(Last Updated On: April 8, 2020)

Let’s admit that you want to know how to make money on Instagram, that’s why you clicked on this blog post. It’s good. A lot of you might have a little bit of idea of how to make money online because the majority of this blog readership are either interested in digital marketing, SEO and blogging or they’re business owners who advertise through Facebook Ads or Google Adwords.

I must say that the way social media is evolving, the opportunities to marketing and scaling the businesses are growing.

What is Instagram?

Have you ever wondered about Instagram?

Do you know a lot of people get paid for uploading on Instagram?

Well, you may have joined Instagram back in 2014 and ever since you open the account and post a selfie once or twice a week. Let me tell you, that’s not what it takes. You have to understand the Instagram game in order to reach the point where you stand out, or in other words, you start to look authoritative among the people who are following you.

The user base at Instagram has quickly doubled or even tripled, and has crossed the mark of 700 million users.

Pretty impressive data, isn’t it?

Since you’re here and seem interested in knowing about money making on Instagram. So I’ll dig deeper and try to elaborate the Instagram money making with the best of my abilities.

Do you know that as per forbes.com , top influencers on instagram and youtube are making over $20,000 easily and that too per campaign.

In this blog post, you’ll learn:

How Instagram works?

Can people make money on Instagram?

Learn How you can start it today?

What it takes to make money on Instagram

Who pays money to the Instagrammers?

Cool isn’t it?

Now let’s read more facts before we get started.

SproutSocial has an interesting facts to share, as per their instagram stats,

7 out of 10 Hashtags on Instagram Are Branded

71% of US Businesses Are Using Instagram in 2017

80% of Users Follow At Least One Business on Instagram

Instagram Mobile Ad Revenue to Hit Nearly $7 Billion in 2018

Do you know that there are currently over 8 million business profiles on instagram? which demonstrates how big the market and potential is.

Fair enough to start your career with instagram?

How To Make Money on Instagram in 2020 – Step by Step Process

Step #1: Define your Instagram Personality – Very Important if you want to make money on instagram

It all begins from here. You must know yourself. The Instagram personality means what you want to create, share, and deliver. You shouldn’t be posting cat pictures if you run a cars rental business. Similarly, it does count in all other fields as well. You must clarify:

Who you are

What you want

Who you want to reach out

What you can do for the audience

At this stage, you must clarify your ambition and passion in order to proceed. If you set things right at this point, a lot of things will go down right for you.

Let’s take an example:

If you’re a food blogger, your Instagram photos must reflect that. From your Instagram handle to each and every photo, the idea of food blogging must reflect from it. Your Instagram shouldn’t be telling about the TV series that you’re watching these days. Instead, it should tell what foods you’re interested in, what fruits you’re eating these days, and what you’ve got in the grocery, maybe.

If you want to take something out of the first step, it’s sticking to your thing on Instagram and don’t getting distracted by the other things. Consider it the first and the foremost rule of money making on Instagram. Because it plays a vital role in becoming an authority.

Ivan Ivanov, at Business2Community.com, In his article on, How to Build a Brand Personality That Resonates on Instagram? mentioned key points on this, so i suggest you to consider visit it as well.

Shirley Braha, for example defined her niche about rescue pup, on her instagram account, Marnie The Dog,

With over two million followers on the account, Braha says in her interview explained that she earns way more from Instagram than she did when she worked full time job. Inspiring isn’t it?

Step #2: Build a Connection with the Audience

Once you start pushing the content on Instagram, you’ll start to see the traction. It won’t mean that you would get to build the loyal audience instantaneously but rather it might take some time to reach to that position.

What you need to do if you want to learn on how to make money on instagram is that you need to start building the connection with the audience and to do that, you’ll need to plan this out. You must do following things:

a) – Create a Routine:

Show up every day or on a schedule would be a huge deal. You must make your audience develop the habit of showing up at the scheduled time or on a specific date. It depends on the creator, though.

b) – Train to Interact:

You can also develop the habit of engaging with you. Ask questions in your Instagram posts or in the caption and encourage them to answer in the comments. Use the Instagram videos as well for this sort of interaction.

c) – Give more than you ask:

You must be on the giving side, whether you’re sharing an inspirational quote from your favorite author or sharing a lesson from your personal experience. Make sure the content you’re pushing out there is worth consuming. You must give more than you ask.

The connection building is crucial to your Instagram success. It goes deep into everything. For instance, if you have a strong connection with your audience and you post something, a lot of followers like it, comment on it, and diehard fans might repost it or mention you on social media etc.

Stephen, in his article, Secret to Connecting With Your Audience, shared his experiences on how he connected with his audience and how it gave him huge benefits.

You might not know the power of the connection with the audience. It begins with the delivery of value and just becomes a reality when you build a habit of giving them away and you never stop doing it. When someone does that, the audience forgets to ignore them. They just fall in love with the individual or brand that continuously delivers the content that they love.

Step #3: Strategize Your Content Plan

At step 3, for learning on how to make money from instagram you need to understand the inside game of the Instagram platform. Strategizing the content plan means that you need to build a strategy of your Instagram plan. You don’t get everything right on day 1. It takes time. The awareness does the job. If you’re reading, it means you’re being aware of a lot of things regarding using the Instagram.

Let’s come to the Instagram content plan. Before getting deeper into this, don’t let go of first two points because they’re still relevant in the content plan. Don’t forget who you’re creating the content for and be generous towards the followers.

Four important pillars for content plan for making money on instagram:

Images/photos:

The images you would create to share or the photos you take to share with the Instagram audience will be a huge impact. This is the reason they’re connected with you. Make sure you keep on improving the quality.

Video:

Instagram does have a 60-second video option. You can always leverage the video in your Instagram growth. It could be crucial to your content plan’s success.

P.S. Make Sure You Need to Buy a Good & Cheap Vlogging Camera, if you don’t have one.

Live streaming:

The live stream has become a huge trend on social media. And interestingly, it’s rapidly growing. You can always use this for the better. Instagram offers 60-min live streaming session and surely you can live go live again once the you get disconnected after 60 minutes.

Hashtags:

The hashtags might seem underrated but they’re not. In fact, these are one of the most important parts of the content on Instagram. Just like Twitter and other social networks, Instagram hashtags are massively important in your Instagram growth.

Now, strategizing the content plan means how you use the content pillars of Instagram. In order to build a content plan for Instagram, you need to figure out following things:

What to Post : This defines what type of images or videos you want to post. You can definitely test out different types such as quotes, photos, videos etc. In the end, you must have a clear doorway on what to post on Instagram.

: This defines what type of images or videos you want to post. You can definitely test out different types such as quotes, photos, videos etc. In the end, you must have a clear doorway on what to post on Instagram. When to Publish: The timing and frequency matter as well. A lot of Instagammers know when their audience opens the Instagram, for example, 5 pm or 9 pm, so they post at a specific time. How much and how often you publish content on Instagram have a role in your Instagram growth and success. If you post a picture taken from a DSLR and edited in Adobe Photoshop once a week and if you take picture smartly through your iPhone and use some editing app to make it look good and post three pictures each day, you’ll have a huge difference in the result.

The timing and frequency matter as well. A lot of Instagammers know when their audience opens the Instagram, for example, 5 pm or 9 pm, so they post at a specific time. How much and how often you publish content on Instagram have a role in your Instagram growth and success. If you post a picture taken from a DSLR and edited in Adobe Photoshop once a week and if you take picture smartly through your iPhone and use some editing app to make it look good and post three pictures each day, you’ll have a huge difference in the result. What to Offer: This means you must know what you need to get. A lot of brands on Instagram display their products in the pictures and write the detail in the caption like website URL to explain that where people can buy this product from. Moreover, YouTubers put their videos link in the profile bio and tell in the caption that link is in the profile. The point is, being an Instagrammer, you must know what to ask for, what you need to do, or what you need to offer.

Related : How To Make Money on Fiverr?

Step 4: Explore the Monetisation and Making Money Online on Instagram Opportunities

The monetization opportunities are more than we think. In fact, the most of the Instagrammers even don’t know their Instagram account’s worth. Whereas, some of the Instagram influencers with the similar size of audience charge money for posting a single picture. We don’t go into how much they charge because everyone has a different pricing and offering. Brands and influencers negotiate and agree upon the point where things become feasible for both the parties.

The process won’t look difficult when you would reach to this point because before reaching to this point, you would have seen a lot of experiences which would have made you more aware than ever. It doesn’t mean you would only charge for posting pictures or might be able to work with brands when you would have 100k subscribers. In fact, you might end up working with a brand when you reach 1k subscriber. It depends on what you offer and how you present and engage with the brands.

It comes to down to the step #1 and #2 which say about developing your Instagram personality and then engaging with the audience. Of course, if a brand sees that you have 5000 followers on Instagram and your content is relatable to their brand and you’re getting over 1000 like on every picture and 100+ unique comments, then you may seem to appeal some of the brands out there.

Here are some of the monetization ways:

Sponsored Posts as an Influencer To Make Money on Instagram

Sponsored posts is a popular way of monetizing your Instagram. There is no certain amount whatsoever. Different influencers charge different amount of money. It could be $200 to $5000 per post. It depends on the deal and understanding between the brand and the influencer.

A lot of influencers post sponsored content for a specific time period and then delete it. One of the best practices of monetizing Instagram is the use of a #sponsored hashtag in the sponsored content. So that it clarifies that it’s a sponsored content and the creator is paid for the promotion. A lot of Instagram influencers meet the brands through services like Famebit and BrandBacker and easily monetize their Instagram accounts via branded content.

In a survey of 5,000 influencers, around 42% said they charged $200 to $400 per post – Just imagine, how much the brands and companies are willing to pay, if you have an audience.

Selling Your Merchandise For Quick Money from Instagram

Merchandise selling is another way of monetization your Instagram. This seems a whole lot difficult than getting sponsored deals for branded content but the Instagrammers don’t always have to do their merchandize themselves. There are services now that could handle your merchandize on demand and you can sit back and relax. Check out Printful and Zazzle.

Become an Affiliate Marketer for Earning through Instagram

The third option for making money on instagram is becoming an affiliate of instagram network. If you don’t go for either one of those that mentioned above, then affiliate marketing comes next. You’re probably aware of affiliate marketing. It’s a process of promoting someone else’s product and get paid commission based on the successful transaction.

For instance, I have used amazon actively on my article about Best 4K Monitors in the market, where i discuss on key aspects of choosing the 4k curved monitor with in depth analysis and comparison.

If you are completely new to affiliate marketing, you can also checkout my guide on Affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

Have a look on the following Affiliate companies which have Affiliate products which can be catered to Instagram audience.

Affiliate Companies ClickBank

Amazon

RewardStyle

Sharesale

Ebates

Stylinity

ShareaSale

Here’s an example, see how Kristyn from GlamourZine promote those over the knee boots?

Keep in mind that not every product can perform well on instagram. Search for products that convert well for other affiliates. Look for products that have received good reviews from customers. Don’t be tempted towards products with high commissions or in different niches, that may look good but won’t work good with you or your audience.

I also suggest you to use a link shortener with affiliate links so they don’t look long. Services like bitly.com can help you in making those url’s short.

Launch Your E-commerce Store and Start Making Money with Instagram

Selling other people product or service isn’t the only way to make the most out of the instagram. If you have a good following and readers, why don’t you start your own e-commerce store and promote it through Instagram and other social media channels to make quick cash?

This way you will have an added benefit and that is, you are working for no one, except your own self. You are establishing a brand and who doesn’t know the power of brand?

Now if you ask on what kind of store you may need to start? firstly the opportunities are limit less. There can be more idea’s even then what you can think of.

Firstly, if you have an existing audience, you may need to realise on what kind of audience you have, like their age group, likes/dislikes and income group or if you are just starting out then it’s a completely different story.

From T-shirts (can be focused on event oriented too, like for valentines day, fathers day etc.) to coffee mugs to old house items or if you got something cheap from a local supplier which is expensive in most of the parts of world, you can start selling it and make money.

Master & Dynamic is one such a good example of a store making the most of Instagram to market its audio tools

Become a storytelling consultant

Picture says 1000 words and we all know it. If you are good at using pictures to explain a story, the brands will love you for this kind of talent.

So you will create content for your brand which will help them in improving their brand image, product sales and brand reputation on instagram.

Zach Houghton is one such example who is doing this exactly and making a living through it.

Promote Your Instagram Videos to Your Youtube Audience

If you start building a good following on your youtube, then you can promote your instagram videos to your Youtube audience and can generate additional income, my what is vlogging guide is being extremely helpful if you just started your vlogging and video career.

Market your Airbnb, houses and properties on Instagram

Promote your existing services or products or business on instagram with videos

If you have any running business or planning to run any business, Instagram can be a great way to promote it.

5 Ways to Market Your Travel Consulting Business on Instagram.

Post your travelling pictures around the world on instagram and start your travel consulting business

Another great way to earn money online on internet via instagram is so to start travelling around the world, keep on sharing the pictures of it on Instagram, build your followers and start making money through it.

Travelling is an activity which won’t make you bore either and still it’s a great way to make huge cash on internet.

Instagram case studies

Without a doubt, there are countless stories of people who are making a lot of money on instagram using various techniques.

As reported by Neil Patel, Theresa Nguyen was a struggling girl who was trying to make money online, As per the report, she shares drool worthy videos of her homemade slime on her Instagram account that get hundreds of thousands of views.

Just check her instagram account picture,

At the time of writing this article, she is having more than 1.1 million followers to her instagram account, but what’s more even interesting is that, as per Time.com, She is earning an average of $3000 per month, not bad for a 14 year old child.

Do you know that Danielle Bernstein is a personal style blogger? She has around 1 million+ followers. She primarily makes money by blogging and instagram, earning between $5,000 and $15,000 per post with sponsored content from fashion, cosmetics, and apparel brands like Lancome.

Shelcy Joseph is another great example from fashion industry. She (and her sister who collaborates her) makes a few thousand per month from an Instagram profile. As per the report, they claim thay they work about five hours during the week on the account—with more work on weekends. She charges about $75 for a sponsored post. She also gets gifts—free merchandise worth thousands.

How much famous people earn from Instagram?

The list is so big that it needs a dedicated guide to explain on how much money people are already making on instagram.

For example, Lyzabeth Lopez, creator of the Hourglass Workout, charges between $3,000 and $5,000 per post, and between $20,000 and $100,000 per campaign.

Another example is, Liz Eswein @newyorkcity. She has now around 1.5 million followers and she earns around $18000 per shot.

9 Strategies to Follow to Maximise Your Earnings on Instagram

Complete Fill Your Bio Information :

It is necessary to completely fill your bio information so you looks professional and decent. Additionally add in few of the relevant keywords and hashtags so you can easily be find out in your niche.

Start building a solid follower ship

I already discussed about how you can build a connection with your audience and followers, but connection is one thing, building huge number is second and it’s very important as well.

The more followers you have, the more times you are seen, the greater are the chances people will take interest and buy from you. In fact it will even help you in building trust as well.

Melyssa Griffin have described in her post that socialising with others, such as liking and commenting on relevant things in your niche, asking people to follow you, even running contest seems good.

Always provide a link to your blog or website :

Another important aspect in earning money from instagram is that, always add a link to your blog or website in your instagram posts.

It’s important in many ways.. such as brand building, driving more visitors and finally making them learn about your website or blog.

You can add links everywhere in your profile, about me, posts, images, videos and where ever it is possible.

Ask your clients for testimonials :

You know that people love to read case studies and testimonials before buying what you are selling or promoting, so convince your potential buyer’s by having case studies and testimonials.

So it’s a good idea to ask your clients and customers for testimonials and experience they had dealing with your product or service.

Maximise your productivity :

When going big, you should know that you can’t handle each and everything, so outsource them with apps. There are a number of Instagram tools which can help you and assist you in your tasks.

Iconosquare: is a great tool through which you can discuss advanced analytical data about Instagram users.

Postso: is a great post scheduling app and you will love it, on the day when you don’t find a time to post something on your profile and this profile will do the job for you.

Repost: The only reason i’m sharing this re-post plugin is because it gives credit where due; For those who don’t know, this app allows you to repost images from other Instagram users.

Invest money in buying good gadgets :

Gadgets like good camera, video camera, editing softwares and tools will pay you off well in long run, but having quality images and videos makes you better.

How to Grow Instagram Followers :

Do you know the amount of subscribers you have can give an approximation how much you can earn.

Instagrammers with more than 1,000 followers could earn $40 or more a post, according to the app Takumi, while bigger users could make up to $2,000 for each post.

If you have big numbers like 10,000 followers you can easily earn more then $15000 per year, while the biggest influencers – those with 100,000 followers, could earn $156,000 and the figure can be much more, depending upon what you promote.

Find Instagram Influences for ShoutOuts :

You can find different instagram influences which have good following and promote your affiliate or product links through them to make some extra cash and money.

Following are some sites to find some good influencers :

Helpful Guides & Additional Resources For Making Money on Instagram :

Checkout the following helpful guides, in case if you want to learn more on how to make money on instagram.

Frequently Asked Questions on How To Make Money with Instagram

How much money can you make on instagram?

According to Forbes, An Instagram user with 100,000 followers can earn as much as $5,000 for a post made in partnership with a company or brand, but in reality it can vary. However, there is no practically no limit, it’s all depend on your strategy and monetization plan.

Are you earning any money from instagram?

Yes I have earned from instagram, thats the reason i was trying to help you by writing this article.

Is Earning through Instagram a scam?

Not at all, instead it’s owned by Facebook and legitimate company.

How many followers do I need to make money from Instagram?

There is no specific quantity, however 1000 is a good number to start seeing some results. However make sure, Quantity>Quality concept is always preferred and recommended.

How do I make money through Instagram?

All the ways I have posted above are perfect examples of generating income through instagram. In easy words, strong a good profile, build some followers, start promoting your own product or service or try endorse other brand products or services.

Does Instagram pay you via Adsense?

Instagram doesn’t have any adsense like monetization program but you can earn through various other ways which i have mentioned above.

Can I make money through Instagram if I have a private account?

Almost all of the methods require you to build audience to earn money, if you have a private account and other’s cant see what you are posting, unfortunately you won’t be able to earn this way then.

How much $ do they usually charge per 1000 followers or likes on that post?

Instagram does not charge you for any amount of followers whatsoever.

Do I need a marketing email in my bio or just any link in my bio that a person can click on to pay me?

Depends on what you are promoting. It is not necessary to have an email or link in bio, there are many other monetization ways which can used.

Can Instagram pay you?

Instagram doesn’t directly pays but if you became an influencer on Instagram, then there are literally hundreds of ways to making online.

Who are the Highest Paid Instagrammers?

There are so many instagrammers who earn a lot and not everyone mentions or tells about how much they earn.

But according to CNBC, Top earners charge around $1 million per shootout. Kylie Jenner reportedly makes $1 million per paid Instagram post and Selena Gomez is on second number with 144 million followers and earns around $800,000 per paid post.

How do I become famous Instagrammer?

Come with proper marketing and following plan. Be active on Instagram with new posts coming every few hours. Use hashtags wisely, focus on building engagement and have a strong eye on your competitor strategies.

Who has the most followers on Instagram 2019?

As per wikipedia, most followed user in 2019 is Instagram’s own account, with over 276 million followers. Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed individual, with over 151 million followers. The Jenner-Kardashian family members own 5 of the top 21most-followed accounts.

I’m younger then 18, can i still earn from Instagram?

Yes you still can earn from Instagram, despite you are younger then 18.

Any more questions related to working with Instagram?

Although i tried to explain and discuss all sort of questions however if there is anything left, you can write down below and i will answer it.

Conclusion on How to Make Money on Instagram in 2020

We should understand that Instagram is growing at an awesome speed, specially after Mack Zuckerberg & Facebook acquired it,

Money making on Instagram isn’t the hardest thing to do.

If you don’t have the patience, you won’t succeed.

I tried my best to teach you on How To Make Money On Instagram

But

The best way to succeed on Instagram is to LOVE WHAT YOU DO.

LOVE for your work should reflect at step 01.

Remember, consider it as your investment and asset. And Investment, doesn’t necessarily means Money, it can be your time, research and knowledge.

If you do it for money, you might leave it at some point. Try to do it for PASSION.

So many possibilities with earning on Instagram

It’s business. The brands want to work with Instagrammers who have influence and authority and those things come with a big followership, or at least, through an engaged community. So if you’re just trying to increase Instagram followers, you might not succeed, if you don’t have a connection with your followers.

Go build a strong relation with your followers.

Share what they like. Create what they want to see.

Then, you’ll start to see the engagement and the community will start to grow.

Once this starts to happen, you’ll know that you’re on the verge of getting an opportunity.

I encourage you not to wait and start take an action on one of the instagram money making strategies!

What did you learn about money making on Instagram?

Share that in three lines in the comments below