A few months ago I was approached by some online seller to advertise on my Instagram account. I thought this was highly irregular because I have less than 4000 followers on my IG and figured this place was trying to scam me somehow. After some researching I was able to confirm that they were a legit business looking to advertise their products for a fee.

After some discussion, I decided to advertise one product for them which they would then measure for interaction and pay accordingly. It didn’t go very well (according to their metrics) and they said they’d still be keen to advertise for a reduced rate. I wasn’t happy with that arrangement and told them I’d be happy to advertise for a set fee per post. At first, they seemed happy with this. But then I started receiving more and more aggressive messages basically telling me that they wouldn’t pay per post because my follower count was way too low etc etc. I started to get a bad feeling about the whole thing at this point and told them I was no longer interested. They continued to message me and eventually I had to block them.

Despite the outcome, I still consider the experience a positive one because I learned a lot about how these things work. I’ve since discovered that having less than 5000 followers can still be considered enough of a following to become a micro influencer. For some businesses, it’s not the follower count that’s as important as your engagement with your audience. If you have a high number of followers engaging with you regularly, you can still be influential enough to earn money from your posts if they’re sponsored.

I have yet to consider doing this. I am actually happy having a normal Instagram account. But I still get inquiries from people, mostly artists looking for a way to showcase their work. While I do accept these requests most of the time, I’m not under any obligation to do it and with all the reading I’ve been doing lately, it seems I shouldn’t be doing it for free.

This is definitely something to think about but I’m not about to throw in my day job any time soon 😁

Have you had similar experiences or do you know anyone that has successfully monetised their blog or Instagram account? I’d be keen to hear about it so feel free to leave a comment 🙂