Monetising 120K Instagram account

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Hi all I have been looking around the internet for advice and this forum looks a great place so I am hoping to get some good information on here.

First of all a bit of background - I have a 65K Instagram account in the Meditation/Mindfulness niche. I believe, looking at other similar accounts that I am the biggest account in this niche that isn't run by bots aside from the big 2, Calm and Headspace. At first I was just posting quotes but recently I have been offering a lot more value like Meditations, Q&A's, Polls etc so my engagement and relationship with my followers is pretty good. I regularly receive DM's from people asking for advice, recommendations and thanking me for helping them with my posts. I think people see me as a brand now rather than just a page. I watermark all of my photos to help this.

I have made $2K approx from shoutouts and was offered a 75% commission on a new app but unfortunately I did not make any money from offering it. My original plan was to open a Shopify Dropshipping Store + Blog Mix but I am worried about the returns process and the long delivery times. I am also concerned it would not resonate well with my followers.

I know there is a lot more money to be made out of my account but I am at a bit of a loss which the next best step forward should be.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated

Update: I am now sitting at 120K and still am unsure what to do with it. Please read latest post
#beginners area #65k #account #instagram #monetising
  • Why don't you start a blog in your niche. That way you can own your web property and you can drive traffic to posts that you make. This will help you establish yourself as an expert.

    Bringing the traffic to your website will allow you build an email list and to monetize your site by reviewing and suggesting products which they can purchase through your affiliate links. You can also offer products that you produce and sell. Shopify is also a great opportunity.
    • [ 5 ] Thanks
  • Are you building a list of subscribers? If not this should be step one.

    Go for digital products to "recommend" and be very choosy who you work with.

    Brent
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thank you both for the suggestions. As yet I have not started an Email list. I am still quite new to internet marketing and learning on the job so to speak. Do either of you know of any posts or sites where I can learn about both of your recommendations?
    • [1] reply
    • I would probably do it like this.

      Build a blog on WordPress. Add in about 15 articles. Offer something for free if they sign up for the pre launch - collect email addresses and you could probably team up with somebody to give away a discount code or a free e-book on yoga.

      Update the blog with good articles twice a week. Then you can either start affiliate marketing other products related to your audience, or you can start your own brand if you have the capital and sell your own products.

      Failing that, keep your blog active and updated with new content and you could sell advertising space on your website.
  • Thanks very much for this. It sounds like it would be a good way for me to go. Do you know of anyone who could design such a site as designing is not my strong point?
  • You have already done the hardest part by establishing yourself as a reliable influencer. The other part is to start building your email list. This is what I advice you should do:-

    1. Go to Clickbank and buy a product that you would like to promote and evaluate it to see its quality since you don't want to ruin your reputation. When you are sure that the product will add value to your audience then go to step 2.

    2. Create an optin form to collect subscribers then redirecting them to the offer page. You can either decide to offer them a free stuff in order for them to subscribe or not, there are several ways to go about it.

    3. Insert the link to your optin page in your bio with a clear call-to-action. Make sure your optin page has a clear call-to-action as well.

    4. Follow up with autoresponder sequence. Most vendors will have autoresponder sequence already written or you can write your own.

    5. You can remarket to your subscribers over and over again with products that you are sure of their quality so that you maintain your reputation.

    Those are the readily available way to start monetising instantly.

    For your landing page and autoresponder, use mailchimp. At least you don't have to pay anything till you reach 2,000 subscribers.

    Finally, you can create your own product and make the big bux.

    Goodluck
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Except MC doesn't allow affiliate links. So promoting affiliate products with it is not allowed.

      Brent
      • [1] reply
    • Except for using mailchimp as an autoresponder because of the affiliate link thing... i think this answer is great.

      If you want to "hardcore" sell 1 product, you can go with an email sequence, otherwise you can collect the email addresses and send broadcast whenever you have a new recommendation or product you'd like to sell (you could do both, if you're not afraid to send out many emails, which is okay too).

      What i would do, is give 2-3 emails of value first, so that people are more enclined to open the emails afterwards

      Regarding shopify products, try to find a good provider. You might eventually have to hire customer support, if you get a bunch of orders coming in.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Built a list .
    And start a blog + youtube, so make videos with slides maybe ?
    You can make money easy .
    Refer to products from clickbank .
  • I would do the same as Highest And Best recommended to you
    create a blog and offer more for them and add some service or something what you can sell to them!
  • This might violate the hell out of all of the rules here (if it does, my apologies). I just stumbled on this post while exploring this place and I thought to myself...man I could help this person. So, I created an account here, just to post this lol

    With an 65k account, and good engagement, you can make some real money. Send me a message on here (I think you can message people here?), and I will help you get set up (I will offer advice for free, or directly help for a fee/cut). Your best bet is creating an actual brand through white labeling etc. and selling it through your page. I know it might sound daunting as hell, but just close your eyes and have some faith in me. We'll make it work.

    I run a YouTube gaming channel for fun, on the side. I spoke about my mentality as it relates to this stuff, at the start of my video today. You should go watch it (just so you feel more comfortable with talking to me lol) just jump on to CrazyTurtle on YouTube and check out the first ~10 mins of today's video (Dec 6 2018).

    If you don't want my help etc, I wish you the best. You can have some real success with how you're currently positioned.
    Good luck!
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    • It sounds like you are some sort of advertising here?
      • [1] reply
  • I would reverse engineer this.. the 2 came to you correct? i would look at who may need you and your audience and approach them. 64K followers.. i would start in the $2500 a shoutout area.
  • You have 65k instagram followers,why do not leverage this to drive traffic to your own blog/shopping store?

    Constently writting valuable article about meditation and collecting email list.

    START NOW!
  • Savidge - No I made $2K from various shoutouts. I was charging $20 for 24 hours.

    Lee Byron - I have started on the blog and just waiting for an Ebook to be delivered to me to entice people to join my email list.

    I would have liked to do Shopify/dropshipping but I am wary that a lot of people will not like the long delivery times
    • [3] replies
    • I can not stress this enough - you are severly under valueing yourself.. try looking here: https://inkifi.com/earnings-on-instagram/ to get a baseline. and that is PER POST - not some 24 hours of coverage thing.

      IF you had over those 100 24 hour shoutouts kept track of the response rate.. IE running the link through a redirect page on your site before sending them to the desired page... you could then have data HARD DATA to show added value.

      I will tell you for my clients I find that inkifi is generally just a base line and 5x to 10X of thier estimated value is somewhere that is a norm. I will warn you now.. you will find you have left 10X to 100X on the table.

      You need to start looking at the quality of where you are sending your followers. As in the value of the people you have sent traffic to vs a major brand if that makes sense. Try and find affiliate offers for teas or the like or what ever and start tracking the click rate and the buy rate. Even at a .1% buy rate you are still talking 65 purchases

      You were handing over click throughs for pennies at $20 a day.
    • You don't need to worry about selling anything yet mate.

      This is a process, do it right and you could be on to a solid earner. Just take it step by step and you'll be fine.

      The main thing for you right now is to keep offering value and content via your own website now though!

    • With Shopify/dropshipping, you don't necessarily have to ship from China. There are many U.S based companies that provide dropshipping from the U.S so shipping times are much faster. Just search for "product + dropshipping" and see what comes up in Google.


      You can also choose the option in Alibaba to only search for U.S based dropshipping companies too.


      So don't let long shipping times prevent you from using eCom on your Instagram.


      The other thing I would do is to try and transition as many people as you can onto an email list. This gives you better control and ownership of your business. Your eBook that you are creating doesn't have to be huge, just needs to provide enough value to get them to optin.
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  • Thanks. I did not realise this about Ali Baba. The problem is, although the US accounts for a 1/3 of my following, the rest is pretty much Europe.

    Savidge4 I think you misunderstand the shoutouts I am selling. People approach me to advertise for them. If I suggested as much as you say they would laugh in my face. Most balk at even paying $30
    • [1] reply
    • No misunderstanding of words bro... There is money everywhere right now.. and you are settling for $20. with an audience such as yours.. you are worth F A R more.

      Seriously... think about brands and products that parralel what it is your IG account is about... and start DMing BRANDS not people and offering them ad space. And I am being straight up serious Start at like $500 or something.. if a BRAND comes back for a 2nd round.. you then know your worth even more.
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    Begin adding Creative Images about Lucid Dreams like Flying and controlling everything that happens in your Dreams even romantically to your account.

    Then have someone Create for you an eBook on the subject then create a great Sales page you can even offer an affiliate program for others to sell it for you then go ahead and promote continually to your followers and MAKE A KILLING.

    Art
  • Hi! You have a lot of followers! Congrats!

    For monetize you account even more I would put a link in the description and in each post giving away a free report or a free book in exchange for their email. And then promote affiliate products to them. But make sure that are products that are good and really can help your audience.
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  • Build a blog in your niche a d create lots of posts in your niche and you can drive traffic to your posts and there you can promote aff links or build a email list
  • Besides, sending traffic to offer/affiliate offer.

    You can also focus your time,energy & money on growing your audience to 500k and charging big brands more for shout outs.
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  • I would create a shopify store in that niche with blog and start earning some big $. Try looking into tapestries with your niche. You will succeed it's just a matter of finding the right path that works for you!
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  • Instagram is definitely helpful when it comes to marketing and can divert traffic to any site. You can make use of this if you have other platforms you are active in. A 65k account is actually pretty decent, especially if you have a good engagement rate.
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  • Hey! how long it took to earn $2k & how did you grow your account?
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  • Have you considered using IGTV and promoting it? Video on IG is booming, something like 70% engagement with audiences? Which is a lot. Use that as a chance to promote your list by having people vote on things like ebooks, or courses... Whatever really. You can have your followers tell you exactly what they want, without them even realizing what you are doing.
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  • Firstly congratulations on this major accomplishment of growing your IG account. Digital marketers everywhere would be rather jealous. Your in a great niche and rather broad so you can branch out into other sub-niches.

    It sounds like you are a brand and you have successfully gained your followers trust. They are contacting you for advice! Have you ever considered creating an e-course (like a 7 day mindfulness bootcamp) or starting a weekly live video chat where your followers can ask questions? Both of these you would not charge for...mostly to build your list and further cement a trusting relationship. Ive seen tarot readers have these live sessions where everyone there gets a free short reading...and atleast half of the participants make a donation. These live sessions always end up making money for the brand. Doing these live group sessions really goes a long way with your followers. Believe me they want to see your face and hear your voice. The face to face connection is the fastest way to gain trust.
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  • One of the things you can do to monetize your insta following.

    You can simply create Information products about meditation if you can sell the information it will not even require huge investment.

    You can create courses like how to do meditation stuff like that whatever you think is going to be good for your audience.

    As you are worried about the refunds if in the case of the information products you are going to get the refund still you just have to create the course and there will be no issue with that because you can use the tools like teachable for delivering your course and they do charges on the basis of the product sales and sometimes the flat feet is there.

    You can also charged them like consultation fees if someone want your personal advice you can also charge them consultation feee because if someone wants your advice then you can simply charge an hourly rate and then whosoever want any advice they can simply pay you on hourly basis.

    And the last thing I recommend you is to give them some kind of freebie offer which can be free ebook or video training and convert them into your email subscribers because if tomorrow insta is going to shut down your account you will be out of business completely

    so if you have any email list you don't have to worry about that and its really good opportunity to having 65000 Instagram followers you will be having a pretty decent email list
  • I don't profess to be an expert with Instagram. But it has been my experience to use it to build your brand, not so much to try and monetize from it directly. I would use it to build awareness about your products and services. One of the main mistakes, I made over the years was not building my brand.
  • Thank you all for your input so far. Just to update. I have just had my blog finished with 20+ articles to kick things off and I have had an ebook created to give away for people to sign up to the email.
  • You are now in exactly the deadlock to which many account holders come. But the best advice would be to start your blog and more communicate with the audience.
  • Great page I think, but I do not get your page link of insta,I am a web developer and building websites and app .Thanks a lot
  • I think you are in a great position to be in.

    You have the hard part done because you built a nice following.

    There are so many different options that are available to you as a result of being in such a great position. However, being in a great position also seems to be giving you a dilemma.

    I see the post was from 9 weeks ago. So, hopefully by now you have started your way on a new path and hopefully you are already getting results.

    If not let me know if you need someone to talk to.

    Best,

    Gregg
  • You can start your blog or share your thought on mediation products with affiliate links.
    You can also start a dropshiping business and use your instagram to promote your products.
  • I have launched my blog via my Insta and have been using stories to drive traffic so far. After 1 day I've got 73 subscribers to the email list so I've still got work to do to build that up.

    Still really haven't thought what the best step is next to start to earn more money.
  • Perhaps you might consider doing videos on your Instagram page and stories.

    Besides written posts with images.

    As when people hear and see you, chances are they are more likely to trust you as a person.
    • [1] reply
    • Yes I do want to do videos but a lot of people think I'm a Buddhist messiah which couldn't be further from the truth. I actually think it may harm me more if I revealed myself. Plus people believe we are a team as opposed to one person
  • pinterest is great if you know how to work with it, you need to make shopify and then blog to get good returns.
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  • I like this idea! Thanks for sharing!
  • Thank You for sharing this information. It is very helpful for me.
  • I would be very careful to promote solid products that your followers would get value out of
  • By a long shot the most worthwhile approach to adapt Instagram adherents is to make a video membership administration, sort of like your very own Netflix administration. This technique enables you to develop and develop the substance you share on Instagram. ... Clients join and can get to these recordings on interest from anyplace on any gadget.
  • Create your own brand, logo, website, email marketing list, then start selling Ebooks and other items related to your niche.
  • You'd have to really know more details about your followers. Meditation and Mindfulness is one of those weird spaces where a lot of folks are wealthy ... but a lot are dead broke.

    So it's like you have to figure out how much of those 65K are wealthy and serve them.

    I mean we live in a day and age where "athleisure" stuff that should sell for like $ 10 sells for $ 80 to the right crowd. Or those cheap print on demand shirts that are like $ 3 to $ 5 but with the right print it sells for $ 20 to $ 30.

    But with that space ... if somehow you've attracted mostly the broke folk getting into it? You'd have to form a different plan.

    There are mindfulness retreats for rich folks that cost $ 10K and up ... and then there are those ones where you can "donate" what you want and some folks only have like $ 10.

    It's a weird space like that.
  • 6. Sell Affiliate Products
    5. Advertise Brand Products
    4. Sell Self-Branded Products
    3. Video Product Placements
    2. Teach What You Know
    1. Create Your Own Netflix-Style Video Website
  • I think If you use a bridge page that leads to the affiliate offer this should satisfy a work around.
    Thank you so much for your post.
  • Create your own brand,website, logo, email marketing list, then start selling items related to your niche.You can start your blog on your website or share your thought on mediation products with affiliate link.Thank you so much for your post.
  • You can monetize it by doing affilate marketing, selling instagram followers, instagram promotion of new brand, selling physical goods, etc
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  • You can also do affiliate marketing and try to send people to sites and collect a percentage, usually on CPL and CPA deals, for every customer you send. We currently run the 5 biggest online casinos in Australia and also have an interest in establishing partnerships with people that have traffic. If you are interested in further monetizing your channel, we are more than willing to help
  • Hey man,

    Don't go too fast about selling crap.

    If you want to be in business for some time, u need to do right by your clients. And doing some dropshipping and stuff... Usually doesn't end well.

    So yeah, in the meditation niche, man, you could be making tshirts (easy as shit, but you need some upfront cash), an ebook or program, coaching and so on.

    Do it seriously and u will have the return. Just protect your brand man. Your brand is your income
  • There is a lot of great information offered up here and I think you have a really amazing opportunity to make some decent money.

    As Savidge said before you are definitely WAY undervaluing yourself. If you are trying to be generous and simply help people out then that is fine, $20 for a 24 hour shoutout is great but you will have people lining up out the door at that cost. Plus you must have put some time and effort into building your following so you need to price yourself accordingly.

    Secondly, you could definitely do affiliate marketing but you must have some knowledge of the meditation industry? Package your knowledge into varying levels of digital products and I think you will have an amazing outcome.
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  • Here I am, almost a year later but with almost double the followers and still not really found a good route. Affiliate courses do not seem to convert well, probably because most of them are so expensive.

    People definitely see me as a brand, I get asked to do things like University talks, podcasts etc but due to having a job, I wouldn't be able to do them.
  • 1. Build a daily practicing videos on Youtube/IG images > post them on the website so you build a newsletter and have website ads
    2. Literally Buy/ask for free/ products you woulda want to test and test them on videos/IG images and review them through affiliate link or sponsorship?
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    Monetising 120K Instagram account

    Hi all I have been looking around the internet for advice and this forum looks a great place so I am hoping to get some good information on here. First of all a bit of background - I have a 65K Instagram account in the Meditation/Mindfulness niche. I believe, looking at other similar accounts that I am the biggest account in this niche that isn't run by bots aside from the big 2, Calm and Headspace. At first I was just posting quotes but recently I have been offering a lot more value like Meditations, Q&A's, Polls etc so my engagement and relationship with my followers is pretty good. I regularly receive DM's from people asking for advice, recommendations and thanking me for helping them with my posts. I think people see me as a brand now rather than just a page. I watermark all of my photos to help this.