The short version: beginners make money on Instagram through four routes, affiliate links, brand partnerships, selling their own digital products, and Instagram’s own creator bonuses, and none of them pay anything meaningful before month three or four of consistent posting. The accounts that earn fastest aren’t the biggest, they’re the smallest and most specific, because a tightly focused 3,000 follower account converts better than a scattered 40,000 follower one. If you want a realistic first income figure, aim for £150 to £400 a month by month six, not the thousands the courses promise you.
You do not need a huge account first: here is how to make money on Instagram with just 1,000 followers.
Once you are growing, it helps to know how much you earn for a million Instagram views.
Why so many beginners give up before the money starts
I’ve watched dozens of small business owners and a handful of friends start Instagram accounts with big plans and quit within eight weeks. Not because Instagram doesn’t work. Because they expected it to work like a light switch, and it works more like a slow cooker.
Here’s the bit most posts on this topic skip past, the one that’s a bit uncomfortable to say out loud: for the first two to three months, almost nobody makes a single pound from a new Instagram account, no matter how good the content is. The algorithm needs a body of consistent posting before it trusts your account enough to push it beyond your existing followers. Brands won’t touch you with fewer than a few hundred engaged followers. Affiliate links need volume to convert, and you won’t have volume yet. That period isn’t a sign you’re failing. It’s just the unpaid setup phase every account goes through, and the people who quit in that window are quitting exactly when it was about to start paying off for the ones who stayed.
The four ways beginners make money on Instagram
1. Affiliate links and codes
You share a product, you get a unique link or discount code, you earn a cut when someone buys through it. Amazon Associates pays 1 to 10 percent depending on category, which sounds thin until you realise fashion and beauty affiliate programmes through platforms like LTK or ShopMy often pay 5 to 20 percent per sale, and some beauty brands run 10 to 15 percent flat rates for micro creators. A beginner account with 2,000 engaged followers posting three product recommendations a week can realistically bring in £80 to £250 a month once the audience trusts them, usually starting around month four.
2. Small brand partnerships (paid posts)
This is where beginners undersell themselves badly. The going rate for a single feed post from a micro influencer with 5,000 to 20,000 followers in the UK sits between £75 and £250, and Reels or Stories usually go for less, £30 to £100. I’ve negotiated brand rates for clients for years and the number one mistake beginners make is quoting a price based on follower count alone instead of engagement rate. A 6,000 follower account with a 6 percent engagement rate is worth more to a brand than a 20,000 follower account sitting at 1 percent, and you should price accordingly, not apologetically.
3. Selling your own thing
Digital products, templates, a short course, a coaching call, a physical product you make. This is the route with the best margins because there’s no brand taking a cut and no algorithm deciding whether you get paid. A beginner selling a £27 digital planner to 4,000 followers, converting at even 1 percent, makes over £1,000 from one launch post. If you’re starting from nothing and want a fuller map of what building an income online looks like once you strip out the hype, this realistic guide to making money online is worth reading alongside this one.
4. Instagram’s own creator payouts
Instagram has run various bonus programmes for Reels and Stories over the years, paid out through the Instagram Professional Dashboard once you hit eligibility, usually a minimum follower count and consistent posting. Payouts are unpredictable and vary hugely by region and niche, so treat this as a bonus on top of the other three, never as a plan on its own.
A real step by step 90 day plan
- Days 1 to 7: pick one specific niche, not “lifestyle,” something like budget baking for one, or dog training for reactive rescue dogs. Specific niches convert faster because the audience knows exactly why they’re following you.
- Days 8 to 30: post daily, mix Reels and carousels, and reply to every single comment. Engagement in this window matters more than follower count, it’s what the algorithm reads as “worth showing more people.”
- Days 31 to 60: apply to two or three affiliate programmes in your niche and start mentioning products naturally, not as ads, as genuine recommendations you’d give a friend.
- Days 61 to 90: reach out to five small brands directly with a one page media kit, your engagement rate, your best performing posts, and a clear rate card. Don’t wait to be discovered.
If you want to build any of this without spending money on ads or tools first, start with the fundamentals in this guide on earning online with little to no investment, because most of what moves the needle on Instagram in the beginning costs time, not money.
The niche picking mistake almost everyone makes
I once worked with a small business owner who launched an account about “small business tips,” broad, generic, going up against millions of similar posts. Six months in, barely 400 followers, zero income. We narrowed it to “marketing tips for solo consultants charging over £500 a day,” and within ten weeks she had brands asking to work with her, because the account finally told a specific person exactly why to follow it. Specific beats broad every single time on Instagram, and it’s the fastest free lever a beginner has.
What nobody tells you about the money side
Here’s the part that stings a bit. Most beginner Instagram income isn’t steady. It’s lumpy, one good month from a brand deal, three quiet months, then a decent affiliate spike around a holiday. Treat it like freelance income from day one, put money aside for tax, and don’t quit a stable job over projected Instagram earnings until you’ve had at least two consecutive months proving the number holds. I’ve seen too many people, myself included in the early influencer years, get excited by one good month and build a lifestyle around it before the second one arrived.
Also worth knowing: if your growth stalls and organic reach isn’t happening, running a small paid boost behind your best performing post can help, and pairing that with basic Facebook ad tools since Meta owns both platforms is a sensible next step, this breakdown of Facebook advertising apps worth using as a beginner covers the ones that don’t waste your first £20.
Numbers you can plan around
- Month 1 to 3: £0 to £30 (mostly nothing, occasional gifted product)
- Month 4 to 6: £80 to £400 (first affiliate income, maybe one small brand deal)
- Month 7 to 12, with consistency: £300 to £1,200 a month, depending on niche and how well you sell rather than just post
These aren’t averages pulled from a course sales page, they’re roughly what I’ve seen from beginner accounts I’ve advised over the years that stuck with a clear niche and posted consistently without paying for followers.
If Instagram isn’t clicking, have a backup plan
Not every beginner ends up loving being on camera or building a personal brand publicly, and that’s fine. If you’d rather earn from behind the scenes while you figure out Instagram on the side, a virtual assistant job from home is a solid parallel income while you build an audience slowly and without pressure to monetise before you’re ready.
Frequently asked questions
How many followers do you need to start making money on Instagram?
You can start earning from affiliate links and small brand deals with as few as 1,000 to 2,000 followers, provided your engagement rate is strong, brands increasingly care more about how many people comment and share than the raw follower number.
How long does it take a beginner to make their first £100 on Instagram?
Most consistent beginners see their first meaningful payment, usually from an affiliate sale or a small brand collaboration, somewhere between month three and month five, not week one, no matter what a course promises.
Do you need to show your face to make money on Instagram?
No. Faceless niches like recipe accounts, budgeting templates, quote pages, and product review carousels regularly earn through affiliate links and digital product sales without the owner ever appearing on camera.
Is it better to focus on Reels or regular posts for making money?
Reels reach new people faster because Instagram actively pushes them to non followers, but regular posts and carousels tend to convert better once someone lands on your profile, so beginners need both, Reels for discovery, carousels and captions for selling.
Sources worth reading
Related reading: What Passive Income Ideas Work For Beginners (No Fluff, Real Numbers) and Making Money in the Stock Market: Top Tips for Beginners.
I go much deeper on this in the side hustles guide.
For more fixes like this, open the full list of Instagram guides on this site; there is also a free money calculator for Instagram.
