How to Become an Instagram Influencer and Make Money

Intro

Social media has exploded over the last few years. With billions of active monthly users, people from all around the world are leveraging these platforms to make a decent amount of money.

One platform, in particular, Instagram, has taken off more than the others in terms of the ability to become an influencer and make money. With just a few productivity hacks, you too can get in on this trend and start making money as an influencer.

This guide will feature a comprehensive how-to step by step plan to help you become an Instagram influencer. Without further ado, let’s dive right into it:

What is an Influencer?

Right off the bat, it’s best to understand what exactly an influencer is. Throw out any preconceived notions you may have about what an influencer does.

An influencer is someone who establishes credibility and connects with their audience in a genuine way. This leads to trust between the influencer and their audience. When an influencer recommends a product to their followers, their word is taken seriously.

Becoming an influencer means building a community of like-minded people around you and being the conduit between those people and other companies.

While there are some productivity hacks that can speed up the process of becoming an influencer, you need to be prepared for the stress and work this path can sometimes entail. You will receive hate on posts as with any other social media platform, but stay true to your brand and you’ll see success.

Why Should I Become an Instagram Influencer?

(Image Source: Unsplash)

Now that you’re clear on what an Instagram influencer does, why should you actually focus on becoming one?

The first and most obvious reason is that you get to achieve some semblance of fame and have a great group of followers to interact with. Going into monetary terms, though, there are a few remarkable statistics that make this profession worth it:

• Micro-influencers (6,000-10,000 followers) can make an average of $88 per post
• Influencers over 100,000 followers can expect to earn $10 per 1,000 followers they earn after
• Influencers between 250,000 to 500,000 can charge around $670 per post

Besides the fact that you can build a fun and unique audience, you can also make hundreds or even thousands over time. So, how can you actually become an influencer?

10 Actionable Steps to Becoming an Influencer

1. Start a Business Account

First things first, you will need to create an Instagram account. Create a free email address for whatever you want your brand name to be.

(Image Source: Unsplash)

Sign up on Instagram with a business account and link this email. By doing this, your Instagram followers will be able to reach out to you directly at your business email from your Instagram.

Additionally, business accounts get access to special features once they gain enough followers, such as implementing a “swipe up” button for sponsored posts.

2. Enter a Specific Niche

The next step to becoming a profitable influencer is defining the niche you would like to be in. Are you a fan of awesome desk setups? Do you like featuring amazing pieces of art?

Whatever your interest or passion may be, tailor it to a popular niche and slowly begin to grow your account.

It’s best not to spread yourself too thin by heading into a number of different niches. Take your time and start slow in a single niche. Once you gain some traction, feel free to switch to another niche.

In the beginning, simply stick with one niche and become a known influencer in that area.

3. Design Your Account

This is the fun part about becoming an Instagram influencer. You have the opportunity to design your page however you’d like. Take this opportunity to define what you want your unique brand to be.

A great way to go about this is to think about what kind of photos you may be posting.

(IG: @mannymua733, @marianodivaio)

Additionally, don’t forget to come up with a catchy bio that draws people to your page. This is likely the first thing a potential visitor will see, so make sure to write a bio that catches the eye and represents what a visitor can expect from your page. Using tools like the best CTR bot searchseo can also help drive more traffic to your profile, increasing visibility and engagement.

4. Stick to a Consistent Post Schedule

One of the best ways to grow as a new influencer is to stick to a consistent post schedule. Unless you are doing serious editing to your photos, aim to post every other day, if not every day.

This will let your followers know that they can expect something consistently from you and will also show that you are not some simple ghost account.

Use social media management tools that can help you automate your posts so that you don’t need to think about posting, rather it just happens. This will help you stick to your schedule without making you worry about missing a day.

5. Create an Appealing Feed

Once you actually start posting, it’s important to make sure your feed is appealing to viewers. There are a number of popular Instagram feed themes that you can imitate, but go with whatever theme matches your interests.

(IG: @womanceomindset)

Instagram is all about photos and if you don’t perfect your feed, you won’t gain followers. There is a wide market of active users on Instagram but you will need to stick out from the crowd if you hope to attract them.

6. Incorporate Hashtags in the Beginning

Hashtags are one of the best ways to reach a wider audience. Hashtags will get curated to people who line up with those interests. By using hashtags on your posts in the early days of your account, you can ensure that you will reach a wider audience.

Keep in mind that when you have next to no followers, your images will not get dispersed widely. If you actually want eyes on your posts, you need to identify the most popular hashtags in your niche.

You can use tools such as ​​keyword finder to see relevant keywords in your niche.

7. Interact With Others in Your Niche

The people you hope will follow your account are already following others.

Take advantage of this opportunity.

Identify the most popular influencers in your niche and see how active their accounts are. Ideally, you want to interact with the accounts that have the most active followers, as these are the people most likely to check out your page.

Simply comment on other’s posts and compliment the photos. Respond to comments you see or reach out to the influencer privately to see if they can offer tips. Connections are everything when getting your career as an influencer started.

8. Interact With Your Followers

You can’t hope to be an Instagram influencer without interacting with people on the platform. Remember, as an influencer you are trying to create a community of mutual trust. This can’t be done if you never talk to your potential audience.

As mentioned, get involved on the platform and comment on the posts of other popular influencers in your niche. Interact with their followers and strike up small conversations. By dedicating just 20 minutes a day to this task, you can increase the odds of more people visiting your page.

Posting photos will only go so far if you aren’t willing to reach out and get to know the people you want to follow you.

9. Reach Out to Companies

As for actually making money being an influencer, reach out to companies within your niche once you have built up a large enough following.

Offer to review or discuss one of their products on your page. If you still don’t have too many followers, they may choose to compensate you by letting you keep the product they send you.

However, if you have grown a substantial audience, they may be willing to pay you whatever fee you request. Just be sure that whatever company you are talking to is related to your niche. Your followers won’t want to see product reviews from a company completely off of your page’s theme. Also, you can also partner with influencer agencies, such as Tiddle, which can connect you with companies seeking collaborations.

10. Allow For Sponsored Posts

The second-largest way to make money as an Instagram influencer after gaining a following is to take part in sponsored posts. Rather than simply reaching out to companies and asking to review their product, tell that company they can have a full sponsored post on your page.

(Image Source: Unsplash)

If you have a large following, this will likely be a tempting enough offer for any company to be willing to pay. This is the reason some mega-influencers could earn hundreds of thousands per post if they really wanted to.

Conclusion

Becoming an Instagram influencer is becoming a more viable path with every passing day. Take advantage of this unique opportunity and launch a career path as an influencer that can earn your thousands and potentially more in the long run.

If you do choose to follow this path, it’s important to remember that this will take a long time. You can’t grow an authentic following overnight.

To actually see success in this endeavor, you will need to dedicate yourself to a consistent post schedule and popular niche. By doing this, you’ll be on your way to becoming an influencer in no time at all.