Nozaninbegim Mamurjonova
“How can I make money on Instagram?” Thousands of people in Uzbekistan search for this every day. A student looking for extra income, a young mother looking for a way to work from home, a small business owner looking for customers. The search results usually come in two flavours: either promises of “a thousand dollars a month for an hour a day”, or general advice that says nothing concrete.
In reality it is much simpler. And much more honest.
The audience is there. The question is where the money is
Start with the numbers. According to DataReportal, as of October 2025 more than 33 million people in Uzbekistan used the internet, nearly 89% of the population. Instagram ads reached 14.1 million people, more than half of all adults. That figure grew by almost 42% in a year. By NapoleonCat’s count, Instagram users were approaching 17.5 million in August 2026, with 18–24-year-olds the largest group.
In other words, Instagram is one of the biggest shop windows in Uzbekistan today. People read the news there, choose cafés, buy clothes and recommend things to each other. Brands are there too.
Where there is an audience there is money. You just need to understand where it comes from.
Does Instagram itself pay?
The answer surprises many people: in Uzbekistan, no.
Instagram has built-in monetisation tools. With Subscriptions, followers pay a monthly fee for exclusive content. With Gifts, viewers send a creator money under a Reel. Bonuses are a programme where the platform itself pays for views. But according to the lists in Meta’s help centre, Subscriptions and Gifts are not available to creators in Uzbekistan. Bonuses are invitation-only and limited to certain countries. The Reels Play bonus that paid for views was discontinued in March 2023, and it was only ever open to creators in the United States.
So Instagram will not transfer you money for views. A video with a hundred thousand views and a video with a million views both bring in nothing from the platform. The money comes from elsewhere: from brands and customers.
That is not bad news. It simply shows where to look.
Brand advertising
The best-known route. A brand pays you, and you show its product to your audience through Stories, a post or a Reel. Reports about famous bloggers’ ad rates appear in the press from time to time, and the numbers really are big.
The problem is that this route is mostly open to big bloggers. Brands rarely approach an account with a few thousand followers on their own. Even when they do, the price is negotiated each time. How much should you ask? Should you take payment upfront? What if they do not like the video? These deals are often verbal, and payment depends entirely on that agreement.
So direct advertising is a good route for those who already have a large audience. For those starting out, it is usually a closed door.
UGC: payment for content, not for audience
The fastest-growing route for small and medium accounts is UGC. Here the brand pays not for your followers but for the content you make and the results it gets.
The difference is easy to see with an example. Imagine you have 3,000 followers. That is too few for direct advertising. But if you can show a product naturally and your video travels beyond your followers to reach many people, that result is exactly what matters to the brand. Instagram’s algorithm shows Reels not only to followers but to new viewers too. A good video can reach a large audience even from a small account.
OQIM works on exactly this model. You join an ad campaign, make a Reel to the brief, post it once the brand approves it, and earn for every 1,000 views. The minimum creator rate is UZS 14,000 per 1,000 views. So even at the minimum rate, 20,000 views come to UZS 280,000 and 150,000 views to UZS 2,100,000.
There is no price haggling, no hunting for brands and no chasing payment. The terms are known upfront, views are counted automatically, and the money is sent to your card once the campaign ends and a 7-day verification period passes. All you need is at least 1,000 followers on Instagram. We explain how to start in detail in our article on becoming a UGC creator.
Affiliate links
The third route is affiliate links. You recommend a product through a dedicated link or promo code and earn a percentage of every sale made through it. This model is spreading among online shops, education platforms and various services.
Its strength is longevity. A product recommended well once can keep bringing sales for months. Its weakness is just as clear: the money comes only when something sells. If your video gets a hundred thousand views and nobody buys, the income is zero. So affiliate marketing works well for creators whose audience trusts them and who work in a clear niche.
Your own product or service
The fourth route is the oldest and probably the most stable. In Uzbekistan handmade goods, clothing, sweets, photo shoots, consulting and online lessons are often sold precisely through Instagram. Some small businesses have no website and no shop, only an Instagram page.
Here the account becomes the shop and the Reel becomes the ad. What matters is the flow of customers, not the follower count. A cake maker with 2,000 followers who gets orders every week earns more than a page with 50,000 followers that sells nothing.
Content for businesses
The fifth route is making content for others rather than for yourself. If you are good at shooting and editing video, you can produce Reels for cafés, shops, clinics or training centres. They need regular content, but most of them have nobody to make it.
This work is more like providing a service. You have to find clients, agree terms, meet deadlines and handle revisions. But a few regular clients on a monthly arrangement provide a stable income.
Do not limit yourself to one route
Most creators do not stop at a single route. The routes usually complement each other. UGC campaigns build your video-making skills and bring regular income. Good videos grow your audience. As the audience grows, brands start writing to you directly, and affiliate links bring more sales.
The important thing is to start. The hardest part of making money on Instagram is the first payment. After that the process becomes far clearer.
Which offers should you avoid?
Searches are full of offers like “earn money by liking posts” or “get paid to watch videos”. They almost always turn out to be one of two things. Either a scam: first you are asked for money “to register” or “to activate your account”, then contact stops. Or “tasks” that eat hours of your time and pay a token amount.
Fake followers are not a route either. Bought followers inflate the number on your page, but they do not watch your videos and do not buy anything. On top of that, brands and platforms detect such pages quickly. It is hard to rebuild trust in an account caught with fake followers once.
The rule is simple: if you are asked for money upfront, or promised quick income with no work, that is a warning sign.
Once the money starts coming in
Money earned through Instagram is real income. It is also taxable, so it is worth thinking ahead about which tax status suits you. For most creators this is not complicated; it just should not be ignored.
Instagram does not pay for views in Uzbekistan. But brands pay, customers pay and businesses pay. For big accounts the most natural route is advertising. For everyone else the most convenient starting point is UGC.
Create your profile on OQIM and turn your views into income.
