How-TO: Make Money on Instagram

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is basically when you promote a product and get paid per sale. You’ll often see bloggers doing this with sidebar banners promoting their partners (affiliates), or even through specific product inspired posts. Well, it’s not much different with Instagram.

With Instagram, you post attractive images highlighting their products and drive sales through your affiliate URL (this should be provided by your affiliate).

There are quite a few companies you can work with here. Here are some:

Sharesale. Find companies you want to work with, sign up for their affiliate program, get approved then start promoting. In some programs, it's easier to get approved if you have a blog or website. Ebates. Refer people that love deals & discounts, then get commission. Stylinity. great for fashion bloggers. When people shop using your link, you'll get commission.

Here's an example, see how Kristyn from GlamourZine promote those over the knee boots?

You can put your affiliate URL on your captions or on your bio. You can either use bitly. com to shorten and customize your affiliate link OR you can hook up your blog and Instagram profile so that when people purchase through your link, you get a sale.

It really couldn’t be easier. This type of marketing is particularly popular with clothing on Instagram, as you can post your “OOTD” (outfit of the day) with the affiliate link sending followers to your full outfit details.

For those involved in the travel industry (or simply those that love to travel – ahem, all of us!), you could try to set up and use affiliate marketing when taking part in reviews for hotels and venues. Simply direct followers to book through your link!

It’s also great for beauty bloggers, as you can invite people to “shop the look. ” These methods are subtler and, as such, more effective than a direct sales type pitch.

2. Create Sponsored Posts (Find Sponsors!)

Instagram users with engaged followings can earn extra money by creating original sponsored content for brands.

In a nutshell, a piece of sponsored content on Instagram is a photo or video that highlights a product or a brand.

These posts are accompanied by captions that may include branded hashtags, @mentions, or links.

Brands don’t typically require a formal brand ambassadorship for creators of sponsored content, but it’s common to for them to tap certain influencers for content time and time again.

However, it’s important that any brands or products you promote are a good fit for your own personal image on Instagram.

The idea is to show off brands that you can personally get behind, and to show your followers how that brand fits into your lifestyle.

TapInfluence is a great tool for Instagram creators who are looking for opportunities for sponsored content, and it takes the guesswork out of the process of aligning with brands. You create a profile that describes you and the nature of your content, and brands who are interested in working with you will invite you to programs. Ifluenz is another easy tool as you can browse matching available campaigns created by a variety of brands and directly promote the ones you prefer.

3. Sell your photos

An obvious one, surely? Why not use Instagram for it sole purpose… to showcase your photography?

If you’re a professional (or amateur but keen!) photographer, Instagram is a great way to advertise and sell your shots to either individuals or agencies. Add a watermark to your snaps and use the captions to list all selling details in a concise manner.

As always, make sure that you have an active presence so that the right type of accounts are following you. Use appropriate hashtags to pull people towards your shots and get a conversation going with influential photography agencies.

There are also a few sites that you can use to actually put your Instagram photos for sale, including:

4. Promote your business, products or services

If you run your own business, then Instagram needs to hold an integral place in your marketing matrix.

If you sell products, use it to post beautiful shots that can’t be found on your website. Here are some creative ways to promote your products or services:

Behind the scenes. “Behind the scenes” type images tend to be hugely popular – picture gorgeous handmade soaps being gift wrapped, jewellery being pieced together or delicious cakes straight out of the oven. It’s appealing and adds a certain realness to what you’re doing… and people love that. Your customers' photos: Linked to this is the use of User Generated Content on your account. Get customers to share their images of your products and re-gram (download "Repost for Instagram" app to repost your customers' photos). This is a proven successful method of selling and would make a great addition to your account. It also calls for you to start up your own unique hashtag which you can then promote to all your customers: it’s a seriously slick way to make yourself stand out from the crowd. For example, White Castle asks their customers to use #MyCrave to their photos. Now when they see them using that hashtag, they can repost (or regram) their photos to their Instagram account. Here's an example: Infographics + exclusive offers. You can also market your services through Instagram with snazzy infographics and exclusive offers. Using Instagram to feature special offers is also a great tool to up your follower count as it’s a bonus they won’t find anywhere else.

The brilliant thing about using Instagram to promote your business is you can get mega creative with it. Think outside of the box and really use it to your full advantage. You’re sure to see the sales flying in.

5. Sell your Instagram account

Had enough of Instagram? Ready to move on?

Well, you’ll be happy to know that all your hard work hasn’t gone to waste. You can actually sell your Instagram account if (for whatever reason) you can no longer manage it.

There’s a few site that support you with this, two of the best being:

Bonus Tip: Take a course to speed up your strategy

If you're running a business and you want to generate more sales, you should take a course workshop! This Instagram course will teach you a proven system for turning your followers into customers. This is great for: Coaches / Bloggers / Artists / Consultants / Product Sellers / Designers / Online Course Creators / even a lawyer. You'll get 100% refund if you don't see results in 14 days.

Now’s the time to make it happen!

So now you know the 5+ handy ways to make money through Instagram, you’re all set to start building your empire. Whatever avenue you decide to go down, be sure to always keep your personal brand in mind and treat what you do as a business. The more you understand what it is you can offer, the stronger your message will be to potential collaborators!

Another way to make money online? Start a blog! click here to learn how.

Pocket a little cash without getting scammed.

Avoid the get-rich-quick schemes by sticking to these sites. (iStockphoto)

It doesn’t take much time to run across someone pitching a “get-rich-quick” scheme online. We’ve all seen them – people who promise to show you how to make thousands at home in your spare time.

Guess what? Like any get-rich-quick scheme. it’s only going to make money for the person running the scheme.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t reputable ways to earn a little bit of money online during your spare time. There are many easy and legal ways to earn a few bucks on the Internet. Here are nine to try:

Mechanical Turk is a program run by Amazon where anyone can sign up and complete simple tasks – like choosing which of two pictures depicts a bridge – to earn a few cents per task. With some practice, you can earn a few dollars an hour while just sitting on your couch watching television. And with enough focus, you can earn an amount roughly equal to minimum wage.

YouTube allows anyone to post nonexplicit videos on pretty much any topic they desire. Recording a video can be as simple as turning on the camera on your computer and hitting the record button. If you enable advertisements on your videos, you can earn money at a rate of about $1 to $3 per 1,000 video views. The more videos the have, the more views you can accrue, so this option really pays off if you record a lot of videos and build a viewership.

eLance allows people in almost any profession to find freelance work at home in their spare time. While the projects on eLance aren’t going to earn you a ton of money, they do provide a great way to build an independent portfolio to show off your skills while also building a network of clients.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allows anyone who has written a book on their own to upload it to Amazon to be sold on Amazon Kindle devices. Let’s say you write a novel and want to sell it. If you upload it here and then promote it online through social media or blogs, you can sell copies of your book and earn as much as a 70 percent return on each sale.

Fotolia allows you to sell photos you’ve taken for stock photography usage. For example, if a publisher is looking for a picture of a beach and you uploaded such a picture, the publisher can use Fotolia to purchase the rights to use that picture in its publication and you receive a cut of that money. For a photography hobbyist, this is a great way to earn a few dollars for some of your best photos.

Swagbucks is perhaps the most popular – and most legitimate – of the online survey sites. Swagbucks pays you a small amount for participating in a consumer survey, which companies then use to figure out what kinds of products to make and sell. You can participate in several surveys a day, and Swagbucks earnings can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon, Target, iTunes and more.

Fiverr is a website where you can make $5 doing almost anything. On the site, people upload jobs that they’re willing to do for $5, like writing Facebook posts for companies. Many of the jobs require creative skills such as graphic design or audio editing, but tasks are things you can easily do on the couch in your spare time.

Skillshare is a website where you can teach an online class and get paid for it. You record series of videos on a topic that you know about – popular subjects include crafts, film, fashion and cooking – and then participate on the Skillshare forums related to your class. In exchange, you receive a cut of the money from the people who take your class. No teaching degree is necessary to get started, and the site says teachers can earn an average of $3,500 a year.