What is blogging? 

The first blogs appeared in 1999 – Blogger (later became available on Google as a blogging platform – Blogspot) and LiveJournal. 

Any author that regularly adds photos, videos and texts to its resource is called a blogger. By 2002, professional bloggers formed a kind of network of journalists.

It turned out that blogging can be profitable. In 2020, many foreign bloggers reached an income comparable to the fees of show business stars. 

Instagram as a popular blogging platform

Instagram’s laconic format attracts many: a picture is really worth a thousand words. Users quickly mastered the platform. Now even online stores are successfully working on it.

The presentation of a topic in the form of a photograph (or several, “stories”), short videos and a piece of text is quite enough for the presentation of anything. Visibility and the absence of the need to format long articles are the reasons why a lot of bloggers are blogging on Instagram.

Who can become a blogger?

The promotion of a new project from scratch in 2021 will require huge physical, creative and financial investments. The audience must be engaged, active and solvent.

But difficulties do not stop creative people with ambitions – and new blogs and bloggers appear on the Internet every day.

A potential blogger or influencer must have several essential qualities:

1. Taste and sense of proportion. Basic concepts of style and aesthetics are needed for designing a text post, and for editing a video, and for creating your own image.

2. Consistency of aim and energy. Whatever the topic of the blog is, vigorous and consistent achievement of goals attracts and retains subscribers.

3. Calm attitude towards criticism. Everybody gets criticism and dislikes on the Internet, both the authors of touching videos about rescued animals and virtuosic performers of classical music. You will have to put up with unconstructive criticism, and take into account objective criticism.

4. Ability to learn. It is necessary to constantly develop, process a huge amount of information, and look for new ideas. Blogging on Instagram as a hobby will quickly turn into a job.

5. Caring for subscribers. Audiences will not respond well to plagiarism, lazy rewriting, or recommendation of knowingly useless products or fraudulent services. Subscribers’ trust is a blogger’s most valuable asset.

Usually, these types of people become popular bloggers:

• People in search of actualization of their creative potential. Oftentimes, artists, dancers, singers, writers are confronted with commercial and free art concepts. The first option is regulated by the customer, but the second only by yourself. Therefore, Instagram can be used as a platform to demonstrate your work;
• Experts and gurus. Now on the social network, you can find a specialist in any of the spheres of life – a nutritionist, climber or surfer, teacher or entrepreneur. Their profile is their business card, which helps to form and confirm the image of an expert;
• Small and large business owners. You can motivate or annoy, share valuable experience and cases, but the main thing is that you loudly announce your creation, popularizing it in the digital space.
• Handicraftsman. You knit trendy sweaters perfectly, you can sew a dress according to your figure, make funny children’s development toys – this is the direct way to promote your account;
• Those who want to become famous. Yes, there are people who love publicity and strive to constantly be in the centre of the crowd’s attention. It is quite natural that such ambitious and thirsty for popularity personalities do not hide their photos under a private profile.

Making money blogging on Instagram

Content strategy development, content creation, resource advertising, communication with subscribers and advertisers are standard components of a blogger’s work. The technical part is very important for a successful promotion.

A blogger himself must be able to write texts professionally, process photos, graphics and videos, or hire specialists for this. Real subscribers are attracted only by high-quality, useful and original content. 

Companies prefer to work with micro-influencers; that is with authors who have up to 100,000 subscribers. It is believed that the micro-influencer audience tends to trust the blogger’s recommendations more.

However, you can monetize your Instagram account starting with 3 thousand subscribers. To do this, register on a special platform, send an application and, if approved, receive a personal promotional code.

Promo codes are the most popular form of income for bloggers after selling their own products and services.

Popular bloggers make a lot of money from direct advertising. They receive products for review free of charge, in addition, the advertiser pays for Instagram stories or posts.

Blogging combines creativity and entrepreneurship. Anyone can try their hand, purposeful and original ones will achieve success.

Promotion of a blog will take time and, more often than not, material investments. You can look here to find good and quality promotional services. 

What to do to become an Instagram blogger

• Choose your niche

You need to choose and stick to one of the subjects you will cover on your blog. If you are going to write on various topics then you will not be able to describe your target audience.

We recommend that you carefully analyze your subscribers, your interests and skills, and then choose one direction in which you are strong. 

• Blog’s name

It makes sense to name your personal blog by your name, but it is advisable to transform it in such a way that the subject of your profile is clearly understood.

• Come up with an interesting profile description and a catchy avatar

Your user info is your business card. Use key search queries, structure all the information in the header, break it into blocks and highlight them with the same type of emoji. 

As for the avatar, it should be laconic and bright, without unnecessary details and ornaments, so that your face is clearly visible on it. The design of your avatar should be consistent with your overall profile design. 

• Storytelling

At the moment, storytelling is one of the most popular content formats. Literally, this is telling funny, motivating, silly, honest and sincere stories that will interest subscribers, help them get to know you better, and also make them want to comment on a particular post.

• Blog’s automatization

Automation is the first and one of the most important steps towards promotion. In addition, it guarantees you a constant influx of new subscribers, increased engagement and activity rates, good reach and excellent feedback on posts.

• Post regularly

In order for the degree of activity never to decrease, you need to be prepared for the fact that the posts will have to be done every 1-2 days.

• Sincerity / naturalness

People are tired of glamour. Everyone wants to know how a blogger looks like when he wakes up in the morning, what the employees of an SMM agency look like, what is happening in the restaurant’s kitchen, what problems Instagram professionals face. 

Sincerity has been one of the main Instagram trends of 2020. More and more users expect a blogger to look natural and speak the truth about his life.

You can use a story. Show how you tested the product, prepared for filming, braided hair and mispronounced phrases. Imperfection brings people closer.

Microblogging is the hottest 2020 trend

Microbloggers are opinion leaders with a relatively small but highly engaged audience. These are accounts with 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers and engagement from 5 to 15%.

Why do brands increasingly prefer to work with microblogs rather than with big blogs?

• Bloggers with millions of subscribers are expensive;
• The audience’s trust in big bloggers is gradually decreasing: a large number of advertisements is suspicious and annoying.
• Microbloggers often agree to barter, a discount, or a smaller price;
• Microblogger subscribers trust their publications more: their advertising is close to personal recommendations, but with a large reach.
• Brands can distribute the budget among several bloggers. If one ad does not work, the other will.

The engagement rate is one of the most important to potential advertisers and is the indicator of your blog’s popularity. 

Blogging on Instagram: wrapping-up

Even if you feel that there are too many people blogging on Instagram, it should not stop you.

With time people feel that they are ready to “meet” new bloggers and that’s when your blog might come in handy. It is possible to find your target audience and achieve great results even in 2020-2021.