I’m sure you’ve heard of people earning tens or even hundreds of thousands per Instagram post. You might be thinking, “But they have millions of followers too, I can never reach that!” I’ll probably surprise you today, the truth is that you don’t need millions of followers to make money on Instagram. Even just a thousand is enough to make money on Instagram. So let’s take a look at how to make money on Instagram.
But first – what is Instagram?
Instagram is a social network with 1 billion active users that focuses primarily on visuals (videos and photos) and is only available as a smartphone app. A web interface exists, but you cannot upload posts through it.
Instagram allows its users to share photos and videos, in the form of photo or video posts, short videos in the form of so-called. Insta Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, or by sharing longer videos (up to 10 minutes) in Instagram TV (IGTV) format.
Instagram went under Facebook in 2012.
If you’re serious about Instagram, check out my guide to 25 tips and tricks for a successful Instagram.
What Instagram is for
Users look to Instagram for inspiration and entertainment. Instagram is often referred to as a “friendlier social network” than Facebook. Instagram is all about visuals and videos, so you’ll find a number of accounts dedicated to travel, food, fitness, fashion and beauty.
But in the last year, there has also been a growing number of accounts where photo captions and Instagram stories are becoming more important than the photos themselves. Users can also follow the everyday life of celebrities on Instagram, for example, Leoš Mareš or Beyonce are active on the social network.
How Instagram works and basic concepts
Instagram is a phone app and is therefore controlled entirely via smartphone.
Followers – Followers
One of the most important aspects on Instagram is the number of followers, which are the users who follow your account. This metric measures how many people are interested in your content and adding you to their stream. The higher the number of followers, the greater your reach and potential for marketing purposes.
Followings – Followed
The number of followings indicates the number of people you follow. It is important to follow other users through the followings feature. These followers represent your audience and potential sources of inspiration. Following and interacting with interesting profiles is key to building your network of contacts and expanding the reach of your content.
Instagram Story or Instagram Stories
The format of posts (video or photo) that disappear after 24 hours. These stories appear when you click on a user’s profile photo and can include both photos and videos. They are the perfect way to instantly engage your followers and provide them with ongoing content.
Instagram Story Highlights – Saved Instagram Stories
Instagram allows users to save selected Instagram Stories that appear below the caption in their profile. This element is known as Instagram Story Highlights. By storing and organising selected posts into relevant topics or categories, you can give visitors to your profile an overview of what you do and what content you offer.
Insta Story Live Stream
Features when you can broadcast live. For example, it’s useful for questions and answers from your followers. You can broadcast live with another user.
Instagram Reels
The most popular video format is Instagram Reels.
Instagram Reels is another interesting feature offered by this popular social network. This is a format for short videos that are between 15 seconds and 90 seconds (previously 60 seconds). IG took this format from TikTok to compete with it. At Reels, it’s popular to follow trends and experiment with them. One minute they were all imitating a dance from Wednesday, the next they were making Wes Anderson-inspired videos.
How to make a successful Instagram in a nutshell
This article isn’t about building a successful Instagram, so we’re only going to cover this in detail. However, gaining a sufficient number of followers is a prerequisite for greater earnings. The number of followers is one of the main indicators of the success of your Instagram profile.
High-quality photos and unified profile
The key to success on Instagram is posting quality photos or videos that engage other users, accompanied by interesting or entertaining text.
Previously, most celebrity accounts were dedicated to photo editing (the vast majority used Lightroom ) and shoot with high quality cameras (more in the article How to choose a camera for bloggers ).
Today there is more emphasis on quality content and video. Many successful Instagrammers take photos and videos of everything on their iPhone. But that doesn’t mean that post-production is any easier than it used to be. Everything has to be thoroughly edited and possibly textured in other applications before it goes out.
In general, you should stick to one main theme and a unified visual design.
Hashtags help you make your posts more visible
The choice of hashtags (a word or phrase marked with a “#”) used to indicate a keyword is more important than we all think. Hashtags can help you to make your post more visible.
Hashtags should be relevant to the content. If you’re posting from your holiday in Greece, you can add hashtags like #dovolena #recko or #greece.
You can tag up to 30 hashtags, but the ideal number for Instagram’s algorithm is 11.
Instagram rewards active users
If you yourself are not active on Instagram, i.e. you don’t look at other people’s Stories, you don’t respond to posts and you don’t like them, Instagram knows that. And Instagram prefers active users – user activity = money for Instagram. So if you want to succeed on Instagram, you need to interact with other users – like their photos and comment on them.
Tip: Detailed instructions, How to make a successful Instagram here.
How to start making money on Instagram
And here we are at last. In this section, we’ll show you ways to make money with Intagram. As we mentioned at the beginning, you usually don’t need tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers to start making money on Instagram. You can start with a few hundred followers. The important thing is to build a community of relevant followers, and keep in touch with them.
How much does it cost?
Many brands and Instagrammers are proof that more than money, Instagram will cost you a lot of time. If you invest a sufficient amount of care to your account, you will grow. The biggest investment you’ll have to make, will be into taking quality photos and videos at the moment. And especially the cutting and trimming.
How long before Instagram starts earning you money?
It really depends on a number of aspects. Most people don’t earn anything for the first few months after they start marketing on Instagram. Instagram is more of a long run than a sprint. But by the time you reach the finish line, all your efforts can pay off many times over.
1) Influencer marketing and collaboration
Most people think of making money on Instagram as working with brands. Influencers build their reputation on social media by sharing quality and valuable content with their followers.
It can be focused on almost anything that people are interested in. Popular is weight loss, fitness, recipes or travel. Brands then pay them to take photos and film with their products.
You might be surprised, but you don’t need tens of thousands of followers to collaborate. We got our first collaboration when I had only 1700 followers and I know people who get collaborations even under 1000 followers. How is that possible?
They either have a very well read blog (as is the case here) or they have a very narrowly focused target audience and know how to sell to them. I know a young lady who focuses on moms with kids, she only has something like 1100 followers, but every post has dozens of comments from other moms! More about collaborations with influencers in our next article.
Tip, how much influencers make.
How to set a price
The price is very individual anddepends onyour negotiating skills. However, up to 5000 followers, prices are usually in the hundreds. How to determine your price can be found in our next comprehensive article on working with Instagram influencers .
How much does Leoš Mareš earn on Instagram
At the end of 2018, Forbes magazine published an interview with Leoš Mareš, one of the biggest influencers on Czech Instagram.
Leoš Mareš ‘s Instagram profile has more than 44 million views per week and reaches over 1.2 million people.
Of course, Leoš Mareš knows how to make good use of this, 50% of his income comes from his Instagram collaborations (25% of his income comes from moderating private events, 10% from appearing on TV, 10% from concerts and only 5% from radio).
He earns several million crowns a month on Instagram. Leoš Mareš said that the minimum price for cooperation on his Instagram is CZK 400 000. On Instagram, he has collaborated with brands such as MasterCard, Mall.cz and Penny.
2) Patreon or HeroHero
If you’ve already built up a following, you can create premium content on Patreon or HeroHero where people pay a monthly fee to see it.
For example, we have an account at Patreon where we share more sensitive data – for example, exactly how much we earn from our blog (and what exactly our profits are), our journey to buy a flat in Portugal and our best online marketing tactics. In short, everything we wouldn’t want to give away publicly for free.
There are, of course, more platforms than Patreon and HeroHero , for example Pickey which is Czech.
3) Affiliate Marketing
You’ve probably already read about affiliate marketing with us, it’s a great way to make money on your blog and on social media. Unlike influencer marketing, affiliate marketing is not about building brand awareness, it’s about driving sales.
It works quite simply, if someone makes a purchase through you from a brand whose affiliate program you are signed up to, you get a commission on the sale. Affiliate program has for example Alza, 4camping or Pilulka.cz.
On Instagram, it’s a bit more complicated because you can’t put links in individual posts, but now at least anyone can put a link in Instagram Stories (previously there was a limit of over 10,000 followers) or in a profile. You may also have a special code that your followees will use when making a purchase. This is usually solved by using a discount code.
Generally affiliate marketing is much more interesting in the case of written blog than Instagram.
4) Selling your own product
If you make bracelets, sew beautiful clothes or have written an e-book, for example, you can sell that on Instagram too. This social network is ideal for presenting almost any product that has a target audience somewhere between 18 and 50 years old.
5) Selling your own service
Skilled hairdressers, nail technicians or photographers can easily gain not only clients but also prestige through Instagram. I know a number of hairdressers who became famous thanks to Instagram, they were full even months in advance, so they could afford to increase the price by 200% in 12 months!
But it doesn’t just apply to hairdressers, you can practically sell any service today, whether you are marketing, couching or teaching foreign languages. Thanks to the Reels format, you can engage people with witty and educational posts and you don’t exactly have to have a job that’s visually appealing.
This doesn’t just apply to the above, whatever creative activity you do, you can build a decent business around it on Instagram. The more visual it is, the more chance you have of success.
Instagram is a great tool for showcasing skilled craftsmen, but also dentists.
6) Promotion of your own business
Those who already have their own business can use Instagram to promote it. Whether through your own Instagram or by collaborating with influencers. There are a number of brands that have seen tremendous growth thanks to Instagram. An example is the Czech producer of natural cosmetics Renovality.
Beware, Instagram is not for everyone. Still, most users are in the under 30 age group, so if your product is targeting 50+, you should probably look for other channels.
Frequently asked questions
How to make money on Instagram?
Collaborating with brands or selling your own products or services. You can also move some content to paid channels.
How long before I can start making money on Instagram?
It depends on the focus of the content. For some it can be from 10 000 followers, for others it can be from 1000.
How much can I earn with Instagram?
It’s individual. Some Czech influencers earn millions a month.
Do I need a business license to make money on Instagram?
In most cases, yes. You should properly tax all your income.
