Why post your swag for free, when you can make thousands of dollars by posting to Instagram? For some fashion, beauty, fitness and lifestyle bloggers, what they post is how they eat. Take for instance popular blogger Danielle Bernstein of We Wore What, who tells Harper’s Bazaar she makes as much as $15,000 from a single Instagram post.
This may come as a surprise to some but there are several mega retailers that will pay big money to get their products noticed by your large social media following.
So how does it work?
1. Build your audience: Instagram is over saturated with Instashops, self-fitness experts and stylists, this is true. But what makes it work is that they each have their own niche. Don’t try to duplicate something you’ve already seen, instead be true to your passion, offer a different aesthetic and be genuine. After all, we can totally tell when you’re just selling something.
2. Network: Like any business, making it big on the ‘gram has a lot to do with who you know. Reach out to those who are doing it and doing it well. Contact bloggers in your area to gain different outlooks as to how they found success, survey friends and family on what they would like to see, buy and even those things they can’t stand. This will help you do a few things: build business relationships, give your name a face and find your voice.
3. Be consistent: As time goes by, fans will anticipate your posts; whether you post once a week or once a day, fans will be looking. If you don’t stay consistent, fans will quickly lose interest.
Sooner or later, you’ll gain the interest of those same brands you’ve been gramming about, which could very well result in negotiations with fashion and lifestyle brands who want an edge over their competitors’ products. According to Harper’s Bazaar, brands spend more than $1 billion each year on sponsored Instagram posts. Not too shabby!
