How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers?

Are you wondering how to make money on Instagram with 500 followers? If so, you’re in the right place, as this article is going to detail the process step by step.

Instagram is the 4^th most active social media platform in the world and has over 1.628 billion active users in 2023.

So you can see why it’s worth getting the hang of and with a little effort you could make $100 a day passive income or more.

But, you might be hesitant as you only have 500 followers and think that’s not enough?

The good news is that there are numerous ways to make money on Instagram and by using multiple monetization methods, micro-influencers are able to turn their accounts into an income stream.

Need help increasing your Instagram followers?

Read: 10 of the Best Instagram Courses to Get 10K Followers Fast

Overview of How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers

Brand Partnerships
Affiliate Marketing
Sell Digital Products
Sell Your Own Merchandise
Shopping Tags and Instagram Stories Ads
Brand Collaborations and Influencer Marketing
Host Giveaways
Instagram Bio Tip Jar
Sell Social Media Marketing Services

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Is it Possible to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers?

Yes, it is!

Instagram launched the ‘’Shopping for Creators’’ feature and if you have 500 followers you can participate.

To use this feature, you need to switch your account to ‘’Creator’’ status and add ‘’Shoppable Products’’ from different brands to your feed.

This allows you to earn a portion of the revenue generated from any of these products.

How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers: 9 Simple Ways for Beginners

Now let’s take a look at how to make money on Instagram even with a low amount of followers.

1. Brand Partnerships

It’s possible to make money on Instagram with 500 followers via brand partnerships.

Brand ambassadors create content such as sponsored posts where you promote a product or brand.

This works well if your Instagram account is in a certain niche such as beauty, fashion, travel or tech, because your audience will be interested in products in your niche.

To secure brand partnerships, make sure your profile reflects your niche, you have an engaged audience and that you have a bio filled with relevant keywords.

Start to message brands in your niche via direct message or email.

Make sure to include:

Links to your Instagram
Links to other social media accounts
Highlight why you’re ideal to promote their brand
Detail any success stories you’ve had
Inform them about the types of sponsored posts you can create eg: product photos, videos and reels
Any other ideas you have for a promotion that might make you stand out

Try to come across as confident, even if you don’t feel it with only 500 followers.

If you have a targeted and engaged audience, some brands will be willing to work with you.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing on Instagram works the same as anywhere else.

You earn a commission when someone buys a product or service through your unique link.

Commissions pay anywhere between 1% – 50% or more of the sale price.

You can even start affiliate marketing with no money on Instagram, you just need to find relevant affiliate products to promote to your audience.

A few places to look for affiliate products to promote, include:

Amazon Associates
CJ Affiliate
ShareASale
Reach out to brands directly
Search Google: your niche + affiliate program

Remember to only choose products that relate to your niche and the content you already have.

Once you have your affiliate links, you can share them in your bio, feed posts, stories and reels.

Always adhere to best practices which means being transparent and disclosing that what you’re promoting is part of a paid partnership.

Even with 500 Instagram followers, it’s possible to make passive income affiliate marketing.

Track your earnings progress over time to see what your audience respond to and tweak your strategy where necessary.

3. Sell Digital Products

When searching for how to make money on Instagram with 500 followers, creating your own digital products to sell is another top option.

Great digital products to sell include digital planners, eBooks, stickers, courses or your own artwork.

You could even link your audience to your own Etsy store to buy physical products you’ve created.

To get started selling digital products, follow these steps:

Create a landing page, website or store. It’s free to create a customized LinkTree page that can be used to share links to your digital downloads and other sales pages. Or you can create a website, Shopify store or Etsy store that you can direct customers to buy your digital downloads.
Link to your landing page in your bio. Once you have your landing page, you need to direct people to this page to make a purchase. Add your landing page link to your bio and use call to actions in your content such as ‘’Click the Link in My Bio’’.
Create engaging content to encourage sales. Use a mix of posts, stories and reels to show off your product and what it can do. You can even post tutorials and reviews to give followers confidence that your product does work.
Add popular hashtags related to digital products. Hashtags will show your content to people who are searching for that subject. This is extremely beneficial when you’re selling a product. Another idea is to comment on other posts that have the same hashtag. This helps to get your account seen by a similar audience and may encourage more click-throughs to your page.

4. Sell Your Own Merchandise

It’s possible to promote your print-on-demand (POD) apparel on Instagram or you can direct people to your store.

This is a simple way to monetize your Instagram page, as POD companies take care of printing, shipping and delivery, you just have to upload your designs and funnel people to your sales pages.

You can even set up an Instagram Shopping account, so customers can buy your products as soon as they see them.

To promote your products, create Instagram posts and stories, detail all the product information and add a direct link to your store.

Make sure to include a call to action such as ‘’Click Here to Buy Now’’ or ‘’Shop Now’’.

This lets an interested customer know what to do next. You can even enlist the help of influencers, with larger follower counts, to make even more sales.

5. Shopping Tags and Instagram Stories Ads

Another way to monetize your Instagram account with 500 followers is to use shopping tags and Instagram stories.

You can tag up to 20 products from brands in a feed post, carousel post or single post that allows a customer to click and buy immediately when they see something they like.

Do remember that you can only tag products from approved businesses that have an Instagram shop set up.

Instagram stories ads give you the ability to reach customers who may not currently be following you. They’ll get shown targeted ads depending on their demographics and preferences.

To use Instagram stories ads and shopping tags, you first need to set up a Facebook online storefront.

Next, you need to reach out to brands to approve your access to tag their products and sign up as a shopping partner/affiliate.

After doing this, you can add a range of products to your Facebook shop that you want to tag in your stories and posts.

Now, you can start creating tagged shopping posts, run Instagram stories ads and start making money from your account.

6. Brand Collaborations and Influencer Marketing

Even with an Instagram account that has 500 followers, you can still secure collaborations and influencer marketing deals.

Follow these steps to grow your Instagram account with collaborations and influencers:

Choose the right influencer. Look for an Instagram influencer that aligns with your brand and that has an engaged following. When you find suitable influencers, reach out and pitch why a collaboration with you would be worth their while.
Decide how you want to be promoted. How do you want the influencer to promote your products? Options include stand-alone posts, videos or a mix of both. Or maybe you could ask them to host a contest for you, to get viewers sharing your page for the chance to win a free product.
Track results and tweak where necessary. Your first influencer campaign might not hit the bullseye. Track your results and decide if you want to change something or try a different influencer.

7. Host Exciting Giveaways

Hosting giveaways is a great way to drive engagement, build your followers and make more money.

Firstly, decide what you want to give away for your competition. Next, start creating posts about your giveaway, detailing the rules of entry.

Encourage your followers to share your giveaway and add related hashtags to get it seen and create more engagement.

Finally, create a giveaway countdown and share it over a set amount of time.

When the timer ends, track your entries, choose a winner and end the competition with a winner announcement.

8. Instagram Bio Tip Jar

Another way to monetize your Instagram account with 500 followers is by adding a virtual tip jar to your bio.

Virtual tip jars are a great way to earn extra money from your content and you can either add a PayPal donation link directly into your bio, or use a virtual tip jar service.

While followers might only send a dollar here and there, over time as your follower count grows, this may become a decent amount of side income.

9. Sell Social Media Marketing Services

When looking at how to make money on Instagram with 500 followers, selling social media services is another option to look into.

If you spend a lot of time on Instagram and understand how it works, you could help other businesses or creators who don’t have time, to build their own accounts.

A way to do this is to post social media tips on your Instagram account. And, link to your paid services page or calendar, so someone can book a strategy call with you.

How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers FAQs

Check out these frequently asked questions about making money on Instagram with a low amount of followers.

Can I Get Brand Deals with 500 Followers?

Yes. You don’t need thousands of followers to make money from brand deals.

There are many businesses that work with micro-influencers, as long as you have niche content and a good engagement rate on your posts.

Engage Creators is one such platform that connects micro-influencers with brands willing to pay them for posts.

The only requirement to sign up as an Influencer is that you have at least 500 Instagram followers.

Is 500 Followers on Instagram Good?

When you reach 500 followers on Instagram this is a milestone.

While it is good and you should congratulate yourself for reaching this number, there is still work to do.

To make more money and get extra exposure for your brand, you need to continually increase your follower count.

How Many Followers on Instagram Do You Need to Make $1,000 a Month?

According to statistics, 71% of Instagram influencers with 1,000 – 10,000 followers earn around $100 per sponsored post.

And, Instagram accounts with 1,000+ followers make on average $1,420 a month.

The good news is that you can monetize your account in many ways including sponsored posts and affiliate marketing to increase your monthly income.

How to Increase Instagram Followers Organically?

There are many great ways to increase your Instagram followers and gain an authentic audience.

Follow these steps to make this happen:

Optimize Your Account

To start with, make sure you have a clear profile picture, detailed description, search-friendly username and relevant bio link.

By looking professional and relevant, you’ll build authority and customer trust, plus this will help you get found in search.

Create a Content Schedule

Posting relevant and consistent content on Instagram matters. If you miss many days of posting, it’s likely your audience will get bored and never come back.

Stick to a regular posting schedule and schedule your posts in advance.

Posting at the right time will also help build your audience and get your content in front of the right people.

Engage with Your Followers

People don’t want to be sold to all day long.

While they might like the products you showcase, they also want to deal with a human who’ll have a conversation with them.

Answer questions quickly, say thanks for the follow or share, be personable and watch your follower count grow.

Use relevant Hashtags

While hashtags are not as important on Instagram as they used to be, they still help your content get found.

Aim to use relevant hashtags for your niche that are less competitive.

So, if you’re in the beauty niche, #beauty is a really broad term that might not help much.

Try narrowing it down to specific tags such as #skincareroutine or #makeuptutorial for example.

How to Make Money on Instagram Without Any Followers?

If you don’t have an Instagram following yet, there are still ways you can make money.

For example, you could try selling social media marketing services, selling digital or physical products or creating content for brands with large followings.

Does Instagram Pay You for Having a Lot of Followers?

Instagram does not pay creators directly for having followers.

It’s your job to find ways to monetize your account like mentioned in this article and as you increase your followers, you can make more money.

How to Make Money on Instagram as a Teenager?

If you’re thinking of making money on Instagram as a teenager, first of all – well done!

I wish I’d done this at a younger age! Start by creating an Instagram account that follows one niche such as beauty, fashion or money.

Work on building your follower count, as the more targeted followers you have, the easier it’ll be to earn money.

Once you have 500 – 1,000 followers, you can start to monetize your Instagram account as a teenager with sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, brand deals and selling your own products.

Do Instagram Creators Get Paid for Swipe Up?

Instagram itself will not pay creators for using the swipe-up feature.

The way to make money from the swipe-up feature is to link to a product or add an affiliate link.

It’s important to remember though, that the swipe-up feature is only available to accounts with 10,000+ followers.

If you have a smaller amount of followers, you can monetize your account with the methods mentioned in this article.

Final Thoughts on How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers

After reading about how to make money on Instagram with 500 followers, I hope you’re inspired to go and monetize your account.

Don’t let a low follower count hold you back! If you have a dedicated and engaged group of followers that enjoy your content, it’s likely they’ll spend money on what you recommend.

Test out different monetization methods and see which works best for your Instagram account.

And, once one method starts to make you money, don’t be afraid to branch out and add new income streams.

But remember, interesting and helpful content should always be your main focus.

Show your audience that you care and know what you’re talking about and sales will follow naturally.

Further reading:

How to Make Money on Instagram with 500 Followers

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.