Everyone wants to make money online, but not everyone has the will or drive to go make a website, get it ranked, and build up an audience. Social media helps eliminate that problem.
It’s easy to set up your own page on a well-established social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. These sites not only let you use their authority for free, but they also save you money in hosting and domain names as well as saving time spent writing articles.
On top of all of this you can even use their services to make money for yourself (and I’m not talking about a couple bucks here and there). It seems like a good direction to go no matter which way you look at it.
What You Will Learn
- Some great niches to test out
- How to build a following on Instagram
- What tools will help you get the job done faster
- Different methods of monetizing your Instagram following
How To Find The Right Niche For You
Let’s just be straight up here: if you don’t have a general interest in a topic then don’t try to build a page for it. When you don’t like the niche you’re in, then the content you post will likely be bland and boring and this will result in a lot less active of a following and even a potential at losing followers.
Right, now that we have that out of the way we can get directly to the cake. An easy way to start is to grab a notebook and a pencil and begin to write down 10 or so topics that you genuinely enjoy.
Take a look at your list because these are now all potential niches for you to go into. Take a minute and go to Instagram and quickly research each topic. If some don’t seem very popular it’s safe to scratch it off of the list.
From here I would take the remaining options and take the one that seemed to be the most popular. Keep this list because you’ll be able to use all of those later on as well.
Now that you have your selected topic, head over to Instagram on your phone and think of an account name. Try to make it sound as professional as possible as this will make your page seem more legitimate and respectable to potential followers.
Begin Building Your Page Following
Before you begin to build up your following, I highly recommend you to let your account age a couple of days and verify it via text or email verification. This will make your account seem less spammy and you’ll be less likely to get banned. Make sure you still post at least once a day during this time.
There’s a couple of methods you can use to begin building up your page when you’re still at the 0 followers count. They simply consist of following users, liking their posts, and commenting on their posts.
When you’re going about finding people to do this to, make sure you go to an account or use a hashtag to search for people so you know they’re interested in your niche. You’re a lot more likely to gain followers this way.
Once you’ve followed 500-1000 people it’s safe to begin to unfollow some of them. I personally will follow 750 accounts and then unfollow the 750 accounts that I had previously followed. This keeps the following number down low and makes your account appear better.
These methods are all simply rinse and repeat. As your account gets more popular, you can do a “shoutout for shoutout” with a page similar in niche and size to yours.
This simply means you post a picture on your page and tell your followers to follow them, and they do the same for you. It’s an easy and free way to potentially gain some followers you may have never gotten otherwise. You can also invest some money and directly buy shoutouts from accounts with massive followings already.
Tools To Help Get The Job Done Quicker
Just like with any job, there’s always some tools that can help you to grow much faster. Typically these will automate some part of the process, but be aware that if automation is involved it’s always possible to get banned.
Programs for Instagram typically will automate the following and unfollowing, liking, and commenting process. Some bots may even post for you but they’re typically more expensive and I recommend you posting yourself so the posts will be the highest quality.
There’s a variety of bots for you to go and search from, but I personally like Mass Planner. There’s different tiers dependent upon how much you have to spend, and each tier unlocks more options. You can also try a free trial for Mass Planner on the link above.
Methods Of Monetizing Your Posts
Ah, now we’re to the juicy part! Before you put all of this time and effort into building your page, I want to show you just a few of many possibilities of monetization on Instagram to prove it’s possible.
The first method I like to use is selling shoutouts. There’s a lot of sites like ShoutCart where you can go and register, then add your Instagram account to their shoutout page along with how much you want your shoutouts to cost. This can also easily be done on Fiverr like this gig has done.
Another simple way to make money on Instagram is the use of affiliate links to sell products through services like ClickBank. Simply register for an affiliate account and find a product with a good landing page that’s related to your niche.
Once you find a product that’s a good fit for your page, get a link for that product and put it into your posts descriptions and in your account bio where they want you to fill out your website.
Conclusion
Social media networks have provided unimaginable possibilities for people with little money to invest will make a lot if they’re willing to put in the effort.
The methods I described for monetization are just a few of many, so if they aren’t working well enough for you go ahead and try something new. Persistence is key.
Have you had any past experiences with Instagram marketing that you’d like to share with us? Go ahead and leave a comment to this article down below!