world better. Remember, you can always ask for a proof of donation (Which is verified by contacting the charity if you prefer further confirmation).
Status: An NFT buyer can also be referred to as a digital art collection. Life progresses and in many years, NFT’s might be the reference for true art, who knows? Innovation in its debut is always criticized. However, at the moment, being an NFT trader is already a prestigious status that you can add to your resume one day.
Art collection: Art collection is a valuable source inside a portfolio due to the fact that it is not correlated to the traditional asset classes.
Investment through scarcity: There is a reason there is a limited number of NFT’s for each collection. This is because they are to be used as a store of value. The less we have of something, the more valuable it is. CryptoPunks, one of the most famous NFT’s has only 10,000 items. The Society of Light will also have a limited number of avatars in order to increase their value in the secondary market.
Arbitrage: Some buyers notice that some NFT’s have different prices on different market prices, so they buy the undervalued ones and sell them at their higher market place on the other exchange thus pocketing the difference from this mispricing. Arbitrage is seen as a risk-free technique and a sure-profit way but the reality is that it is not that easy and can be complicated. However, if done correctly, arbitrage may be very lucrative. It is generally done with bots.
At the end, we all have our reasons for doing something. The world will continue innovating and bringing new things. Will NFT’s be the successors of the technological wave brought in by the crypto tsunami? Let us now take a more detailed look at The Society of Light.
Details About The Society of Light
The Society of Light is a set of limited collectibles with each one serving a humanitarian and medical cause. Having created these NFT’s using pixelized art and my mediocre skills, I am hoping that they will be beneficial to the world as each sale will see a percentage of it sent directly to the charity of your choice. This brings us to the properties tab where you can see the cause in order to buy the right one for you. For example, Vinny, the NFT seen above in the article is sold for around 0.01 ETH (Floor price) and a percentage of its proceedings will be directly sent to a Vitiligo research center that offers support and funds development of this skin condition.
As I always say, nothing better than a bullet list to outline the benefits of buying these NFT’s:
High-potential gain: By concentrating the remaining sales proceedings on marketing and promoting The Society of Light, I am aiming to maximize their value as much as possible in the secondary market. Remember that trading in the secondary market also means that a portion of royalties will be donated to the same charity. For example, a $100 NFT is sold and then resold another time for $200. Now, assuming that the White Veil Rate is 30% and the White Veil Royalty Rate is 0.50%, the charity will get ((100 x 0.30) + (200 x 0.005)) = $31. Assuming this is done thousands of times with hundreds of NFT’s, the impact will be visible on the causes and charities.
Art collection and portfolio diversification: Having a collection of avatars that symbolize good deeds is truly satisfying. Investing does not need to only have selfish needs even though there is nothing wrong with investing to make money. But what about investing to make money, help others, and collect art?
Donating to your preferred cause(s): This is a flexible way of allocating different funds to your charities. The White Veil Rate varies between each NFT and charity. I use a randomizer for the White Veil Rate so that there is no discrimination. The reason I do this is because some NFT’s are priced differently than others.
A free copy of my book in PDF: Any buyer of any NFT will receive a free copy of my latest book shown in the link of the article. The book’s name is ‘Trend Following Strategies in Python’ which is priced at $24 on Amazon. This is for people who are interested in trading.
There you have it. Everything you need to know about NFT’s plus an opportunity to invest in high-potential collectibles that serve a real purpose. Remember to always do your due diligence before buying and investing. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the different causes:
Vitiligo Research & Support.
Brain Cancer Research.
Red Cross Relief.
Red crescent Relief.
Polio Extermination.
Rotary International.
Rotaract Club.
AIDS Research & Support.
Alzheimer Research.
Help of the Elderly.
Doctors Without Borders.
Children’s Cancer Research.
Remember, it is the cause that matters! Also remember, the donations are verified and you may ask for a receipt or proof. I personally make sure the charities are doing their job. The donations are made at the end of every month.