Instagram is one of the growing social networks in this modern era. People from all over the world not only use it to share their moments but also start their businesses. So what if you don’t have any products? How to make money on Instagram without selling anything?
Some Instagrammers get their cash just by using their account. If they can do it, so do you. There are ways to do it, and they’re proven to be successful by many users.
Scroll down for some strategies to monetize your account without any investment in products or services. Plus, we’ll reveal statistics of earnings that can amaze you. Let’s get started!
How To Make Money On Instagram Without Selling Anything?
There are unimaginative ways to generate high income on Instagram. Choosing a niche, influencing, and directing your followers to where you can make money are steps to being a successful Instagrammer with passive income.
You can give shout-outs, participate in affiliate marketing, make sponsored posts, and cooperate with brands to promote their products on your Instagram.
Become An InfluencerÂ
Becoming an influencer is the first option to make money on Instagram without selling or trading a single thing.
Who Are Influencers?
An influencer, as the word itself refers to, is a person who influences others. Influencers on Instagram can be people from different fields.
The most popular aspects to start with are fashion, music, arts, traveling, food, etc. They affect the mindset of others by posting about their lifestyle, the clothes they wear, the products they use, the places they visit, you name it.
The posts are usually made in astonishing ways to attract or amaze people about the way they live or their activities. Then, other Instagrammers will follow it.
What Are Ways To Become An Influencer?
The first step to becoming an influencer is to find something you’re interested in and want to share to attract and motivate people to follow.
When you know your niche, you need to be creative to generate great products such as amazing and lovely pictures or videos.
For example, if you’re in love with baking, you can share your recipe, upload videos of how you cook it and show a picture of your cooking results.
Remember, you need to be patient to have more followers. So, the key is determining what you like and consistently working on it; then, you’ll see an increase in the number of fans.
How To Make Money On Instagram As An Influencer?
Now, we’ll explain how an influencer makes money with their account. Since influencers are popular among others, all they say and post on Instagram can affect others’ mindsets. Their followers usually love and trust the one they subscribe to.
This fact opens the door to a lucrative earning for those who have many followers. If businesses know that you can lead the opinion of Instagram users in their fields, they’ll find you.
Big brands and companies will come to you and ask for cooperation by sharing content about their products or services. The great part is they will pay you for your post!
Give Shout-out
Giving a shout-out is a good idea to make use of your account and bring you benefits. The more followers you have, the more big brands and companies would like to cooperate with you.
It’s one of the most common ways Instagrammers earn money, as the brand asking you to give a shout-out will not require much from your post.
You just need to post photos of people, products, or services from the brand and tag them. You can do a shout-out whether you have prior relations with the company, as it’s less formal than sponsored posts (which we’ll mention later).
The content you make is usually a one-time advertisement, including permanent or temporary posts, depending on how you negotiate with the brand.
Since you have many fans who trust you and mimic your activities, they will also see the post and subscribe to the brand. The great thing is in return, you’ll get paid for that.
Start Affiliate MarketingÂ
You may have heard of affiliate marketing, but can you do it on Instagram to make money? The answer is yes. Many Instagrammers have found it one of the easiest ways to double their income.
There are many affiliate programs, such as Amazon, and those who join can make real profits. By taking part in a program, you’re like one partnership of the brand and invite people to buy their products or services.
What To Do To Become Affiliate Marketer?
Since you do marketing for others’ products on your account, make sure they are appropriate to your value and the content you are building.
You just need to share the affiliate links on your social network account, including Instagram, and encourage followers to buy from those links. If they click on the link or use your discount code to purchase something, the company will send you a commission.
For example, if your content is about hair, you can put affiliate links about hair products such as shampoo, dye, etc., and make money.
How To Share Affiliate Links On Instagram?
One thing to know is you can’t add clickable links to the captions of your Instagram posts. Plus, the platform doesn’t let you add clickable links to your stories unless your account is verified or you have more than 10000 followers.
Instagram only allows you to share one link on your bio. However, sharing many links at the same time is the way to gain more profit, but it might be a double-edged knife since many will see this as a scam. How can you do that properly?
All-in-one bio links are the solution. There’s a list of these tools to help optimize the bio links. Research more about them to find out which best suits your account.
Publish Sponsored Posts
One of the great methods to increase your revenue is to publish sponsored posts on your Instagram.
Research shows that more than 90% of people trust word-of-mouth recommendations, around 75% tend to count on the content shared by normal people rather than by the brands, and more than 80% seek advice from the one they know for product experience before buying.
Thus, if you are a frequent buyer or often unbox products, and your Instagram account has many followers, it’s a good chance to start making money through sponsored posts.
This content can drive traffic and increase sales for brands and companies. That’s why they prefer accounts with moderate-sized followers frequently interacting with the content. If your account meets their requirements, you can get paid for the sponsored posts.
Similar to ‘shout-outs,’ they are just normal posts you make to advertise products or services. Remember, the content you create should align with your niche; otherwise, it will lead to an awkward and messy account.
Be A Brand AmbassadorÂ
When your Instagram works well with sponsored posts, many companies may want a long-term cooperation with you. You’ll work with them as their brand ambassador with the duty to build a positive image for their business.
Having a large and engaged following on your account is almost a must-have condition because the company wants to see that the content you promote about them has more likes and comments from your followers, thereby increasing their brand’s awareness.
Write Captions For BusinessesÂ
If you’re creative and good at writing, creating captions for businesses might be the correct option for you to start earning through Instagram.
Companies of all sizes are willing to invest in social media marketing. While big companies have their creation team, small ones tend to cooperate with talented freelancers to reduce costs. That’s why they look for somebody who writes captions for their products at reasonable prices.
Your job is to come up with compelling, memorable, and engaging captions. The offers you get from the brands may vary from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars, depending on the need’s urgency and the caption’s quality.
To make the companies pay attention to your account and order you to work, you should create easily shareable samples to form an understanding of what you can offer.
If your captions can attract people’s attention and lots of likes and shares, you have huge potential to earn from this niche.
Create Masks And Filters For Instagram StoryÂ
In 2016, Instagram launched its Stories copied from Snapchat‘s temporary content. No one expected this move to help Instagram grow at a booming speed.
Instagram Stories appear only for a limited amount of time yet are able to grab the attention of many audiences. That’s where the brands want to focus. Since more than 500 million Stories are made every day, it creates chances for businesses to reach their potential customers.
Companies need masks and filters for Instagram Stories to show their expertise and market their products.
Some brands build their inner designer teams, while some pay freelancers to do this job. If you are creative and good at graphic design, creating masks and filters for Instagram Stories is what you can go for.
Filters and masks are popular on Instagram, especially among young Instagrammers. If you can design these trendy materials for the brands’ posts, you’re likely to get well-paid.
Link To Your Blog Or VlogÂ
There are many social networks, and linking them together helps you increase your income. If you have a channel on Youtube or your website, direct your Instagram followers to those external links by using a link tree.
Many users use this trick to lead their subscribers to any platform they want. For example:
- YouTubers upload highlight moments of their vlog on Reels and give a link to their full video on Youtube.
- Foodies add pictures of food and mention their blog for full recipes.
- Travelers update places they go on Instagram and provide the blog link where they set the trip plan, provide tips, or suggest tours.
- Fashion influencers show their outfit with links to where they get those clothes.
Enable Live BadgesÂ
Live Badges is a direct earning method available for creators in the US. It’s a direct way to make money through Instagram by making live videos and mentioning Live Badges.
When you are live streaming, tell your viewers that you really appreciate their attention and support. They can purchase badges to support you if they’d like to help your channel grow. The cost is from $0.99 to $4.99.
Once somebody buys the badges, others are likely to do so. Remember to say thanks for every donation.
It’s also easy to turn on the function directly on the app. Go to Your Profile, choose Professional Dashboard, and turn on Instagram monetization. Once your account’s badge is activated, select the option Set Up Badges, then get ready to go live and earn.
FAQs
Can You Make Money From Just Posting On Instagram?
No. Literally, you will not get paid when you just upload content on Instagram unless you apply one of the strategies above.
To make good profits from your posts, you should have many active followers. The number is usually at least 20,000.
You need an engaging following because no brand is willing to pay for fake subscribers. It doesn’t matter what method you cooperate with them; they want more and more potential customers to see their products, raise their prestige, and ultimately drive sales.
Once many people follow and react to your posts, more brands will find you if your content fits their niches.
Businesses will come to you for cooperation, such as posting shout-outs or sponsored posts, writing captions for Instagram content, or making filters and masks for Stories.
How Much Money Can You Earn On Instagram?
Calculating income from Instagram is not easy. For example, it’s difficult to say whether you earn from your Instagram posts or not when you link that content with your blog, which you make money on by hosting ads.
Plus, a successful earning Instagram account depends on its audience size, engagement, credentials, hustle, and strategy. For instance, engagement means your audience is real and frequently reacts to your content. It’s an important element to determine the rates and expenses that businesses are willing to pay for influencers.
Though creators are rarely open about the information on their income from social networks, it’s a good source of bringing big dollars for celebrities.
The highest payment can be up to 8,400 – 1.2 million dollars per post. Below is some revealing information about how much money micro-influencers and big stars make on Instagram.
- According to Business Insider, Instagrammers with 1,000 to 10,000 subscribers make around $900 per post.
- According to Brian Hanly, CEO of Bullish Studio, an agency for influencers, a swipe-up ad on Stories can bring from $100 to $1,500 for a creator.
- Kylie Jenner earns around $980,000 per ad or sponsored post.
- Meanwhile, this number for the Instagram account of Cristiano Ronaldo is about $1,600,000.
- A survey that Hype Auditor conducted on 2,000 US-based influencers shows that the average influencer earns $2,970 monthly. This number, specifically for micro-influencers (who have 1,000 to 10,000 followers), is more than $1,40 and for mega-influencers (who have one million followers) is nearly $15,400.
How Many Followers Should Your Account Have To Make Money On Instagram?
It’s difficult to tell the exact number of followers you need to start earning on Instagram since every niche is not the same. Some industries require one million subscribers, while 1000 may be enough for others.
Though quantity is important, brands and companies also need engagement. The highly-engaged audiences are more important to brands, so if you are a micro-influencer with frequently reacting subscribers, you still can win this chance over celebrities’ accounts with millions of followers.
How Much Does Instagram Pays For 1,000 Followers?
It’s possible to make money with 1,000 followers, but maybe not so much. Plus, the price range varies depending on niche and engagement. You can expect to get paid from $10 to $500 per 1000 subscribers.
To increase your income, consider connecting your Instagram with other channels on different platforms, such as YouTube or Tiktok. This way can help your subscribers grow as well.
Remember, being hard-working, patient, creative, and passionate about what you do will gradually bring followers to your account, and you will be ready to monetize.
Wrapping Up
Instagram is a fast-growing social network with billions of users earning every day. How to make money on Instagram without selling anything?
Being an influencer with many followers is the first potential option. Though there’s heavy competition among influencers, it doesn’t mean there’s no more room for you to develop.
Try one of our above strategies to test which fits and brings you the most benefit. Don’t waste your time watching others make money! Start to grow your money tree right now!