How does instagram pay for posts

7 Best Ways To Make Money on Instagram in 2022

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.

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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 He 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.

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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 fuelled 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.

17 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram (2022)

Instagram can be a highly targetable, visual marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business.

In fact, over 500 million Instagram users browse the app every day, making it home to some of the most engaged audiences around.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to grow your Instagram follower profile and increase engagement, while growing a massive following over time—one that’s full of real fans, not bots or fake followers.

17 ways to get more Instagram followers

Incorporate Reels into your content mix
Cross promote content
Curate your profile grid
Work with brand ambassadors
Get follows from your loyalty program
Market through your personal Instagram account
Get on feature accounts
Use the right hashtags
Post at the right times
Steal your competitors' followers
Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
Use geotags to boost local discovery
Organize your Stories in highlights
Ask for more followers
Run a giveaway
Share user-generated content
Use Instagram live

Let’s dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.

Free Webinar:

How to Grow Your Instagram Account

A free workshop with field-tested Instagram marketing tips. Learn how to grow your Instagram audience and monetize it with an online store.

1. Incorporate Reels into your content mix

Reels are fun videos you can share with followers on your Instagram account. They have audio, effects, and creative tools. You can share them on your feed and publicly in Explore to reach new audiences.

Reels are new territory for brands. Instagram’s beauty partnerships manager, Kristie Dash, stated in a Glossy forum that Reels are still a relatively new way to publish content, and there isn’t one formula for success. But, she does suggest the following tips to gain traction:

Keep content unique and trend drive. Identify trends on Instagram and TikTok and put your own spin on it. This increases the chance your Reels will go viral and get in front of new people.

Make content relatable and simple. Not every Reel needs to be a production. Lower quality videos can perform the same, if not better, than highly produced Reels.

Educate your audience. Find the balance between education and entertainment in your Reels.

Reels should be a huge priority for you right now. It’s prime real estate for your brand to be discovered by new followers.
Kristen Dash, Beauty Partnerships Manager, Instagram

Social media marketing agency owner Trilce Jirón Garro, of TBS Marketing, agrees. “Don’t sell your products through Reels content. Share facts. Provide tips about the industry you’re in. Entertain viewers,” she says.

Trilce suggests that both new and existing brands incorporate entertaining Reels into their Instagram strategy. “Reels give anyone the opportunity to reach new target audiences. There’s no learning curve because Reels content is lo-fi. And creators can produce community-driven content that builds trust, gains followers, and makes sales over time.”

Trilce also loves the Instagram Insights Tool introduced for Reels. “Reels have become an integrated part of any Instagram marketing strategy. Analytics tools for Reels has made it easy to track metrics and analyze data to see if your Reels are working. Now, you can understand exactly what your audience likes and dislikes, when to post Reels, and what calls to action resonate with viewers.”

Using Reels Insights, you can see patterns and understand different spikes in engagement that affect your visibility on the platform. That way, you can create higher-quality content that gets even more engagement and followers.

Need help creating a Reels strategy? Read Why and How to Use Instagram Reels to Market Your Shopify Store to learn more.

2. Cross promote content

Cross-promoting involves posting similar content across various social media channels. It’s a tactic used to save time and resources. It’s also effective at increasing brand awareness and growing an audience on Instagram.

Mobile users are spending an increasing amount of time with video and entertainment apps, with video content on social media platforms accounting for the biggest increase. Whether it’s a short-form video or lengthy tutorial, you want to improve the reach of your Instagram content.

Justin Bieber’s holiday dance challenge is a great example of successful cross-posting. During the 2020 holiday season, the Canadian singer posted the same dance challenge on both TikTok and Instagram. On TikTok, his video short received 9.8 million likes. The same content on Instagram received 4.8 million likes. He was able to get in front of more people just by posting the same video on two different platforms.

Nadya Okamoto, founder of lifestyle period brand August, has found that TikTok naturally cross-pollinates to Instagram and YouTube. She says in an interview with Modern Retail, “As we’ve grown on TikTok from August, we’ve also grown to 175,000 followers on Instagram. ” Actively posting on multiple platforms has “affected our overall cost of acquisitions to be super effective,” allowing the brand to steer away from paid media as a main acquisition channel.

TikTok isn’t the only channel you can cross-post on. The Instagram Reels format translates well to YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Stories. It’s important to note that Instagram’s algorithm won’t promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark. So if you’re going to cross-post content from Instagram to other channels, ensure the content is high quality and doesn’t promote a competing platform through watermarks.

3. Curate your profile grid

Most of your followers won’t follow you for what you posted in the past but for the promise of what you’ll post in the future. Your audience wants to know what they’re going to get if they hit that Follow button.

Having a feed with a consistent theme and a consistent posting schedule can have just as much of an impact in growing a following as many of the other growth strategies we’ve covered above. Even a simple pattern can entice new followers, as long as it’s communicated at first glance to anyone who lands on your profile.

Consider your Instagram bio and your last nine posts as your first impression on Instagram. Do they effectively communicate some degree of consistency through personality, filters, colors, or layout? Does the clickable link send people to the same homepage every week? Or are you linking out to fun and exciting content too?

The layout of your grid is an often underestimated way to get creative with the aesthetic of your feed while adding a rhythm to your publishing strategy and consistency that’s worth following.

In fact, many accounts that adopt this approach are often able to spend less effort on creating content by focusing on converting visitors into followers, producing text graphics or other content with a faster turnaround, and streamlining the overall production of their Instagram content.

You can use a tool like Later to easily plan out and schedule the look and layout of your feed. Letterfolk is just one example of how far some brands go with the aesthetic of their Instagram layout.

Your feed serves as the billboard for your brand. It’s a customer’s first touchpoint with you and captures the essence of your brand.
Trilce Jiron, TBS Marketing

4. Work with brand ambassadors

Don’t want to pay the celebrity influencer big bucks to market your brand? Works with brand ambassadors who have anywhere from a couple hundred to a few thousand followers. Ambassadors are people who genuinely support and believe in your brand and will tell their friends about it.

Luxury shoe retailer Sarah Flint reports seeing success with its brand ambassador program, which has over 500 women. Each ambassador has their own unique discount code, which gives them a free pair of Sarah Flint shoes after five new customers use it.

Ambassadors like Holly Hollon attest to the quality and comfort of the brand’s shoes. Her posts are authentic and relatable to regular Sarah Flint shoppers. This helps the brand grow its Instagram following and earn sales.

5. Get follows from your loyalty program

Retailers are increasingly launching loyalty programs, repeatedly encouraging consumers to shop with their brand over another. It’s worked for brands like Sephora and Blume. One way brands are capitalizing on loyalty programs is by rewarding those who follow them on Instagram.

When luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff launched its rewards program, RM Rewards, it gave shoppers the option to earn points by following the brand’s Instagram account. Brands like Blume are also finding the value in rewarding Instagram followers. Program members can earn Blume Bucks for becoming a friend on Instagram versus Facebook or Twitter.

6. Market through your personal Instagram account

Another popular way to increase your Instagram following is growing your personal account—basically, make yourself the influencer. Harnessing both the company account and your personal account can increase brand recognition, follower counts, and sales. Pro tip: You can also run this playbook on TikTok to improve your numbers.

It’s a tactic that works well for fashion label ANINE BING. In addition to the brand’s Instagram profile, the company’s founder also drives engagement and awareness through her personal Instagram page, which has over one million followers.

Anine invites followers into her design studio, takes them through the design process, and even gets feedback from followers throughout the creative process. Anine also shares a bit about her personal life and milestones, giving followers a peak behind the curtains of their favorite designer’s life.

7. Get on feature accounts

Instagram feature accounts are pages that curate the best content in a specific niche. They are like the “best of” photo journals for an industry. Some feature accounts have a massive following. If you get placement on the account, it can send new Instagram followers to your profile.

There are feature accounts for every niche: travel, fashion, photography, and more. For example, @discoverearth curates adventurous travel content from around the world for over 6.1 million followers.

8. Use the right hashtags

Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience on a regular basis while also growing your number of real followers. Posting new, interesting, and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement, but to begin growing you’ll find hashtagging your photos extremely important. Hashtagging makes it easy for people searching for specific terms to find your photos.

So which hashtags should you use? Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram choose certain hashtags over others. If you use popular Instagram hashtags within your photos, you’re much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.

At the time of this writing, these were the top 20 hashtags on Instagram:

#love
#instagood
#photooftheday
#fashion
#beautiful
#happy
#cute
#like4like
#tbt
#followme
#picoftheday
#follow
#me
#art
#selfie
#summer
#instadaily
#repost
#friends
#nature

If you looked at this list and said, “But none of those apply to my products or brand,” you’re likely correct.

Using hashtags is one thing; using the right tags is completely different.

Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes. However, they won’t lead to increased long-term engagement, new interested followers, or, most importantly, sales.

If you want to tag your photos properly, you’ll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you’re using hashtags that not only describe your brand but that are also being searched for on Instagram.

To find relevant hashtags, you’ll want to use a free online tool like IconoSquare or Webstagram to start.

Below, I used Webstagram to find relevant, related, and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory business by searching for key hashtags closely related to my brand.

As an example, searching the hashtag #MensFashion, I was able to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags along with the number of times they have been used (i. e., their popularity).

You can also find more related hashtags and their popularity if you search for any of your target keywords directly in the Instagram app.

You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.

Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time, so make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months so you're using the best possible terms.

You can also steal hashtag ideas from competitors or similar accounts that have the kind of following you aspire to, but ultimately, you want to create your own groups of hashtags that relate to your specific account.

Pro tip #1: Here’s a trick I use for my ecommerce businesses. For every product and product category in my stores, I’ve researched the most popular related Instagram hashtags. I came up with 15 to 20 popular hashtags for each category of products I sell, as well as a base of five to 10 popular tags that describe my brand and product offering. Finally, I also created a list of popular local specific hashtags that relate to my brand.

For example:

Brand keyword hashtags

#mybrandname #mensfashion #mensaccessories #mensgoods #fashion #mensstyle #instafashion #menswear

Product category keyword hashtags

#bugatchisocks #happysocks #corgisocks #socks #sockswag #socksoftheday #sockgame #sockswagg #socksofinstagram #happysockday #sockwars #funsocks #happysockday

Location-specific keyword hashtags

#Toronto #TorontoFashion #TorontoFashionBloggers

All of these groups of keyword hashtags are stored in a page on Evernote. This makes it easy and efficient when I’m on the go to post a new Instagram image optimized for the most relevant keywords.

You can easily open my Evernote and copy my standard brand-, product-, and location-specific hashtags to post with each photo. Some Instagram scheduling tools also let you save caption templates for storing your hashtag groups.

Doing the work of researching, organizing, and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags upfront will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement, and help garner new followers.

Pro tip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.

Using hashtags in Instagram stories

Hashtagging on Instagram posts is a given, but you should also be using hashtags in your Stories for the chance to be seen by users who follow that specific hashtag.

You can use hashtag stickers (which can be found in the Instagram Stickers menu when creating a Story) or just hashtag directly in your captions for a chance to be featured in a hashtag story.

Now that users can follow hashtags, your Stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out.

9. Post at the right times

Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters to get more Instagram followers, you should also consider the timing of your posts.

A targeted approach involves analyzing what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history versus engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.

The dark circles indicate when you usually post media. The light gray circles show when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.

You can also get a lot of great insight for free from Instagram analytics for business accounts, found under the Followers section.

You may want to consider using a social media scheduling tool to automatically publish your posts when your audience is the most engaged.

10. Steal your competitors’ followers

One of the best ways to find and attract a new following is by seeking out your closest competitors’ Instagram accounts and engaging with their audiences. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors.

So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers? By engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.

The three types of engagement on Instagram are:

Follow a user
Like a photo
Comment on a photo

Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two to add some personality to your text.

11. Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews

All this optimized posting to your account is great, but if you really want to increase Instagram followers, you need to take advantage of influencer marketing and expose your brand to a wider audience.

So, how do you do that? First, unlike the tactics to grow Instagram followers mentioned above, this one usually isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s of good value.

To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.

You may already be following these accounts, but if not, you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is to use Webstagram (mentioned earlier) and search for some of the closest hashtag keywords you uncovered in the beginning of this post. When you do a search for your keywords, not only will it show you the related keywords, it will also show you the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.

There are a couple of things to look for in the profiles results:

A large following—usually 20,000 to 200,000
An email address in the profile

If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means the account is open to sponsored posts or a shoutout in a sponsored Story.

You’ll want to email and ask their sponsored post pricing. In general, I have found the average rate to be around $20 to $50 per post, depending on the size of the following.

However, if you’re selling a unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending your product for the influencer to review and post. Usually, the more natural and less advertisement-like the image, the greater the engagement and response.

You don’t necessarily need influencers with a massive following to get more followers on Instagram, but rather ones with a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower count), which many influencer marketplaces can provide.

12. Use geotags to boost local discovery

Besides hashtags, you can also make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging your location—either the city you’re in or the venue where the photo or video was taken.

Locations not only have their own Instagram feed but also their own Story, and hashtags that you can contribute to when you use the location sticker in your own Stories.

Local businesses can get the most value out of location tags by posting regularly to these feeds and also engaging with posts from prospective customers who are physically in the vicinity.

13. Organize your Stories into Highlights

Whenever a potential follower lands on your business profile, you have a short span of time to convince them to follow you.

One way to do this is by using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about.

Since Stories have a 24-hour lifespan, Highlights can be used to give them a second life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.

Use Story Highlights to grow Instagram followers by:

Creating trailers that tease what your account is about
Organizing your Stories into themes (like countries you’ve visited, for travel accounts)
Explaining your products through pictures and videos

14. Ask for more followers

It sounds obvious, but it deserves to be said: Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your audience to follow you.

The same way YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.

Sometimes people might really enjoy what you put out on Instagram but need a nudge before they actually follow you.

You can also do this in your Instagram captions, work it into your content by pitching what your audience will get if they follow you or by hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss.

15. Run a giveaway

One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when one user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower.

One way to encourage this behavior is by posting relatable content that begs for 1:1 sharing (e.g., a gym meme that asks you to tag a friend who skips leg day). But a more reliable way is by running a giveaway that encourages your audience to tag a friend and follow your account.

Follow Instagram’s promotion guidelines and any legal requirements for running an Instagram contest that applies in your country of operation.

For inspiration, here’s an example of a successful product giveaway from Philip Kingsley that incentivizes people to follow its account and tag a friend for the chance to win a collection.

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16. Share user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content—such as videos, photos, reviews, audio, and more—that you curate from fans or followers. It’s an essential tool in your marketing arsenal for gaining followers on Instagram. UGC helps humanize your brand by featuring real people, with real stories, that show your product in real life and builds a more trusting relationship with potential customers.

Not only does your audience love their 15 minutes of fame on your Instagram feed, featuring them also helps drive more sales in your online store. According to research from Olapic, consumers today are 56% more likely to buy something after seeing a photo of the product shared by customers.

Take Fashion Nova, for example. The online retailer’s Instagram account relies heavily on user-generated content.

Fashion Nova’s user-generated content gives it access to thousands of pictures from people all over the world to share with its audience—pictures that both showcase the brand’s values and inspire followers to engage with its posts and buy the clothes real people are wearing.

When it comes to creating user-generated content for your online store, start by asking customers to share their favorite experiences and images with your products by:

Creating a branded hashtag feed where customers can post images
Adding a call to action in your Instagram bio
Running a contest
Reaching out to influencers
Adding an “ask” for user-generated content in your packaging

Remember, the goal of UGC is to show an authentic view of your products. If some customers send you lower-quality photos that still highlight your products’ best features, don’t be afraid to use them.

17. Use Instagram Live

Live video is the key to running a successful marketing strategy on any social media platform. With Instagram, you can use Instagram Live to stream videos to your followers and engage with them in real-time.

When your brand starts a live video stream, a ring encases your profile picture in Instagram Stories to tell followers they can check it out. Followers also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once you finish your livestream, you can upload it to your Story for 24 hours.

Remember that Instagram Live is interactive. Your followers will probably comment while you’re live, so try to acknowledge their comments and find ways to get them to participate.

Some ways to gain more followers when using Instagram Live include:

Influencer takeovers
Hosting an AMA (ask me anything) or Q&A
Teasing a product launch or update
Hosting a talk show
Going behind the scenes on your operations
Sharing a current event
Running product tutorials

Building an Instagram growth strategy to drive followers

In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to grow your instagram following, but it's not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful content strategy is to be authentic and social.

If you focus on engagement, not just number of followers, Instagram can be a great home for your products and brand and can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business. For more tips on turning this social media platform into a profitable channel, check out our post on how to make money on Instagram.

Illustration by Eugenia Mello

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How to get more followers on Instagram FAQ

How do you get more followers on Instagram for free?

Find and post in popular hashtags related to your photo, product, or brand.
Create your own branded hashtag.
Use hashtags in Stories.
Create Instagram Reels.

How can I increase my followers on Instagram?

Use the right Instagram hashtags.
Steal your competitors' followers.
Use geotags on Instagram posts.
Organize Stories into Highlights.
Post user-generated content.
Collaborate with other brands.
Post at the best times.
Use Instagram analytics tools.
Publish Instagram Reels.
Livestream on Instagram Stories.

How to monetize an Instagram account in 2022

Almost every one of us has an Instagram account, but not everyone knows how to benefit from this for themselves and their wallet. The most common mistake is that people think they only pay bloggers with millions of followers. In fact, everyone can monetize Instagram. And this guide will tell you how to do it.

Is it possible to monetize an Instagram account

Yes! Instagram has long been no longer solely a platform for entertainment and photo sharing.

Millions of people around the world cannot imagine their day without Instagram, and it is natural that access to such a huge audience opens up tremendous opportunities for business and earnings of any format.

In recent years, Instagram has become a huge platform through which you can promote everything from your expertise to your own products. The most common way to monetize Instagram is through advertising. But this is far from the only way to make a profit from your account. Rest assured that there is a suitable monetization option for everyone.

Who it's for

Of course, it's not so simple - the money will not fall on you immediately after creating an account. You will have to work hard before you can get the first profit. A lot of time will need to be spent on learning the features of Instagram. But in the end, you have the opportunity to get a remote job that brings not only a good income, but also pleasure.

To successfully monetize an account, it must match three basic requirements :

have popularity;
be of high quality and thematically designed;
have at least 1000 subscribers.

Compliance with these requirements is possible only with certain knowledge and skills . In particular, those who want to make money on Instagram will need:

to learn how to create professional pictures and videos;
be able to generate interesting and useful content;
learn the basics of SMM in order to successfully promote your profile;
be able to write engaging texts;
feel your audience.

In addition, the platform is constantly being upgraded and improved. Only those who can adapt quickly will be able to stay afloat here. Earnings on Instagram are also not suitable for those who hope to make a quick profit, are ready to manipulate the number of followers and attract cheats.

Try trendHERO for free

Monetization options

Instagram's standard monetization option is to collect an audience and place ads on the page. But you can make money on Instagram in many other ways. And many of them can be successfully combined with each other.

1. Collaboration with advertisers

Instagram influencers are not only trendsetters and role models, but an advertising engine for many brands. Native advertising from bloggers has already been adopted by both small private business owners and large corporations. Which is not surprising, because 70% of people admit that they take into account the recommendations of influential people when buying a particular product.

Moreover, if earlier only bloggers with an audience of many thousands and even millions could make money on advertising, today advertisers are showing more and more interest in nano-, micro- and macro-influencers who have closer contact with their audience.

This is an "old school" account monetization option, which is as follows:

The blogger actively maintains his page on Instagram;
Gathers an audience of followers who trust his opinion;
Looking for brands to collaborate with and advertise their products/services to their subscribers.

This monetization option can be called simple. After all, advertising in an account can go out several times a week, and advertisers themselves often contact influencers and offer them cooperation. The minimum bid per ad post is $10, but according to surveys of influencers, they average $200-$400 per post.

Naturally, in this case, everything depends on the number of the audience and its quality, which is determined by quite clear metrics, such as the rate of growth of subscribers and a set of likes, account activity and many other factors. The trendHERO analytics service allows you to check this data. It even shows you the followers you have, which you will never find in the built-in Instagram statistics.

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2. Become a Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador is an affiliated representative of a company who promotes its products and services. This is an unofficial representative of the brand, a person who actively uses the services of the company and promotes it to the masses.

Ambassadorship differs from the previous version in that the influencer does not place direct ads with calls to buy a specific product. He simply demonstrates his love for the brand by frequently posting content on the company's various products and even attending company events.

Just having a promoted account is no longer enough in this case. Ambassadors are people who profess the same values as the brand, and are really its active supporters. Therefore, if you have a favorite brand, you can send a direct message to company representatives, explaining why you can be its ambassador and offering your services.

Conditions for brand ambassadors are individual. In many ways, they depend on the scale of the brand and the popularity of the influencer. It can be a contract with an agreed payment, a personal discount, or an affiliate discount that allows you to receive a percentage of sales.

3. Earnings on affiliate programs

Many companies and online stores have affiliate programs that allow you to earn certain percentages for the purchases of attracted users. Usually, to participate in an affiliate program, you need to apply on the official website of the company or join an affiliate network such as Admitad and get your referral link or personal promo code.

Instagram account in this case acts as a platform for placing a link. Here you can review various partner products, inform customers about discounts and promotional offers, demonstrate products in action, showing your purchases, and thus motivate them to buy. For each purchase made through an affiliate link or promotional code, you will receive the reward provided for by the program.

Success depends on how well the affiliate program was chosen. It is important that the audience of your account is really interested in the company's products.

Carefully study the conditions of the programs. Real money is not always offered as a reward, which, for example, can be withdrawn to a card. Sometimes affiliate programs offer bonuses that can only be spent within the framework of the service.

4. Sale of own goods

Instagram makes it easy for everyone to start their own e-commerce business. You can easily turn your account into a small online store for selling anything - soaps, candles and handmade jewelry, gift boxes, cups and T-shirts with your own prints. Any of your hobbies and passions can be monetized with an Instagram account. There are no restrictions.

5. Creating a community

You can create not a personal account on Instagram, but a thematic community or an interest group. Promotion of such an account is a laborious process, but if everything works out, you will be able to receive a stable income by using many ways of monetization at once - advertising posts, affiliate programs, selling webinars, master classes, goods.

6. Monetization through dropshipping

Dropshipping is a form of sales in which you do not need to purchase goods, store or ship them. The seller only collects orders and payments, and the manufacturing company independently ships the goods to customers. Dropshippers earn on the difference between the cost of the goods that the supplier offers them and the selling price.

You will be surprised, but not only clothes, cosmetics and any hand-made, but also business goods, tours, cars are successfully sold through Instagram today. Therefore, many dropshippers use Instagram accounts as their main source of sales.

The functionality of the platform makes it easy to turn a page into a colorful catalog. In addition, here you can establish a close connection with the audience, which also contributes to sales. But you can’t do without high-quality pictures here, because there is nothing worse than poor-quality pictures in an account designed to sell.

7. Selling your knowledge

In today's world, useful information costs the most. If you are an expert in any field, have valuable knowledge and skills, you can teach others how to make money on it by turning your Instagram account into a powerful marketing tool.

This could be anything from a Skype math lesson to a webinar on paying taxes or choosing a handbag. Given the huge audience of Instagram, you can be sure that a person with certain competencies and skills will be able to find someone who needs them here. Some even manage to submit checklists.

Monetization is possible through the sale of books, access to webinars, consulting, coaching, tutoring, and more. In this case, the Instagram page can serve not only as a platform for sales, but as a tool for building the reputation of an expert.

8. Earnings on services

Every year, thousands of new commercial accounts are registered on Instagram. And many of these companies are in search of an intelligent specialist who can help them properly draw up and promote their profile.

If you have been blogging for a long time, you know well how Instagram algorithms work, and what you need to do to become successful, you can turn your profile into a business card and sell your promotion services.

Typically, companies want to find a SMM specialist who provides a full range of services:

page design;
drawing up a content plan;
SEO optimization;
creating quality content;
attracting subscribers.

But there is also demand for specific services. For example, creating templates for Instagram, profile design, creating AR masks and much more.

9. Facebook and Instagram monetization

You probably know that Meta, formerly Facebook, owns the social networks Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. This allows you to use the same tools to manage your advertising campaigns.

This is exactly where Instagram can pay you. But there is a nuance.

The following monetization options are currently available:

Paid Online Events
Branded content
In-stream Ads for On Demand Content
Fan Subscriptions
InStream Ads

The caveat is that most of these monetization methods are not available in countries other than the US. And most likely you will receive an inscription: “Your account does not meet the requirements for monetization.”

You can check which monetization methods are available to you in Creation Studio, in the Monetization menu:

And also in Instagram: Settings - Business or Author - Branded content.

This way you can check what type of monetization from the social platform itself is available to you and its status.

How to monetize Instagram

Instagram monetization is available in many ways, and each of them has its own characteristics. But the strategy for reaching the first profit is the same for everyone.

Step 1: create an account

Create an account on the most popular social network and get it right. Choose a nickname that will reflect the theme of your page, choose a bright and memorable avatar, fill out a biography.

It is important that the first time users see your profile, they understand what value it brings. If you wish, you can transfer your page to a business account. This will unlock several additional features.

Step 2: Choose Your Niche

Choose a topic for your account according to your knowledge and passions. For example, if you often travel, you can become a travel blogger, and if you are well versed in the intricacies of personal care or applying makeup, you can become a beauty blogger. There are many options:

beauty and health;
fashion;
cooking;
art;
sport;
lifestyle;
business and entrepreneurship;
family and children;
humor.

To decide on a niche, think about what you can do well, what you can tell useful and what people will be willing to pay you for.

Step 3: Create Quality Content

A blank page cannot be monetized. Create high-quality, unique and useful content for your target audience. Regular posting plays a crucial role in promoting Instagram, so be sure to make a content plan for a few weeks / months in advance.

Post 1-2 times a day. Use various content formats - posts in the feed, stories, live broadcasts. Experiment with content until you figure out what your audience likes the most.

Step 4: Promote your account

To quickly build an audience, you need to use various promotion methods. Among the most common are:

mass liking and mass following;
mutual PR;
holding contests and lotteries;
advertising with influencers.

Coming to the Instagram business, you must understand that account promotion will become your constant need. Ultimately, how many subscribers you have and how they interact with your audience will determine how much you will earn.

Prepare your account for monetization with trendHERO!

When to activate monetization

It all depends on which monetization option you have chosen. Some methods imply that you can start monetization right away. For example, if you are planning to sell your products or do dropshipping. But in most cases, you first need to collect a loyal audience on your page and build a trusting relationship with it.

You can move on to making money on affiliate programs, selling goods and services when you are sure that among your subscribers there are users who trust your opinion and are ready to follow you. Advertisers are primarily interested in bloggers with over 1,000 subscribers. For some, the minimum threshold for advertising is 10-100 thousand followers.

Before you offer someone advertising cooperation, be sure to check your account statistics. Today, one of the main criteria when choosing an influencer is the percentage of involvement.

How much you can earn

The amount of income directly depends on the chosen direction and the success of its implementation. For example, the cost of placing advertisements directly depends on the popularity of the blogger, the number of subscribers and the activity of the audience. On average, an account with 10-15 thousand followers is able to bring in about $ 200 per month for advertising.

But there may be more. For example, brands are willing to pay more for a clearly segmented active audience or long-term collaboration. It is also important what volume of services the blogger provides. Can he come up with and create high-quality content on his own? Will there be only an advertising post or also stories?

As for making money on sales, everything here decides how successful the actions of the account owner will be and what persuasion skills he has.

Instagram monetization is not easy. Before you can get the first profit, you will have to go through the thorny path of promoting your profile, thoroughly study the algorithms and basics of SMM, discover the makings of a photographer and editor in yourself. But this is a good option for creative individuals, for those who do not want to vegetate in the office and want to earn money with only a smartphone at hand.

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16 ways to monetize in 2022

Youtube. Vladimir Kolesov, September 9, 2021

1. Selling ads

You collect a certain amount of audience and start selling ads. You can advertise other bloggers, some projects, it can be commercial advertising. They pay money to talk about something or someone.

The main difficulty is to gather an audience. Secondly, it is very important here how loyal and active your audience is. If no one clicks on ads, on the recommendations that you give, then no one will buy ads. The cost of advertising is now quite low. Therefore, the method is already less promising in terms of earnings: advertising is getting cheaper, efficiency is falling, there are too many ads, and it’s hard to keep the attention of the audience.

But that doesn't change the fact that there is still a huge amount of advertising being bought from bloggers, including bloggers with small audiences. It all depends on the quality of the audience - how expensive, valuable and how active it is. The better the performance, the more money you can earn.

2. Brand Ambassador

If in the first case it was about the constant placement of various advertisements, then the ambassador is a person who promotes the brand on an ongoing basis. You can be an ambassador for one or more brands.

It's great when a long-term contract is signed with you. You become a brand ambassador and receive either goods or money.

3. Selling other people's goods

You can also sell something, open a store or offer something to your audience as a blogger. Efficiency depends on how well you know how to search for interesting products, how competently you know how to present the goods so that people really pay for it.

4. Selling your goods

The fourth way is to sell goods that you make yourself. This is beneficial, because most often hand-made goods are more expensive, they are less costly, and you earn more.

5. Sale of merch

Now it is very fashionable to create collections of T-shirts, sweatshirts, accessories, mugs, bags. And this is done not only by celebrities, but also by designers, authors, just people who know how to do interesting things.

6. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is when we do not buy anything, but resell. There is an online store, a platform that sells many, many different products. A person clicks on your link, buys - you get a commission. You do not need to deal with shipping, logistics, or any other things that classic online stores do. Your task is only traffic.

7. Advice

You can advise people on how to get a tax deduction or how to set up a service, etc. Here you are not selling some physical product, but selling your knowledge in the format of consultations.

8. Selling your product (course)

You can make your own product: record a video version or an audio version. It can be an audiobook or a regular book. You take your knowledge, make a product that suits many.

9. Selling a digital product

Courses are a set of knowledge and skills. And digital products are, for example, an image you created, stock photos, templates, Lightroom presets. From photography, design, a finished logo to a finished website template and so on.

10.

Through Instagram* you can attract clients to your services. For example, in the format of monthly payments - monthly accounting services or SMM promotion.

11. Creation of a startup

You can create some startup. And use social media to promote it. Not everyone will succeed, but you can earn millions of dollars.

12. Earnings on the public

You can create a public and earn on the placement of any information or advertising. The principle is the same. Create a thematic public, attract an audience there - and earn money either by posting content or by placing ads.

13. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs are a separate way to make money in social networks. Affiliate programs are a bit like dropshipping, selling goods. But here most often we are talking about some kind of service. These can be banking products: deposits, loans, insurance. There are also many affiliate programs in HR, when, for example, you recommend a person, he fills out a resume, he is hired - you are paid a bonus for this.