10 ultimate ways how to make money on Instagram

Content Marketer and Writer
Updated 05 April, 2024
Julia Moore
Content Marketer and Writer
Instagram is a social network with more than a billion active users. Instagram has long been transformed from a platform for instant photo sharing into a full-fledged place for earning and doing business. Still think it's hard to make money there? Then it's time to read this article and change your mind.
Reading time — 10 minutes

Make money on Instagram without investments

If you want to monetize your Instagram, there is no need for investments. For example, there are ways when you can make money by doing simple tasks. We'll tell you about them later.

Obviously, you can make only peanuts using most of the methods of Instagram monetization without investments. They suit more for school students and teenagers to make their first money.

How much money you can make on Instagram

Any aspiring Instagram influencer, entrepreneur, or social media manager is eager to know how much money it's possible to make on Instagram. Unfortunately, there is no precise answer.

We took the average salary of each Instagram job from Payscale. The data is relevant for the United States for November 2021. Don't forget that figures can differ radically or slightly in various countries.

The amount of money you can get from Instagram depends on the menetization way:

  • For instance, if you're a social media manager, you can work in an office or from anywhere in the world. According to Payscale data, Instagram managers make an average $53,000 per year.
  • A freelancer who promotes other social media accounts can earn from $200 to $250 per hour. The total salary depends on the cost of services and the number of accounts that he or she promotes. 
  • A blogger with 100,000 followers usually make money from posting on Instagram. They get up to $1000 for a post. No doubt, everything depends on the way people monetize their Instagram accounts. For instance, one can sell information products and advertise well-known brands. The income can reach even several thousand dollars a month.
  • An online store owner can make money on selling goods on Instagram. This usually brings from $1000 per month. Even if he or she has only with 2-3 thousand followers.
We're not talking about singers, actors, footballers, and other celebrities. They sign contracts with world-famous brands due to their popularity and high-profile personal brands. Their incomes exceed millions of dollars a year.

How to make more money if you sell on Instagram

As we've said before, Instagram is by far the most effective platform for promoting both offline and online businesses. It's not enough to create just an Instagram page, you need to put a link to a website in the profile bio, where there will be detailed information about you or about your product, ways to contact you, your location, product range, etc.

No doubt, you can say that creating your own website is expensive, at least you need to pay a programmer and a designer. However, we have a solution for you. We're talking about Taplink.

This tool allows you to create a landing page for your Instagram account in a matter of minutes without design and coding skills. Choose one design from over 300 ready-made options to create your page. Or you can create a custom page, look at these landing page examples to come up with a design idea.

Start creating your stunning landing page right now for generating more traffic and sales.

Here are templates of the pages that you can see above:

Sign up and replace the default information with your own.

Now, let's look at each way of Instagram monetization in greater detail. In addition to each method, we will show you Taplink pages that increase sales and thus the amount of money you make.

Top 10 ways to monetize your Instagram

Now we're ready to consider 10 ways of making money on Instagram using your account and monetizing your professional skills.

#1 — Content & Design Strategist

Monetize your marketing and design skills on Instagram. Make money on creating unique visual content for each account.

What is included in the visual content?

  • Making a profile photo.
  • Creating a catchy bio.
  • Instagram Stories designing.
  • Instagram Post designing.

A content and design specialist can annually earn on average $69,000 on Instagram.

Here you can see examples of visual content on Instagram and Taplink pages.

#2 — Write captions for Businesses

Another way to make money on Instagram, which involves monetizing your skills. If you know how to write captions for social networks, try to become a top-notch specialist in that.

Write engaging and selling Instagram posts. You can set the price that reflects your skills. It could be $700 for 10 captions, or $1,000 for 20 captions.

#3 — Affiliate programs

If you have an audience, but you don't have your product, then you can join an affiliate program and make money on selling a brand's items in your IG account. For example, you can become a representative of Avon or an Amazon affiliate on Instagram.

It's not obligatory to have a thousand IG followers to make money. The company wants to see that you communicate with your audience, and followers trust you.

As a representative, you add your affiliate link to the Instagram bio and advertise Avon beauty products in your profile. If users buy a product after clicking on your affiliate link, then you will receive a percentage of the sale. 

You usually get 5%—30% from the products cost. The more followers you have an the more persuasive you are, the more money you make on Instagram. 

#4 — Become a Brand Ambassador

Bloggers with several thousand Instagram followers has an option to become a brand ambassador, for example, Luminar Neo, to make money.

Unlike one-time advertising, this is a permanent collaboration. The ambassador should periodically make advertising posts on Instagram to get money.

How much money you can make this way depends on the terms of the contract: the number of posts per month, participation in special events, or shooting in commercials.

The more followers you have, the more money you make. If you are a nano-influencer with less than 10,000 followers on Instagram, you can get paid up to $100 per post. In case you have about 50,000 followers, you can take $500 for one post.

#5 — Sponsored posts

If you are an influencer with an audience of 10,000 followers, you can start promoting sponsored ads in your Instagram to make money. This is one of the most common ways to monetize your account.

How do you make money on sponsored posts on Instagram? You get an email or message in Direct from an advertiser. He or she asks you to promote, for example, an online wallet store in your Instagram. You tell the person that one ad post costs, for instance, is $100.

The advertiser pays you, and then you publish a sponsored post on Instagram. The more followers you have, the more money you make.

It's simple money math: let's say you have 50,000 followers. The price of one ad post on Instagram is $500. If you aim to earn $5000 per month, you have to make 10 ads posts.

Macro-influencers get contracts with brands easily. Usually, advertisers write them via Instagram Direct or WhatsApp. If you're a nano-influencer with an audience of less than 10,000 followers, then you have to look for advertisers yourself. Find at least 5-10 online stores and offer them cooperation to make money.

#6 — Editing videos for Instagram

If you know how to make cool videos in Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, then you can monetize these skills. Make videos for bloggers, business accounts, or brands. Use your Instagram account to find clients. 

You can search for clients on special freelance services too. Thus, you will make even more money. Freelance video editors earn on average ​$38,000​ per year.

Offer your services directly to make more money on Instagram: write to experts, bloggers, and brands. You can offer making the first video for free to draw potential clients' attention.

Don't forget to provide your work examples when you offer your services. You can add YouTube links to your Instagram page or in messages, and also share videos from other platforms. And you can post the examples on your Instagram page as posts or Stories that you save to Highlights then.

#7 — Social media virtual assistant

The next most popular way to make money on Instagram is professional account promotion. You can monetize your social media manager skills.

If you are a complete beginner, then you are unlikely to make money on the promotion of others' IG profiles. You need to master your marketing skills.

What hard skills can you monetize on Instagram?

  • Setting up and maintaining targeted advertising.
  • Writing engaging posts.
  • Promotion through hashtags.
  • Creating visual content.

If you are a good specialist, you can expect to get from $95,000 to $131,000 a year. This is a very popular profession: large companies are constantly looking for Instagram marketers. Don't miss your chance to make money!

You get more clients if you let them know in your social bio that you can take their accounts for promoting. Make a good self presentation in your bio. If you have experience, you can show cases or link to your LinkedIn profile.

#8 — Sell your items

Instagram is a perfect platform for selling your goods and services. You can start your own online store, sell digital products like design templates, or offer manicure services. Let's say you rare a photographer, then you should create a photography portfolio and add it to your bio to find clients. This way of making money is as simple as obvious.

In addition, this account monetization can include a franchise business: if you bought a franchise, for example, a pizzeria, then create an account for your business on Instagram and start attracting customers from your city.

The amount of money you can get depends on your niche.

  • Most online store owners gain more than $50,000 a year on Instagram.
  • Instagram influencers who sell info products make more than $100,000 a year. No doubt, everything depends on the number of followers.

#9 — Coaching

This is relevant for experts' accounts who want to make money on Instagram. Let's assume that you are a Social Media Manager. In addition to the promotion of accounts, you can be a coach on Instagram.

For example, you sell your services on Instagram and take $50-$75 per one-hour session. If you're an experienced specialist, your hour can make more money and charge $100-$200 for this hour. During the session, you help clients create a company brand and develop their Instagram marketing strategy without investments.

You don't need a lot of Instagram followers to make money this way. It works even if you have 500 followers. The main thing is to prove yourself as a good specialist and gain the trust of the audience. To do this, you need to create useful content: write expert posts, livestream on Instagram and answer questions, record video tutorials, etc.

#10 — Make money for comments and likes

As we've said before, you can make money on Instagram without investments. For example, you can like and leave comments under Instagram posts. You complete tasks and get money for it.

You have to know that this isn't the way for you if you want to gain a thousand dollars. On average, you can get $0.5 per Instagram comment. Still, it's a good start if you make money online without hard skills or millions of Instagram followers.

We have to say, that we don't support this method of making money. Dishonest cheating of likes and comments will eventually play a dirty trick with those who use such services. This can even lead to the deletion of your Instagram account.

How to start monetizing your Instagram: 4 tips

Let's talk about how to start making money on Instagram.

  1. Choose Instagram monetization you like. For instance, make money by promoting Instagram accounts or sponsored posts. 
  2. Master useful skills. No doubt, if you want to make a lot of money, you need to know how to do a lot of things. Study how to set up targeted advertising, how to make visual content and write catch captions. For example, learn advertiser specialty. 
  3. Don't be afraid of experiments. Try different ways of monetization. That's how you can find the best method for making money on Instagram.
  4. Keep your eye on the ball. Constantly follow the latest trends on Instagram. New ways of making money appear every year.

Let's recap

Now you know how to make money on Instagram. We have reviewed the top 10 methods: choose the one that you liked the most. Remember that you can earn money without investments, but not without effort and constant training. Don't forget about creating a Taplink page and adding it to your Instagram bio.