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NFTs and ways to mint NFT for free are a hot topic on the cryptocurrency front as more investors and art collectors are becoming interested in buying these digital assets. Some are sold for hundreds of thousands, while others are rushed products which have owners who want to get rich quick.
We at howtohosting.guide have created this article to explain how you can mint NFTs.
What is an NFT?
We have mentioned this before in other posts so let us briefly summarize NFTs. NFT stands for Non-fungible Token and explained simply, it is a form of a digital collectible with a specific owner.
An NFT has metadata, as in details about the NFT digital object, such as the file name, file contents, etc. An NFT can be this article, a digital artwork, a piece of literature, a song or a melody that you have created.
What is Minting?
The process of minting is turning that original piece of art into an NFT and selling it as a rightful author. Minting is the monetization of digital assets you have created and claiming sole ownership over them. There are different NFT marketplaces on which you can claim ownership and list items and get offers for them.
In the following lines we will cover how to mint your digital creations for free on the Polygon blockchain.
What to Know and Prepare Before You Mint NFT for Free
Create and Link Up a Crypto Wallet
If you do not already have one, open a crypto wallet (Metamask for example) and connect it to the NFT marketplace. Some of the most popular and reliable marketplaces for NFTs are OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, and Foundation. Create a profile in any of them to begin.
Connect your Metamask (or similar) wallet using a QR code scanner on your smartphone or download your wallet onto your computer, depending on the device you want to use it on.
Afterward, your crypto wallet is connected and your marketplace profile created. Complete your profile. Describe the item and who you are, which cryptocurrencies you will accept as payment if somebody makes a purchase from you and so on.
Connect to the Polygon Testnet and Receive a Matic Token
Connect your Metamask wallet to Polygon’s testnet (that runs Pods App) as it is free to mint NFTs there.
Next, you need to receive a MATIC token to your wallet by using the Polygon faucet. Select the Mumbai testnet and paste your wallet address from Metamask into the form:
Copy your private key from Metamask by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner and selecting Account details. On the bottom you can find a button to export your private key. Click it and enter your password when prompted. You can copy and paste the private key in a text file for safe-keeping.
You can visit the official website of Polygon for further information, if you need more details.
How to Mint NFTs on Polygon for Free?
Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform. Here are the steps you would need to follow to mint NFTs using Polygon and a few other services.
Now that you have a crypto wallet up and running and you have linked it to Polygon and received your Matic token, you have the prerequisites needed to mint NFTs.
Create Your Item and Name It
From the home page of the marketplace, click on the Create button in the upper right corner. You will be prompted to upload a digital file and give that NFT a name.
Optional fields include a description for your work, an external link to more information, web page, and which blockchain to base the NFT on such as the Ethereum-based protocol Polygon (CRYPTO:MATIC) in our case.
This is where you will be paid in royalties if your NFT gets sold in the future. The standard is up to 10%.
List Your NFT for Sale on The Market
After minting your NFT, you have proven ownership and the asset is tied to you and your accounts. Now all is left for you to list it for sale on the marketplace.
Click on the Sell button in the upper right corner of the description page of your NFT. Specify more details on the sale, such as a timed auction or a set price in a cryptocurrency of your choice.
The marketplace will disclose any related fees for selling. One standard fee (the price for handling the listing) is 2.5% of the NFT price you ask it to be sold for. Now all you have to do is click on Complete listing.
Keep Growing Your NFT Business
Once your NFT is made and listed on the market, you should engage even more with your potential patrons.
You can keep creating more NFTs using Polygon, and even make them a part of a collection. That could very well attract the attention of art collectors and speculators alike. NFTs created on one marketplace can be transferred and sold on another one, although there may be some fees around it.
It goes without saying that any interaction with potential buyers on NFT marketplaces builds rapport. That in turn, allows you to keep growing your new NFT business little by little. Monitoring activity on your creations is a must. Read feedback while creating more digital art and collectibles.
Conclusion
NFTs are still fresh in the digital world, while more and more people are catching up with this technology. Knowing how to mint for free is still quite valuable.
Polygon is one of the few platforms that allows for free minting. Hopefully the article has been helpful enough for you to understand how to achieve that and prosper with your new NFT business.
You can read some of the other articles we have written on similar topics:
How to Host Files on The IPFS Network
Create a Website on IPFS Using Pinata
How to Create a Blockchain Website
I mean I totally get that with the mining, but isn’t Polygon paid If I want more than 1 GB of storage on web 3?