How to Make Money with NFTs

This is the step-by-step guide that will show you how to make money with NFTs. The acronym of the moment that can make you millions. Read all about it here!

The Guide that Explains how to Create and Sell your NFTs

If you haven’t been sleeping under a rock for the past few months, you have certainly heard of the term NFT. And you know what they are and the tremendous potential they have. And now you are looking for a way to turn your ideas into art to sell. Or simply want to know how to buy and resell at a profit? You need look no further!

This complete guide will show you all the steps you need to create and sell your NFT’s and eventually make (a lot!) of money.

On the other hand, if you’ve just dropped in and have no idea what we’re talking about, you’d better start with this article, which explains exactly NFTs, the latest digital trend.

Make Money with NFTs: The Two Ways

There are two main ways in which you can look at this activity and try to make an income.

1 – Selling your digital art

This way is best suited for artists or people who have notions in how to create content. And don’t think you need to be a Picasso to be successful, there are cases of digital art of ‘dubious’ taste that have been successful in sales. After all, art is a subjective thing, isn’t it?

You create and sell your art on specific websites, either at auctions or for a fixed price. Some art forms include music, 3D models, images (preferably with high resolution), or video (preferably in 4K).

Notes:

• You will always need to pay a transaction fee, which varies greatly depending on the platform and blockchain system used. More on this topic below.
• You will receive payments in digital currencies, often Ethereum. These currencies can then be converted into fiat currencies, such as dollars or euros.
• Unlike traditional art, you can set a profit amount for a resale. If someone buys your art, they have every right to resell it. And if they do, you will get a commission on top of the profit from the sale. The standard is 10%, but you can set more or less.

2 – Buying and reselling art on marketplaces

As you just read, if you buy art from someone, you have the full right to keep it or sell it. Naturally, the idea is to resell it with a profit margin. This possibility will be best suited for cryptocurrency and/or digital art investors.

The concept behind this system is very simple.

Since some NFT’s have a strong possibility of future appreciation, you can buy art at a low price, wait some time (which can be from weeks to years), and sell at a profit.

This involves getting to know potential niche artists who do not yet have an established name, buying art while they are apparent unknowns to the general public, and when (and if) they achieve fame, the art you hold from that artist will increase in price substantially.

Notes:

• You have to look at this as an investment, and like any investment there is risk. If you are absolutely risk averse this may not be the best option.
• The time and valuation suggested here are absolutely speculative. You can buy art that will never appreciate in value, that will even depreciate in value, losing its value.
• Do your thorough research on the artist you plan to buy art from. He, will tell you a story that may or may not be true. As in everything, there are scammers waiting to sell you a “masterpiece”, but which will never be worth anything.

Let’s Roll Up our Sleeves and Get to Work!

What does it take to make money with NFTs? Let’s explain the 3 indispensable ‘tools’ to get started. They are:

• a digital wallet – Where you store your cryptocurrencies.
• an Exchange platform.
• NFT marketplace – Where you will sell and/or buy your NFTs.

So now we’re going to take these 3 tools, explain each of them in more detail and show you how you’re going to interconnect all of this.

It’s time to jump into the action.

Step 1: Set up your Digital Wallet

Let’s start by talking about your Digital Wallet and what security rules you should adopt.

There is a well explanatory video about what a wallet for crypto is, made by Binance, which is a solid crypto buying and selling platform. I suggest, if you have not mastered the issue of digital wallets, to watch it here.

The digital wallet is your door into this world. And also, the ‘place’ where you will store all the possible profit you will make. So, I don’t need to explain why you should treat it with as much respect as your real wallet!

If you lose your real wallet, you will lose everything you have there. With digital wallets it’s the same. You will lose all your funds and there is no way anyone can help you recover, not even the customer support of the companies that run the digital wallets, so be attentive and protect your investment!

There are several types of digital wallets for crypto. There are software wallets, hardware wallets, and paper wallets. Since this is a very personal choice, we will not give recommendations on which wallet to use. Please note that many of them are, at the same time, exchanges that we will talk about later. There are several that are good options, such as:

• Binance (also an exchange that is called Binance)
• Coinbase Wallet (separate service from the Exchange called Coinbase)
• Ledger Nano
• ZenGo
• Gemini (also an Exchange called Gemini)
• Trezor
• MetaMask
• Blockchain

Step 2: Choose your Crypto Exchange

In step 2 you will need to have a cryptocurrency exchange. You will always need one, at least for when you want to turn your profits into fiat money.

Some wallets, which we talked about in the previous step are also an exchange, so there may be some confusion.

In a very simplistic way, both in wallets and in exchanges you can store your cryptocurrencies, but only in exchanges you can exchange them for euros, dollars, or other currencies.

Search for exchanges that are available in your country/region, as not all exchanges have global regulations.

Exchange regulations work just like in the binary options world, so choose one that has solid protection.

Also due to such regulations, exchanges are required to ask you for your details and documents in order for them to validate your account. You will have to send personal documentation and, in some cases, your bank details. 

All this information is requested because there is a policy that is anti-money laundering and to combat the financing of terrorism.

There are several solid exchanges, but the two that stand out most are still Binance and Coinbase.

At the exchange you choose, be sure to fully complete your identification and validation process, a process that can be a bit lengthy and annoying, but all for your own safety.

The exchange is also where you will buy Ethereum, ideally. Inform yourself well about the fees that apply. In the next step we explain why you will need to have Ethereum.

Step 3: The markets to sell your NFTs

Let’s now talk about the way to make money with NFTs, by selling your content.

For this you go on the marketplaces. Not all marketplaces are the same.

We can separate the marketplaces by type of entry. We have those marketplaces that you need an invitation, such as Foundation or MakersPlace. Others, such as OpenSea or Rarible do not need an invitation.

Our guide will continue with a focus on OpenSea. It doesn’t need an invitation, it’s one of the best known, it’s one of the most advised, and it has the most integration with just about any virtual wallet worth its salt.

So it ends up being one of the most common choices when it comes to buying or selling NFTs.

You can sell varied content, be it digital art, music, 3D, video, video game assets, etc. Included in OpenSea you have exclusive blockchain gaming assets such as the well-known Crypto Kitties.

Steps to sell and make money with NFTs on OpenSea:

1 – register on the platform.

You will have to make a registration like on any other site. Create your artist profile, set your image, etc.

2 – Create a Collection or a Store.

Create your store or collection that will be your ‘virtual gallery’ where your art will be displayed.

3 – Upload your artwork in the highest resolution possible.

The art you will upload is the final art that will be (eventually) sold and purchased, so you must upload your best version.

This is a bit different from other ways of dealing with art, where the creator shows a low-resolution version, avoiding possible theft. Here, you will have to upload the NFT in high resolution right from the start.

4 – Create and tell a story regarding the art piece.

Be simple, truthful, but tell something that will help interested parties connect with your NFT. 

“What price should I put on my NFT?”

One of the questions that everyone asks when they want to make money with nfts. When setting your price in OpenSea, you first choose your selling method which can be:

• Set Price – sets a fixed price

The Set Price is ideal for those who are taking their first steps and are not yet known in the medium. You can make a profit, but a smaller one.

• Highest Bid – launches an auction, where the highest bid wins

We indicate the Highest Bid for those who already have a name in the market or, at least, who have a large number of followers on social media. But it is also a good way to get around spending ‘gas’ if you are not sure that your item will be sold. Read on and we’ll explain more below.

• Bundle – creates a ‘bundle’ of items for sale

This format allows you to create a group of several items for sale, all together.

How do I publish my NFT?

Publishing your NFT is the process of minting.

To ‘mint’ is to create an NFT. And through this process that your digital art becomes a part of the Ethereum blockchain – a public, immutable, tamper-proof ledger.

This electronic process is done entirely on the OpenSea platform or similar and is both exciting and bittersweet. Exciting because you are transforming art to make money with NFTs, but bitter because it has a cost. That’s why I told you in the previous step that you need to buy Ethereum.

And it can be a hefty cost.

And you must be asking, “how much does it cost?” The truth is that no one can tell you the answer, because you won’t know until the very moment you are doing the process and the website tells you how much it is. There is no table or reference price. Keep reading and you will understand.

The fee charged on the Ethereum blockchain is called gas. When you hear of gas, you already know what it is, a fee that the Ethereum blockchain charges for doing various activities, namely minting of an NFT.

The price varies greatly, because it depends a lot on the load of the blockchain! In a generic way, the ‘busier’ the blockchain is at that moment the higher its gas value will be. It is directly related to offer and demand. 

At the time you are minting the NFT, if you think the gas value is too high, you can cancel and repeat later.

You need to have that value in ETH available in your portfolio, ready to use. One tip: have a little more than what you think you will be asked for.

In OpenSea, you have to pay this amount in gas only when you start your store. Several other platforms ask for a commission every time you launch a new NFT. Now imagine, that you want to launch many NFTs, charging commission on each one will be very expensive.

Is there a way to sell without paying gas?

No, there isn’t. If there is a sale, the platform will always charge something. The best way to get around the gas costs is to create an auction. In the auction you still need to pay for gas, but if there is no bid for the minimum amount you indicate, you will receive the amount of gas you used back in your wallet.

Publish the Sale of your NFT

Sorry, unless you have large thousands following you on social media, your NFT will have little chance of being sold. So, you have to learn how to sell, how to advertise.

Twitter is the ideal platform to do this. It is the one with the most crypto investors. Reddit will be the second-best option.

Use hashtags #NFTs and search for other hashtags with strong relation to the NFT market.

Communicate in English, even if it’s not your native language. The truth is, it’s the universal language for investments, there’s no getting around that.

In addition to publishing, it is time to define your collection, as you want to define your percentage ‘share’ of an upcoming sale. Click ‘edit’ as you see in the image below.

This percentage defines the amount you will earn on an eventual future sale, should the new owner of the NFT you sold want to sell again. This is a very nice feature that you will not want to miss.

Notes regarding how to make money with NFT:

• Don’t go in with expectations that are too high. If you are here it is because you have read about those million-dollar sales of NFTs. Those sales are one-offs and a tiny minority and do not represent the (hard) reality of the market today.
• Don’t think that you will wake up a millionaire. Success takes time. If you don’t have many followers nor are you a well-known artist, it will take time before you can sell something.  

We have already covered the basics of how to create and sell your digital art.

Now, the second way you can make money with NFTs is by buying and reselling art on marketplaces.

Making a Profit by Buying and Reselling Art on the Marketplaces

Maybe you are not an artist, nor do you want to produce content, but you want to enter the marketplace and make a profit? Yes, it’s also possible to make money with nfts in this way! You are at the right part of our guide.

For this model to work you need to:

• have an investment strategy
• not be afraid to take risks
• not be afraid of speculative investments
• have the notion that you should only invest an amount that you don’t need because you may lose all the capital invested
• to research and learn, paying attention to unreasonable hype and various scams

The above points are highly subjective and if you are not comfortable with any of them, then this investment model is not for you.

But if it is, you will need a strategy as I talked about above. While this is not an investment guide, you can heed the following opinions in order to build your strategy when buying art from others and reselling later.

Gather influential market contacts

As with many other things, having well-positioned contacts is essential. You will be able to get first-hand access to information and tips.

You can also have firsthand access to ‘drops’ that can add a lot of value. Usually these drops are free or very reasonably priced. Others are limited, which because of their rarity, can be very valuable in the future. Being on the front line can be decisive to get one, or not.

What is a drop?

A drop in NFT refers to the launch of a new NFT project.

Be aware, there are drops every day, but most are simply fake, scam or no good. Be very aware of scams.

Buy when established niche artists launch into NFTs

One possible shortcut to success is to follow already reputable artists who are not yet operating in the crypto market.

If they do launch into the NFTs market, their first works may have a lower cost, but have a good chance of appreciating in value in the future as their name becomes more famous.

Always do your research, don’t blindly follow others

I have already pointed this out to you, it is very important to learn, investigate and do your research before buying and selling NFTs. Someone from the scammers, there are a lot of ‘experts’ out there who recommend buying “this or that” because they have hidden self-interests.

There are many chains with exaggerated hype about NFTs that you can get super excited about, but which in the end only leave you in a cold.

How can I Protect Myself from Scams?

Excellent question! Scam attempts happen daily, on various platforms, be it discord, telegram, whatsapp, or various social networks. It is very important that you learn how to identify scams and scammers. Here are some notes on how to stay smart and avoid some of the existing scams:

– Never give out your secret phrase or seed phrase.

The secret phrase or seed phrase are two security mechanisms that exist in many wallets or exchanges. They are a sort of code of several random words. Usually 12 or 14, they are given to you once and you must keep them safe. Resist the temptation to take a screenshot and leave it on your cell phone. Pointing it out on a secure, confidential piece of paper might be a good idea. Don’t lose it and never give that code to anyone! That code may be the only way to get your cryptocurrencies back if something happens to your access.

– Stay away from fakes/imitations

As long as there has been art there have been fakes. From Rembrandt to Van Gogh, Picasso or Rodin, many works by these and other artists have been faked, why should this be any different in the digital world in NFT’s? 

On whatever platform you are on, you will have real items and imitations, as well as real artists and copycat artists.

The image below shows the real account and a sequence of fake accounts, which may come to sell counterfeit and worthless art on the market.

– Do your research

We’ve talked about this before, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you. Research common scams like Rug Pull or Pump and Dump.

Research about security, about the artists, about digital wallets and secure exchanges. This is an investment, it involves money and almost no one can help you if things go wrong and you get scammed.

Make Money with NFTs: Conclusion

Ufff, that was a bit long, no? But let’s get to the conclusion.

With this guide you’ve learned how to make money with NFTs, either on the content creation side or the option of buying to resell other artists’ art for profit.

NFT’s have been around for quite a while, but it’s only taken off in the last few months so you’re going to be there just in time to get your share. All the experts say that this market still has a lot to give, especially with all the new technological developments that haven’t even seen the light of day yet.

Hopefully this guide will help you take your first step into a highly interesting and dynamic area that merges art and investments, based on cutting-edge technology.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions about make money with NFTs