You’ve probably seen your friends crashing it on Instagram with the pictures they share daily. How can you join the bandwagon and make money on Instagram?
Instagram offers even those with a sizeable following to explore multiple income streams.
In this article, we will answer the following questions:
- How many followers should you have to make money on Instagram?
- What creative ways can you use to make money on Instagram?
- How much should you charge for your content?
Read on to find out more about how to earn money on Instagram. If you are also wondering whether you can make money by making Instagram filters or not, I encourage you to read this article.
How Many Followers Do You Need To Make Money On Instagram?
Many people think they need to be Cristiano Ronaldo or Selena Gomez to start making money on social media. But with as low as 1000 followers, you can earn as a nano influencer.
While top influencers make over $1.5 million per post, micro-influencers can also have their share of income. Business insider shows that influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers can make around $900 per post.
You can grow your followers to over 1000, become an influencer, and start making money.
Creative Ideas And Ways To Make Money On Instagram
If you aim to generate income from your Instagram account, you have several revenue streams. Provided you remain active and engage with creative content, money will find its way to your bank account.
Here are practical ways to make money on Instagram this new year:
1- Seek Out Brands For Sponsored Brands
Brands and businesses are looking for influencers to enhance their marketing campaigns; you could be what they want.
But what makes an influencer? An influencer is an online creator with a reputation for sharing helpful information with their audience. Influencers are trendsetters, tastemakers, and trusted experts whose opinions are respected.
And since brands can’t compete with influencers, they partner with them to promote sponsored content like reels, stories, and posts. Your audience will see this content and buy the product.
But can you make money with few followers? Yes. Brands are willing to pay influencers with good engagement levels. This means you may have a few followers, but brands will want to work with you if they are genuine with high engagement.
On the other hand, if you have many fake followers who do not regularly interact with your content, you may have difficulty convincing brands and businesses to partner with you.
However, you also need to balance your revenue goals and your integrity as a creator. If your audience sees a lot of your content as sponsored ads or content, you will likely lose their trust.
Remember, your audience’s trust is the backbone of your influencer business, so be selective about whom you work with and the frequency with which you post ad content.
2- Become An Affiliate
Affiliates earn commission for the product someone buys from a link on their Instagram post. The brand will give you a trackable link or a promo code, allowing them to know which sales came from your content.
You can place these links on your Instagram bio, stories, and stickers, then draw your audience’s attention to these links.
Where do you get affiliate links? You can reach out to online merchants with affiliate programs or marketplaces like ClickBank, LTK, and Amazon Associates. ClickBank is open to anyone and offers tier-based commission, LTK is an invitation-only program for lifestyle and fashion influencers, and Amazon associates provide a 10% commission payout.
Like sponsored posts, you want to exercise caution with affiliate marketing. Your audience expects you to promote products in your niche.
If you promote unrelated products and services, you may make little money and lose your credibility.
3- Promote Your Own Products
Instead of promoting other people’s products as an influencer, you can make money on Instagram by promoting your products and services.
You can start an eCommerce store to sell physical or digital products and promote these products and services on Instagram.
For instance, you can open a print-on-demand eCommerce store where you print customized t-shirts, mugs, mats, and other items your audience might like. If your followers see your unique designs, they will likely make inquiries and eventually purchase.
You can also sell digital products such as design templates, ebooks, and online courses. Many people are looking for these products, and you can profit from them.
Furthermore, you can create and sell your own products. But even if you don’t have an original product, you dropship, allowing you to sell products without holding inventory.
4- Create An Instagram Shop
Selling on Instagram is no rocket science. In the past few years, Instagram has made huge strides toward helping eCommerce brands and creators. The platform released several features under Instagram Shopping, allowing users to shop for videos and images.
Let’s dive deep into the workings of this shop to reveal more.
As a creator, you start by creating your storefront or Instagram Shopping as a Business or Creator account. And with the sleek Instagram experience for shoppers, you can sell your products and share your story.
You can customize your shop themes by including icons such as gifts, new arrivals, and seasonal trends.
Like any online store, the Instagram storefront allows you to include product description pages and other relevant information like pricing.
The shop allows you to direct people to your website or buy using Instagram checkout. And there is more; you can sell your products through features like shoppable ads, Instagram shop ads, live shopping, and shoppable posts and stories.
How much do you need to open the shop? It is absolutely free. The platform only charges a commission if someone buys a product or service through Instagram checkout.
We are done with various ways you can monetize Instagram. Let’s consider the number…
5- Monetize Your Content
Another popular way to make money with Instagram is to include brand ads on your videos. These ads allow brands to promote their products in the videos you post.
How much will you earn from video ads? It depends on the number of views your video gets. Instagram pays up to 55% of ad revenue directly to your bank account every month.
Here is how you tap into this revenue stream.
- Go to “Account Settings” and tap on “Creator”> “In-stream Video Ads.”
- Tap Get Started, then click on agree on terms and conditions.
- Tap “Allow Monetization” of the existing video content and press “continue” to finish the setup.
Ensure your content is original and has rights to any music you use in the video. The video should be at least 2 minutes to monetize. However, looping videos, polls, slideshows, or images don’t qualify for video ads.
Other new features you can utilize with your videos are live badges. The badges help influencers and creators to make money online.
They act as a tip people give you during your live stream. Your viewers can purchase a live badge during the broadcast, often seen in the comment section. The purchase unlocks a place on the influencers’ badge list to access a special heart.
You can have one heart (going for $0.99, two hearts for $1.99, and three hearts selling for $4.99).
6- Offer Paid Master Classes And Tutorials
If you are an expert in a particular field, you can offer paid tutorials and masterclasses to your followers. They will directly pay for the services you offer.
For your masterclass, you can sell paid tickets to those interested in your training. This method of making money is popular among fitness influencers. They can post regular short workout videos and link a whole training routine, requiring the audience to pay to access them.
For instance, film colorist @theqazman posts quick tips and offers ticketed masterclasses. His content captures the non-paying audience, but serious people pay for the full lesson.
Alternatively, you can offer free tutorials and classes and then ask your audience to tip you if they are capable. You may be surprised by people’s generosity, especially if you offer quality content.
How Much Should You Charge For Your Content?
Different influencers have different pricing strategies. Some people overcharge while others undercharge, so how do your strike a balance?
Your pricing strategy depends on the number of engagements your content generates. If you have 5,000 active followers, you may charge higher than another influencer with 9,000 inactive followers.
Brands want a return on their investments, and active audiences are potential customers. You can use your engagement to bargain more for sponsored posts.
Engagement rate micro or nano influencers are valuable because their audiences interact well with their content.
While there are no hard rules regarding how much you can charge for your Instagram posts, most marketers are willing to pay $0.001 per follower. This simple guideline could mean that if you have 5000 followers, you could charge $50 per post.
If the promotional content is from you, your charges could also depend on creative mandates, production costs, timeline, and usage rights.
You can negotiate pricing with clients, present what you bring to the table, and agree on a realistic amount.
What to read next:
- Do You Get Paid For Instagram Filters?
- Instagram Vs. YouTube: Which One Is Better for Influencers?
- Instagram Vs. TikTok: Which One Is Better for Influencers?
- What is an Instagram Brand Ambassador? And How to Be One.
Final Thoughts
You can make money on Instagram by:
- Partnering with brands for sponsored posts
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling your merchandise
- Monetizing your content
- Creating an Instagram storefront
- Offering paid tutorials and masterclasses
- Or combine all the above.
So, don’t sigh from going for the bucks with your account. If you consistently create informative content, your audience will grow, and so will your money.
Are you making money on Instagram? Drop your Instagram link below so that we can all check it out.