How to make money off Instagram? Well, everyone wants to know this.
With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media networks.
The immense growth of this platform year after year has brought many new opportunities to make money online. If you’re wondering how to make money on Instagram? Keep reading, you are in the right place.
Instagram is basically a photo-sharing network turned business platform. It has become so popular that I see almost every people around me using Instagram most of the time.
Almost every smartphone user is using the Instagram app to share photos. This shows how much potential is there to earn money from Instagram
But, before we discuss how to make money off Instagram, let’s go through some frequently asked questions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Making Money off Instagram
Can you make money on Instagram?
If you believe, yes you can.
I want you to ask this question to yourself. Can you make money on Instagram?
If you’re ready to put in your time and efforts, definitely, you can make money on Instagram. There are different ways to make money on Instagram which will be discussed later in this article.
What to post on Instagram?
This is a very important question. What to post on Instagram?
You can not simply create an Instagram account and start sharing some random photos you take. It’s ok if you have no desire of making money on Instagram. But, if you want to earn money from Instagram, you need to be very specific on what you post.
You can get the idea of what to post on Instagram by using a three-level down approach to find the niche, you will work on.
For example, if you want to work in the fitness category, three-level down approach will work like this:
- Fitness
- Woman
- Belly Fat
This way you will create content for a very targeted audience and increase the chances to earn more.
“Produce one content for one audience”
What is bio in Instagram and why is it so important?
Bio is a very precious place in your Instagram profile. Here, you can tell the people visiting your profile about yourself like who you are? What do you do? And, what value can you provide to your followers?
Very Important: Bio is the only place on Instagram where you can use a link, so use it wisely.
How do people earn money through Instagram?
You might have heard stories of people getting paid for Instagram posts and making money through a number of different ways. But, how do they do this?
This is exactly what you will learn after reading this article, how do people earn money through Instagram and how you can too.
I will share with you exactly what other people are doing to get paid for Instagram posts.
What Do You Need To Make Money On Instagram?
Followers. Yes, you know that. But do you know how to get Instagram followers?
There are few ways you can use to increase your IG followers which will help you making money from Instagram.
1. Bio
Use this space as efficiently as you can. As I said earlier this is the most precious space because here you can use a link to redirect the people wherever you want. You can send them to an affiliate landing page or to your own website. The space in Instagram bio can also be used to put hashtags to get the right kind of followers.
2. Post regularly
Posting content consistently is very important to maintain a relationship with your followers. According to a study conducted by Tailwind, posting more content regularly
(a) increases the engagement rate
(b) increases the likes on the post, and
(c) increases the follower growth rate.
“Consistency is the key to Success”
3. Provide quality content
Nowadays Ig users are consuming both photo and video content (IGTV). Make sure whatever you’re posting on Instagram, it should be of high quality. Posting poor quality photos or videos on Instagram can be very harmful to your money-making goals.
“The products that are photographed well are more likely to sell”
4. Engage with followers
Engagement makes a connection between you and your followers. Ask your followers to comment and if they have queries, try to answer as many of them as possible.
5. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are extremely important to make your content visible to the right audience. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post. Think of all the hashtags related to your content. If you can’t find 30 hashtags, I recommend using around 15-20 relevant hashtags per post if you’re a beginner. Not using relevant hashtags is a big mistake that many brands make.
Using these tips can help you get more Instagram followers and grow your audience.
How Many Followers Do You Need To Make Money On Instagram?
Now you know how to get Instagram followers. But you still might have a question that most people often ask and that is, how many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?
Some people say you need at least 1,000 followers and others suggest to get 100,000 followers.
So, what is that magical number?
The number of followers required to make money off Instagram totally depends on
(a) How you’re monetizing your Instagram account?
(b) What niche you’re in?
(c) How engaged is your following?
You can make money from Instagram with 1,000 engaged followers and on the other side, struggle for pennies even with 100K (fake) followers.
However, more the followers (real), more will be chances to make money off Instagram.
By now you are aware of how to get followers and how many followers you need to make money on Instagram.
Now, let’s find out the ways to make money from Instagram.
How To Make Money Off Instagram In 2020
1. Start Making Money on Instagram through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is promoting third-party products and making a commission on a product sale. The person doing the promotion is called an affiliate. A lot of people make money on Instagram this way.
Affiliate marketing is the most popular way to make money online whether you’re a blogger, YouTuber or an Instagram influencer.
As an affiliate, you get a trackable link or a promo code that you can use to track the product sales through your link.
As Instagram allows to add link only in the bio portion, you need to find the affiliate product very wisely whose link you can share in your Insta bio.
Make sure that the product you are promoting is related to your niche or the content you’re sharing on Instagram. Otherwise, you will not make any affiliate sales.
No one will buy a fitness product from a person who is sharing content related to pets.
Rather people will love to buy products related to pets like pet food from that person.
Some of the most popular affiliate networks are:
Tip: Affiliate links are generally very long and they look ugly & spammy. So, instead of using them directly, use link shortening services like bitly.com to make them look beautiful and genuine.
2. Make Money off Instagram through Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are the most popular way to earn money on Instagram.
Top Instagram influencers like Kim Kardashian make thousands of dollars per sponsored post.
Instagram influencer marketing is the smart way to make money on Instagram when you have a good following (at least 5,000 followers).
An influencer is a person who has built trust and reputation online by sharing quality content. As an influencer, you have to create and share a photo or video content mentioning a brand or a product.
Not every brand has a good following and that’s why they partner with Instagram influencers to promote their product (s) through sponsored posts.
If you have a huge following, chances are brands will find you and want to work with you. But if you’re a beginner, it would be better to find the brands to promote, through manual search.
Another way is to use tools like TapInfluence where you can create your profile describing yourself and your area of interest. The brands will approach you if they want to work with you.
Once you collaborate with a brand, you need to create a sponsored Instagram post (either photo or video) and share it with your audience.
You need to mention the brand in your post. As you share the post with the audience, your work is over and you get paid.
This is how you can make money from Instagram with sponsored posts.
3. Making Money off Instagram by Selling Your Own Merchandise:
Creating your own products to sell is the best way to make money because here you do not have to share profits with anyone.
How does this work?
First, you need to open your online store. Then, create an Instagram account where you can share about the products listed in your store. Share relevant posts related to your niche and send the audience to your store.
Instagram influencers like Kyliejenner make millions of dollars through her merchandise Kylie Cosmetics, where she sells beauty products. She has created a huge brand which is very high in demand.
You can also sell your own digital or physical products on Instagram and make money.
Instagram provides huge opportunities for those who know how to use the available resources to make money online.
You must have heard of print on demand services which are very popular nowadays. You can utilize these services to design and sell your own products like t-shirts, bags, printed mugs, etc. The good thing about this business model is that you can start this with very little or no investment.
Similar Article: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business With Little Money (Beginner’s Guide)
A great example of this business model is Doug the Pug which has 3.8 million followers as of November 2019.
You can imagine how well they are utilizing the platform for making money. They are sending the traffic from Instagram to their official website where they are selling their own products.
4. Selling Photos to Make Money from Instagram
Instagram is a place where you can show up your photography skills and make money with it. Stock photos are in great demand nowadays.
If you’re a professional photographer or a keen newbie photographer, Instagram is a great place to make money online by selling your photos either to individuals or businesses.
Daniel Arnold, an almost broke photographer, was featured on Forbes when he made $15K in a single day on Instagram selling his photos.
Use suitable hashtags to promote your photos. Once you have a good collection of photographs on your Instagram account, send direct messages to the websites or bloggers that might be interested in using these pictures.
Also, there are a few popular marketplaces where you can sell your Instagram photos, like:
5. Teach people, How to Make Money off Instagram 
When you have enough knowledge and experience in growing an Instagram account and making money out of it, you can sell your expertise to your audience or followers.
You can create information products such as eBooks and video courses to sell, which are becoming super popular these days.
There are many new users whether they are individuals or businesses who want to grow their followings but don’t know how to do it. Find and tell them how your expertise can be beneficial to them.
6. Sell Your Instagram Account
You know the ABC of Instagram. So why not use your knowledge to make money by selling your Instagram account/accounts.
Create different Ig accounts in different niches like food, health and fitness, travel, fashion, and many more. When you have a good number of followers, sell them.
Those people and businesses who want to explore these niches and make money from it will definitely buy your accounts.
There are a few websites where you can sell your IG accounts and earn a good amount of money.
These are:
Conclusion
Now you know how to make money off Instagram and excited to start working on it. So, what are you waiting for?
Instagram provides such a huge opportunity that anyone who wants can make money from it.
Don’t waste your time and take action.
I hope this article is helpful to you.
What do you think about making money on Instagram?
This post is very helpful..thanku so much, please guide us more