Meme pages have absolutely taken over the incredibly popular photo and video sharing social platform, Instagram.
Although most users prefer to display photos and videos from their own lives, accounts that aggregate meme content are among the most popular pages on Instagram today.
With so much demand for meme content, you might be wondering if it’s a viable revenue source for people that run these pages.
So here’s the thing.
Making money with an Instagram meme page is possible through sponsored posts, online sales, or becoming an affiliate. To be successful in any of these ventures, you will need a popular account with an avid follower base.
To garner the follower base that will allow you to explore such revenue streams, you may grow your own meme page from scratch, remodel a pre-existing Instagram account to be a meme page, or purchase a meme page from another creator.
Keep reading to learn more about getting followers for your Instagram meme page and how to use the page to make money.
How to Get Followers on Instagram
While it may be tempting to skip ahead to the various methods one can use to make money on Instagram, it is very difficult to do so without an active follower base.
If you are seriously considering using Instagram as a consistent stream of revenue, you should first focus on growing your Instagram account. In other words, getting followers!
Now there actually is a proven way to make money on Instagram without having followers, which I outline in my article Make Money on Instagram without Followers (5 Step Process), but for now, let’s take a closer look at how to grow your account with these three common methods:
1. Grow Account from Scratch
Arguably the most difficult– and rewarding – of each of these methods is choosing to grow your account from scratch.
It may be intimidating to start from zero and work your way up, but the ability to customize and theme your meme page from scratch is invaluable.
Let’s take a look at the steps you can take to grow your account from scratch:
Choose your Niche/Genre: The most important thing you can do to grow your Instagram meme page is to pick a lane and stick with it.
While you may be tempted to go broad in order to garner a larger audience, it is far more critical to have a loyal, active follower base. Having a niche and sticking to it is the ultimate first step towards achieving this goal.
Optimize your Account/Posts: Every social media platform has an algorithm that you can use to push your account to other users.
The most straightforward first steps to use this algorithm to your benefit on Instagram are to create a profile picture, bio, theme, and highlights.
Then, use relevant hashtags on all of your posts. These steps will highlight your page and your content to other users more than those without these elements.
Network with Other Accounts: This is a step that is often overlooked by those looking to grow their new meme pages.
Instead of looking at other meme pages as competition, you should be reaching out to other meme pages, gauging their interest in collaborations or simply forming a professional relationship.
Stay Active: Finally, the best thing you can do to maintain and grow your follower base is to keep up a consistent and frequent post schedule.
This should not be confused with maximizing the number of your posts as you can oversaturate the market. I’d recommend posting 2-3 high quality posts per day that are quality.
And make sure you track your analytics for each post, what is the best time of day to post? What type of content do you followers enjoy the most? All these things really matter and should help pave the way for your future content.
If you follow these steps, you should begin to see some solid success in the growth of your Instagram meme page. But you still need to be patient.
However, social media growth is never a sure thing.
Related Financial Geek Article: Make Money Online as a Beginner | 17 Proven Ways.
2. Remodel an Account
If you wish to have the customizability of growing your own account from scratch but are afraid of starting from zero followers, you may choose to remodel a pre-existing Instagram account of your own.
This may be a viable option depending on several factors.
If you already have a fairly popular Instagram account but are looking for a rebrand, it may seem foolish not to take advantage of that pre-existing follower base.
However, you also may risk alienating the follower base that you grew if you choose to rebrand your content completely.
So keep that in mind before making the switch. I once rebranded a motivational quote account to a personal finance account, my follower base dropped significantly and those that didn’t unfollow me never engaged, it was a disaster.
With that said though, If you’re rebranding a personal account with a follower base consisting mainly of friends and family, you may actually experience more success that I did.
With a rebranded personal account, you have a built-in follower base far less likely to unfollow your account due to a change in content.
Transparency is key though, make sure you make a post (or story) about what’s happening so your followers can decide for themselves if they want to keep following.
3. Purchase an Account
Finally, you may choose to purchase a pre-existing meme account off of its original creator.
This method saps all of the creativity out of the process, but if you are looking to simply make money, this may be the quickest method to do so.
The best way to go about this is targeting meme accounts that have stopped posting as frequently or consistently as they used to.
This typically means that the curators of these accounts have grown tired of keeping up with their content. You can then DM these accounts directly on Instagram – and, if they agree to sell, you instantly possess a popular meme page.
Now, to make money off of it, you may choose to resume posting and developing brand deals. Or on the other hand, you may decide to resell the meme page at a profit.
Purchasing and reselling popular Instagram accounts is an effective and quick way to earn money off of the app – I’ve personally done it many times, it doesn’t make you rich, but it’s definitely a great way to make quick money.
How to Make Money on Instagram
Now that we have a basic understanding of the various methods for growing an Instagram meme page, let’s take a look at how you may be able to earn money through your account.
As mentioned earlier in this article, there are several methods for earning money through an Instagram meme page.
Now let’s take a closer look at how you can use each of these methods to earn money.
After reading through some of these methods, check out my article 9 Simple Ways Teenagers Can Make Money on Instagram for even more money making ideas.
Sponsored Posts
First, the most intuitive way to make money off a popular Instagram meme page is to reach out to sponsors to make sponsored posts.
Advertisers are always looking for ways to market their products online, and using popular Instagram accounts has become a tried-and-true method for doing so.
Sponsored posts can be a win-win for advertisers and Instagram account owners if the product – market fit is right.
For example, let’s say you run a meme page dedicated to sports memes, promoting an energy drink or fantasy sports websites will yield excellent results.
Online Sales
If you are thinking about more long-term revenue opportunities, it may be a good idea to consider selling merchandise.
This is one of the most popular methods throughout internet history for making money and can be more consistent and long-lasting than sponsored posts.
Becoming an Affiliate
Finally, if you wish to make easy money similarly to sponsored posts but would rather not interrupt your scheduled content, you could simply choose to become an affiliate marketer.
This only requires that you link a product or website in your account’s bio (or swipe ups), and then you’ll make a commission on any products sold.
The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to worry about shipping, refunds, payments or anything. You just make the sale, collect your check and keep posting hilarious memes.
Conclusion
By now it should be clear exactly how to get followers for your Instagram meme page and how to use your page to make money.
Instagram has thousands (if not more) of popular meme pages already in existence, but with over a billion users, there is plenty of demand for more content.
The most important thing you can do is find a loyal audience that will keep coming back for great content.
Geek, out.