How To Monetize Your Account in 2024

Instagram subscriptions are a monetization feature that enables creators to share premium content behind a paywall. Interested followers can subscribe for a monthly fee of anywhere from $0.99 to $99.99 and get access to features like:

• Exclusive live-streams
• Subscriber badges
• Premium content like stories, posts, and reels
• Social channels
• Broadcast channels

Creators can decide which perks to offer and set their own price point based on the level of content they plan to share.

Take a look at this user’s Instagram subscription offering:

Should you consider investing time into an Instagram subscription? There are a few benefits to keep in mind as you explore this potential monetization option.

Instagram subscriptions are an automatically recurring monthly payment. While people can end their subscription at any time, once you grow to a certain point, you should be able to rely on a set monthly income from this additional revenue stream.

Creating a reliable and recurring revenue stream can be a game changer for influencers and content creators who don’t always have a secure and set income.

Your subscribers will automatically get a purple subscriber badge next to their name, which you’ll be able to see in comments and messages. This differentiation can help you build deeper connections with that group of followers, eventually coming to know them by name.

By fostering these connections, your subscribers will be even more excited to hear from you, making them more likely to remain subscribed. This can further solidify your monthly income.

Instagram is an already existing (and already popular) platform on which you’ve likely already built an audience. This means you’re not completely starting from scratch with this new revenue stream.

Instead, you can seamlessly start promoting it to your existing audience, hopefully gaining subscribers with that much more ease

You can choose from a number of perks to offer your subscribers. Let’s cover each benefit that you can offer with an Instagram subscription.

The first perk you can offer subscribers is an exclusive badge that only those who subscribe to your account can get. It’s a purple crown and it appears next to a subscriber’s name anytime they comment on a post or message you.

Here’s an example of what this looks like:

Accounts that offer subscriptions can create exclusive content just for their subscribers. This content appears in a separate feed on your profile that’s only accessible to your subscribers.

Here’s what that feed looks like for non-subscribers:

Subscriber social channels, also known as subscriber chats, allow you to create exclusive group chats with up to 250 of your subscribers. If you end up with more subscribers, you can consider creating different types of chats and allowing subscribers to sign up for the ones they’re interested in.

For example, if you’re a business coach, you could create chats for different industries so that people can connect with like-minded entrepreneurs and hear industry-specific advice from you, the expert.

Or, you could create new social channels with each month’s or quarter’s new subscribers, reaching out with a welcome message and giving a more intimate way for them to connect with you and other subscribers.

Finally, you can also offer a subscriber broadcast channel if you so choose. Broadcast channels are a newer Instagram feature, and many accounts are creating them for their free followers as well.

First things first, you need to make sure your account is even eligible for subscriptions. Criteria for this monetization method is as follows:

If you fit each eligibility criteria, you can move onto step two.

Head into your Instagram settings to set up your subscription. To do this, go to your profile and tap Professional Dashboard.

If you’re eligible for subscriptions, you’ll see an option to Set up subscriptions. If not, check back in with the eligibility criteria to see what you need to do in order to get access to this feature.

Tap Set up subscriptions and follow through each step to get started.

Now it’s time to decide how much you want to charge for your monthly subscription. Obviously, the higher the price, the more you make. But you don’t want to make it so high that no one will subscribe.

Find a happy medium that also matches the type of content and perks you plan to offer.

Price points you can choose from are:

• $0.99
• $1.99
• $2.99
• $4.99
• $9.99
• $19.99
• $49.99
• $99.99

You might choose a low $0.99 or $1.99 price point if you simply want to offer a large number of subscribers a bit more exclusive access to chats and news from you without having to create additional content.

However, if you use your Instagram subscription as a coaching service or offer exclusive online course information throughout your content, you can get away with a much higher price point.

Make sure to connect the bank account that you use for your business or creator income so that you can actually get paid once you start gaining subscribers. Keep in mind that you won’t receive any payments until you pass a threshold of $100 earned.

To add your payout account, head back to your Professional Dashboard and follow these instructions:

• Tap Payouts
• Head to Update payment method
• Select the type of bank account you want to connect
• Follow the prompts to complete setup

Now you can start promoting your new subscription and getting new paying subscribers! There are a number of ways to do this, which brings us to our next section.

You’ve got your new subscription set up, you have a plan for the types of content you want to create and share, and you’re ready to start monetizing this new offering. Let’s cover a few tried and true tips for getting people to subscribe on Instagram.

Use your public Instagram to start promoting your new subscription so your existing followers know they have a new option for following your content.

Some ways you can do this include:

Consistent, high-quality content is going to be an essential step for both your paid and non-paid content. For example, if you start to put all your focus on your premium content, someone looking at your full feed may be underwhelmed and not want to subscribe.

With that in mind, you need to create amazing content for both audience segments. Your free followers need to get an idea of the caliber of content you can create and your paid subscribers need to get their money’s worth.

Plus, a “Subscribe” button will appear at the top of all of your free posts, providing yet another call-to-action for your followers. Make content so amazing that viewers immediately want to tap that button and subscribe.

Make your subscription fun and unique. Enable 1:1 chats, put together workshops, create amazing content, and build relationships with your subscribers.

The more your subscribers enjoy your subscription, the more they’ll tell others about it. On top of that, you can get reviews and testimonials from your subscribers to share with your free followers.

And, putting together unique subscriber experiences allows you to compile samples of each experience to add into your free content to further promote your subscription.

Finally, consider collaborating with other creators as yet another way to create value for your subscribers. Partner with creators who also have a subscription to make the collaboration worth it for both parties.

You can then promote your collaboration to your free followers as an incentive to subscribe before the collaboration happens.

Anyone with a business account (not a creator account) can set up an Instagram shop. Creator accounts can still tag products to create shoppable posts, but they cannot create their own shop.

So if you’re looking to sell products directly on Instagram, a business account may be the best option for you. You can then add products—like your brand’s products, digital products, or merch for your creative business—to sell directly on your Instagram profile.

If you’re a creator, you can get paid by partnering with brands and promoting their products for them. As a creator or influencer, you’re able to set your own rates for each type of post you create. For example, a story may not cost as much as a post or a reel.

Here’s an example of the content you can create as a brand partner: