How to monetize a instagram account
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.
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when you invest in the Instagram, I want it to be a lot of time and effort, I want it to make it possible somehow paid off.
But direct monetization is not available, that is, the social network does not embed ads directly into your content and does not share part of the income from advertisers, as YouTube does.
But there are other ways to enable monetization on Instagram. We talk about five options for making a profit from a social network.
The level of income for all methods of monetization depends on the number of subscribers and coverage. The larger the audience, the more you can earn.
Content
Article reading time 5 minutes
Method #1: Selling ad integrations
Method #2: Selling your products and services
Method #3: Paid access to close friends content
Method #4: affiliate programs
Method #5: driving traffic to another site
Method #1: selling ad integrations
that you mention their brand or praise a particular product and recommend it to the audience.
There are several options for such integrations:
- native advertising, when you do not advertise the product directly, but show options for its use or simply place it in the frame while filming another story or photo shoot;
- mentioning a profile, when you mark an advertiser's account in the description of a photo or story, and people can go there to subscribe or place an order;
- active link - it can be posted in stories if you have more than 10,000 subscribers: you can link to the advertiser's website or his chat bot in one of the messengers.
All three integration formats can be sold to advertisers. But keep in mind that native ads are more often bought from millionaire bloggers, and not from novice influencers with a small audience reach.
An example of how an ad in an account might look like: a product demonstration and a link to a page where you can buy it.
To start making money selling ad integrations, tell advertisers that you can promote their products.
There are several ways to do this:
- write to small companies, talk about your audience and reach, and offer to buy advertising on your profile;
- leave contacts in the profile header where you can be contacted on PR issues;
- register on advertising exchanges on Instagram and offer your services there.
Advertising exchanges are platforms where advertisers and bloggers meet. You can post your profile information there, and advertisers can find it and contact you. Some exchanges work differently: advertisers leave orders for promotion there, and you can apply for its implementation.
There are more than 20 different ad exchanges in total: Epicstars, Sociate, LabelUp, GetBlogger and many others. The more sites you register on, the more advertisers will be able to learn about you and offer you cooperation. And how much money to take for advertising integrations, decide for yourself - look at the prices of the nearest competitors and form an adequate price.
An example of pricing on one of the exchanges. Most often, the cost is indicated based on the number of subscribers, profile topics and audience activity
Storytelling is a proven way to get close to the audience and win new subscribers on social networks, and therefore potential customers.
If suddenly your company does not have a page in social networks, create it. And in addition to posts with news, promotions and wishes for a nice day, tell stories. The topics are very different - about the work process, about employees, about the emergence of a company, about difficulties. Let it be emotional and on the same wavelength with the audience.
You can also learn how to create fire storytelling in the course from Praktika. school.
Method #2: selling your products and services
With this method of monetizing followers on Instagram, you also promote products, but not advertisers, but your own.
You can sell anything, for example - goods. The difficult way is to register a company, purchase production equipment, rent premises, organize storage and marketing of finished products. A simple way is contract manufacturing: you order a batch of goods at the factory and stick your logo on the package.
An example of selling goods: Oksana Samoilova is promoting her own brand of cosmetics Sammy Beauty
You can also sell your services — this is what fitness trainers, coaches, tarot readers, consultants, lawyers and many other people who develop a personal brand on Instagram do. Another option for monetizing Instagram traffic is selling information products: webinars, marathons or online courses. In this case, you teach the audience what you know and can do yourself: write lyrics, dance, work in Photoshop, or something else.
Instagram promotes a make-up course: teaches subscribers how to properly paint
Profit with this monetization scheme will depend on the cost of products, the cost of goods for the buyer and the number of sales.
Someone sells a set of face masks for 1,700 ₽ and invests in production, while someone records the course without cost by voice messages in Telegram and gets the maximum net profit. For example, Elena Blinovskaya's Marathon of Desires course was bought by more than 200,000 people (according to the information in the profile header). With the cost of the first step of 4,500 ₽, this is already 900 million ₽ in revenue.
To earn that much, you need to at least gain more than 5 million subscribers, as Elena did
What to choose and what product to sell is up to you. Think about what you would be interested in doing: hosting online webinars, making merchandise (clothing with your unique print), or getting into the production of cosmetics, phone cases or accessories.
Sometimes bloggers do not use this method of monetization because they are ashamed to sell or they are not confident in their abilities. In fact, it’s not so scary - watch the master class on monetization on Instagram, which analyzes the sales strategy, audience psychology, and the mechanics of creating in-demand products.
Method #3: Sell paid access to content in close friends
One of the best ways to monetize for expert blogs or commercial accounts, benefits: make closed sales in close friends and sell access to these sales to the most loyal customers. The online store receives additional revenue from closed access sales, and the client feels chosen and has the opportunity to purchase items of his favorite brand at a discount.
expert blogs can create special content available only to close friends, the benefits are obvious: customers get content without leaving instagram, and an expert does not need to create a website for their products and promote it.
Method number 4: affiliate programs
The amount of earnings will depend on how many subscribers go to the advertiser's website and perform the target action there. The more sales you make, the more you can earn. For example, if an advertiser pays 500 ₽ for each sale, with 100 orders from your audience you will earn 50,000 ₽.
To start earning on affiliate programs, find offers that have products that suit your target audience. This can be done in CPA networks: sites that collect offers from different advertisers. For example, Admitad has offers from Lamoda, M.Video, Adidas, AliExpress and other major brands.
Popular online stores usually pay 1.5-10% of the amount of each order
The only caveat is that you will have to place an active link in your profile. Without it, the advertiser will not understand that the sales came from you.
Method No. 5: attracting traffic to another site
Another opportunity to monetize the audience on Instagram is to attract it to sites that pay for content. For example, on:
- YouTube - in it, anyone who has gained 10,000 subscribers can connect to the affiliate program;
- Yandex. Zen - everyone can turn on monetization on it, whose articles have been read in total for at least 10,000 minutes in 7 days in a row;
- "Pulse Mail.
ru" - you can get to the site only by invitation (invitation), but it pays after the publication of the first 10 articles.
If you attract part of the audience to another platform, you can monetize it twice: on Instagram, and on YouTube or on Zen.
How much you earn from monetization on another site depends on the niche and audience coverage. For example, on YouTube, for 1000 views of a video on a channel with videos on a game for mobile devices, they can pay a little more than 28 ₽. And to earn at least 50,000 ₽, you will have to get more than 1.7 million views.
An example of how the price per 1000 views on YouTube changes depending on the audience Sell paid integrations, promote your own products or those of advertisers from affiliate programs. If you use several ways to earn money on different sites, the income can increase by 2-3 times compared to the income from one monetization method only on Instagram.
To attract part of the audience to another site, it is enough to place a link to your profile on it in the profile header.
And in posts and stories, sometimes remind you that you release content not only on Instagram. To summarize: how to get monetized on Instagram and how much you can earn To do this, send potential advertisers offers of cooperation, leave contacts for communication in the profile header and register on advertising exchanges.
Zen channel and connect to affiliate programs there. To do this, start a channel on another site and promote it in your Instagram profile. Income from all monetization methods on Instagram depends on the audience: the more people follow you, the more advertisers will be willing to pay for integration and the more sales you can get. Therefore, in order to increase earnings, you need to actively develop your account and, if possible, use several options for generating income - this will be more effective than just trying to organize giveaways or doing nothing at all.
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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 photos 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.
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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 that 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
- 4 for live broadcasts.
The caveat is that most of these monetization methods are not available in countries other than the United States. 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
You can't monetize a blank page.
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 enable 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.
