How to make an NFT collection— and why you shouldn't.

 

We'll go through how to produce an NFT utilizing two of the most popular markets, but first, let's go over some of the fundamentals of what an NFT is and the considerations you'll need to make before selling one.

(If you're already familiar with the process, skip to Step 3 to begin the process of actually making a token.)

Step 1: Determine what an NFT is.

There's no need to feel bad if you've come here with little knowledge of what NFTs are. "Hey, you should sell that photo of your pet as an NFT," a friend would have said. However, it's generally advisable to have some notion about what you're doing before you go through the process of developing and selling one.

We have a whole explainer dedicated to NFTs and their culture, as well as an explainer dedicated to the blockchain technology that NFTs employ. You don't have to memorize every word, but the rest of this book will make allusions to concepts like Ethereum, proof of work, and others that you'll learn more about by reading our explainers.

However, here's a fast TL;DR. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital tokens that are kept on the blockchain. Unlike cryptocurrencies, where each coin is identical (there's no reason to favor one Bitcoin over another), each NFT is one-of-a-kind and can be sold to show ownership of a digital file.

Almost no NFT artwork is ever kept on the blockchain.

Almost 90% of the time, the files aren't truly kept on the blockchain. Instead, a link to the file is saved, together with a token that serves as proof of ownership of whatever that link goes to. There's also no law that says two or more NFTs for the same file can't exist - you can have NFTs with editions, similar to trading cards. For example, an NFT can be rare if only ten copies exist, or it might be widespread if thousands of the same NFTs have been "minted," or committed to the blockchain.

There's also nothing stopping someone from using the file you used for your NFT to make their own NFT (though the blockchain entry will show that it came from their account, not yours).

You can potentially sell any digital content as an NFT, but you'll be limited to the formats that a marketplace supports if you want to use their easy minting tools. We'll go over that in more detail later but bear in mind that your first NFT should most likely be an image, video, or audio clip. If you're not sure what you want to sell as an NFT yet, limits like these can help you narrow down your options. That being said...

Step 2: Double-check that you really want to sell an NFT.

If you only have a hazy concept that you want to make an NFT because it seems like everyone else is doing it, there are a few things to consider. The first and most important is transaction costs. While the platforms we'll be discussing today allow you to make NFTs for free, selling them may be a different story.

The majority of NFTs are sold on the Ethereum blockchain (we'll discuss those that aren't in the next section), and each transaction on the Ethereum blockchain incurs fees that are paid to the miners. These costs are referred to as "gas," and the amount of gas required for a transaction (and thus the cost of that transaction) can vary greatly. Almost everything you do on the blockchain costs gas, from minting an NFT to transferring it to someone else to bidding on one (though there are several exceptions for producing NFTs, which we'll discuss later).

It's also worth mentioning that paying for gas does not guarantee that your transfer will be completed. You can pay more to increase your chances, but nothing is certain. To be clear, the vast majority of transactions are likely to succeed. If something goes wrong and your transaction isn't completed, you won't be reimbursed for the gas fees you spent.

Then there's the issue of NFTs' impact on the environment. The Ethereum blockchain, which uses an energy-intensive "proof of work" system, is used by the majority of the most popular (and easiest to use) NFT marketplaces (you can read more about what that means here). While it's debatable if selling NFTs individually has an impact on the blockchain's overall energy use, if your NFTs are built on Ethereum, you're using a technology with a large carbon footprint.

There are blockchains that use less energy-intensive methods, and Ethereum has plans to switch to a more energy-efficient proof-of-stake mechanism in the future. That isn't the case yet, which is one of the reasons why some individuals may be offended if others opt to sell NFTs.

Step 3: Decide which platform you'll use to sell your NFT.

There are dozens of platforms that allow you to sell NFT collection on a number of blockchains, making it nearly hard for any single guide to cover them all, much alone advise you which one is best for your project. In this lesson, we'll go over two of the most popular marketplaces, but there are more options if neither of these platforms is right for you, such as AtomicHub, which uses the Wax blockchain, or Solsea, which is headquartered in Solana.

It's also worth noting that our guide will show you how to accomplish things in the most basic way possible. Even with NFT markets, there are a lot of deep rabbit holes you can walk down that this article won't cover (things like selling an NFT minted with OpenSea on Rarible, programmatically generating collections like Bored Apes, and so on). Just keep in mind that this isn't designed to be a comprehensive guide on selling NFTs; rather, it's meant to point you in the right direction.

Using what they call "lazy minting" mechanisms, both OpenSea and Rarible allow you to construct NFTs on Ethereum without paying anything. Lazy minting allows you to create an NFT and sell it without having to write it to the blockchain, saving you money. The fees for writing your NFT to the blockchain will be coupled with the fees for transferring it to the buyer when someone actually buys it. This helps you avoid paying $10 to $30 (or more!) to mint an NFT that no one buys.

Is it necessary for me to build an NFT on a marketplace site?

In a technical sense, no. You can develop your own smart contract, upload it on your preferred blockchain, and then use it to mint your own tokens. That, however, is a leap into the unknown, and unless you're really technical, this is probably not the road you'll want to take. The majority of individuals will wish to use one of the platforms mentioned previously.