Introduction

NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens. Generally speaking NFTs are the tokens created in a blockchain (decentralized database) for digital assets like digital artwork, music, tweet or text, game collectibles, etc. Nevertheless NFTs are also been created for physical real world items like a real estate property (like one in Metaverse). One can create and sell an NFT to earn profits. But when you create an NFT you are charged with a Gas fee which is the fee a miner takes to store the NFT in a blockchain like Ethereum. But since last year zero Gas fee NFT creation is made possible. This article entirely focusses on “how to create and sell NFT for free“.

Prerequisites:

• High speed internet connection and a laptop or phone
• A crypto wallet. MetaMask is used in this guide. But other wallets will also work well.
• Image, Video, Audio, or 3D Model.
  File types supported: JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB, GLTF.
  Max size: 100 MB

Key Takeaways:

• Learn how to create and sell NFT for free (no upfront Gas Fee) using OpenSea and Rarible. Anyone with or without any knowledge of coding, crypto, blockchain can create and sell an NFT for free by referring to this article. However, it is always better to gain some context on what exactly NFTs are and what is the underlying technology Blockchain refers to. Refer to the below guides to understand
  Basics of Blockchain
  Basics of NFTs

• Since there is no Gas Fee, we will be limited to creating an NFT for Image, Video, Audio, or 3D Model.
  File types supported: JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB, GLTF.
  Max size: 100 MB
• However there will be a service charge of 2.5% on each sale of NFT. This is realized by the NFT Marketplace on each NFT you sell.
• We will learn to create NFTs on the OpenSea and Rarible. These are NFT Marketplaces which are platforms for creating and selling your NFTs. There are other NFT Marketplaces also but those have not incorporated the Gas Free model of NFT creation yet.
• We can also create an NFT by deploying a Smart Contract to a blockchain. This is way too technical which requires coding (Solidity) knowledge. This method is beyond the scope of this article.
• Mostly all the NFTs are created, stored, and sold in the Ethereum blockchain. Your chances of getting through your first NFT sale increases if it is stored in the Ethereum blockchain as compared to other blockchain platforms. But Ethereum incurs a Gas Fee which can be in the range of 50-70 USD or even more depending on the traffic (check the traffic on Ethereum).
  
  For this guide which focuses on how to create and sell NFT for free, we will be employing the Polygon blockchain. Polygon until now (at the time of writing this article), is slightly lesser in the number of accomplished NFT sales than Ethereum. But as time passes by this number might increase on Polygon. Also, Ethereum 2.0 (to be released somewhere in 2022), might also allow Gas Free NFT minting.

Ok, much of the background. Let us now see “How to create and sell NFTs for free“. But before that if you do not have any blockchain and crypto background, you can refer to the following sections which unveil the basics of NFT, Blockchain, NFT Minting, and Why NFT Minting. Else you can straightway go to Section 5.

What is NFT Minting or Creating an NFT

First a few lines about NFT. Simply put, an NFT is the tokenization of a real world or digital asset which are non-fungible in nature (i.e. it cannot be replaced or exchanged in standard scenario with another similar asset).

For instance one can create the NFT of a digital artwork and save it in a blockchain like Ethereum. This storage on the blockchain platform like Ethereum (there are other blockchains also like Cardano, EOS, etc.) ensures immutability (uniqueness), scarcity, interoperability (can be traded on different platforms) and programmability of the digital asset.

Now the process of creating an NFT and storing it in a blockchain like Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Polygon, etc. is known as NFT minting. You can create an NFT of your digital asset in an NFT Marketplace like OpenSea and it is directed to a miner to write or store it in a blockchain.

An NFT Marketplace is a digital platform where your can buy and sell NFTs. Think of them as the Amazon of buying and selling NFTs.

The miner charges a fee for writing the digital record in the blockchain. Hence, whenever an NFT is minted (written to a blockchain) a gas fee is required.

However, OpenSea and Rarible enable zero Gas fee minting since around last year.

The point of the matter is that NFT is not written to the blockchain until the first sale happens. This is called lazy minting. Once sold a commission is charged on the sale which is also shared with the miner of the Blockchain.

Why NFT Minting

Simple. Right? We mint an NFT to sell it and earn profits.

People have earned millions by creating and selling NFTs. You must have heard of Beeple (artist) who sold his digital art for a whopping $69 Million. A 22 years old man earned a million-dollar dollar just by selling the NFT of his selfies. Other similar NFT success stories are swarming the internet for your motivation to get your hands in this space.

Hence, if you are someone who can offer to sell some digital art, music, text, gif, collectible, etc. then it is the right time to get into the NFT space.

How to create and sell NFT for free

In this guide, we will learn to how to create and sell NFT for free using

1. OpenSea
2. Rarible

Fundamentally we will be going through the below depicted steps to mint an NFT for free in OpenSea as well as Rarible.

But first, let us understand the concept of Lazy Minting. It will give you a perspective of why there is no Gas fee incurred in OpenSea and Rarible in particular cases. If you do not wish to go that deeper, you can skip it and straightway go to Section 5.2 to learn the steps involved in creating an NFT in OpenSea.

Lazy Minting

Lazy Minting is also known as “Gasless Minting”.

It is the process in which zero Gas fee is incurred in minting an NFT.

In normal scenarios, an NFT is minted in the blockchain at the time of its creation only. A miner stores (mints) the NFT in a blockchain. As a reward, the miner is given a fee called a Gas Fee. A Gas fee also incurs when the NFT is sold and transferred to someone else.

In Lazy Minting, the NFT is not written/minted in a blockchain at the time of creation but rather written at the time of sale. The NFT is minted in the blockchain when the first sale happens. This allows for zero Gas fee at the time of creation. In fact the buyer only pays for the Gas Fee at the time of the purchase. Till then the NFT remains listed in the NFT Marketplace and the data is safely stored in a decentralized storage like IPFS.

Hence, novice digital artists can start their journey of NFT creation and sale without any upfront fee.

A commission of 2.5% (generally) is charged at the time of sale.

How to create and sell NFT for free in OpenSea

Let us now learn the steps of how to create and sell NFT for free in OpenSea using Polygon blockchain.

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Step 1: You need to have a PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4 or MP3 (Max 100mb)

You need to have a digital asset that can be converted to an NFT. The following tools can be used to make one:

Canva

Adobe Photoshop

Step 2: Get a wallet

To mint an NFT, we need a crypto wallet. A crypto wallet is needed to

• receive any payments when an NFT is sold and
• to pay for the Gas Fee incurred in NFT minting.

For this article, a crypto wallet is only needed to get synced with the OpenSea and receive payments of NFT sales.

OpenSea supports many different crypto wallets. See below.

I will be using MetaMask. It can be downloaded as a browser extension of Chrome or as an Android or IOS application. It is the most popular crypto wallets used for NFT Minting.

Simply click on MetaMask and download the version for Chrome, Android or IOS as per your need.

Caution:

(a) Save you password to a safe location online as well as offline. This is needed whenever you connect MetaMask to any application like OpenSea or Rarible.
(b) Copy and store the Secret Recovery Phrase at a safe location. I advise to store it at multiple locations online as well as offline in a page of paper. This Secret Recovery Phrase is needed when you login to OpenSea via another computer system.

Word of Caution for MetaMask

Step 3: Connect wallet to OpenSea.

Go to OpenSea home page.

Click on the wallet icon on the top right corner to connect MetaMask to OpenSea. It will ask for your password. Once shared your MetaMask will be connected to OpenSea.

Step 4: Create a Collection

The next step is to create a Collection. But what is a Collection?

A Collection is like a page in which you will be able to see all the NFTs you have created in OpenSea.

This step is not a mandate. But, it is a good practice to create a Collection to store all your NFTs. It is a much more conducive manner to sell your NFTs.

To create a Collection, click on your profile button (as seen below) and press “My Collections“.

Click on “Create a Collection“.

It will take you to the below page to create your collection.

Click on “Create a collection”.

You need to sign using your wallet. Click “Sign”.

You will be navigated to the below page.

Step 4.1: Add the desired information

Add your logo, description, banner, social media links and set your royalties.

Add your logo.

You can add a banner and a featured image. It is not mandatory, but good to add one.

Add your social media links (Twitter, Redditt, Instagram) links. It is advisable as it helps in advertising your NFTs.

Add a royalty fee which should be less than 10%. This fee is the percentage fee you get every time someone resells your NFT.

Copy your MetaMask wallet address and paste it in the desired row.

Step 4.2: Select Polygon blockchain

Select Polygon from the drop down menu (as shown below).

Since we are looking into the free option of creating and selling an NFT, we have selected Polygon and not Ethereum.

Once added all the desired information, and selecting Polygon blockchain, click on “Create” to create your Collection.

A Collection similar to the one shown below will be created.

Step 5: Add an NFT to your Collection

Click on “Add Item”

It will take you to the below page. You can upload an image, audio, video, or 3D Model in various file types like JPG, PNG,GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB, GLTF (Maximum size 100 MB).

From the “Collection” dropdown, choose the “Collection Name” you created in Step 3.

Also you can define the number of copies of the NFT to be minted. For example,

Fill in all other details and click ” Create” in the bottom.

You will be prompted with something like below.

Step 6: List your NFT for Sale

To list your NFT for sale in OpenSea, click on “Sell” button at the top right corner of the web page. See below.

You can now set the price of your NFT

Set the price.

You can see there is a Service Charge of 2.5%.

Click on “Complete listing”.

In order to Complete listing you need to “Unlock Currency”

Sign in using your MetaMask wallet once.

Once signed, your NFT is listed.

Share your listings on social profiles like Twitter. Like I shared one on Twitter.

Congrats you now know how to create and sell NFT for free.

Now the last step should be to promote your NFT for sale.

Step 7: Promote your NFT for sale

This is needed. You simply cannot think of making NFTs in silo and being able to sell them for a penny let alone millions. You can follow the below approach.

• Leverage online communities and social media-Facebook and Reddit
• Leverage Clubhouse rooms related to NFTs and promote yourself there
• Use Twitter to build awareness around your Brand and find people ready to buy your NFTs
• Try and Go Viral on Social Media, especially on TikTok which is starting to pay close attention towards Non-Fungible Tokens
• Find and collaborate with Top influencers to promote your NFT Brand
• Focus on one single NFT Marketplace. OpenSea is a vast platform to follow.

How to create and sell NFT for free in Rarible

Now let us explore the steps involved to create and sell NFT for free in Rarible.

Step 1: You need to have a PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4 or MP3 (Max 100mb)

You need to have a digital asset that can be converted to an NFT. The following tools can be used to make one:

Canva

Adobe Photoshop

Step 2: Get a Wallet

As required for OpenSea, we will need a wallet to mint an NFT in Rarible also.

To mint an NFT, we need a crypto wallet. A crypto wallet is needed to

• receive any payments when an NFT is sold and
• to pay for the Gas Fee incurred in NFT minting.

For this article, a crypto wallet is only needed to get synced with the Rarible and receive payments of NFT sales.

I will be using MetaMask. It can be downloaded as a browser extension of Chrome or as an Android or IOS application. It is the most popular crypto wallets used for NFT Minting.

Simply click on MetaMask and download the version for Chrome, Android or IOS as per your need.

Caution:

(a) Save you password to a safe location online as well as offline. This is needed whenever you connect MetaMask to any application like OpenSea or Rarible.
(b) Copy and store the Secret Recovery Phrase at a safe location. I advise to store it at multiple locations online as well as offline in a page of paper. This Secret Recovery Phrase is needed when you login to OpenSea via another computer system.Word of Caution for MetaMask

Word of Caution for MetaMask

Step 3: Go to Rarible

Go to Rarible.com and click on ” Create“.

Step 4: Choose the Blockchain

The next step will be to choose the blockchain. Choose Ethereum. If you go by Flow Blockchain you will need a Blocto wallet. I will be using MetaMask (which is the most popular one) and hence will be choosing Ethereum blockchain. Anyway, most of the NFTs are bought and sold on the Ethereum blockchain.

Step 5: Connect your Wallet

An option to sign in with a wallet will appear.

I have signed it using MetaMask. You can choose the wallet of your choice.

Accept Rarible Terms and Conditions and this will connect your wallet to Rarible.

Step 6: Create your NFT

Since we are considering the Zero Gas Fee select “Single Type”

Now you will be taken to the below page.

Upload your digital file (PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4 or MP3. Max 100mb.)

You can select one among the type of Sales options: Fixed, Open for Bids or Timed Auction. Also select your price in Ether.

Make sure the option of “Free Minting” is selected.

Select your Royalty percentage. This is the percentage share you will be given each time your NFT will be sold by someone. The maximum is 50%

Keep Collection to “Rarible”

Fill in all the details and press “Create”.

That is it. Sign in using your wallet and your NFT is created.

Now the last step as we discussed in OpenSea also. Promote your NFT brand.

Step 7: Promote your NFT for sale

This is needed. You simply cannot think of making NFTs in silo and being able to sell them for a penny let alone millions. You can follow the below approach.

• Leverage online communities and social media-Facebook and Reddit
• Leverage Clubhouse rooms related to NFTs and promote yourself there
• Use Twitter to build awareness around your Brand and find people ready to buy your NFTs
• Try and Go Viral on Social Media, especially on TikTok which is starting to pay close attention towards Non-Fungible Tokens
• Find and collaborate with Top influencers to promote your NFT Brand
• Focus on one single NFT Marketplace. OpenSea/Rarible is a vast platform to follow.

Risks:

There are a few risks or disclaimers to consider when entering the NFT space.

• Highly Speculative Market: The NFT market is too bullish on NFTs. Also NFTs are a fad that can disappear with time.
• High Gas Fee Rates: Most of the NFT sales happen in the Ethereum blockchain. The Ethereum blockchain charges Gas fee for sale, transfer and minting of NFTs. The options we considered in this article are Zero Gas fee NFT minting. It bundles the Gas Fee along with the cost price when a buyer tries to purchase your NFT.
• You might not make sales as soon as you create your NFTs. Your artwork might be lost in the vast majority of other artworks, and you will need to work hard to bring them to the attention of collectors. It would also be best to have a large fanbase to sell your tokens for large sums of money.