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Have you made money off your Instagram account yet? From today’s Live in my Facebook group 80% answered “No.” I would like to say I’m surprised, but I don’t think everyone knows there are so many options out there to monetize even if you are considered a “micro-influencer.”

1. Partner With Brands

   This one can be because of emails, dm’s (be on the lookout for red flags though), or from sites that I’ll mention in the “affiliate” bit.

   There are two ways of doing this or a combination of-

   1. Paid, posts in exchange for posts. Here’s a good post by Hootsuite for a general pricing guide. You can also charge without posting, just for creating content for the business.

   2. Product, posting in exchange for product. I don’t do this one as often as time is money, but if it is a product you would buy or standby, why not?

2. Affiliate Links

   This is when you make sales with your custom links/promo codes. IG also rolled out a tag a product way of doing affiliate sales through your post sales.

   You can find some affiliates that complement your niche through sites like ShareASale and Influence.co. I have an affiliate to things like Amazon, Canva, and Flodesk. Why not get paid for things you use, love, and would recommend anyhow?

   *These Last 3 are all strictly from Instagram*

3. Instagram Badges

   Make sure to check your settings and “enable badges” and then make sure your audience knows they can tip you! Works exactly the same as on Tiktok with “gifts.” Your audience pays IG your “tip” and IG pays you. In the past they used to take a small fee, but I had read that IG won’t be taking fees until 2023.

4. Reels Monetization

   Once again, check your IG settings. It will tell you there if you are eligible for monetization. IG will pay you for your reels views. I know it’s true because I get it. Not a lot, but it’s something.

5. Setup IG Shopping

   Once upon a time you had to be selling just physical products, which is great for small businesses and makers, but I believe IG will also be rolling out a way to sell services as well soon, if not already. From what I heard, it is really easy to set up your product sales if you are already using Shopify.

6. Instagram Subscriptions

   Ok, this one I’m still not a fan of, here’s my small rant, but it still just feels like a cash grab. Like IG got jealous and is copying formats of Only Fans and subscription sites, to just sell the exclusivity of your IG close friends circle. But hey, only time will tell.

What do you think? What avenue is speaking to you? And are you ready to take that dive and make some money? If not reach out to me! I’m ready to cheer you on or give you that little last push…let’s make you some money!

Instagram recently announced “Instagram Subscriptions,” it’ll be another way for creators to monetize on IG. In idea, it will work very similar to Patreon and Only Fans formats. Rates will be anywhere between 99 cents and $99.99 per month. It gives people/followers/”subscribers” access to separate story posts or lives.

A few little fun aesthetic changes will be coming with it. IG will be making the stories ring for these to purple, instead of the close friends green or the standard orange/reddish ring. Subscribers will also get a purple badge on their profile, though I haven’t seen what that will look like or how that works yet.

But, basically, this new feature is for creators that want to make special content for their followers. So great idea, but not sure how this will convert on IG’s platform. Will it mean creators will start holding back their current free content or what? So far they have only released it to 10 creators, all US based, and most rates are about 2.99-4.99/month. I haven’t seen any $99.99, yet.

But, let’s discuss some of the pros vs cons…

Pros-

• This year Instagram isn’t charging, to get people signing up they are waving the fees.

• Export followers’ information to be able to move to another platform. So far they are the only one offering that.

• Possibility of getting closer to some of your favorite creators?

Cons-

• Stuck on Instagram - Limited in what you can offer because it has to stay on the app.

• Limited to lives & stories (I can already create a list on my own with close friends option)

• Instagram controls the money (Fees in 2023)- credit card fees, IG’s cut…so you end up with what, only 60%? You can do this elsewhere for free.

I want to be clear, this doesn’t mean you will be paying to use Instagram App, just paying to get extra from some of your favorite content creators.

So, as you guessed, I don’t see myself being able to use this feature. I won’t be changing the free knowledge I’m sharing there, here, or in my EFF group on Facebook, but maybe it’s a fit for you? Maybe, just while they aren’t charging during 2022? Just for that export follower feature so you could possibly move those followers to the current platform you are already using? Maybe???

Honestly, I don’t see this as something helpful or that I, myself could use. But, what do you think?