Instagram Home » Blog » Social Media » The Step-by-Step Guide to Making Money from Instagram instagram Instagram is a force of nature. What was merely a photo-sharing app initially has become one of the top social media platforms in less than seven years. It has quickly doubled its user base in the last two years to 700 million users. Its growth has exploded since it launched Instagram Stories in August 2016. pasted image 0 120 Pretty impressive. It just goes to show how well people respond to simple, visual-driven content. The interest in Instagram has grown tremendously over the past six years. And I highly doubt that it will be slowing down anytime soon. No matter how you slice it, people love Instagram. It’s one of the most popular ways to share photos. In many cases, I even choose Instagram over Google Images when searching for photos. It’s just so easy and accessible, and the vast majority of the images are super high quality. The opportunity for making money on Instagram Want to know something that I absolutely love about marketers? They are committed to serving the audience. And when you’re creating a great experience for your prospects, then money is a byproduct. But I won’t leave you with such jargon and motivational statements. I assume that you’re a smart marketer (why else would you hang out on NeilPatel.com, right?) You understand that building a following and then running ads to sell your product is a great way to generate income. Wait a second though… Didn’t you know that already? It’s the most obvious strategy to make money online. So let’s extend the conversation beyond such cliched tips. Let’s get into the thick of things and see how to actually make $200 to $10,000 (even more) per month from the visual social platform. To begin with, allow me to share 3 inspiring stories of people who made money from Instagram. 1. Theresa Nguyen isn’t your average teenager. She shares drool worthy videos of her homemade slime on her Instagram account that get hundreds of thousands of views.views. Screen Shot 2017 06 22 at 5.51.05 PM Her account is filled with colorful posts. With just 228 such live posts, she has garnered a following of 747k people (at the time of writing the post). And she shows how to leverage the precious Instagram profile link. She has a clear CTA driving her Instagram followers to her online slime shop. pasted image 0 126 Do you think Instagram users are interested in buying homemade slime from a teenager? You bet. When I checked out her website, all the flavors were sold out. Time.com reported that she’s making $3,000/month. Not so bad for a 13-year old whose parents laughed at her idea of selling her creations. Theresa isn’t alone. Rachel Albus, a 13-year-old from California, and Sara Y., a 12-year-old from North Carolina ,have also built their Instagram accounts to thousands of followers. And they make decent money from them. As they say, age is just a number. But I don’t remember being so innovative when I was twelve! 2. With the diversity of the audience on Instagram, everyone has an opportunity to make money. So meet the next Instagram money making star on our list: Sara Tasker. A 32-year-old woman from Yorkshire, she worked as an NHS speech therapist. Four years ago, while on a four-month maternity leave, she created her Instagram account. Her motivation for signing up on Instagram was the free products and money that brands were offering to Instagram users. And now, she has honed her way to becoming what’s called as a micro-influencer with 170k followers. Screen Shot 2017 06 22 at 6.15.45 PM Her account is filled with beautiful lifestyle pictures from her life. And she made approximately £120,000 last year. Besides getting paid by brands for posting, she’s also making money from coaching people about creativity and Instagram marketing. Screen Shot 2017 06 22 at 6.17.16 PM 3. If you’re thinking that gathering such a huge following is necessary for making money, then meet Jeena Farmer. She’s a qualified nutritional therapist and freelance writer from Warwickshire. Her Instagram only has 3,361 followers. Screen Shot 2017 06 22 at 6.25.45 PM But brands pay her in the range of £50-£100 (64 USD – 128 USD approx) for mentioning them on her Instagram. She also packages an Instagram update with a blog post and a tweet – for which she charges £200-£300 (250 USD – 350 USD). Major media publications are publishing how to make money with Instagram stories. But how exactly are these power users managing their Instagram accounts and making money? I’ve gone down in the Instagram trenches with my clients in a variety of niches. And I’ve found that you can launch businesses independently based on Instagram alone (you don’t even need a website). Otherwise, you can ignite other business models and catapult your revenue with support from Instagram. In this article, I’ll show you 9 Instagram money-making tactics. As you know, I like to keep my articles comprehensive and beginner-friendly. So, even if you haven’t heard of Instagram before, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to make your first dollar from the platform within a month. Before we dip our toes in the specific tactics, let’s look at the prerequisites for making money.