Instagram has quickly risen to become one of the major social media platforms of today. With over one billion users and high user-engagement, it’s no wonder many people use Instagram to make money. Whether you have a business or whether you want to earn some cash for yourself, there are a variety of ways you can use Instagram to earn some dollars. Here’s a look at the three best ways to creatively earn money via the most prominent photo-sharing site out there.
#1: Become an Affiliate
Affiliate marketing involves promoting other people’s products and taking a cut of each sale. On Instagram, you would post attractive images of the brand’s products, accompanied by the company’s URL. Consumers click on the URL and potentially purchase the product on offer. You then take a cut of each sale made. You can become an affiliate through various methods. However, before you can become accepted as an affiliate, you need to build up your Instagram presence and get a considerable number of followers. The more followers you have, the more likely you are to be accepted by companies to become an affiliate. You can grow your Instagram following in several ways. You can:
• Post Regularly: You need to post several engaging images every day if you want to build up your number of followers.
• Post Good Photos: The above method won’t work if you’re not posting high quality and attractive pictures. Take time to create the best photos you can.
• Use Relevant Hashtags: You need people to see your images. Therefore, you need to ensure you use relevant hashtags. These allow Instagrammers to find interesting topics, and they’re likely to follow your account. You can only use 30 labels per photograph, so make sure you use your keywords wisely.
You also need to have a specific marketing strategy if you want to increase your number of followers. It’s no good to say something generic like “I want to get more followers.” Instead, you should create SMART marketing goals. These are goals that are measurable, actionable, timely and relevant. For example, instead of saying you want more followers, you should set a specific goal of something like “I want to attract 10,000 followers by the end of the year.” You then need to use marketing strategies to get that number of followers. You can find helpful information on business strategies through sites like Foundr. Once you have increased your number of followers, you can start searching for companies that offer affiliate marketing programmes. You can find these through sites like Sharesale, Ebates and Stylinity.
Canadian Will Tang is an Instagram affiliate marketer who posts on topics like destinations to visit, travel deals and gear reviews. With over a thousand Instagram posts and 26,000 followers, Tang is proof you can make a living from becoming an affiliate marketer.
#2: Become an Influencer
Once you have built up an online reputation by doing and sharing things on Instagram, you can gain the status known as an influencer. That means you have a good following and have built up trust with other Instagrammers; putting you into a good position to convince audiences about trends and products. By becoming an influencer, you can make money from sponsored posts. The difference between an affiliate and an influencer is the former works towards making sales in return for a commission, while the latter is mainly creating awareness of a product.
The top influencers out there can make big money. A single post can create thousands of dollars. Therefore, top influencers can earn tens of thousands of dollars every month. If you want to join the ranks of the top influencers, you’ll need to put in the work. For instance, you need to know who your audience mainly consists of, so you can target them with suitable brands. You can discover more about your audience by looking at the statistics generated from an Instagram Analytics report.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time. With over two billion followers on Instagram, it’s no wonder he’s become the second-highest influencer on the Instagram platform. You don’t need to be famous to become an influencer, though. However, you do need lots of followers for brands to accept you as an influencer. There are various influencer market places where you can list yourself, such as Grapevine, Crowd Tap and indaHash.
#3: Sell Your Photos
At its core, Instagram is a photo-sharing app. So what better way of creatively making money on the site than through selling your photographs? Images are assets. They can be licensed, printed and sold in several ways. Therefore, if you’re a budding or professional photographer, you can use Instagram to showcase your portfolio and sell your pics to individuals or agencies.
You can list your Instagram photographs on marketplaces like Twenty20, Community Foap and 500px. Brands and publishers then have the option to license your images. On Instagram and market places, be sure you add relevant hashtags so your images can be found by interested parties easily. Also, use the captions to list all details concisely and clearly.
Photographer David Arnold is living proof you can make big money from selling your photos through Instagram. When Arnold decided to offer prints for sale, he received around $15,000 of requests within the first 24 hours.
You can expand the revenue stream from your photos via various creative methods. As well as selling prints, you can print your images onto lots of different physical products and then sell them. Photogenic products sell well on Instagram, so consider putting your images onto items like phone cases, pillows, calendars, T-shirts and mugs. Many companies can print your photos on to products; such as Teelaunch and Printful. The more products you make available, the more items you will sell.
Women Love Tech would like to thank Stewart Dunlop who is the Content Marketer for Foundr Magazine for his article.