We may be interested earning money on instagram, as we have heard of influencers and celebrities who generate high income thanks to their social networks. Instagram can become profitable, but it is not easy to make money if we are not very popular first.
When we delve into how many followers Instagram pays, we have already explained that the social network does not share its revenue with content creators. While YouTube or Twitch offer an ad view rate, we rely on external sources to make money on Instagram.
That is, Instagram will not pay us for many followers, likes or comments that we receive. We have to find a way to make our visibility profitable, something that works very well. Sometimes you earn a lot by uploading a photo to Instagram, up to 1 million dollars in the case of top-level profiles, such as Kim Kardashian or Cristiano Ronaldo.
In this article we will look at the different ones existing systems for earning money on Instagram, but first we will look at the basic requirements of our account if we want to make it possible.
First of all: be very popular
First of all, we have to make an effort to gain followers on Instagram, as our relevance on the platform depends on this parameter. In this sense, the amount of money we manage to earn will be conditioned by that number.
Time the quality of the followers is also important: many influencers buy followers, who are ultimately not interested in their content, and this can be seen by analyzing the account.
Not only because the profiles of the followers seem unreliable, but for the level of interaction: if we generate a community around it, the posts will have quality comments, they will be forwarded to other people and saved in Instagram collections.
La An account's profitability also depends on what it doesFor example, a business-focused micro-influencer with tens of thousands of followers can earn more money than a more general profile with hundreds of thousands of followers.
Get started with »influencer marketing»
The most common system for earning money on Instagram are advertising agreements with brands, of very different types, and which represent an increasingly popular alternative to traditional advertising. Especially since Instagram allows them to approach very specific consumption niches.
If our Instagram doesn't have much reach for now, we should start by registering on one influencer marketing platform ("influencer marketing" in English), where we will receive generic campaigns, where brands send a photo or video, along with the text and hashtags to be published.
The requirements are low, just have a minimum of followers and that the account offers quality (frequent posting, real followers, suitable content, etc.). When we meet a brand's requirements they will notify us, normally these are massive campaigns where they try to popularize a hashtag using many small influencers.
Some influencer marketing platforms in Spain are SocialPubli, Coobis, Niche, Fluvip, Traackr or Upfluence.
Try working with brands
As our Instagram grows, the goal will be to work directly with brands (or through their marketing agency), which by avoiding intermediaries will allow us to earn more. At first they will be little known companies, and at most they will give us free products, but we must persevere.
As we grow and network, we can earn more money with sponsored posts on our Instagram or even with a long-term partnership, with your products in the background of photos, videos and stories.
A very small percentage (only the most successful accounts) manage to make the leap off social networks, either participating in events and collaborating on services and physical products. Something that not only allows them to earn money from the advertiser but also strengthens their visibility.
Some examples: fashion influencer Dulceida has designed a clothing collection for Primark, youtuber ElRubius has had his own animated series on Movistar+ and many have written books, from the autobiography of tiktoker Mónica Morán to cookbooks by pastry chef Alma Obregón . books by streamers TheGref, Wismichu and AuronPlay.
It offers online courses and other services
Companies see social networks as a platform to promote themselves and increase their sales, but another option is the opposite: for a famous Instagram user take the opportunity to sell, designing the product and the sales channel based on its audience.
In general, virtual services are easier to manage: courses where we pass on our knowledge, personalized recommendations, digital artwork… it depends on the theme we cover on our Instagram and on our skills.
There are various options, come on online fitness classes to coaching, passing through the offer of graphic design jobs and the teaching of photography, English or cooking, depending on our knowledge and training.
try to sell products
For the sale of physical products, it is possible, but complex, since it requires you to design it, order its production and send it. The alternative is the «dropshipping», where we actually sell an existing product in an online shop, which also takes care of shipping it to the buyer.
The influencer takes a commission, but dropshipping is a complicated model, because i profit margins are low and, if there is a problem with your order, it has to be us to respond to the customer.
Another option is Etsy, a platform for selling handmade products, including clothing, accessories, jewellery, decorations or works of art. Of course, that's not the only alternative, there are also portals like eBay and we can even create our own online store.
Some real examples of Instagram sales successes: the Realfooding nutrition account offers a subscription to receive personalized recipes, the youtuber Jaime Altozano sells music courses and the architect Ter sells posters with illustrations of structures.
Take your users to other networks
Instagram pays nothing to content creators, so an alternative is to use it to promote our accounts on platforms that do, like YouTube o Twitch, because on YouTube they pay to upload videos.
Sure, it's used to earn money, and many celebrities take advantage of it, but usually by integrating it with other systems. To direct Traffic from Instagram to YouTube is not easy (links are very limited), so we won't get many views at first.
Also, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch audiences often have different interests. In any case, it is normal for Internet "celebrities" to be present su vari social network as well as where they became famous.
Open a shop on Instagram
Since Instagram incorporated a tab for Shops (“Instagram Purchases” in Spanish), it has made clear the importance it places on direct sales on his social network, as they allow you to get new revenue from commissions and encourage shop owners to pay for ads.
Then open a physical product store on Instagram it can make sense to earn money if the profile theme lends itself to it. That yes, the creation requires certain technical knowledge and the company is very demanding with the quality to approve them.
In any case, it's a good way to monetize Instagram if we have many followers, since we have to think that Instagram Shop already includes well-known distributors, and we will have to attract potential customers with our online visibility.
Use store affiliates
Another way to make money on Instagram is the so-called referral or affiliate: if a user buys a product in a shop through our link, we get a small percentage of the sale.
For example, there is the Amazon Influencer Program aimed at influencers, a system that generates commissions from the articles we promote. The percentages are low and we will advertise on Amazon, but it is an option to earn money.
There are many shops with referrals in Spain: PcComponentes and Fnac (technology), Zalando (clothing), general portals such as eBay and even the department stores of El Corte Inglés.
Internationally there are also many alternatives: GearBest and DealExtreme (technology) G2A and Instant Gaming (video games) and the huge Aliexpress platform, to name a few.
Even in more delicate segments, such as dating and betting app, which are usually profitable, but can affect our image and even end up with the Instagram account being blocked for breaking its rules.
The problem with affiliates are the limitations that Instagram applies to links: it is possible to add a link in the bio and insert additional links in Instagram Stories only if we have at least 10.000 followers.
Harness the power of crowdfunding
One possibility to earn money on Instagram is ask directly for donations from our fans. A model that in many cases does not work, but it is surprising how profitable it can be if we connect well with the public.
First of all, Patreon is a platform that works well for artists (musicians, illustrators, writers, cosplayers and many others), where the "patrons" contribute a fixed monthly amount. In return they receive exclusive access to some of the creators' works.
Another crowdfunding platform that accepts almost any collection is GoFundMe e PayPal also offers an easy-to-use donation service, which benefits from the large number of users who use it when paying online.
It's also not uncommon to find Instagram users looking to make money with OnlyFans, a platform where they upload self-recorded adult videos.
Logically, many will not be interested in entering this delicate sector, but those who believe it should be aware that among the photos banned on Instagram, especially nudes are persecuted. So they have to be very careful with the material they upload to the social network, otherwise they will be expelled.
In short, there are so many ways to earn money on Instagram, but none of them are easy. It takes time, knowledge and perseverance to start receiving income, which will be scarce at first.
