You can’t browse through your Instagram feed without encountering influencers promoting various products – both their own creations and those from other brands. Have you ever considered tapping into this opportunity yourself? While top celebrity accounts can command fortunes for a single sponsored post, you don’t need millions of followers to start earning money on Instagram.
Whether you’re a small business aiming to expand your reach or a content creator looking to monetize your influence, Instagram presents a robust platform to achieve your goals. Here’s your guide on How To Make Money On Instagram.
9 Proven Ways to Monetize Your Instagram Presence
Making money on Instagram isn’t solely dependent on your follower count. The most effective methods for you will hinge on your unique Instagram content style, your intended audience, and the level of effort you’re willing to invest.
1. Leverage Sponsored Content Partnerships
Sponsored content represents a mutually beneficial arrangement for both small businesses and content creators. Brands often struggle to replicate the authenticity of genuine endorsements from individuals sharing real-life experiences. However, they can capitalize on this authenticity by collaborating with creators whose audiences align with their target customers. Simultaneously, influencers get paid to create content that resonates with their followers.
For these collaborations to be genuinely effective, authenticity is key. “Many brands prefer to collaborate with creators who are already genuine fans of their products,” notes Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and author of the newsletter Link in Bio. Rachel suggests that creators proactively reach out to their favorite brands to propose partnership opportunities.
“Developing a recurring style or content series into which brands can integrate is a highly effective approach to brand partnerships,” she adds. Alix Earle’s Instagram serves as a prime example. “Her ‘get ready with me’ series is immensely popular. It’s a natural fit for a makeup brand to integrate their products,” Rachel explains. “Her audience anticipates these specific videos.”
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A post shared by Alix Ashley Earle (@alix_earle)
When pitching to a brand, clearly articulate your audience demographics and demonstrate how their product seamlessly fits into your established content formats. Consider listing your profile on influencer marketplaces such as Shopify Collabs to signal your openness to collaborations with brands.
If you are a small business owner seeking to partner with creators, think about suggesting how your product can be naturally integrated into a creator’s existing content style, rather than pushing them to create unfamiliar content.
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Shopify Collabs simplifies the process of discovering brands that resonate with your style, establishing affiliate partnerships, receiving payments for your sales contributions, and managing everything in a centralized platform.
Remember, regardless of how authentic your collaboration appears, Instagram’s guidelines mandate that all branded content (“content that features or is influenced by a business partner for an exchange of value”) must include the paid partnership label.
2. Launch Your Own Online Store
If you already operate an online store, you’re likely utilizing Instagram to promote and sell your products. However, if you’re primarily a creator, consider leveraging your influence to sell your own merchandise or services.
Physical goods, services, or digital products can all be effectively promoted on Instagram as extensions of your personal brand. Use your content to illustrate the value proposition of your product to your audience, and then utilize Instagram’s selling tools to provide your followers with a seamless checkout experience.
The traditional boundaries between creator and entrepreneur are becoming increasingly blurred, with more individuals seeking independence and ways to monetize their skills. For example, pet influencer Loki the Wolfdog successfully transformed his Instagram presence into his own brand, Loki Naturals.
Several options exist for selling products and services online through Instagram:
3. Design and Sell Merchandise for Your Brand
“The opportunity for creators to sell merchandise is incredibly natural, as their extensive content creation provides ample opportunities to organically promote their products,” explains Chris Vaccarino, founder of Fanjoy, a company specializing in helping creators effortlessly produce and sell merchandise to their fans.
This method eliminates the need to build a separate brand and product line from scratch. You simply need to develop relevant designs and apply them to merchandise like mugs, t-shirts, and art prints using print-on-demand services.
Color Me Courtney effectively sells branded merchandise to her fanbase using Fanjoy. Fanjoy. There are several avenues to create and sell your own merchandise:
4. Embrace Affiliate Marketing Strategies
An affiliate marketer is a creator or publisher who promotes brands and products, earning a commission for every conversion generated through their unique affiliate link. Brands provide trackable links or unique promo codes to attribute sales to specific creators. Unlike influencers who often receive a flat fee for promotional posts, affiliate marketers only earn when their efforts directly result in a sale.
An affiliate program is a system established by brands to manage the intricacies of their affiliate relationships with Instagram creators. If you’re a creator, you can directly approach brands or explore popular affiliate programs to find suitable partnerships.
To effectively promote your affiliate brands, utilize a mix of strategies including placing links in your Instagram bio, incorporating them into Instagram Stories, and using a link-in-bio page to showcase multiple brands. You can also share promo codes in post captions (as direct links are not permitted in captions) to maximize sales opportunities.
Instagram fitness influencer Caullen Hudson promotes various brands, such as MVMT, within his content, directing Instagram users to his link-in-bio page where his affiliate links are readily accessible.
5. Utilize Social Selling and Instagram Shopping
Instagram has evolved from a platform for discovering new products to a direct channel for purchasing them. Features like Instagram Shopping tags, which are tapped by over 130 million users monthly, allow users to seamlessly transition from product inspiration to detailed product information.
If you operate a Shopify store, you can leverage the Facebook & Instagram app to synchronize your inventory and customer data between Shopify and Instagram, enabling you to manage Instagram orders directly from your Shopify admin panel.
Apparel brand Miracle Eye maintains a standalone website but also utilizes an Instagram Shop to provide its followers with one-tap access to its product collections.
You can personalize your Instagram Shop by creating curated collections or organizing products around themes or gifting occasions, such as new arrivals, gifts for Mother’s Day, holiday decorations, or summer essentials.
Your Instagram Shop essentially serves as a mini version of your online store, featuring product images, pricing, and descriptions similar to your website. Within your Instagram Shop, users have the option to complete purchases directly on the platform using Instagram Checkout.
Followers can purchase your products seamlessly throughout Instagram via features like:
Open your store on Instagram
Shopify provides powerful tools to help you list, promote, and sell products directly on Instagram. Create product collections, showcase your brand and offerings, and manage sales on Instagram all from one central location.
6. Sell Your Photography or Artwork Online
While video content and other features are gaining traction, Instagram remains fundamentally a photo-sharing platform. This makes it an ideal space for artists and photographers to monetize their Instagram accounts by selling prints and original artworks.
Several avenues exist to achieve this:
- Utilize a photo selling marketplace such as 500px and include a link to your profile in your Instagram bio.
- Sell your photos or art as originals or prints through your own online store and link to it from your Instagram bio.
- Sell your artwork and photography directly on Instagram using Instagram Shopping features.
- License your work on stock image websites and direct businesses to your portfolio via your Instagram profile.
- Employ print-on-demand services like Printful and Teelaunch to print your photos or artwork on merchandise like totes, mugs, and t-shirts, and promote these items in your Instagram content.
Artist Adam Spychala effectively uses his Instagram account to drive followers to his online store, where he sells prints of his artwork.
7. Earn Fan Support Through Live Badges
Instagram Live Badges function as tips you receive from your audience as a reward for creating valuable and engaging content. If you’re familiar with tip-based features on platforms like Twitch and TikTok, you’re well-prepared to start earning money on Instagram simply by doing what you do best.
During an Instagram livestream, viewers can purchase badges (icons representing varying monetary values) to directly support the creator and unlock special features for themselves. Instagram users can buy badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99 to financially support creators.
You can also generate revenue from Reels through Instagram Gifts. Viewers purchase stars to gift creators, who then receive a monthly payout from Instagram at a rate of $0.01 per star.
8. Offer Exclusive Content Through Paid Subscriptions
“Yes, you can participate in sponsored posts and earn money directly from a Reel,” Rachel notes. “However, as a creator or small business, I recommend viewing Instagram not solely in terms of immediate product sales or sponsorships, but primarily as a tool for building brand awareness.”
Once your audience is captivated by your content, offer them the opportunity to access exclusive content through paid subscriptions. Instagram’s own subscription program is currently available to US-based creators over 18 years of age with more than 10,000 followers.
You can also utilize third-party platforms like Patreon to monetize your content through subscriptions. Substack presents another subscription option if you wish to launch a fans-only newsletter to complement your Instagram presence. You can even restrict access to your online store, offering unique content exclusively to paid subscribers who log in. These methods provide opportunities to build your email list and cultivate an audience beyond the Instagram platform itself.
Creator and astrologer Aliza Kelly promotes both her Substack subscription, The Practice, and her paid community subscription, The Constellation Club, on her popular Instagram page.
9. Sell Your Pre-Owned Items
If you have a passion for fashion or home décor, consider using Instagram to sell your used goods. Celebrities and micro-influencers alike are utilizing the platform to host post-decluttering closet sales.
Followers who admire your personal style may be enthusiastic about purchasing your pre-owned items, particularly if you’ve previously showcased them on your Instagram feed. One effective method for selling on Instagram is to share available items on your Stories and encourage followers to DM you to claim items on a first-come, first-served basis. Announce sales in advance to build anticipation and excitement.
If you are a small business owner, you can employ a similar strategy to conduct virtual sample sales. Simply share images of slightly imperfect items on your Stories for a limited-time sale event.
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Instagram Shopping is at the forefront of social commerce. Discover how to sell on Instagram and effectively set up your Instagram Shop with this comprehensive guide.
Factors Influencing Your Instagram Earnings
Several factors influence the earning potential of an Instagram influencer. Some smaller influencers with relatively modest follower counts can achieve a substantial income by focusing on a profitable niche, such as financial products. Conversely, celebrity accounts can generate millions of dollars from a single sponsored post.
Here are the key factors that determine how much revenue a creator can generate on Instagram:
Follower Count
A common approach to categorize Instagram influencers and their potential earnings is to group them into five tiers based on follower numbers. Generally, influencer pricing tends to correlate with these follower ranges:
- Nano-influencer: 1,000–10,000 followers ($10–$100 per post)
- Micro-influencer: 10,000–50,000 followers ($100–$500 per post)
- Mid-tier influencer: 50,000–500,000 followers ($500–$5,000 per post)
- Macro-influencer: 500,000–1 million followers ($5,000–$10,000 per post)
- Mega-influencer: 1 million+ followers ($10,000–$1 million+ per post)
Engagement Rate
How actively do your followers interact with your content? A highly engaged follower base significantly enhances the value of your content by organically promoting it. They share your posts and stimulate discussions in the comments, increasing the likelihood that Instagram’s algorithms will amplify your account’s visibility.
Loyal followers are also more inclined to respond positively to your calls to action, such as clicking on affiliate links.
Affiliate Marketing Commission Rates
The commission percentages you earn when your followers click on affiliate links – and your overall earnings – will vary significantly based on your affiliate partners and the types of products you promote.
As your account grows and your influence expands, you can leverage your larger audience to negotiate more favorable commission rates.
Niche Specialization
The specific niche you target will have a considerable impact on your potential earnings per follower. If your audience comprises unique demographics highly sought after by brands or if they are interested in higher-value products, you can anticipate receiving more lucrative partnership offers.
Diversification of Income Streams
While affiliate marketing and individual product promotions are prevalent methods for monetizing your account, your total earnings from Instagram are also influenced by the number of monetization strategies you implement.
Alongside these common models, consider developing your own product line, such as branded merchandise. Long-term brand partnerships that encompass a series of posts and reels can also lead to higher income generation.
From aspiring entrepreneurs to established global retailers, Shopify provides solutions for everyone. See plans and pricing.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money on Instagram
Can You Actually Get Paid on Instagram?
Yes, it is absolutely possible to get paid on Instagram. If you’re wondering how to make money on Instagram, there are numerous avenues to explore, including:
- Collaborating with brands on sponsored content
- Becoming an affiliate marketer and earning commissions
- Driving traffic to your own brand’s website to generate sales
- Creating an Instagram Shop to sell products directly
- Selling your original photos or artwork as prints
How Many Instagram Followers Are Needed to Start Making Money?
Creators with as few as 1,000 engaged followers can begin generating income by creating sponsored posts on Instagram. Rates are determined by several factors beyond follower count, including engagement levels, content quality, brand recognition, audience demographics, and specialized skill sets.
Does Instagram Pay You Directly for Likes?
No, Instagram does not directly compensate users based on the number of likes their posts receive. However, Instagram does offer a limited-time, invitation-only bonuses program that enables creators to earn money based on the number of plays and views their content accumulates. If you haven’t received an invitation to this program, don’t be concerned. There are numerous alternative (and often more profitable) strategies to monetize your Instagram content, ranging from sponsored collaborations and affiliate marketing to subscription models and selling your own products.
