Money and Instagram go hand in hand. This may sound shocking, but this social platform is not just for making connections. Social media can be a source of great wealth. Instagram can be a source of income for all users even those without the following of major influencers. 

Whether a small business, start up, entrepreneur, trending celebrity, marketing agency, or big corporation, they can all use it on some level to make a profit on Instagram. Instagram has many facets and few actually know it is not just for aesthetic posts. It is indeed an effective earning method for quite a few people and today our hope is to share the wisdom on how to achieve an income yourself.

But how do you make money on Instagram, and what are the minimum follower requirements is a question often asked. So if you are in the same boat, let us resolve all your money-making queries.

Ways to Make Money on Instagram:

There is no hard and fast rule to start earning on Instagram. It all depends upon the method you wish to pursue. For example, you can aim to work with small or large businesses as an influencer and get sponsored, or plug your store, monetize posts, social media in 2022 provides all these options and more.

Each method will require different prerequisites, a varying number of followers, and a growing Instagram account followers. To make it easy, we are mentioning the two primary sources to make money, followed by the number of followers needed to monetize them. 

Without further ado, let us begin so that you can fill your wallets by scrolling on Insta!

1. Influencer Marketing, Cash Cow of Social Media

Whenever someone thinks about making money through insta, the first thing that comes to mind is influencer marketing. Big names with big followers. Who doesn’t want to land an influencing deal which pays for aesthetic products, travel, etc.? 

It is the most prominent way of earning money along with free products and services. There is no need to sell anything. All you need to do to earn cash is share your audience. But the tricky part is it’s hard to curate an account to make money this way. To be an influencer you need to have an influence.

Influencers on Instagram can make thousands of dollars. Not all of them are successful. You need to do a lot to monetize your account as a user and earn per post or video shared. 

Those who start from scratch struggle a lot as influencer earnings largely depend on the number of followers. Usually it is a good indicator of influence, and a larger influence means more potential buyers. This is why influencers with a large following usually follows a large cost for working with them. And to make the follower count rise isn’t easy. 

via: Emplifi

Users who wish to be approached by brands for sponsored deals need a substantial following. There is no exact amount, but below, we have given a brief idea of how much you can make with how many followers?

Number of followers needed for influencer marketing

The follower count is one of the most crucial metrics brands look at before approaching you for collaboration. Even users use this number to gauge a profile’s worth before. So the basic idea is that the more followers, the more companies will pay you to promote their product.

However, influencers with the same number of followers don’t mean they are equally popular and earn the same. Every niche and every person has a different potential. Some influencers can monetize their account even with a small follower count due to their content capacity and approach. 

It all comes down to what brands are looking for and how quickly you can prove you’re bringing value to the business you’re working with. Here are some things that determine when you can cash on your posts to attract sponsored deals:

• The niche you are exploring and the effectiveness with which you tie your content to a particular product category
• The level of engagement of your followers (100 real followers are considered more crucial for the algorithm than 100,000 fake followers)
• The revenue channels you intend to score. Getting free products is more straightforward than charging an outright fee and requires fewer followers.
• Your follower’s profile should match the target audience of the brands near you.
• The way you communicate with brands and relation you build with them

So you don’t need a million followers to make money from your post. Even small players with 4 digit count are approached by brands too. All you need is to prove that your instagram community is dedicated, even if the number is in the thousands. 

2. Run An Insta Shop

If you are not interested in choosing the influencer route, you can try making money by selling products on Instagram. This is the second-best way to earn money on Insta.

Instagram is no longer just a social media channel. Instead, it is slowly transitioning into an ecommerce platform. And the best part is you can quickly start selling on it without any prerequisites.

Sign up with a new or old account and post pictures of your products or services. You can transform your personal account into a business account if you don’t wish to start from scratch. We recommend you to transit to a professional account as it is public and allows you to grow your business.

If you wish to sell via insta, the options are limitless, and so is the earning potential. The only thing you need to keep in mind is not to go against Instagram policies. Your product shouldn’t be copied, and it shouldn’t violate laws. These preconditions are pretty simple. You can find the best practices on Instagram and follow them to get your shop running.

Once you set up a professional business account, you will get access to tools like the dashboard, schedule posts, and data analytics which can help you gain more followers and sell more. Just keep updating the product on your feed, and people will see it and buy from you.

However, this earning source depends on many things, including follower count. We have mentioned it below:

Number of followers needed for Instagram shop

You can start your shop with as low as one follower. This can go up to millions, and so will your sales. The key is to make your viewers convert into clients. The number of followers matters, but their level of engagement matters more as they are the ones that will eventually turn into paying clients. 

So your total income will depend on factors like:

• Content quality: No matter what you sell, you will earn money if you can portray it to your viewers engagingly. Even with a small follower count, you can sell products if your content and brand projection attract users and pushes them to invest in you.
• The product: It’s not just the content that sells; your product itself should also be up to mark. You might be able to sell a few products based on content projection. But to build a loyal client base, you need to sell quality goods so that customers keep returning and that too with more followers on Instagram.
• Followers: Obviously, you need followers as they will watch your post and buy from you. For that, you can either try organic methods or paid marketing. Your efforts to gain followers will determine how much you earn.
• Testimonials: If your clients are happy with you and provide good reviews and client diaries, it can significantly help with earnings. Word of mouth and client resharing are crucial for selling on insta; it instils credibility and increases sales.

How Much Money Can You Make Through Instagram?

Each method has its earning potential. You can make money by choosing any route, but how much you make will depend on your grit and efforts. 

The top Instagrammers in 2021 with more than 300 million followers, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Dwayne Johnson, made astronomical amounts via Instagram. However, their celebrity status also played a huge role. Although these numbers seem unreachable, with the current economy of Instagram, it is possible to have a large follower base and gain a steady income. This does not mean Ronaldo levels of following but these examples do illustrate the massive cap that an Instagram user can have. There is no legislative limitation or tax on follower numbers you can earn and financial earning potential is expansive. If you do manage to cross the thousand mark that is the threshold to start charging for posts, even if your count is less than 100,000 followers, you can earn around £200 per post. That is just the average people are charging right now. Those with less than 10,000 can charge around £100 per post with many companies offering freebies in order to get noticed by the followers. Of course, if you are lucky enough to reach the million mark, you can charge approximately £700-1000 per post or more. It is possible.

Set-up for Instagram Success

So now you understand that making money via Insta is not that difficult. With the proper techniques applied, enough followers, and consistent but quality content, you can turn your account into a side hustle or even main source of income. All it takes is for you to be consistent and genuine. Just like the best businesses have the best customer service so too should businesses on Instagram serve people while providing value for their audience, and with enough patience, will eventually lead to a steady cash flow.