When you hear the word, ‘Instagram’ what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Maybe cute cat videos, picturesque travel locations, or attractive selfies. However, Instagram is much more than that.
In recent years, Instagram has proved to be a great platform to earn money. You can make a decent income from Instagram through its creator incentives program or third-party businesses.
However, first, you’ll have to create a strong presence on the platform. You’ll need to amass a decent amount of followers, have high engagement on your posts, and strongly influence your followers.
Once you’ve checked all the boxes, it’s time to earn a handsome amount simply by posting photos, videos, and other content on Instagram. But, how exactly will I make money? You may ask. So, let’s find out.
1. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts mean advertising a company’s products or services through your Instagram photos and videos. They are also termed ‘Paid Promotions.’
Businesses that offer products related to your niche will pay you to sponsor or advertise their products in your posts in exchange for a fee. Similarly, businesses from various sectors might approach you to sponsor their products if you have a large and engaging group of followers.
For example, suppose your Instagram page focuses on smartphones. In that case, you might be paid by a smartphone manufacturer to post a photo or video reviewing their latest product and showcase it in good light.
Remember that, in such cases, you must explicitly disclose that it is a sponsored post. This ensures fair advertising and marketing practices are followed per Instagram’s rules.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is somewhat similar to sponsored posts. The only difference is that you earn a commission every time an individual buys something using your affiliate link instead of getting a lump sum from the business upfront.
You can promote your affiliate links through your Instagram bio, posts, and captions to your followers. Most businesses offer a 5 – 15% commission on the product’s sale price.
Affiliate marketing is a better way to make money on Instagram than sponsored posts. It provides a long-term passive income opportunity, generates better income, and increases follower engagement.
3. Instagram Store
You can promote your business and sell products via Instagram Shopping. You will first need to create an Instagram for Business account and a product catalog.
Next, you will have to promote your products through your posts by making your products shoppable. Instagram has a feature that allows you to tag products mentioning their details, price, and shopping links.
This simplifies the purchase process for the customers and increases the chances of sales. Instagram also provides detailed analytics about your store’s performance that help determine what’s working and is not.
4. Live Badges
Similar to other live-video streaming platforms, such as Twitch and YouTube Live, you can earn money from your followers directly through live streaming on Instagram.
Instagram has introduced a badges feature. Your viewers can purchase these badges to show their support, which, in turn, will help you make money. Viewers can purchase these badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99. You will be shown a heart symbol next to the viewer’s comment to notify you that they have purchased a badge.
The program is currently available to all eligible creators in the US only. It will be rolled out to other countries soon.
Instagram’s press release states, “Live has helped creators and businesses stay connected to their followers and bring people together [during the pandemic]. With badges, creators can generate income from the content they’re already creating.”
5. Video Monetization Through Ads
Just like YouTube, you can monetize your videos on Instagram to make money. Enabling monetization will display ads during your Instagram videos and let you earn money.
To monetize your videos, you will need to go to the creator account settings and enable monetization. After that, you can post the videos as usual.
The revenue earned through monetization will depend upon the number of views on the videos. According to Instagram, creators will get fifty-five percent of the revenue generated per view.
However, you will need to meet certain requirements to be eligible to receive payments through monetization. For example, you need to post videos that are at least two minutes long to be able to monetize them.
The payments will be made on a monthly basis.
6. Consulting Services
If you are well-versed with the ins and outs of Instagram and have a page with a huge number of followers, you can put it to use to help others. You can provide consulting services to individuals and businesses to grow their presence and followers on Instagram.
You can charge them a consulting fee for providing your expertise. Generally, Instagram consultants charge $15 – $150 on an hourly basis, depending upon their skills, knowledge, experience, and proven results.
You can thus, easily earn hundreds and thousands of dollars per month just by providing Instagram growth consulting services.
As the platform grows and takes center stage, the demand for Instagram consultants is only going to increase further, providing ample and high-paying earning opportunities.
7. Licensing Your Posts
You can sell the license for your photographs and videos to brands for a decent fee and earn money easily. However, this is a very complicated domain.
For example, Instagram’s terms and conditions state that they have a non-exclusive, transferable, and sub-licensable right over user’s content. This means they have all the rights over the posts, as does the owner, just not an exclusive one.
While there are no signs of this being changed anytime in the future, let’s hope that policy changes in the future will provide exclusive rights to the owners only.
Parting Thoughts
We hope that this blog will help you make a decent monthly income through Instagram. There is, literally, no limit on how much you can make through the platform if you use your skills, knowledge, and expertise in the right way.
However, ensure that you comply with the terms, conditions, and policies of the platform and don’t engage in any unethical activities or practices to earn a few extra bucks.
