In the past, the only way to monetize Instagram was via third-party sources such as working with brands, affiliate content, sponsored posts, and selling your products and services.
Fortunately, with the introduction of Instagram Partner Monetization programs, creators have more monetization options.
These features include the Brand collab manager, Instagram Gifts, Paid partnership labels, Badges, subscriptions, Reels bonuses etc.
But since these built-in monetization features are only available for some users, Instagrammers will have to resort to other ways available.
In this section, we handpicked some of the best monetization methods from both categories and explained how to make money with them.
Method #1: Paid Partnership with Brands
Also, knowns as Influencer marketing, the most popular way to make money on Instagram is to partner with brands and post content that generates buzz for their business. That’s why It’s the first on our list.
Brands pay influencers for photos, videos, reels, shoutouts or a combination of all to put their product or services in front of a huge audience.
You’ve probably come across this type of post on Instagram, not once. Here’s an example.
That’s Michelle Wie West promoting Nike. She’s the youngest golf player to qualify for the LPGA Tour at 15.
Depending on your influence, you can make a few thousand dollars monthly off a few posts on Instagram.
To give you an insight into how much money you can make from posting sponsored posts on Instagram, look at this table from Influencer Marketing Hub.
If you don’t have business reaching out to you yet, you can create a list of brands you’d like to work with and start reaching out to them.
Thanks to the introduction of the Creator marketplace by Instagram, you don’t have to do this the old-fashioned way.
The creator marketplace gives you exclusive access to brands looking for influencers to work with. You can promote their products, services, campaigns and offer to your followers and get paid for every post or story you share.
Method #2: Affiliate Marketing
After influencer marketing, most creators’ second main source of income is affiliate marketing.
Before 2021, users with less than 10,000 followers could not add links to stories on Instagram. Today, anyone can use links in their content on Instagram.
With the introduction of Instagram affiliates in 2022, creators have more opportunities to earn on Instagram.
Affiliate marketing is as old as the internet. Whether on Instagram or elsewhere, It’s one of the easiest ways to make money online.
It’s simple: promote other people’s products or services and get a percentage of the sales.
Here’s how it works:
You sign up for an affiliate program with a company, get a custom link to their product or services and share it with your audience. Any time customers buy through your link, you receive a commission on the sale.
Instagram allows users to share affiliate links so long there’s a disclosure to audiences that it’s an affiliate link.
Method #3: Enable Ads on Your Instagram Reels
Another easy way to monetize Instagram is to turn on ads on your reels.
Before 2022, in-stream video ads were the prominent platform-powered monetization methods on Instagram.
This feature allows brands to run ads in Instagram videos, just like on youtube, with creators receiving a portion of the ad revenue.
With Instagram pushing Reels to the forefront of video content on the platform, the company disabled the in-video ads monetization feature and replaced it with the ad revenue share program for reels.
Creator earns from reel ad revenue just as they do with in-stream video ads. The earning potential is higher because reels have more views and reach than the video option.
You can learn more about Instagram Reels Ads here.
Method #4: Use Instagram Subscription
In January 2022, Instagram launched the creator subscription program to allow Instagrammers with large engagement to get paid by offering their dedicated followers access to premium content.
Instagram subscription aims to give exclusive access to content, products, and events.
Followers have to pay a monthly price to support creators’ work. It allows creators to build a more dedicated community and share exclusive access to content such as Lives, posts, stories, chats, reels etc.
At the moment, Instagram’s subscription is only available for users in the United States on an invite-only basis.
When this feature is fully rolled out and available for all users, It will likely be the most lucrative way to monetize Instagram because it guarantees stable and recurring monthly income.
Method #5: Use Badges on Livestream
With badges, monetizing your live show has never been easier.
If you love creating live content for your audience on Instagram, badges are your chance to make it big.
Badges are one of Instagram’s recently introduced monetization features.
During live videos, viewers can buy badges ranging from $0.99 to $4.99 to show support for the creator’s work. The best part is that creators keep 100% of their badge revenue.
You must enable this feature in your profile to make it available for live events. Here’s how.
Go to your Profile and switch to the Professional dashboard.
Click on Grow your business and select badges from the options.
Once you are ready to go live, head to the Live tab on stories and tap the badges icon on the left side of the Going live screen.
On the resulting prompt, Confirm that you want to turn badges on, give a title to your session, and viola! You can now go live with badges.
Don’t forget to notify your viewers once you start the broadcast and thank them for supporting you after the session.
Method #6: Sell Your Products and Services
If you can sell other people’s products and services and earn commissions on Instagram, why not sell yours?
Selling your products is an excellent way to Monetize your Instagram.
There are various physical or digital products and services you can sell.
Just think about what type of product will appeal to your audience.
It can be physical goods like clothes, jewelry, shoes, and appliances or digital products like online courses, ebooks or services.
The good thing about this is that, unlike other monetization methods, you have 100% control over product qualify, price, and branding.
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