Sponsored Posts Pay & Get Paid for Instagram Posts
First things, first. You are an “influencer.” This is what you will be referred to by brands, clients and marketplaces.
To be an influencer, you have to be professional. So it goes without saying: be polite, be professional, and don’t share any discriminatory gestures or offensive comments. Nikon isn’t going to sponsor you if you are a ****.
You are not an influencer if you have 100,000 followers that don’t interact with you, especially if you have purchased these followers on Fiverr!
Engagement is a great deal more important than how many followers you have. Brands will recognize this and reward those who have higher engagement rates over those who don’t.
And this makes sense. If you have a low engagement average with your audience, it doesn’t matter how many people see your posts. If they’re not going to click that link in your bio or take action from your post, the brand gains exposure, but not sales. You need to be able to convert your followers into customers.
Remember to interact with your community. Reply to them; show them you care. They will reward you for it by returning the love on your future posts, tagging people in your posts, and ultimately help you grow your platform and opportunity to collaborate with brands you are passionate about.
Dave Weatherall - That Travel Blog
How Many Followers You Need to Get Paid for Instagram Posts
I know I said engagement is more important, but brands will generally start to take you seriously when Instagram rewards your profile with a “k”… You need over 9,999 followers. In other words, engagement is more important than the total number of followers, but you still need a base to get started.
However, I have heard from friends and bloggers who have received free gifts and even payment for their posts with as little as 2,000 followers. It all depends on your niche. Fashion and food bloggers are better known to have gifts sent to them from an earlier stage. If you are located in sparsely populated areas, you will also find it easier to secure sponsors with local companies as there will be less competition.
For travel bloggers and other competitive industries, try to focus your efforts on growing your community of followers to at least 10K+ before you start approaching brands. You will find that this is an entry-level requirement for most influencer marketplaces – but I will talk more on those later.