Be an influencer and work on sponsored posts, work as an affiliate, sell your old stuff, make money off content, make money on Your Instagram shop…
Instagram is more than a social media platform for sharing funny videos and photos. With over 1.7 billion users, the platform is a business force to reckon with. You probably have heard about people mining money on Instagram from videos or photos they shared and would like to join the bandwagon.
If you aim to make money on Instagram, plan to share more than photos and videos. You can also share your following. Organizations are looking for dedicated online communities, especially those on social media. If a company recognizes that your followers are ideal potential consumers of their products, they will be willing to pay you to reach them.
Like YouTubers, bloggers, or anyone with a considerable fan base based on their content, Instagrammers also build and cash in on their following. The audience base offers Instagram creators several potential revenue streams.
How to make money on Instagram
Making money on Instagram is dependent on your commitment, target audience, and your content. You can make money on Instagram in the following ways:
- Work on sponsored posts
- Sell stuff on your eCommerce store
- Become an affiliate
- Create your Instagram shop
- Monetize your photos online
- Sell your items
- Make money off content
Interestingly, you can use more than one tactic to increase your revenue streams. Let’s consider each of these ways.
1. Work on Sponsored Posts
Maybe you have heard the term Instagram Influencer and wonder what it means. An influencer is a person known for doing or sharing exciting things online. They are considered tastemakers, trusted experts, and trendsetters by their audiences. Their opinion on certain subjects is taken seriously.
Brands tap into this reputation by partnering with these influencers through sponsored Reels, posts, and stories to spread the word about their products.
Brands eye several things from influencers, including their follower, reach, and audience trust to improve their sales. The challenge for many influencers is striking a balance between keeping integrity as a content creator and earning revenue.
If you do not rely on Instagram marketing income as a primary source of revenue, you can be selective on which brand to work with.
But, how do you decide what to charge?
When negotiating your pay as an influencer, you should keep several things in mind. Remember that you are offering quality content and access to your audience. Some influencers with over 100,000 followers charge approximately $500 per post, giving you a rough idea of how to negotiate your pricing.
The engagement rate of your audience also dictates your pricing. Your analytics reports indicate that an engaged audience enhances your negation power.
How can we find appropriate brands to work with?
If your following is enormous, brands will come to you; however, you can look for brands on your level in terms of values and personality if you are relatively small. This way, your audience will not feel that you are selling them out.
You can directly contact brands or join various influencer marketplaces, such as Fohr, Crowdtap, and IndaHash, thus increasing your chances of discovery.
Ensure you do not betray your audience’s trust when publishing sponsored content. You can achieve this by including the #sponsored hashtag to show that a post is sponsored
2. Be an affiliate
An affiliate is focused on making sales for a particular partner brand for a commission. The brand gives you a unique code or trackable link to monitor if clicks are translating into sales.
You can include these clickable links on your Instagram stories, profile bio, and stickers. Since it is impossible to add links to Instagram posts, you could utilize promo codes to make money.
Why not reach out to several online merchants with affiliate programs or explore various popular marketplaces such as:
- ClickBank -affiliate program that is open to everyone
- LTK- fashion and lifestyle network for invites only, offering 20% commissions.
- Amazon Associates- An affiliate program paying 10% commission.
If you want to succeed on Instagram affiliate marketing, you could add a website to drive more traffic and supplement your social media page.
3. Sell stuff on your eCommerce store
Working with other brands is not the only way to make money on Instagram. You can also sell your own products- be it physical or digital goods and services. If you already have a brand, you can expand your market size by venturing into Instagram.
You can naturally plug your products within the content and promote them if you are a content creator. You do well to invest time upfront to build your Instagram audience to increase the chances of advanced sales.
The beauty of selling your own products is that you don’t have to worry about how to incorporate other brands’ messages in your posting criteria. Your loyal fans will likely feel more inclined to buy your product than a sponsored product.
Here are a few ways to sell your own products:
- Use print-on-demand service to print and sell your pillows, t-shirts, wall art, coffee mugs, etc.
- Launch a startup to sell original products or use dropshipping to sell other people’s products on your Instagram business account.
- Sell services like consulting or photography by directing the interested audience to your professional websites.
- Sell digital products, including eBooks, online courses, or design templates.
You can make purchases on your eCommerce site possible from Instagram, meaning your customers do not need to switch to your site to buy what they love.
4. Create your Instagram shop
ECommerce brands have made huge sales on social media pages in the past few years. Instagram has made it easy to create a shop through its Instagram Shopping umbrella, which allows your fans to buy your business images and videos on the platform.
You can build a storefront to sell your products and share your story. After setting up an Instagram shopping business account
, shoppers can browse your shop to buy your collections.
You can create product description pages to provide relevant product information such as descriptions and pricing in the store. When a customer clicks on a product in your shop, you can direct them to your website or allow them to complete the purchase via Instagram checkout.
Additionally, customers can buy your products on Instagram through:
- Shoppable ads
- Live shopping
- Instagram Shop tab
- Shoppable Stories and posts
Fortunately, you can set up your Instagram shop for free and pay a commission if a purchase is made through Instagram checkout.
5. Sell photos online
Instagram was initially built for photo-sharing, and you can cash in on your photos on the platform. You can license your photos and sell them in various ways. If you came to Instagram through photography, why not list your photos in popular marketplaces such as Twety20 or 500px, where brands will likely license them.
6. Make money off content
You can also make money on Instagram with non-content resources. Some ways to do this include:
Monetizing your videos with ads
You can sell in-stream video ads, allowing brands to promote themselves in your videos. The amount you charge will depend on the number of Monetizeable Plays or views the video gets.
However, your videos should be original and have rights to any music. The length of the video should be two minutes and above. Remember that slideshows, polls, images, or looping videos do not qualify, so don’t expect to cash in on them.
Live badges
These new features will help influencers and creators easily make money on Instagram. The concept originated from TikTok and Twitch, where you can sell Instagram Live badges during live broadcasts.
7. Sell old stuff
If you only want to make some extra cash on Instagram, selling old stuff could be perfect for helping you achieve your goal. You can sell many things, including clothing, furniture, or collected items. You can declutter your home and sell things you no longer use to save the environment.
How much can I make as an Instagram influencer?
How much you earn as an Instagram influencer depends on several factors. You can earn between a few dollars to over a million dollars per post. Factors that determine what you make include:
- Number of followers
- Affiliate marketing strategy
- Engagement rates
Instagram influencers are categorized into five tiers. Those with a limited number of followers can make between $10 and $100 per post. On the other hand, mega-influencers with over a million followers make between $10,000 to over $1 million per post.
If you are starting, don’t be discouraged, you can grow your following by consistently creating valuable content.
Remember that the engagement levels of your followers can also determine how much you earn on Instagram. If you have 100,000 fake followers, you will not attract any brand. Therefore, generate an organic following rather than resort to buying followers.
The Bottom Line
Though Instagram was intended to help users share photos and have fun, it has become a money-making machine. By consistently creating quality content, you will likely build a huge following that can turn your Instagram page into a source of sustainable income.
You can decide to be an influencer or an affiliate by promoting other brands’ products or selling your products and making a decent living from your account.
Which Instagram options work best for you?
