You’ve probably heard the acronym “NFT” thrown around a lot recently —in the news, on social media, from investors — but what exactly is an “NFT”?

Recently, I have been diving deeper into the crypto community and trying to learn more about blockchain technology. When it came time to create an NFT of my own, I could not find a simple and concise guide on the proper steps — so I decided to share what I have learned. This guide will teach you the simplest way to create your own NFT and sell it on a marketplace. But first, before we can sell one, we need to understand what exactly an NFT is.

The first NFT was created in 2014, but they started gaining traction and popularity in 2018 when you could find some NFTs selling for over $100,000. Since then, the prices have gone drastically up and down and back up again, helping many people achieve financial success and freedom.

A “Non-Fungible Token” (NFT) is, in its simplest form, a piece of unique data that is stored on a blockchain. It can represent digital ownership of pictures, art, music, videos, and many other file types. What makes NFTs special is the fact that they can publicly certify the authenticity of the digital file. Using a cryptographic hash function, the NFT ownership and authenticity can be tracked and verified by anyone.

There are many wallets you can use to store your NFTs, but for this tutorial, I will show you how to set up and use MetaMask, which is available as a Chrome extension, iOS app, and Android app. This tutorial will show you how to install the MetaMask Chrome extension which is needed to mint an NFT. Additionally, you can download the MetaMask iOS/Android app to view your assets on your mobile device.

First, head over to MetaMask’s website and go to the download page for Chrome, shown below:

Once installed, the wallet can be accessed in Chrome’s extension menu and the wallet will look like the one shown above on MetaMask’s webpage:

On the wallet, you can send and receive funds, as well as swap between different tokens. If you click on your account name you can get the wallet address for this MetaMask wallet.

Congratulations, you have now created a crypto wallet with MetaMask!

Next, go to OpenSea.io and sign up for a new account. I recommend using OpenSea on a web browser instead of the mobile app since you can’t mint NFTs on the app (you can still browse for and trade them on mobile). Once you sign up for an account, click the wallet icon and select MetaMask, as shown below:

This will then automatically open up your MetaMask via the Chrome extension, where you will be prompted to sign the Signature Request. This is what gives your wallet access to OpenSea and signs the NFTs with your wallet address so that you can list NFTs as your own.

On OpenSea, you can create a “Collection”, which is just a grouping of NFTs. Under “My Collections” you can view your existing collections or create a new one:

To create a collection, you need to create a unique name and add a logo. There are several other optional features, such as a banner/cover photo, category/description, and selecting the royalties. If you would like to make money off of the NFT transactions, you can specify a royalty percentage (up to 10%) that you as the creator will get when there is a transfer of your NFT. Additionally, you need to choose which blockchain the collection will be on. Since this guide will show you how to mint an NFT on the Polygon Blockchain, we will put the collection on Polygon.

Once the collection is created, you can begin to mint your NFTs into it!

Once your wallet is linked to OpenSea, your home page will have the option for “Create” in the top right.

On this page, you will need to attach the file for the NFT that you would like to create, along with its name. You can optionally add a link or description along with the NFT, as well as add it to your collection.

Also on this page, you must select which blockchain you want to deploy the NFT to. Two popular ones are the Ethereum Blockchain and the Polygon Blockchain. There are pros and cons of both, but simply put, listing an NFT for sale on the Ethereum Blockchain will cost gas fees, and listing on the Polygon Blockchain will not. If you choose to mint an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, make sure you have some ETH in your wallet to pay for the gas fees required to sell it. Additionally, on the Polygon Blockchain, you can list an NFT with multiple copies of it.

Simply click “Create” and the chosen file will be minted into an NFT!

After minting your NFT on the chosen blockchain, you will be able to see it in your OpenSea profile. To list it for sale, simply click the “Sell” button shown below:

Here, you can select the sale options, which include how many you want to sell (if you minted multiple copies), as well as the price. One neat thing about the NFTs is that you can collect a royalty for every transaction on them.

After clicking on “Complete Listing” you will be asked to sign the message using your MetaMask wallet. This will automatically open your wallet again via the Chrome extension, where you can sign the NFT with your address.

Signing the NFT will complete the listing, and your NFT will now be available for sale on the OpenSea Marketplace!

Creating and minting NFTs might seem daunting at first, but I assure you it’s not as difficult as it seems. With just a couple of quick steps, you too can have your very own NFT. If you want to see some of the other NFTs that I have created, you can check out my collection here.

Thank you for reading along, and I hope this guide has helped you understand how to mint and sell your first NFT!