[Honest] Can You Earn Money on Facebook by Just Uploading Photos or Videos?

Yes, you can make money from Facebook by posting photos or videos only.

But you have to do it the right way with a correct plan.

Here’s the plan:

1. Build a Facebook page with more than 10,000 followers
2. Get into Facebook Content Monetization
3. Post photos, videos or text to earn

Let’s break it down.

1. How to build a Facebook page that earns you real money

There are basically two main ways to do it.

One is to build a Facebook page from the ground up: one post at a time, a few posts a day. This might take a few months if you’re posting good content in the right formats, like Reels.

Or you can spend some money to run ads for followers. Yes, Facebook allows you to run ads to grow likes (followers) for your page. I personally prefer the second method because it’s faster.

2. How to join Facebook Content Monetization (CM)

This is the part you don’t fully control.

You can’t just apply and get in. You have to wait for Facebook to invite your page.

Once you’re in, though, that’s when things get interesting.

You can monetize:

• Photos
• Reels (Videos)
• Text posts & more…

I wrote a full breakdown of CM and how to increase your chances of getting invited.

Here are real earning examples from one of my Facebook pages:

Example 1

~1,500 likes, 70+ comments → about $19 earned

Example 2

Lower engagement → about $1.14 earned

The pattern is simple: More engagement = more views = more money

3. What do these “money-making” photos/videos look like?

At this point, you might be wondering why I haven’t shown you what the actual photos/videos look like.

Worry not. Here are a few examples.

The easiest way to find these types of photos/videos is to open your Facebook home feed and look for posts with more than 1,000 likes, comments, or shares. You can’t tell how much they’re earning just from those numbers, but they’re a good place to start learning what works.

But scrolling through your feed is a bit random.

If you want a more organized way to find those posts, check out the Watchlist feature in Insight Hive. You can add other Facebook pages in your niche, see their posts, and sort them by likes, comments, or shares.

That’s where the screenshots with social performance numbers above came from.

Within each page in your Watchlist, you can filter posts by post type and date range, sort by newest or oldest, and even search for a specific keyword or topic.

For example, if you want to see which photo/video posts did well for another page last month, you can find them without scrolling through hundreds of posts manually.

The idea is simple: learn which topics, hooks, and layouts get people interested, then use those insights to create your own posts.

If that sounds useful, you can check out Insight Hive’s Watchlist here.

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I also want to be clear: not all posts (or photos, videos) will earn well.

They can range anywhere from $0.01 (or even $0) to $1,000+ per post.

I’ve documented how much Facebook pays me per 1,000 views in another article.

Sounds easy? It’s not

Up until now, this might sound ridiculously simple, almost too good to be true.

And yeah, it sounds simple.

But it’s not easy.

Remember earlier, there’s a step where you have to wait for an invite from Facebook. Some pages never get invited.

And more importantly…

You have to post content that your followers actually love and engage with.

This is where most people fail.

Content has to entertain. It has to stop people from scrolling.

Another thing worth mentioning is consistency. Posting once or twice a day might not get you the results you want.

For me, it takes at least 6 posts a day to see real traction with CM. To drive meaningful traffic to our websites, I need to post up to 12 times a day.

The principle is simple, but the work is very real.

And if you’re a beginner, you’re probably wondering how to even figure everything out, I wrote about that in another post too.

One more honest note

If you’re not like me and don’t want to spend money upfront (around $500) then growing a page from scratch to 20,000 followers is not easy.

It takes time. A lot of it.

I personally never did it the slow way. I just spend money to speed things up.

FAQs

1. How do I know if my page is even eligible for a CM invite?

Every page has a chance to join the CM program: new, old, or somewhere in between.

But there are certain things Facebook wants to see before sending invites faster. The most important one, from what I’ve seen, is following Facebook policies and avoiding flags or strikes. I can’t emphasize that enough.

Other requirements exist too, and I’ve discussed them in more detail here.

2. What kind of content actually gets invited into CM faster?

I don’t think the type of content matters that much. However, Facebook does mention some content kind requirements, like:

• At least 3 Reels in the last 90 days
• Around 150,000 unique views in the last 28 days, which basically means you need content that performs well.

3. How long does it usually take to get a CM invite after growing a page?

There’s no clear timeline. Even if your page checks all the boxes, there’s still no guarantee you’ll get invited. That’s just how CM works right now.

That said, there are things you can do to increase your chances and I’ve covered those in another article.

4. Can a brand new page get invited, or does it need history?

From what I’ve seen (and from other publishers), even pages that are about a month old have received invites. So yes, new pages have a similar chance as older ones. It’s less about age, more about performance and compliance.

5. Does Facebook pay differently for photos vs reels (videos) vs text posts?

Yes, they do.

Earning rates vary between:

• Photos
• Reels/Videos
• Text posts

And it also depends heavily on your niche.

I’ve shared some real numbers and breakdowns in another post.

6. What exactly counts as “engagement” that affects earnings?

The rule of thumb is: The higher the views, the higher the earnings. There is no exact calculation from Facebook at the time I’m writing this.

7. Why do some posts with high likes still earn almost nothing?

I’ve seen cases where a post has high likes, but the views are actually low, which affects earnings a lot. I can only guess the reasons. If you have an answer for this, feel free to comment below so others can learn too.

8. Is running ads for followers actually safe, or can it hurt my page?

Since the ads are from Facebook, it’s safe to use them to build page followers. The only downside is if the ads attract the wrong kind of followers, people who are not interested in your content.

For example, if you want to build a gardening page but end up getting general followers with all kinds of interests, that can hurt your engagement.

9. How many followers do I realistically need before seeing real money?

I’ve seen pages with around 10,000 followers getting strong engagement and views. So I would say you need at least that to start seeing traction and real money.

10. Can I repost viral content, or does everything need to be original now?

I would advise going fully original nowadays. Reposting viral content used to work, but now Facebook’s algorithm is much better at detecting and limiting reused content.

11. What if my pages never get into the CM program?

There are still plenty of ways to earn from your Facebook pages even without joining CM.

Some options include:

• Driving traffic to a website that serves ads
• Earning from affiliate links
• Sponsored posts from brands
• And more. I’ve listed them in more detail here.