The surge of “how-to” information on making money online may have got you wondering if it was possible for you to make money on the internet. You may also be wondering if you had the right skills and tools to build a profitable business on the internet
The simple rule you have to always remember is that, “If Mr. Jones or Mrs. Celina can make money on the internet, so can you.” Anyone can use the internet to build a profitable business; you’ve got to develop the right skills, access the right information, and make use of the right tools that will enable you to make money on the internet.
One of the hottest money making skills to develop for 2020 is social media marketing skills. There are lots of resources available on the internet to help you with developing the skills to marketable levels. There are some sites that offer free online training and courses on social media marketing, helping to reduce any tuition fees burden on you.
On access to the right information, knowing how to use search engines like Google and Bing can prove very helpful in getting relevant information on internet businesses. This post is actually intended to give you just that – provide you with information and strategies to make money on one of the fastest growing social media networks.
After developing the right skills and having the right information, next in order of importance is the right tool to make your online business a reality. Instagram is one of the greatest online marketing tools for making money online, and after going through this post, you will understand the reasons why.
What we’ll discuss in this post:
- Why You Must Leverage Instagram for your Business
- Tips to Help Grow your Instagram Followers
- 7 Great Ways to Earn on Instagram
- Conclusion
Why You Must Leverage Instagram for your Business
Instagram is a free image-sharing social media network that allows users to create posts using images, photos and short videos. Users can then add stories, hashtags, use location-based geo tags that help other users of Instagram find the content. The Instagram’s post format makes its content highly engaging and ideal for individuals and businesses to reach out to the public.
Instagram also offers a business account for users who want to promote their brands and/or sell their products and services.
Here are some reasons for you to use Instagram for your business:
1. Build Quality Relationships with New and Existing Clients
Most people’s purchases are usually influenced by those they trust, or those they consider knowledgeable in the areas they want to make a purchase from. Instagram makes it possible for brands to communicate with new and existing clients by sharing important information that adds value to them.
Frequent updates from brands help build trust and foster a long-term relationship between the business and its clients.
2. Increase your Brand Awareness among Instagram Users
The total current user base of Instagram is over 1 billion with more than 500 million daily active users. The potential reach on this platform is enough for anyone serious about making money online to consider. You can project your brand to every nation that is represented on Instagram, giving you a global reach.
3. Translate your passion into money making opportunities
You must have heard people say that your passion is very important for your success in business. Instagram takes it one step further by enabling you to monetize your passion. A photographer can sell pictures through his Instagram account while sit-at-home moms can sell cooking recipes through her Instagram account.
4. High Engagement Rate with your Followers
Instagram’s post format makes it one of the highest engagement social media platforms. By implication, you are likely to get more responses from your followers on Instagram than many other social media networks.
5. Become an Influencer
Instagram is a place to build yourself or brand into an influencer. Becoming an influencer just requires you having a minimum of 1,000 quality followers. Posting original and value-adding content on a frequent basis will help you garner the much needed followers who come to regard you as an influencer in your niche.
6. Take Advantage of Instagram Tools for Business
Instagram offers a free business account for brands to engage their target audience. This account comes with powerful marketing tools for businesses to add their contact information, view insights on all posts, and ability to add call-to-action buttons on posts.
7. Cost-effective Means to Sell your Products and Services
Promoting your business either through a content marketing strategy or through paid promotions on Instagram cost less than other media. The cost of promoting products is so affordable that small businesses can take advantage of Instagram to drive their brands.
Tips to Help Grow your Instagram Followers
The first step towards making money on Instagram is to have a sizable amount of followers. You don’t need to amass followers in their hundreds of thousands or millions just like the well-known superstars. Having 1,000 high engaging followers is enough to qualify you as an influencer. Here are some tips to help with building your Instagram followers.
- Post original and fresh content frequently
- Build yourself into an authority in your field
- Focus your posts around a particular niche
- Take advantage of Instagram Business features
- Post high quality images and videos
- Use keyword-related terms for your posts’ hashtags
- Geo-tag your posts to get the best responses from users who are based in those locations
- Be objective about products you are promoting
- Use Instagram social share tools on your blog and website
- Make your posts worth sharing
- Respond to comments, requests and suggestions on your posts
7 Great Ways to Earn on Instagram
Instagram has the numbers, the engagement and the tools to help your online business grow and become profitable. These are my favorite strategies to make money on Instagram.
1. Sell Physical and Digital Products
Products that were created by your company or sold at your online store can be sold on your Instagram page. You can sell any kind of products as there are no restrictions on the type of products allowed on Instagram. It is however important that you can deliver on any orders made at your store.
You can sell physical products like shoes, wristwatches and electronics, digital products like online courses, eBooks and audiobooks, and services like hotel bookings, freelance writing and graphic design services. You retain 100% of the revenue or profits made on the sale of your products on Instagram.
Shopping on Instagram is a rich feature that makes selling on Instagram much better for users. Brands can have shopping tags on their images which reveal the product’s name and price. Additional information about the products is displayed when users click on tags. Every product displayed through Shopping on Instagram can be linked directly to the store on Amazon, Etsy and other online stores.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a business model that enables marketers to promote products and services belonging to advertisers, while they earn a commission for every sale that comes through them. Affiliate marketers can promote advertisers’ products on their websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media accounts. Instagram is a great platform for affiliate marketers to use in promoting products they have on sale.
Affiliate marketers are given unique URLs or links for every product being promoted. As an affiliate marketer, you can drive affiliate sales by placing the links in your Instagram account. Success in affiliate marketing business is all about numbers; the larger your Instagram followers the more prospects of landing closing sales.
Choosing the right affiliate marketing program is also very vital for your success. Here are some notable affiliate marketing programs that offer great benefits to marketers.
- Amazon Associates – gives you access to sell all products available for sale at Amazon store. – see more about Amazon Associates here
- AWIN – sell for a number of notable and high-paying advertisers offering a wide range of products to choose from.
- Clickbank – Affiliate network with a lot of digital products for marketers to sell and earn profits – see more on Clickbank here
- ShareASale – This network has more than 3,000 merchants that cover virtually all niches. Marketers can sign up real easy and start earning almost instantly.
- Sell Visual Contents
Instagram can be used as a portfolio for professional photographers to sell their pictures. Photographers who are able to produce unique and quality pictures can promote these works through their Instagram accounts. Photographers who target their audience mainly through niches on Instagram make better impact than the more general ones.
Photographers can make use of Instagram business accounts to provide additional business information about their services.
Photographers who sell printed images on their stores can use Instagram to drive traffic to their stores. You can make use of hashtags and geotags in your posts to attract your target audience to your photos. There is also Instagram Shoutout for you to use in reaching new audiences.
4. Promote Affiliate Products and Links via Instagram Shoutout
Affiliate marketers who are keen on selling affiliate products despite having few followers can use Instagram Shoutout to reach prospects. The Instagram Shoutout is a service that offers paid promotion for users who want to reach their target audience with their posts or products.
Affiliate marketers can create product posts which include affiliate links added as texts or in the caption. Sharing these posts expose the products to new audiences while increasing the likelihood of successful sales.
5. Offer Social Media Marketing Services
If you have been a regular user of Instagram and other social media networks for long, chances are, you know how to optimize usage of these platforms. You can also pass for an Instagram or social media expert.
Businesses in various niches are springing up every day, with everyone fighting for a piece of the market. This kind of competition puts businesses on their toes to find ways of reaching the new target audience with their products. Social media marketing provides a platform to do just that.
You can offer social media marketing or consulting services to individuals or businesses that need them. According to Business Instagram, there are more than 25 million businesses and 2 million advertisers only on Instagram.
6. Publish Sponsored Posts
Relationship marketing has been on the increase since the advent of social media networks. People seek peer recommendations in most of their purchases online, giving those who have large followers a sort of influencer status.
If you have been able to build your Instagram profile into an influencer status, then you can display sponsored posts of other brands to your audience. Having at least 1,000 quality followers sets you as an influencer. It is advisable to build a niche-specific profile on Instagram.
Businesses operate within various niches and will naturally approach Instagram users who have influence in their niches. Some popular business niches are entertainment, sports, fashion, lifestyle, travels and fitness.
Businesses also consider the engagement rate on the posts of influencers. High engagement rate tends to attract businesses to you for the display of sponsored posts.
7. Freelancers can connect with Clients
Freelancers in any niche can use Instagram to find and connect with new clients. Instagram is a platform where freelancers in different professions can network with each other and find new clients to connect with.
Conclusion
It is possible for anyone with a reasonable amount of followers on Instagram to monetize their accounts. You do not need to have one million followers or superstar status before making money on Instagram. What you need is a high engagement rate with your Instagram posts.
The year 2020 offers so many revenue opportunities on Instagram for those who can find creative ways to make money on it. This post provides 7 creative ways to do just that.
Instagram has over a billion users with more joining every day, giving you a very powerful marketing tool to sell your products and services. You can start now by creating a new account on Instagram if you don’t already have one and then start building highly engaging followers.
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