You Don’t Need 100K Followers
You think you need 100,000 followers to make real Make Money on Instagram? Think again. I’ve made 10s of 1000s and I started with barely 100 followers. Many people waste months chasing likes, but if you know which tools to use, you can start earning immediately. My name is David, and in partnership with Intuit, I’m revealing seven apps that will flip your Instagram into a money machine, no matter your follower count. Let’s get into it.
App 1: CapCut for Viral Reels
If you’re not making reels, then I’m sorry you’re falling behind. They are the fastest way to grow on Instagram, and CapCut is the editor that will make your reels pop. Here are four features you gotta check out. First, did you know that you could double your engagement on a reel with auto-captions? According to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, up to half of the views on Instagram happen with the sound off, so no captions means fewer views.
If you add those captions, yo, can choose a text template to fit your reel’s look and feel. Second, do you ever wonder how people appear on top of a video? Auto cut out removes the background from any clip,n without a green screen. Third, what about your worst fear? Your video is boring.
You can grab free images and video to spice things up. Add transitions and animations to keep your audience’s attention super high. Now, if you don’t want to go on camera, you can also let AI do the talking. All you need is a compelling script, and voila. I probably shouldn’t share this, but this is how much Kevin Stratford makes on YouTube. No, with everything except auto cut out is free, or you can upgrade for $30 a month.
App 2: Shopify for Seamless Selling
Now that your reels are grabbing some attention, it’s time to turn that attention into income. App number two is Shopify, a simple way to sell physical or digital products and link them directly to your Instagram posts. Now imagine you’re on Instagram and you see something you might want to buy.
The caption says “Lincoln Bio.” Are you going to their bio? No, you’re not. But if you connect Shopify to an Instagram shop, followers can buy without leaving the post. No, we just having an Instagram shop is not enough because it traps you in the Instagram ecosystem. Shopify gives you your site, your traffic, and real control. And it starts at just five bucks a month plus transaction fees.
App 3: QuickBooks Online for Financial Clarity
So you’ve got Shopify’s setup and sales coming in, but are you making money? That brings us to app number three, QuickBooks Online. Many creators forget that income means nothing if expenses eat at all, and QBO tracks every dollar. Your sales subscriptions, transaction fees, and even your taxes, so you know what’s profit and what’s not.
It links to your bank and credit cards, so you no longer need to log sales manually. And while Shopify won’t handle your sales tax, QuickBooks will and helps you stay compliant. If managing money stresses you out, QBO gives you access to tax experts, too. It works in over 170 countries and starts at 1750 a month for the first three months. Use the link in the description to get started.
App 4: Skool for Engaged Communities
Selling products is a great start, rt, but it’s not your only option. What if you could teach a skill and build a high-value community around it? That’s where app number four comes in, Skool. Now, most communities are ghost towns. Why? Zero engagement. Skool turns out to be around with gamified participation.
Members earn points in the Skool forums when others like or reply to their posts. Level up when you get enough points, and at each level, you can earn special unlockables in the community. Do you want to get even more engagement? Run live events directly with your community or create a course. Some creators combine both to boost results. A course plus weekly group coaching sessions. Now Skool is a flat $99 a month with a 14-day free trial.
App 5: Thinkific for Teaching Without the Crowd
So what if you want a course without the community? Does half the price work for y, ou too? Meet app number five, Thinkific. Like Skool, Thinkific has a full course built, but it adds a few key features. You can create quizzes and surveys to check understanding and even use AI to generate the questions.,
Now, learning expert Justin Sung says that cramming kills retention. That’s why Thinkific lets you drip lessons weekly so your students retain what you teach. Skool can drip content too, but Thinkific gives you more scheduling control, and when it’s time to launch your course, you get a built-in page builder to sell your course and book clients. All of this for $49 a month.
App 6: ManyChat for Automated Engagement
You built the course or community. Now here’s the real challenge. How do you get people there? Because your audience is still stuck on Instagram, and if you’re still saying Lincoln bio, then you’re losing sales. App number six is ManyChat, and it’s what top creators use in 2025. All right, here’s the play. Instead of saying Lincoln bio tell your audience to comment a word on your post. ManyChat then DMs them the link of your choice. Zero confusion.
This works by setting up an automation. You set the trigger, add actions, and boom, automated conversion. You can even use this for story replies and send different links per post, and bonus, your account gets a major engagement boost because so many people are commenting, so more people see your content. It’s free for up to a thousand contacts, then $15 a month after that, and worth every penny.
App 7: Canva for Brand Building
You’ve got the traffic. You’ve got the tools. Now it’s time to grow your brand. App number seven is Canva, and it’s for more than just posts. You can make brochures, e-books, sell sheets, and even whiteboards. Everything you need to market like a pro, and if you’re not a designer, you get thousands of templates and a massive library of stock photos, graphics, and videos. Now it’s free to start, but Canva Pro unlocks the full toolkit for $15 a month.
The Final System
But here’s the thing. Top creators combine all of these apps in ways that you don’t even know. For exampl ,let you build a guide in Canva around something you know, then you tease it with a reel you made in CapCu, and in ManyChat, auto DMs the guide every time someone comments.
Then you can monetize it with Shopify or Thinkific or just collect emails to grow your list. That’s not content. That’s a system. That’s scale. That is a business. With these seven apps you’re not just winging it on Instagram anymore. You’re building a machine that sells while you create. Thank you so much for watching. Drop a comment if you want to deep dive into any of these apps, and I’ll see you in the next video.
