How You Can Make Money On Instagram
Wait… are you kidding… you mean you spend hours a day on Instagram, yet you don’t make money on Instagram?
Unfortunately, this reality is all too common for most Instagram users. Today, I am going to give you the one stop shop at different ways you can make money on Instagram. The best part is you don't have to have an actual business or product to sell.
Too good to be true? Never. Keep reading.
Before I started my agency dittatech.com and spectsocial.com (where you are reading this blog I imagine), I too was sitting around, using Instagram without even knowing of all the monetary possibilities that existed.
Slowly I started doing my research and began growing a motivational quote Instagram page. Through this page I learned so many methods for making money as a broke college student.
I was able to make $1000+ each month without selling a product! Let us dive into how I was able to make money on Instagram.
The Secret Ways to Make Money on Instagram | Instagram Shoutouts
As my page started growing, I learned that people would actually pay me to post a photo of them or their content on my page. This was in hope that my followers would see their post, their username tagged in my bio and photo and follow that user’s page.
This is called a “Shoutout.”
Of course, when you have lower numbers of followers, the money is not incredible in the beginning, but some influencers and brands make 5, 6 and even 7 figures for ONE SHOUTOUT!
The money is there in huge amounts if you are patience and consistent. When I had around 1000 followers, I would make $5-10 per shoutout. As I grew to 5K and 10K followers those numbers went to $50-100 per shoutout. I was averaging around 2-3 shoutouts per week. That potentially could be over $1000 per month!
For some, this covers rent or groceries for the entire month. Such an incredibly powerful and honestly the easiest way to make money on Instagram in my opinion.
The Secret Way to Make Money on Instagram | Affiliate Opportunities
Another way I dabbled with how to make money on Instagram as my follower count continued to grow was being an affiliate for brands. This means using a famous brand’s reputation and products and promoting them on my page with a custom affiliate link that was automatically linked to me.
If someone saw my promotion, looked at the product and purchased, I would get a percentage of the sale. Usually percentages can range from 10% - 30% of the sale price.
As you get a bigger audience on Instagram, you also get a higher chance to sell higher ticket items which means more money in your pocket. What is nice about this method as well is when someone buys the product through your link, you do not have to do anything.
The company you are an affiliate for does all the processing, shipping, and fulfilling. All you do is sit back and collect your paycheck.
The Secret Way to Make Money on Instagram | Drop-shipping Lead Generator
Another way to make money on Instagram, possibly the hardest of the others listed, is using it as a drop-shipping lead generator.
Drop shipping has absolutely skyrocketed since 2019 which is also reflected by Shopify’s stock price that climbed from just above $400 per share to over $1000 per share in a few months since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Most people who decide they want to dropship turn to Shopify to create easy, cheap websites where people can go to buy their products.
In turn, they use Instagram as a marketing funnel by creating a page that posts content in the same niche and genre as the products they will be selling in their online store.
For example, if you are selling workout apparel, dumbbells, jump ropes etc, you might want to think about creating an Instagram that will be posting athletic and fitness content. This will help you draw in the proper target audience to your page and website.
Where do most people find these products for cheap so that they can make enough money by upselling what they dropship?
Alibaba.com or Overstock.com. Many people use these sites, find cheap products within their niche, and upsell them on their own Shopify website.
From there they grow their Instagram page big, bring traffic to their page and website and hope that this traffic converts to website sales.
If you are looking for a detailed way on how to make sure your selling on Shopify and the drop shipping works properly as well as knowing the knitty gritty details, there are countless Youtube videos that will walk you through step by step on the best way to make this strategy work.
Exponential Growth on Your Account Means Exponential Growth in the Money You Make
As you continue to grow your Instagram (maybe from using spectsocial.com if you want real, targeted, and fast growth) you will be able to expect more sales because you will have more eyes on your product.
If you assume 2% of all your Instagram followers will buy something from your store at one point or another, and you have 1000 followers, you can expect to make 20 sales. If you have 10,000 followers and 2% of them buy something from you, you will make 200 sales. Exponential growth.
I hope these three ways give you a better idea at how you too can make money on Instagram. It does not take a special skill, product, idea, or brain. All you need to do is be passionate and driven for wanting to make this happen and you will succeed.
Be patient and start on #1 and ramp your way up. Before you know it, you will be a money-making machine all thanks to Instagram.
Author Chris Costello Chris Costello: Chris is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder at SpectSocial. Find him on Facebook @chris.costello.92