Author: Nick Wharton / Source: Wise Bread
See the world, share photos of the amazing places you visit, and get paid for the pleasure. Though to many this sounds like an improbable career path, there’s a growing number of people out there doing just that and making it work. Instagram has become a veritable gold mine for thousands of enterprising travelers looking to cash in on their daily adventures.
But how exactly do the people behind these successful pages manage to do what they do? Here’s how.1. They have to grow an engaged following
To make money from Instagram, it’s essential for Instagrammers to have a large, engaged group of fans who like and comment on their content, and keep coming back for more. While some accounts explode overnight, the vast majority of successful Instagrammers have spent years cultivating this following through hard work and dedication.
The first step is to settle on a niche that you love, and while travel is a niche, it’s still too broad. You could use a gimmick like @muradosmann, whose hand-holding pictures created an entire genre, or @agirlandhervan, who shares all of her travel adventures in her van.
The next step is to post regularly, which means once a day or more and at similar intervals. This is so followers get accustomed to seeing your content and look out for it at times when they know it will appear. Many Instagrammers also create Instagram Stories, which are quick videos (similar to the Snapchat format) that allow them to reveal much more personality than the photos allow.
Since it’s a social media platform, it’s also essential to be social. Particularly when building their following, Instagrammers reply to comments, like and comment on other people’s stuff, and generally make themselves a visible presence on the platform.
Last but not least, the top Instagrammers place a huge focus on producing high quality images. Though this doesn’t necessarily mean using a fancy camera, as smartphone cameras are now high quality, it does mean posting well-composed photographs that tell a story, that represents their chosen niche, and are consistent in their look and feel.
Instagrammers with a large, interactive following are referred to as “influencers” and have become a key part of many marketers’ strategies. It’s at this stage that it becomes possible for Instagrammers to start leveraging their audience to make money. (See also: Earn Extra Income With Your…
The post 6 Ways Instagram Stars Make Money and Travel the World appeared first on FeedBox.