How Much I Made From 90,000 Instagram Followers
Plus, tips to grow your account
Ok ok, Instagram didn’t actually pay me for 90,000 subscribers but I did make money thanks to that fan base. This is how it all went down.
This happened back in 2016. I was running an online store at the time and I noticed I was getting some real traction from Instagram. I scrapped and scraped to grow my tiny following to 4,000 fans the previous year and it was hard work.
I started taking notice of some events happening on the gram, called Shop Hops. A Shop Hop or a loop giveaway is where a group of collaborators (these are Instagram accounts that are a collection of shops and boutiques) sponsor a giveaway.
It would be around 20 to 30 collaborators and every person would put in $20, for example.
20 people * $20 = $400
So, the host would take $400 and buy a gift card to Target or Amazon or Best Buy, etc.
Then the giveaway would run and each collaborator would promote it. To join the giveaway for a chance to win, you had to follow every collaborator, like and share the giveaway.
At the end a winner was chosen and awarded the prize.
That’s how it worked.
One giveaway could easily increase your following by around 1,000 to 2,000 new fans. And the giveaway usually ran for 48 hours so 2 days after you start, bam, 2,000 more fans on your Instagram account.
It was an incredible feeling to see that in just a few days my account could grow as much as half a year of hard work, the year prior.
So, through Shop Hops (also called loop giveaways) and a lot of attention and curation of my feed on Instagram, I grew it to 90K+ fans.
This was before the big Instagram change and before Instagram ads I think (or when ads were brand new) so engagement and reach was still pretty amazing back then.
What My Posting Schedule Was Like
I posted everyday. Every. Single. Day. That includes weekends. And everyday I posted 5 times!
There were few scheduling tools available back then. One or two really and one of the two I used sometimes but it was fickle so I ended up manually posting most of the time.
If you chose to go fast and furious on your Instagram account today, you will have much more variety and availability of automation tools so you don’t have to be glued to the platform 24/7.
How Much Did I Make With 90,000 Fans
Around $30,000/month!
No joke.
I got 90% of my sales from Instagram and I made sales every single day.
That feeling when you make money in your sleep.
It’s something not everyone experiences but it’s an incredible feeling.
My Exact Instagram Monetization Strategy
I did a few things to make money on Instagram.
In addition to sharing products and making announcements on Instagram, like upcoming sales, events, and giveaways, I also sold products directly on the platform.
I held flash sales.
Using the company Spreesy (now CommentSold), I would host flash sales once a week (at first) where I’d showcase products and customer would comment their variation and quantity then, be sent an email to check out.
This was hugely successful.
I started doing flash sales manually but it was too time-intensive so I automated it, working with a company who took a small portion of the sale.
Social media was a big part of the success of my company.
In addition to Instagram, I was on other social networks like Facebook and Pinterest. But, Instagram was where most of my audience hung out and it accounted for the majority of my sales.
Final Thoughts
How can you make money on Instagram?
There are so many ways to monetize your Instagram account, today.
If you have a theme page, sell shoutouts. Examples of theme pages:
- Page about dogs, animals, cats, etc.
- Page about Instagram baddies
- Page about nails
- Page about food
- Page about gaming
The list continues.
If you work in ecommerce, grow your following by consistently posting and being engaged with your fans. Shop hops are still happening and if you want to get in on one, head to Facebook and search for shop hop or loop giveaway groups. Join one and get the details. You can do the same thing on Instagram. Search for shop hop hosts (there are pages just for signing up) and go from there to sign up and learn more.
You can also look at buying shoutouts from influencers to advertise your products. While I haven’t done this much, I have heard of store owners making up to $3,000/day with this strategy.
I hope this has been helpful. What are your plans for your Instagram page?
