Are you looking for ways to monetize Instagram?
Instagram has reached 1 billion active monthly users and more than 500 million are using the image-sharing site every day. Besides, Instagram ranks fourth in the list of the 15 most popular social networking platforms.
What do these stats mean to marketers?
There is an audience for every marketer, regardless of the niche and it’s the right time to monetize Instagram. And in this post, we will share several ways on how to make money on Instagram.
But before we get into the Instagram monetization methods, let’s learn what you need to do before you start monetizing your Instagram account.
Number of Followers For Instagram Monetization
It’s not easy to monetize your Instagram account, but it’s possible.
Keep reading.
We will show you exactly what you need to make.
The number of followers you have on Instagram isn’t the determinant of whether you can make money on the platform. You could have 100,000 followers and still fail to make money on Instagram and one could have only 1,000 and be able to monetize your Instagram account.
The key thing is how you engage with your followers. So, it is recommended that one should ensure to have an engaged fan base before monetizing Instagram.
What Do You Need to Monetize Instagram?
Now that you have known it’s possible to monetize your Instagram account let’s discuss what you actually need to grow your audience, increase engagement, and possibly make money.
- Create a compelling bio
To attract a huge following, you need to create a compelling bio. Your bio should demonstrate your creativity and the value you can add to your followers. Your bio must be attention-grabbing and attractive enough to establish your brand’s credibility.
- Post regularly
To build a strong relationship you must interact with your followers regularly. When you want to grow your audience on Instagram, you must be regular with your content. Besides, your content must be engaging.
A good rule of thumb is to have a fixed posting schedule. Or if you aren’t able to schedule your content, try your level best to post the times when your target audience is active on the platform.
An observation by Tailwind suggests that the frequency of posting and engagement rates have a positive correlation. And posting regularly can help to grow your audience faster.
- Post incredible images
Instagram started and has been a great image-sharing platform. You can start sharing beautiful, high-quality images on the platform to grow your reach.
Sharing incredible images will help to attract your prospects and ultimately increase your chances of making money on Instagram.
Demonstrate what your brand does by use of images that attract the attention of your audience. Promote your products, tell them stories and get creative in everything you do and your Instagram account will be noticed by many people hence increasing your reach.
- Take advantage of Instagram’s video function
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is full of pictures, that means a video is worth millions of words- that’s just a rough estimate. You can do the calculations and see for yourself.
Fortunately, Instagram recently introduced a function that allows the sharing of a 15-second video. You need to get creative with your video to get the most out of it.
Create a personal message for your followers and make them know why you are the best brand. You could also create a short story of how your brand started. Just make something interesting and worth the attention of your followers.
- Use hashtags wisely
Hashtags are effective when it comes to increasing your brand’s visibility and your content reach. Well, Instagram limits hashtag usage to 30, but it’s not advised to use them all. A good rule of thumb is to use 10-15 relevant hashtags. Remember to get creative with your hashtags as well.
- Create high-quality content
Content is still king and when you want to monetize Instagram, then you should make sure your content is worth reading. If you can’t create high-quality content, you can outsource your content creation to the experts.
How to Monetize Instagram
Now that you have known the tips to get started with your Instagram monetization journey, let’s learn some of the ways how you can use to achieve it.
Monetize Instagram Through Sponsored Posts
Once you have attained a huge audience and you have become popular, you can use your popularity you can start promoting brands.
Sponsored posts aren’t different from your normal content; however, in this case, instead of promoting your own products, you promote other brand’s products on your Instagram account.
Usually, brands collaborate with influencers to make their products or services known to many people through sponsored content.
Now here, you will need to avoid being salesy and to demonstrate the authenticity of the brand you are promoting, you need to show some of the bad sides of a product in addition to the good sides.
Make Money on Instagram Through Affiliate Marketing
You can monetize your Instagram account by becoming an affiliate marketer. Here, your task is to promote products of other brands that you have used and you believe in. DON’T try promoting products or services you are not sure of.
You could also share a link or discount code in your posts for the products you are recommending. This way, when a customer purchases the products you are recommending you get a commission as a percentage of the amount paid.
Is it a Good Entry Point for Marketers?
Affiliate marketing is the best entry point and suitable for marketers who are still nervous about being seen on a camera.
Besides, it’s easy to get started as an affiliate marketer on Instagram. You just enroll to in an affiliate marketing program, get a custom link from the brand whose products you are promoting, then start sharing the link every time you make your Instagram posts.
Remember, since Instagram is a photo-sharing platform, you need to create a compelling copy together with a beautiful photo that makes your followers want to buy the products you are promoting.
Promote Your Own Products
Instead of promoting other people’s products on your Instagram channel, you can market your own products. You just need to have a strong personal brand and creativity in the way you make and promote your offerings.
This is especially, important if you can make your own products such as books, cosmetics, furniture, clothing, etc. Note that you should always promote products that related to your niche and your audience like.
Create and Sell Courses
You probably have expertise in a particular niche; whether it’s medicine, art, business, etc. You can make money on Instagram by teaching your audience a skill they don’t know. After all, they are following you on Instagram because they want to learn from you. Why not teach them what you know?
Create a course or downloadable guides about health eating, home improvement, real estate investment, just to mention a few of the things you can use to monetize your channel.
Also, you can become an Instagram marketing expert and start offering social media marketing consultation services, SEO/SEM services or create eBooks about social media marketing and sell them at a fee.
Monetize Instagram With Product Placement Videos
You can monetize Instagram using product placement videos.
Here is how it works: You create an interesting video that shows you using a product or services of a particular brand and then you are paid some fee for promoting it.
To increase the likelihood of attracting people to your videos, try to create testimonials, explainer videos, or tutorials. You can do normal videos or use Instagram Stories.
Final Thoughts
If you are a good content creator looking to make money online, Instagram is the platform, you should take advantage of. Although it’s not easy to monetize Instagram it’s possible but you must follow the tips we have shared above before you get started with Instagram monetization.
We hope by now you are well prepared to get started making money on Instagram.
But before you leave, let us know which of these methods you feel you can utilize, or you have used and your experience with them. Let us hear that in the comment section.
About the Author
Scott Mathews is a micro-influencer, eCommerce marketer, and content writer at the Australianwritings blog. He is also a social media consultant and a seasoned Instagram user. He knows the ins and outs of Instagram and has helped thousands of brands achieve their Instagram marketing goals. Besides, Mathews has created tons of courses about social media and many other subjects related to eCommerce marketing.
