How do bloggers make money on instagram
How To Make Money on Instagram in 2022 (7 Best Ways)
This guide will explore 7 quick and easy methods for how to make money on Instagram.
You’ve probably heard stories of Instagrammers cashing in on the pictures they snap and share every day. You might’ve even looked at your own sizable following and thought, “Maybe I can do that full time too.”
Together, social media reach and influence offer the opportunity for Instagram creators to explore multiple streams of potential revenue, whether they want to build an empire or just earn some extra cash and free stuff.
Shortcuts ✂️
- How to make money on Instagram
- How much do Instagram influencers make?
- How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
- Getting paid on Instagram and beyond
- Make money on Instagram FAQ
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How to make money on Instagram
- Collaborate with brands on sponsored posts
- Become an affiliate
- Open your own ecommerce store
- Create an Instagram shop
- Sell your photos online
- Monetize your content
- Sell old stuff
The methods that may work the best for you will depend on your unique brand of Instagram content, your target audience, and your level of commitment.
The beauty here is that chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another.
So let’s start with the most common approach to Instagram monetization: partnering with brands as an influencer.
1. Collaborate with brands on sponsored content
The term “Instagram influencer” gets thrown around a lot these days.
An influencer is basically anyone who’s built themselves an online reputation by doing and sharing awesome things online.
To their audiences, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters, and trusted experts whose opinions about certain subjects are respected.
Many brands just can’t compete with that, so they partner with influencers on sponsored content like posts, Reels, and Stories that help get the word out about their products.
But it’s not just the follower count and reach of your Instagram account that brands want—it’s your audience’s trust and engagement with high-quality content.
It can be hard to balance your revenue as an influencer and your integrity as a creator, but if you’re not relying on your Instagram marketing income to stay afloat, you always have the freedom to be selective about the brands you work with, just as brands will be selective about the Instagrammers they work with.
How to decide what to charge as an influencer
Typically these influencer deals involve the creation of content—Instagram ads, a post, a video, or a Story—and will sometimes include permission for the brand to use this content on their own site or in an ad.
Most of these deals are negotiable and can involve a single post or an entire campaign in exchange for a fee, a free product, a service, a gift, the promise of exposure, or some combination of these.
Keep in mind when negotiating that you’re not just offering content but access to your audience—a potentially large reach on one of the most popular social media platforms around—and usage rights.
The average influencer who has upward of 100,000 followers charges up to $500 per post, just to give you an idea of what some brands are willing to pay and how to negotiate based on the cards you’re holding.
Finally, it's important as an influencer to also know your own audience.
What is the makeup of your audience, and what is your engagement rate (total engagement divided by your number of followers)? You can dig up numbers to back this up in your Instagram analytics report, if you’ve switched to a business account. This will help you be prepared when it comes time to negotiate.
How to find brands to work with
If you’re big enough, chances are brands will find you. But you can also look for brands to work with that are on a similar level in terms of personality and values, so your audience won’t feel like you’re “selling out.”
You can reach out to them directly to try to work out a deal, but you can also list yourself on one of the many influencer marketplaces out there to increase your chances of being discovered, including:
- Fohr. Connect your Instagram, blog, YouTube channel, and other social platforms to create an influencer “card” that shows your different profiles and total reach to brands shopping for a partnership. You can also access a list of brands and their wants, so you can take the initiative to reach out too.
- Crowdtap. Do small content creation tasks to earn rewards. This is great if you’ve got a smaller audience. Available in the US only.
- indaHash. Brands post campaigns you can participate in.
Post a picture with the specified hashtags on Instagram and get paid. You need at least 700 engaged followers to be eligible.
The rules vary when it comes to sponsored content, but to be on the safe side and respect your audience’s trust, consider adding a #sponsored hashtag to indicate sponsored posts.
You can find examples of sponsored posts and how Instagrammers integrate brands into their story or caption by searching #sponsored on Instagram, like this one from How They Asked, an account that shares wedding proposal stories and partners with a jewelry business:
Instagram also has a “Paid Partnership with” tag that prominently identifies sponsored posts, which some brands might require you to use to disclose your relationship with them.
2. Become an affiliate
Unlike an influencer, an affiliate is more invested in making sales for the partner brand—not just generating awareness—in exchange for a commission.
This is typically done with a trackable link or unique promo code to ensure clicks actually translate into sales.
Use a mix of clickable links in your Instagram bio and Instagram Stories or through stickers. Since you can’t put links in Instagram posts, you can create promo codes so you can make money from different angles.
Consider reaching out to one of the many online merchants offering affiliate programs. Or you can explore popular marketplaces like:
- ClickBank. An affiliate platform with a tier-based commission that’s open to everyone.
- LTK. An invitation-only fashion and lifestyle influencer network that offers 20% commissions.
- Amazon Associates. A popular option that pays out a 10% commission.
Though it sounds like a numbers game, affiliate marketing is also an art, and you’ll have a better chance at success if you have a plan going into it and expand your online presence to include a website and other marketing channels.
Tip: Affiliate links can be long and ugly, so I recommend a URL shortener like Bitly, especially if the links are going in your Instagram bio.
3. Open your own ecommerce store
By now it might sound like the only way for an Instagrammer to make money is to sell out and work with other brands.
But creators of all kinds are in a good position to “sell out” with their own products: physical goods, services, or digital items that can be an extension of their brand, building a business with an audience at its center.
The ability for [content creators] to sell products is just so natural because their abundance of content allows them to have those moments of plugging their products.
Chris Vaccarino, founder of Fanjoy
You need to invest some time upfront, but in today’s world, it’s almost natural for creators to make the leap to entrepreneurship. That’s becoming easier with the growing list of Instagram tools available to build an audience.
Just look at Loki the Wolfdog, one of the biggest Instagram dog-preneurs of his time.
By selling your own stuff, you don’t need to worry about integrating messages from other brands into your posting strategy.
Better yet, you can get your own brand out there on the products you sell.
Fans can show their love and support your work by buying from you—a purchase they can feel good about.
There are a few ways to sell your own merch:
- You can use a print-on-demand service to print and ship your own t-shirts, pillows, coffee mugs, wall art, and more.
- You can sell services such as photography or consulting using your bio to direct interested people to a contact email or a link to your professional website.
- You can sell digital products such as online courses, ebooks, or design templates.
- You can use your Instagram business account to launch a startup selling your own original products. You can use dropshipping fulfillment so you don’t have to deal with holding inventory or returns.
Superpowered social links
Linkpop is a tool that lets you create a customized landing page for all your brand links. It’s free, customizable, and best of all: shoppable.
4. Create an Instagram Shop
The past few years have been huge for ecommerce brands and creators who want to sell on social media. Instagram has released a ton of features under the Instagram Shopping umbrella, which allows people to easily shop your business’ videos and images on the platform.
Instagram shopping tags are so effective—and over 130 million people are tapping on shopping tags every month—because they allow people to go from product inspiration to product information in just a few taps."
Taylor Loren, in an edited excerpt from the course How to Make Money on Instagram
It all starts with an Instagram shop, a.k.a. your storefront. There, you can share your story and sell products. Instagram provides a sleek experience for shoppers to browse and buy your collections. All you need to set up Instagram Shopping is a Business or Creator account.
You can customize your shop by creating collections or curated products presented in themes.
Common themes include new arrivals, gifts, or seasonal trends.
Just like your online store, you can also create product description pages in your shop. Here you can include all relevant product information, like pricing and descriptions. You can send people to your website to complete a purchase or let them buy through the app using Instagram checkout.
It doesn’t stop there. People can also buy your products throughout Instagram via features like:
- Shoppable posts and Stories. You can use product tags to showcase items from your catalog in videos and images. People simply need to tap to learn more about an item.
- Shoppable ads. You can also add product tags to ads and extend the reach of your shoppable posts. Setup is simple inside Ads Manager, or you can boost existing Instagram posts in your feed.
- Instagram Shop tab. Instagram’s shopping tab is a destination for people looking to discover new brands that are relevant to them.
This helps you more easily reach new customers on the app. - Live shopping. Do you love livestreaming content? Then you’ll find Instagram live shopping helpful for making money. Just go live and tag products from your catalog (or Facebook shop) to feature in your broadcast. The product will show up at the bottom of the screen, where people can tap to purchase instantly.
The best part? Setting up an Instagram shop is free. You’ll only pay a commission if someone purchases through Instagram checkout.
5. Sell your photos online
Someone might get famous on Twitter by telling 140-character jokes, but Instagram is a photo-sharing app at its core. And photos are assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in a variety of ways.
If photography is what got you into the Instagram game in the first place, you can list your photos in marketplaces like 500px or Twenty20, where brands and publishers might license them.
However, you can also sell your photos as prints and on other physical products using a similar method described in the last section.
Services like Printful and Teelaunch let you put your photos on posters, phone cases, pillows, and more, taking care of fulfilling orders and customer service, so all you really need to worry about is making sales.
Take the story of Daniel Arnold, who, according to an interview in Forbes, went from “eating toast three meals a day” to making $15,000 in 24 hours by offering to sell prints of his popular-but-controversial photos. If you've already got the demand, all you need to do is take the initiative and offer your audience the opportunity to buy your photography from you.
6. Monetize your content
Monetize your videos with ads
Another way for entrepreneurs to make money on Instagram is through in-stream video ads. With these ads, brands can promote themselves within the videos you produce.
How much you earn depends on the amount of views your video gets, or “Monetizeable Plays,” according to Instagram. You’ll get 55% of ad revenue generated from each view, paid monthly to your bank account.
Turn on In-stream Video Ads and start earning in three steps:
- Go to Account Settings. Tap Creator, then In-Stream Video Ads.
- Tap Get Started. Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Toggle Allow Monetization on your existing Instagram videos, then tap Continue to finish.
To earn through In-Stream Video Ads, your content must be original and you need to own the rights to any music. Your video needs to be two minutes or more to monetize. Images, polls, looping videos, slideshows, or text montages don’t qualify.
Live badges
Live badges are a newer feature, helping creators and influencers make money on Instagram. A popular concept taken from Twitch and TikTok, think of Instagram Live badges as tips you can receive during a live broadcast.
With this feature, viewers can purchase a badge during the livestream that shows in the comments and unlocks features, including a place on the creators’ badge list and access to a special heart.
People can buy:
- One heart for $0.99
- Two hearts for $1.99
- Three hearts for $4.99
7. Sell old stuff
If you’re not an influencer and just want to make some extra cash, Instagram is a great place to sell old stuff. Whether it’s furniture, clothing, collectors items or even Mason jars, you can make side income selling it on Instagram. Plus, you can declutter your home and help save the environment.
Take Lavender Loveseat, for example. Based in Chicago, the team finds older pieces of furniture, refinishes them, and sells them through Instagram. The brand shares fun, entertaining content on its page to attract buyers and earn sales.
Read More: From Likes to Dollars: Here's How to Sell Your Products on Instagram
How much do Instagram influencers make?
There are a number of factors that determine how much an Instagram influencer makes. They can earn anywhere from a few dollars to a million dollars per post.
The amount you make depends on a few factors:
- Number of followers
- Engagement rates
- Affiliate marketing tactics
The good news? There is room for any size account to make money on Instagram. There are generally five tiers of influencer marketing, broken down by follower count.
- Nano-influencer: 1,000–10,000 followers ($10–$100 per post)
- Micro-influencer: 10,000–50,000 followers ($100–$500 per post)
- Mid-tier influencer: 50,000–500,000 followers ($500–$5,000 per post)
- Macro-influencer: 500,000–1 million followers ($5,000–$10,000 per post)
- Mega-influencer: 1 million+ followers ($10,000–$1 million+ per post)
If you don’t have a lot of followers, don’t get discouraged. Earning your followers’ trust and engaging with them will help your account grow. More than the number of followers, brands look for influencers to work with that have an active following.
So even if you only have 1,000 followers, you can still make some real money. To give you a little inspiration, here are some examples of the top non-celebrity influencers who have made the most of Instagram with their accounts:
- Lele Pons: 46 million followers
- Charli D'Amelio: 44.4 million followers
- Addison Rae: 40.1 million followers
- Sommer Ray: 26.8 million followers
Related Article: It’s Your Time to Shine: How to Find and Work With Instagram Influencers
How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
If by now you’re wondering how many followers you need to start bringing in real revenue, the short answer is: not as many as you think.
The long answer depends on factors that range from:
- What niche you’re in and how easily you can directly tie it to a product category (fashion, food, beauty, and fitness are popular niches, based on top Instagram hashtags)
- How engaged your followers are (100,000 fake followers won’t amount to much)
- Which revenue channels you explore
Naturally, the more engaged followers you have, the better.
Check out our tips on how to get more followers on Instagram.
While top Instagrammers make thousands of dollars per post, even those with small but engaged followings of 1,000 have the potential to start making money.
Getting paid on Instagram and beyond
What started as a hobby—making people laugh, doing silly photoshoots with your dog, or sharing pictures of food—can snowball into the chance to turn your Instagram page into a source of income fueled by your engaged following. But why stop there?
There’s a world of possibilities for creators to make money on the web. If you want to open up more revenue streams online, be sure to check out our tips on how to make money on YouTube. Your Instagram followers are bound to join you on other channels. You just have to open the doors for them to walk through.
Ready to create your business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
Make money on Instagram FAQ
Can you get paid on Instagram?
Yes.
You can get paid on Instagram in the following ways:
- Create sponsored posts for brands that want to get in front of your audience
- Become an affiliate and making a commission selling other brands’ products
- Create and selling a physical or digital product or offering a paid service
- Set up an Instagram Shop
- Sell licenses for your photography or videos
- Monetize your content
How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?
The more followers you have on Instagram, the more money you can make. Rates are also determined by engagement, quality of content, name recognition, audience demographic, and skill set. The standard is $10 per 1,000 followers, but can vary depending on your contract and sponsor.
How much money does 10K Instagram followers bring in?
Micro-influencers, or accounts with 10,000 followers or less, can make around $88 per post on Instagram.
How to Make Money on Instagram in 2023 (14 Proven Strategies)
If working hard and making money is the American dream, not working hard and making money is the Instagram dream. But making serious income using social media requires some serious strategy. Whether you’re a creator or a business, you’ll find the most success in making money on Instagram if you do your research.
Keep reading to get inspired by thirteen examples from creators and brands, and find tips for making money on Instagram that apply to everyone.
Can you make money on Instagram?
How much money can you make on Instagram?
How to make money on Instagram as a business
How to make money on Instagram as a creator
Bonus: Learn how to sell more products on social media with our free Social Commerce 101 guide. Delight your customers and improve conversion rates.
Can you make money on Instagram?
Hell yeah.
In fact, helping creators make a living on the platform is a top priority for Instagram, especially as competition heats up from TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.
“Our goal is to be the best platform for creators like you to make a living,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s first-ever Creator Week in June 2021.
In 2021, Instagram was the second-most downloaded app in the world. It’s the 7th most-visited website globally, the 4th most-used social media platform, and has 1.22 billion users every month. All of which is to say: that’s a massive potential audience. With an enormous and diverse pool of people who could potentially be exposed to your content, there are plenty of opportunities to earn money.
Want more proof? Grab the popcorn and watch this video from Hootsuite Labs.
(If you’re looking for more Instagram stats—you know, to rattle off at parties and impress your friends—you can find 35 of them here).
How much money can you make on Instagram?
Numbers are tricky, because creators and brands are notoriously private about how much money they’re making. On top of that, calculating income from Instagram is complicated—if you sing a song on a Reel, the sound goes viral and you get a record deal from that internet fame, then tens of thousands of people buy tickets to your concert, does that count as making money on Instagram? What if you post food videos, then provide a link to your recipe blog, and host ads on your blog that make you money?
It sounds bizarre, but that’s the way most successful creators’ journeys go. How much money you can make on Instagram depends on your credentials, audience size, engagement, strategy, hustle, and a dash of dumb luck.
Here’s how much some creators and celebs have reportedly cashed in:
$901: The average amount of money an Instagram influencer with 1,000 to 10,000 followers can make per post, according to Business Insider
$100 to $1,500: How much a creator can be paid for a swipe-up advertisement on their Instagram stories according to Brian Hanly, CEO of Bullish Studio (a talent agency for influencers)
$983,100: The amount Kylie Jenner reportedly makes per ad or sponsored content post
$1,604,000: The amount Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly makes per post
In 2021, Hype Auditor surveyed almost 2 thousand influencers (most based in the U.S.) about how much money they make. Here’s what they found:
- The average influencer makes $2,970 per month. “Average” numbers aren’t the best to go by, since there’s so much differentiation between the highs and lows—as is referenced in the next stat!
- Micro-influencers (accounts with one thousand to ten thousand followers earn on average $1,420 per month, and mega-influencers (accounts with over one million followers) earn about $15,356 per month.
Source: Hypeauditor
Top 5 Instagram Earners in 2022
Obviously, celebrities have a leg up in notoriety, and when they sign up for Instagram they automatically get thousands of followers. Although that is not the same for all of us, it’s inspiring to see just how much someone can make through being an influencer on a social media platform. Here are the top 5 earners on Instagram today:
- Cristiano Ronaldo – 475 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,604,000
- Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – 334 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,523,000
- Ariana Grande – 328 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,510,000
- Kylie Jenner – 365 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,494,000
- Selena Gomez – 341 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,468,000
How to make money on Instagram as a business
Being present, active, and engaging on Instagram (and keeping up with trends) is one of the best ways to find business success on the platform in 2022.
Here’s how to do it.
1. Promote special offers
The online audience is a sucker for a good deal (and Instagram users love to buy stuff: 44% of Instagrammers say they use the app to shop weekly).
Use Instagram to showcase all the great things about your company—specifically, anytime you’re having a sale. Not only does posting your sale, promo code, or special offer on Instagram advertise a sale to your followers, but it also makes the information easily shareable.
This holiday sale post from clothing brand @smashtess has lots of comments that are just people tagging their friends. It’s an awesome way to promote the sale and also have the sale shared organically.
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A post shared by Smash + Tess (@smashtess)
2. Set up countdowns to new launches
You can use Instagram to give your followers a sneak peek of new releases, launches, or product lines—and using the “Countdown” or “Reminder” functions, you can provide potential customers with a simple way to flag when those new products will be available for sale.
This creates some hype around your offer, and once the release happens, users get a notification reminding them to check out the goods (and, hopefully, check out the goods).
3. Set up an Instagram Shop
Instagram Shops are a direct method of making money off of the app. Users can buy products using the platform’s native e-commerce tools, and it’s easy to set up a shop.
Instagram shops are an impulse buyer’s best friend (or worst nightmare, depending on how you look at it). Your shoppable products or services will show up in your followers’ news feeds, along with regular posts.
Hosting an Instagram shop is also a great way to provide quick customer service to folks who use social media (basically everyone—75% of the global population over the age of 13).
Customers can DM you or comment on posts to learn more about your brand. (Hint: if you’re feeling overwhelmed in your DMs, consider using a chatbot to support your customer service team.)
When you post something with a buyable item, the little shop icon will appear on the post, letting viewers know that it’s available for purchase.
Home goods store @the.modern.shop uses shoppable tags in many of their posts.
4. Schedule shoppable Instagram posts with Hootsuite
You can create and schedule or auto-publish shoppable Instagram photos, videos, and carousel posts alongside all your other social media content using Hootsuite.
To tag a product in an Instagram post in Hootsuite, follow these steps:
1. Open your Hootsuite dashboard and go to Composer.
2. Under Publish to, select an Instagram Business profile.
3. Upload your media (up to 10 images or videos) and type out your caption.
4. In the preview on the right, select Tag products.
The tagging process is slightly different for videos and images:
- Images: Select a spot in the image, and then search for and select an item in your product catalog. Repeat for up to 5 tags in the same image. Select Done when you’re finished tagging.
- Videos: A catalog search appears right away. Search for and select all the products you want to tag in the video.
5. Select Post now or Schedule for later. If you decide to schedule your post, you will see suggestions for the best times to publish your content for maximum engagement.
And that’s it! Your shoppable post will show up in the Hootsuite Planner, alongside all of your other scheduled content.
You can also boost your existing shoppable posts directly from Hootsuite to help more people discover your products.
Note: You’ll need an Instagram Business account and an Instagram shop to take advantage of product tagging in Hootsuite.
Try Hootsuite free for 30 days
5.
Set up a chatbotAn easy way to provide excellent customer service and make sales through direct messages is to set up an Instagram chatbot. A chatbot is integrated directly into your Instagram account and website and can answer any frequently asked questions from your followers. If the question is too complicated for the conversational AI chatbot, then it will automatically pass the inquiry to a real live member of your team.
And how can a chatbot help you earn on Instagram? Simple!
An Instagram chatbot can recommend products in your shop, directly to your customers within the chat, leading to faster and more streamlined sales.
If a customer inquires about what color foundation you have in stock, the chatbot can serve up three different options that the user can quickly add to their cart without ever leaving the platform.
Source: HeydayGet a free Heyday demo
6. Partner with creators
Influencer marketing allows you to share your company with the creator’s audience (and the creator also gets a spotlight for your audience—it’s a win-win).
When you’re researching folks to collaborate with, make sure you pay attention to their content and values: you want to pick someone who has goals that align with your own, so the partnership makes sense to customers and doesn’t seem like some oddball marketing scheme.
For example, it makes sense for a plant-based bakery to partner with a vegan influencer (more sense than Bill Nye partnering with Coca-Cola, that’s for sure).
Try to collaborate with creators who would be likely to try and/or like your products, anyway—for example, dancer @maddieziegler has long had a partnership with activewear brand @fabletics. You can offer the creator money, goods, or an affiliate deal (more info on that in the “Join an affiliate program” section of this post, just above!) in exchange for posting about your company.
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A post shared by maddie (@maddieziegler)
7.
Partner with other businessesLike partnering with creators, partnerships with other businesses give folks on both sides of the deal an opportunity to interact with a wider consumer base. Try contacting other businesses like yours and hosting a contest or giveaway—it’s an excellent way to gain followers and tap into a new audience.
This giveaway from @chosenfoods and @barebonesbroth requires entrants to like and save the post, follow both companies, and tag a friend in the comments. Both brands are building their audience—followers just waiting to be converted into consumers.
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A post shared by Chosen Foods (@chosenfoods)
8. Straight-up advertise
Hey, the basics still work. Advertising on Instagram is one of the ways you can make money on the platform and actually track your progress.
You can turn any post into an ad by boosting it, and your Instagram analytics will tell you how much of a difference the boost made.
How to make money on Instagram as a creator
Even if you don’t have a “business” in the conventional sense, there are lots of ways you can use Instagram to make money as an individual. With a solid following and clear niche, you have influence—and can be an influencer.
1. Partner with brands
Partnering with brands is likely the most well-known way that creators can make money on Instagram. Find a small or big brand that aligns with your values (that part is important—partnering with a brand that has nothing to do with your regular content, or even directly contradicts your regular content, will make you seem inauthentic).
Partnerships with brands can take many forms: you might be paid to make an Instagram post that features a specific product or be offered free products in exchange for content. To get started, try making a few posts that feature some of your favorite things—restaurants, skincare, whatever feels true to you—for free.
You can then point to those posts as examples when you’re reaching out to brands.
Lots of makeup and beauty influencers participate in these kinds of brand deals. Here’s an example of a paid partnership post from creator @mexicanbutjapanese for Nordstrom.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mexicanbutjapanese (@mexicanbutjapanese)
Hint: when you’re participating in a paid partnership or sponsored post, be transparent. Use hashtags, mark the post as sponsored, and be clear about the partnership in your captions. Not following Instagram’s branded content guidelines can result in posts being removed—plus, it’s sketchy.
2. Join an affiliate program
This is related to brand partnerships, as joining an affiliate program still requires you to connect yourself to a business that sells specific products or experiences.
Affiliate programs essentially pay you to market other people’s products (so again, you want to make sure that the products you’re highlighting align with your values). If your followers buy something from the brand through you—usually using a specific link or discount code—you get paid.
This nail artist is an affiliate marketer for a nail polish brand—when followers use her discount code to buy the nail polish, the creator makes money.
3. Enable Live Badges
For creators in the U.S., Instagram’s Live Badges is a method of making money directly through the app. During a live video, viewers can purchase the badges (which cost between $0.99 and $4.99) to show their support.
To turn on Live Badges, go to your Profile and tap Professional Dashboard. Then, enable Instagram monetization. Once you’ve been approved, you’ll see a button called Set Up Badges. Tap that, and you’re good to go!
Source: Instagram
If you’ve enabled Live Badges, make sure to mention it when you go live (remind your followers that if they’d like to show their support with money, it’s easy to do so!) and express gratitude when someone purchases a badge.
Saying thank you goes a long way, and will likely encourage other people to pitch in.
Bonus: Learn how to sell more products on social media with our free Social Commerce 101 guide. Delight your customers and improve conversion rates.
Get the guide now!
4. Sell your merch
Using Instagram as a marketing tool for your other revenue streams is a great strategy for moneymaking. If you’ve curated your personal brand enough to have a certain look, logo, catchphrase, or anything else that’s recognizably you, consider selling merch that’s splashed with that extra sparkle (you’re brand). You can make money from sales—plus score some free advertising when your followers start walking around with your name on their sweatpants.
Drag queen extraordinaire Trixie Mattel sells branded merch and uses Instagram as a platform to advertise.
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A post shared by Trixie Mattel (@trixiemattel)
5. Link to your blog or vlog
Selling advertising space on your own website—or making money from Youtube—can be super lucrative, and you can use Instagram to direct your followers to that external site (hint: use a link tree to make the most of that link in your Instagram bio).
Here are some quick examples:
- Foodies who post pictures of food they’ve made and also have a blog where they post full recipes
- YouTubers who post highlights of their vlog on Reels, then provide a link to their Youtube channel for the full video
- Fashion influencers who post their outfits on Instagram and link to their website, where they share where the clothes came from
- Outdoor adventurers who post gorgeous landscapes and link to their blog where they detail the best road trip routes
Food blogger @tiffy.
cooks posts videos of her making food on her blog, and links to in-depth recipes in her bio. The recipes live on her blog, which also hosts posts that contain affiliate links.
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A post shared by Tiffy Cooks 🥟 Easy Recipes (@tiffy.cooks)
6. Offer paid tutorials or masterclasses
This is similar to linking to a blog or vlog, but instead of making income indirectly (through businesses advertising on your page or Youtube ads), your followers are directly paying you for a service you’re providing.
If you have a particular area of expertise, you could offer an online masterclass that requires a paid ticket. This method of moneymaking is common for fitness influencers, who may post short workouts for free and then link to a full training routine that you need to pay to access.
Film colorist @theqazman offers quick tips on Instagram, but also hosts ticketed masterclasses. This way, his content still appeals to a wide (non-paying) audience, but folks who are serious about learning the ropes will pay him for a full lesson.
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You can also offer tutorials or masterclasses for free and simply ask followers to tip you if they have the means—that’s the method athlete @iamlshauntay uses. Her link in bio directs followers to ways they can pay her for her work if they’re able to. This is a good technique to use if you’re looking for maximum accessibility: there’s no financial barrier to your content, but there’s still a clear way for your audience to pay you if they want to.
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who pays money and how much
Technology creates interesting earning opportunities. It is available to everyone, there would be a desire. A huge field of activity is represented by various social networks. Bloggers sell ads and are most profitable on Instagram accounts.
It is not as easy as it seems at first glance, but doable. Below we will talk about the recruitment of subscribers and related indicators, sources and ways to get money from the blog.
How to make money on subscribers
It is very important for active bloggers to reach and engage as many audiences as possible. And this is no ordinary sporting interest. Popularity brings real benefits, the first of which is advertising revenue . Most of the users are just having fun on Instagram, but there are those (and there are really a lot of them) who have been working here for a long time or have set up their own business. They either sell their company's products and services, or offer a well-traveled footprint to other brands for their advertising, awareness and image. The number of subscribers to a blogger's page directly affects how often third-party advertisers will contact him. nine0003
Number of followers to start earning on Instagram
You will be surprised to know how many followers you need to collect to start earning.
Not quite as much as you think. The amount of profit from the blog is affected by:
- the scope (niche) of your activity, and the ability to directly correlate it with a separate category of product/service offerings;
- involvement and coverage of published materials;
- choice of methods and partners. You need to be able to attract at least a thousand interested visitors. As their number increases, income will increase. Thinking about the real result, you need to strive for serious numbers. nine0016
10,000 subscribers to a blog is enough to start a business. But they must be active. It has been proven that an account with 30 thousand audience, among which 20 thousand people are active, receives more than an instagrammer with 80 thousand, where 15 thousand people are doing something. Companies are looking for a large audience in order to expand awareness and sell more. However, not so numerous as to sacrifice the quality of interaction. Therefore, you need to have from 10 thousand active people on Instagram.
Leading bloggers get paid a lot of money for posting famous brand ads. However, you can benefit from a profile with few active users. nine0003
Why Instagram doesn't pay bloggers
It's very tempting to have money for the approval of viewers/readers. Instagram does not pay for reach, likes, and channel subscribers. This is different from YouTube. There is no monetization function for uploading material in the application, although there are other ways to earn income here. Why? The reason is a very easy winding.
Who pays bloggers on Instagram. What Advertisers Are Really Paying For
Recruiting a significant number of signers does not oblige companies to go to you at all. Of course, their number has an impact on promotion through your profile, but on condition that the activity of the audience matches its size. Engagement is valued much higher than follower count, as companies need someone with influence who will be persuasive in encouraging people to buy from them.
When others trust you, often like, respond in comments, then your degree of involvement may arouse the interest of potential customers. nine0003
Engagement rate is the ratio of all likes and comments to the corresponding number of posts, divided by followers and multiplied by 100. In the assessment of the marketing and planning platform Instagram, the average is 2-3%, the high is 4-6%. Measuring engagement in double numbers speaks to its “virality”.
If the profile is high enough, companies conclude that visitors here can not only listen, but also hear. Then they will start paying you to advertise in order to get potential buyers. This indicator is checked by search and verification services for opinion leaders. Checking one account is free. nine0003
Ways to make money on Instagram
Did you know that 7 out of 10 users make their purchase decisions using social networks, and almost half of them rely on the opinions of bloggers? They are looking for advice on choosing different products.
Why not provide the required content? your passion and good knowledge of any industry will turn into a means of earning if you promote products and brands by advertising them in your account.
As we said, Instagram provides several profitable activities for bloggers, the main ones are:
- Sponsored posts.
- Affiliate Marketing.
- Offering own products and services.
Sponsored publications are especially popular. Companies negotiate with bloggers on an individual basis. The latter have the right to independently determine the tariff, so the method is the most profitable.
Affiliate marketing programs - receiving a commission when selling goods from online stores. Your task is to study, give descriptions and advise them to purchase. Trusting the review or advice, the user follows the link and makes a purchase in the store. When making a payment, a certain percentage is credited to the blogger's account. nine0003
This method allows you to more independently choose the form of recommendation that is convenient for you.
Where to start?
For beginners, well-promoted platforms that provide participation in affiliate programs (Aliexpress, Amazon, Refander and others) are suitable. It is better to choose those that sell things related to the topic of the blog. They will surely interest your target audience.
The third way to use the social network is to create your own business, your own sales. Profit comes not only from outside companies, but from the sale of something on their own behalf. People make money by supporting newbies with promotion, selling their own promotional designs, conducting paid webinars on popular topics (weight loss, making money on the Internet), writing books about the path to success, selling handmade items, etc. Your Instagram business can be almost anything. People are interested in ways to stay healthy, fitness, travel, beauty and fashion trends, business success, financial issues and ways to get rich, living in style in luxury, etc. These are the most profitable niches.
Working with brands in these areas, bloggers receive rather big sums. nine0003
The amount of earnings. How much do bloggers get paid to advertise
“How much profit can I expect?” is the first thing beginners ask. Alas, this question cannot be answered immediately, to name the exact amount. Profit depends on many variable factors: the chosen topic, the method of earning, the quality of publications, the number of subscribers and the engagement rate. Although in general, it usually corresponds to the market price for the number of impressions. And therefore, you can calculate the average number of impressions in a certain area using the Instagram advertising account on Facebook. To do this, you need to create a test advertising campaign, select the niche you are interested in and pay attention to the cost per thousand impressions. With this information, you can already estimate how much it will cost to display ads on a blog, given, as a rule, the increased engagement of blogger ads that are made natively.
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While there is a conditional follower threshold that an influential and earning profile needs to pass, never stop making progress. Follower growth shows that the account is successful and thriving. By gathering 1,000 live, interested users around your blog, you can start making money.
How bloggers make money on Instagram (Instagram)
Instagram* is certainly a phenomenon of the 21st century. Once it was conceived as a platform with cool filters for amateur photographers, then celebrities entered the game, later the concept of “Insta blogger” appeared. By 2021, the social network has grown significantly and has become a place where people come to earn money. There, millions of video makers, designers, targetologists, marketers, content managers, AR developers and, of course, bloggers are looking for their star. nine0003
You can spend hours entertainingly talking about the details of each profession, but we are not here for this. Turn your attention to the “on” mode, we will reveal the secrets of monetizing an Instagram blogger account.
Let's go!
How bloggers earn on Instagram* in 2021
Instagram* is a place of work for the brave and creative. That is why here they have come up with so many ways to earn money. This is how they make money on insta* today:
- marathons, trainings, courses, webinars, consultations, private clubs… in general, everything that helps subscribers to improve their skills;
The method is especially relevant among expert bloggers: trainers, nutritionists, psychologists, foreign language teachers, photographers, cooks, etc. The action can take place in different ways. Mass activities can be carried out both in a closed Instagram account* and on a separate platform. To gain access, you must pay a certain amount, the amount of which depends on the degree of promotion of the blogger and the usefulness of the content. The main account in this case serves as a bridge for building trust and an arena for demonstrating professionalism. nine0003
In this way, you can raise big money at a comfortable working rhythm, but first you have to work with your elbows.
The competition in this niche on Instagram* is outrageous. Some course or guide is written once, and access to it is sold many, many times. Thanks to such a return on investment of time and effort, the infobusiness is on horseback. And this means that those who want to earn money in this way in insta * have already packed like sprats in a jar.
- presets;
A couple of years ago they were a hit. Photographers and bloggers on Instagram* were happy to sell their ready-made processing templates and such things sold like hot cakes. Now, it seems, the era of presets is gone and the enthusiasm has subsided. But, firstly, everything in the world is cyclical, and, secondly, any idea can be upgraded and a new idea can be obtained. Take a pencil. nine0003
- own brand or merch;
Immediately a small note: basically this format of earnings is chosen by bloggers whose nicknames are heard by a good half of active Instagram users*. The chance of a solid profit is considerable and the example of foreign bloggers confirms this: what are only Chiara Ferragni Collection and Jeffree Star Cosmetics worth! Their Russian counterparts are not inferior.
The clothing line from Tanya Starikova’s “Stirka”, Adele Miftahova’s Don’t Touch My Face cosmetics, Marianna Davtyan’s My Special Planner, and so on are quite popular on the network. nine0003
A simpler option - merch. For example, Marie Novosad sells clothes and cups with prints, Lena Sheidlina sells postcards and stickers, and Yuri Dud and Vlad A4 prefer clothes and accessories with their signature phrases.
- giveaways;
“Subscribe to 30 sponsors, get an iPhone” is a very popular promotion model on Instagram* today. And bloggers with a large audience can earn handsome amounts on personalized giveaways. The influencer organizes such a draw on his own or acts as the main donor of subscribers in the give of another organizer. In the first case, you will have to worry about organizational issues such as recruiting bloggers-sponsors and buying prizes. In the second, you just need to advertise the event at a high price several times. The budget of giveaways goes into the millions, so the size of the income of key participants is appropriate.
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- Ambassadorship and advertising.
We have reached, perhaps, the most obvious way to earn money. Let's start with ambassadorship. The ambassador is the face of a certain brand, causes the subscriber to associate with him, forms a positive image of the company with which he cooperates. The blogger-ambassador makes the brand a part of his image and daily life, occasionally mentioning products on the blog and even publicly using them offline.
However, the easiest and most popular way to make money among bloggers is to collaborate with brands for the purpose of advertising. There are now almost as many customers willing to pay for integration as there are bloggers on Instagram*. It is not surprising that on this basis the market has become overgrown with myths and legends. An absolute minority knows how the system works, what determines the income of a blogger and where to find advertisers. We are decidedly not satisfied with this. Let's roll up our sleeves and set out to dispel all the popular myths of the influence marketing market! nine0003
MYTH No.
1: Only bloggers with thousands of followers can make money on Instagram* As one notorious character would say: “I am ready to poke names and call fingers.” There are a lot of cases and examples when bloggers with a small but lively, active audience sold much better and earned much more than their popular colleagues. The fact is that the recommendations of micro-influencers are listened to in much the same way as the advice of friends, and on a subconscious level, millionaires are treated with a bit of skepticism. That's brands and tired of draining the budget for the purchase of advertising from celebrities and at the same time get dust in their eyes. nine0003
MYTH #2: Bloggers decide how much their Instagram ads cost*
Yes, this happens and happens quite often. Influencers have long and stubbornly insisted on fixing or bartering. However, advertisers who agree to such conditions can already be safely called an endangered species. Barter, and even more so fixed, is a big risk for an advertising campaign.
It is almost impossible to predict the reaction of subscribers, and the price tags for advertising often bite and raise questions. It follows from this that the possibility of non-recoupment of investments is extremely high. nine0003
For any demand, sooner or later there is a supply, and in this case, too. Such payment models as CPA (cost per action) and СPC (cost per click) entered the arena. It's simple: in the first case, the income of insta * bloggers is formed by performing targeted actions on the site or in the advertiser's stores; in the second, by clicking on an active link. Advertisers rejoice and vote for new models of cooperation with money, which means that the business will only gain momentum. Music is played at this disco after all they are. nine0003
It is clear that an unscrupulous blogger cannot cope with such radical models. Here you need a trusting relationship with the audience and an understanding of its interests. But there is good news: if everything is ok with this, honestly earned can be considered six-figure numbers.
Income is unlimited.
MYTH #3: A blogger's "top position" and earnings depend on the number of likes and comments
It's not that simple. Don't believe!
Today, the size and dynamics of the profile, geography and percentage of advertising in the blog, the degree of audience trust are taken into account, and not just that. It is important that the blog provides exclusive content, once you see it, you will not forget it. Then the natural increase in live followers will increase, and hence the competitiveness of the blogger in the market. nine0003
MYTH #4: Brands contact the blogger for ad integration
Sometimes it happens, sometimes it's the opposite. However, more and more advertisers are turning to agencies, exchanges and platforms that provide a guarantee of security and return on investment. And that is great! Such intermediaries help bloggers advertise brands that are well-known and not get involved with dubious offers. They also provide a bunch of goodies from creatives, designers and personal managers to help.
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If you haven't tried quest exchanges yet, it's time to test. Here it is important to take care of the security of the transaction and choose intermediaries who have already earned a good name for themselves in the market. The Perfluence platform is great, for example. The service has collected more than 130 different offers of cooperation from top brands. At the same time, the platform is open to cooperation even with very small bloggers. If your Instagram* has at least 3 thousand subscribers, this is already an entrance ticket to many projects. nine0003
Perfluence offers differ in subject matter and work format. There are offers both with a fix and / or barter, and with payment for the action. In the second case, the blogger's income is not limited from the word at all. Practice shows that, with the right approach, it is this option that brings money faster. It is important to choose offers that are interesting for your audience + be able to beautifully swing people to buy, register, etc.
