How to get monetized on instagram
A Complete Guide for Creators and Influencers
There are so many ways to monetize your Instagram presence. You can make good money as an influencer even if your last name doesn’t end in -ardashian. Instagram has committed to spending $1 billion USD by the end of 2022 to reward creators and encourage them to make social media their job.
Not to sound like a get-rich-quick-infomercial, but by being aware of new monetization features, you can be among the first early adopters and have a greater chance of earning good money with that feature. The early bird catches the worm fat paycheck.
So, whether you’re a beauty or fashion influencer, filmmaker, photographer, or other creative content creator, these are all the brand new and tried-and-true Instagram monetization methods you need to know.
Work with brands
Join an affiliate marketing program
Use Badges in livestreams
Enable ads on your Instagram Reels
Earn milestone bonuses
Enable Instagram subscriptions
Future Instagram monetization possibilities
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
What is Instagram monetization?
Monetizing your Instagram can take many forms, from working with brands, earning ad revenue on videos, accepting tips, or trying out the new Instagram Subscriptions feature.
There’s a key difference between monetization and selling, though. For creators and infleuncers, monetizing an Instagram account doesn’t mean selling physical or digital products to a social audience. It means earning money for the content you’re already putting out there on the platform: posts, Reels, and Stories.
Selling products and services directly on social media (e.g. via Instagram Shops or by hooking up your online store to social media) is social commerce. You can (and should) do that, but it’s not monetization in this context.
Instagram is the most popular platform for monetizing content creation. The global influencer market size hit a record $13.8 billion USD in 2021, over double what it was in 2019.
All that cash isn’t only for ultra-rich celebrities, either.
47% of Instagram influencers have between 5,000 to 20,000 followers, 26.8% have between 20,000 and 100,000, and only 6.5% of influencers have over 100,000 followers.
Meta, parent company of both Instagram and Facebook, is working hard to attract and keep creators on their platforms. The recently launched Creator Studio and bonus earnings programs speak to the rise of being a creator as a real job anyone can do, not just those born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
Many people are already earning full-time incomes from Instagram and other platforms. It’s not too late to hop aboard because the demand for influencer marketing continues to rise. Almost 75% of American marketers currently run influencer campaigns and eMarketer predicts that will reach 86% by 2025.
Source: eMarketer
7 ways to monetize your Instagram account
There are two main ways to monetize your Instagram: Sponsored content from sources outside of Instagram, or within the platform’s new creator tools.
Let’s dive into the 7 ways you can earn money on Instagram.
Work with brands
This is likely what most people think of when the topic of Instagram monetization or influencer marketing comes up. A brand could pay you for an in-feed photo or video, Story content, a Reel, or any combination of the above.
We’ve all seen the quintessential Instagram sponsored post where an influencer posts a styled shot of the product, chats up how great it is, and tags the brand.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Kirsty Lee ~ IVF Mum to Storm (@kirsty_lee__)
With today’s tools like Reels ads and Stories, branded content is more creative, interesting, and authentic than ever. As a creator, your unique voice is everything and it doesn’t get more authentic than Joy Ofodu’s realistic skincare routine:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Joy Ofodu (@joyofodu)
Brand work is one of the easiest ways to monetize your Instagram because you’re in control. You can reach out to a brand proactively, negotiate your campaign fee and terms, and ultimately, do as many brand deals as you can get.
Yes, you need to have some marketing savvy here in the way you approach deals, and probably have a decent number of followers. But anyone can get started working with brands.
Eligibility requirements
- In-feed or Story content that’s sponsored through either payment or free product must use the “Paid partnership with” label.
- The FTC requires sponsored content to have a #ad or #sponsored tag.
- No specific requirements for follower count, although you should probably aim for around 10,000 as a first goal.
Many are successfully landing brand deals with less, though. - Be prepared to pitch brands on why they should advertise with you and what you bring to the table (besides your follower count).
Join an affiliate marketing program
Instagram made two important changes in 2021 that drastically increased monetization opportunities:
- Allowing everyone to add links to Stories. (Previously you needed a minimum of 10,000 followers.)
- Launching Instagram Affiliate.
Affiliate marketing has been around almost as long as the internet. You share a trackable link to a product → customer buys with your link → you receive a commission for referring the sale. Easy.
Instagram Stories are perfect for adding affiliate links. Instagram allows this as long as you disclose to your audience that it is an affiliate link. You can also include links in your captions, like this example from popular fashion affiliate network LikeToKnow.It.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Kendi Everyday (@kendieveryday)
Instagram Affiliate is still in testing as of early 2022, but the company has announced it will be available to all creators soon. Instagram is basically creating their own affiliate network, where you can discover products inside the app, share a link to them, and earn a commission for sales — without any outside partners or awkward copy/paste links in your captions.
Source: Instagram
This is definitely an exciting feature, but there’s no need to wait for it to arrive. You can start making money with affiliate links now.
Not sure where to find affiliate programs? We’ve got you covered.
Eligibility requirements
- Comply with Instagram’s content guidelines and monetization policies.
- Be honest with your audience and disclose when you’re sharing an affiliate link.
The FTC recommends using a simple hashtag like #ad, or saying, “I earn a commission through sales placed with this link.” (When launched, Instagram Affiliate will automatically include an, “Eligible for commission,” label.)
Working with brands and affiliate marketing are both ways to make money using your Instagram account. Now, here’s how you can make money directly from Instagram’s built-in features.
Use Badges in livestreams
During live videos, viewers can purchase what Instagram calls Badges to support creators. These are available in $0.99, $1.99 and $4.99 USD increments. Once you set up this feature, it will automatically be available for all your live videos.
Since it’s fairly new, make sure to mention it to your audience during your live and thank those who support you in this way.
To use badges, click on your profile and go to your Professional Dashboard. Click on the Badges tab and turn it on.
Source: Instagram
After that, you’ll need to set up a direct deposit payment account via your bank or PayPal.
Then, just go live!
Eligibility requirements
Badges have been around since 2020 but are still limited to the United States. Instagram is currently testing this feature with select creators in several other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and more.
To use badges right now, you must:
- Be located in the United States.
- Have a Creator or Business account.
- Have at least 10,000 followers.
- Be over 18.
- Adhere to Instagram’s Partner Monetization and content guidelines.
Enable ads on your Instagram Reels
Until February 2022, Instagram offered in-stream video ads as a monetization method. This allowed brands to run ads before, during, and after video posts on your Instagram profile (formerly known as IGTV ads). Sort of like TV commercials for Instagram, with creators receiving a portion of the ad revenue.
Now that Reels have become the main video focus on Instagram, the platform announced the discontinuation of the regular video post ad monetization option.
It’s being replaced with a new ad revenue share program for Reels sometime in 2022.
Instagram Reels are the #1 way to grow your account so you’d be wise to focus on them now, even before this new monetization option launches.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Comedy + Relatable content (@thegavindees)
Eligibility requirements
- Currently under development by Instagram. Keep checking Instagram’s announcements or follow their @creators account.
- The same as all Instagram video posts: Use a 9×16 aspect ratio and ensure any important text isn’t hidden by the app’s overlays.
- It’s also a good idea to check Instagram’s content recommendations guide for the best chances of success. A key element is creating original content for Reels, or at the very least removing watermarks from other platforms if re-posting (i.
e. the TikTok logo).
Earn milestone bonuses
As part of an effort to draw creators to their platforms and keep existing ones, Meta has announced bonus programs for both Instagram and Facebook content. These are currently by invitation only.
Right now, the 3 bonus programs are:
- Video ads bonus, which is a one-time payment for select American creators signing up for the feature. As mentioned above, this type of ad monetization has now ended for enrolment but will soon be replaced with an ad monetization option for Reels.
- Live video badges bonus, which rewards hitting certain milestones such as going live with a secondary account.
- Reels summer bonus, which rewards the most popular Reels with cash bonuses.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
It can be frustrating that these bonus programs aren’t available to everyone.
How do you get invited to things like this? By regularly posting high-quality, engaging content your target audience loves, and making use of “app favorite” formats like Reels.
Eligibility requirements
- These specific Instagram bonus programs are invitation-only. To become eligible for these or future opportunities, your best bet is to start taking your Instagram growth seriously by consistently posting great content.
Enable Instagram subscriptions
Another new feature in 2022, Instagram announced the launch of subscriptions. Available on sister platform Facebook since 2020, subscriptions on Instagram enable your followers to pay a monthly price in order to support your work and access exclusive content, directly inside Instagram.
This is currently in testing and not open for public enrolment, but expect it to open up soon.
This will be an incredibly valuable monetization opportunity for many obvious reasons:
- Consistent, predictable monthly income.
- The ability to market it to your existing audience, who are more likely to turn into paid subscribers.
- Grow your business with new tools and offerings for this core group of subscriber supporters.
The best part? Everyone can make money with subscriptions. If you already have an audience on Instagram, people like what you’re doing. So, do more of it! Ask what people want to see from you and why they follow you. As long as that aligns with your authenticity and business vision, give them what they want. The marketing plan for subscription businesses is really that simple. (Well, sort of.)
Unlike monetization methods that depend on view counts or having “better” content than others, you are in control of growing your subscribers. It doesn’t matter how many people you market to, as long as you have the right offer to make people want to subscribe. And unlike competing with other people’s content, you are always in control of your offer and your marketing plan.
#peptalk
Eligibility requirements
- As of March 2022, this feature is not open for enrolment. As with other Instagram monetization features, expect it to roll out to U.S. creators first, then expand to other countries.
Future Instagram monetization possibilities
While nothing has been officially announced, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri mentioned there’s more in store for the future for Instagram creators. A source even revealed Instagram was exploring the creation of an NFT marketplace inside the app.
Mosseri recently said, “…[It’s going to be] a consistent focus of us to do all that we can for the creator community.” Expect to hear more throughout 2022 as Instagram ramps up creator tools, including the new Creator Lab.
Creator Lab 🧑🔬
Today, we’re launching Creator Lab – a new, education portal for creators, by creators.https://t.co/LcBHzwF6Sn pic.twitter.com/71dqEv2bYi
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 10, 2022
How much money can you make from Instagram monetization?
Short answer: It depends.
Shorter answer: A lot.
While there aren’t 100% authoritative benchmarks to report for how much creators earn on Instagram, there have been several surveys on the subject:
- The average rate for a single sponsored Instagram post from creators with 100,000 to 1,000,000 followers ranged from $165 USD to $1,800 USD.
- Affiliate income varies widely, and some creators are earning $5,000 per month from affiliate links alone.
- Instagram’s bonus program payouts vary widely, though one influencer told Business Insider he received a $6,000 bonus from Instagram in a single month for posting high-performing Reels.
- What about mega-stars? The highest paid Instagram influencers are: Cristiano Ronaldo in the top spot charging $1.6 million per post, Dwayne Johnson at $1.5 million per post, and Kendall Jenner at $1 million per post.
- In contrast, a more realistic example is a creator with 13,000 Instagram followers earning about $300 USD per sponsored Reel.
Source: Statista
Unfortunately, racism and bias are factors in how much creators earn, across all platforms. Adesuwa Ajayi started the @influencerpaygap account to expose the disparity between pay for white and Black creators. Seeing what brands are offering for different kinds of content campaigns allows creators to set more informed rates, and — more importantly — for Black, Indigenous, and creators of color to receive equal pay.
As you can see, Instagram earnings aren’t a straightforward calculation. So what should you charge for brand work?
There’s an old rule of thumb floating around that says a good starting point is $100 per 10,000 followers for a sponsored in-feed photo post. Now, with creative options like Reels, video, Stories, and more, does that seem like enough? I’d argue no.
Another popular method is charging by engagement rate:
Average price per IG post (CPE) = Recent Average Engagements x $0.
16
Most influencers use anywhere from $0.14 to $0.16. Engagements are the total number of likes, comments, shares, and saves.
So if your recent posts each averaged:
- 2,800 likes
- 25 shares
- 150 comments
- 30 saves
Then your calculation would be: 3,005 x $0.16 = $480.80 per post
Hootsuite can help you out a ton here with detailed Instagram analytics, so you don’t have to tally it all up manually and keep track of your average engagements per post or video. Phew.
Besides seeing all your metrics in an easy-to-read format, you can also find your highest-performing content and the best time to post for max engagement.
It’s never too late to monetize your Instagram content. Hootsuite makes it a lot easier with all the growth tools you need from content planning, scheduling, posting, and analytics to connecting with your audience and a lot more. Try it today.
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Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels with Hootsuite.
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How to Monetize Instagram? 14 Ways to Monetize Your Influence
How to monetize Instagram (or any social media) is a question that I get asked a lot. Since I recently appeared on a podcast talking about this, I thought I would provide you a slightly different, more comprehensive, and overall updated perspective from another post I wrote on the subject, entitled How to Make Money on Instagram? Here’s 9 Different Ideas to Chew On.
When most people hear the term “influencers”, they think of bikini-clad Instagram models with millions of followers who work with fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. While the “Insta-model” business is still a type of influencer, today’s reality is that marketers are more often seeking out regular people like you to generate buzz for their brands.
That’s right: regardless of whether you have 1K, 10K, or 100K followers, you are already an influencer.
In fact, current trends in influencer marketing have seen brands moving towards working with nano influencers (1-10K followers) and micro-influencers (10K-100K followers), because they tend to have higher engagement and better relationships with their followers than macro influencers.
If you haven’t achieved 1,000 followers on any given social network, read my advice here on How To Become A Social Media Influencer and Make Money From It.
Now that we’ve established that the current influencer marketing trends indicate that you, too, are probably an influencer, you’re probably thinking:
“Well, all right Neal, I guess I’m an influencer, but what good is that to me? I still don’t have brands knocking down my door or paying me to use their products.”
The good news is that as long as you have information or a product that is valuable to others, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have or the number of brands working with you. You can still make money as an influencer.
Most influencers are leaving money on the table by not monetizing their influence, and you may be one of them. I am actually guilty of the same, which is why I am always looking to create new products and services and looking for ways to monetize Instagram Stories and posts or any other social network using my own influence. You should take my advice and do the same.
It bears remembering that any attempts to monetize Instagram will only be successful with the proper infrastructure in place. Let’s first look at that more closely.
What You Need to Monetize Instagram
Instagram is a truly enormous social media platform. What began as a small space to share photos and inspiration has grown to be one of the largest social platform options currently available, with countless features, including Instagram Shopping, Instagram Stories, Instagram Live and, more recently, Instagram reels. All of these features make creating content and engaging with your audience much easier, and improves your engagement rates without the same amount of work that might be required by other social platforms.
If you are using Instagram with any regularity, you may be a candidate for monetization. Micro – Influencers and Nano – Influencers are not people with enormous followers and immediate brand recognition; they are people like you, who enjoy putting out video content on Instagram live, or posting their likes, preferences, and life on the body of their profile.
So why should you monetize your Instagram?
You Have Expertise in Something
What are you an expert in? Identifying your expertise will be one of the best ways to identify what your niche is, and what your video content should focus on. From video games to a specific makeup technique, to knowing a great deal about the ins and outs of living on a budget, Instagram makes an ideal influencer marketing platform. Once you have identified your area of expertise, you can begin posting on that topic regularly and create high quality content that speaks to your target audience.
You are a Content Creator
If you are a great content creator, you will have the chance to create and publish various sponsored content for brands.
From affiliate links to video ads, you can create content to further your influencer status and the brand, digital product, or physical product of the companies you are working with. This can be done by going on Instagram live to discuss why you love a product, creating a reel to demonstrate how you use a service, or posting an inspiring image about the impact a company has had on you. All of these are examples of content creation, and all frequently fall under the umbrella of typical personal Instagram use. If you are already creating and sharing, why not bring in some extra money as a micro or nano influencer?
You Have Built a Community of Fans
It goes without saying that if you want to monetize influence, it begins with actually having influence. In order to develop influence, you have to have a solid follower count made up of real, active users. It can be tempting to pay to have your follower count jump up, but this is a mistake: you cannot buy legitimate engagement, and having a large leap in followers n a small period of time actually acts as a red flag for any companies or brands you hope to work with. If you have already built a community of fans, lever your account to begin earning some money. If your community is still extremely small, begin your influencer journey by creating quality content, and learn how to most effectively build your brand by consistently posting your own user-generated content, and your own life and experiences.
14 Ways How to Monetize Your Instagram Influence
In my recent interview on the MarTech Podcast, I broke down the 14 ways you can monetize your influence and intellectual property.
1. Consulting
Many corporate workers today are throwing in the towel and opting to become consultants, instead. Why? Consulting has a number of benefits, including greater flexibility, higher earnings, and greater job satisfaction. Beyond that, it is one of the largest and most mature markets within the professional services industry with a total value of around $250 billion.
So think about it: what is something you’re good at?
Perhaps your friends, family, colleagues, or current social media followers always come to you to get your advice or for help solving a problem. Maybe it’s with marketing strategy, financial budgeting, or how to create a personal brand.
Whatever it is, you have knowledge that others value and you can use that knowledge to begin your own consulting business and work with clients on a project-based basis in order to reach their goals for their online business or professional venture.
2. Coaching
Coaching has shot up in popularity in recent years and nowadays it seems like everyone either has a coach or is a coach. Even business moguls such as Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt — people who we think have it all figured out — say that they have coaches and recommend that everyone have one.
While all coaches are not created equally, there is a great deal of merit in coaching and it could be another great opportunity for you to use the knowledge you have to create a business and serve clients.
Coaching is oftentimes compared to consulting, but what differentiates coaching from consulting is that you’re more likely to work with clients on an hourly basis than on a per-project basis as you would in consulting. Coaching also tends to be even more personalized and detailed than consulting, so you’re likely to work one-on-one with clients or in small groups.
3. Fractional CMO-model
A fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is a marketing executive who helps a company with customer acquisition, sales development, and company growth. They work part-time, allowing the company to get executive experience without the full-time cost.
You don’t have to be an executive or a CMO to use the fractional CMO model. You can be a fractional social media manager and create a blog post for a company periodically, or a fractional business analyst and provide stats and suggestions, for example. You can think of it like consulting, but with a more hands-on approach.
Similar to consulting, you’ll be troubleshooting and creating strategies. Instead of presenting this to the team as an outsider and having them execute it, however, you’ll work to implement the work as a member of the team, whether that means creating a blog post yourself or implementing a specific marketing strategy.
Here is my video with further explanation ;-)
And if you’re ready to hire a Fractional CMO, check out my own Fractional CMO service ;-)
4. In-person Workshops and Tutorials
Hosting in-person tutorials is another medium you can use to share and monetize the knowledge and influence that you have. Unlike an Instagram shop or working as an affiliate marketer, this allows you to see immediate results of your hard work.
While so much of what we do today has moved from the physical world into the digital world, there is definitely something to be said about being present and learning from someone in person. In-person engagement is far easier to recognize and understand than post engagement online, and hosting in-person workshops can give you immediate feedback on your efficacy in your niche and the value of your work.
Live, in-person workshops offer attendees the opportunity to have more quality interactions, to work together, and perhaps most importantly, to be able to see and know you personally.
Whatever topic and knowledge you may have to share, you can put it all together into a presentation or workbook that you and a certain number of people can spend a few hours or days working on.
Live events like these can also play a big role in converting people into loyal and consistent customers, as these events can funnel them into purchasing more of your services like private coaching and/or consulting. If you go this route, make sure your attendees have an easy way to connect with you online.
5. Webinars and Virtual Tutorials
Just like coaches, it seems like webinars are a dime a dozen these days, but that doesn’t decrease their usefulness and effectiveness.
Webinars boast some crazy statistics. A single webinar can land you between 500-1000 leads and have an average attendance rate of upwards of 46%.
Webinars and virtual tutorials allow you to take the content of your in-person tutorials, which is limited by the number of people in your area, their availability, and location and allows you to reach a much larger audience. They are also convenient, because they may allow you to utilize your home, or another small area that you feel safe and comfortable working out of.
With that increased reach, you can now convert more leads into paying and loyal customers who are hungry to access your time and knowledge. Before starting your webinar, make sure you post and discuss all of the ways you can engage with your audience after the webinar has concluded.
6. Corporate Training
Corporate training is another great avenue for monetizing your knowledge and influence on a topic. The world is changing rapidly — from cultural norms to technology, there is no shortage of things to keep up with. To help navigate the ever-changing landscape, companies will oftentimes hire individuals with expansive knowledge on a topic to come in and train their employees.
Like in-person events and webinars, corporate training is a way you can package and monetize your knowledge to another audience. It can also present an opportunity for you to continue working with the company in a fractional CMO model, or as a consultant or coach.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has been around for a long time and it’s not going anywhere. In 2020 alone, spending on affiliate marketing is projected to hit the $6.8 billion mark.
If you already have a following on social media or on your website, affiliate marketing can be another opportunity to earn income. Like I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to have a huge following to make money this way. It’s more about the quality of your followers and your content.
You can make money with affiliate marketing by influencing your followers, friends, and family to check out certain brands and use your code or link to make a purchase. For every sale that’s made through your link or code, you earn a percentage of the sale.
Check out my dedicated guide to Instagram affiliate marketing.
Here’s a great explanation from someone who I have the upmost respect for, YouTuber Roberto Blake:
8. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are another way you can monetize your influence if you already have a good following on social media or your blog. Influencers have a unique relationship with their followers that most brands cannot replicate. For that reason, brands have become more and more willing to pay for access to that relationship and put their products and services in the hands of influencers.
Believe it or not, but brands are currently dishing out up to $1 million dollars per post depending on the influencer. Even for nano-influencers, you can make a couple hundred dollars off of a few posts. If you already have a few brands reaching out to you, then start there and work on making those into paid gigs. If not, consider creating a business development plan where you create a list of brands you’d like to work with and reach out to them with a pitch.
9. Digital Ads
Running digital ads on your website or blog is another great way to bring in an income using your influence, and it is used widely for both beginner and advanced bloggers. Have you ever scrolled through a site, and had an ad pop up, or scroll with you in the side bar? Those are digital ads!
If you have a number of people that are reading your blog posts and visiting your website, then you can sign up for a Google Adsense account and begin running ads on your page. You’ll make money for the clicks or impressions that your website brings in. The more visitors you have, the more money you make through this avenue.
Of course, in order to bring in an income from your website or blog it’s important to ensure you’re choosing the right hosting solution.
Hosting helps to ensure your content is secure and reliable once it reaches your customers.
Check out this guide to how to make money with Google Adsense:
10. Online Course
Nowadays, more and more people are turning away from brick and mortar educational institutions and utilizing online learning platforms. In fact, over 6 million Americans are currently pursuing an education online. With this change of behavior, it presents a great opportunity to package and monetize your knowledge and influence.
To create your online course, you can take the content you create and knowledge you share in coaching, consulting, training, and webinars and pack it into an all-in-one offering. Depending on the content and length of the course, you can promote it as a high-ticket item and bring in a passive income.
Unlike webinars, online courses can be a one-time creation. You can put together a small curriculum, pre-recorded videos, and more to make sure you are not constantly working on the same course. Because of this format, online courses don’t have to take too much time! Here’s a video with instructions on how to set one up in as little as 90 minutes!
11. Membership Site
Membership sites can be an extension of your other offerings (online courses, tutorials etc.) where people can pay an additional fee to continue to access your time and knowledge, or it can be a standalone product offering. You can use your membership site to release monthly content, interviews, training, tutorials, or workshops.
Membership sites can be a great way to bring in a consistent income because oftentimes payments are done on a monthly or a yearly basis. This allows you to estimate how much money you are likely to make on a yearly or monthly basis–a benefit that many other online businesses do not offer!
Here’s a great primer on how to build a membership site:
If you’re a reader of this blog and are looking for a chance to network with, learn from, and be mentored by myself as well as other marketers and entrepreneurs, make sure you check out my Digital First Group Coaching Membership Community!
12. Sell a product
If people already look to you for advice and trust your recommendations on a certain topic, you can consider retailing a relevant product and brand through your channels by using dropshipping, which is a direct-to-consumer business model.
People like to buy from people and brands they trust, so tapping into your relationship with your followers to bring them a product that fits with your personal brand could be a very successful revenue stream for you.
13. Create a product
Similar to selling your own product, you can also think about creating your own product. Unlike the dropshipping method, creating your own product allows you to further customize your product offering and the ability to brand your product to your liking.
Creating your own product can be as difficult or easy as you’d like it to be. You can go with the more complex route where you work with a manufacturer and create your own product from scratch, or you can go with an easier route using White Label Products, which are products that are not branded and can be resold under your brand name.
Aside from manufactured products, you can consider creating other products like books, journals, or wall decor, for example.
14. Create an event
Last but not least, a large-scale event that incorporates the content from your online course, webinars, coaching, consulting and other avenues can be a potentially high-earning source of income for you.
You can put all of your content together into a format that can be presented and taught at an event or conference, invite other influential people to speak and teach, and bring on sponsors for the event who want to tap into your influence.
There are so many opportunities that you can take advantage of today to begin monetizing your influence and intellectual property. I hope this list has set you off on the right path.
Do you plan to use any of these avenues to bring in a source of income as an influencer? Any potential revenue streams that I missed? Still don’t know how to monetize Instagram in your particular situation?
Comment below and let me know.
Further reading: 10 Instagram Marketing Strategies To Make You 6 Figures
Hero photo by Elijah Macleod on Unsplash
How to Monetize Instagram FAQs
Can I monetize my Instagram account?
Absolutely! And there are several ways to monetize your Instagram account.
You can be an Instagram influencer; do affiliate marketing; sell photos on the platform; drive traffic to your website from Instagram; promote your business; sell your products; and do dropshipping to other users.
How do I start monetization on Instagram?
To start monetizing your Instagram account, the first thing you need to do is to create quality content and continuously promote and engage with your followers. The key is to reach out to a big audience as possible so more people can see your posts. If you are looking to grow your Instagram followers, check these 10 tips we have for you.
Can you make money on Instagram with 1000 followers?
Yes! You can make money on Instagram with just 1000 followers. Regardless of the number of your followers, you will still be able to monetize your account as long as you have a good engagement with them. If you actively engage with your 1000 followers and turn them into customers, it will surely boost your profit.
How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?
You actually don’t need a large following to make money on Instagram! The key to successful Instagram marketing is creating a strategy and high-quality content relative to your niche. In addition, you need to post frequently to keep your audience engaged. Doing these will help you grow your reach and build trust with your followers.
Who is the highest paid Instagrammer?
Cristiano Ronaldo has been the highest-paid Instagram influencer over the past years with total earnings of $47.8 million. Based on reports, he is getting paid of $975,000 per Instagram post. As of December 2020, Cristiano is the most followed person on the platform with 244 million followers.
How to make money on Instagram: all the ways
How to make money on Instagram* from scratch? You can become an SMM specialist and set up Instagram ads for your clients*.
Or maintain their profiles so that they receive new orders - money is paid for all this. But it is much more interesting to maintain your profile and earn income.
Yes, someone keeps an account "for fun", and someone - to earn money. We tell you exactly how you can earn money on Instagram * on your profile, how much you can receive and what you need for this.
Ways to make money on Instagram*
Sell ads
The most obvious and common way to make money from your Instagram profile* is to sell ad integrations. You can do this in different ways:
- mention the account in the next post or story;
- talk about the product, just show it or mention that you use it yourself;
- place a link to the advertiser's website in the profile description or stories;
- to agitate to do something or express "one's" opinion in publications, and so on.
Advertising can be anything. For example, many bloggers said that they would go to the polls themselves and called on the audience to do so.
Some campaigned for amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and also received money for this.
Advertisers will pay you not for the number of people who came from you, but simply for the fact itself advertising placement. But at the same time, they will track the results, and if they don’t like them, they are unlikely to contact you again.
And to tell advertisers that you are ready to place ad integrations, you can create a second account on Instagram* and leave a link to it in your profile description. Or indicate there a phone number or email address where you can be contacted.
An example of how you can leave contacts for communication about advertising integrations And if there are not many subscribers yet, but you want to earn money right now, it is better to additionally register on the blogger exchanges: on Epicstars, LabelUp and others.
Advertisers can look for bloggers with a small audience there, and you can get clients from both your Instagram profile* and exchanges.
Traffic arbitrage
It's like advertising integrations - you also have to promote some product or product. But the earnings scheme is arranged a little differently:
- traffic (people) will have to be directed directly to the advertiser's website, and for this - place a link in the description of the main profile or create an additional account and first promote it;
- you will be paid not for the very fact of placing an advertisement, but for the targeted actions of users who clicked on it: for example, 2% of the order of all those who came from you.
The more loyal the audience is and the more purchases (orders, registrations) it makes, the more you earn.
Traffic arbitrage may look like this: a person offers to get a card with a favorable service, and he is charged money for each card issued To be able to earn money in this way, you need to look for advertisers who are willing to pay according to a similar scheme.
This can be done in CPA networks: this is the name of the "catalogues" of affiliate programs. The largest CPA network in Russia is Admitad: M.Video, Lamoda, OZON and other brands offer their programs there.
Optimal Instagram* is suitable for making money on the following products:
- Goods for beauty, fitness, weight loss.
- Gadgets, fashion novelties, accessories, various wow-goods. Everything from which it is easy to make a beautiful picture and is designed for an impulse purchase.
- Offers for training or employment of students and recent graduates.
Accepting donations
In practice, this way of making money on Instagram* is rarely used. The bottom line is that you simply accept donations (voluntary money transfers) from subscribers. They can throw off money for different purposes: buying a new computer, overexposure of a sick animal, restoring a passport.
People are more willing to donate to people who really need help: those who find themselves in a difficult situation, get sick or organize a pet shelter at DonationAlerts.
If you make a link, people will be able to transfer money to you in different ways: from a card, from a mobile account or from electronic wallets.
Selling services
One of the most popular ways to make money on Instagram* is selling your services. Many manicurists, SMM specialists, psychologists, cosmetologists and other specialists promote their profile in order to receive orders from there. Tarologists, business coaches, English teachers are not far behind - the list can be long.
This is what the profile of a specialist who sells his services on Instagram looks like*In order to sell services and make money from it, you need to be able to create high-quality interesting content, communicate with the audience, and work out objections.
Sale of information products
Another opportunity to make money, which famous bloggers often resort to, is the sale of their own information courses. You can teach your audience something you know yourself: promote your Instagram profile*, bake delicious cakes, sew handmade soft toys, and so on.
To make money selling information products, you need a loyal audience that will trust you. And for this, pumping a personal brand is important - it is it that allows you to create an image of an expert in the eyes of users and increase loyalty to you.
Sale of merchandise
Merch is a product with the symbols of a certain brand, person, team, and so on. You can sell merch immediately if you are engaged in the production of some goods. In this case, you will first create a profile, then you will recruit an audience.
Designer Olga, for example, sells her dresses all over the world, and additionally offers a franchise. You can do the opposite - gain an audience, and then offer them to buy a hoodie or dress with a pattern that you personally made.
Your fans will certainly want to get some kind of product that will help them "join" you. True, you will have to look for someone who can produce these goods.
Many bloggers release something of their own: they create production from scratch or negotiate with factories to release goods with certain symbols. Media personalities sell clothes, accessories and even cosmetics and perfumes under their own name.
Oksana Samoilova sells a whole line of different cosmeticsDraining traffic to other sites
Another indirect way to make money on Instagram* is to attract followers to other sites. Where direct monetization is available or where you also earn by selling services, goods or accepting donations.
For example, you can leave a link in your Instagram profile* to a YouTube channel. Some users will subscribe to you there and watch the video, and you will be able to connect to the YouTube affiliate program and get paid for showing ads in your videos to users.
Shop on Instagram*
Instagram Shopping is the integration of an e-commerce store into your Instagram profile*. This is the only way to sell directly to subscribers through posts, stories, the Browse tab, and the Store tab. Shoppers can check the price of an item on the app and then go to the store with the click of a button.
Let's say you represent a clothing store on Instagram* and want to promote your brand. Simply upload a photo of a model wearing your outfit and Instagram* will allow you to tag up to five products per post or up to 20 products per carousel. You can also use stories and videos.
For example, Clever publishing house sells children's books on Instagram*Read more about the nuances of work and settings in the article "Instagram* Shopping - how to set it up in 2021".
Photos for sale
Instagram* is basically a photo-sharing app.
And photos are assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in a variety of ways.
If you have cool photos, you can put them on marketplaces where brands and publishers can license them. For example, 500px or Twenty20.
Another option is to sell your photos as prints on other products such as posters, phone cases, pillows. All you need is to find a suitable service that will not only make the desired print, but also take care of the delivery. You will only have sales. There are such organizations in almost every more or less large city.
Daniel Arnold, a Brooklyn-based photographer, went from $90 to $15,000 in one day, according to Forbes. At that time, Arnold had a little over 20,000 subscribers. Now there are 329,000 of them.
One of Arnold's popular photosBrand Ambassador
Unlike a blogger who sells many one-time ad integrations, an ambassador works with the same brand for a long time.
Most companies benefit from establishing a long-term relationship with an influencer who regularly promotes the company in a positive way.
The fact is that most often an opinion leader who becomes a brand ambassador already uses the company's product or a similar one, or broadcasts in a certain niche. He has an interested target audience who will not be surprised that a blogger supports and recommends a particular cosmetics or coffee variety.
What brand ambassadors do:
- Give away free products in experimental campaigns.
- Broadcast speeches at conferences or stores to promote the brand.
- Interaction with consumers on your page.
- Increasing brand awareness. For example, a blogger wears branded T-shirts, caps, suits.
- Post quality content to increase user engagement.
Sale of AR masks
Augmented reality (AR) filters are various effects that are superimposed on what your camera shows.
Facebook's* Spark AR Studio platform allows users to create their own interactive augmented reality filters. They can be used in Instagram* and Facebook* Stories, as well as in Facebook* Messenger and Video Chat Portal with Friends.
Such masks can be sold to various brands, because AR masks are useful because:
- They help to emphasize the individuality of the brand, stand out from the competition.
- Communicate with the audience. Interactive elements in Stories increased 3-second views 9 out of 10 times, says Facebook*, and 60% of businesses use them to increase monthly engagement.
- Allows users to "try on" a product before buying or "wear" branded clothing.
- Increase brand awareness. An AR mask can be a company logo or mascot. And if the filter is not advertising, it will be displayed in the effects gallery, where it is available to anyone. In addition, when users take a selfie with a brand's AR mask, their followers will learn about the company.
Instagram augmented reality filter skills* can make good money.
It's all about making money on Instagram* from your account. I will not consider the option of how to make money without investments on likes, subscribers and views - it takes a lot of time and brings very little money, and this type of income is not pleasant to me. Most often, it harms business, spoils statistics, helps scammers advance, and algorithms do not like it.
How much you can earn on Instagram*
Everything will depend on the quantity and quality of your audience. The more people follow you, the more you can charge for one ad integration or the more donations you can get. In the case of advertising integrations, you set the prices yourself.
A blogger with just over 500,000 subscribers charges 25,000 ₽ for one advertising integration Those with more than 1 million subscribers can charge from 100,000 ₽ for one advertising post. And media personalities like Olga Buzova, Natalya Rudova, Nastasya Samburskaya can charge 200-300 thousand rubles for one post.
If you make money by selling information products, merchandise or services, everything will depend on how many people buy your product. But with a large audience, the amounts are impressive. For example, let's calculate the earnings of Elena Blinovskaya.
She herself says that she received more than 150,000 reviews, which means that there were no less sales. The cost of the marathon is changing: let's take 3,000 ₽ - the amount that is most often mentioned in reviews. It turns out that Elena earned about 450 million rubles for the entire time the marathon was sold. Yes, she spent time creating it and is now spending money on supporting the information product (hiring employees), but the amount itself is impressive.
In general, more than 2.6 million people subscribed to the marathon page - sales can be much higher How much money you earn on Instagram * depends only on how you invest in the development of your account, and how many audiences you gain. The more loyal subscribers you get, the more income you can get from one way of earning.
And you can use several - for example, advertise someone's services and sell your information product at the same time.
How to get your first sales in social networks, we tell on the online course for beginners "First Orders on Instagram*". The course is suitable for anyone who wants to earn money by promoting their services or product on an online platform.
What to do to earn a lot
Promote your profile and get a lot of followers: the more the better. There are two ways to go:
- gain an audience quickly with the help of advertising from bloggers;
- make interesting and high-quality content and gain subscribers slowly.
Content is needed even if you want to use paid promotion: after all, people will follow you only if they like your account. It's just that with the help of advertising you will get followers much faster than with organic promotion.
You will find all the necessary tools for content production in one application, which will save a lot of time to promote your business.
Auto-posting, photo and video editor, story builder, post analytics, teamwork opportunities - this and much more is in SMMplanner.
You will be able to work faster and more efficiently - get more done in the same amount of time. Register using the link and you will have 14 days of access to the professional tariff "Initial" instead of the standard week. Explore the possibilities, then choose the appropriate tariff or use the free version of the service - it depends on your needs.
There is another way - a quick and free recruitment of a new audience through hype. So Diana Shurygina, Ekaterina Didenko and Daria Zoteeva (Instasamka) became popular. The only question is what is the price of their popularity: hype will bring subscribers, but not a loyal audience. Because of black PR, subscribers, advertisers and those with whom the blogger did joint projects may turn away. This was the case with Daria Zoteeva, when, due to another scandalous trick, Klava Koka refused to cooperate with her, and her voice was replaced with another one in the cartoon “100% Wolf”.
Promoting your profile on Instagram* requires a lot of time, effort and nerves. We have collected materials that can help attract loyal followers:
- 9 ways to promote on Instagram for free*
- 8 free social media contest services
- Post idea generator
Decide for yourself which promotion method to use. The most important thing is to gain the first few thousand subscribers. Even with 1-2 thousand followers, you can start earning and investing in the further development of your account in order to get more audience and, accordingly, earn more.
The article has been updated. First published: March 26, 2021
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 this does not negate the fact that there is still a huge amount of advertising being bought from bloggers, including bloggers with a small audience. 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 concluded 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 products
The fourth way is to sell products 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. Selling 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 - 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. Counseling
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. Selling services
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 a 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 money by posting 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.
