The internet’s ablaze with generating multiple income streams, passive income, and side hustles. What if we told you all those hours on your favorite social media—Instagram—could help you earn some money?
Currently, Instagram is one of the top 4 most-used social media platforms, with a total number of 4.25 billion total visits every month. It also happens to be the most downloaded app in the world. These statistics shared in the Digital Trends report, Hootsuite, point towards one thing: Instagram is a great app for selling, partnerships, and generating income.
From selling your merchandise to creating branded content to earning reel bonuses, there are many ways to earn on Instagram. And this doesn’t just include passive income.
Let’s take you through the most proven ways of earning money on Instagram with exclusive insight into bonuses and subscription-based incomes from Instagram:
Partner With Brands
If you have a good reach, a creator profile, or BOI (Born on Instagram) status, you can collaborate with brands to make some good money.
Influencer marketing is on the rise. Brands will pay you to promote their products on your Instagram handle. As simple as that might sound, getting brands to work with you might seem like a task when you’re new and starting out.
Once you’re a well-known influencer with strong engagement, brands will reach out to you. However, as you’re starting, you can reach out to brands directly via email or Instagram and tell them why you’re a good fit.
You can also get listed on an influencer marketplace or even Instagram’s own influencer marketplace to increase your chances of being found. When it comes to the content you post, define a niche you’re interested in.
Learn who your audience is, what time they’re most active, and what type of content they like. Utilize Instagram insights to get a clear idea of this.
Posts that have been sponsored will have a sponsored/paid partnership tag on them – you need to go ahead and choose this while uploading your post.
Go Live and Earn With Badges
Instagram live seems to be really kicking off! Instagram recommends creators go live at least once a week to engage with their audience in real-time.
Available only for business and creator accounts and in only select parts of the world, Instagram allows you to enable badges and earn through them.
Set up your payout account, be acquainted with Instagram’s Content Monetization policies, and go live. Once live, tap badges to enable them. This gives you a chance to make money from the content you’re creating while your viewers pay a specific amount to get extra recognition.
Your viewers can purchase multiple badges in a single live session, and they can opt for these options: USD 0.99, USD 1.99, and USD 4.99 increments. Viewers that buy badges will have a blue heart next to them – give them a shout-out to encourage more fans to purchase your badges.
You can see the total badges purchased and your total earnings during the live; for detailed insight, you can tap on View during the life. Once your live session has ended, you can track all badges from your professional dashboard.
Do Affiliate Marketing
While Meta used to have its affiliate marketing program, it’ll not be available after June 30, 2023.
As most businesses want to promote their products on social media, they’re constantly looking for micro-influencers to help share the word with their community. If you have a strong engagement, it might be time to join one of the popular affiliate programs.
Once you join these programs, you must share product links via posts and reels. For every purchase made via that link, you earn a commission or a percentage.
If you’re new and wondering where to look, start with Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network, and GoDaddy.
Create an Instagram Shop
Another sure shot way to make some good money through Instagram is to set up shop. Think about running an online store, just that you’re relieved of the hassle of hosting your shop.
There are many small businesses that seem to have taken up this trend. Some big businesses have also started selling via Instagram beyond their website and third-party apps like Amazon and eBay.
To create a shop, you’ll have to switch to a business account, connect your Facebook page, upload a relevant product catalog, and complete an account review, and you’re good to go. Also, figure out the best time to post on Instagram and let it positively impact your sales!
In fact, you can use Instagram to drive traffic to your website and help with your organic reach. You can also boost your posts and create ads to reach more of your target audience.
Become an Instagram Coach
The popularity of Instagram coaches has skyrocketed in the past two years. Now, you’re sure to find coaches easily. Some will help you understand personal finance, while someone else will allow you to scale your small business.
And yet, someone else might teach you how to master a crucial skill and get up and running in the job market.
From personal fitness to personal branding, you’ll find various coaches who can help you on your journey. If you’re good at something and you’ve a flair for teaching, why not try it?
You can set up a course and ask people to buy it; you can find different avenues to sell your services and make money. But you’ll have to be consistent!
Sell Courses
You might think that we just mentioned this before, but we merely touched on it as one of the additional services offered by social media coaches.
Selling online courses that define and simplify complicated skills and areas of development can be a practical way of making money on the platform.
Coaching can be mostly live, while courses entail a list of recorded materials in different formats to help your mentees/students learn at their own pace.
You can use other platforms to create multimedia courses and market it on Instagram! Boom, you’re ready to sell.
Sell Photos or Digital Content
Instagram has always been a very visual platform. With the addition of reels, it has become all about the aesthetic factor. Instagram Insights can help you understand which content does well, and which doesn’t.
Utilize this opportunity and sell photos, digital graphics, and illustrations via Instagram. You can sell photos and videos to other companies in the travel, food blogging, and fashion sectors.
You can sell your illustrations and take customized orders if you’re a designer. Moreover, if you already have a portfolio, you can use Instagram to give it a boost and drive traffic to your work so that businesses and individuals invest in your services.
Create a Feature Account Page
If you want to avoid creating content on your own, you can still make a living by featuring other people’s content (with due credits, of course) and monetize it in the long run.
Start an Instagram feature account where you display good work or good products within a specific niche. It’s important to niche down so that you can attract a target audience that actually converts.
Once you’re popular and have a set of followers, you can proceed to offer paid spots to companies, businesses, and even individuals. You can help them sell their services and charge a commission for every consumer who visits your page.
Earn Reel Bonuses From Instagram
For this, you’ll have to be registered on Instagram’s creator program, which goes by the name Born on Instagram or BOI. If you’re making great content that Instagram algorithms and audience loves, you’ll receive bonuses from Instagram.
Yes, that’s right! You can access this in your professional dashboard once you switch to a professional Instagram account.
Reels Surprise is a program through which creators can earn up to $20,000 for creating content their community loves, enjoys, and engages with.
This is currently in practice for creators in the U.S. You need to be eligible and in tune with the Partner Monetization Policies of Instagram. Instagram is currently up to 150 reels per week! So, keep creating.
Recurring Income With Subscriptions
You might think that earning via Instagram is very uncertain: there’s no fixed amount you could make every month. But that’s not true!
Offer exclusive content or experiences to your community and followers. Your followers will pay a monthly fee to watch that exclusive content. It’ll give them a subscriber badge to your profile, and we recommend you give each of your followers a shout-out to appreciate them!
So, you’ll have a subscriber home that can access all your exclusive content. You can make subscriber-only reels, posts, live sessions, and stories. Your subscribers will appear with a purple badge around them to help them stand out.
You can also set up Subscriber Chats, via which you can connect to 30 different subscribers simultaneously. Grow your community and get earning!
Do something special for your subscribers, build together, and work out what they like. Keep recognizing them and keep your engagement activities consistent to succeed in a subscription program!
You’re eligible if you’re in the US, have a minimum of 10K followers, and meet Instagram’s Content Monetization and Partner Monetization Policies.
Who Can Make Money on Instagram?
Now, when it comes to making money on Instagram – there are criteria you must fulfill. However, the eligibility criterion isn’t complicated. It’s just that it’s good to know some of these to earn a good income from the platform without getting banned.
#1. Age
You’ll have to be 18 years of age, regardless of which country you’re in
#2. Account Type
You’ll have to switch to a professional account—a creator or a business account—to make money; a personal account can’t help you monetize your content
#3. Follower Count
You’ve to have a strong following – a follower list in the thousands, preferably 10K and above. To simplify, you need a follower base who engage with your content regularly.
There are creators out there with a lesser number of followers who’re still making money via Instagram. However, having a higher follower count helps.
To be eligible for programs like Subscription, you must have a minimum of 10K followers on the platform.
#4. Location (U.S. Only)
To be eligible for certain exclusive programs that Instagram hasn’t rolled out worldwide, you’ve to be based in the U.S. This applies to the Subscriptions program, the Reels Surprise bonus program, and enabling badges on Live sessions.
If you want Instagram to recommend your content on its explore page, follow community guidelines.
This attempts to create a safe space that respects everyone, follows the law of the land and refrains from posting nudity and spamming people. Here are the most important things to keep in mind:
- Share content that’s yours; don’t plagiarize or violate intellectual property rights
- Don’t post inappropriate content, as nudity isn’t allowed
- Stay spam-free, and don’t post content that promotes or facilitates fake reviews and ratings
- Don’t support organized crime, terrorism, or hate groups
- Don’t offer sexual services or participate in the act of buying and selling guns, weapons, and drugs (and other regulated goods)
- Don’t glorify self-injury or participate in hate speech or harassment
Keep Creating (an Impact)
So, as you can see, earning money on Instagram is easy if you’re consistent with your efforts and if you keep creating. However, remember to review Instagram’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies so that you don’t post inappropriate content or engage in practices that could negatively impact your follower count or account status.
Also, remember to comply with Instagram’s terms of service and Community Guidelines to keep earning. Help Instagram maintain a safe space for the community where we help one another thrive.
You may also explore some Instagram Stories makers to build professional and engaging stories.
