Instagram has been a popular platform for bloggers to show off their new buys, outfits and even new post notifications, but up to now has been very difficult to monetise, thanks to Instagram not allowing clickable links in captions and comments. So how could you get round this? Before, you would have to hope that a viewer of your image would click through to your profile, click your blog link in the profile and hopefully, you’ve posted about that item and provided an affiliate link.
Bit of a faff, right? Enter rewardStyle. We’ve talked previously about why we like them – they were created to make affiliate linking for bloggers much easier, so it’s no surprise to see them creating another product to make monetistion simple.
LIKEtoKNOW.it is a way for bloggers to link their Instagram accounts to their rewardStyle accounts and therefore be able to link the things they photograph and inform their readers of exactly where something is from.
First, you’ll need to remember to save as favourites any items that you want to link to – you can do this with the LinkNinja bookmarklet on your desktop computer, or you can do this in the iPhone app by clicking the heart icon in the bottom right corner, then the search icon in the top left corner.
You’ll also need to log into LIKEtoKNOW.it with your Instagram account before making your first post, authorise access and provide your email address. If you want to link your rewardStyle account to LIKEtoKNOW.it, then head over to the apps page and link the accounts together.
Once your accounts are linked together, take the photo that you want to post and make any edits you would normally do before sending it to Instagram (To make sure that your photo is going to look exactly as you want it to, crop it to a square at this point). Open the image in the rewardStyle app by tapping the centre envelope icon and you’ll be asked to choose from your favourites (which is why you’ve been saving them) which items are in the image.
You’ll then be taken to a screen called “pre-publish” where you’ll be asked to write the caption. The hashtags and username of the special Instagram account have already been filled out for you, so just write whatever you would normally, then tap the share icon in the top right corner and send the image to Instagram. You can then edit the image in Instagram and add whatever filters, etc you want to. (We noticed that sometimes, the caption didn’t carry over into Instagram, so you might want to highlight your caption in rewardStyle and copy it to save you retyping everything again! The most important thing to include is the #liketkit hashtag. The rewardStyle app does not include any sort of disclaimers, so you might want to add that in too.)
That’s it from the publishing side of things – but how do you find out what the products are? Head to LIKEtoKNOW.it and sign in with your Instagram account, allow access to the site, and give it your email address. You can choose whether you receive emails about the items you’ve liked on a immediate, hourly, daily or weekly basis and if you can’t wait, the photos you’ve liked that are linked to LIKEtoKNOW.it already will show up when you first log in. Click the image (if you’ve got the grid layout switched on) and product images will appear underneath it – just click the product you like to head over to the website where it’s from.
Once you’ve got your account set up and you remember to do these extra steps, this will become almost second nature to you – and hopefully, you’ll see more click throughs from your viewers. What do you think though – would you use this as a reader?
Very useful information – thank you. And yes, as a consumer I am very excited by this product. I’m also keen to look into it fr a blogger perspective. Thanks again xxC
*from a blogger perspective.
Thanks for the post! I just submitted to rewardStyle. Do you know if they require a certain number of followers or anything? I would love to use Like to know it on my fashion instagram, but I’m worried it’s hard to get an account with rewardStyle?
I had the same question – do you have to be a big blogger to be accepted? I would love to use liketoknow.it, but not sure if rewardstyle will approve my application because I am a small blogger.
I’m a small blogger that focuses on green beauty vs high performance cosmetics (and a little bit of in between) and was just declined. I waited for a week but was told it was due to the mass amounts of applications they receive. But to try again. Its a shame, I do quite a few reviews so itd be nice to offer my readers and easy way to access them if they’re interested. Something to work toward I suppose.
What a shame! I have heard of a different scheme which we’ll be posting about in the new year, so keep your eyes out for that one!
This is why i really want to become a fashion blogger.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been curious about how to become part of LIKEtoKNOW it as a blogger and this was very helpful! Also really glad to have just discovered your blog!
xx missaLAnnis
Thanks for sharing. I’ve been wanting to join the LIKEtoKNOW community, and this was super helpful!
This is very helpful but I’m really new to blogging can you please explain what a reward style is for? Do you know how I can get brands to allow me to promote their apparel? Thanks!
Hi Tania,
rewardStyle is an affiliate program – when you post a link to a product, you can use sites like rewardStyle to turn the link into an affiliate one, so when someone clicks the link and buys something from that website in a specific period, you would earn a small percentage of the sale.
With regards to getting brands to allow you to promote them – keep an eye out for tweets from brands looking for bloggers (we retweet as much as we can!) Just posting about the things you like helps because it gives brands an idea of the sort of thing you can do!
This is very helpful, especially for someone new to blog world like me. Thank you for sharing!