Most people are unaware that they can make money on Instagram, but no worries this post will guide you on how to make money from Instagram. Instagram was born as a simple image sharing application, but it was able to gain greater proportions than many imagined. The success of the app is a portrait of modern society, which combines vanity, social networks and a shift towards more visual media.
Keeping an eye on the potential of the service, Facebook decided to pay $ 1 billion to acquire it and become the owner of a tool that would become essential for many celebrities, politicians, traders and even some high-profile companies. Currently, more than 400 million people use Instagram worldwide.
With so many people interested in consuming photos and visual content that they consider relevant (or just beautiful), it is not surprising that people are keeping an eye on the money that this platform can earn. American model Kendall Jenner, for example, already receives between $ 125,000 and $ 300,000 for a post on the social network. For this, she uses her image to publicize beauty products, clothing and shoe brands, among other things, on her Instagram profile, which already has more than 46 million followers, likewise Cristiano Ronaldo.
You must be worried that you are not a celebrity so how does someone who isn’t a celebrity earn on Instagram? No worries if you’re not a sub-celebrity that draws crowds on social media, know that there are also ways to monetize your Instagram account. You can use your passions, hobbies and specific knowledge to create an account on the platform and earn money by following some precious tips on how to earn on Instagram.
How to make money with Instagram
The fundamentals below will not only help you understand how to increase your number of followers but also show you how you can attract small businesses and brands that want to advertise through your account.
1. General configuration
It may seem like a very basic thing, but you need to be attentive when configuring the main aspects of your Instagram account to emphasize, mainly, security. Here are some important tips:
- New email address: To create a hacker-proof account, you need to create a new email address that no one knows about. You don’t even have to list it in your bio, as this is one way to get hacked. Create a strong and unique password for the email and don’t use it for anything else, except for the initial setup of your Instagram profile.
- Phone number: Your second level of protection against hackers is the addition of a phone number that is linked to your Instagram account. This adds a new layer of security in case you lose your password or get hacked.
- Facebook linked account: Your ultimate protection level is to connect your Facebook account to Instagram. If you forget your account or get hacked, this allows you to log in and reset your password using Facebook credentials. For this reason, it is important that the registration emails and passwords of social networks are different.
- Bio: Your bio is the chance to sell yourself, your account bio attract new followers. You need to make a good first impression right away, as potential followers will only spend a few seconds evaluating whether your profile is worth following or not.
- Profile picture: Keep your avatar as simple as possible, with little or no text. If you need to use letters to abbreviate the page name, use a clean and simple font.
- Add a link to your bio: This is the only space where Instagram allows you to add a clickable URL, so use it to your advantage. Take advantage of URL shortening services, such as Bit.ly, to avoid long links.
- Public account vs. private account: If you intend to make money from your Instagram profile, keep it public. There is nothing more discouraging for potential followers than to arrive at your page and come across a padlock.
2. Share quality content
Photos: Despite the new features offered by the social network, Instagram is and has always been focused on sharing beautiful images. Regardless of all the actions you take, what will really attract potential customers or monetize your account are quality photos; and this is not limited to just having a smartphone with the best camera on the market. You need to create creative images that will fill the eyes of your followers.
Videos: The same applies to the short videos feature offered by the platform. If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is capable of? Use your creativity to give people what they want to see.
Focus: Just take a look at some successful profiles to realize that there is a consistency of content focused on the subject that the page owner proposed to follow (fashion, beauty, health, sport, gossip, art, among others), in addition to images that really get our attention.
Caption: A caption can help boost or sink even the most spectacular Instagram photo or video. A poorly written caption can make you look like an amateur, while smart, witty and appropriate text can turn a mediocre post into a viral one. You don’t have to write a novel in the caption of your photo, but give your followers something they can feel connected to.
Hashtags: Use about three to five hashtags in each caption of a post. If you’re posting a picture of a red apple, for example, don’t limit yourself to the obvious #apple #apple #red. Use more descriptive and targeted hashtags, like #RedApple. This approach will cause you to be sought out by potential followers interested in the subject posted.
Strategic times: Some analysis of the behavior of Instagram users shows that the hottest hours to post on the social network are between 8 am and 11 am, between 2 pm and 4 pm and between 7 pm and 9 pm.
Frequency: Initially, it is interesting to make two posts a day: one in the morning and one in the afternoon or evening. When you reach the 5,000 followers mark, you can increase the number of posts to 3 or 4 a day, followed by 4 to 5 posts a day when you hit 10,000 followers.
3. There is an app for everything
You can (and should) use new technologies to your advantage. Use apps that can help you do some of the work related to Instagram. Here are some examples:
- Repost: this app allows you to repost Instagram photos and videos with due credit to the original content owner.
- InstaQuote: allows you to write on a photo, choose the style of text and background and, if desired, make adjustments to color, size, alignment and leading. You can take a photo to use as a base or choose an image from the gallery.
- Boomerang: Instagram’s own app that allows you to create animated GIFs that repeat a sequence of images back and forth.
- Instamizer , Hootsuite and Latergram: these apps are great options for those who want to pre-schedule posts on Instagram.
- Add Watermark Pro and iWatermark app: both serve to watermark your images. This tip is especially useful for those who create exclusive, high-quality content. Remember that people are more likely to share a photo that has a clean little logo than those that have a large stamp in the middle of the image.
4. Build a solid follower base
This is a little obvious, but your account will only become interesting for advertisers if you have a significant amount of followers. After all, it is for them that the ads will be displayed and may (or may not) bring good results for the brands.
So if you have been asking about how to increase Instagram followers, some of the most effective ways to increase your number of followers on Instagram include actions such as: enjoying photos in your niche or interest, socializing with other users, creating contests, among others. Hashtags are also important tools, so keep an eye out for those that work best in your niche and use them.
The quickest way to get 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 followers so that you can start making money, is still to create an exclusive account in a niche that no one else has covered yet and/or pay to appear in more popular accounts.
However, be careful with programs that like, comment and follow people on your behalf. Instagram is increasingly blocking accounts that use these services and has decided to disable them.
It is necessary to keep that in mind, even more important than increasing the number of followers, it is necessary to focus on increasing the engagement of these people. To do this, interact with your followers, and not just “upload” the photos on your profile and wait for the magic of multiplication to happen. Respond to comments, ask them what kind of content they would like to see on your page or what they thought of a particular post, and so on.
5. Analytics
There are several tools capable of providing an interesting analysis of your Instagram account and followers. A good example is Iconosquare (formerly Statigram), which allows you to check your follower history, statistics, the use of hashtags, the global profile growth, the most liked, most commented posts and your main followers in terms of likes and comments.
Another tool is the Social Blade, which allows, among other things, to quickly see the daily growth of your follower base and which posts are giving more results. But the Social Rank allows you to sort and view followers in order to see which are the most famous profiles.
6. After all, what about the money?
Unfortunately, popularity alone does not generate revenue. However, there are ways to take advantage of it to make money from your Instagram account. The most important part of this process is understanding when to start monetizing in a way that does not interrupt or affect your account growth. In other words: do not let your profile appear to be completely “sold” to all types of advertisers.
First of all, you need to open a PayPal account, as most payments for services of this type are made through this platform. Next, you should look at some ways to monetize your account and see which one has more to do with your target audience.
- Selling space in the photo caption: this is the least invasive option for monetizing your profile. It allows you to continue posting normally while selling the caption space to another account. Generally, when you sell this space, it takes a link to the brand account that paid for the ad.
- Selling a URL link in your bio: you can choose to make this sale something daily, weekly, monthly, or on a “pay per post” basis, where the sale of the link works in conjunction with the photo caption.
- Post photos, videos or ads with a caption and content of your choice: these posts are usually traded to air between six and eight hours (or more), depending on how the content fits into the account on which it will be posted.
You don’t need to have millions of followers to become an Instagram influencer, just take good care of your profile engagement. There are people out there with about 10,000 followers getting up to $ 100 to promote clothing, shoes and accessories, for example.
To try to narrow the contact with the advertisers, follow profiles similar to yours (or that has advertisers that have to do with you and your followers) and see what they are promoting. Then send an email to advertisers, introduce your page and see if they are interested in using it to advertise.
It is also necessary to remember that there is no closed value for ads of this type. It all depends on the reach of your page, how interesting your followers are for a brand, your ability to influence people, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to try to probe the owners of the profiles that already work with this type of monetization to get an idea of how much a specific brand pays for a specific type of post on its page, specifically.
Read Also: How To Change Privacy Settings On Instagram
Conclusion
After you might have known a little better of how the universe of advertisements (hidden or not) on Instagram works, you are ready to take the first steps towards the success of your account and, eventually, make money from your profile. None of the items mentioned is particularly difficult to follow, just remember that you need to dedicate time to this task and also always come back to check on this post for the latest updates.
Without the help of bots or other less loyal tactics, a profile does not succeed overnight. Therefore, you need to maintain a consistent and interesting post schedule to create continuity. However, if you are a regulated person and are able to follow some of the essential steps mentioned in this text, it is very likely that you will start to attract attention on the social network and reach your goals.
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