When you think of social networking, the first things that come to mind are cat videos and political arguments. However, these sites are actually great places to make money. The photo sharing site Instagram in particular has phenomenal potential for turning a profit. Read on to learn how to make money with Instagram.

How To Make Money With Instagram

Affiliate Marketing

The idea of affiliate marketing isn’t new. Using Instagram for affiliate marketing is a new twist, though.

Here’s how affiliate marketing works: you promote a product and you get paid when the company makes a sale. How do you do affiliate marketing on Instagram? Create an agreement with vendors. Take pictures with products and include a link so your followers can purchase them (and so that you can get credit for the sale).

Sell Your Own Products

You don’t have to market someone else’s products in order to make money with Instagram. If you’ve got your own merchandise (especially if it photographs well), Instagram is an excellent selling platform.

Selling your own products is even easier than selling someone else’s. Snap a photo of it, include a link, and add the right hashtags to attract followers (and shoppers).

Become a Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador serves as a company’s representative, often online. Brand ambassadors promote a firm’s products or services to their followers. They give the brand a human face, and make it more appealing for people to buy from that business.

Becoming a brand ambassador starts by having an authentic, passionate social media presence and many followers. Generally, brands approach you with the offer to represent them on sites such as Instagram, although in some cases, you can reach out to companies you would love to work with and ask if you’re a good fit to be their brand ambassador.

Sign up for Sponsored Posts to Your Profile

This idea is an extension of being a brand ambassador. You don’t have to generate the content, though. The brand does that. All you do is share it and you can make money with Instagram this way. 

There are a few apps that enable you to do this: Takumi, Snapfluence, and InstaBrand. Bear in mind that you need over 1,000 followers to use these apps, though.

Sell Your Photos

You might not be the next Ansel Adams, but you may have many admirers who would be willing to fork over cold, hard cash for your shots.

There are a number of apps from which you can earn money from the smartphone shots you take. All of the apps are free, and you can use them for either iOS or Android devices.

Earning money from Instagram is akin to taking the perfect selfie; it requires patience and perseverance. Unlike the perfect selfie, though, to make money with Instagram you will need to have many followers that believe you’re influential. It demands convincing people that your voice is worth listening to, and you’ve got something important to say. If that describes you, maybe you can be rich and famous.