So you want to be one of the lucky fitness lovers that gets paid to take pictures and post them on Instagram?
Fitness Instagram Influencers are making millions of dollars per year providing marketing for companies and brands, and I want to help you get in on the action.
In this article, I’m going to talk about how you can grow your Instagram following, become a Fitness Instagram Influencer, and get paid to post pictures, videos, and stories.
What Is a Fitness Instagram Influencer?
An Instagram Influencer is simply someone on Instagram who has grown a following that they have an influence on.
This is pretty much just someone with a fan base to put it simply.
Anyone can technically be considered an Instagram Influencer, as long as you have people who follow you on Instagram that you can influence.
(But the money is usually made when you have thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of followers.)
A Fitness Instagram Influencer is just an Instagram Influencer who posts mainly about fitness and has a following that is mainly interested in fitness related topics.
How Does a Fitness Instagram Influencer Make Money?
The business model is pretty similar to any type of celebrity or professional athlete that works with brands on endorsement deals, with the difference being that the marketing is mainly on their Instagram account.
Brands will pay influencers money to promote their product or service through videos or photo posts, and Instagram stories.
The larger your following, the more money you can get paid. But the size of your following isn’t everything (as we will talk about more here in a bit).
There are multiple ways that influencers and brands can set up their deals:
Pay Per Post
Probably the most popular for brands is just paying an agreed upon fee to have the influencer post a photo or video.
For example, the brand could offer $1,000 for the influencer to post a picture posing with their supplement in the gym.
There are multiple ways to set this up if the brand wants to get more exposure with a series of posts over the course of a month, or whatever it might be. Nothing is set in stone and everything can be negotiated.
Referral Commissions
Also known as Affiliate Marketing, the influencer can be paid a percentage of any sales made through their endorsement.
This is usually done through a referral link or affiliate link that will track any sales that were made from people clicking on the Instagram Influencer’s special link and buying the product.
Again this can all be negotiated, but standard commissions usually range from 5-25% depending on the product.
Selling Own Product/Service
A lot of people think mainly about endorsement type deals with brands when they think about Instagram Influencers, but one of the best ways to make money as an influencer is to sell your own product or service.
The fitness industry has caught on to this pretty quickly, as many of the big Instagram Fitness Influencers are starting supplement brands, apparel brands, or offering coaching services.
He became famous in the fitness long before Instagram, but Joe DeFranco does a great job with this promoting his own products and coaching certifications through his Instagram account as you can see below:
How Much Money Does a Fitness Instagram Influencer Get Paid?
This can vary greatly, and depends on a lot of different factors.
Brands are getting smarter and have stopped looking at follower numbers as much, and are more interested in engagement.
An Instagrammer might have 1 Million followers, but half of those might be fake accounts and the other half might be teenagers that don’t have money to spend.
On the flip side, another Instagrammer might have ‘just’ 20,000 followers, but those followers are all active and they are all huge fans of the influencer.
While there is a huge difference in follow numbers, it’s possible that the smaller account might actually create more business for the brand that is looking to do a deal.
With all that said, generally accounts with, say, under 100,000 followers may be looking at $100-$1,000 per post.
Instagram accounts with 100,000 – 1 Million followers may be looking at $1,000 – $10,000+ per post.
And larger accounts with active followers and fans can get $50,000+ for a single post.
How Do You Make a Living as an Instagram Influencer?
Looking at the above numbers as a rough guideline, you could probably make a decent living with less than 100,000 Instagram followers.
If you made $500 per post and posted twice a week you would be looking at $52,000 per year. $1,000 per post and you’re making six figures.
It doesn’t take 100,000 followers to make a living though…
If you had an online fitness coaching program and sold it for $100/month you would only need 100 followers to sign up to make $10,000 per month.
Turning followers into 100 customers is harder than it sounds though, and it’s why you need to use the following advice in order to grow true fans and not just followers.
Strategies For Becoming a Fitness Instagram Influencer
Now that you know what an Instagram Influencer is and how they can make money, lets look at how you can become one.
#1 – Post Value Adding Content
If you’ve got an amazing body and you show it off on Instagram you might grow your following pretty quickly, but a lot of those followers might not be true fans. (Not to mention there’s a ton of competition out there.)
The easiest way to grow your following is to post pictures and videos that add value to your followers.
In the fitness space, this could be motivational posts, workout examples, tips and techniques, healthy recipes, advice, exercise demos, etc.
Anything that you can think of that people can use for their own fitness journey.
If you can get people results through Instagram you are going to grow a fan that will likely buy from you or buy things that you recommend to them.
Always be thinking what’s in it for my followers.
Here’s a good example from a personal trainer named Jordan Syatt:
As you can see a lot of his posts are giving advice and actionable things that his followers can do or use right away.
#2 – Post Consistently
You need to show up consistently for your followers… without over doing it.
If you’re adding value this could be multiple times per day, but most likely one post per day is enough on the main Instagram feed. I would say a good range is between once a day to once a week (which would be the minimum).
A few Instagram stories per day is ideal too, but don’t force these. The key is creating engaging fans and you don’t want people skipping over your stories because they don’t add any value or aren’t entertaining.
Only post when it makes sense, but try and stay somewhat consistent.
#3 – Be Personable
People like to follow other people, and not just Instagram accounts.
Get on the selfie mode for video in your stories once in a while and be yourself. Don’t worry about always looking perfect or scripting out what you’re going to say. People like people they can relate to.
Let your personality shine through in both your stories and posts now and again.
#4 – Engagement With Your Audience
As you start to build up a following you are going to want to start engaging with them.
This can be done by simply replying to any comments left on your posts, going live on Instagram stories, or using the sticker features in stories to start up Q&As or polls.
Become friends with your followers and they will become fans.
#5 – Don’t Be A Walking Sales Pitch
The most annoying accounts on Instagram are the accounts that are always trying to sell you something without providing any value to you.
It’s definitely OK to be making sales pitches and posting endorsements on Instagram frequently, but you also have to make sure you post just as many
Having people always swipe right by your posts is just as bad as having them unfollow you. Instagram’s algorithm will stop showing them your posts and you will lose engagement.
#6 – Use Other Platforms
I always recommend that people expand out to other platforms as well. Instagram might not be popular in 5 years and if your business is only built on Instagram you could be in trouble.
Whether it be a starting a YouTube Channel, blog, podcast, or somewhere else, get your followers to follow you on another platform for when the time comes that Instagram isn’t relevant.
This will also allow you to grow your fan base as a whole. People may find you on YouTube that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise. The more places you can be found, the better.
Recap of Influencer Marketing
Although it’s become extremely popular to try and be a fitness influencer on the platform, there is still definitely room for you to make it.
It will take a lot of hard work making sure you are putting valuable posts up on a regular basis and, most importantly, it will take a lot of time.
You won’t have success overnight (which is why a lot of people quit trying
If making money from Instagram or online is something you’re interested in learning more about you probably want to check out our Create Freedom Academy – where we teach people how to make money through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, websites, etc. Check it out here.
Dan Garner
