Instagram is the social media app where we spend most of our spare time.
From waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night, we open the app and scroll through it every single time.
So, why not make money from the thing where you are investing most of your time?!
Therefore, we all have a question at the back of our minds how to make money on Instagram? Or, can we really make money from Instagram?!
Well, there are several ways to make money from Instagram. But it depends on the number of your followers and their engagement.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.
How To Make Money On Instagram
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1. Sponsored Posts:
It is one of the most effective ways to make money on Instagram. Influencers make money from sponsored posts.
You must have noticed the meme pages on Instagram or relatable life quotes pages with thousands and millions of followers. They mostly make money from sponsored posts.
What are sponsored posts?
Sponsored posts are those content that promotes brands. Brands look for pages or people on Instagram with a good number of followers, so that they can promote their products and reach their target audience. Those pages in turn charge a small amount from the brand for promoting the products.
For example, I wanted to promote a website that I was working on. So, I contacted this person(see the screenshot below) to boost traffic to my website. He had 6 million followers on Instagram. As you can see, he charges $250 for one post.
You can do the same thing. The amount that you can charge per post depends on the number of followers that you have.
The more followers, the more people will be willing to pay. But it is not necessary to have a million followers to do sponsored posts. If your engagement rate is high, people will contact you even for 10K followers on Instagram.
How to get started?
Start by looking for brands in your niche. You can reach out to them directly in the email.
Moreover, there are several online platforms that connect brands and influencers.
Fohr: It is an influencer marketing platform where you can get discovered by brands, take part in the campaigns and get rewarded
IndaHash: Another company where you can participate in campaigns and get paid. Here you need a minimum of 5000 engaging followers to get accepted.
In order to gain your audience’s trust use #sponsored or #ad on your posts.
2. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing means promoting other people’s products through affiliate links and generating leads.
For example, if I have purchased a product ‘A’ and I loved it, I will also want other people to know about the product. If someone reads my review of the product and clicks on the affiliate link to buy the product, then I will receive a commission from the company of the product ‘A’.
If you have less than 10K followers, you can only give one affiliate link at a time on your Instagram bio. But, if you have a minimum of 10K followers, you can promote affiliate links on your products too.
Update: You can now post links on your Instagram story with any amount of followers! Previously this feature was limited to verified accounts and to people with a minimum of 10K followers.
Some of the reputable affiliate networks are:
How to get started with Affiliate Marketing on Instagram?
Review products that you use and post your affiliate link on your bio or Instagram story.
For example, if your Instagram niche revolves around lifestyle and beauty, you can review a lip gloss that you bought recently.
Remember, if you post random affiliate links for the sake of commission, you could lose the trust of your audience.
3. Flipping Instagram Accounts:
Flipping Instagram accounts is another popular method of making money on Instagram. It means buying an Instagram account at a lower price and then selling it at a higher price.
As you know, it takes a lot of time to grow an Instagram account, create content and gain followers.
Businesses need access to thousands of followers on social media. Hence people are not willing to start from zero and grow their Instagram accounts from scratch. They tend to buy accounts in a similar niche.
Say, you have an Instagram account full of aesthetic pictures of your home. You can sell the account to an interior designer who wants to showcase her design works.
4. Brand Ambassadors:
It means to represent a brand and create brand awareness among your followers.
Sometimes, the company sends you free products for testing and reviewing on Instagram.
5. Social media Management:
Social media management is to handle social media pages on behalf of the company.
The work of a social media manager is to post on Instagram regularly, create content for the pages, and also deal with the clients on the messages.
Use Canva to create posts for them.
How to get started?
There are several startup companies building their pages on Instagram. Collect their email ids and mail them to ask if any of them needs social media management services.
6. Sell your Products:
If you have an e-commerce store or a Shopify store, you can send people directly to your store where they can end up purchasing things.
Also, if you have a particular skill and knowledge to share with your followers, you can sell your Ebook. You can also provide a swipe-up link to your stories. Or else, you can put these links on your Instagram Bio.
PROTIP: My favorite way to make money online is to start a blog. It is because you can earn thousands of dollars by working from home. If you don’t know how to start a blog, you can read about my step-by-step guide by clicking here.
How to build Instagram Followers:
For building Instagram followers, you must
- Have a Niche: Having a specific niche is very important to target an audience. For example, if you are a food blogger, post only about it. If you are a designer, post attractive design content like tutorials, etc.
- Post Regularly: You need to post regularly and stay active. When you are just starting, post at least once a day.
- Interact in Comment Section: When people reply to your posts, reply to them.
- Use HashTags: Using hashtags is one of the best ways to reach a greater audience from Instagram and hence grow your followers.
Promote your page:
There are many established pages on Instagram where you can promote your own Instagram account. This will drive new visitors and followers to your page. They will charge an amount for promoting your account.
How many followers do you need to Make Money on Instagram:
It depends. You can make money from even 1000 followers but brands do not pay much for 1000 followers. So, the more followers you have, the more you can earn. I had done several paid promotions on Instagram.
As per my experience, the pages with 50K to 100K followers charge about $80-$120 for a post or a story. The pages with 1 million followers charge a minimum of $700 for a single post. So, you have an idea by now.
Summary of How To Make Money On Instagram:
These are some proven ways on how to make money on Instagram. However, making money is not easy and you won’t see the light of success overnight.
It takes a lot of hard work to build successful Instagram pages and build your reputation. If you are just a beginner, take your time. Start working today. You might not see the results tomorrow but it will show up over time.
