OpenSea is the largest general marketplace for user-owned digital goods, also known as NFT’s or non-fungible tokens. They can be digital art, collectibles, gaming items, domain names, and any other assets backed by a blockchain.
On OpenSea, you can buy, sell, and trade any of these digital assets with anyone else in the world. There are more than 200 categories and over 4 million items available on the platform.
As a decentralized platform, trading on Opensea is done through smart contracts. No central authority actually holds custody of your items. NFTs are written in a programming language called Solidity, the Smart Contracts are stored on the blockchain, and the NFTs are minted from them.
You can make money in the NFT market based on the value of your assets. There are no fees on OpenSea, and the minimum investment required is just $1. This is the new frontier of art investing, and NFTs are unique and liquid. Here’s how to make money on OpenSea.
What is an NFT?
An NFT is a non-fungible token, which is a unique digital item stored on a blockchain. They can represent almost anything, and serve as a digital record of ownership.
The most common ways NFTs are being used today include art, profile pictures, collectibles, domain names, ticketing and membership, gaming items, and virtual worlds.
Non-fungible tokens are totally unique, so they have their own unique value. For example, two cars of the exact same make and model can have different values based on mileage, accident records, and if it was previously owned by someone famous.
Another example would be a famous painting, like the Mona Lisa. Sure, there are photos and copies of the image available all over the world. But, there is only one original painting. NFTs operate the same way. Sure, someone can take a screenshot of an image. But, they don’t own that image like they would with an NFT and digital receipt.
Consumer interest drives the value of an NFT, just as it does for pieces in a physical art collection. The rarity and base of interested buyers are major factors that influence how much an NFT is worth.
NFTs operate on blockchain technology, which is essentially a large, digital, public record that is decentralized and distributed across many nodes (people’s computers). Instead of a central company-owned server, the blockchain is distributed across a peer-to-peer network.
This ensures that the blockchain remains immutable, and allows the node operators to earn money instead of a single company.
As an art investment, blockchain offers the advantage of recording and preserving history, and can easily prove authenticity and digital ownership. When someone creates, transfers, buys, sells, or does anything else with an NFT, it is recorded on the blockchain.
Tips to Make the Most Money On OpenSea
There are many different ways to earn returns on OpenSea. Like the stock market, you can buy digital assets and hold on to them with hopes of appreciation. Depositing, or “locking away,” digital assets into a Defi protocol smart contract to create a yield is known as staking.
You can also make money by creating digital assets yourself and being the original seller of an item, or flipping NFTs on the open marketplace. Another option for making money on OpenSea is to help broker deals.
Because OpenSea allows creators to set their earning fees up to 10 percent, using this online NFT marketplace to manage your collection allows you to continue earning money on your work in perpetuity. The first step you could take in learning how to make money on OpenSea is creating NFTs.
1. Create NFTs for Sale
Creating NFTs on OpenSea is easy to do. The NFT item creation page allows you to upload your NFT file, name it, and add a description. After completing all of those fields, you can continue to customize your NFT further, add it to an existing collection, and add properties, levels, and stats. The default blockchain is Ethereum, but you can choose Polygon to mint your NFT. Once you’re done customizing your NFT, click Create.
In addition to the NFT itself, you’ll need a crypto wallet to create and mint this digital asset. “Minting” is the process of writing a digital item to the blockchain, which establishes its immutable record of authenticity and ownership.
Your crypto wallet acts as your private key, which allows you to interact with decentralized apps, buy NFTs, and navigate the web3 universe.
b. Focus on passionate groups
When deciding what NFTs to create on OpenSea, think about your potential customers, focus on passionate groups, and keep up with current trends. OpenSea has a simple and user-friendly creation process that allows you to create collections that stand out.
Your collection of NFTs can be artwork, a collection of profile pictures, sports memorabilia, membership to a group, or something else entirely.
Whatever you decide, create your collection by naming it something unique that represents your work and describing it.
When you create your listings, optimizing your collection by adding all the relevant information, links, and images will help people discover your work.
2. Buy and Resale NFT’s
Buying and reselling an NFT using OpenSea is simple and user-friendly. Anyone who owns an NFT can list it for sale — the creator or the person who most recently collected it.
Creators and collectors can sell on OpenSea in two different ways: a fixed price sale or a timed auction. You can also sell NFTs in bundles.
OpenSea receives 2.5% of the sale price of your NFT. Buyers pay the gas fees when purchasing a fixed-price item, and sellers pay the gas fees when accepting offers in a timed auction.
a. Pay close attention to trending NFT’s
Just like when you create NFTs to sell on OpenSea, you should pay close attention to what’s trending when you are buying and reselling. One of the best ways to make money on OpenSea is to buy digital assets at the lowest price and then sell them for a higher amount. Of course, there are always service fees and a transaction fee.
b. Look for unique features
When looking for an NFT to flip, unique features and scarcity are important. So are big brand releases. Another good opportunity is a digital asset related to a notable public figure.
3. Buy and Sell ENS Names
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains are secure domain names for the decentralized world. To buy an ENS name, browse the open listings or use the search bar to find a specific name. To find a particularly good deal, try sorting by lowest price.
When you’ve found a name your interested in, click into it. If it’s currently on sale, click “Buy Now” to make a purchase. If the name isn’t on sale, you can still make an offer on it by clicking “Make offer”.
To sell your ENS name, there are a variety of ways to do that on OpenSea. They include fixed price sales, English auctions, Dutch auctions, private auctions, and bundles.
In a Dutch auction, you set the NFT’s price to start at a certain amount, and then it begins declining over the auction time before closing with an amount that you also set. As the seller, you also set the number of days the auction will run.
Buyers in a Dutch auction can purchase the item at the current auction price or make an offer at any time.
4. Become an NFT Broker (Guidance: Help sellers find buyers)
To become an Non-Fungible Token broker on OpenSea, you’ll need to open a wallet and start placing orders. Most brokers start with Ethereum because the majority of NFTs operate under this currency.
As a broker, you will help NFT sellers find buyers and you will receive a percentage of the final sale. Competition is high in this area, so it’s important that you spend plenty of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.
5. Reduce Ethereum Gas Fees
OpenSea charges gas fees to cover the cost of the computing energy required to process and validate Ethereum blockchain transactions. Sellers pay this fee when they accept offers.
One of the biggest reasons people don’t earn much from the sale or acquisition of their NFTs is the high gas fees associated with transacting on the Ethereum Blockchain, which is the default option in OpenSea. These gas fees are often dependent on the number of simultaneous transactions.
However, the left tab filter on OpenSea has different supported chains that are used to host NFTs. OpenSea is currently compatible with the Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Solana blockchains. Each of them have different gas fees associated with transactions on their networks. You can choose to put a new creation on any of them.
An NFT minted on Ethereum requires a gas fee whenever it is purchased, sold, or interacted with. You will also pay for listing the NFT, lowering the price, and cancelation.
Polygon does not attract those same gas fees, which can cost as much as $100 for a small adjustment or purchase. To maximize profits and lower your transaction costs, considering using the Polygon blockchain instead of Ethereum.
6. Check NFT Discord Communities
If you are trying to earn money in the world of trading NFTs and other digital assets, then you need to be part of the OpenSea NFT Discord community.
OpenSea has over 170k members in their Discord channel and has an abundance of materials for people new to NFTs. The News channel on the OpenSea Discord receives all updates from the OpenSea Twitter account and is very active. It also features a Community-Help channel and a self-promotion channel, which anyone can join and discuss their ideas.
In addition to the OpenSea Discord community, there are a number of others to get involved in. Including The NFTs World 1 #1 NFT Community and R/NFT Community.
7. Use Time Limits When Listing NFT’s
When listing your NFT, you have to set a time limit. On OpenSea, that can be anywhere between a few hours and six months. Using time limits properly is important when selling NFTs.
Changing your listing price or canceling the listing attracts a gas fee, which cuts into your profits. If you do these things continuously, it will cost you a lot of money. A good strategy is to set short time limits between a few weeks to a month.
Instead of canceling or adjusting a listing with a lengthy time limit, a short limit won’t cost you anything to reset. A short expiration date is also a plus when the market is turbulent.
8. Top Repeat Buyers with Non-Public Listings
NFT traders can set a private listing on OpenSea, which is very different from the normal listings in the marketplace that are open to everyone. A private listing ensures that a specific person can access and buy the NFT.
9. Speed is Key – Keep Notifications On
The best way to keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the marketplace is through turning on email notifications after signing the sale transaction. This will allow the platform to inform you of any relevant activity or occurrence, like offers from different buyers.
Notifications are also useful because MetaMask, the most common wallet used on OpenSea, doesn’t notify holders if a sale happens. To keep notifications on and get briefings when a listing gets an offer or sells, you must enter your email in the account settings
10. Calculate Potential Profits
There are hundreds of NFT categories on OpenSea, and the list is consistently growing. But if you want to participate in the NFT trade and make money, you must pick NFT categories with huge profit margins.
How can you tell which categories have huge profit margins? The four main categories any buyer can easily profit from are art, photography, gaming, and music.
When it comes to art, pick something with future value or something that is memorable. Well-done artwork with rare traits can see its value skyrocket after some time.
Gaming is an incredibly dominant NFT sector because several video game platforms allow people to buy and sell in-game items. Investing in popular game collectibles can earn future profits.
People have been making as much as $20K on photos because they capture newsworthy events or priceless memories. You can either buy photographs from the marketplace or mint yours and sell them at a profit.
The world of NFTs is rapidly changing, but it is an emerging marketplace with a lot of profit potential. Getting started with these ideas will help you learn how to make money on OpenSea.