Daphne Youree
- In February 2022 I made, minted, and sold my first NFT after becoming curious about the space.
- It cost me more to make and list the NFT than what I made, but I have no regrets.
- There's still a chance I could profit off of this NFT in the future, and I plan to make more soon.
- Read more from Personal Finance Insider.
In an effort to diversify my portfolio and learn more about digital coins, I bought a small amount of cryptocurrency last year for the first time ever. Buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, has forced me to pay attention to the cryptocurrency space and dive into education on the differences between these coins and the various ways they can be used.
This is what led me to the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). After watching my husband use some of his Ethereum to purchase NFTs at the end of 2021, I decided to keep a close eye on brands — from Adidas to L'Oreal Paris — and artists who were dropping collections of these digital tokens.
I took interest in the way some content creators like podcast hosts and authors were using NFTs as a way to give buyers access to private communities or perks — like access to unpublished manuscripts or tickets to live events.
That's when I decided that I was going to create, mint, and sell my first NFT. Here are the exact steps I took to make that happen.
1. I set up my digital wallet and an NFT account
Before I created my NFT, I had to get my infrastructure set up. To do this, I created an account on Coinbase and bought $250 worth of Ethereum — the cryptocurrency I needed to work with for my NFT . This way, I was able to set up my digital wallet.
I knew that it would cost me a little money up front to make and sell an NFT, but I didn't need to spend as much as $250 to do it. I just wanted to have a decent amount in my new wallet.
After that I set up an account on OpenSea, the marketplace I chose to list my NFT, and connected my digital wallet.
2. I created the NFT, which only took 30 seconds
Since I'm not an artist, I didn't spend time drawing up something eye-catching and I didn't want to spend cash investing in a designer to make my NFT.
Instead, I wanted to create one that would service as a digital token to give the buyer access to a 60-minute coaching session with me.
I decided to create a graphic using the free platform, Canva. I used text on the graphic to clearly share the benefit of the NFT and exported it as a JPEG.
While you can create collections of NFT and sell multiple (some people sell 250 NFTs in a collection or 10,000), I decided to just create one NFT.
3. I listed it on an NFT marketplace
I headed to my OpenSea account and created a new listing for this NFT. I uploaded the JPEG, wrote a description of the NFT (including details about the coaching session you unlock when you buy it) and set my price.
Since this was my first NFT and an experiment, I priced it extremely low (0.01 ETH, which is around $25).
A 60-minute coaching session with me is usually around $250, so this was a way that I could offer that service at a discount and make it accessible to a new audience.
4. I paid around $46 to list the NFT
Now that the NFT was created, the final step to get it up on the marketplace was to mint it. Minting an NFT is the process of adding it to the Ethereum blockchain so that now all transactions can be recorded.
I had to pay 0.017 ETH (which was around $46 at the time) to mint the NFT. These fees vary by the minute, so it's tough to know in advance how much you will spend on this step.
While I knew that I had listed the NFT for less than I spent minting it, that didn't necessarily mean I'd lose money on this when it sold. Here's why.
5. I sold the NFT for $26
Since there are thousands of NFTs on the marketplace, I knew I needed to use my own marketing platforms to spread the word about my NFT and hopefully find a buyer. I shared the NFT on my social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin) and posted about it in my newsletter. After a few days, I got an email that someone had bought the NFT.
While they paid $26 for the NFT, that's not the end of the road. They have two options, one of which could make us both money.
Now that they own the NFT, they can list it on the marketplace for however much they'd like. If my value as an entrepreneur and influencer skyrocket one day, they can list it for a lot of money and pocket the cash if it sells. Because of how I set up the NFT, I get 5% of the sale price every time this NFT sells, forever.
However, if the buyer decides to redeem the NFT for a coaching session, the NFT gets "burned" (meaning it returns to my account and then it won't be sold again). Sure, they'd score a $250 coaching session for $26, and I'd still be down $20, but that $20 was a worthwhile investment to learn this process.
The amount I may or may not profit from this one NFT is still up in the air, but I'm already plotting my next move in the NFT space. This time, a collection of 250 NFTs that will hopefully net thousands of dollars.