9 Proven Ways on How To Make Money on Instagram

You can’t scroll through your Instagram feed without spotting your favourite creators promoting products—whether it’s their own merchandise or collaborations with other brands. Ever wonder if you could join the ranks and start earning money on Instagram? While celebrity accounts with massive followings can command seven-figure fees for a single promoted post, you don’t need millions of followers to cash in.

In fact, Instagram creators with as few as 1,000 followers have a variety of monetization options at their disposal. Whether you’re aiming to build a social media empire or simply earn some extra income through a side hustle, making money on Instagram is more achievable than you might think.

This guide will walk you through how to make money on Instagram, offering seven actionable ideas—from affiliate marketing to selling merch for your personal brand. You’ll also find inspiration from real examples of creators who are thriving in this space.

Keep in mind, that making money on Instagram isn’t solely about your follower count. Instead, the most effective strategies for you will depend on factors like your unique brand, the content you create, your target audience, and your level of commitment. Therefore, to maximize your earning potential, it’s wise to consider using multiple strategies. Additionally, diversifying your income streams is a smart financial approach as you explore different ways to make money on Instagram.

1. Sponsored Content with Brand Collaboration To Make Money on Instagram

An Instagram influencer is a creator or celebrity who holds sway over a dedicated base of fans and followers. To their audiences, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters, and trusted experts in their respective niches.

Brands often struggle to replicate the authenticity that comes from a real person sharing genuine moments. Instead, they leverage this authenticity by partnering with verified Instagram creators whose audiences align with their target customers. These partnerships involve influencers being paid to create sponsored content, and promoting products through Instagram Stories, posts, and Reels.

As Instagram marketing grows in popularity, brands are eager to tap into the engaged audiences that influencers have cultivated. However, as an Instagram creator, it’s crucial to carefully evaluate each partnership opportunity to protect your personal brand. If your income depends on Instagram marketing, be discerning about the brands you collaborate with to avoid alienating your followers. Similarly, brands should be selective when choosing influencers to ensure alignment in values and audience.

Understand Instagram Influencer Charges

Typically, influencer contracts require the creation of content—such as posts or Stories—that serve as Instagram ads for the brand. These contracts may also grant the brand permission to use the content across other platforms, such as in ads elsewhere.

In return for their efforts, influencers are compensated in various ways, which might include a monetary fee, free products or services, exposure, or a combination of these.

Tips for Pricing and Negotiating Influencer Contracts:

Set Your Own Limits: Be cautious of contracts that offer only exposure or undervalue your worth. Ensure that compensation reflects your influence and the quality of your content.
Understand Your Value: When negotiating, remember that you’re providing not just content but also access to your engaged audience and usage rights. This adds significant value to your services.
Research Industry Standards: Know what others in your niche are charging. For instance, influencers with around 100,000 followers typically charge up to $500 per post. Use this as a benchmark for your rates.
Know Your Audience: Be aware of your audience demographics and your engagement rate (total engagement divided by your number of followers). This data is crucial for negotiation and demonstrates your influence’s effectiveness.
Consult a Lawyer: Many aspects of influencer contracts are negotiable. A lawyer specializing in influencer agreements can help you navigate the terms and maximize your compensation.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your influencer partnerships are fair and financially rewarding.

Finding The Right Brand

If you have a significant influence on Instagram, brands may approach you with sponsorship deals. However, you can also proactively seek out collaborations by reaching out to brands yourself.

One effective way to attract brand partnerships is by listing your details on influencer marketplaces. Platforms like Shopify Collabs connect creators with brands looking to expand their reach to new audiences.

When it comes to sponsored content, transparency is key to maintaining your audience’s trust. To clearly indicate sponsored posts, use the #sponsored hashtag in your captions. You can see how other Instagram creators incorporate sponsored content into their Stories or posts by searching the #sponsored hashtag for examples.

Additionally, Instagram offers a “Paid Partnership with” tag, which appears prominently at the top of sponsored posts. This feature helps clearly identify sponsored content, ensuring that your audience understands the nature of the partnership.

2. Open your eCommerce Store To Make Money on Instagram

Creators have a unique opportunity to monetize their influence by selling their own products. This goes beyond just promoting items from other brands. Whether it’s physical goods, services, or digital products, these offerings can naturally extend a creator’s brand. They provide additional value to the audience and allow fans to purchase a piece of their favorite online personalities.

The distinction between creator and entrepreneur is increasingly blurred, as many individuals seek to harness their skills and independence to generate income. Here are some options for selling products and services online:

Sell Services: Offer professional services such as photography, consulting, or coaching. Use Instagram to direct your audience to your professional website where they can book your services.
Offer Digital Products: Create and sell digital items like online courses, audio files, eBooks, or design presets. These products can be delivered instantly to your audience, making them a convenient option.
Sell Original Products: Design and sell your own physical products. You can handle shipping yourself or partner with a fulfillment warehouse to manage inventory and order processing.
Use Dropshipping: Start an online store without managing inventory or handling shipping by using a dropshipping model. This allows you to focus on marketing and growing your brand while a third party takes care of logistics.

By exploring these options, creators can effectively monetize their presence and engage their audience in new ways.

3. Sell Your Merch To Make Money on Instagram

Print-on-demand and other merch strategies let you skip the process of building a brand and creating products from scratch. Instead, you can focus on crafting compelling designs. A printing partner can then bring your designs to life on various merchandise like mugs, t-shirts, and art prints.

Here are several effective ways to create and sell your own merchandise:

Print-on-Demand Services: Partner with a print-on-demand provider to design and sell custom merchandise. Not only do these services handle the printing, packaging, and shipping directly to your customers, but they also offer a convenient solution with minimal upfront investment. Consequently, this method is ideal for those looking to start quickly without the hassle of managing inventory.
White Label Products: Customize existing products with your personal branding. Choose items that align with your brand or content, such as branded fitness gear for a fitness influencer or logo-embellished accessories for a lifestyle blogger. This approach allows you to leverage established products while personalizing them to reflect your unique brand.
Handcrafted Merchandise: Take a DIY approach by creating and selling merch yourself. This could involve designing and silkscreening t-shirts, making handmade art prints, or crafting other personalized items. This method gives you full control over the production process and can add a unique, personal touch to your products.

By choosing the method that best fits your brand and resources, you can successfully monetize your designs and connect with your audience through branded merchandise.

4. Affiliate Marketing

An affiliate marketer is a creator or publisher who promotes brands and products using unique tracking links or promo codes. They earn a commission each time a sale is made through their referral. Unlike influencers, who often receive a flat fee for brand exposure, affiliate marketers generate income based on the direct impact of their promotional efforts.

To maximize your affiliate marketing potential on Instagram, consider these strategies:

Bio Links and Stories: Include affiliate links in your Instagram bio and Instagram Stories. Utilize tools like link-in-bio services to manage multiple affiliate links in one place. Since Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in post captions, direct followers to your link-in-bio page for access to all your affiliate offers.
Promo Codes in Captions: Share unique promo codes in your post captions to drive sales. Even though you can’t include clickable links in captions, promo codes offer a way to track your referrals and incentivize purchases.

Affiliate programs are managed by brands and are designed to facilitate and track their affiliate relationships. You can join these programs directly by reaching out to brands or through popular affiliate marketplaces, such as:

Rakuten Advertising: A well-regarded affiliate network that offers a wide range of vetted advertisers and a weekly payment structure.
LTK (formerly LikeToKnowIt): An exclusive fashion and lifestyle influencer network with access to over 5,000 brands.
Amazon Associates: A widely used program that provides a commission of up to 10% on qualifying sales, making it a versatile option for many affiliate marketers.

By leveraging these platforms and strategies, you can effectively monetize your Instagram presence and earn commissions from your affiliate marketing efforts.

5. Instagram Shopping

Social selling is increasingly popular, as more users turn to social media platforms to discover and purchase products. This growing trend presents a significant opportunity for eCommerce brands and creators. Consequently, it allows them to connect with Instagram followers and fans within their natural browsing environment. Additionally, Instagram Shopping offers several built-in features specifically designed to enhance social selling.

Here’s how Instagram Shopping works and how you can leverage its features:

Instagram Shop: Your Instagram shop serves as a storefront right on your Instagram profile. To access it, users simply click a prominent button on their profile page. This action takes them to a streamlined shopping experience where they can browse and purchase your products directly from Instagram. Additionally, you can tailor your shop by creating collections or organizing products into themes and gift occasions. For example, you might feature collections for new arrivals, gifts for Mom, holiday decorating, or summer fun. This approach effectively creates a mini-version of your online store within Instagram, complete with product images, pricing, and descriptions.
Shoppable Posts and Stories: Integrate product tags into your posts and Stories to showcase items from your catalog. This allows followers to see and purchase products directly from the content they engage with.
Ads with Shopping Tags: Enhance the visibility of your products by adding shopping tags to your ads. This extends the reach of your shoppable posts and can be managed through Instagram’s Ads Manager or by boosting existing posts.
Live Shopping: Take advantage of Instagram’s live shopping feature by going live and tagging products featured in your broadcast. Products will appear at the bottom of the screen, where live viewers can tap to purchase them instantly.

6. Sell Your Photo Online To Make Money on Instagram

Although Instagram is evolving with video and various features, its core strength remains as a photo-sharing platform. This focus makes it an ideal space for artists and photographers to monetize their accounts by selling prints and original works. Here are several effective methods to achieve this:

Photo Selling Marketplaces: List your photos on platforms like 500px, and include links to your marketplace profiles in your Instagram bio. This can drive traffic from Instagram to your selling platforms.
Own Online Store: Set up an online store to sell your original photos and art prints. Promote your store by linking it in your Instagram bio and regularly sharing posts about your products.
Instagram Shopping: Utilize Instagram’s Shopping features to sell your photos directly on the platform. This allows users to purchase prints and originals directly through posts and Stories.
Stock Image Licensing: License your work on stock image sites and use Instagram to drive traffic to these platforms. Share samples of your work and link to your stock profile to attract potential buyers.
Print-on-Demand Services: Use services like Printify or Printful to create and sell products featuring your art, such as tote bags, mugs, and t-shirts. Promote these items through your Instagram content, showcasing how your art looks on various products.

By leveraging these strategies, you can effectively turn your Instagram account into a revenue-generating asset, connecting with your audience and monetizing your creative work.

7. Earn Live badges

Instagram Live Badges provide a way for creators to earn money directly from their audience while livestreaming. Much like tip-based features on platforms like Twitch and TikTok, Instagram Live Badges allow viewers to show their appreciation for your content and support your work financially.

Here’s how it works: during a livestream, viewers can purchase badges—small icons of different monetary values—to support you. These badges cost 99¢, $1.99, or $4.99 each. When a viewer buys a badge, it not only provides you with a tip but also unlocks special features for the viewer, such as having their badge displayed prominently in the comments. This feature encourages fans to engage more and gives you a direct way to earn from your livestreams.

8. Paid Subscriptions

After captivating your audience with your content, consider offering them exclusive material through a subscription model. Instagram’s subscription program lets US creators over 18 with more than 10,000 followers monetize their content. This allows you to offer subscribers access to special posts, Stories, and other exclusive content.

In addition to Instagram’s built-in subscription feature, there are several third-party tools you can use to generate income from subscriptions:

Patreon: A popular platform where creators can offer tiered memberships with varying levels of exclusive content and benefits. This allows you to earn directly from your most dedicated fans.
Substack: Ideal for those who want to complement their Instagram presence with a subscription-based newsletter. You can create and send regular content updates, insights, or behind-the-scenes information to paying subscribers.
Your Own Online Store: You can also create a subscription-based section on your own eCommerce site. Offer unique digital products, early access to merchandise, or members-only content as perks for subscribers.

These options not only provide a steady income stream but also help you build your email list and maintain a connection with your audience outside of Instagram.

9. Sell Used Stuff To Make Money on Instagram

Even if you’re not an influencer, you can still make money on Instagram by selling items you no longer need. The platform is perfect for selling everything from refinished furniture and gently used clothing to unique vintage finds. It’s a great way to declutter your home while earning extra cash. You can even use this opportunity to test the waters for a potential vintage clothing business before committing to a full-fledged store.

Here are a few ways to leverage Instagram to sell your items:

Showcase Your Items: Post high-quality photos and detailed descriptions of the items you’re selling. Use Instagram’s features like Stories and Reels to highlight key details and engage with potential buyers.
Use Instagram for Local Resale: Many small vintage resellers use Instagram as a local marketplace. You can encourage followers to DM you for more details or to arrange a purchase. This method is great for items that are easier to deliver locally.
Host Live Sales: Utilize Instagram Live to showcase your items in real time. Engage with viewers, answer their questions, and provide a direct link or instructions on how to purchase.
Create a Business Profile: Set up a business profile to access Instagram’s shopping features, even if you’re not selling new merchandise. This profile will allow you to add product tags to your posts and make it easier for potential buyers to contact you.

Selling on Instagram is an accessible and effective way to turn your unused items into income while building your presence on the platform.

Instagram Influencers Types and Rates

The amount of money an Instagram influencer can make varies significantly based on several factors, including their follower count, niche, and engagement rate. While some smaller influencers in niche markets, like financial products, can earn a substantial income, high-profile celebrities can command multi-million dollar fees for a single post.

To give you a clearer picture of how earnings are typically structured, influencers are often categorized into five tiers based on their follower count. Here’s a breakdown of the average earnings for each tier:

Nano-Influencer (1,000–10,000 followers): Influencers in this category generally earn between $10 and $100 per post. Despite their smaller audience, their high engagement rates and niche focus can make them valuable to certain brands.
Micro-Influencer (10,000–50,000 followers): These influencers typically earn between $100 and $500 per post. They often have a highly engaged and loyal following, which can be attractive to brands looking for targeted marketing.
Mid-Tier Influencer (50,000–500,000 followers): Influencers at this level can command $500 to $5,000 per post. Their larger reach and established presence make them effective for broader campaigns.
Macro-Influencer (500,000–1 million followers): With follower counts in this range, influencers can earn between $5,000 and $10,000 per post. They often have significant influence and a substantial impact on their audience.
Mega-Influencer (1 million+ followers): These top-tier influencers can earn anywhere from $10,000 to over $1 million per post. Their vast reach and high visibility make them highly sought after by major brands.

Influencers’ earnings can also be influenced by other factors such as the type of content they produce, their engagement rate, and their overall influence within their niche.

How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?

A nano-influencer with as few as 1,000 followers can still make a notable income on Instagram, but follower count alone doesn’t determine earnings. Several key factors contribute to how much money you can make:

Engagement Rate: Your earnings are closely tied to how actively your followers engage with your content. Higher engagement—reflected in likes, comments, shares, and overall interaction—enhances the value of your posts. Engaged followers are more likely to follow your calls to action, such as clicking on affiliate links or participating in promotions. Instagram’s algorithms favour accounts with high engagement, which can amplify your reach and attract more lucrative opportunities.
Affiliate Marketing Commission Rates: The commissions you earn from affiliate marketing can vary significantly based on the affiliate programs you join and the products you promote. Some programs offer higher commission rates for certain types of products or services. As your following grows and your influence increases, you can negotiate better rates with affiliate partners and potentially earn more from each sale.
Niche: The specific niche you focus on can greatly impact your earnings. Niches with highly targeted or affluent audiences often attract better sponsorship deals and higher-paying affiliate programs. If your followers belong to a sought-after demographic or have a strong interest in premium products, you’re likely to see better financial offers from brands and affiliate partners.
Number of Income Streams: Diversifying your income streams can significantly boost your earnings. In addition to affiliate marketing and sponsored posts, consider exploring other revenue sources such as selling branded merchandise, offering digital products or services, or securing ongoing brand partnerships. The more monetization strategies you implement, the greater your potential for higher earnings.

By focusing on these factors and continually optimizing your Instagram strategy, even a nano-influencer can build a profitable presence on the platform.

Final Thoughts: 9 Proven Ways on How To Make Money on Instagram

There are countless opportunities to make money online, thanks to the wide array of tools and channels available to creators today. Instagram, in particular, offers multiple monetization options, allowing influencers, creators, and artists to generate income directly through the platform.

To start earning on Instagram, focus on creating engaging and consistent content that resonates with your target audience. This approach is key to building a loyal following that you can eventually monetize. As your audience grows, so does your potential for income.