Making money on social media is everyone’s dream. Post a picture on your phone and watch your bank account grow.

While it might seem like a glamorous life, it takes quite a bit of hard work to get paid for posting on Instagram. Nevertheless, it is possible so you can do it! 

Making Money on Instagram

Instagram got its start as a photo-sharing app, but it has since transformed into a business platform. It has evolved into a powerful marketing tool that influencers and businesses of all sizes use to reach their target audiences.

According to Instagram Business, more than one billion Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month. About 90% of those accounts follow a business on Instagram. 

How to Grow your Instagram Following?

According to a recent study, a micro-influencer account with less than 10,000 followers will make $88 per post on average. A middle-tier influencer account with 10,000 to 100,000 followers makes $200 per post on average.

Top-tier influencer accounts with 100,000 to one million followers make $670 per post on average. The price for top-tier influencer accounts can vary substantially.

With her 141 million followers, Kylie Jenner is paid around $1.2 million for a single post on Instagram. Think of your Instagram account as a billboard.

The bigger the billboard, the more companies will pay to showcase their product. Whether you are promoting your products or somebody else’s, growing your following is essential because this is where the money-making power lies. 

•  Optimize Your Instagram Account

Most Instagram profile visits are from non-followers. These are all potential Instagram followers, but they need an incentive to follow you. On Instagram, your bio is the foundation of your brand identity.

The link in your bio is your opportunity to drive organic Instagram traffic to your site. By making the most of the 150 characters in your bio, you can convey your brand identity to new and existing followers.

•  Focus On a Target Audience

Focus on the quality of your followers rather than quantity. Typically, the more followers an account has, the more credible it appears.

However, focus on developing a strategy that engages a target audience rather than trying to project credibility with thousands of inactive followers.

Avoid fake accounts at all costs because even if you have 10,000 inactive followers, how many will comment, like, and share your content? Active users can engage with your Instagram posts and will give you more value.  

• Share engaging, high-quality content 

Building up an audience that is engaged and loyal to your brand is essential on the Instagram platform. Instagram users are drawn to professional Instagram accounts featuring high-quality content regularly.

Everything you post should be of high quality and visually engaging. When users visit your profile, the content should make them want to see more and entice them to click Follow.

Engagement allows you to get traction with the Instagram algorithm and helps you get more reach and new followers. It is also a good idea to learn what content your followers want to see. Some content on Instagram performs better than others.

Whether it is content types or post times, the smallest detail can make all the difference. That is why keeping up with the latest Instagram trends is crucial.

Additionally, the worst thing you can do when trying to get followers on Instagram is to post content at random without consistency.

Profiles that post seven or more times a week gain more likes and follows faster than those that post less frequently. Consistently posting great content ensures that your Instagram followers remain followers and don’t lose interest in your account. 

• Get Creative with Hashtags and Captions

While Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, the right hashtags can expose your image to a targeted audience.

Find hashtags that are not too populated and hashtags that people in your target audience are more likely to check. If they find a relevant, genuine connection, these users will be more likely to follow your account.

Instagram is a visual platform, but creative captions can play a huge role in helping you get more reach and engagement. They are an essential part of your post—the icing on the cake if you will.

Consistently great captions can humanize your brand and make your content more shareable— thereby giving you more exposure.

Moreover, emojis can spike engagements such as likes, comments, and shares on Instagram. Adding just a few relevant emojis can add personality to your posts and make them even more noticeable on an Instagram feed.

Top Money Making Strategies on Instagram

Reach and influence is essential on the Instagram platform. Whether you are looking to build an empire or earn some extra cash, enlarging your following is crucial.

Once you have extended your influence on the Instagram space, there are some strategies you can implement to explore multiple streams of potential revenue. 

• Make Money from Sponsored Posts

An influencer is someone who has built a reputation and loyal following by regularly sharing awesome things online. Influencers are considered trendsetters who can convince their audiences to jump onto trends and buy products.

Many brands don’t have that kind of leverage, so they partner with influencers on sponsored posts, which help get the word out about their products. That is why knowing your audience as an influencer is crucial.

The appeal of this strategy is that it doesn’t require you to create a product. Your audience’s trust and engagement with your content does all the work for you.

All you have to do is post about the products or services you already use so that it comes off naturally to your audience. Your followers will pick up on that. 

The worst mistake you can make is to work with brands that you would never use yourself. According to Fox Business, the average influencer can make $30,000 to $100,000 per year by promoting products on their pages.

However, people trust authenticity, so you’ll probably need to reflect on the balance between your integrity and your revenue. After all, it’s your brand on the line. 

• Become an affiliate marketer

Unlike an influencer, an affiliate is more focused on making sales for the partnering brand in exchange for a commission and not necessarily creating awareness.

That is typically done through a trackable link or a promo code so the merchant can track sales back to your efforts. It may sound like a numbers game, but affiliate marketing has tons of potential if you plan on expanding your online presence.

The challenge with this strategy is that Instagram doesn’t yet allow links outside the bio, so you will have to focus on one product at a time if you choose to rely on affiliate links.

Consequently, promo codes are a much more lucrative option for Instagram. It is easy to incorporate them into your posts. The key, yet again, is understanding your followers and what they like or don’t like.

When approached ethically, affiliate marketing can give you access to opportunities that most influencers don’t even have. The other downside of this strategy is that the term “affiliate marketing” has developed a bad reputation over the years.

It is associated with individuals who will sell just about anything to make that affiliate fee, even when they don’t have a clue about the product. 

• Set up an online store

For most people, the only way to make money on Instagram is to work with other brands. However, rather than leveraging your brand to market and sell other people’s products, you should consider selling your own.

Turning your audience into your customers goes beyond marketing and into the realm of e-commerce. And with the rise of e-commerce platforms like Shopify, it’s increasingly simple to run an online business through dropshipping.

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment strategy that does not require storage to keep products in stock. As a result, you can then focus solely on your marketing strategy on Instagram. 

As of July 2020, you can sell products directly on Instagram via an Instagram Shop. It is a new e-commerce destination that makes it easier to shop from brands and creators and for users to discover shoppable products on Instagram.

All you have to do is tag products in your Instagram images and lead your Instagram followers to your product pages, where they can have access to your products.

Final Thoughts

Users love the focus on photos and visual imagery on Instagram. It has since become one of the most diverse and popular social media apps on the market.

Instagram users now have the opportunity to go beyond the beautiful photos, live videos, fun stories, and make a living on Instagram. You can also try different angles and posing in posting photos, like Jenna Ortega showing off her sexy feet and toes for sale.

Reaching influencer status and monetizing your account will be challenging, and it won’t happen overnight, but it is possible.

By regularly posting high-quality content, you can gain a significant Instagram following that brands will recognize and reach out to you. Nevertheless, even if they don’t, Instagram is one of the best platforms to market your products.