• A couple thousand followers on Instagram qualifies some users as "influencers."

• But at what point — and with how many followers — can an influencer start making money?

• Insider has talked with dozens of influencers about when they started making money, how, and how much.

With a few thousand followers on Instagram these days, it's easy to ask yourself: When can I start making money doing this?

The good news is, there's no strict minimum.

Three influencers Insider interviewed — all with under 3,000 Instagram followers — said they got paid by brands to post to their small audiences.

For instance, Kayla Compton became a brand ambassador for jewelry company PuraVida with less than 2,000 followers, she told Insider last year. She said her starting sponsored-content package at the time was $250, and that she also got paid by sharing affiliate links or codes with her followers and earning a small commission.

And now, it's easier than ever to share affiliate links on Instagram stories since the company rolled out access to link stickers to all accounts in October.

Instagram is also directly paying some influencers through incentive programs like "Bonuses" for Reels, which requires at least 1,000 views on Reels (rather than a follower minimum). On the other hand, other Instagram monetization features like "Badges," Instagram's tipping tool for IG Live, require that creators have at least 10,000 followers. Many of these programs also are limited to certain countries, have an age minimum of 18, and require accounts to be registered as business or creator accounts on the app.

While the doors have opened for many more creators on Instagram to start making a living, often they don't start making full-time incomes immediately (although a fair number of micro influencers with under 100,000 followers work full-time as influencers).

Read more: 19 content creators share how they turned their social-media side hustles into full-time jobs