5 Simple Steps To Mint An NFT - It's Easy: Step-by-step Guide

Non-fungible tokens have been high-performing subsets of blockchain technology with total sales of $87 million so far this year. This is happening fast because of its NFT utilities and acceptance. 

However, some have been baffled about the exact processes it takes to mint an NFT. This is a bar that is keeping a lot of people from becoming NFT creators. 

Perhaps you also find NFT minting as something quite strange, you'd be surprised to know that minting NFTs is not as complicated as you think - it's a piece of cake. 

Therefore, this article will inform you about the simple steps you can take to mint an NFT by yourself in a matter of minutes.

Minting NFT Meaning?

So what does it mean to mint an NFT? Minting an NFT basically means converting a digital file into a blockchain-based NFT.

In traditional finance, minting is a way the government produces more coins or currencies. Similarly, minting an NFT simply refers to the process of "publishing" or "creating" it on the blockchain. 

The moment you mint a file into an NFT, it becomes a unique digital asset that can be traded. There are no limits to what these files can be. It can be an artwork NFT, document, video, or even a musical recording NFT. 

These NFTs are stored on the database of the blockchain network you choose - BNB Chain, Solana, Ethereum, or Polygon. More importantly, minting gives you the right of ownership. Such that you can set the percentage you want to be collecting as the creator - this often ranges from 5% to as high as 50%.

📌 Related: NFT Meaning, What Exactly Are NFTs? A Thorough Guide. 

Two Types of NFT Minting 

There are two different ways of minting an NFT, and these differences depend majorly on whether or not the creator wishes to pay the NFT gas fee:

1. Traditional minting 

Traditional minting was the first method of minting as introduced by the Ethereum blockchain. The users pay gas fees to compensate the Ethereum miners so they can add their transactions to the nearest block. 

Hence the reason the current price of Ethereum determines how high or low gas fees will be. In traditional minting, the onus of paying the gas fees rests on you as the NFT creator or entrepreneur.

2. Gasless Minting 

Just some days ago, Etherscan on-chain analysis shows that someone spent over $570k gas fees to buy an NFT item - a Tubby Cat. NFT creators are now avoiding these sometimes "exorbitant" gas fees through gasless minting. 

How does this work? 

The sharp difference between traditional and gasless minting is that the latter transfers the duty of paying for the gas fees to the buyer. 

When you create the NFT, it remains on the server of the NFT marketplace and it won't reflect in your NFT wallet. It will only get minted when the buyer pays the gas fees. This is otherwise called Lazy Minting. 

5 Simple Steps To Mint An NFT 

1. Create The NFT Digital File 

This is the core of what will later become the NFT. If you are uploading a musical, pictorial, or video file, give it your best shot. These files might vary depending on the nature of what you want to upload. 

Their extensions can be: 

• Pictures - PNG, GIF, JPEG, RAW 
• Music - MP3, WAV, FLAC 
• Videos - MKV, MOV, AVI, and so on 

You should bear in mind that not all white label NFT marketplaces are compatible with all file extensions. On this note, make brief research to ascertain the file extensions that your desired NFT marketplace accepts. 

2. Fund Your Crypto Wallet 

You would need this to create an account on crypto exchanges—like FTX and Binance—so you can buy the supported tokens of the NFT marketplace of your choice. 

Therefore, what you should do at this stage is to send crypto from the exchange to the wallet address because you'd need it to mint.

You should note that the crypto you should send depends on the blockchain network where you'd be placing your NFT. For example, you'd need 

• ETH on Opensea because its underlying blockchain is Ethereum 
• SOL for Solflare because the wallet is on the Solana ecosystem 
• The ENJ token for the Enjin wallet 

How do you fund your crypto wallet? Send the respective token from your exchange to your wallet address.

3. Connect The Wallet To A Marketplace 

Now that you have funded your wallet, you'd have to connect it with the marketplace where you want to mint your NFT. Once you come to the signup page, click on the wallet icon and it will log you in. 

NFTify, for example, supports Metamask and Wallet Connect. Wallet Connect makes it easy to sign in with other wallets like Trust Wallet, Rainbow, and ten other popular wallets. 

Immediately you log in, you will have a profile or "build NFT store." Most marketplaces will also, at this stage, require your Gmail and password to be verified.

4. Upload NFT The File 

Before now, we mentioned that you need to get your file ready to mint. This is where you'd send that file into the server of the marketplace. How do you do this? 

We'd use NFTify as our case study:   
Go to your profile, look for the "Create NFT" button and click on it. This will bring you to a page where you can upload your NFT, its cover image, and descriptions. 

Furthermore, you can select the royalty percentage to be up to 50% and you can also edit how your NFT link will appear on the search engines.

In case you want some degree of privacy on your NFT, you can choose to lock it or hide your storefront from the website.

📌 Read more: How To Create and Upload Multiple NFTs At Once

5. Put NFTs Up For Sale 

At this stage, you'd have to select the selling method for NFTs. That is, whether you want instant sale or auction. 

When you have filled this, you would be required to input the number of NFT copies you'd want to create. More importantly, this is where you'd fix your price and also pay the service fee - which others might call a gas fee. 

We'd use NFTify as our case study: 

If you are collaborating with others on your NFTify storefront, you can also select the mode of revenue distribution. Now, you can click the "put on sale" button to make your NFT appear in the marketplace.

However, you should bear in mind that when using the lazy minting method, putting your NFT on sale doesn't mean it is minted yet. It will only be minted at the time of purchase.

Conclusion 

The NFT space gets more exciting every day with increasing sales volume, innovations, and wider adoption. Therefore, a good way to join the train is not only by buying NFTs but also by minting them.   
You can use the steps above to mint NFTs on any platform. To recap, we described 5 simple steps:   
 

• Create a digital file 
• Fund your crypto wallet 
• Connect your wallet to the marketplace 
• Upload your file 
• Put it up for sale

Mint Your NFTs on NFTify 

NFTify - nft minting platform, is the best place to start your NFT minting journey if you haven't. You can leverage NFTify as a marketplace builder platform to build your own robust NFT storefront. 

Since one of our main aims is to onboard more NFT creators and entrepreneurs, we have simplified the tech aspect of NFT for you to build your store without having to write a line of code - it's that simple.

⭐️ Be a part of the NFTify community on Telegram, Twitter, Youtube

FAQs

1. How long does it take to mint an NFT?   
The actual process of uploading and minting your NFT shouldn't take more than ten minutes maximum. 

2. How much does it cost to mint an NFT?   
This depends on the marketplace you're using. But you can mint for as low as $4 or even cheaper on Polygon. 

3. Can you mint an NFT for free?   
So far, the only way to mint an NFT for free is by using the Moralis Rarible plugin in your NFT contract. 

4. How do I mint an NFT collection?   
To mint an NFT, you need to upload your files and pay for the gas fees to list them on the marketplace. 

5. What happens after I've sold my NFT?   
The NFT will be in the wallet of the buyer and you stand a chance of receiving royalties as it changes hands.