11 Best Business Ideas to Start on Instagram

Instagram is a great app for sharing and connecting, showing off your photos, and keeping in touch with friends. With more than 1.4 billion users, it’s also a great platform for any number of businesses. If you’re an Instagram fan and want to try out your entrepreneurial wings, you could start your own Instagram business. 

In this guide, you’ll find a rundown of some of the best Instagram business ideas.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing means recommending products on your Instagram page and getting paid a commission when someone clicks on the link to the product and makes a purchase. It’s simple to sign up and get started as an affiliate on Instagram. The key to making money is to build up your number of followers so you have more potential buyers. The global affiliate marketing industry is worth $12 billion, so plenty of people are making money as affiliates. Why not be one of them? 

2. Influencer

Instagram influencers have large followings and get paid by companies to post about their brands. To get companies to pay you, you’ll first have to build up quite a following, usually at least 10,000 followers. Once you do, you can make some money. Successful influencers can make well into the six figures! The influencer market is valued at more than $16 billion, having boomed in the last decade, so it’s worth attracting followers.

3. Ecommerce Business

Yes, you can sell your own products on Instagram. It’s fairly simple to set up an Instagram shop where followers can buy from you directly.  You just have to decide what you want to sell. If you’re crafty, you can make products to sell, or you can buy products wholesale and sell them at a markup. More than 130 million Americans shop on Instagram, so you’ll have a big market of potential customers.

4. Instagram Manager

An Instagram manager is in charge of Instagram posting for a company as part of its marketing strategy. You could start an Instagram management company and offer your services to local businesses or businesses anywhere. You’ll need to show your own Instagram track record of success to get clients, but you can generally charge anywhere from $20 to $50 an hour for your services. 

5. Instagram Consultant

An Instagram consultant is a bit different than an Instagram manager. Rather than doing hands-on Instagram management, a consultant develops Instagram strategies for individuals or even for influencers. The consultant puts together a plan of posts, ads, and other techniques to grow the company or individual’s following. Experienced Instagram consultants can make up to $250 per hour!

6. Stock Photography

Instagram was created for posting photos, so why not take advantage of the site and your photography skills at the same time? You could take photos that companies can purchase for any number of purposes and market and sell them on Instagram. The market for stock photos is big, worth well over $3 billion, so start snapping those photos and grab a share of that market. 

7. Product Reviewer

Companies often pay people to review their products on various sites, including Instagram. It’s similar to being an influencer, but you have to use the product and give your feedback. As with everything on Instagram, it takes a large following to make a living as a product reviewer, but at the very least, companies will give you their product for free in exchange for your review. 

8. Fashion Blogging

Instagram is a great place to learn about fashion trends. If you’re a fashion lover and have a great eye, you could start a fashion blog on your page. You can partner with fashion brands to feature their pieces and get paid either for sponsored ads or with affiliate links. Affiliate links mean you provide a link on your page to the brand’s product, and when customers click on it and make a purchase, you get a commission.

9. Travel Blogging

Love to travel? Why not do it for a living? Travel and travel-related companies often partner with successful travel bloggers to promote their deals. Travel-related companies include airlines, hotels, and resorts, and they will pay you for sponsored travel campaigns or ads. If you’re just getting started, you may, at the very least, be able to negotiate a free trip in exchange for your review and promotion of the destination.  

10. Food Blogging

Attention foodies! You can approach a food blog in a few different ways. If you’re a creative chef, you could blog about your recipes and get paid by brands whose products you use and feature. Alternatively, if you’re more into eating than cooking, you could get paid to review and promote restaurants. Either way sounds like a tasty proposition. 

11. DIY Blog

DIY projects are growing in popularity, particularly with millennials. If you’re handy at something, whether it’s home improvement or crafting of some kind, you could post DIY videos and get paid by featuring a certain company’s tools or materials in your projects. DIY videos are the most watched type of video on the web, so the potential to make money is huge.