Let’s start with a little joke: All you need to make a blog on Instagram is to have a smartphone and the Internet. You download the Instagram app on your smartphone, follow the installation steps, and open an IG profile which you then link to a Facebook page to switch from a personal to a business profile on Instagram.
Everything is already clear here, unfortunately, you cannot modify Instagram as a blog but you can shape your profile and give it a visual identity so that everyone who sees your post at the start knows that it is you, of course, in posts where your character is not shown.
The visual identity of the Insta-blog can in some way be more easily separated by segments:
- Bio – biography of your Instagram profile
- Feed – your profile posts (pictures, video, carousels…)
- IGTV – video format lasting at least 60 seconds
- Guides – a set of posts from your feed gathered in one ‘catalog’
- Reels – video format up to 15 seconds
Today, Facebook has made it even easier to just run an Instagram blog via Creator Studio – a platform through which you can schedule posts in advance, publish IGTV, carousels, and even reply to messages in DM. And, all this from a laptop.
How to Charge an Instagram Blog?
This topic/item is something that should be built in at the beginning of your business plan, but it can be modified and changed over time as your blog develops. You can monetize it in several ways:
- Earnings from product reviews + affiliate
- By promoting the product on the profile
- Brand awareness
- Sales through the link in Bio
- Brand ambassador
Charging for a blog is an individual matter that depends on the agreement between you and the company you work with, following some earlier examples of similar collaborations. The success of the collaboration depends on a clearly defined goal: whether the purpose is to sell products to your audience, whether they want to increase the visibility of their profile and your fans are their target group, whether they want your fans to subscribe to their mailing list, or something completely other…?
When you know your audience well, then when talking about cooperation, you will suggest what you know you can deliver. Remember that your audience is a priority, not money. Depending on the number of followers, you can earn from $ 100 to $ 1,000+ per post, but we advise you to focus on nurturing them instead of collecting a large number of followers because, even if your profile has ‘only’ 4,000 followers, you can make big profits through an affiliate with a brand. That happens when you know your audience well and find a product/service that solves their problems.
Bio – Biography of Your Instagram Profile
The navigation (menu) and the page (About) are the parts from which readers can conclude what you are writing about on the blog. The same applies to websites; if a website built for any type of business does not contain pages that are created to explain the holder and purpose of a business in the right way, such a website will not have a role it should have. Just like the navigation (menu) and the page (About) of the blog, the domain of the blog is important in regard to this, too. For example, “shecandoitherself.com” – immediately, it can be concluded based on the name that we can expect DIY content intended for the female population.
This is how you should treat your Bio as well because it is the first place that everyone sees as soon as they enter your Instagram profile. If the Bio profile itself does not explain briefly and clearly to the potential follower who you are, what you do, why they need you, or how the profile can benefit them – it is very likely that they will not follow you.
Know that it is okay for someone not to follow you – they are not your target group, or they do not see the value yet. And no one is forbidding you to follow them if they have commented or liked the content and are not following you. Do not let ‘chasing for the number of followers’ derail you and never forget those who are already following you – dedicate yourself to them and it will come back to you twice.
Guides – The New Instagram Catalog
As the Instagram profile is easy to overwhelm with visuals and there is no “search” option for someone to find for a particular post on the feed, Guides has emerged as one of the best options so far because it gives you the ability to create a catalog, name it, and add all posts from the profile related to the desired topic.
A good example would be if, e.g. you are doing a product review. You can categorize the catalog into lip gloss, eye shadow, lipstick, powder, etc., and then simply add the posts you already have to the catalog. Again, we set an example for a female profile – we hope the male population will not resent us.
What to Write About on the Insta-Blog?
We advise you, if you are just entering this world, to stop for a moment, for a day if necessary, and think about what you are good at. What area do you know very well, what would you like to do every day, and what do you really enjoy? Selecting a topic/category at the outset will save you time later in creating content and burnout.
Here are some questions that may be helpful:
- Do you create a personal brand or Insta-blog on a specific topic?
- What content do you want to create (reviews, education, etc.)
- Who will benefit from such content?
- What is the goal of the profile itself? (business-content plan for 12 months)
- How will you help your followers? (video, carousel text…)
Conclusion
Here are some tips & tricks for creating a great Instagram blog: pick a memorable but also interesting username, choose your niche and stick to it, tell a story, use trendy but also relevant hashtags, your discoveries and places should be geotagged, follow and engage with influencers in the niche, and use stories as much as you can as well as Instagram Slideshow to introduce your blog posts.
