The quickest way to make money on Instagram (even with a small following) – VidzMak (2024)

I’ve read many blogs that say “How I earned $x in my first x months of blogging”, but soon people are going to read blogs on “How I earned $x in my first x months of Instagramming“. And those blog posts would be written byYOU.

So let’s start your Instagram money making journey…

If you don’t knowwhat is an affiliate link?

An affiliate link is a link to a product or service and is unique to you. You receive a commission for every sale that is made through that link.

This is the guide that encouraged me to START making money through affiliates!And by following the steps fromFROM ZERO TO SUPERHEROI was able to make my first $100 on Instagram.

Keep reading to learn how I did it…

So now that you know that the key to earning quick money on Instagram is promoting affiliate products,I’m gonna show youthe exact strategy that I used to make money on Instagram step-by-step…

But before we jump into the steps, there are2 important thingsyou need to keep in mindabout affiliate links:

1. Whenever you use an affiliate link, you should always,always, disclose itto your audiencethat you will receive a commission if they buy from your link, with no extra cost on them. And this is pretty much easy in Instagram. You just need to use a hashtag, either #affiliate or #affiliatelink into the caption. As simple as that.

2. Never ever try to sell something that you haven’t tried or will never use.Always recommend honestly. If you already have an engaged following or you are trying to build one, people are only looking for honest opinions. You need to build their trust. And they will only listen to you and buy your recommended products if they feel it is genuine. This will help you long term.

Now that we are done with these, let’s get to the steps you need to follow:

MOST IMPORTANT STEP:IF YOU HAVE VERY FEW FOLLOWERS

If you’re wondering how I managed to make money from so less followers, this is the most important tip you need to know.

There are 2 factors that helped me through this:

• I have a VERY targeted audience (targeted followers)

• I drove external traffic to my “money” post

If you ever want to make money on Instagram, you always want to make sure that you have a very niched audience. To do so, you need to post around a niched topic. Like for me, I post around Instagram tips and hence, my followers are the only ones who are interested in knowing Instagram tips.

So, if I recommend a product that will help them along their Instagram journey, they are going to love it! And that is what helped with my first $100.

Coming to the second point,I drove targeted Pinterest traffic to my “affiliated” Instagram post.

Here comes the fun part…

Obviously, if you have a small following, very few people are going to go and check that link in your bio. And hence, you’ll make less money.

But, what if I told you there’s a workaround to this?

You can make people visit your post directly and then they will go and checkout your link in bio!

And all of this can be done by Pinterest.

Now, you might be thinking why am I asking you to promote your Instagram post on Pinterest?

That’s because thePinterest-Instagram combination works really well.

✅This is something I’ve tried and tested myself, and it works amazingly.

And I must say that this works though it might sound silly! Try doing it yourself and then tell me how it went!

One of themajor advantages of this is, when your source URL is Instagram on any pin, that pin becomes a rich pin (which is one of the major things to make yourPinterest pin take off).

Now that you know this, these are the steps you need to follow:

• You don’t have to use the same Instagram picture on Pinterest (and you shouldn’t). Your Pinterest image needs to be tall. Ideally, with 2:3 ratio of width:height.

• Add your Instagram image into the Pinterest image. And add some convincing text onto the Pinterest image. This text should make people click on it.

• Add your Instagram post URL into the URL section of the Pin you just created.

• Add some keywords related to your image in the image description.

• Pin your image strategically on several Pinterest group boards (15 recommended, with somerelevant time interval in between).

If you don’t have a strategy,this is the Pinterest strategythat I used to make my pin take off. I love this strategy because first, it made me money, and second, because it drives my blog and Instagram free traffic and likes! Not a bad deal, is it?Check out this strategy to get the same results as mine!

Champion Tip:Pinterest images usually take2 days to take off, so you need to keep sharing these pins extensively for 2 days and don’t change that URL on Instagram for at least 3-4 days if you really want this to happen.

Recommended:How to double your Instagram Engagement

Now, let’s talk about the steps you need to take:

RECOMMENDED READING:

• The ONE true purpose of your pre-launch for 2x launch results (Don’t screw up your launch with this pre-launch mistake)
• Truth is 9 out of 10 people are doing launch wrong (DO NOT launch without reading this!)
• The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags: How to Use Them to Gain Maximum Exposure

STEP #1.JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

If you are already using a product or service that might helpyouraudience, find out if there is anyaffiliate program available for it.

✅ To find a program, just search “[Your product/servicename]” + affiliate link” on Google.

Or, if you don’t use a product that might help your audience, start doing someresearch on the influencers in your niche. Go to their websites and find out which products/services they are promoting to their audience.

A good way to find this is in their “tools” or “resources” page. This page would be filled with their affiliate links.

And the best part is…

If the influencers are using these products to promote, it’s a surefire that they swear by it. Because they won’t recommend anything that their audience won’t enjoy. They have to keep their reputation anyway 😉

Once you have found a few products/services to promote. Go and join their affiliate programs.

Some of them will want you to have a website, some of them won’t. Also, for some of the affiliate programs your application needs to get approved by them. So this might take a while as well.

If you want to join affiliate programs and don’t know where to start, here are a few that you can join easily:

1. EarnEasyCommisions

This is one of thebest affiliate programsI’ve used so far. This affiliate program does not want you to sell anything. You get $1 for each referral – no selling required.

✔️ You don’t even need to buy anything to join this affiliate program.

Join for FREE here.

2. Ultimate Bundles

You can earn40% of each saleyou make. This will turn out to bethe best converting affiliates for you. It includes “bundles” for different niches. If you’re a beauty blogger, parent blogger or evenblogging blogger, they have something for you over there.

Many of these bundlescome for several times in a year. Somake sure you check the upcoming bundlesso that you can create a good post beforehand and make use of that bundle.

Plus, did I tell you thatyou get a complimentary bundle for yourself when you make 5 sales? It’sa win-win.

✔️Join this network for FREE here.

3.ShareaSale

It’s a verypopularnetwork with over 4000 merchants in over 40 different categories.

I recommend every blogger to join this network.It’s easy to join and there are high chances that you will find products related to your niche.

✔️ Join this affiliate network for FREE here.

4. Sendowl

This is a marketplace where you will find many products to become a part of affiliate program. All products have their own commission percentage. This is thebest platform for newbies.

You don’t want to miss this one.This is the most easiest platform of all!

✔️ Join this affiliate network for free here.

Want more affiliate programs to join? ✅Click here for a list of 500 more affiliate programs to join.

RECOMMENDED READING:

• STOP listening to podcasts while doing mindless tasks. Do this instead (to increase your marketing results)
• This is how my clients sell-out their programs

STEP #2.POST A HIGH-QUALITY PICTURE ON INSTAGRAM

This might seem obvious, but bare with me for a while.There’s a trick to these high-quality images…

Not every high-quality picture that promotes an affiliate earns a good amount on Instagram. Some even earn no money at all.