Are you ready to make money from Instagram? You may not realize that there is more than one way to do this.
Remember, creators are following the money. With money coming in from competitors’ creator funds, the platform has begun to do everything it can to add new ways to earn money.
Today, more creators are moving from just posting sponsored content to focusing on audience monetization strategies, and the diversified approach offered by Instagram may be just the money-making solution you are searching for.
Are you ready to find effective and proven ways to start making money off Instagram beyond content creation and posts? If so, keep reading. Your guide to success is below.
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1. Create Sponsored Content
You may hear the term “Instagram influencer” quite a bit.
Influencers are anyone who has gained an online following and reputation for doing or sharing quality content online. The influencer is a trusted expert, trendsetter, and tastemaker to their followers.
Most brands can’t compete with the reach that influencers have, so they partner with them instead. It’s possible to receive payments from brands by sharing Reels, Stories, and posts about their products.
2. Promote Your Business
Business owners have the option to establish a business account on Instagram. If you have an Etsy account or sell on eBay, you can create a page dedicated to your offer.
You can link your store in your profile or highlight a product in your bio. If you are approved, you can even add Instagram Shopping features, which allow you to promote your items directly.
3. Leverage Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing lets you earn a commission from every sale you inspire.
A business or brand provides an affiliate link for you to advertise its products. You earn a commission when someone clicks on your link and buys something from it. You will find all types of businesses that offer affiliate opportunities.
4. Open an Instagram Shop
If you want to sell on social media, you’ll find that Instagram caters to you with Instagram Shopping. Users can shop your business’ images and videos straight from the platform with this feature.
You must set up your Instagram shop, share your story and sell your products. Your account does have to be approved, so keep this in mind.
5. Post Live Videos to Earn Badges
You can earn money from your audience if you share videos with them in real-time via the Live feature offered on the platform. You can showcase what you offer, and viewers can purchase badges. These are like tips that show their support.
Do you want to begin earning money from your Instagram page but need some help? If so, our team at Content Dog is here to help. Schedule a meeting to get started.
6. Sell Your Photos
Remember, at its core, Instagram is a photo-sharing platform. Photos are also assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in several ways.
If you love photography, you can list your photos in marketplaces where a publisher may license them. If people already love the photos you share, you will have success with this money-making venture.
7. Use Ads to Monetize Your Videos
You can let brands run ads during your videos. You can set this up in your creator account by enabling the monetization option for in-stream ads. Once this is done, just post videos as usual.
How much you earn depends on the views your video receives. You get 55% of all revenue generated per view, and payments are made each month.
8. Earn Money from Your Content
As a creator, you can earn money from any content you post. You can do this by offering gated content or subscriptions.
If you have taken the time to create valuable content, this is a great way to generate revenue.
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9. Become an Instagram Consultant or Coach
If you have a following on Instagram that is engaged, you can use your skills and teach other people what to do.
Countless people want to learn how they can increase their following on Instagram and then monetize it. Once you have done this for yourself, teach others the “tricks of the trade.”
The more success you have, the more willing people will be to pay you to learn your methods.
10. Teach Your Audience Something
Have you heard of selling info products? While this comes with some scrutiny, you don’t have to sell weird diets or dating advice for using this method (which is why it has earned a bad rap in the past few years).
If you have an Instagram page that teaches others how to do something, such as woodworking, yoga, or a foreign language, you can create a premium product to sell. This info product can generate a lot of revenue in a short time, especially if you have a dedicated following already.
Is Instagram a Good Platform for Making Money?
With 1.3 billion global users, there’s definitely money to be made on Instagram. And with competition from Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok rising, Instagram’s top priority is helping content creators and businesses make a living on the platform.
Add in the fact that half of Instagram users have visited a website to make a purchase after they saw the brand on Instagram, and the average engagement rate for business on Instagram is almost 1%; it’s a platform you can’t afford to ignore.
How Much Can You Earn on Instagram?
It can be challenging to estimate how much you can earn on Instagram—brands and creators often keep those numbers private. In addition, calculating Instagram income isn’t always easy. For example, if you post a video of you making a dish with a link to your recipe blog, do you count the revenue from those ads as making money from Instagram?
Ultimately, how much you can make on Instagram depends on your audience size, strategy, engagement, and often luck.
According to a Hype Auditor survey from 2021, the average Instagram influencer earns just under $3,000 per month. However, the average isn’t the best way to look at these numbers—there’s a huge gap between the low and high earners.
For example, influencers with under ten thousand followers average around $1,400 per month, and influencers with over a million followers average over $15,000 each month.
Business Models That Can Succeed on Instagram
Before we get into the 10 easy steps to make money on Instagram, let’s explore some different business models that can help make it happen:
- Influencers: If you can build a solid following on Instagram, you can partner with brands to produce sponsored posts. The top influencers can make thousands per sponsored post; however, it takes a lot of effort, time, and patience to get to that point.
- Affiliates: By becoming an affiliate, you essentially sell other people’s products and take a cut of the profit. There are many people on Instagram who make a living with affiliate programs. While influencers promote awareness, affiliates work towards making sales.
- Selling physical products: If going the affiliate route isn’t your style, you can sell any of your own products (either handmade or bought from suppliers) on Instagram. It will require some startup capital and inventory, but setting up an Instagram shop and directing your followers to it is relatively easy.
- Selling digital products: Can you take high-quality photographs or make amazing paintings, drawings, videos, etc.? Selling these items is another popular way to make a living on Instagram. And as a bonus, you can use Instagram to promote your portfolio as an artist to set yourself up to make even more money.
Dropshipping: Dropshipping is a way to sell your products on Instagram without actually holding any inventory. After making a sale, your supplier ships to your customers straight from their warehouse—there’s no need to worry about storing, packing, or shipping anything.
Using Instagram to Make Money
Now that you have all the tips above, it’s clear there is more than a few methods for using Instagram to earn money. Keep the tips and information above in mind and try one or all the proven and effective methods.
Remember, while you may be lucky and start making money right away, it is also something that can take some time. Because of this, you should remain patient and keep working. If you do so, you will begin earning a profit from Instagram.
Now is the right time to leverage your ability to make money online. At Content Dog, we can provide even more great tips and ideas, starting with creating quality blogs and articles.
Related: What Is Quality Content and Why Is It Important?
Last Updated on November 13, 2022 by Hilda Wong