Instagram has continued to rocket up the popularity charts ever since it was launched less than a decade back and today it has acquired more than a billion active monthly users who simply flip over its click-and-share-photos-on-the-go feature using a smartphone. For the first time ever, Instagram liberated a whole new generation of users by letting them indulge and share in their passion for sharing photographs to tell their unique stories and build up a fan following of like-minded individuals.
With many Instagram users successfully building up follower bases running into millions, they can also unleash an earning power running into hundreds of thousands of dollars per endorsement. Even for people who have comparatively fewer followers, it is quite possible for them to pursue their passions and still earn handsomely from Instagram. Some of the top methods that have already proved successful:
Participate in Affiliate Marketing
There are hundreds of thousands of businesses operating on Instagram who offer the opportunity to Instagram users interested in driving website traffic to them or even earning commissions on product sales through referrals. Typically, if you are participating in an affiliate marketing program, you will add the links that these companies give you to your bio section and promote the products in your posts to encourage your followers to click on the link and connect to the sponsor’s website.
The company will pay you an agreed amount for every click on the URL that takes customers to the designated website and even an additional amount if the user goes on to buy a product during that session. The amount of money you can make with this method depends on the reputation of the sponsor, the demand of the products, how much you promote the website link by using relevant hashtags or by giving enticing freebies.
Become an Instagram Influencer
If you have a really large Instagram following or a following dedicated to a very specialized niche, you can often earn top dollar by being an Instagram influencer. When you have a substantial following that represents an attractive target audience for a company to market their products or services, they are willing to engage you to promote their offers, often for very large sums of money. According to https://www.cnbc.com, Kylie Jenner charges a whopping $1 million per post endorsed but then she is not only a hotshot celebrity but also has over 137 million followers.
While most Instagram influencers do not come anywhere near that figure, it is not uncommon for influencers to be paid as much as $1000 per 100,000 followers. The actual rate that an influencer can charge depends on factors like the number of followers, the rate of engagement of their posts, the fit of the influencer profile with the brand being promoted, besides the type of the post and the promotion done by both the influencer and the brand. Even if your Instagram following is relatively modest, you need not despair as many brands are actively associating themselves with micro-influencers that typically have a follower base of less than a million but have very high rates of engagement as their followers are more engaged with them.
Sell Your Own Products
There are many small businesses or individuals who have excellent products but do not have the budgets to afford the typical marketing expenses to make them hot sellers. Promoting products on Instagram and selling them with a linked e-commerce platform are most lucrative Instagram business ideas that you can think of for realizing your entrepreneurial aspiration.
While you have the chance to license your product to a company that has an established marketing network, you will find that it is often more lucrative to go at it by yourself, especially when your production volumes are not very large. All you really need is a product that satisfies an unmet market requirement and a brand that followers can immediately identify with. If you are trying to sell homemade products, you will need to ensure that the product quality is consistent and also you have the liability coverage against legal, physical, or medical issues that may arise as a result of the use of your products.
Sell Stock Photographs
Instagram users are generally hooked on to photography, which is the main reason why they are on the photo-sharing app at all. So, it really makes sense if you were to extend your passion for photography and make it earn money for you. The greatest advantage of this opportunity is that you do not need a very large number of followers to make it a success. Most Instagram businesses find it a great challenge to continually have photos at their disposal for posting so there is usually a huge demand-supply gap.
If you fancy yourself as a good photographer, you can reach out to these businesses with a curated portfolio that demonstrates your competence and then tie up with them to provide photographs that they specify according to subject and context for a pre-determined fee. There are innumerable subjects that you can specialize in according to your own passion so that you are able to transform your hobby into an earning opportunity.
Offer Tutorials on a Commercial Basis
When everyone on Instagram is busy selling products and services, you can instead break through the clutter and offer your expertise in a particular subject by offering tutorials on videos. You can post some samples on your Instagram account and market them aggressively to the niche that will be interested in them.
While students are a very attractive target audience for high and college level academics, you can offer your expertise in virtually any subject under the sun to professionals looking to upgrade their knowledge and skills. It can be a great idea to upload your tutorials to specialized tutorial sites like Digital Chalk and put the links on your Instagram bio to drive traffic to them.
Conclusion
Building a vibrant presence on Instagram is not necessarily just for pleasure. You can leverage the opportunity to be able to communicate with a large and homogenous group to make it a commercial success, and unlike a regular nine-to-five job do something that you are really interested in.
Author Bio –
Kristen Smith has been working on the importance of social media in marketing with thousands of real Instagram followers for her postings. You can visit Instagram business ideas for more information.