How to make money on instagram

How to Make Money on Instagram: 5 Proven Ways for 2022

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If you’re looking for ways to make money on Instagram, consider sharing more than just your photos and videos. Share your audience.

Companies are attracted to dedicated communities on the social networking app, even ones that number in the low thousands. If your followers fit the profile of consumers that a brand is trying to reach, you may be able to make some money. Not interested in going the influencer route? Try selling your own products.

There are five main ways to make money on Instagram:

Here’s what to expect when it comes to getting paid on Instagram, plus tips for success.

How much do Instagram influencers make?

So, the formula is: more followers + more posts = more money.

How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?

With just 1,000 or so followers, you can make money on Instagram. Neil Patel, a widely known digital marketing specialist, says the key is engagement — followers who like, share and comment on your posts.

«Even if you have 1,000 followers who are engaged, the potential to make money is there,» he writes on his blog.

With an enthusiastic fan base, no matter how small, «brands are willing to invest in you because of the profitable actions you’ll drive through your account,» Patel adds.

5 ways to make money on Instagram

1. Get sponsored

Creating sponsored posts or stories is the primary way Instagram users can cash in on their account. For example, if your feed is focused on images of your dog on hikes, an outdoor gear company may want to pay you to post a photo that includes its product in the picture.

How to get sponsored on Instagram

So how do you find a sponsor? In some cases, potential partners will reach out to you. But if you don’t want to wait to be approached, check out companies that can help you find and work with brands.

Seek out a service

Which business you use depends on your needs. There are agencies you work with directly, like The Mobile Media Lab, and marketplaces that connect you with partners, like Influicity. Other services can help you manage all your partner relationships, like Aspire.

Be authentic

When searching for partners or deciding between different offers, aim for stuff you and those you influence would actually use. Followers of your pet are more likely to trust your opinion about a trail backpack for dogs than gourmet cat food. Don’t bother with products you don’t like. If your dog would tear apart an “indestructible” toy in an instant or bites off every sweater you’ve put on her, there’s no reason to recommend these things to others.

Find brands that fit as specific a niche as possible. Fans of your outdoorsy dog may look for many opinions on dog stuff in general but will really trust you to know which protective booties work best for the winter.

Keep in mind that sponsored posts and stories on Instagram are held to the same standard of truth in advertising as any other form of marketing. Make sure to include a disclosure in each paid post and story. You’ll do this by setting up branded content in your account settings then tagging your business partner.

2. Promote your business

You can link to your Etsy or website in your profile or highlight one specific product in your bio section to direct more people to it. If your account is approved for Instagram Shopping features, you can tag products to promote your stuff directly.

Set yourself up for success

Take well-lit photos of products you’re trying to sell or projects you’re promoting and make them findable. Create your own hashtag and check out which ones competitors are using. Encourage your clients to post pictures with your stuff and tag you in them.

You can also use Instagram’s insights feature to learn about your audience. You can see how many eyes are on your post, as well as statistics about people’s age range and gender.

The app’s resources also help you find and connect with new customers. Pay some money to promote posts that you want more people to see. You can also add a button to your profile that links to an email address or phone number so interested parties can contact you easily

3. Sell your castoffs

Maybe you don’t have a business to promote, but you often sell your old clothes and accessories on websites like Poshmark. Instagram can boost your pool of buyers.

Present and photograph your clothes and other things in an appealing way and include as much detail as possible in the caption. Brand, size, condition and age of each item are all good things to note. If you’re looking to sell one item in particular, link to it in your Instagram bio. If not, just link to your Poshmark or other seller profile. Many Instagram sellers use #shopmycloset to hawk their wares.

4. Earn badges through Live videos

Promote your upcoming Live video sessions through posts or stories to get the word out beforehand. Then, try using the Q&A feature or give shoutouts to commenters while you’re broadcasting to boost engagement — and hopefully, badges.

5. Monetize your videos with ads

Another way to get paid: Allow brands to run ads during your videos. To set it up, head to your creator account settings and enable the monetization option for in-stream video ads. Then, post videos as usual.

The amount you earn depends on how many views your video gets in the feed. You’ll receive 55% of the revenue generated per view, according to the Instagram for Business website. Payments are issued monthly.

However, you won’t get paid if your videos don’t meet the requirements. For example, videos need to be at least 2 minutes long to earn money. Instagram recommends aiming for 2 to 4 minutes in length.

About the authors: Max Ramirez is a former consumer-finance writer for NerdWallet. Their work has also appeared in USA Today and MarketWatch. Read more

Hal Bundrick is a personal finance writer and a NerdWallet authority in money matters. He is a certified financial planner and former financial advisor. Read more

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How to Make Money on Instagram in 2021

Looking at how insanely popular Instagram is today it’s hard to believe that it launched only 10 years ago and wasn’t monetized by its owners until 2015. And still many businesses, celebs, influencers, and regular bloggers manage to use it to their benefit and make money on Instagram.

Some say that the window of opportunity isn’t there anymore. That the platform had a huge potential at the start but now it’s extremely hard to monetize your IG account. But while this is not completely untrue, the platform still holds plenty of opportunities, no matter if you are a popular brand or a complete first-timer. Sure, it might take quite a lot of effort to make it really pay off. But the same can be said about other great things in life, right?

Instagram is still is one of the most popular and promising social platforms in terms of monetization. And you don’t have to just take my word for it. There is plenty of recent statistics to prove it. For example:

These and other stats prove that IG remains as attractive as ever when it comes to effective methods of money-making online. So if you start now and use it right, you’ll build a dedicated following and monetize your Instagram presence without any major issues. How can you do that? Well, that’s exactly what I am going to talk about here.

Can you make money on Instagram?

In 2018 the number of Instagram users has reached 1 billion and it’s still growing. As does the interest in Instagram advertising:

So yes, you can absolutely make money on Instagram. It’s a huge market with a great deal of potential for marketers and anyone who wants to earn.

Of course, the most obvious strategy would be to build a substantial following and earn by posting sponsored content. However, this is not the only way to monetize your IG profile. The main thing and the first thing you’ll have to do is to choose the right niche.

There are multiple ways of monetizing your Instagram account. They can be roughly divided into two categories:

1. Promoting your own products and services.

This option is for you if you own a small business. Do you want to raise brand awareness? Maybe expanding your target audience is what you are after? Would you like to find more customers? Or do you want all of the above? Instagram works for all of these purposes and more.

There is a reason why you’ll be hard-pressed to find a brand that doesn’t have an IG profile. The prospective reach of IG promotion is over 800 million. And every third user makes purchases on the platform.

The effectiveness of your IG business account might depend on a few factors, such as:

2. Monetizing your online presence.

It’s quite possible to monetize your IG profile even if you don’t own a business and have no products or services to offer. There are a few different ways to do this:

While it might seem like everyone around is an influencer, more often than not Instagram users don’t always know how to promote their products, services, or personal brands. That’s why they prefer reaching out to people who know all the intricacies of the matter.

Links, mentions, posts, and more. If you’ve got a decent following and quality content, there’s plenty of opportunities to earn by posting sponsored content.

It’s worth noting that you can hardly earn much this way. Besides, the majority of IG users focus on organic engagement and authentic audiences. Nevertheless, the possibility is still there.

What are the requirements for making money on Instagram?

As the effectiveness of the advertising potential of the platform increases year by year, managing an active account often turns into a lucrative business. What’s more, it’s the kind of business anyone can start.

However, far from every profile on the platform lives long enough to become successful. Many beginners feel passionate about the idea of starting a potentially profitable IG blog at the start. Unfortunately, many of them quickly lose their motivation when they realize the amount of work it takes. To avoid this, you have to be aware of the main requirements every Instagram profile must meet. If monetization is what you really have in mind for it.

General

1. Take some time to study the basics of social media marketing (SMM). This knowledge will be of huge help in case you plan to monetize your profile. Luckily, there is no lack of information on this. Various online resources, books, and online/offline classes are at your service.

2. Do not buy fake followers, likes, and/or comments, however tempting this option might sound. Chances are you’ll find quite a few offers or recommendations to buy a certain amount of followers to boost your profile. However, this will do more harm than good. Firstly, an inactive audience that is nothing but a deadweight is pointless. The effectiveness of your account depends on your followers’ actions in a great measure!

Secondly, fake followers are extremely easy to see. Once a potential sponsor sees that you have a large number of those, they’ll decide to go elsewhere.

Thirdly, this option isn’t free. And in this case, you basically wash your money down the drain for all the good it does. Trust me, there are better ways to spend your hard-earned money.

3. Make sure that you produce high-quality content. It must be engaging, interesting, useful. It must be visually appealing. Sure, it’s not easy to create an Instagram profile that would appeal to many users. But if you feel you are capable of doing that and if you are ready to work, you might just succeed. Just choose the niche and the themes that you personally like.

4. Don’t expect your profile to bring crazy income right off the bat. More often than not, your hard work pays off with time. It wouldn’t be reasonable to expect it to be immediately profitable. Consider the fact that having a profitable IG profile is much like having a job. It requires a great deal of your personal involvement.

Again, Instagram is still growing and so does the competition within the platform. Making money here might not be the easiest thing you’ve ever done. But if organized and managed correctly, it will be able to generate significant income.

Bloggers

1. Choose your niche and stick to it. Let’s say you love traveling and your travel photography is what you want to focus on. Let’s also say a user notices one of your photos, likes it, and wants to check out your profile. If they see that your content is consistent with the niche you have chosen, they’ll follow and stay because that’s what caught their eye in the first place. A profile that is a hodgepodge of themes and topics plucked from thin air is a profile about nothing in particular. And as such, it’s interesting to no one.

2. Use hashtags. It seems like it’s an age-old question: how many hashtags should you use? Here’s the thing; if Instagram offers you to use up to thirty hashtags, use them all.

Just think about it. Each hashtag you put under your post is like a separate digital micro-market. For each market, there are users who look for a certain type of content. Wouldn’t you like to maximize the number of people who can see your photos? And in order to do so, wouldn’t it make sense to make your content visible for thirty markets at once?

3. Use your IG account in combination with other social media profiles. While staying within a single niche is the best idea, you still need to attract wider audiences. So use other social networks along with your Instagram profile. Content posted on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook will help you grow your following a great deal faster.

4. Think of an attractive grid layout. A grid layout is how your visual content is seen as a whole. It might seem like an insignificant thing, but in fact, it’s one of the most important aspects of the platform. Remember that Instagram is all about visuals. It’s great when each one of your photos looks stunning. It’s much better when all of them collectively look impressive.

Influencers

1. Be consistent. Being an IG influencer is a job that requires consistency. You have to think hard of what your profile is going to be about long before you launch it. In some cases, it might be nice to be a jack of all trades, but Instagram isn’t it. Choose the topics you know a lot about, the ones you enjoy discussing.

Consistency also concerns the regularity of content publishing. Your posts should go live on certain days (if not every day) at certain times.

2. Create an activity community. By regularly posting authentic and high-quality content you form a community of followers who always excitedly wait for updates. They will read the new posts, they will give their feedback. This activity is what marketers look for first of all. So it would make sense to motivate discussions, ask your followers questions, suggest that they give their opinions.

3. Adapt to any changes. One of the most important requirements for making money on Instagram is being open to any changes and the ability to do some necessary course corrections. People’s interests change and so do the platform’s algorithms. You need to take this into consideration if you want to stay afloat.

Brands

1. Work on your strategy. Before you even launch your company’s IG profile, plan at least 10 first posts. Make a content plan and always stick to it. Offer your followers an original brand viewpoint.

2. Use filters and apps. Remember that visual content is and always will be the main instrument of your brand promotion on Instagram.

3. Add relatable “behind the scenes” content. Water down your image-building content with something more relatable. Work process, team photos, photos of informal events with your staff members.

4. Offer interactive content. Keep your audience engaged; this will create two-way communication with your followers right from the start. Ask them questions, ask them for ideas, think of nice little quizzes and contests.

5. Pay attention to new subscribers and interact with your followers personally. There can be a lot of useful contacts and influencers among them. Watch the comment sections under each of your posts. Always answer negative comments; reputation management is important.

6. Analyze the results. Learn more about the analytics instruments and determine which metrics are the most important for you. A thorough analysis will help you make conclusions and make corrections if necessary.

How to make money from Instagram

How to make money as an influencer

Instagram is probably the most popular social platform for those who want to monetize their online presence. The reason for this becomes obvious as soon as you learn more about it. IG offers a multitude of ways to influencers to make money. Here are the most common ones.

1. Sponsored content

Over recent years, brands have become increasingly interested in partnering with influencers to market their products and services. Interestingly enough, blatant, obvious advertising is out of favor. Authentic, organic, native recommendations are what audiences like most of all and what brands are looking for.

A typical sponsored post looks like a photo with a product, a mention of it in the description, or a story that includes a brand’s hashtag. If you plan to make money as an influencer you must understand what your audience likes and wants to see. So it would make a lot of sense to choose sponsors who will cater to their interests in the best way possible.

It’s worth noting that while there is a perception that this method is only good for macro-influencers with large followings, that’s not so. It’s true that famous brands often involve celebrities with multimillion followings in their global marketing campaigns. However, micro- and nano-influencers become increasingly more appealing to brands thanks to their active and highly engaged audiences.

So how do you find sponsors that will be interested in partnering with you? If you are a happy owner of a popular account, chances are they will find you. That, however, doesn’t mean that you can’t take initiative and contact brands directly. Besides, there are online marketplaces that help marketers find influencers and vice versa. ClickBank, ShareASale, and AWIN are just a few of them.

The main thing here is not to go overboard with sponsored content in your profile. When there’s too much advertising, you start losing your followers’ trust.

2. Affiliate programs

You can also sell products and/or services and earn a commission for that. There are many brands out there who would offer an appealing cut for influencers participating in their affiliate programs.

While this method might seem somewhat similar to the previous one, there is a significant difference. In this case, you don’t offer a recommendation to raise brand awareness. You deal with sales and you include a link or a promo code in your posts that help to track purchases.

That being said, blatant advertising still doesn’t work. The trick is to create original, creative, engaging content that would motivate users to buy a product or a service.

This method is perfect for influencers with larger followings. If you don’t have your own products to sell, why not earn by promoting a product produced by someone else?

Finding the right affiliate program isn’t a problem. You can find lots of them online. The easiest way would be to just do a Google search. You’ll find hundreds of affiliate offers from brands to choose from.

Another way is to use one of the marketplaces I mentioned earlier.

The important thing to remember is that you have to be mindful of the products you are selling. Choose the ones you genuinely like and only those of the highest quality.

3. Sell your visual content

Visual content is what this platform is all about. If you are good at photography, film-making, animation, drawing, or creating any other kind of visual product, you can monetize it.

The competition is severe; there is no lack of original visual content on the platform. However, there is always an opportunity to make something special. There are several ways of using IG to convert your creativity into money:

Use your profile as a portfolio showcasing your best works;
Open an Instagram Business Account, create an online shop, and sell your visual products right off the platform.

This method would be ideal for beginners, nano- and micro-influencers.

4. Sell your own experience

Are you an expert in one area or another? You can actually monetize your experience. And the more extensive it is, the more money you’ll get selling it.

For example, a beginner seamstress will hardly tell a lot to her audience that they don’t already know. But if you have years of experience behind your shoulders and think that you have lots of secrets and tricks to share, you can sell them.

The main trick here is to build a following and sell more of advice, recommendations, and information than actual services. That is to say, you are basically selling your own classes or becoming a coach for your followers. And it so happens that IG audiences love that.

This method is great for influencers with medium to larger followings.

5. Become a brand ambassador

If you have a relatively large following (100, 000 and more), you can consider becoming a brand ambassador. Brand ambassadors cooperate with companies to promote their products online. It might sound similar to a couple of other methods here. However, being a brand ambassador is more than just occasionally offering your recommendations on this product or another. By becoming a brand ambassador, you become the face and the voice of the brand you are promoting.

It’s worth noting that becoming a brand ambassador isn’t the easiest task. But it’s definitely far from being impossible. A popular Instagram account with a large following and active community has a great deal of potential in this regard.

It’s quite likely that brands will notice you if your account is popular enough. But if you didn’t quite get there yet, you can try and offer your services as a brand ambassador yourself. Here’s how you can start:

Make a list of products and services you enjoy using in your everyday life. You already know all advantages and flaws of these brands so you’ll be able to tell others about them;
Find out if any brands on your list have ambassador programs. If they do, apply for participation;
If there are no programs you could find, create your own commercial offer, and contact brand representatives directly (via social networks or email).

How to make money as a brand

If you already own your own business but haven’t used Instagram yet, you should rectify this omission as soon as possible. After all, this platform is much more than just an app for sharing photos. It can become quite an effective business instrument as well. A well-managed business account can send lots of potential customers your way. You can either trust SMM professionals to promote your account for you or do it yourself using both paid and free promotion methods.

1. Direct product/services sales

It’s no secret that a large share of commercial accounts on the platform are outlets, both online stores and offline stores profiles. The reason is simple: there is no better way to sell your product than with the help of visual content.

So what can you sell on Instagram?

All kinds of products, from food to home decor. You’ll find lots and lots of stores selling shoes and clothes, makeup and skincare products and all kinds of handmade things;
Services. While it’s true that you can find many online marketplaces that do just that – promote various services – Instagram becomes an increasingly useful tool for promoting your brand and keeping in touch with your customers.

In other words, you can sell pretty much anything that’s not illegal on the platform. The trick is to stay relatable and produce high-quality content. Share useful information with your followers, tell them about interesting cases and events. Offer them professional advice. IG offers a unique opportunity of communicating with your customers personally, so use it to your advantage.

It would always make sense to analyze responses and figure out what kind of content generates the highest level of engagement. And of course, you must have a clear understanding of what your target audience is.

By studying important metrics like demographic data you’ll make your content more effective and your sales go up.

2. Influencer marketing

Today, influencers are one of the most effective channels of communication between brands and their target audiences. Some of them are experts in their narrow niche and some seem to know a lot about everything. Some have huge numbers of followers and others have small but dedicated communities of subscribers. All of them can raise your brand awareness and increase your customers’ trust. The trick is to choose an influencer who is right for your marketing campaign and goals.

Here’s how you can choose the right influencer:

Methods of using influencer marketing for products/services promotion:

How to make money without followers

While there are lots of effective methods of earning money from Instagram, there seems to be a small problem. All of these methods will require an active profile with at least 1,000 followers. And even though this number doesn’t seem all that huge it might take quite a while to build such a following organically.

But what if you want to start earning money now?

Paid subscriptions, likes, comments and other kinds of engagement

Thankfully, social media and the possibility of monetizing your presence on them gave birth to a whole new industry. There are hundreds of online services that help Instagrammers to promote their profiles. And even though inauthentic subscribers, likes, and comments are being frowned upon, IG account owners still buy these types of services. Especially when they are interested in the rapid growth of their accounts.

All you have to do is find one such service (or a few of them), like YoViral or SocialCaptain, for example. Account owners usually have to pay a commission for the use of the service but at the end of the day it turns out to be much better than hiring people by themselves.

All this being said, you should keep in mind that this is quite a low-paid opportunity.

How much can you make on Instagram

Anyone who seeks to monetize their presence on Instagram asks themselves a question of how much they can actually earn. Fortunately or not, there is no precise and simple answer to that question. There are just too many variables that can affect your income. Niche, method of monetization, content quality, number of subscribers, and engagement rate are just a few of them.

Conclusion

Within a short time, Instagram has become one of the most popular social networks with millions of active users all over the world. But it’s not just a fun platform for sharing photos and videos. It’s a great way to make money, whether you are a regular user of a business owner. Bloggers invest time and hard work to promote their accounts and monetize them by partnering with brands. Brands, on the other hand, invest money to increase sales with the help of bloggers and influencers.

There is something important to remember. There are no miracles and you won’t be able to earn anything unless you are prepared to work hard. Yes, it might take a while too – maybe a year or even more – to get your IG profile to the point where it becomes a money-maker. And still, the platform will always have a lot of potential for those who are ready to walk the walk.

How to Make Money on Instagram in 2022

Instagram is a force to be reckoned with.

Start selling online now with Shopify

Can You Make Money on Instagram?

Absolutely. As long as you have some beautiful and creative images to use, you can spark the attention of Instagram’s millions of users.

Now you might be thinking: Right, I get that it’s possible, but how the heck do I start?

To start, here are a few ways you can make money on Instagram:

The enthusiasts of this platform are always looking out for new ways to earn money from Instagram.

→ Click Here to Start Selling on Instagram with Shopify

Don’t worry, we’ll unravel the mysteries of this whole process in detail, along with some success stories from Instagram.

How to Make Money on Instagram?

Instagram is ideal for selling products that photograph well.

Here are 7 business models to make money on Instagram:

1. Become an influencer and make money from sponsored posts.

If you can reach coveted influencer status, you can use your Instagram profile to promote all kinds of products from all kinds of brands..

If you’re not familiar, an influencer is someone who has built a reputation and loyal following by sharing regularly on their social accounts. They have a good following and they’re able to convince their audiences to jump onto trends and buy certain products.

They have this power because they’ve spent a lot of time building trust and relationships with their audience.

Brands tend to partner with influencers to do sponsored posts that help spread the word about their products. To get to this point, you need to grow your Instagram following as well as regularly come up with posts that generate strong engagement from your followers.

Top influencers make thousands of dollars per sponsored post. Keep in mind that it takes a long time and a lot of hard work and talent to get to this point. It’s attainable for sure, but make sure you manage your expectations if you choose this route.

As an influencer, it’s extremely important for you to know your audience. You need to understand who those people are – their interests, values, needs, and wants.

This way, you know which brands would best fit them. If you’ve switched to an Instagram business account, you can research your audience stats a bit more through the Instagram Insights feature.

If you’ve created a noteworthy online presence, chances are big brands will reach out to you. But as you’re building, you also find brands yourself that you think match your personality and values the best.

Reach out to them directly (through Instagram or through their websites) to try to negotiate a deal. You can also list yourself on an influencer marketplace to increase your chances of being found by a big brand.

As an extra tip, be careful not to lose the trust of your existing audience in the process of making money from sponsored posts. It’s always a good idea to use an Instagram hashtag that tells people it’s a sponsored post (something simple like #sponsored or #ad).

2. Become an affiliate and make money selling other people’s products.

The difference between an influencer and an affiliate is that an affiliate is working towards making sales for the partnering brand in exchange for a commission. On the other hand, the influencer is mainly aiming to create awareness. (If you’re only interested in getting exposure for your brand, you might want to go through these brand awareness tips to gain traction ).

Affiliates make money through a trackable link or a promo code to make sure that you know exactly which sales came directly from your posts.

At first it may sound like a tough game, but affiliate marketing has a lot of potential if you plan on growing. You can expand your presence by including a website and/or other marketing or social media channels.

3. Become a Virtual Assistant to an Influencer

If you’d rather work behind-the-scenes, consider becoming an assistant to an Instagram influencer.

Many influencers out there need help – with filtering sponsorship requests, running ads, identifying fake followers, and more. You can offer to be their VA and charge by the hour for your services.

As an Instagram influencer VA, you’ll be accountable for lots of things, such as managing DMs, scheduling posts, and replying to comments. Also, the influencer may ask you to share content ideas for growing their personal brand.

So if you always wanted to practice your Instagram marketing skills without being the center of attention, this is a great place to start.

4. Sell Instagram caption services.

Many small business owners use Instagram to promote their goods and services, but only a few of them have the resources or expertise to write good Instagram captions. If you’re good at coming up with creative Instagram captions, you can sell your services to these companies. Just remember, they’ll judge you by your ability to write engaging short-form copy.

To get the attention of business owners, write and put up some captions on your own account. Then include the ones that generate the most engagement in your portfolio. Chances are, if a business is going to hire you for crafting their Instagram copy, they are going to want to see your work. So make sure you have some examples they could look at right off the bat.

5. Sell poster photos and other virtual products.

Instagram is all about the visuals. That’s why beautiful products and photos will get more sales.

You can sell poster photos, paintings, drawings, animations, videos, and other image or video-based virtual products. On each post, include an interesting caption and refer readers to visit the link in your bio. This is another popular way that people make money from Instagram.

If you think you take high-quality pictures, there’s a chance that you can get paid for it. Once you snap some great shots, use the best photo editing apps for phones to get the most out of the photos that you take. Try to be original, creative, and fun when you’re taking pictures. Those will get way more attention than boring ones.

You can use Instagram to promote your photography portfolio using relevant Instagram hashtags.

6. Sell your own physical products.

You’ll also need a place where you can keep the products, like a spare room at home or a rented storage space. This is especially true if you plan on saving money by buying products in bulk. You’ll need a place to keep everything before they’re ordered by and delivered to customers.

As of July 2020, you can sell products directly on Instagram by setting up an Instagram Shop (more on that later). Just tag products in your Instagram images and you can lead your Instagram followers to your product pages, where they can buy your stuff in one fell swoop.

7. Sell dropshipped products.

Dropshipping is a business model you can use to run your store without ever holding any inventory.

Once you’ve made a sale, your supplier will ship your products from their warehouse, straight to your customer’s doorstep. You’ll never need to worry about storing, packaging, or shipping your products. Phew.

This works in a similar way to our previous idea of selling products on Instagram to earn money. The only difference is that you won’t need to store any inventory. With dropshipping, you can experiment to find the niche products that would sell well, without wasting startup capital.

Should I Make Money on Instagram?

With Instagram constantly growing in popularity, it’s no surprise that Instagrammers are becoming an unstoppable force. They’ve figured out ways to make money on Instagram, and cash in on the pictures that they take.

If you want to make money with Instagram, check out these mind-blowing stats:

1) 1 billion users are active every month. That’s almost three times the US population.

2) 500 million users post a story every day. Almost double the US population.

3) 71% of US businesses (both large and small) use Instagram for branding and marketing.

7) Brands get 4x more engagement on Instagram than they do on Facebook.

8) 80% of Instagram users make a purchase decision about a product while browsing the app.

9) 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35, making it an ideal platform for brands targeting young adults.

Instagram Success Stories

You can learn from others’ experiences through case studies and success stories like those below.

Foster a specific niche lifestyle and start selling products that you’re passionate about. It can be any passion, hobby, or anything that you want to share with others. Just do what you do best.

With apps that connect social media platforms with your ecommerce site, the seamlessness is even better. Shopify comes with Instagram Business Account integration, which makes the whole process of using Instagram for business even simpler.

Let’s look at some brands that integrate Instagram marketing with their ecommerce store.

BeardBrand

BeardBrand.com has a strong Instagram presence with more than 183,000 followers, which helps big time in selling their beard-related products.

RadSlimeShop

With over one 800,000 followers, rad.slime’s stock usually sells out in 24 hours. The videos are crisp and clear. Viewers can hear the colorful popping slime being molded. The bright, photogenic videos have amazing marketing power.

This Minty Rainbow Chip slime generated more than 426K views. With that massive number of views, it’s understandable why the product sold out within 24 hours.

Aesthential

While there are several vendors, the products aren’t purchased by the store owner until they’re purchased by customers.

What Are the Requirements for Making Money on Instagram?

Using apps, following a do’s and don’ts list, using awesome filters, and applying promotional tactics are key to business success. But you still need to be aware of new trends and rules, which are necessary to make money on Instagram.

Let’s look at a few.

1) Master Instagram for Business

2) Launch an Instagram Shop

An Instagram Shop lets you integrate your product catalog with your Instagram profile. This lets you promote your products directly to Instagram users through posts, Stories, in the Explore tab, and in a special Shop tab on your profile.

3) Master Instagram Ecommerce Shopping Apps Integration

Instagram comes with limited shoppability, which requires some ingenuity to make it work for business. However, the ecommerce shopping feature can be seamlessly integrated with apps specifically designed for a Shopify store.

Try out some apps, so you’ll be able to see for yourself which ones let you publish products, along with their pricing and specifications on separate pages.

This way, shoppers feel like they’re still on your Instagram pages while they’re actually already on the ecommerce-ready shopping app pages.

4) Master Instagram Do’s and Don’ts

Instagram has detailed rules on how you should post, the types of images or videos to post, and how many times per day you can post.

It also limits the number of hashtags to include, so you can’t just spam your Instagram account with more than 30 hashtags that aren’t related to the content of the post. No cheating!

Instagram may “shadow ban” your posts if they contain more than 20 hashtags. “Shadow banning” means your posts stop showing up in searches for specific hashtags.

You can probably figure out that anything with the word “ban” is a bad thing, so try to avoid this as much as possible. It’ll hurt your ability to make money.

5) Master Instagram Filters and Photography

Most popular filters for nature:

Most popular filters for fashion:

Most popular filters for food:

Most popular filters for selfies:

Use tools like Picodash to see which photos work. You want to do the kinds of things that successful accounts do, but still create your own unique content and personality. Motivate yourself to learn more each day so you can earn money from Instagram.

6) Create Posts Inspired by Viral Stories

How to Build a Strong Following on Instagram

Should you build an Instagram following before or after you start selling?

The answer is simple: before and after.

Ideally, you already have at least a couple hundred followers before you start selling. This way, you won’t be posting product photos to an empty account. Of course, you’ll have to start from scratch at some point – just try building a base before you go for the sales.

Now, how can you build a strong following on Instagram? Use these 13 tips today, so you can start growing your followers. A strong following is key to making money from Instagram.

1) Optimize your Instagram profile.

Make sure to choose a username that’s less than 30 characters. Ideally, the name is searchable through a keyword. It should also be consistent with the username you use on other social media platforms.

Your bio should include up to 150 characters. It’s a great idea to include a clickable link to your website. This is the only place where you can include a clickable link in your Instagram account, so it’s an important way to optimize your account.

2) Create and promote a dedicated hashtag.

If your account name is Jennie’s Candies, consider creating the #jenniescandies hashtag. Whenever you want to check conversations about your brand, you can just check the hashtag.

You can also promote this hashtag everywhere you go and on other platforms, both online and offline.

3) Get creative with hashtags related to your niche.

While Instagram allows 30 hashtags per post, it might backfire. It’s recommended to use 5 to 10 popular hashtags for your niche and related to your products.

4) Participate in conversations related to your niche.

Check out other accounts using the same hashtags. Follow them and get involved in the conversations. You’ll earn new followers this way.

5) Use compelling Instagram captions.

An Instagram caption is what you type underneath your Instagram posts to give your followers a little more juice and appeal. The best Instagram captions help your followers feel invited to join the conversation and like your posts.

6) Run and promote contests.

Run a contest with a photo that invites contestants and shows the prizes. Be sure to make a special hashtag for the contest too. Decide how the winners will be chosen and post the rules clearly.

Be creative with the contest so contestants have an opportunity to earn some money from Instagram too, if possible. You can invite them to join an affiliate program that comes with a prize.

Instagram Stories have become a huge part of Instagram, and they continue to grow. You can use Instagram Stories like a pro to build your audience.

There are plenty of ways you can play around with the content, like adding geotags, selfie stickers, moving texts, add color overlays, texts, and face filters (just like Snapchat) to your Instagram Stories.

Be creative when delivering your message. Make it fun.

8) Post regularly.

9) Collaborate with influencers and like-minded accounts.

Reach out to influencers and like-minded accounts for exchanges and paid posts. For example, if you have a huge following, you can do posting exchanges.

10) Use the location feature.

Post videos and stories to your account, then use appropriate hashtags and geotags so that your posts can be easily found by people who are in and interested in the area.

11) Ask others to engage with your content.

If you ask, people might help you out. There’s nothing wrong with asking – just make sure that your content is actually valuable and engaging. This is the ultimate path to making money on Instagram, after all.

12) Use Instagram Ads to reach more people.

Running Instagram ads can help you to reach more people who otherwise wouldn’t have been looking for your posts. Instagram ads are a huge asset to any brands who want to make money on the platform, so check it out if you want to take your brand to the next level.

Promoting Your Business on Instagram

Regardless of your business model, you’ll need to promote it. Self-promoting requires more than just having thick skin. Above all, you’d need to be strategic and use proven tactics to actually earn money.

When you’re selling on Instagram, the purchases are mostly impulse-based. The key is creating a “wow” factor with the photos, videos, captions, and a seamless experience when customers are shopping for your products.

Learnings: Make Money on Instagram

Instagram is a goldmine for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make money. By being creative with your account, you can earn money from Instagram like all the hot shots.

In summary, here are all the ways you can make money from Instagram:

How much money can people make on Instagram?

It depends on what you sell, and what business strategies and marketing tactics you use. If you’ve just started, you’ll probably only make a little. But as your Instagram following grows and you get better at marketing, you’re likely to see your numbers grow

How can I make the most money from Instagram?

Learn from successful Instagrammers. Combine what you’ve learned from them with your own strengths in marketing, photography, storytelling, and photo styling. Grow your following as much as possible, create contests, and be active by posting new photos once or twice per day. And of course, have a strong product and make sure all your customers are happy ones.

9 Proven Ways How to Make Money on Instagram (2022)

As one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, Instagram has quickly gained over one billion active users.

Over the past few years, it’s evolved from a simple photo-sharing app to a powerful digital marketing tool that influencers and businesses of all sizes are using to reach their target audiences.

According to Instagram Business, 60% of people use this platform to discover new products, 80% of them follow at least one brand, 200 million accounts check out a business profile each day, and 66% of profile visits are from non-followers.

Much like Tiktok and Facebook, social media marketing on Instagram is at an all-time high.

If you want to learn how to monetize your Instagram, you need to not only grow your followers but also need the right business model.

Where do you start?

In this article, we’ll cover the top strategies to start making money on Instagram this year.

Let’s get started.

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links that I may receive a small commission for at no cost to you if you purchase a plan. However, these are the tools I have vetted and fully recommend when it comes to making money on Instagram. You can read my full affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.

How to Make Money on Instagram.

In this article, we’ll cover the top ways to make money on Instagram:

1. Promote Affiliate Links.

To make money with affiliate marketing, you need to join high paying affiliate programs so that you can add affiliate links to your Instagram and make a commission on the sales you generate.

When done right, affiliate links can bring in big money.

To do this, look into joining affiliate networks like Shareasale, Clickbank, Awin, and Impact. You can also join individual affiliate programs right from a company’s website or by searching: “COMPANY + affiliate program.”

Since Instagram has a solid user base of engaged people, it’s a perfect place to promote affiliate links.

No matter how many followers you have, you can insert a clickable link in your Instagram bio. For instance, a fashion blogger Sophie Shohet uses this feature to promote affiliate links:

Since Sophie has more than 10k followers, she can also create clickable Instagram Stories. And here’s how she promotes affiliate links within her posts and on her profile:

Instagram followers pay close attention to Instagram posts, so using captions to tell about affiliate marketing links is a great way to grab the attention.

However, all links in Instagram posts are non-clickable, so adding a URL isn’t the best idea as readers have to copy the link manually from your text.

Thus, it’s better to write a call to action, inviting your readers to click on the link in your bio. One note is that it’s important to disclose affiliate links since you get a commission on each sale.

2. Sell Physical and Digital Products.

Over the last few years, Instagram has turned into a strong sales generator for the right eCommerce store.

Since people actually do use Instagram to discover and buy products, they rolled out more business account features like in-app checkout, the shop button, product tags, and shoppable stickers to make the shopping process easier.

One brand new tool you can use to sell products from Instagram is Square Online.

This tool takes Instagram posts from your feed, and turns them into a fully-shoppable website in 3 simple steps:

As it’s tough to sell products online from Instagram alone, it’s a great idea to also have a website. And this new tool from Square Online makes this super easy.

You can get started with Square Online for free and just pay transaction fees. Then you can upgrade to a paid plan when you’re ready to build a website with your own custom domain.

For other options, you can look into choosing an ecommerce platform or website builder to launch an ecommerce website, then use Instagram as another marketing channel.

If you’re a beginner, you could also start a dropshipping business so you don’t have to ship your own products or handle returns.

Another option is to learn how to sell on Amazon and promote your products on Instagram that way.

Either way, you need to add links to your content in your Instagram account.

Just write a call to action and include a website link so that interested followers can learn more about your offer.

And if you have switched to an Instagram creator account, you can create shoppable posts to sell physical products in-app. Check out how Katie Sturino did it:

From cheap cosmetics and second-hand clothes to luxurious apartments and expensive cars, people buy all kinds of products on Instagram.

No matter what you sell, your potential customer is probably there. However, it’s important to find your niche and look at the competition by searching for hashtags and keywords you want to target.

3. Publish Sponsored Posts.

Influencer marketing is on its rise, according to Social Toaster: 92% of individuals trust word-of-mouth recommendations, 76% of people say that they’re more likely to trust content shared by common people than brands, and 82% of customers want to get referrals from friends before making a purchasing decision.

Simply put, people seek out peers’ recommendations, so it’s no wonder more and more brands reach out to influencers to get shoutouts for their brands.

Since users crave transparency on Instagram, all influencers need to disclose sponsored posts, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines for online advertising. And here’s how a sponsored post may look like on Instagram:

Daphne Nur Oz is a popular TV host with over 387k followers, so it’s no wonder that big brands like J.Crew reach out to her for a chance to enter an already-established community of engaged Instagrammers.

Want to know the best part? There’s no need to have a solid following to start making money with sponsored posts. When choosing the right influencer, most brands pay close attention to the engagement rate, so even big brands like Dunkin’ want to work with nano- and micro-influencers.

Since these influencers have in-person interactions with the majority of their subscribers, they deliver better results, which means you can get an offer even if you have less than 1,000 followers count on Instagram.

4. Become a Brand Ambassador.

Sponsored posts work well on Instagram, but most companies want to establish long-term relationships with influencers, so they seek out brand ambassadors who can promote a company in a positive light on a regular basis.

Since Instagram is the most preferred channel for influencer marketing, it’s a perfect place for users to find brand ambassador programs and collaborate with companies to promote their products. Large brands also frequently send free products to influencers so they can review and promote them.

For example, Jay Alvarrez is a lifestyle blogger who posts photos and videos on his Instagram and YouTube channels. With a highly-engaged community of over 6 million loyal followers, brands are eager to build a long-term partnership with him.

Not only do brands invite Jay to become a brand ambassador, but they also offer him to create capsule collections and co-branded products. In 2018, he designed a travel and luggage bag line for the Norwegian company Douchebags.

Micro-influencers in a specific niche are often more valuable to brands than major celebrities as they have a more engaged audience.

5. Create Visual Content for Sale.

It’s no secret that Instagram is a visual platform: People upload 100 million+ of photos & videos daily. However, it’s not enough for brands to upload overly polished professional photos of their product to stand out from the crowd.

Modern customers crave authenticity, so they pay close attention to user-generated content.

In fact, most consumers believe that UGC is 35% more memorable than other media, so businesses of all sizes want to publish content created by their customers. Simply put, it’s your opportunity to sell photos and videos you create.

When it comes to the travel industry, companies of all sizes invite real travelers to take photos showcasing their experiences while staying at brand properties in exchange for free accommodation and payment.

Here’s an example:

And here’s how the company uses the same photo on their Instagram profile:

Publishing user-generated content in the travel industry gives great results.

For example, a small town in New Zealand, Wanaka, achieved a 14% increase in tourism after working with Instagram influencers who shared the images of the city on their profiles.

However, I don’t recommend this approach unless you have a huge following. There’s nothing more annoying to hotel owners than a fake influencer asking for a free stay.

6. Provide Social Media Marketing Services.

It’s no secret that Instagram has strong sales potential, so more and more brands want to use this platform to promote products, reach out to the target audience, and increase sales. According to Business Instagram, over 25 million businesses and 2 million advertisers are on the platform.

The competition is growing, so brands need professional assistance if they want to cut through the noise. In other words, social media marketing services are in great demand.

Jenn Herman is an Instagram expert who has proved her niche expertise – she writes for Social Media Examiner and she has worked with big brands. Today, Jenn Herman offers a great variety of services, including social media strategies, consultations, and training. Guess what? Jenn uses Instagram to promote her social media marketing services:

Brands crave different social media marketing services – from training and guidance to monthly support. This means social media experts have many opportunities to find freelance gigs and make the most out of their knowledge on Instagram.

7. Write Captions for Businesses.

The days when only big brands could afford Instagram marketing are far behind us. Today, brands of all sizes want to use this platform to promote their products and services, and 92% of small businesses plan to invest more time and effort in social media marketing.

While big brands have a great in-house content creation staff, entrepreneurs often seek out freelance talent to reduce social media marketing costs. Thus, they often want to find creative specialists who write captions for their businesses at a low cost.

Take a look at the most popular online workplaces like Freelancer and Upwork, and you’ll find hundreds of offers like the one below:

To get a full-time job offer, you need to prove that your application stands out from the crowd, and the best way to do it is to show your social media marketing writing portfolio. Plus, you need to run your Instagram page creatively so that interested employers can see examples of captions you write. The more creative and engaging your captions are, the more potential clients you can hook.

8. Make Instagram Stories Masks and Filters.

Back in 2016, when Instagram copied Snapchat’s short-lived content and launched Instagram Stories, no one could have predicted the booming popularity of this content format.

Today, over 500 million people watch or create Instagram Stories daily. Since this type of content is available for a limited period of time, people are highly engaged, and it gives brands more opportunities to hook their target audience.

What is more, companies create Instagram Stories masks and filters to prove their niche expertise and promote their products. While some companies have in-house designers who create filters for their brand, other brands want to collaborate with talents who specialize in Instagram masks and filters.

And if you’re interested in creativity, you can build an income stream on Instagram as the Spark AR Studio allows all users to create AR filters for Instagram Stories. For example, Brend Cardenas uses her Instagram to promote Instagram filters she creates:

With the growing popularity of Instagram Stories, there’s no doubt that ephemeral content is the future of social media. Thus, making Instagram masks and filters is a great way to showcase your creativity and earn money on the platform.

9. Find Freelance Clients.

Instagram is not just about posting cute photos of your puppy. Since we’ve hit the 1 billion active Instagram users milestone, it has become a wonderful platform for networking, especially for people in the creative fields. Today, more and more professionals use this platform as an online portfolio.

No matter what you do for a living, whether you’re a filmmaker, ghostwriter, or public speaker, you can utilize Instagram to find clients.

Jing Wei is an illustrator who has worked with Etsy, Panda Express, New York Times, etc. With over 20k followers, Jing uses her Instagram profile to share her latest works. In collaboration with Shake Shack, Jing Wei created the mural and she posted the result of her work on her profile:

When people dedicate their Instagram accounts to work stuff as Jing Wei does, it’s easy to understand that they can be interested in finding new clients. Moreover, you can always use your Instagram bio to tell your visitors that you’re open to finding gig jobs. Here’s a good example:

Furthermore, you can stay proactive and offer your services – just find an Instagram account that must be interested in working with you and slide in their DMs.

For example, Al Falk is a web designer who uses this technique to find freelance clients, and it gives results.

All in all, the key to success is to stay credible in your niche, so it’s important to showcase your work on Instagram and tell your visitors that you’re open to new freelance opportunities.

Tips To Make Instagram Work For You

The following are some of the tips to meet in mind to make Instagram work for you.

Find your niche

Having an Instagram shop is a great way to attract your target audience and sell more than you would through social networks.

To choose the right niche for your business, it is important to research carefully. If possible, try to live in this world rather than approach the issue from an intellectual point of view: eat, sleep and breathe it!

Authenticity is key

People love authenticity. Thanks to your photos, they will get a glimpse into your life. Besides that, Instagram is also an excellent tool for building up your personal brand.

To stand out on Instagram, you need to create stories that are truly yours and share them with the world!

The Instagram algorithm is based on the relevance of your posts. In other words, if you post original content that is valuable to your followers, they will see it in their feed more often!

Learn how to market yourself

In all your marketing channels (whether it’s Instagram, Shopify, Tiktok, or anything in between), marketing is one skill you must have.

To get started, marketing your product is easy by sharing personal stories of everyday experiences to give you a hint at how it’s used.

Be transparent and build trust

Whether you are running Instagram ads, creating reels or doing an Instagram live, it is important to be completely transparent. In other words, all your communications should be clear and easy to understand!

People do business with people they know, like and trust. Therefore, building a brand that your customers want to engage in conversation with is an integral part of online marketing.

Provide amazing customer service

If you sell products on Instagram, your online store should be designed to provide exceptional customer service. And if you are just starting out, using a Shopify dropshipping store is the best way to do it!

Do not forget that Instagram is above all a community. You sell your products on Instagram in order to get into conversation with people who love them as much as you do.

If you want to make money online, you should not only focus on selling products; it’s also important to provide support to your customers and develop a customer base.

If you want people to trust in you, you need to take care of them and be reliable.

How Much Money Can You Make on Instagram?

To calculate your estimated earnings from your online presence and social accounts, it’s important to calculate your engagement rate. Why? Engagement shows that your audience is active, so it’s no wonder that influencer prices and costs depend heavily on this metric.

Views and clicks don’t mean anything unless users take action.

The formula is pretty simple: Combine the number of likes and comments per one post and divide it by the number of followers, then multiply by 100:

No matter what your engagement rate is, there is always room for improvement. The main idea is to find your niche and promote your services so that your income can also grow.

How to Make Money on Instagram FAQ

Yes, you can sell products on Instagram with Shoppable Posts. However, it’s best to use an ecommerce platform in unison with Instagram to increase your sales channels. Here are the steps to get started:

1. Create an Instagram account and convert it to a business profile.
2. Make sure that you have a Facebook Page with an active product catalog.
3. Ensure that you are selling physical products, as services aren’t allowed.
4. Once eligible, you can add product tags to your individual posts. To do this, select a photo you want to tag, tap on the product in the photo, enter your product name from your catalog, and click done.

If you have around 1,000 followers and want to make money, you should look into coupling your Instagram with other marketing channels.

For example, you could learn how to start a blog and link to your digital products or affiliate marketing articles from Instagram. Additionally, you could sell products on your own website with an ecommerce platform. While you won’t make much money with 1,000 followers, omnichannel marketing strategies can boost your income from other channels.

The amount of followers you need to make money on Instagram varies depending on your industry. While you can make money with 1,000 followers or 1 million followers, make sure to focus on engagement.

Micro-influencers with a highly-engaged audience can be more valuable to brands than huge celebrities with millions of followers. Remember, brands don’t just want impressions and views, they want users to take actions – leads, email sign-ups, and sales.

In order to quickly grow your Instagram and build up your follower count, there are many different strategies. Here are some of the top ones to try:

1. Plan an Instagram social media marketing strategy based on your target audience.
2. Create a well-planned bio and profile.
3. Have consistent branding and color schemes.
4. Start sharing high-quality content and promote via other social channels.
5. Use a hashtag tool to find relevant hashtags and add up to 30 to each post.
6. Schedule and post on a consistent basis.
7. Run contests, giveaways, sweepstakes, and provide promo codes to entice users to follow you.
8. Use influencer marketing tools to connect with other influencers in your niche and work to get featured on their accounts.
9. Use Instagram advertising to pay for more followers.
10. Join Instagram communities in your niche and be an active member of the community.

While the number of followers vary widely by account, the average number of followers is considered to be around 150. There are many profiles with 100 followers or less all the way up to millions of followers.

If you are an individual with a personal account or a small business, you may have a lower follower count. The key is to maintain an engaged and active audience rather than focusing on vanity metrics.

Getting sponsored on Instagram requires a lot of work and a consistent approach to growing your follower count. Most of the time, you’ll have to pitch for paid sponsorships rather than brands coming to you. Here are some tips to get sponsored:

1. Define your brand and deeply know your audience.
2. Post consistently with hashtags and geotags.
3. Tag brands in your posts that are in your niche.
4. Include contact information and links in your bio.
5. Start reaching out and pitching paid sponsorships.

The Bottom Line.

Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with the highest engagement, so it’s easy to make money on the platform if you use it the right way. From sponsored posts to social media marketing services, there are many creative ways for anyone to make money on Instagram.

Ultimately, putting time and effort into Instagram is a great investment that builds over time. And it’s never too late to jump on the bandwagon and start the monetization of your Instagram account.

Check out my reviews of the best social media management software to accelerate your growth this year.

Guest Post: By Hugh Beaulac, Content Manager behind MC2 blog.

Disclosure: I may receive affiliate compensation for some of the links below at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. You can read our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy. This site is not intending to provide financial advice. This is for entertainment only.

Adam Enfroy

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. These are products I’ve personally used and stand behind. This site is not intended to provide financial advice and is for entertainment only. You can read our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy.

How to Make Money on Instagram: 7 Proven Ways

Reading time: 10 min.

Instagram is a favorite pastime of millions of people around the world. However, there is more to it than just sharing photos and videos. Instagram has become a powerful tool that allows marketers to boost their brand’s credibility, widen their reach, provide lightning-fast customer service, drive sales, and more. In this post, we’ll tell you what makes Instagram the perfect fit for marketing and will walk you through the most lucrative ways to monetize the platform. We’ll also share some actionable tips for taking your marketing strategy to the next level on Instagram.

Instagram Statistics Marketers Need to Know

Before you dive deep into making money from Instagram, let’s get a bird’s eye view of the platform. Here are some Instagram statistics that may be crucial for your marketing.

What Makes Instagram a Good Monetization Channel?

There are many factors that make Instagram a great place for generating revenue. Here are some of them:

Instagram Monetization Strategies

Though Instagram is a crowded place and the competition is incredibly high, there is still a lot of earning potential on the platform. Check out some of the most lucrative ways to make money on Instagram and choose the one that suits you most.

1. Becoming an Influencer.

Once you’ve grown a loyal following, you can start making money from Instagram by promoting brands and businesses. More and more people trust word-of-mouth recommendations over traditional advertising methods. So, brands pay Influencers a fee to be mentioned in sponsored posts.

This is a win-win strategy if harnessed properly. Influencers get a chance to generate revenue and provide additional value to their followers, while brands manage to reach out to wider audiences. The larger your following is, the more you can get paid for such a partnership. When doing Influencer marketing, choose the products and services related to your niche.

Make sure you promote only the products and services you can vouch for. Also, don’t prioritize monetization over value in your account and don’t spam your followers with sponsored posts. Another good practice is to let your audience know when you publish sponsored posts by adding a #sponsored or an #ad hashtag. There is a Paid Partnership tag on Instagram which discloses the paid relationship.

If you’re good at Influencer marketing, you can get a long-lasting partnership and start endorsing a brand and become its ambassador.

How can you find brands to partner with? If you have a large audience, brands are likely to approach you themselves. However, if you’re just starting out as an Influencer, you can join an Influencer marketplace, for example, on Grapevine, Fohr, etc.

2. Selling Your Products or Services.

Instagram is a perfect place for promoting your products and services. You already know that many people use the platform to find out what is trending and have a look at new products and services. So, why not use this trend to your advantage and promote your own services and products? Instagram seems to be cut out for this because:

Top tips on selling on Instagram

3. Doing Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy in which affiliates get paid by advertisers for promoting a product or service and driving traffic to an advertiser’s website. This strategy suits Instagrammers with a large and loyal audience as the strategy is similar to word-of-mouth recommendations and is based on trust.

To start making money as an affiliate, you need to join a reputable affiliate program or network, for example, Awin, Shareasale, Travelpayouts, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, etc. Truth be told, Instagram is not extremely affiliate-friendly as it doesn’t allow links added to posts and Stories (unless you have more than 10,000 followers) and its competition levels are incredibly high. Despite this, affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable money-making strategies on the platform. This is because its engagement levels are incredibly high and Instagrammers often use the app as a search engine for discovering new products.

To monetize your audience’s love of travel, join Travelpayouts. In the affiliate network you will find monetization tools from Booking.com, RentalsCars, and other major travel brands.

So, what can you do to tackle the lack of link opportunities on Instagram?

To extend your marketing options, you can create your own website and drive your Instagram traffic there. You can use different affiliate tools on your own website, including banners and widgets. On your own domain, you can develop your own brand with the White Labels and lock the audience on your own brand.

There are solutions on how to automatically create a website based on Instagram — we previously wrote about one of them.

Tips on Instagram affiliate marketing

4. Offering Social Media Marketing Services

Social media marketing may seem easy. However, only those with expertise manage to cut through the noise on Instagram and see tangible results. So, if you’re an expert on social media marketing, why not monetize it and start helping others achieve their marketing efforts on the platform?

No matter how good you are, you’ll still need to win people’s trust. The best way to do this is to offer a lot of free valuable content resolving the pain points of your audience.

5. Creating AR Filters

Instagram filters, also known as masks, are incredibly popular as they are entertaining and can work miracles for boosting brand awareness, promoting an event or a product, getting UGC, etc. If you think outside the box and are good at designing such filters, you can monetize your talent and create brand-specific masks to achieve some marketing objectives for businesses.

6. Becoming an Instagram Manager

An Instagram manager is usually responsible for promoting an account, growing its following, creating compelling content, organizing contests and giveaways, setting up paid ads, communicating with followers, etc.

Today, Instagram is booming and many businesses want to have a presence on the platform. Most of them are eager to farm out social media marketing, so if it’s up to your speed, tap into this trend.

7. Creating visual content for businesses.

Instagram is a visual platform and a highly competitive one. To get a competitive advantage, businesses need to create top-quality attention-grabbing visuals. However, creating quality visuals may be challenging and many businesses prefer to outsource it. If you are good at taking pictures or generating video content, leap at the chance to monetize your skills creating content for other people on the platform.

9 Actionable Tips on Creating Powerful Instagram Campaigns

Before you delve into Instagram marketing, take a look at these easy-to-follow marketing tips which will help you become successful from the get-go.

What are the secrets of a compelling caption?

How to track your performance on Instagram

Tracking your campaigns is vital for amplifying your marketing strategy and boosting growth. But, where can you get data about your performance on Instagram?

You can get a lot of information about it from Instagram Insights. This is a free tool available to business accounts which provides marketers with information about their audience, posts, stories, and ads. With the help of Insights, you can get reports on a wide range of metrics, including impressions, engagement, reach, top posts, etc. Besides, you can collect data about your performance on Instagram with the help of powerful third-party analytical tools such as Sprout Social, Iconosquare, Phlanx, Tapinfluence, etc.

How Much Can You Make on Instagram?

Instagram is a goldmine of opportunities. So, the earning potential on the platform is almost limitless and it is determined only by your expertise, diligence and creativity. We’ve shown you a variety of ways to generate revenue from Instagram, so take the plunge and start using Instagram for your marketing purposes.