How To Make Money On Instagram (Complete Guide)
Want to learn how to make money on Instagram? I’ve got you covered.
You don’t need hundreds of thousands of followers to make money on Instagram. There are creators out there with as little as 1,000 followers making a full-time income from the app.
As long as you have an engaged audience, you should be able to monetize it. And in this post, I’m going to show you how.
Below, I’ll share 16 actionable ways to make money on Instagram using tried-and-tested monetization methods. I’ll also explain exactly how to get started with each of them and throw in some real-life examples from successful creators.
#1 – Sell branded merch (it’s easier than you think!)
If you want to earn the big bucks, you’ll need to sell something directly to your Instagram audience. That’s how you start making real money.
And one of the best—and easiest—things to sell is branded merchandise. I’m talking about things like t-shirts, mugs, wall art, and tote bags that are custom-printed with your Instagram logo, artwork, or other designs.
For example, Instagrammer @spooksieboo uses Instagram to promote their own line of custom merch including pins, charms, and shirts.
You’re probably thinking ‘that sounds like a lot of work’, right? Wrong. It’s actually super easy.
The first step is to sign up for a print-on-demand platform. I’d recommend Sellfy.
Sellfy will create a basic online store for you straight away.
Then, you just choose whatever blank products you want to sell from Sellfy’s print-on-demand catalog, upload/add the designs you want printed on them, set your prices, and add them to your store. The whole process can take as little as a few minutes.
Once you’ve done that, you can start promoting your merch on Instagram. Whenever someone buys an item from your merch store, Sellfy will print it ‘on demand’ and ship it straight to the customer.
Sellfy bills you after each sale, so you only pay for what you sell. You don’t have to buy any stock upfront so it’s completely risk-free. And the difference between Sellfy’s price and the price you sell for is your profit margin
To find out more, check out this Sellfy review.
#2 – Sell branded content
The most common way to make money on Instagram is to sell branded content.
Branded content is when a brand or business partner pays you to promote them in your Instagram posts, Reels, Stories, etc.
Here’s an example from @StaceySolomon, who partnered with In The Style on Instagram to promote their new summer fashion collection.
You see branded content all the time with big-name Instagram influencers and celebrities like this.
But increasingly, brands will also work with micro- and nano-influencers with under 10k or even 1k followers, as long as they have an engaged, organic audience that aligns with the brand’s target buyers.
For example, makeup and skincare brands might partner with beauty influencers. Baby product companies will partner with Instagram parents with an audience of moms and dads. You get the idea.
The easiest way to find brand partnership opportunities is to join a collabs network, such as Instagram’s Creator Marketplace. This will make it easier for brands that want to work with you to find you and reach out.
You’ll also probably want to create an Instagram media kit that tells potential partners all they need to know about you and your audience (including your rates, metrics like engagement rate, etc.). And you’ll want to always have a contract in place that clarifies the terms of any agreement clearly.
Also, remember that you need to disclose branded content on Instagram by adding a paid partnership label to your posts. You can do this when you create your post by turning the Add paid partnership label toggle on and then adding the name of the business you’re partnered with.
Note: It’s up to you how much you want to charge for branded content. According to the latest influencer marketing statistics, the average brand spends $257 per collaboration, but it varies depending on how many followers you have, your niche, etc.
#3 – Monetize your knowledge with online courses
Another great way to monetize your Instagram account is to create and sell an online course to your audience.
This is exactly what IG business coach Maria Wendt does, and she makes millions (yes, millions) of dollars from her courses every few months.
Why are courses so lucrative? Well, your profit margins on courses are much higher than with merch as there are no production costs—you only have to make a course once and you can sell it as many times as you want.
Plus, courses have high perceived intrinsic value so you can charge more for them than other types of digital products. I’ve seen creators sell them for as much as $997 apiece.
The easiest way to build and sell a course is to sign up for one of these online course platforms. I’d recommend Thinkific.
Just sign up, build your course by adding modules and lessons, set your price, and connect a payment processor. Then, start promoting it on Instagram to drive sales.
Your course should be relevant to your niche and teach your audience something valuable that they’ll benefit from.
For example, if your Instagram page is all about health and fitness, your course could teach people how to get fit, lose weight, tone up, etc. If your Instagram is all about parenting, your course could offer advice to new parents.
If you have a lot of followers, you could even just create a course teaching people how to grow their Instagram, e.g. ‘How I grew from 0 to 560k followers in 90 days’. You get the idea.
#4 – Promote other people’s products (affiliate marketing)
Don’t want to sell your own products on Instagram? No worries—sell someone else’s!
That’s the idea behind affiliate marketing. You promote another company’s products or services and, in return, you earn a commission on any sale you refer, usually between 10% to 50%
The most important thing is to choose an affiliate product/service that’s a good fit for your niche. It should be something that you think a lot of your followers might genuinely want or benefit from, and something you feel good about promoting.
You can sign up for an affiliate marketing network to browse available programs until you find something that fits the bill. ShareASale is a good place to start.
Alternatively, try searching Google for programs in your niche. For example, if your Instagram is all about travel, search for travel ‘affiliate programs’ or something similar.
Once you’ve found and signed up for a program you like the look of, grab your affiliate link, add it to your bio, and start promoting it.
Just make sure you don’t go overboard. Most Instagram users don’t like it when creators constantly try to sell them stuff, so the bulk of the posts you share should still be regular, entertaining/engaging content. Just throw a few sneaky affiliate promotions in here and there when it makes sense.
Here’s a good example of an Instagram post that promotes an affiliate product from @[image 4].
#5 – Sell subscriptions for exclusive content & experiences
If you have over 10k subscribers and you’re from an eligible country, you might be able to set up Instagram Subscriptions.
Subscriptions is kind of like a PG-13 version of OnlyFans. Users can pay you a monthly fee to join your members-only club on Instagram and get access to exclusive content and perks.
For example, you can post members-only posts, Reels, Lives, and Stories, which show up with a purple border for your subscribers.
You can also create exclusive subscriber-only chats. And as an extra perk, subscribers get a special badge next to their profile name so they can stand out in your comments and DMs. You get to set the price too, so you could charge as little as $1 or as much as $99/month.
If you don’t like or aren’t eligible for Instagram Subscriptions, you can still sell memberships/communities to your Instagram audience. You’ll just need to use another platform like Patreon to host it.
#6 – Go Live and earn with Badges
Badges are a way for users to show their support to their favorite creators on Instagram Live.
While you’re live, viewers can purchase badges to get recognition (a heart is displayed next to their username) and give something back. They’re available in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99, and your earnings are paid out over direct deposit.
You can turn on Badges through your profile. You’ll need to be eligible for monetization, then click the button that says Set Up Badges.
Remind viewers of your livestream that Badges are enabled, and don’t forget to thank and shout out anyone who buys them.
#7 – Earn money on Reels with Gifts
Gifts and Stars are another way to earn money on Instagram through audience donations.
Your fans can purchase them directly in the app to show appreciation for your Reels content. And when they do, a portion of the money goes to you (after Instagram takes their share).
Only certain countries and accounts are eligible for Gifts, and you’ll need at least 500 followers. You can set Gifts up through your profile. You’ll need to gain access to Instagram’s monetization tools first and set up a payout account to receive earnings.
#8 – Earn money with Bonuses
Instagram occasionally runs programs—called Bonuses—in which they pay eligible creators directly for producing great content.
Right now at the time of writing, for example, they’re currently running their Summer Bonus program, which is invitation-only for selected creators in the US, Japan, and South Korea. Before that, there was the Spring Bonus. There may be more in the future.
The amount you earn from the current Summer Bonus depends on how many times your Reels are played, and how many times your posts are viewed, within the bonus period. The better your content performs, the more you get paid.
If you’re invited, you can set up Bonuses by going to your Professional dashboard and then tapping the invitation. After that, follow the prompts until clicking Activate Bonus, and you’re in.
#9 – Monetize with Instagram ads
Recently, Instagram launched ads monetization. Now, eligible creators can earn money from ads that show up in their Reels and post feeds.
Not everyone is eligible, however. You’ll receive an email or notification letting you know if you can monetize with ads, and if so, you can turn it on in your profile settings.
Just keep in mind that ads on Reels don’t pay very much. In fact, some creators report earning under 10 dollars a month from hundreds of thousands of Reel plays, which brings me to the next monetization method…
#10 – Move your audience to another social media platform (that you can better monetize)
As mentioned above, Instagram isn’t great when it comes to monetizing with ads. Most accounts aren’t eligible at all, and those that are don’t earn a lot.
You can earn a lot more in ad revenue on other social media networks—particularly YouTube.
For example, some creators on Instagram report earning an RPM (revenue per 1,000 views) of under $0.01. That’s crazily low.
In comparison, on YouTube, the average RPM is typically somewhere between $2 and $15. So where 100k Reels plays might only earn you a dollar on Instagram, 100k YouTube views could earn you $200 to $1,500.
So, one way to make money on Instagram is to use it to build a following, and then funnel some of those followers over to YouTube, TikTok, etc. where you can earn more money.
Try adding links to your YouTube channel and other socials in your bio link page, then promote your new YouTube videos on Instagram.
That’s what creator @abroadinjapan does, which has helped them rack up over 3 million subscribers on YouTube
Related: Check out our roundup of social media statistics for more insights about the different social media platforms out there.
#11 – Sell digital products to your audience
We’ve already talked about how you can make money on Instagram by selling merch and online courses.
You can also make money selling other types of digital products to your Instagram audience.
I’m talking about things like ebooks, PDFs, cheatsheets, templates, printables… anything you can download and use digitally.
These types of products take less time and effort to create compared to courses. And as with courses, you only make them once and can sell them as many times as you want for unlimited profit.
You can use tools like Canva to create your digital products and sell them through your Sellfy store or any other ecommerce platform. Don’t forget to add a link to your store in your Instagram bio.
As another Instagram marketing strategy, you can try giving away some digital products for free as a lead magnet, like this example from @lashpreneur_academy.
This can help you to get more subscribers on Instagram, or get more of your subscribers from Instagram into your sales funnel, both of which can help you to earn more money later down the line.
#12 – Create a paid newsletter (and sell subscriptions)
Create an email newsletter based around the content you already post on Instagram, and monetize it through premium subscriptions.
You can get people to sign up for the free newsletter by promoting it in your Instagram bio, and offering some sort of lead magnet like a free digital download or entrance to a giveaway when they sign up.
Then, set up an email sequence to nurture them and promote the paid version of the newsletter, which comes with exclusive, premium content.
You’ll need email marketing software to set up your newsletter, create your opt-in forms, send emails, and set up email sequences. I’d recommend MailerLite.
#13 – Set up an Instagram Shop
If you have products to sell, you can use Instagram Shopping to sell them directly to your audience inside the Instagram app.
It lets you set up an in-app storefront, and tag products from your catalog directly in your feed posts, Reels, and Stories. Then, users can click those tags to go straight to checkout and buy the product.
This is easier than sending people from Instagram to your website via a bio link—which is what you’re stuck with without Instagram shopping—so you can potentially earn more money.
Instagram Shopping and Instagram Checkout is only available to eligible creators in the US, and you’ll need to have an Instagram Business account or Creator account. If you’re eligible, you can set up your shop in Commerce Manager or from your profile settings.
#14 – Sell your services as an Instagram consultant or social media manager
If you’ve managed to grow a large following on Instagram organically, then you have knowledge that’s in demand.
You can set yourself up as a freelance Instagram consultant or social media manager, and sell your services to brands and businesses that want to grow. And you can use your account as evidence that you know what you’re doing.
To get started, I’d recommend putting together a resume or online portfolio that showcases some of your best posts and highlights your growth.
Then, sign up for freelancer marketplaces like Upwork, look for jobs that are hiring, and pitch yourself to them.
It’s up to you how much you want to charge, but talented social media managers for high profile brands can charge upwards of $50 an hour.
#15 – Ask your audience for donations
A simple but effective way to make money on Instagram is to simply ask your audience to donate so you can continue making great content.
You can set up a donation page using Buy Me A Coffee. Then, link to it in your bio with a nice CTA (call-to-action).
If you want your Instagram followers to donate, you need to give them a reason to. That means consistently putting out great free content that’s worth paying for.
It also means regularly engaging with your audience by liking and replying to their messages, interacting with them over Instagram Live, etc.
All of this helps to create a deeper connection between you and your audience, which makes them more likely to want to support you.
#16 – Use Instagram to promote your blog posts (and monetize them)
Another way to make money on Instagram is to first create and monetize a blog, and then use Instagram to drive traffic to it.
Blogs are easier to monetize than Instagram as you have a lot of options. You can create product reviews and roundup posts that promote your affiliate offers, monetize your blog through ads, sell sponsored posts, etc.
Then, you can drive traffic to your blog from your Instagram page by linking to it in your bio and promoting individual posts in your feed posts, Reels, and Stories like @blogging.wizard does.
You can also drive more traffic to your blog from other channels like organic search (SEO).
Final thoughts
That concludes our complete guide to making money on Instagram.
As you can see, there are lots of different monetization methods that you can use. You don’t have to stick with just one either—many Instagram creators earn money through lots of different channels simultaneously (e.g. sponsored posts, ads, donations, etc.)
And remember, the more followers you have, the more money you can make.
For tools that can help you grow your following, see our roundup of social media contest apps and scheduling tools. You might also want to check out these Instagram giveaway ideas.
Related Reading:
Disclosure: If you buy through links on our site, we may make a commission.
