How Insta Models Get $10K+/Month For Being Real (Or Fake)

Their strategy works for other Instagrammers too.

Early this year, I bumped into a model on a film set. We casually spoke, until she mentioned making $30,000 in 1 month during her final year of college.

I started picking her brain, and found out she:

• Made a clothing line
• Sold clothing on her website
• Used Instagram for marketing

Starting a clothing line sounds daunting until you realize there’s something called print-on-demand — a service where print companies make branded clothing and send it to customers.

Anyway, a clothing line isn’t required to replicate her winning strategy. Clothes can be replaced with anything that can have a price tag.

My encounter with her highlighted this…

If You’re on Instagram, You’re 1 Post Away From a Sell

Instagram is really a self-marketing platform.

Every time you upload on Instagram, you’re influencing somebody.

In today’s world, businesses are looking to utilize influencers more than ever because the power has shifted to the people — the ball is always in your court.

So, here’s the question you should ask now:

What products would unnoticeably fit into the pics and stories you upload on Instagram?

The model I met originally modeled for other brands, so clothing was the obvious option.

Here are some ways you can figure this out:

Look At Your Instagram Account Subjectively

Make a list of all the things you are associated with? It could be exercising, dietary lifestyles, music, or art.

Next, find out ways you can monetize those areas with the least amount of capital. Remember, it’s about using current technology to your advantage — you want the least overhead possible.

Here are some little to no capital approaches:

Dropshipping — clothes, fitness products, electronics, perfume, home security, wearable devices, gaming products, VR headsets, and garden equipment.

Print-on-demand — t-shirts, hats, bottoms, underwear, facemasks, phone cases, coffee mugs, and bottles.

Affiliate Marketing — e-books, books, courses, services, and anything else under the sun.

After you’ve seen what you can sell, you need confirmations to find out if your followers present an immediate market.

Browse the profiles of your followers, and list their similarities.

If their interests are related to your product, you’ve found a gold mine.

If You Still Can’t Think of a Product, Ask Yourself These Questions:

• How do people perceive me?
• What do I engage in every day?
• What do people come to me for?
• What do I have in excess?

Creating Your Superstar Brand

Branding is what separates you from everyone else.

Your goal isn’t to be better than other brands — it’s to be different.

As a brand starting, you should focus on positioning yourself narrow. Focus on adding value to a select core niche. This could even be the area you’re from.

Now, here are the 3 steps to create your brand:

1. Think of a Brand Name

Anything that’s either short or rolls off the tongue is acceptable. Here are some ways to think of brand names:

Use a Keyword — This allows people to understand what your brand is about just by seeing the name.

Use Your Name — For example, if I plan to sell electronics, and my name is Matt, then mattronics would make sense.

Remember to check if there are domain names and Insta accounts with your potential brand name. However, you can always use different domain TLDs to bypass this issue.

Once you’ve found a suitable name, go ahead and purchase the domain.

2. Make a Logo

If you’re not a designer, no problem. There are logo apps for non-designers that come with thousands of templates.

The most popular freemium apps are Desygner and Canva.

Text-based logos are good enough as simple logos are what designers strive for today.

Don’t forget to make an icon too. It can just be a few letters of your logo.

3. Build an Online Store

Here are the options you should consider…

Shopify: It’s the go-to store for selling physical products. Their payment-processing and product uploading features make it easy to use. Also, there are thousands of templates to choose from.

Wix Store: It only takes minutes to set up your first store. Plus, their backend only has 5 options — Home, Products Catalog, Orders, Promote Store, Business Setup, and Mobile App. This is ideal if you want the least amount of difficulty running an online store.

WordPress: The completely free-based approach to hosting online products. You can find templates on their marketplace that fit your branding. You also want to look into the WooCommerce plugin — it lets you easily turn your WordPress site into a store.

Amazon Store: This is a section on Amazon dedicated to your brand. The biggest benefit of Amazon stores is that users can find your store just by browsing for products you sell. Using this approach doesn’t require making a website however, it’s worth getting a domain name that redirects to your store.

Creating Your Instagram Brand Account

I studied the model’s brand account, and it gave hints to why many Insta brands instantly fail — they think of users like robots.

Instead, they should see Instagram as a way to build relationships with their dream customers.

So, here are 7 rules to follow when making your brand account:

1. Make Your Bio Count

This is what people look at first. You have 150 characters to communicate your personality and build interest.

You’d want to position yourself narrow, so you’re not seen as another generic brand.

Do this by:

• Mentioning the city you’re based in
• Describing your brand in a few words
• Saying what you stand up for

The bio is also an opportunity to share your promo codes and deals.

Also, remember to add a link to your store.

2. Upload Real People

New visitors will increase the level of trust they have with you as posts include real people.

Real people are what sell.

It’s hard to give a non-reputable brand any trust if they only post graphic design images of products.

If your brand is based on apparel, you should post real people as much as often.

Here are strategies to get images of people with your products:

• Ask your friends
• Repost content and stories your brand is tagged in
• Ask influencers, and in exchange, give them an image with you and their product
• Offer incentives such as discounts on their next purchase for doing so
• Have a card in the packaging that kindly asks users to do so
• Create a competition
• Create an ambassador/affiliate program

Posting yourself counts too.

3. Upload Daily

Brands post an average of 27.9x per month — Adespresso.

Your ideal customer is bombarded with content every day. This makes your brand easily forgettable if you aren’t posting regularly.

When you get a decent amount of followers, use the Instagram Insights feature to find out when your followers are most active. Then, you can start scheduling posts like a boss.

Remember to geo-tag your posts, so your audience feels you’re close to them.

4. Upload Stories Too

It’s the medium to express your brand personality to others.

You don’t have to use the best-looking pictures, your followers will appreciate the original images.

Also, utilize story features such as boomerang.

5. Create a Brand Hashtag

It could be your brand name or something catchy. However, you should aim for quite a long hashtag as they perform better.

Add brand hashtags to your post descriptions, and tell followers to use it in your bio.

A branded hashtag is also an easy way to find photos of followers with your products.

6. Engage

Make an effort to like the photos of your followers and dream customers.

Also, like and respond to comments on your posts. This will increase appreciation for your brand.

7. Practice Brand Consistency

Make the colors from your logo or website dominant in your posts. Keep the same tone and theme in your descriptions too.

Optimizing Your Instagram Account For Your Brand

Use personal branding as leverage for your brand. You should start by linking your brand account to your bio — that’s free marketing when followers view your profile.

Here are some things you should do to give your brand more exposure:

• Routinely post images of yourself with your products
• Add posts from your brand account to your story
• Repost your brand’s teasers, giveaways, and competitions

You should also consider using linkin.bio to share more than 1 link in your Instagram bio. This saves you from having to always change your bio link anytime you promote something.

Managing Your Brand and Online Store

Every business requires daily and weekly actions to succeed.

You can follow all the right steps, and still fail because you weren’t consistent. Also, you don’t want to overcomplicate things and feel like you’re doing another full-time job.

So, here’s a simple approach to manage your influencer business:

Instagram Duties

• Finding user-submitted posts of your brand (10–15 mins/day)
• Scheduling posts for the day (10–15 mins/day)
• Uploading to your story (5–10 mins/day)
• Engaging with your audience (10–15 mins/day)
• Reaching out to influencers for collaboration (10–30 mins/week)

Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t seeing results when committing to duties. Your audience has to digest hours of information before they begin engaging.

Also, it takes about 1–3 months to generate the stats that confirm if you’re doing things right or wrong.

Online Store Duties

• Responding to messages and emails (15–30 mins/day)
• Uploading new products (0–15 mins/week)
• Product stock management (10–20 mins/week)
• Handling returns or refunds (10–15 mins/week)

You can spend just 2 hours a day managing your business. This makes it possible to do it alongside your job or profession.

Once you start making decent revenue, you could automate your business by getting a virtual assistant to take care of most tasks.

Remember, Social Following Is Not That Important

According to SmartInsights, Instagram accounts with less than 2000 followers receive the highest engagement rates.

This is why your goal shouldn’t be to get more followers. Instead, you should focus on increasing your social capital.

“Social capital is the personal relationships and social networks that contribute to an organization’s success” — Danlok.com

It gives you the ability to generate money on-demand.

You receive social capital by adding value to your audience. Customers buy from those they like and trust. Selling is about emotions first — logic is used to justify the emotions later.

Plus, the goal of every brand is to turn its audience into customers and then into fans.

Fans are those that love your products, and always recommend them to others. They feel like they’re part of an exclusive tribe.

Focus on building loyal fans for your brand.

7 Marketing Strategies To Quickly Grow Your Brand

Take your brand to the next level with these strategies:

1. Get Many Product Reviews

Consumers are immediately influenced by what others say about your brand.

Inside your product packaging or sales confirmation page, remind customers to give their reviews. You can offer an incentive such as giving them a discount code when they complete a review — this could even influence them to give a better review.

Display review statistics on your e-store’s homepage. Also, add a short slider of the best reviews you get.

Some customers may be willing to go on camera and say a few words about your brand. You can then put a video together, and use it in marketing videos.

2. Branding By Association

What’s more convincing than a customer review is an influencer or established company endorsing you.

Endorsements should be added to your homepage or about us page.

If your brand has been featured on websites, add an “as seen on” strip to your homepage containing the website logos.

To get featured on notable websites, press release marketing does the trick. This is a newsworthy piece of writing to be posted on media sites.

Get in touch with PR agencies, or email the media sites you’d like to be featured on.

The benefits of press releases are:

• Other publications or news sites will write about you too
• You receive quality backlinks
• You’ll become a reputable brand overnight

3. Professional Photography

Having attractive pictures of your products could increase your conversion rates.

You don’t have to invest in a high-priced camera. Instead, you can use a product photography service to capture high-quality images — you only send them the products.

This strategy also separates you from those selling the same products, as people often use the supplier’s generic photos.

Plus, copyright laws protect you as brands and individuals can be penalized for using your images.

4. Support a Cause

People are more concerned with your ethical and social views more than ever.

They’re expecting you to take a stand as over 60% of people want companies to share their take on issues.

Customers want to know if you support something they agree with. Also, silence can be interpreted as disagreement.

Here are some common ways to express your views:

Let people know you support a movement on your website. This could be a small banner on the top of your site or a section on your about us page.

Use your Instagram bio to make a stand by saying a few words and including a hashtag.

Become a helping hand by supporting a cause in your local community, giving away essential products for free, or by donating.

5. Use Google Local

This is a feature that shows nearby local businesses when you search for a product.

You need to have a physical address as businesses with PO Box addresses are excluded from Google Local.

Virtual addresses are the secret to how online stores appear on Google’s 1st-page result when consumers add “near me” in their search or click “allow your location”.

This SEO advantage saves you from spending a ridiculous amount on Google ads.

Other than search engine benefits, having a business address makes customers less skeptical of your brand as no customer expects to return products to a home address.

6. Email Marketing

This is the “free” marketing method.

You can directly engage with your fans and tell them about discounts, offers, review incentives, or anything else.

Build your list by collecting emails during sales and by having a newsletter CTA on your website.

7. Setting Up an Affiliate Program

Content will always be king — and free if people receive a commission for referring customers.

By creating an affiliate platform, you’ve initiated an ever-growing remote team of content writers, YouTubers, and influencers. But, you should have a vetting process in place so your brand isn’t associated with low quality.

Also, store builders like Shopify have affiliate integration features so it’s easy for you to implement.

To Summarize

1. Find a product you can sell
2. Build an online store
3. Make an Instagram brand account
4. Do daily and weekly marketing duties

All you’re doing is monetizing the time you already spend on Instagram.

Most people use the platform as if they’re running a professional brand, and it’s a shame they haven’t thought about creating one. The special times we’re in makes it easy for anyone to create a brand and earn online. With an Instagram account, 50% is already done for you.

People are buying things through Instagram every second. Take action by adding a price tag to your lifestyle.

Let your Instagram account equal dollars.

Do what you love (on Instagram), and you’ll never work a day in your life