With over 1.3 billion people using the Meta-powered platform every month, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the world’s most popular social networks. Its versatility allows users to connect with friends and share original posts while brands of all kinds promote their products or services. Beyond uploading cool photos or following your favorite celebrities, did you know that you can also make money by using Instagram? If you have an Instagram account and want to turn a profit by creating content to sell products, this guide will tell you everything you need to know to get started.
How Can I Grow my Instagram Following?
Instagram doesn’t pay its users directly. Brands look for accounts with strong followings and then pay them to promote their products or services. One of the best ways to measure an account’s economic potential is by evaluating its number of organic followers as well as its engagement. Here are some tips on how to increase your followers:
1. Monitor hashtags
Use hashtags that are both interesting and connected to your niche or area of expertise. This will help you find your target audience and make it easier to post content that attracts relevant followers.
2. Use tags
If you post content from a restaurant, event, or attraction, tagging that place can help you connect with other people who follow those accounts or share similar interests. It's also a good idea to tag other users that share a target audience, especially if they already have a large following. This can help you connect with them and gain more followers, particularly if they share the photo you tagged of them.
3. Follow relevant accounts
In addition to tagging, following users with similar tastes and interests is also important, even more so if they have a high follower count. When you start following someone, it’s likely that they’ll check out your profile and decide to follow you back.
4. Run a contest
The goal of running a contest is to draw a larger number of people to your profile and hopefully gain more followers. One way to grow your audience is to include a condition where in order to win, a user must be following your account.
5. Promote your account
A good way to increase your following is to promote your Instagram account across different channels. The easiest way to do this is by advertising your profile on other social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.
6. Post regularly
This last tip is perhaps the most obvious. If you want to increase your followers, you need to drive more traffic to your profile by creating content on a regular basis. Remember that it always helps to include hashtags relating to your posts and your niche.
How Can I Make Money On Instagram?
Ready to start making money? If you already have a considerable number of followers (5,000 or more), read on to learn the best ways to make money on this social network.
Create sponsored posts
This is perhaps the most popular way to make money on Instagram. It’s common for brands to look for influencers (users with more than 100k followers) and micro-influencers (users with between approximately 5k and 100k followers) to promote their products and drive sales through sponsored posts.
Sometimes brands will approach you directly for a sponsorship if you have a lot of followers, are loyal to the brand, or share target audiences. Consider choosing partnerships with products or services that both you and your followers use.
If you don't have enough followers to receive brand offers directly, or if you simply don't get as many offers as you'd like, try working with influencer marketplaces, where influencers and brands can connect. Here are some of them:
Marketplaces to monetize your Instagram account
As the name suggests, a marketplace is a platform that connects suppliers and consumers within a commercial space. For example, Ebay is a marketplace where users can buy and sell almost any type of product, while Apple's App Store is a marketplace that connects developers with potential users. Similarly, there are several platforms where you can offer your Instagram account to generate revenue. Below are the leading influencer marketplaces:
Amazon Influencers Program
Amazon is perhaps the most well-known and popular marketplace in the world, which has its own affiliate influencer program. This program allows affiliates to create their own personalized product page. By participating, you can promote products on your custom page using Instagram and other social networks, and receive a percentage of sales made.
Ifluenz
Ifluenz is one of the most lucrative platforms for influencers, which is why its membership criteria is relatively strict. The platform requires a minimum of 5,000 followers, in addition to posts with lots of likes and comments. By posting a sponsored photo on your account, you'll earn an average of $2 for every 1,000 followers. If you want to determine your Instagram account’s eligibility for this marketplace, check here.
Takumi
Through Takumi, brands can create higher quality content thanks to the platform’s team of marketing strategy professionals that work directly with them. Through this personalized service, the platform helps brands quickly contact the influencers that most closely identify with their products.
Influence4You
Influence4you offers two services: a digital marketing agency for companies looking to increase sales on social networks, and an influencer marketplace where brands can contact more than 8 million content creators for partnerships.
SocialPubli
SocialPubli is one of the most important influencer marketplaces in the Spanish-speaking market. The platform is user-friendly, and in addition to registering your Instagram account, you can also advertise your other social media profiles. This is probably one of the best options to start making money on Instagram for beginner content creators.Set Up An Instagram Ecommerce Store
An excellent way to generate income on Instagram is by opening an online store. You can do this thanks to the Instagram Shopping function. The more followers you have, the more profitable this option will be, since you’ll be able to cast a wider net and reach more potential buyers.
Keep in mind that you’ll need a little design knowledge in order to create a page that stands out and showcases and promotes your products effectively. It’s key to develop a creative sales strategy that includes photos as well as video advertisements. One option to consider is to post images of you using the product and invite your followers to purchase it from your store.
Affiliate Marketing
Another option to make money on Instagram is with affiliate marketing. This consists of joining an affiliate program where a company agrees to pay you a commission for each product sold through your Instagram account.
The key to selling lies in how you use your account to promote the product. A common method is to make videos or posts with reviews about said product, encouraging your followers to purchase it through the corresponding link. Once your follower completes the transaction, you'll receive the agreed-upon commission.
One of the most successful platforms for affiliate marketing is the Amazon Affiliates program. Content creators can share products available on the sales platform and add a personalized link to their followers, effectively earning money through Instagram.
Sell Your Photos
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social network, making it an ideal place to sell them. There are many ways to do this, such as offering printed T-shirts or mugs to your followers, or selling them to image banks, which are platforms that license usage rights. Some of those include:
Keep in mind: Before submitting photos to an image bank, check the image quality to ensure they meet the company’s guidelines and expectations. When uploading an image, don't forget to submit a detailed photo description and proper keywords to make it easy for potential buyers to find.
Generate Revenue By Selling Presets
Photos aren't the only visual content you can market on Instagram. You can also turn a profit by selling presets. Presets are default photo settings, similar to filters, that help make images more aesthetically pleasing, which is why many people buy them. Presets are often created and applied in photo editing programs like Adobe Lightroom. If you’re interested in photography, consider learning how to use it.
How to Increase Your Earnings through Instagram
Now you know a little more about the best ways to make money on Instagram. If you want to reach your goals and maximize what you earn, keep the following tips in mind:
Now you know a little more about the best ways to make money on Instagram. If you want to reach your goals and maximize what you earn, keep the following tips in mind:
1. Create quality content
Never lose sight of the quality level of your content. Make sure your images are high-resolution, interesting, and relevant to your followers. Serve your audience content with added value, like a raffle or a contest to win a prize. This will considerably increase your likelihood of a post going viral, which can result in greater profits.
2. Use hashtags
Using hashtags is the quickest and easiest way to increase your content’s visibility. Don’t overdo it by saturating your posts; aim for fewer than 10. It’s always better to limit yourself to the most relevant hashtags for each post than to add an excessive number of them.
3. Be concise
Keep your photo captions short and persuasive. Get your followers to interact with your content by asking them a question or encouraging them to react to your posts.
4. Schedule your posts
Try scheduling your posts. This will both help you be more organized when creating content and generate anticipation among your followers. If you say you’ll release new content every Tuesday and Friday, your audience will be expecting those posts.
5. Be consistent with your style
Prioritize design harmony within your posts. In other words, your visual style should be consistent. Figure out which aesthetic best resonates with your followers and try to maintain it throughout your publications.
6. Know your audience
If you want to know how you can improve your content and what new products to sell on your Instagram account, get to know your followers and their interests. Fortunately, there are several tools for analyzing Instagram metrics, both free and paid, that can help you learn more about your audience’s behavior and key characteristics.
How much does Instagram pay for followers?
As we mentioned above, Instagram doesn't pay influencers directly; it’s simply a means to earn money. It’s the brands who make agreements with influencers and who can generate earnings for you depending on the amount of followers you have and your content’s engagement level. Depending on your number of followers you can expect to receive the following average amounts per post:
- 5,000 followers: $100
- 10,000 followers: $500
- 100,000 followers: $2,000
- 1,000,000 followers: over $10,000
You’re On Your Way to Making Money On Instagram!
There are many ways to profit financially from your Instagram account. It's just a matter of consistency and creating quality content to grow your number of followers and get the attention of brands looking to advertise. If you have more questions about this or anything else, feel free to contact us through our chat. Remember: SABEResPODER.
