According to the latest Instagram statistics, the platform has the 1.704 billion users worldwide. While it started as a photo sharing app, it has turned into a business platform. Millions of entrepreneurs benefit from its selling power, from service providers to non-profit organizations to e-business owners via dropshipping.

If you have some photography skills, you will have a huge advantage of the platform. Bonus points if you are a hot person for photography and want to bring some extra life to your product photography. Don't have a camera? Learn how to take amazing photos with your phone with our Product Photography course. Nothing will stop you from making the money from this photo and video sharing app.

Here are 6 business models to make money on Instagram:

1. Become the influencer and earn money from sponsored posts

If you can reach your desired influencer status, you can use your Instagram profile to promote all kinds of products from all kinds of brands.

If you are not familiar, an influencer is someone who has built a good reputation and pursues their loyalty by posting regularly on their social accounts. They have good followers and they are able to convince their fans to jump into trends and buy certain products.

They have this power because they have spent a lot of time building trust and relationships with their audience.

Brands tend to partner with the influencers to do sponsored posts that help spread the word about their products. To get to this point, you need to grow your Instagram following as well as create posts on a regular basis that lead to strong engagement from your followers.

Top influencers make the thousands of dollars per sponsored post. Keep in mind that it takes time and a lot of hard work and talent to get to this point. It is certainly achievable, but be sure to manage your expectations if you choose this path.

2. Join us and earn money selling other people's products

You can sell other people's products and get deducted. There are a lot of people who are making money from Instagram through affiliate programs.

The difference between an influencer and a partner is that the affiliate is generating sales for the partner brand in exchange for a commission. On the other hand, an influencer mainly aims to create awareness. (If you're only interested in getting exposure for your brand, you may want to check out these brand awareness tips to gain traction.)

Affiliates earn money with a trackable link or promotional code to make sure you know exactly which sales came directly from your posts.

3. Become an influencer's virtual assistant

If you prefer working behind the scenes, consider becoming an Instagram influencer's assistant.

Many influencers need help to filtering the sponsorship requests, running ads, identifying fake followers, and more. You can offer to be their VA and charge an hourly fee for your services.

As an Instagram influencer expert, you will be responsible for a lot of things, such as managing direct messages, scheduling posts, and responding to comments. Also, the influencer may ask you to share content ideas to grow their personal brand.

So if you have always wanted to practice your Instagram marketing skills without being the center of attention, this is a great place to start.

4. Selling Instagram caption services

Many small business owners use Instagram to promote their goods and services, but only a few have the resources or experience to write good Instagram reviews. If you are good at creating creative Instagram captions, you can sell your services to these companies. Just remember that they will judge you by your ability to write an attractive short copy.

To get the attention of business owners, write and put some captions on your own account. Then include the ones that generate the most engagement in the portfolio. Chances are, if the company were to hire you to craft their Instagram copy, they would want to see your work. So make sure you have some examples they can look at right away.

5. Selling poster images and other virtual products

Instagram is all about visuals. This is why beautiful products and photos will make more sales.

You can sell poster images, paintings, graphics, animations, videos and other virtual products based on images or videos. In each post, include an interesting comment and refer readers to visit the link in your bio. This is another popular way to make money from Instagram.

6. Sell your physical products

You can sell any physical product from which you make yourself or buy from suppliers. Typically, traditional e-commerce retail requires some inventory to be stocked, which means you'll need to spend some startup capital to purchase your products.