How do I become an Instagram affiliate?

Instagram has been a huge part of the internet since its inception in 2010. In less than a decade, this photo sharing social network has grown into one of the most popular platforms online. As such, there are now more people using Instagram every day than Twitter or Facebook combined.

Now that Instagram is so big, many brands have used their popularity as a way to grow their business by creating branded content through Instagram. This allows them to reach potential customers without having to spend money on traditional advertising methods like TV ads.

With all these new users, brands also need ways to monetize their presence on Instagram. That’s why they’re starting to create sponsored posts with different companies who want to promote products to their audiences. In fact, according to Statista, in 2019 alone there were $3 billion spent by marketers across all industries trying to drive traffic to their websites using Instagram.

But if you're not familiar with affiliate marketing, then how will you know which company to partner up with? It's important to understand exactly how affiliate marketing works before getting involved in any kind of relationship with another party. We've put together everything you'll ever need to know about affiliate marketing, including how to choose the best platform for your needs (and avoid scams).

So whether you're just thinking about joining the affiliate world, or already working as an affiliate marketer but looking to improve your skills, here's everything you need to know about making some extra cash off of Instagram!

Can we affiliate from Instagram?

Yes, absolutely! You don't even need to be signed up for anything yet to start earning commissions for promoting other people's products. All you need to do is sign up for ClickBank (or whichever program you decide to join), buy some Amazon gift cards at a discount, and then follow our steps below to learn how to make affiliate sales on Instagram.

You might wonder where you'd go to find offers to promote. The easiest place to look would probably be Instagram itself. There are tons of options available right on your home screen. But when you dig deeper into those choices, you may discover that none of them offer you much value. Instead, you should try signing up for third-party programs that allow you to advertise specific types of products. For example, you could join a program called ShareASale, which only requires you to provide a link to a product page in order to earn commission payments based on clickthrough rates. Or you could try joining Refersion, which lets you share any video clip and receive a percentage of revenue generated via ad views.

Another option is to use apps aimed specifically at helping affiliates build relationships with brands. These apps connect buyers directly with sellers, allowing you to sell products without needing to worry about finding anyone interested in buying the things you're selling. One great app worth checking out is Post Affiliate Pro, which allows you to generate leads for any type of niche and helps you track down deals quickly once you find something interesting.

If you happen to run across an account that doesn't seem trustworthy, however, you can always contact customer support to see if they can verify the legitimacy of the seller. If someone tells you they have thousands of followers, it's usually safe to assume they either don't actually have that many followers, or else they aren't doing very well at driving traffic to their own site. Either way, you shouldn't let yourself waste time following fake accounts.

Does Instagram Block affiliate links?

As mentioned above, Instagram is owned by Facebook, meaning that the same rules apply as they do anywhere else within the larger ecosystem. This means that Instagram won't block you from posting affiliate links if you follow certain guidelines.

The first thing you should keep in mind is that while Instagram isn't technically considered "the web," it certainly feels that way sometimes. So when you post an affiliate link, you need to remember that Instagram users often view links differently than website visitors. To help you better target your audience, you can include hashtags and keywords in your description whenever possible. And because Instagram is primarily focused around photos rather than text, you can also add captions to your images to draw attention to whatever you're talking about.

Once you master the basics, though, you're free to experiment with other strategies. Here are a few ideas to consider:

Use your bio section to tell your story. Many people use bios to talk about themselves and their passions, so you can use this space to give prospective clients information about your background or interests. Some people even use their bios as mini resumes, listing their education history and previous jobs.

Create engaging videos instead of pictures. Video takes longer to load, so it makes sense that it should take longer to watch. Plus, you can really hone in on what you're saying thanks to sound effects and visual cues. Using tools like Filmora or Camtasia Studio, you can record your voiceover and edit it until it sounds natural and professional. Then you can upload the resulting file to YouTube or Vimeo and embed it in your profile. People love watching stories, especially ones that show behind-the-scenes looks at what goes into running a successful business.

Keep your feed consistent. While you can definitely test out various creative tactics, it's a good idea to stick to tried and true methods to ensure that your follower base remains loyal and engaged with your posts. When you change up your approach too much, your fans may feel confused or overwhelmed. They may even begin unfollowing you altogether.

How does affiliate marketing work on Instagram?

Like we said earlier, affiliate marketing relies heavily upon partnerships between businesses and individuals. When you sign up to participate in affiliate marketing, you agree to act as a middleman between two parties.

Let's say you're searching Pinterest for inspiration for a DIY project. After spending hours browsing through hundreds of pins, you come across an image posted by someone else. Rather than clicking away immediately, you decide to check out the original source of the picture. You scroll past several comments and finally arrive at the author's profile. From there, you're taken to his/her personal blog or website, where you find additional details about the project and purchase instructions. Even after taking all these measures, you still end up purchasing the item. Now you owe both parties a small portion of the profits earned from the sale.

Although this process seems simple enough, it can lead to complex situations involving numerous participants. Let's break it down further.

When you sign up with an affiliate program, you typically enter your email address and select a payment method, depending on what you plan to charge. Once you send over your credit card number, you'll automatically qualify to receive future promotions sent by the program. You can opt out at any point if you no longer wish to receive emails related to your chosen affiliation.

Next, once you've found a suitable deal, you simply search for the product you want to promote and paste the relevant URL onto your blog or website. At this stage, you can also write a short blurb explaining why you think the product is useful. Finally, you can tag your post appropriately and publish it.

As long as you're careful to comply with affiliate policies -- namely, ensuring that you disclose any paid affiliations upfront -- you should never face legal issues. However, some programs require you to pay a monthly fee in addition to receiving commission checks. Also, you must remain vigilant about keeping your followers updated with new opportunities and changes to existing campaigns. Otherwise, you risk losing credibility among your peers and becoming a black mark in the eyes of your followers.

How do you do affiliate marketing on Instagram?

There are plenty of ways you can jumpstart your affiliate marketing efforts on Instagram. Just make sure you stay clear of the obvious pitfalls and focus on building trust with your followers. And if you're looking for more tips and tricks, read How to Make Money Off Your Blog With Affiliate Marketing, Part 1 & 2.

Alternatively, you could explore other forms of digital marketing. You could set up your own blog entirely dedicated to affiliate marketing, for instance. This gives you the opportunity to showcase your expertise and experience, as well as establish yourself as an authority figure.

Or maybe you're looking to expand beyond blogging and you want to learn how to start an eCommerce store powered by affiliate sales. Whether you're making clothing items, books, or electronics, you can easily turn your passion into profit with minimal effort.

Whatever route you choose, be sure to continue learning throughout your journey and constantly strive toward improving your craft. After all, the key to succeeding in any field lies in mastering the fundamentals and continuously honing your abilities. That applies doubly to the world of affiliate marketing, which requires you to constantly develop your skills and adapt to changing trends in technology and consumer behavior.

And hey, wouldn't it be nice if you had a little side income coming in each month? Why not combine your love of photography with your affinity for affiliate marketing? You could open a shop on Instagram full of beautiful prints and accessories made exclusively by local artists -- and make some extra cash along the way.

If there's one thing that the internet has taught us in recent years, it's that nothing is impossible if we put our minds to something. There are plenty of things out there which would be considered 'impossible' by most people - but not when you're willing to try hard enough or work at them long enough.

One such example is becoming a successful marketer online. It seems like everyone wants to make money from home these days. But with so much competition out there, who actually succeeds? The answer lies within your own ability as well as the tools available to help you achieve your goals. One tool that will stand you in good stead is affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing Explained

The term "affiliate" comes from affiliate marketers themselves. They refer to affiliates because they pay commissions based on sales made via their website (or other online channels) rather than through direct orders placed over the phone or in person. This means any sale generated from someone clicking on an ad or link sent directly to them (rather than purchased through the website itself), is known as an indirect click-through.

As an affiliate, you'll receive commission payments whenever someone clicks on one of your ads or posts an affiliate link to another site. You don't have to place those ads yourself either. In fact, you could even choose to advertise products that aren't related to yours! All you have to do is find a way to connect your audience with others who sell similar goods. Once you've done this successfully, you're free to share all of your new business opportunities with friends, family and anyone else interested in learning more.

Why Use Affiliate Marketing On Social Media Sites Like Instagram?

Instagram is a photo sharing social network. As such, it makes sense that it'd be used to promote brands and businesses too. For instance, imagine creating images of beautiful food using only the ingredients that your favorite restaurants offer. Or maybe create memes where you talk about topics relevant to your niche. These types of activities are great ways to attract attention and build trust among your potential customers.

But here's the kicker: If you want to reach a wider audience beyond just your current circle of friends and family members, then you should consider using advertising platforms such as Instagram to drive traffic back to your website. And since you already know exactly what kind of content resonates best with your target audience, why wouldn't you utilize the platform to its full advantage?

Here's How To Get Started With Your Instagram Affiliate Campaign

Now let's take a look at some practical steps you can follow right now to start earning affiliate revenue from posting affiliate links on Instagram.

1. Pick A Niche That Interests You

It goes without saying that choosing a topic that interests you personally isn't going to guarantee huge results overnight. However, having a passion for what you're promoting will go a long way towards helping you stay motivated and focused throughout the process. Remember, you won't see immediate profits from building up a following unless you enjoy what you're doing.

2. Find An Ad Agency or Influencer You Can Trust

You may think it sounds crazy to partner with strangers instead of hiring a professional agency, but if you're looking to grow quickly, you're better off taking this route. Plus, agencies usually charge hefty fees upfront whereas influencers typically offer discounts for early signups.

3. Create High Quality Content & Follow Good Practices

This step might seem obvious, but bear with me. Most people fail at affiliate marketing because they lack the expertise required to provide quality content to their audiences. After all, if you're trying to convert viewers into buyers, you obviously shouldn't waste time making low-quality videos that nobody watches. Instead, focus on providing useful information that your audience will appreciate.

4. Choose A Clickbank Product That Suits Your Audience

When deciding whether to promote a certain product or service, always keep in mind what type of people will likely buy it. Are they women between 18 and 35? Parents who live in rural areas? People who prefer reading articles before buying anything? Whatever your criteria are, make sure you select a product that caters to your ideal customer base.

5. Set Up Your Account & Start Sharing Links

Once you've selected a few high-performing products and services, set up your account by filling out the necessary details on Clickbank.com. Then begin uploading pictures and video clips featuring your promotional material. Make sure to include keywords related to your chosen niche. Finally, add relevant hashtags to increase your visibility on the platform.

6. Track Performance Of Each Link

After you upload your first campaign, track performance of each individual link using Google Analytics. This allows you to monitor how often users visit your page after clicking on the link. When you reach 100 unique visitors per day, you can feel confident that you're generating interest in your campaigns.

7. Continue Building Traffic To Your Site

Don't stop once you reach 100 daily visits. Keep pushing forward until you hit 1,000+ views per day. By reaching this threshold, you prove that you're capable of attracting significant amounts of targeted traffic to your site. From here, you can scale up your efforts and eventually earn bigger commissions.

8. Increase Revenue Per Visit Through SEO Techniques

While it's true that Facebook Ads and Twitter Promoted Tweets generate higher ROI rates compared to traditional display advertisements, they require large budgets to produce effective results. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars every month. Instead, you can simply optimize your pages using keyword research techniques and search engine optimization (SEO).

9. Grow Your Following Online Using Other Platforms

Social media sites aren't the only places where you can promote your affiliate offers. You can also leverage paid advertising options provided by companies like AdWords. Just remember to stick to reputable sources otherwise you run the risk of being banned from the platform altogether.

10. Monitor Data Statistics Regularly

To maximize earnings, you must constantly analyze data statistics for both your existing campaigns along with future ones. Try to figure out what works and doesn't work. What kinds of promotions perform better? Which ones bring in more leads? What features resonate best with your audience?

11. Take Advantage Of New Opportunities As Soon As Possible

Most online advertisers tend to overlook new trends very quickly. This is especially true when it comes to affiliate marketing strategies. So if you spot a profitable opportunity while browsing around, jump on board and cash in immediately. Otherwise, you might miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions.

12. Have Fun Creating Great Content

Despite all of the technical jargon involved in running an affiliate program, it still boils down to two simple principles: quality content and repeat visitors. Don't forget that you're ultimately working for yourself. Therefore, treat your job as fun hobby rather than just a paycheck. Enjoy writing and filming interesting videos to gain exposure for your company.

13. Be Patient While Earning Income From Home

There's no denying that affiliate marketing takes patience and persistence. Even though you might notice instant gains during your initial months of operation, you'll probably experience slow progress over the next 3-5 years. Don't lose heart. Just continue focusing on improving your skills and expanding your knowledge. Eventually, you'll discover methods that yield quick results.

14. Consider Joining Commission Junction

With tens of millions of active users worldwide, it's safe to say that CJ is the largest affiliate marketplace on the web today. Moreover, it boasts the highest payout rate for publishers of all digital networks. So if you're thinking of joining the industry, you should definitely check out CJ first.

15. Join Forums & Communities About Your Market

Joining forums and communities dedicated to your niche will give you access to tons of helpful advice. Not only does this save you countless hours of trial-and-error experimenting, but it also provides inspiration for fresh ideas.

16. Partner With Popular Brands & Products

Although it may sound strange at first, partnering with popular brands and products can potentially result in massive income streams. Why? Because many big names rely heavily on affiliate programs to boost their popularity across various social media sites.

17. Leverage Free Tools Available On Internet

Even though you have to invest lots of time and effort into developing a strong presence on Instagram, there are several tools you can use to accelerate your journey. Some of these resources include:

ShareASale: This powerful software enables you to create multiple landing pages at the same time. Not only can you host different banners to showcase different products, but you can also customize your pages according to user preferences.

Rakuten Advertising: Offering advanced analytics reports, this platform helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Refersion: A comprehensive toolkit containing everything from templates to graphic designs, this app gives you creative freedom to design eye-catching visual elements.

Post Affiliate Pro: Developed by experienced bloggers, this application lets you manage your entire affiliate workflow easily.

CJ Affiliate Network: An online community of affiliate marketers where you can learn from experts.

Instagram has been a hot topic in the online world over the last few years. The photo sharing social network has millions of active users who upload thousands of photos every day. It's growing at a rate that would have made Facebook jealous just 10 years ago.

There are many ways to market products and services through Instagram. One way to promote them is by using Instagram as part of its own product or service. You could even create an app with an affiliate link inside and give away free copies to everyone who downloads it.

But there’s another way to earn from promoting other people’s content on Instagram – using affiliate links. These are special links which take visitors directly to the merchant website when they click on them. They're often called 'affiliate links' because they allow marketers to generate income without having any control over distribution themselves.

Many companies offer affiliate programs where you pay a commission based upon sales generated via their sites. If you don't want to be responsible for selling anything yourself, then this might be perfect for you.

But if you'd rather focus on creating great content instead of generating revenue, then maybe you should consider becoming an affiliate on Instagram. Here we'll show you everything you need to know about getting involved with this form of promotion.

Is Instagram good for affiliate marketing?

If you've ever tried to sell something on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, YouTube or Snapchat (just to name a few), you may well have noticed that most of these platforms lack an official affiliate program. There aren't specific rules governing who can join one and what the terms will be like. This means that each platform handles affiliate linking differently, so it pays to research before joining up.

One thing you should always bear in mind is that there isn't enough time in the life of anyone to follow all of those platforms and keep track of new ones popping up. So, if you plan to build your business around affiliate marketing on Instagram, here are some things to think about first...

1. What type of account do you want to set up?

You have two options regarding the account itself. Either you can sign up for a personal profile, or you can create a page within someone else's existing account. Both types come with different benefits and drawbacks. A personal profile gives you much more freedom than a page does, but it also makes it harder to manage multiple profiles in case you run into problems down the line. On the flip side, pages usually cost less to start out with, making it easier to set up and maintain.

2. How much do you want to spend per month?

The amount you choose depends entirely upon the size of your budget. Obviously, the bigger your monthly spending limit is, the more potential earnings you can expect to see. But the main consideration is whether you want to invest upfront or wait until you're already making profits.

3. Do you prefer to advertise only products related to health & fitness, beauty or fashion?

Each category comes with certain restrictions. Products relating to healthy living tend to attract fewer clicks and conversions compared to items related to fashion and beauty. However, once you find the right niche, you can still enjoy high conversion rates through carefully targeted advertising campaigns.

4. Is Instagram suitable for direct sales?

It really depends on what kind of products you intend to promote. Most businesses won't be able to compete against Amazon and eBay when it comes to listing goods for sale. That said, you can easily include Amazon links alongside your posts to boost traffic and increase visibility. Plus, you can share the same images across several channels, meaning you can drive extra traffic back to your site if necessary.

5. Are you interested in building relationships with customers?

Yes! The best results from affiliate marketing involve establishing long-term partnerships with clients. Building trust between you and your audience creates opportunities for future collaboration, such as joint promotions and giveaways. And the closer ties you develop, the more likely it becomes that you can convince them to buy additional products from you in the future.

6. Are you looking for an easy way to grow your followers?

While not strictly speaking an answer to the question posed above, it certainly helps. By following the steps below, you can quickly gain hundreds of new subscribers.

7. Will you be willing to experiment with different kinds of posts?

This is especially important if you want to test various methods of driving traffic to your site. For example, you might decide to try posting pictures of items available for purchase, followed by a call to action encouraging readers to visit your shop. Or perhaps you'll opt for a video ad showing off your latest creation.

8. Which hashtags do you recommend?

Hashtags help people discover posts containing particular keywords. Depending on the nature of your posts, you may want to add relevant tags to maximize exposure. Some examples of popular hashtags used on Instagram include #healthandfitness, #fashion, #beauty, #instagood and #shopaholic.

9. Can you handle customer support requests yourself?

No matter how large or small your business gets, you probably won't be comfortable handling every query personally. Fortunately, it doesn't mean you can't tap into the power of technology. An effective solution to this problem is to hire virtual assistants to assist you.

10. Will you be prepared to accept payments outside of PayPal?

PayPal is widely regarded as the go-to payment system among internet merchants. While alternatives exist, such as Stripe and Braintree, PayPal remains the undisputed king of digital transactions.

So, now you know what to look out for when choosing an Instagram affiliate program. Next, let's explore exactly how you can turn your passion for photography into commissions worth earning.

What Is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves selling other people's products or services by promoting them using various media.

The term "affiliate" comes from the Latin words afficere meaning "to bind". In this case, affiliates are those marketers who promote another company's product through their own website.

"Affiliate marketing" as we know it today was born out of Amazon.com in 1994 when they were looking to expand into new markets beyond books. They found one of its employees named Joe Wilkins who had developed a software program called EBAYSTORE (Electronic Book At Store) which enabled booksellers to create customised pages with information such as prices, reviews and images for each book.

Amazon offered these customised page templates to anyone wishing to sell eBooks on their site. As more sellers joined Amazon, the affiliate marketer community grew exponentially. Today there are hundreds of thousands of individuals earning money from Amazon alone via their websites, blogs and YouTube channels.

To put things into perspective, according to Statista.com, there will be approximately 4 million active internet retailers worldwide in 2018 - including eBay, Etsy, Shopify and others. This means that if even 1% of these start offering affiliate opportunities then there could easily be around 400,000 potential customers to tap into.

In addition to Amazon, there are many well known companies like Google Adsense, Rakuten Linkshare, Shareasale, Commission Junction and Clickbank that offer affiliate programs too. However, not all affiliate networks pay equally either.