How to monetise Instagram

MuckleMaker

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@themoneyshed

My pics are a mixture of 'stuff I do' and promoting blog posts.

Though I have a feeling looking at Instagram and speaking to @katykicker a lot about it that Instagram is more about getting 'you' over with people rather than your blog. At least until you get to 10k followers and can insert links into your picture posts.

That reminds me of something I've heard and read a few times: in sales you have to sell yourself first, then when people like/trust you they will be more likely to buy from you - I guess you can amend that to include buy through you.
 

OCTOPUS

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Good to get insigt into how it works, feel that I would rather focus on Instagram than facebook in a bid to attract followers. As Jon said, think its quite good that you cannot put up links until you get to 10,000 followers. My instagam name is suzannecox1742, same photo on it as my profile picture here. Good luck everyone
 
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Jon

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I'm still plodding along with Instagram adding a photo a day.

I'm still enjoying how it's not about pushing your blog or brand at all and is more about 'stuff you get up to' etc and showing that of!
 
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Cas

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Definitely your correct , just think I'm a bit boring need to get away from this computer and take more photos
 

Jon

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My instagram account is still continuing to grow as I crawl over the 100 follower mark!

Going to be very very slow growing this I think unless I join one of those instagram pod things!
 
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I'm working on growing my Instagram at the minute, and it definitely does feel like a bit of an uphill struggle at times. I'm at around 740ish followers at the minute so I'm definitely not an Insta Guru, but I do seem to be building some momentum.

These are the things that I've found help...

- Optimising your profile so it's really clear what you do, and keeping in mind who that's going to appeal to. I know that seems like common sense, but I've tweaked mine a few times after really thinking about this, and it seems to have an impact each time.

- Adding relevant hashtags... BUT, keep them varied and don't use the exact same ones on each and every post. You risk getting 'shadowbanned' if you do that. I have a couple of different 'sets' of hashtags saved on my phone that I rotate.

- Using the caption section to add a little more insight and start a conversation. I see loads of people who pretty much just ignore that and don't add any text. It's valuable 'real estate' though, so it's worth testing out a few different approaches to using it and seeing what happens

- Sharing some personal stuff, like what's been mentioned in this thread. I try to have at least one post in 3 as a more personal one. Sometimes just a pic of my food if I've been out for dinner, or a pumpkin I carved for Halloween, or something like that... But just reminding people that I am in fact a real person!

- Adding to your 'stories' with snippets from your day. I've got no idea if that somehow improves your visibility to people who don't already follow you, but I've definitely noticed that I get more followers when I'm active on stories. Plus I get quite a bit of engagement on them, which gives me hope that I'm not just talking to myself!!

- Again, like has been mentioned, interacting with other people and liking, commenting, and so on. I try to spend a little bit of time each day on doing that.

I'm aiming for 1000 followers by the end of the year... Might be a bit ambitious, but we'll see!
 
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lyns86

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I started an Instagram a few weeks ago, it is going very slowly but by this post it seems that is the norm when starting off. Mine is on weight loss as doing SW but in my description i have put mother to 3 so i can add family life to it as well, although there hasn't been much extra from food related posts. So maybe need to do more on this part!
In the past i done a blog but that seemed to take up too much time and haven't used it for years but i did get a few free products to try for reviews on my blog so hoping i get that with Instagram in the future, but there are so many people out there it seems pretty impossible at the moment..
 

Jon

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I started an Instagram a few weeks ago, it is going very slowly but by this post it seems that is the norm when starting off. Mine is on weight loss as doing SW but in my description i have put mother to 3 so i can add family life to it as well, although there hasn't been much extra from food related posts. So maybe need to do more on this part!
In the past i done a blog but that seemed to take up too much time and haven't used it for years but i did get a few free products to try for reviews on my blog so hoping i get that with Instagram in the future, but there are so many people out there it seems pretty impossible at the moment..

Do you think maybe cutting off your blog isn't the best move.

I only say this because generally being on AS MANY platforms as possible is the best thing because it exposes yourself (and your brand) to as many people as possible.

When I work is companies on paid content they generally want to know about my viewership across all platforms (blog, twitter, facebook, instagram etc.) before they would work with me.

Do instagrammers generally work on that platform and nothing else? Maybe they do and I'm seriously out of the loop lol
 

Cas

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I need to do more research into hashtags. any apps which will help with this ?
 

lyns86

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Do you think maybe cutting off your blog isn't the best move.

I only say this because generally being on AS MANY platforms as possible is the best thing because it exposes yourself (and your brand) to as many people as possible.

When I work is companies on paid content they generally want to know about my viewership across all platforms (blog, twitter, facebook, instagram etc.) before they would work with me.

Do instagrammers generally work on that platform and nothing else? Maybe they do and I'm seriously out of the loop lol

The blog was started a while ago now, it was on family life. My instagram is food and family based so not sure merging the 2 would help. From personal point of view i follow instagram people but not their blogs. So i presumed blog is a thing of the past and its vlogs now? Which i again don't have, mind.
I will see if i can log into the blog and see if there has been much activity since i've been gone.
 

Jon

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The blog was started a while ago now, it was on family life. My instagram is food and family based so not sure merging the 2 would help. From personal point of view i follow instagram people but not their blogs. So i presumed blog is a thing of the past and its vlogs now? Which i again don't have, mind.
I will see if i can log into the blog and see if there has been much activity since i've been gone.
Blogs are not a thing of the past, not at all!!
 

Jon

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I'm still plodding along with Instagram.

My follower numbers keep going up which is good but I get a fair number of US 'get rich quick' gramers try to follow me that I block as it's obvious they are total dross but I suppose that's no different than Twitter in that sense.

I think my 'what i'm up to' type stuff is pretty generic sadly but the reality is I have no interest is going to the local co-op store and photographing reduced items as it's just not me.

Some of the effort people put in on Instagram is amazing though.
One person I mentioned I like to @katykicker is TobyandRoo who creates really engaging content on the 'stories' side of Instagram. From what I've been told she charges a BUNDLE OF CASH for brands to collab with her on the platform.

Some of the fashion / beauty bloggers as well seem to go to the 'nth degree to make their photos look good such as HelloMissJordan who will show on her stories that the photo looked like before it was touched up so much before appearing on Instagram
 

Jon

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I like instagram! When I do post I get loads more engagment than facebook. Up to 500 followers now, just 9500 to go!
Is the engagement useful or is it random USA based accounts lol
 

Jon

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Well I've got over 250 followers now so things are still moving in the right direction.

I keep trying to have a routine when it comes to 'gram which sometimes isn't always easy as I don't have a kid at home nor am I a fashion blogger so my Mon-Fri life is generally just work > sleep > work > sleep and it can sometimes be hard to come up with an amazing photo to show what i'm up to.

Another thing I've found recently and shared with @katykicker is that you can actually upload photo from your Macbook instead of your phone.

If you to go the Instagram website in Safari and then go to Develop > User Agent and then choose Safari on the iPhone the page will render as if you were on the phone and you will also have access to all the photos in your photo library as well to upload.

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on top of this being an easy way to upload a photo and write alongside it I also find it a FAR easier way to comment on other peoples pictures instead of using my phone for everything!
 

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