Instagram is the 3rd largest social media platform with over 1 Billion active users besides Facebook and YouTube. Unlike the regular social media used to connect friends and family, Instagram opened a whole new world to become a social star. People all around the world reached the heights of financial freedom from nowhere using Instagram. Let’s see how to make money on Instagram as an Influencer and other potential ways to monetize the content.
Can I Earn Money on Instagram?
While it’s easy to get started with YouTube, making money on Instagram is difficult unless you put extreme efforts.
YouTube creators can signup for the partner program if they qualify with 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. No matter what type of videos they upload, they make money the moment YouTube Ads are displayed.
In contrast, while Instagram content creators can monetize their account if they are eligible, it’s not reliable as YouTube.
If you’re looking to make money on Instagram, you should be able to showcase yourself as a potential person who can influence the followers.
Every business in the world work on selling something. People who are good at selling run business and people who are good at influencing help others to sell and get paid for it. Instagram works the same – you should be able to sell.
Let’s look at the ways you can make money on Instagram.
You might also like – How to make money on Facebook.
How to Make Money on Instagram:
(without Instagram features)
Now you know the basics. Here is the guide on how to make money on Instagram. To get started, let’s begin with the ways to earn money on Instagram without using inbuilt features.
1. Become an Instagram Influencer and Partner with Brands.
The best way to earn money on Instagram is to become an influencer. About 68% of the revenue generated by influencers is by creating content for the brands.
Usually, people who have a huge follower base with the potential of influencing them are called the influencers.
Speaking about follower base based on the number of followers, we classify influencers into nano influencers, micro influencers, mid-tier influencers, macro influencers, and mega influencers.
Depending on the follower base and their engagement rate, small businesses to large brands partner with potential influencers to promote their products and services.
Estimates say businesses invest billions of dollars into influencer marketing every year because it converts more than traditional marketing techniques.
If you want to become an influencer to make money, you must first pick a niche. Start working on posting quality relevant content regularly to attract followers.
Once you gained a strong follower base, sign up on creator platforms, or directly collaborate with brands and social media marketers to make money on Instagram. The US micro influencers might get an opportunity to use the Instagram brand collabs tool.
I wrote a detailed article on how to become an influencer and make money with sponsored content.
1.1. Assist Instagram Influencers to Make Money:
If creating content is not possible for you, then you can work for individual influencers or companies.
This includes various responsibilities, like managing their Instagram account, responding to DMs, help to create content, etc.
People from tier-1 countries get more opportunities with good pay compared to other countries, which is the same case with the online survey jobs.
2. Earn with Affiliate Marketing on Instagram:
To do affiliate marketing, you don’t have to be a potential influencer, but still affiliate marketing is a part of influencer marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a process of helping the advertisers to sell their products or generate leads. For every sale made, the advertisers will pay the part of the sale as an affiliate commission.
While the influencers are sponsored for posting the content without measurable outcome, the affiliate marketers are paid based on their performance. The customer has to make a purchase by clicking your unique affiliate link or by using your unique affiliate code.
So, to become an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to prove a strong influencing potential to attract brands. All you need is the skill to promote products of advertisers to earn an affiliate commission.
So, how much money can you make with affiliate marketing on Instagram?
Depending on the brands and products sold, you can make somewhere between 1% to 50% as an affiliate commission promoting affiliate offers on Instagram.
Usually, clothing offers pay more commission. Other offers include financial products, software, dating, electronics, pets, SAAS, etc.
I would recommend beginners to start with affiliate marketing to earn money and as they grow, they can directly attract brands to make huge money.
Here is the article for beginners to get started with affiliate marketing on Instagram.
3. Setup your own Instagram Store:
If you want to set up an online shop without investment or already into a business and want to expand your brand’s online presence, then Instagram is the right place.
Instagram is the potential platform to expand businesses to the next level without spending money on advertising or other forms of marketing.
To make use of Instagram’s potential, your content must be appealing to attract customers who can buy your products. So, Instagram provides the platform with ready to buy customers. It is your skill to pull the customers towards you.
Post stories daily and publish content a few times a month to register your brand in customers’ minds. It’s your creativity that makes you to stand out in crowd as the one.
Try to create new posts to address customers’ comments to keep followers engaging. Get testimonials from old customers and post it in stories. Collaborate with other Instagram influencers to get more exposure quickly.
Rinse and repeat the process until you reach the heights.
I’ve seen thousands of people grown their online presence selling clothes, custom boutique, reselling health supplements, beauty products & services, consulting, etc.
4. Sell Photos on Instagram:
It’s not easy, just like taking pictures using the mobile phone to make money. I am talking about high-quality unique pictures that’s really worth.
Even normal Instagram users put so much efforts in taking high-quality pictures, so be consistent in what you do.
Add description in your bio and link to external portfolio if available.
Post photos regularly, a few of them without watermark for free and add watermarks to the photos to protect from free usage.
For example, if you are a pet enthusiast, keep on capturing high-quality pictures of different pets and post it on the Instagram.
Besides selling picture, you would have already gained loyal followers, which makes you a potential influencer to attract brands. So, you can make money selling photos on Instagram and make use of other available options to earn money.
Ways to Make Money with Inbuilt Instagram Features:
These invite only money making features are available only for the creators with a decent number of followers and a high engagement rate. The content should comply with Instagram’s partner monetization policies.
5. Make Money from IGTV Ads (in-stream video ads):
Like YouTube partner program, you can make money from in-stream video ads, but it’s an invite only program.
Instagram pays 55% of the ad revenue generated by any video above 2 minutes.
To make Instagram better for its users, they have combined videos, reels, and IGTV into the reels feature.
6. Earn Money with Subscriptions on Instagram:
Now content creators can earn money on Instagram with subscriptions.
This feature is available only for eligible content creators from tier – 1 countries.
Creators who are eligible can charge $0.99 to $99 for a one month subscription.
People who subscribe get the access to see the premium content created by the content creator.
7. Go Live and Earn with Instagram Badges:
This feature is available for the businesses and creators.
Every time when the creators go live, the followers can send badges to support and position themselves at the top with a badge in the comments while the video is live.
Eligible creators with at least 10K followers can enable badges on their account.
This feature is limited to creators from the US, UK, Spain, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Australia, and Turkey.
Related article – How to make money on Twitter.
FAQs – Making Money on Instagram:
1. Is it easy for regular users to make money on Instagram?
No, you must be a creator who can grab the attention of regular users by posting highly engaging content to earn a decent amount of money. This requires genuine efforts.
2. Do Instagram pay money for views?
No, Instagram does not pay based on views. However, they pay eligible creators who turned on in-stream ads.
3. What is the minimum number of followers to be an influencer?
There is no magic number. It’s all about the ability to influence people. A creator with 1000 followers with the ability to influence followers is a potential micro influencer, while a person who has 10000 followers with no ability to influence is not considered an influencer.
4. Is it limited to one income stream on Instagram?
No, the creator can make use of multiple opportunities to make money on Instagram. This includes using in-built earning features available on Instagram and partnering with third party brands at the same time.
5. Is Instagram income taxable?
Yes, the Instagram income is taxable. It varies based on the location.
6. Can I monetize using a regular account?
No, you have to convert the regular account to a professional account to make use of creator tools and monetization tools. Also, the account should be visible to the public.
