How to earn money through your Instagram account or page

The Facebook-owned platform Instagram is a big photo or video-sharing social media platform with a huge number of users. Here, you can find many photos or videos on different genres from various creators. For photography lovers, it is one of the best places to watch or share photos to appreciate the work with one another.

With over a billion users, it is one of the largest social media platforms where you can connect with people through content and even chats. Many personal accounts and pages are there along with many company pages which they use for promoting and selling their products.

So, the main question arises that can anyone earn money through their Instagram account?

The simple answer is yes. Many of us are now familiar with the term ‘social media influencer’. They create content and share them through their social media accounts and gain a good amount of followers to earn money in many ways.

The influencers with good followers in their Instagram profiles are known to people as Instagram influencers. Even, many celebrities and YouTubers also use their Instagram profile to connect with more audiences. So, if you have a profile in it with a certain number of followers, you can try to make some sort of money with various options.

Instagram does not have any proper monetization process and there are no such criteria that you need to achieve to start earning any money. To start earning via this social media platform, use your profile or create one if you do not have it and start exploring the ways.

1. Sponsorship and brand promotion deals
2. Affiliate marketing method
3. Earning via tips and ads (IGTV Ads, Live Badges)
4. Sell products from your account
5. Other methods of sales to income
6. Only Fans or Patreon
7. Teach your followers
8. Find and work with clients

But, before thinking of starting to earn via your profile, you must look at some of the areas to make it a reality and even scale further up in the future.

• Start your profile or page with any specific niche or topic you are interested in and have very good knowledge of it. By doing so, you can create quality content with authority that would attract people within the same niche and build trust among your followers.
• Do not think of making money from the start. Build your profile strategically to gain good numbers of followers. If you have thousands of followers then it would be an ideal time to start the process of making money.
• Always try to reach many people you can with your good content to attract them to follow you. Remember that the main part of the influencers is influencing people through social media. To reach people and influence them to gain as many followers as you can get.
• A large number of followers surely would help you to walk on your path to earn a good amount of money but it might be useless if you cannot engage your audience in the right way. So, always try to engage your followers to keep them interested and influenced to make them into a customer. A high number of followers with little engagement would give you nothing but one or two thousand followers with high engagement could help you to earn more money.
• Create authentic and engaging content with some appropriate hashtags will enhance the chances to reach many people on Instagram. It will also help you to get suggested by Instagram to people who interact with content as you produce in the same genre.
• Maintain regularity in your Instagram page or account. Share content regularly and interact with your followers in the comment section, answer their queries in chats and make them feel special to trust you more.

There are so many ways to make some good cash with your Instagram account. Here we will discuss 10 ways to make money via this platform and even you can make a career out of it if you are truly interested and invested in this segment.

10 Ways to make money using Instagram

1. Sponsorship and brand promotion deals

Sponsorship deals and brand promotions are one of the most major ways to earn through Instagram and it is a very much well-known method to the mass around the world. Every good influencer is using this kind of deal to earn a lot of money and if anyone is missing this tactic then it is a huge loss for that person.

You would not get these types of deals from the early stages of your Instagram influencer role. You need to build your base on Instagram. Share quality content with authority to reach and gain as many as followers you can get. Win their trust for you and after having 5000 to 10000 followers, you can dig into this method to earn money.

A more engaging audience would help you very much in this section. So, stick in your niche and produce quality content to attract and engage people to create your own value. If you manage to do so then the brands within your niche will come to you for sponsorship and promotion deals. And do not hesitate to approach the brands you think suit your niche to offer something that they cannot refuse.

You can promote the brands in exchange for money in your Instagram posts, stories and also share links of them, mention them in hashtags, etc to your audience. But, keep one thing in your mind that you should be always true to your followers. Share what you believe is authentic and top quality which you have tried and tested. Do not share anything that can harm your reputation among the followers or they might lose interest in you. Any bad product or brands which are not related to your niche would not help you to keep your followers interested in your profile.

 

2. Affiliate marketing method

An affiliate marketing method is a way to earn money via affiliate links to get some commission on the sold product. It is a very effective system to earn money if you have good engaging followers on any platform like YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.

If you can sell any product with your affiliate link then you will get some percentage on sales, otherwise, you would not get any money. And that is the main difference between brand promotion deals and affiliate marketing. In brand promotions, the money is guaranteed but in affiliation programs, it depends on the sales of products via affiliate links.

You can share promo codes or links in your Instagram bios and also in Stories or posts. If you can influence your audience to buy any product or services using those links or codes then you will get a percentage on sales ranging from 5% to 10%-20% which is variable for different products or affiliate programmers. The more you can sell via affiliate marketing the more you can earn through this method.

 

3. Earning via tips and ads (IGTV Ads, Live Badges)

Now, this is a part especially for the influencers who own a very good amount of loyal base of followers and always engage them with quality or informative content. They can surely try these methods and the opportunities of more methods for earnings are also added to their inventory.

Apart from all the other opportunities, there are mainly two methods that you can use if you belong to those kinds of influencer categories.

 

4. IGTV Ads

If you are familiar with the YouTube Ad revenue process then you can relate to this IGTV Ads that shares revenue with creators. In the last year, Instagram created this ad revenue system which is one of the best ways for Instagram influencers to monetize their content on the platform to earn. Creators that produce long videos can see the benefit of it as 15 seconds of short ads will appear in their IGTV videos which brings revenue to them.

 

5. Live Badges

Live Badges is another great thing to earn a certain amount of money as tips. It is basically applicable in a live video broadcast on Instagram. When any influencer lives broadcast a video, any viewer can purchase a badge costing from .99 to 4.99 dollars that will appear as a heart icon beside their name. It is a way to support the influencer and provide them some tips in form of live badges.

 

6. Sell products from your account

If you have your own line of products or want to create and sell any product then you can use the Instagram platform to promote and sell them to your followers. Even if you own a website that sells some products can be linked with your Instagram profile and you can drive your audience to that website to convert them into your customers.

And now with the Instagram shop, it is easier to promote them and sell them more conveniently. You can share posts or stories of your products with a simple description to attract your followers to buy them which would add to your income number. You can tag products easily with any post to share with the viewers. And via stories and videos, you can provide entertaining contents to attract buyers.

You can create your own merchandise products or digital items to sell them in your profile for profit. Having loyal viewers and a customer base would surely help you to sell your items to make some good money.

 

7. Other methods of sales to income

Apart from selling your own products and digital products, you can also earn by selling other stuff and using other methods. The content you share with your followers to engage them in your profile also can bring you money. You can sell any existing good picture content or even video to any other party to them in their account or for promoting any product.

Writing captions or creating posts is also a good way to earn some money. Create posts or captions for other brands in exchange for money. Many medium or small companies do not have any in-house social media team. So, you can work for them to create their content and help them to promote their product with unique posts and captions.

Also, if you have any business that is not directly related to your Instagram profile, you can share it on Instagram with an affirmative way to promote it as well. Use it in a way that might not annoy your audience and you can promote it to a larger audience. You can mention it in your IGTV video or in your post that might look applicable to it. And use hashtags to generate more followers to get more sales and some variation in viewers keeping the main niche intact of your profile.

 

8. Only Fans or Patreon

Third-party platforms like Only Fans or Patreon are very good for the content creators and influencers to up the level of their income bar. Many YouTubes also use platforms like Patreon to get money from their subscribers.

If you can use your Instagram profile smartly then you can drive your followers to such platforms and start making money. The best way of doing this is to share many contents in your Instagram profile and encourage your viewers to join you on your other platforms like Only Fans to get more valuable content. Interested parties would give you money for those contents in such third-party platforms. Produce exclusive content to sell them on such sites which would attract followers.

 

9. Teach your followers

There is nothing wrong with taking money in exchange for teaching a thing which you are very good at it. So, if you are a very good Instagram influencer and you have a very good hold in your niche and followers, then you can give them a course on how to become a good influencer and earn money. Teach them how to create quality content to generate followers, which ways are the best to engage them, how to create a funnel to convert them into loyal customers etc.

You can also teach your audience different activities like cooking, dancing, yoga, etc if you have a page on such niches. Your loyal followers would love to learn things from you because you inspire them to do it. You can provide any course or classes to your followers with some packages which they can avail themselves of by paying for them. And you can share your knowledge or tips and skills to teach them which you know very well.

 

10. Find and work with clients

Social media platforms are a very good place for promoting and selling products. But, it is also a very good option to find clients for your business regardless of which sector you are in. Using the Instagram platform, you can find clients in your area of business to work with them and earn money through it.

Social media marketers can use this platform to gain clients and provide them all the assistance to increase reach and promotion to their business. If you are a creative person like a photographer or cinematographer then you will surely find this platform worthy because of its reach all over the world.

With more than one billion users, it is a very suitable place to increase your income by working with clients that require services you provide with quality and uniqueness. Yes, the market is very much competitive with so many creators and businesses but you can increase your sales and gain new clients if you use Instagram more accurately.

Key areas to look and maintain

• Always produce authentic content and never compromise in quality.
• Sell good quality products and services which your customers would love to have. Any bad product can be the reason for losing trust in you from your customer base.
• Explain yourself and products more precisely that might be easier for the followers to understand well.
• Make sure to give after-purchase services because your responsibility does not end after selling. Customer service is the key.
• Try to find what your followers are more interested in and what products they actually love after using. It will help you to collect data and analyze them for plans.
• Keep up with the new trends and learn from other influencers to elevate your quality but never copy others to earn money. It might hamper your reputation.
• You can promote your Instagram profile or page on other platforms if have any other social media profile with good followers. For YouTubers, it is always beneficial to encourage your YouTube subscribers to follow you on Instagram and vice versa to increase your follower base.
• The loyalty of your followers is the key to your success as an Instagram influencer. So, in any situation, you must maintain the trust your audience has in you and never break it.
• Learn how to negotiate any deal with brands or clients because you have to crack the deal to get money from it. A good negotiator can make a good profit out of any deal. Never demand more or less, always go for the price that represents your true value and quality.

Ending note

The ways to income via Instagram are more than the above-discussed points. And in the future, the opportunities would increase and more prominent options will be available to the influencers and even for the newcomers. If you have a clear idea and mentality to work on it while learning more precisely through the journey of it then you can also earn money and make a career out of it.