Do you love posting photos or videos on Instagram frequently while wearing a new shirt, or cooking a new recipe, or visiting an awesome restaurant, or exploring nature? By posting content on Instagram, you can easily get some likes and/comments from the people you know. These engagements may give you some temporary excitement adding no monetary value to your real life. What if, you can utilize Instagram to upgrade your lifestyle in addition to entertainment? Let's talk about how to make money from Instagram.

How to Create Earning Potential from Instagram

Millions of people are posting content on Instagram every hour. Can everybody make money from it? Before you think about earning money from Instagram, you have to build a potential Instagram account.

How to Open an Instagram Account?

Starting the journey from October 2010, Instagram (also known as Insta) was initially downloadable only from iOS. But since 2012, the Instagram app is available in Android and Windows OS. So, you can easily download the Instagram app from the internet and create a profile. All you need is a well functional Smartphone with a speedier internet connection. While opening an account choose a username that well represents your niche. Now how to choose your niche?

Define Your Niche

If you post photos/videos randomly on different issues, products, and facts, your profile may get followers. But it won't create a customer base. To get connected with like-minded people on Instagram, you need to pick a definite niche. You can pick a niche following your passion, like traveling, fashion, cooking, Yoga, etc. If you have any specific skills, like writing, programming, etc., then you can choose that field as your niche. Besides this, your local business can be your niche. When you know your niche, you can post related content on Instagram and engage with people bearing similar interests in that niche.

Make Your Profile Look Professional

However, without a professional outlook, your profile can hardly attract an audience beyond your circle. Now how to make your Instagram profile look unique and professional? While opening an account in Instagram, you will find several options including, Profile Picture, Username, Website Link, and Bio. Each of these options is valuable for creating an attractive Insta profile. For instance, choose a valid - not taken by other members - Username which will help people find your niche from the Insta search. Then, if you have any personal/business website, put that link in your Insta profile. In the bio section, you can write a short biography that will inform the audience about your persona, knowledge, and experience.

Gain Trust and Authority

Every day millions of people are posting photos/videos on Instagram, but few of them can convert those contents into money. It doesn't matter how many likes/comments/followers you get, it will all go in vain if your followers don't trust your words and/or actions. Now how to gain trust? The key is to add value to the community. For example, you have chosen digital marketing as your niche. Now you can post helpful videos and info-graphs regarding this niche. Your content can help Instagram users who are interested in Digital Marketing. Thus, you can create authority for your niche.

Get Organic Traffic

Many Instagrammers think that a huge investment is needed to get followers on Instagram. However, fake/paid followers have nothing/little to do with your earnings on Insta. Managing organic followers are the best way to develop a brand and gain the potentiality of earning. Now how to Get Followers Organically? The key strategy is building community engagement.

In simple words, you have to do some research on your niche to get some ideas about what people are looking for. Try to find problems that people are talking about. And try to offer some solutions as tips, tricks, guidelines, etc. Learn how to create more engaging posts regarding those topics. Make sure your content adds value to your Insta followers in real life.

Create Community Engagement

There is another misconception that you need about ten thousand followers to make a handsome amount from Instagram. Surprisingly, the reality is different! If you can reach the target people, you get a high chance to convert your content into money. To engage with the community, you can interact with your viewers/followers through the comment section. You can also visit other Instagram profiles regarding your niche, follow their posts, and leave value-adding comments on those contents. Following those comments, some audience can visit your Instagram profile.

Input Keywords with Hashtag

When you post a photo and/or video content in your Instagram profile, find some relevant keywords. You can do keyword research through free/paid tools, like Keyword Revealer, Long Tail Pro, etc. Then input those keywords below your content. Don't forget to put Hashtag "#" with each keyword. You might know Hashtags work like magic in connecting your content organically with the wide audience of Insta. For instance, when you post any content on Instagram regarding digital marketing with hashtags like "#DigitalMarketingTips", Instagram's search algorithm is supposed to show your content to viewers who input any query about "#DigitalMarketing".

How to Make Money from Instagram

When you have successfully built a professional Instagram profile enriched with value-adding contents as well as organic followers, your profile is ready to step towards monetization.

Share Affiliate Links

Nowadays, diverse reputed e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc. are offering Affiliate Programs. Besides these, many local Brands offer affiliate commissions for selling products. Now how does it work? If you post a photo wearing a T-Shirt of "X" company, then put the product link in the description. A single click on this link will take the viewer to the website/product page of "X" company. When any viewer buys that product, you will earn a definite amount of affiliate commission offered by the "X" company. Usually, the rate of affiliate commission varies from 4 to 10 percent depending on the respective company rules and product category.

Post Sponsored Content

When your Instagram profile earns a considerable number of followers, you can apply for Paid Partnership with different reputed brands. Then you can post sponsored content and earn money. It is a common trend that celebrities take a lump sum for posting sponsored reviews. To attract the sponsor, you have to grow a trustworthy Instagram account so that people want to listen to what you say and/or display.

Promote Your Own Local Business

If you own a local business, Instagram can be a great platform for promoting your products/services to a wide community. Like Facebook, Instagram is a powerful social media platform to aware people about your online business. However, don't try to sell products right after building your profile.

Before you dive into monetization, take some time to build a brand value, and create community engagement. Post some how-to content regarding your business-niche to help your audience. For instance, if you own a pet store, work on the 'Pet' niche on Instagram. First, invest several months for continuously posting photos and/or videos regarding various pet issues. Then, try to introduce your pet products to your viewers and tell them where they can buy those products. Thus you can promote your physical stores and/or online sales page.

Sell Digital Products

What if you don't have any physical store and/or online business, and your follower number is not big enough to attract the brands for publishing sponsored content, but you still want to make money from Instagram. Yes, it is highly possible! Instead of products, you can sell your skill.

Suppose, you have proficiency in Digital Marketing, now you can post several helpful videos on Instagram to teach people Digital Marketing free of cost. Later, you can launch a paid video series to teach advanced level strategies of "Digital Marketing". You can sell diverse kinds of digital products like eBooks, Digital Marketing Package Service, etc.

Final Thoughts

The American Photo/Video sharing Platform Instagram has gained worldwide popularity among people of different ages, races, and religions. Beyond social networking, Insta can be a potential source to make a stable income. First, pick a definite niche following your passion, skill, or business. Then, share helpful content to enlighten the audience. Make your Insta Profile look professional. Work continuously, until your profile creates community engagement and gains the trust of your followers. If you can create brand value, you would be able to make money through affiliation, sponsored posts, selling digital products, and promoting local business to your audience. On the whole, take Instagram as a platform for both helping people and feeding your wallet.