If you’re looking for how to sell your NFT art, music or collectibles, look no further. Obviously, one of the most lucrative ways of making money with NFTs is to release your own collection! To put your first NFT up for sale might be daunting, but the sky is the limit when it comes to releasing non-fungible tokens on the blockchain.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on where and how to sell your NFT collection, from setting up a wallet, choosing an NFT marketplace to minting NFT and listing it. Plus, we even share tips on what to do when your NFT isn’t selling!
What types of NFTs to sell?
Art NFTs
Art is one of the most popular categories of NFTs and often, the most highly priced. Unique 1:1s will always have value to art collectors. People love art in all its forms and NFTs can just be simply beautiful works of art.
NFTs don’t just help established artists get richer. Many web3 artists made their names with NFTs. A great example of this is 18-year-old artist FEWOCiOUS, who was the youngest artist ever to be featured at Christies.
Selling 1:1 art or limited edition NFTs of your artworks may be the best idea. If you want some inspiration, check out the top selling NFT collections of all time.
Another popular type of art NFT is generative art, which is digitally made with code. While Autoglyphs may have been the first generative art collection, the most popular generative art project is Art Blocks. To explain, it’s the biggest generative art project to date, working with countless artists to make masterpieces. Some sell for absolutely crazy amounts of money! If you love code and art, check out our full guide on generative art NFTs.
Collectibles and PFPs
Collectibles are a huge category of NFTs that took off since 2021. They come in many forms, but the most popular are PFP collections. This is due to the anonymous nature of many NFT personalities, plus the human love for personalization and entertainment.
People use PFP NFTs as their online identities. Apart from sentimentally, their value lies in their rarity, scarcity, and certificated origin. Plus, many use collectibles as bragging rights – not unlike a Gucci jacket or a Rolex watch.
Within the NFT collectible genre, Storytelling NFTs have become extremely popular. These are NFT collectibles with a running storyline and brand feel. Good examples of these include The Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azurbala and Cel Mates.
Another common theme in the collectible world is meme culture! Many collections base their NFTs on everyone’s favorite memes. If you like that, check out our list of the best NFT memes!
Utility NFTs
Utility can include benefits in real life or in the virtual world. To give you an idea, it could be: free festival tickets for life, or discount in a specific shop, private access to a lounge in the metaverse or real life pieces of artwork. But maybe you need to think even bigger to sell your perfect NFT. For example, WiV Tech links NFTs to wine bottles. A real estate company, Hypomo, launched a platform linking NFTs to real-life properties!
Communities, Membership Clubs and DAOs
Some of the most popular NFTs are simply membership clubs or communities. Often, these communities offer ‘alpha’ on the latest NFT collections. Or, some of them simply offer NFT education, like ZenAcademy. Others focus solely on the community side, aiming to create an exclusive place for web3 people to network or find jobs. A good example of this is Proof Collective, the project behind Moonbirds.
Then, other top NFTs are membership tokens for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs. These DAOs drop coins to NFT holders, which they can use as governance tokens. In short, these allow NFT holders to make decisions about a project without a central entity. A great example of an NFT project with a DAO is Rug Radio.
Music NFTs
Music NFTs have seen a huge amount of success. But it’s not just Snoop Dogg NFTs and Kings of Leon crypto albums. Some unsigned artists have made the most of NFT royalties to make a living from selling NFTs. In 2022, both LATASHA and Ed Balloon launched their NFT music careers with great success. Are you a musician? Read our full guide on Music NFTs to learn more.
How to Sell NFT: A Step-by-Step Guide
1. Set up a Crypto Wallet
To start selling NFTs, you need a crypto wallet. A crypto wallet, also known as a digital wallet, stores the cryptocurrency you’ll need to complete NFT transactions. It also holds your NFTs, which are stored on a distributed ledger (a public record of all transactions). For beginners, MetaMask and Trust Wallet are some of the most popular options, as they support many NFT-compatible blockchains.
Setting up a crypto wallet is simple. Follow these steps:
- Download and Install: Start by downloading your chosen wallet app on your device. Make sure you only download from official app stores or websites.
- Create an Account: Follow the prompts to set up your account and secure it with a strong password.
- Backup Your Seed Phrase: The seed phrase is a sequence of 12-24 words that acts as a backup for your wallet. Keep it somewhere safe; if you lose it, you’ll lose access to your funds and NFTs.
- Connect to NFT Marketplaces: Once your wallet is set up, connect it to the NFT marketplaces where you plan to sell. This is often as simple as clicking “Connect Wallet” on the marketplace and following the prompts.
2. Funding your Wallet
Before you can mint or sell NFTs, you’ll need to fund your crypto wallet. This process involves buying cryptocurrency to cover gas fees (transaction costs) and other expenses that might arise when selling NFTs.
Here’s how to fund your wallet:
- Get Your Wallet Address: Your wallet deposit address is a unique string of characters that lets others send crypto to your wallet. Think of it as your digital payment address.
- Buy Crypto: Most NFT marketplaces operate on Ethereum (ETH), but some use Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), or others. You can buy cryptocurrency through cryptocurrency exchanges like MEXC or Binance. Once purchased, transfer the funds to your wallet address.
- Calculate Gas Fees: Gas fees fluctuate based on network activity and blockchain type. Platforms like Etherscan and Polygon Gas Tracker help you monitor fees in real-time. Planning for these costs ensures smooth transactions.
- Transfer Funds to Your Wallet: From the exchange, send the crypto to your wallet address. Be careful with this step as cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible.
3. Decide where to sell an NFT
If you are wondering where to sell an NFT, there are a few options but the 2 main methods are: using NFT marketplace or NFT launchpad. Each has its own perks.
Choose an NFT marketplace
If you’re new to Non-fungible tokens, it’s best to start with the most popular marketplaces:
- Opensea is still the most busy marketplace to date. Artists big and small use Opensea due to its huge volume and notoriety in the space. You can also read the detailed guide on how to sell NFT on Opensea.
- Magic Eden is a very popular NFT marketplace too. Originally just for Solana NFTs, Magic Eden now supports ETH NFTs as well.
Next, you have some more specific NFT platforms. Music NFTs, particularly from unsigned acts, sell better on music-focused marketplaces like Catalog or Async Music. Another home for NFT music includes Zora NFT marketplace too.
Similarly, curated marketplaces such as SuperRare or Foundation are best for selling 1/1 NFT artwork. Really, there’s a market for everything. You even have marketplaces for poems, photography, and adult NFTs too!
For the full down, check out our guide on NFT marketplace.
NFT launchpad
Your other option is to use an NFT launchpad or no-code minting platform. These allow you to sell NFT through your own website or theirs. Good examples of these platforms include PREMINT and Nifty Kit. Both of these no-code solutions allow you to set the terms of your smart contract.
For example, you can decide the percentage of each sale you will receive as a royalty. Furthermore, you can keep the ownership of the contract. That means you will be the contract owner, rather than an NFT marketplace.
4. Minting an NFT
Minting is the process of creating a digital certificate of ownership for your NFT on the blockchain. To mint an NFT, follow these steps:
- Upload Your File: Choose the digital file you want to turn into an NFT, whether it’s art, music, or video. Most marketplaces support common file types like PNG, MP3, and MP4.
- Select Blockchain: Choose the blockchain for your NFT. Ethereum is widely used but can be costly. Polygon and Solana offer lower fees, while Tezos is known for its eco-friendly approach.
- Add Metadata: Metadata gives details about your NFT, such as title, description, and properties. Adding these details can enhance your NFT’s appeal to potential buyers.
- Minting Fee: Many marketplaces charge a fee to mint, known as the “gas fee“. Confirm the fee and complete the transaction to mint your NFT.
If you want to explore further about creating NFTs, read our in-depth guide on How to create an NFT.
5. Listing your NFT
Once you create NFTs, it will show up in your NFT marketplace profiles. Each marketplace differs slightly but here’s the gist of it step by step.
- Choose the NFT you want to sell from your Profile and click “Sell” on the top right.
- On the listing page that opens up, you can select one of the following types of sale and price:
- If you don’t want your NFT bid by buyers, you can set a fixed price for it. Fixed-price sale allows you to choose exactly how much you can earn from your NFT.
- Sellers can also set up an auction to let people bid on their NFTs. There are two types of auctions:
- Unlimited auction: This is also known as open auction, in which you can choose to accept any offer that buyers make on your NFT.
- Timed auction: For this auction, you need to set the specific duration of bidding. At the end of it, the NFT will go to the highest bidder. You can also set a minimum price to make sure your assets aren’t sold for less than your expectation.
- Add a description in the description field to explain your NFT. This is more likely to attract the potential buyers.
- To sell an NFT, you have to pay some fees. The common two are a listing fee to list your NFT and a fee to sell it.
- Confirm your sale and your first NFT is up for sale!
Although sellers can’t change certain things after listing their NFTs, most marketplaces still allow them to adjust key details such as the name, description, and minimum price.
6. Reselling the NFT you bought
When it comes to reselling NFTs, you’re selling a digital asset that you purchased from another creator or seller on the secondary market. Here’s how reselling works:
- List the NFT for Sale: In your wallet or marketplace profile, select the NFT you want to resell. As mentioned above, most marketplaces offer two options for selling: a fixed price or an auction. Choose the option that fits your strategy best.
- Royalty Fees: Each time you resell an NFT, the original creator typically earns a royalty. This royalty is automatically calculated and deducted from the final sale price. It’s an advantage for NFT creators, as they keep earning from their work beyond the initial sale.
- Wait for Buyers: Once listed, your NFT is available for potential buyers. Promoting it across social media or NFT communities can increase its visibility.
- Complete the Sale: After someone buys your NFT, the funds (minus fees) will be added to your NFT wallet.
7. Promote your NFTs
If you are wondering “Why is my NFT not selling?”, perhaps no one knows your collection exists! The first thing you must do before selling NFTs, is promote them. Fortunately, there are tons of methods. Here is several methods that you can promote your NFTs like a pro:
- Use Social Media and be present on all platforms
- Have a brand concept and stick to your branding
- Be entertaining and create value
- Make collaborations with influencers and other NFT projects.
- Write press releases and blog posts and get published on NFT news sites.
- Hire NFT Marketing companies to promote your NFTs for you.
FAQs
How much does it cost to sell an NFT?
Each time you sell an NFT it costs a gas fee. NFT gas fees, or transaction fees differ from blockchain to blockchain. Today, listing a single NFT for sale usually cost from 1% to 5% of the sale price, depending on which blockchain you use and how busy the network is.
While some blockchains offer the benefits of little to no gas fees, others can get up to thousands of dollars – just for buying or selling a single NFT. You can check the price of gas on a particular blockchain by using gas checker tools. For Ethereum, the most popular tool is Etherscan.
Can I sell NFTs for free?
There’s only one way to mint an NFT for free on blockchains that use most cryptocurrencies, and that’s lazy minting. Lazy Minting is a feature used by several NFT marketplaces, but was originally made famous by Opensea.
In short, it allows you to upload your NFTs to the marketplace without paying the cost to mint them. Then, the marketplace will only take the fee someone decides to purchase it.
Essentially, this saves the waste of energy and money minting NFTs no one wants. However, it’s not completely for free, you will have to pay to sell the NFT but it will come out of the money the buyer pays.
Can you sell NFT for real money?
Yes! All you need to do is sell your NFT to receive your cryptocurrency. Then, you can send your earnings to an exchange and cash out the money to your bank account.
Alternatively, you could use a platform that lets you buy and sell NFTs with fiat currency such as dollars or euros. Although this isn’t currently so popular, Moonpay’s whole platform exists to facilitate these kind of transactions.
How do you make money on an NFT?
Earning money from NFTs involves several strategies:
- Selling Your Own NFT Creations: This is the most common way to make money with NFTs, by minting and selling the NFT that you create. If your collection becomes popular, you can make a significant income.
- Reselling on the Secondary Market: Buy NFTs with high potential, then resell them when demand increases. Reselling, or “flipping”, works best with research and timing.
- Earning Royalties: If you’re an artist, many platforms let you earn royalties each time your NFT is resold. These royalties offer ongoing income as long as the NFT remains in demand.
- Staking and NFT Farming: Some platforms allow you to “stake” NFTs to earn rewards, or participate in NFT farming to earn interest. This approach is similar to staking in cryptocurrency.
- Joining Play-to-Earn NFT Games: For gaming NFTs, you can earn in-game rewards and even trade items, avatars, or skills, generating income.
