Instagram is one of the biggest markets in the social media world. The monthly search volume on the word Instagram is about 23, 188, 269, the monthly visit to Instagram is about 1 billion, and there are about 500 million active users a day.  If you’re not on Instagram, you are missing out. This is a guide on how to earn money on Instagram as a Travel blogger.

This guide is best suited for new travel bloggers, beginners to Instagram and anyone who wants to diversify their income streams and add Instagram to their income portfolio.

I have previously written about what a travel blogger is paid and how to make money as a travel blogger but I  decided to write this post on how to make money as an Instagram travel blogger because of the immense opportunity out there regardless of your followers count.

What is Travel Blogging?

Travel blogging is about writing and sharing informative posts about destinations visited, tours done, experiences gained, the possible scams encountered, the people and the culture. Travel blogging is a personal record and experience with a huge potential to influence, encourage and inspire readers from all over the world to do the same.

Anyone with a passion for travelling can start a travel blog however to be successful at travel blogging, you need the right tools.

Tools for a Blog

1. A free domain and an affordable hosting platform. I recommend iPage.com!  The package offered by iPage includes iPage Web Hosting. Free Domain Registration, Free Setup, Free Support — All risk-free!
2. Grammarly is the world’s best grammar checker, great for writing travel stories and for keeping the interests of your readers.  Grammarly’s Free Grammar Checker. Helps corrects all grammar errors and check for plagiarism, it is free and instant.
3. An email marketing tool. You need to capture your audience from the beginning of your blogging journey. Figuring out the best email marketing tool can be daunting especially because they often similar services. You need to create newsletters weekly or bi-weekly.

How to Earn Money on Instagram as a Travel Blogger – 3 Best Ways

There are 3 best ways to earn money on Instagram even with a small following. They are

1. 1. Affiliate Marketing
   2. Sponsored Posts
   3. Photos

How to Earn Money on Instagram as a Travel Blogger through Affiliate Marketing

In order to use Affiliate Marketing as a way to earn money on Instagram, you need to sign up for an affiliate network. Go with Awin, they have a range of products you are already using and you will be happy to recommend to your audience.

Here are the steps to make money through Affiliate Marketing on Instagram:

Step 1: Find the product

Find an affiliate product you want to focus on every week that has a good commission for leads and sales. For example, if you decide to promote Fiverr to your audience, you need to calculate how many leads and sales you want to make. I always suggest 10 sales a week as a minimum. With a £25 commission per sale, you will make £250 a week for 10 sales. If you repeat the process, you will easily make £1,000 a month.

Step 2: Use Instagram Stories, Reels and Live

Use Instagram Live, Reels and stories to engage with your audience.

Here is a weekly schedule to help you get a minimum of 10 converts a week.

Monday: Use Instagram stories to welcome your audience into the week. Talk about your goals for the week. For example, my goal is always to help people like you to succeed through …. insert the affiliate product you’re promoting that week.

Tuesday: Create an Instagram Reel to talk about how that affiliate product is helping you to be more efficient.

Wednesday: Use your Instagram stories to announce your upcoming Instagram Live where you will show your audience how to succeed using that affiliate product.

Thursday: Use your Instagram stories to remind everyone about your Instagram Live on that day. (Study when your audience are most active and host an Instagram Live on the day they are most active)

Friday: Send a friendly thank you for attending my Instagram Live and direct them to your link.

Saturday: Use your Instagram stories to promote your affiliate product again and ask them to DM you if they want to know more.

Sunday: Follow through with those interested and offer a free service, for example, you can offer to recommend a service you have used through your affiliate product.

Repeat the process every week, sit back and enjoy your commissions.

Step 3: Find the right audience through hashtags.

You might be wondering how on earth will you find 10 people a week especially if your followers are your friends and families with absolutely no interest in what you are promoting.

The truth is you have to find the right audience for your niche. Type in the hashtags specific to your niche and the specific location you are targeting.

Also, spend about 30 minutes a day going through the profile of your ideal clients – travel bloggers. You will need to engage with them, you could like 5 of their most recent posts, add comments to the relevant posts,  follow them (most of them follow back), direct message them to check out your stories or your upcoming Live and start a conversation with them.

On Instagram, if you are in the same niche, you can build up conversations easily. You can ask a genuine question, in my case, I always ask for the best tips to a particular destination I see on their page.

Always use hashtags on your stories, reels, posts and IGTV.

How to Earn Money on Instagram as a Travel Blogger through Sponsored Posts

To earn money through sponsored posts, you will need a good engagement rate as well as a visually pleasing profile.

Many small businesses are happy to partner with you for sponsored posts if you have a good following count and a great engagement rate.

How to Earn Money on Instagram as a Travel Blogger through Travel photos

You can sell your Travel photos by using Instagram as your referring site to your website where you can sell your prints.

You can also sell your travel photos on Esty.

I hope you find this post useful.

If you have questions about Instagram, please put them in the comments below and I will try my best to answer your questions.