How to Start an Instagram Blog ? How to Monetize Your Instagram Blog?earn money.

 

How to Start an Instagram Blog ? How to Monetize Your Instagram Blog?And earn money.

 1. Create an Instagram Account

first of all Creating an Instagram account is free and takes just a few minutes to do. The step that takes the longest is figuring out what you want your username to be. Keep in mind that unlike other social media platforms, you can change your username later on. However, many prefer to use their full name as a username so they build their personal brand.

Get started with your Instagram account in just a few steps:

• Download the Instagram app from the Google’s Play store (Android) or App Store (iPhone).

• Once installed, tap the Instagram icon to open it.

• Sign up with your email address or phone number if you’re on an Android. If using an iPhone, you’ll select Create an Account then enter your phone number. You’ll get a text with a verification code to enter. Alternately, you can use a single-sign-on by selecting your Facebook login.

• You’ll then receive a prompt to create a username and password.

• Make sure to have a public profile instead of a private one, unless you only want friends and family you allow reading your blog.

2. Stick to Your Niche

Before you start your Instagram journey, you need to pick a niche. A niche will help you decide what type of content to post on Instagram.

The niche of your Instagram blog should be the same as the blog you want to promote.

If you’re a fashion blogger, then you shouldn’t be posting or writing about finance. You’ll just end up confusing your readers and that will make it harder for you to gain Instagram followers.

If you haven’t decided on the niche yet, then you should spend your time wisely deciding on the niche you’re going to pick. Because once you’ve chosen your niche, you’ll have to stick to it in the long run. 

Check out our guide on finding a profitable niche for more tips.

3. Create a Captivating Bio data of your 

An Instagram bio is a little snippet of text below your picture within your Instagram profile. An Instagram profile is where users view your profile, photo, and all of the posts you’ve created. It’s also where users go to follow you. This bio area is an opportunity to show everyone who you are, what you stand for, and who you serve within 150 characters. It’s a chance for you to make a good first impression, so you’ll want to spend some time crafting a captivating bio.

As an Instagram blogger, it’s important for you to give visitors to your profile a sneak peek at what they can expect if they follow you. Some users choose to give their contact information like an email address or a phone number—particularly if they are a business or if want someone to get in touch about collaboration opportunities. Others prefer to share a quote, their location, and maybe even some hobbies.

Whatever you choose to showcase in your bio, remember to tailor it to your niche and your desired audience. When you are very specific about who you are, you are more likely to attract people who are just like you and want to engage with your content.

4. Take or Source Attractive Images

Instagram is a visual platform where the photos you showcase matter more than the captions. Photos you share need to follow your brand identity design so that the style of your image is recognized as yours before a user checks to be sure it is.

This aesthetic should remain consistent throughout your Instagram posts. This helps create a cohesive look to your profile. It’s important to note that you don’t have to always use your own images to post. There are many free stock photo websites to use such as Pexels and Pixabay. Many of these images don’t require attribution, but it’s best to double-check what the restrictions are on each photo.

5. Write Your Instagram Blog Posts

An Instagram blog post is also known as a caption. Your captions can be no more than 2,200 characters. For this reason, many consider that using Instagram for blogging means that you’re microblogging compared to writing a full-fledged blog hosted on your own website.

Your blog posts don’t necessarily have to be 2,200 words to tell a story. Many times captions that are short and thought-provoking do really well on Instagram. The most important lines in your captions are the first line and then your call to action line.

The first line you write should grab a reader’s attention. Think of it as a one-liner—what’s going to stop someone from scrolling by your post in their news feed? This should be a relatively short line so they can read it without having to click “more” to view the rest of your caption. Give an intriguing statement, prompt an emotional response, or share an offer.

Your last line should give a call to action (CTA). The CTA can be as simple as asking your followers to engage with you in the comment section. Or, your CTA might ask to tag a friend, check out the link in your bio for more information, or hit the follow button. A popular CTA is “double tap if you agree,” referencing the act one performs to “like” your Instagram image.

Another important element when creating your Instagram blog posts is to make sure you’re breaking up the text if you’re writing a lot. It is difficult to read a huge wall of text without natural line breaks. You want your content to be easy-to-digest. Instagram doesn’t make it easy to do this within the app, so many people write their draft in notes or a word processing document before copying and pasting it into the platform to preserve the formatting.

5. Use Relevant Hashtags

Using the right hashtags can have a great impact on your Instagram posts’ reach. 

Hashtags are a great discovery tool for Instagram users; they allow people to easily find content relevant to their interests. If you use hashtags that are popular in your niche, you can attract more followers and readers to your blog.

A great way to find hashtags is to follow bloggers in your niche to see what hashtags they are using.

For example, if you have a food blog, you can see that fellow food bloggers on Instagram use hashtags like #EasyRecipe, #FamilyDinners, #InstagramFood, #RecipeIdeas, and more.

Before adding hashtags to your posts, you should check the usage of those hashtags. If the hashtag has under 1000 posts, it’s unlikely that people are searching for those hashtags. You’re better off using popular but relevant hashtags since they attract a big crowd.

Simply search for hashtags on Instagram to find out how popular they are:

6. Geotag Your Posts

To geotag a post, you’re simply adding a geographical location to tell others where a photo is taken. Some users prefer to be very detailed about where an image was taken, such as the exact name of a coffee shop. Others prefer to be more general, such as tagging Manhattan or even New York.

Geotagging lets others see where you’re at. It also helps others find images from a particular location. A user can search Instagram by location to find others who’ve been to a spot they’re researching. Including your location allows bloggers to grow their audience because Instagram users can search for location-based posts and stumble upon any post that has a geotag. If a user likes what you’ve posted, you might gain a new follower—all because you’ve tagged your location.

7. Interact With Other Instagram Users

The entire point of using social media is to be social—this involves interacting with other users on Instagram. You can like and comment on other users’ posts, and you can follow them. When you interact with other users, they’re more likely to check out your profile and microblog. If they like what they see, there’s a chance they’ll follow you back or at least leave a like or comment to return the favor.

8. Be Consistent With Your Posting Schedule

To make social media work for your blog or your online business, you need to make a serious effort to be consistent. 

There’s no point in feeling all inspired and motivated now and posting content every day, to only drop out of using Instagram a few weeks later

Instagram users thrive on consistency; if you post once a day, your followers will expect you to post content every day. But as soon as you break that consistency, you will start losing follower

By having a consistent posting schedule, you can get more views, engagement, and followers on your Instagra

A great way to keep a consistent posting schedule is to create a social media calendar on Excel, Google Docs, or Google Calendar. Take a look at the example below.

9.Connect With Your Audience

You need to build a strong connection with your followers if you want them to stay around for the long run. 

The best way to connect to your audience is to be yourself. You’ve probably heard this phrase get thrown around a lot, but truth be told, this is what helps people easily connect with you and your brand.

People love bloggers that share their stories and tips from a personal space.

Remember, everything that you post is for your readers. Write your posts as though you are talking to one of your friends, and this will resonate with your audience, especially if you’re solving their problems.

Don’t forget to talk to your followers in the comment section to further build your relationship with them.

10.Make Use of Instagram Stories

One of the best ways to promote your blog and gain followers is through Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories’ popularity isn’t going down anytime soon, as 70% of Instagram users watch Instagram Stories every day.

The biggest benefit of using Instagram Stories to promote your blog is that you can post a direct link to your blog, this is something you can’t do on your regular Instagram posts. Unfortunately, you need at least 10,000 followers to unlock this feature.

Until you reach that milestone, using Instagram Stories are also a great way to keep your followers hooked because it’s engaging and visually appealing. Plus, you can also reach an all-new fan base that will help your blog grow!

Pro Tip: Spread out the information in more than one story frame. If you put all of the information in one slide, chances are that your viewers will only see it for a second or two and then tap to the next story.

If you spread out the information to 3 or 4 slides using engaging visuals, you will have an opportunity to capture their attention as they tap along with your Story.

11. How to Monetize Your Instagram Blog

There are many ways to make money on your Instagram blog. These monetization methods include being an affiliate for someone else’s products and services, creating sponsored posts, and selling your own products and services.

While any links you add to the caption area of a post will not be clickable, you can add a link to your bio. Some people choose to create a free account with a website provider, like Square Online, and host a list of links there. This is useful if you talk about different links in each post you make.

Otherwise, you can use linktr.ee, which is another popular place to list your URLs. As a blogger with an actual website, I prefer not to use linktr.ee because I want to get the page views rather than giving it to another service. I’ve also seen instances where an update to the Instagram platform caused accounts using linktr.ee to temporarily shut down, so proceed with caution if using this method.

Use Affiliate Links

An affiliate marketing program lets creators earn a commission for referring sales to a merchant. These commissions are usually one to 10% of a sale, but sometimes pay if there’s a lead or a click on a custom link instead. Leads and clicks typically pay less than $1 each.

This is an attractive option for many Instagram bloggers because people usually talk about their favorite products and services anyway. They might as well get paid for it. Sometimes merchants and bloggers negotiate an incentive, like a 10% off coupon, for followers to use. This doesn’t usually eat into the commission an affiliate earns and instead comes out of the merchant’s marketing budget.

Instagram bloggers can sign up for an account with rewardStyle, which uses the LiketoKnow.it app to make it easy for them to share products featured in posts. The best part about this is that the blogger receives a commission for sales made.

Create Sponsored Posts

Instagram bloggers can create content for brands in exchange for free product, a discount, or money. What you earn for a post will depend on the number of followers and the engagement you receive. For example, a blogger with 15,000 engaged followers could earn around $200 for a post and $350 for a video. Instagram stories tend to pay less because they disappear after 24 hours. Learn more about setting your blog rates.

You can earn money even if you don’t have a lot of followers because brands tend to care more about engagement than vanity metrics. The reason for this is because it’s easy to artificially inflate the number of followers and likes you get by purchasing these. However, comments are much harder to artificially create. When you have an engaged audience, they’re more likely to trust you and listen to your recommendations.

Sell Your Own Products & Services

Creating your own products and services allows you to control not only the features, but also the production and quality of your offerings. You can create products like supplements, physical books, e-books, apparel, and kitchen gadgets. Services you can offer include design, consulting, and coaching—each of these tend to offer higher profit margins since you don’t need to create any physical goods.

If you don’t have an ecommerce website but have a few products you want to sell, consider using Square Online. This allows you to quickly create an online store using products featured in your Instagram posts—even past posts you’ve made. It takes just three quick steps to get started and you don’t pay anything until you make a sale.