Before applying, make sure that you can tick all these boxes

• Your profile has a clear focus – fashion, beauty, lifestyle, you name it! As long as your Instagram profile clearly revolves around your niche and ISN’T a personal account, you’ll be fine. This means that you should delete all random pictures that have nothing to do with the direction you want to take your profile to: say buy to cat pics, pics of random items and group pictures.

• Make sure that you’re actively posting on Instagram. This means that you post at least 1-2 a week, but more is better (3-4 or even every day!)

• Make sure that your profile aligns with the brands that you want to work with in the future. For example, if you want to work with high-end fashion brands in the future, have a classy, elegant and luxurious feel to your profile. If you can’t afford designer items now, simply emulate the luxe feeling with free props, such as beautiful flower gardens and grand buildings.

• Make sure that your images are on point! Instagram is very saturated at the moment and it’s getting harder and harder to break into. There are people who are starting out with endless budgets, amazing work ethic and incredible pictures, so if you want to stand out, you need to pay extra attention to your image editing.

After all, brands only need a few seconds to decide if you have the right look for them or not, so getting the look right is often the key in landing collaborations, especially if you’re a smaller influencer.

I edit all of my pics with Adobe Lightroom and use my own presets to achieve the look that I’m after. I find Adobe Lightroom a lot easier to use than mobile based apps, and it literally takes me about 5-10 minutes to edit a photo from start to finish now.

Even though it can be a little bit tricky to get started with Lightroom, the end results are so much better than what I ever achieved with VSCO, Snapseed and other apps. After Lightroom, I also use FaceTune to make minor adjustments to my images, including whitening my teeth, smoothing my skin, and other things like that.