How To Make Money On Instagram With 500 Followers? 9 Best Methods 

How to make money on Instagram with 500 followers: when Instagram emerged in 2010, it started out more like a visual platform where users could share the finest moments of their life with their followers through aesthetically-pleasing photographs or videos.

However, it has now morphed into a platform where users may earn more than simply bread and butter.

As of 2022, Instagram is the second most-downloaded app internationally, and it is also the fourth most-used social networking site with a massive 1.3 million daily active users worldwide.

Considering these outstanding facts, there’s no question that this platform may be wonderful for you to generate money. 

Moreover, 50% of individuals use Instagram to choose a brand to spend their money on.

The wonderful part about this app is that you may make money in methods that best fit your hobbies right in the comfort of your home.

Whether you possess exceptional abilities in writing eye-catching captions, shooting top-notch quality images, giving social media services, developing wonderful handcrafts, or even operating a dropshipping company, Instagram has something to offer to everyone.

That’s the reason why you will discover not only major enterprises but also small businesses on our site. Therefore, if you too want to earn tonnes of money on Instagram, keep reading this post!

Can I Earn Money On Instagram With Only 500 Followers?

Now that you are well-familiar with what Instagram has to offer, you may be wondering how you can earn money on this network even if you have 400 or 500 followers.

Do you know that big influencers (with more than 1 million followers) may earn up to $250,000 for each sponsored post? Whereas influencers with fewer than 100,000 followers might earn roughly $200 for every post.

But this doesn’t imply that an influencer with 500 or even 1000 followers can’t generate enough money on Instagram. 

To be honest, what truly matters is your passion to work and not really the follower count.

If you put all your hard work into content development, keep your audience interested, connect properly with your followers, and create trust among your followers in your field, you may likely start earning some income.

One of the usually asked questions is:

“Does Instagram pay you for followers?”

No, it doesn’t pay you for merely having a particular amount of followers on your profile. However, we never know whether this function will be offered in the near future.

Instagram continues coming out with fantastic features every year. For instance, it designed great shopping tools for companies that enable clients to purchase things directly from this app in a cinch.

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How To Make Money On Instagram With 500 Followers IG ? 9 Easy Methods  

No matter how you want to generate money with the following count as low as 500, the most crucial KPIs are reach and engagement.

You may do this by personalizing your material according to the likes of your audience and making them feel like a member of your tiny community. Trust between you and your followers is obviously another crucial component.

Most tiny accounts do better in terms of engagement and reach as opposed to huge ones owing to the tight relationship with their followers.

As you do this, you may earn tonnes of money with merely 500 Instagram followers in various different methods noted down below.

 The following is what you while considering choosing different methods for

• Affiliate Marketing And Promoting Affiliate Products On IG

• Dropshipping

• E-Commerce

• Selling Your Own Digital Products/Courses/Training Programs

• Affordable Paid Shoutouts

• Starting A Blog And Promoting It through Your IG Account

• Consultations

• Actually Selling Your Account
• Selling E-Books At Cheap Prices

Let’s discuss these in the detail:

1. Affiliate Marketing Promoting Affiliate Products On IG

Affiliate marketing works by a business offering you a link or discount code to stimulate purchases from your followers. For every sale you make, you earn a set proportion of commission out of it.

Even with a few followers, you may still receive affiliate links from various firms and monetize your page.

You only have to establish that your audience is extremely engaged with the information you offer. For this, your page will speak for itself.

Now, the following question in your mind may be:

“How do you apply to affiliate programs?”

It’s not that hard. You just need to search for a company’s name and type “affiliate program” alongside it in the Google search field and push enter.

Let’s assume you want to apply for a Tailwind affiliate program to better manage and maintain your Pinterest business profile. This is how you will hunt for it on Search engines:

The affiliate link created may be a lengthy combination of characters and digits. To make it easier to access and remember, use bit.ly to shorten and personalize your URL. You may also use it to monitor the performance of your affiliate links.

You should include the affiliate link in the “bio” area of your profile for your followers to simply access it. You must also mention to your followers that this is an affiliate link.

One further thing to consider is that you should only apply to affiliate programs of firms or brands that you truly trust and enjoy. 

This will develop a greater connection between you and your followers in the long term. You can’t just apply for the affiliate link of a business that you despise merely for the purpose of earning money.

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2. Dropshipping

If you’re super-talented in making handcrafted goods like candles, bath items, décor pieces, portrait drawings, unique stuff, and painting, no quantity of followers can stop you from monetizing your work.

However, many consumers are turned off by the bother of selling these things to the eventual customer. 

You have to deal with inventory and expenditures linked to it, packing, shipping, etc.Guess what? Dropshipping will be your best bet here.

As soon as someone puts an order with you from your online business, a supplier will manage the burden linked to packing and delivery. 

The merchandise will be delivered to your customer’s doorstep by the supplier, and you make a profit. Phew!

There are numerous websites you may use for dropshipping, depending on your specialties, such as Redbubble, Etsy, AliExpress, and Shopify.

Instagram will enable you to market your goods by publishing photographs or videos of your stuff on your feed or stories along with particular URLs.

Here’s an example account for you to have a look at

Remember to create an eye-catching description with every post and submit premium-quality photographs to draw the attention of the followers.

Adding relevant hashtags can help make your material more discoverable to a broader audience irrespective of the “limited” amount of followers you have.

3. E-Commerce

Instagram has become a big marketplace for companies to promote and sell their items and for buyers to browse for and purchase a product.

From the world’s most recognized firms like Nike, Zara, and Louis Vuitton to tiny home-based enterprises, you will discover customers seeking items and investing in them straight via Instagram.

It has made promoting and selling even simpler with the introduction of company-specific features for Instagram business accounts, such as item tags, in-app checkout, shoppable stickers, and the store button.

Of course, e-commerce demands you assume responsibility for storing, packing, and shipping your things on your own. However, if this is what actually makes you happy, Instagram will be the ideal platform.

You may develop your own website to exhibit your items for a more professional appearance and then use Instagram as a marketing strategy. Another method is to employ Instagram for both promoting and selling your stuff. 

For instance, you may sell t-shirts immediately on this platform by showing them on your feed or stories and requesting your fans to make an order by directly dming you.

You may also provide at-home services since there are many small firms doing so. It might be anything that you’re an expert in, including spa, cleaning, or care services. Here, posting reviews from your clients to your profile will help you stand out.

4. Selling Your Own Digital Products/Courses/Training Programs

Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are three of the finest examples of how digital technologies may make you rich. 

Of course, a billionaire today, previously also began with a few hundred dollars. With the rising usage of the internet in today’s contemporary world, digital items are becoming a trend as well. 

You simply need to commit your time and work once when generating a digital product.

After you have obtained the completed product in your hands, there’s not much work, and you also don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of shipping and point of sale.

So, it’s relatively risk-free and rewarding in the long term. You may think of it as a source of passive income as well if done appropriately.

You may design and sell calendars, professional-quality pictures, online courses, exercise programs, cheat sheets, templates for how you bargain with your customers or cold emails you send, a list of freelancers you suggest in your industry, etc.

If you are a software engineer or developer, you may even attempt designing software like a time or team management application.

No matter what you do, be sure to present your digital items in an attractive style to your audience and include the right hashtags along with helpful subtitles.

Only to give you an example, here’s an account (a buddy) I know who generates a lot of money off of Instagram without a lot of followers (it’s doable with just 500-1000 or more followers):

5. Affordable Paid Shoutouts

An Instagram account with 10,000 followers and only a few likes and comments on their posts give little value to companies who want to sell themselves.

On the other hand, a page with 500 followers and a greater interaction rate will be more desirable in the eyes of the firms ready to promote their goods or services.

Therefore, selling shoutouts at inexpensive costs will also help you generate money on Instagram. 

Shoutouts, one of the influencer marketing kinds, are quite a craze on Instagram, and they don’t appear to go away anytime soon.

Some Instagram accounts urge other accounts to mention their account or post a photo of their product in exchange for cash, whilst others may even provide you with a free product or service of your choosing in return.

No matter what you select, you should advertise yourself using hashtags or joining groups on other social media platforms that is how your IG shoutouts may aid your niche or audience at a cheap price.

Here, word-of-mouth recommendations will also play a crucial part. At the start, you may find it hard to sell shoutouts. 

However, once you do, be sure to give your finest services and surpass the expectations of your “client”.

For instance, asking them how and when they want the shoutout to be done, as well as going the additional mile and advising them which caption would work best to grab a new audience.

6. Starting A Blog And Promoting It through Your IG Account

If you maintain a blog and you want to bring more traffic to it, leveraging your IG account will be excellent for you.

You may be generating money on your blog by showing advertisements or utilizing affiliate links for the suggested items, and you may greatly improve the amount of money you make every month by marketing it through your Instagram account, even with 500 followers.

The most crucial thing to remember here is that you need to have a suitable audience following you on Instagram. 

Of course, you may do this by providing material related to your specialty via stories or your feed. Using the proper keywords and hashtags might aid you further in developing the right audience. 

You shouldn’t just keep posting the links to your blog entries constantly, as this will turn off your existing and even future followers.

Hence, it’s essential to establish a delicate balance between sharing links to your blog articles and adding relevant information like tips and tutorials to keep your audience engaged. 

In this manner, you won’t look like an obnoxious salesperson attempting to promote their blog solely.

Sharing a few glimpses of your personal life on and off can help your followers connect with you on a more personal level and help them remain loyal to you and your site.

7. Consultations

Are you a specialist in delivering advice to customers in the sector of business, health, money, fitness, or even career?

Well, the good news is that Instagram may be a terrific platform to assist expand your consulting services to a new, bigger audience.

You should improve your Instagram account to make it appear more professional, and posting testimonials of your prior customers might boost your trust as well.

You may even deliver the first consultation for free and also mention this in your profile. If your services are excellent enough, people will undoubtedly come back to you.

Sharing relevant information like templates and going live on Instagram to discuss your industry-related subjects will substantially assist with your reach.

8. Actually Selling Your Account

Another excellent strategy to get money from your IG account with 500 followers is to sell it. Yes, you can truly do that!

Selling an Instagram account is fairly basic. Although the monetary value of your account will be largely decided by the follower count, the necessity of engagement rate can’t be neglected.

The greater the engagement rate, the better. Therefore, while building your account from the beginning, you should post routinely, connect with your audience, utilize hashtags, share videos, run competitions, and do anything else that will assist with your engagement rate.

You can discover customers on Facebook groups quickly. Search for “social media marketing” or “Instagram marketing” groups and negotiate a fee with them through email.

During the process of selling your IG account, take screenshots of your chat with the buyer or record your communication with them to prevent scammers.

9. Selling E-Books At Cheap Prices

If you’re not the finest writer out there or you just don’t have the additional time and energy to create e-books from scratch, you may sell e-books that you didn’t write yourself at cheap costs on Instagram and make tonnes of profit!

When selling e-books on your IG account, you need to position yourself as an industry expert.

For example, if you’re a gym nut and operate a tiny fitness following on Instagram, you can’t expect to generate sales on graphic designing e-books. Why?

Because you have an audience that perceives you as an expert in the fitness sector, and they are ready to study your ideas and strategies to become fit and healthy like you.

Therefore, they will be ready to acquire fitness e-books from you.

Your next inquiry may be:

“Where can you acquire e-books combined with their rights to sell on your IG account?”

For this, you might look for “PLR vendors” on Google who offer e-books on their websites together with their rights.

PLR stands for “Private Label Rights”. It implies that you may legally acquire and sell e-books to your audience.

Of course, you will need to invest a little money to acquire them at the start. However, that money will be readily repaid after a few sales since you may sell an e-book for an endless number of times.

Are 500 Followers Enough Just To Make Money On Instagram?

The amount of followers isn’t the sole statistic that helps you generate money on Instagram. 

Even if you have 500 followers on your IG account, you may utilize multiple various strategies that we have just outlined above to generate money.

The most significant metrics are reach and engagement, and they are greatly reliant on how effectively you implement your Instagram marketing methods.

As the owner of a tiny account, your techniques should correspond with your core aims, i.e., improved reach and engagement.

A tight-knit community on your Instagram that strongly engages with your material will offer a wonderful impression to companies, and they definitely will be ready to hire your services.

Or, with their support, you may market your items or services in a better method as well.

The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Reselling 500 Instagram Followers

Monetizing your 500 Instagram followers are achievable in various ways; nevertheless, it comes with both positives and downsides.

The Pros

• A small community implies you have a tight relationship with them which correlates to an increased amount of likes and comments on your posts. 

• This might be tempting to marketers with ambitions to boost interaction on their accounts.

• When you’re able to naturally develop your follower count from 0 to 500 followers, you know which strategies work best to monetize your content since you know your audience better.

• When you are handling and maintaining a modest Instagram account, you are able to put your “best” Instagram techniques in place along with tries and mistakes to improve your revenue without any hassles.

The Cons

• For certain firms, having a big number of followers is vital, along with other metrics, to reach a broader audience.

• You may not be able to bring greater traffic to your website with merely 500 followers.

• The “swipe-up” function in the articles to assist your audience in immediately accessing the affiliate link may not be accessible to you until you achieve 10,000 followers.

Conclusion 

Instagram is one of the finest ways to generate money from selling items or services to advertising your blog, even with small followers. 

You can get your audience interested and devoted to you by utilizing the appropriate tactics.

It’s crucial to be devoted and persistent since these 500 followers will convert into thousands of followers in no time. 

Learning from other successful Instagrammers will be your best bet as well. If you remain motivated and persistent, you may even leave your dull 9-5 job down the line and make more on Instagram.