The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Creating an authority website in a niche

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Whats up guys I bought this domain about 8 months ago, I also created and started building an Instagram account for it as well during that time. My first goal as of now is to get the website up and running. Is going to be a bilingual authority website in a niche that can be defined as a hobby, luxury, open to men and women, but is 18+.​


Because the industry is starting to grow, there aren't many authority websites where a "newbie" can feel comfortable getting information from, without having to go through forums or trying to find a video. YouTube is another social medial channel that there aren't many YouTubers targeting the niche, and those that do have about less than 20K subscribers.


The biggest IG accounts in the niche have under 50K followers, so there's potential in this niche, now there are many possibilities to monetize it but first I need to gain followers and target my market and provide them with valuable information so that I can win their trust. I also want to win the trust in the industry where I am the "go to guy for a product review", so that company of many products out there in the niche can send me their product for free in exchange of a review release in front of thousand of organic followers that follow me.


So my plan is simple Instagram > Drive Traffic to Website, build website reputation. Keep in mind IG isn’t the only social media I plan on using, I also have a Facebook Page, but for now I am focusing on IG.​


How will I build my website reputation?

By providing constant updated information about retailers, new products, new brands, doing product and accessories reviews. Most of my strong content will be relying on reviews.​


Website Things to do:

Finish building the website menu, finish working with the bilingual plugin I am using to translate my website. I need to finish translating about 10 different articles I already have ready to be uploaded. The website pretty much needs about 92% of work done, and is going to be in English and Spanish.


Main Social Media Account

Instagram

8 months old account and currently a couple of likes from reaching the 500 milestone. About a month ago on September 25 I started using Instagress to grow my account more. So far I have gained over 350+ organic followers.


Instagress Strategy


I have two different types of runs I do with the automation, which is non aggressive and aggressive.

My non aggressive run is from 12 hours to 17 hours run, at 45 Likes and 5 Comments an hour. My aggressive run is from 20 hours to 30 hours at 55 Likes and 15 comments an hour.


I have not done any “following and unfollowing” strategy because in my opinion for me doesn’t seem like it would work, I may I just may try it a couple of times once I get in the thousand followers stages.


My comments I keep them very short and not to broad where it may seem “unnatural” I try to keep my comments as natural as possible. I know they work because people legit reply back to it and interact with me. I manually interact with them when I am able to catch the comment and I have the free time to do it.


Instagram Posts

So far I have been called out on one picture repost, where someone noticed the picture wasn’t mine and I had not provided any credit whatsoever to the original owner of the picture. Even though the “reposts” I do I never claim they are mine, I just simply add a catchy description along with 20-25 hashtags. So what I did right away was to mention to the person that “I wasn’t aware of a repost app I could use, and that I just had discovered an app and I would be using it from now on” and then I tagged the original owner to the picture. I kept the situation as neutral as possible, and from now on I will be reposting any pictures from IG by giving credit back.


Hashtags

I am using from 20-30 Hashtags, usually the same ones repeatedly, and one of them was a hashtag I created and started using, which is the same name as my IG account. Just found out about 2 or 3 people are starting to use it! Which is great news!


So guys please join me in this journey, and feel free to add any advice or input you may have whether is negative or positive I welcome them all. Hopefully my experience will help some of you start your own project because Instagram is still fairly new, and there’s ton of money to be made of the internet!​
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
349ew6g.png

Hey guys, here is a picture of my growth log, how my account is growing so far.
 

Scot

Salad Dressing Empire
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
472%
Jul 10, 2016
2,975
14,055
Florida
One important thing you can be doing is maximizing your video content. You mentioned the other "authorities" are using YouTube. Are you actively putting content out on YT? The good thing about being the authority, you can be your brand.

Once you have videos made for YT, get them on FB. CPC on FB right now is stupid cheap. There's a great forum on the inside on how to maximize your dollars if you're interested.

You'll get double to output by doing video. Heck, IG is encouraging video now, so your videos get 3x the results.
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
One important thing you can be doing is maximizing your video content. You mentioned the other "authorities" are using YouTube. Are you actively putting content out on YT? The good thing about being the authority, you can be your brand.

Once you have videos made for YT, get them on FB. CPC on FB right now is stupid cheap. There's a great forum on the inside on how to maximize your dollars if you're interested.

You'll get double to output by doing video. Heck, IG is encouraging video now, so your videos get 3x the results.
Hey Scot,

Hope you doing alright, and thank you for coming in and adding your personal input.

Regarding YouTube, no I haven't started my channel or posted a video related to my website or niche yet. Yes, the goal is to establish a brand on my own.

There are numerous, of private and public groups on Facebook regarding on the niche, so Facebook is also another way to target my audience relayed to it. What's the name of that forum? You can also PM if you don't wish to post it here.

The other day, I experimented with posting my first video on the top bar feed of IG and it ended up with over 60 views. I sort of did it, to start building a closer relationship with my audience. I realized that in order for me to win their trust I have to open up more to them, which is something I struggle with and working on. So I will soon be posting videos on IG as well, currently I do images of mine and repost of others in the same niche.

Now the question is what sort of content or type of video would be appropriate for a first video in my channel that's related to my niche.

Should I do an intro video?
A first product review video?

What's a good video editing program?

I have a friend who has some photography and video experience and knowledge, and also owns a Nikon.

So we have a photo shoot and video filming plan in the works. I have to write down a plan for it and pick a day so we can go out and do it.

I'm also camera shy, so this is another problem I have, so as a solution I have been watching other people product reviews so that I can be different and what I can change and make it a better review on my own.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Scot

Salad Dressing Empire
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
472%
Jul 10, 2016
2,975
14,055
Florida
As far as the thread, it's in the INSIDERS section of this forum, so you'd have to subscribe to get the content. But @Hvazquez07 is the guy to go to for these questions.

As far as which videos, it really depends on your niche. Video reviews are going to be a good way to build trust with your audience and get noticed. Extra bonus, once you get a following, companies may contact you directly to do a video review.

You can always do an intro video, it doesn't hurt at all, I just wouldn't pay to advertise that video.

There's a great podcast out there called Perpetual Traffic by Digital Marketer. They're doing a great series on video marketing currently, check them out on the podcast app if you have iPhone/iPad.

As far as editing software, I have a videographer who edits or videos, so I have no idea.

Hope this helps!
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
As far as the thread, it's in the INSIDERS section of this forum, so you'd have to subscribe to get the content. But @Hvazquez07 is the guy to go to for these questions.

As far as which videos, it really depends on your niche. Video reviews are going to be a good way to build trust with your audience and get noticed. Extra bonus, once you get a following, companies may contact you directly to do a video review.

You can always do an intro video, it doesn't hurt at all, I just wouldn't pay to advertise that video.

There's a great podcast out there called Perpetual Traffic by Digital Marketer. They're doing a great series on video marketing currently, check them out on the podcast app if you have iPhone/iPad.

As far as editing software, I have a videographer who edits or videos, so I have no idea.

Hope this helps!
Will check that thread out, and send a PM to HVazquez. I do not own an apple product, but this year I'm due for a phone and will be giving myself an iPhone as a gift. Lol
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Hey guys,

So here's an idea that I have been brainstorming with, how I can use it to my advantage I want to avoid the look of a "fake profile." A friend of mine is a real estate agent in the million dollars homes industry. I made a comment to him couple of days ago about doing a photo shoot at one of his properties. He said he was cool with it, to let him know which weekend I wanted to do it.

I can see how for a photo shoot focusing on the product I do reviews of, it can work out. I can create more IG photo content with the background being inside nice homes.

Now could I do perhaps a couple of videos, products reviews in those homes? I would never say i own those properties in my videos. What do you guys think?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Scot

Salad Dressing Empire
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
472%
Jul 10, 2016
2,975
14,055
Florida
Hey guys,

So here's an idea that I have been brainstorming with, how I can use it to my advantage I want to avoid the look of a "fake profile." A friend of mine is a real estate agent in the million dollars homes industry. I made a comment to him couple of days ago about doing a photo shoot at one of his properties. He said he was cool with it, to let him know which weekend I wanted to do it.

I can see how for a photo shoot focusing on the product I do reviews of, it can work out. I can create more IG photo content with the background being inside nice homes.

Now could I do perhaps a couple of videos, products reviews in those homes? I would never say i own those properties in my videos. What do you guys think?

If your niche is associated with luxury or a luxury lifestyle, go for it. Every "guru" who posts motivational pictures on IG doesn't own all those Ferrari's.
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
If your niche is associated with luxury or a luxury lifestyle, go for it. Every "guru" who posts motivational pictures on IG doesn't own all those Ferrari's.
Yes it is associated toward a luxury lifestyle, to a point where some products are more expensive or the brand is at a high standard stage and has a long term reputation build already.

Also some products are also collectibles, and collectors are also starting to grow. This is why in order for me to do a product review I have to invest in order to get the product. In the mean time I have about 5 different products I can do a review on. The product needs to be consumed in order for it to be reviewed. So once the product is consumed is gone, so is a one time shot for each product.

In every industry a lot of times, the cheaper products or "lower end" products are overlook and not consider at all. So I'm thinking I can use the lower end products, review them and kind of pull out the good ones from the bad ones. This can be useful information for those newbies coming in to the niche and trying it out with cheaper alternatives before trying out the most expensive ones. I also plan in building my personal collection because I'm a huge fan of the product.
 

Hvazquez07

Sales Funnel Strategist Expert
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
252%
Feb 16, 2015
58
146
Boca Raton, FL
A great thing about authority websites is that you're not tied to one source of traffic or monetization. I usually go for organic social media growth (like Instagram and YouTube), Search Engine Optimization and Facebook ads to kick start the traffic. I think that it's important to do the following
  • Have an email optin-pdf or report-ready to go right off the bat. You want to start collecting emails since day one. Also create an autoresponder sequence with some affiliate offer to begin with.
  • Get some proper on site SEO. I show how on this video and on this video I go about optimizing images. Some basic on site SEO will help you ranking higher without having to worry much about it.
  • Focus on one platform and make it explode. It can be Instagram, it can be Facebook, it can be YouTube. The most important thing is that you explode that platform and become a true expert on it, because it will feed your website and any other platform you have.
  • Setup some Facebook ads to videos (as @Scot was saying) and true valuable articles within your website. You can then setup retargeting strategies with your PDF or with your offers.
Remember you're building a brand and an asset here. Take a look at the guys from SurvivalLife.com, they made an amazing job creating an 8 figure company with an authority blog.

Any questions I'm here to help.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Hey HVazquez,

I appreciate you coming in my thread and dropping your knowledge! I heard good things about you from Scot. Yes you are correct about having an authority site doesn't limit you at all. I'm definitely writing those advice down in my "to do list." I am still new in building an email opt and SEO, so I will spend a good amount of time researching more about that, and going through the information you have given me. I will gather any questions, or problems I come along, and post them later on.
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
IG Update

2dsfeqc.png

So as I was walking out of my 9-5 shift for the day, I happen to look at my phone and noticed I have just reached the 500 Milestone!
So I noticed that reaching 500 my account struggled a bit. So I created a new "auto-bot category", I named it "Luxury", so all the tags on it are luxurious category, and countries that are known to have luxurious locations for example Europe, Dubai, etc...
This will be run for 20 hours at a speed rate of 55 Likes and 15 comments an hour, let see how many followers I get in the next 20 hours.
YouTube
I am already looking in to getting a cheap audio equipment, and already brainstorming my first video, which will be sort of an intro who I am, what I am bringing to the niche, etc...​
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Update on the Luxury Category bot
Well I wasn't impressed with the outcome of the amount of following I got from this strategy, which I gained only 8 followers in a 20 hour span. Keep in mind this was a run that was started on Thursday, so on Friday I started a completely different run. This new run was targeting Tags, and my competition followers. I added 20 IG users that are the biggest in my niche ranging from 10K to up to 50K followers. I ran this at a 15 hour run at 55Likes and 15 Comments an hour. This gained me 23 Followers! So now I am running a similar run but I added users with "Millionaires" and "Billionaires" type of IG accounts. These accounts have minimum 1M to 5M followers, lets see how many followers I gain while standing at 533 Followers right now.

“Vehicles” to move Traffic to site
So I have added a new "vehicle" to my arsenal that will be used to move traffic to my website. As I was reading somewhere that there's nothing wrong with having the same content moved in different vehicles. So I thought about why not have the reviews I do on YouTube to be provided in a podcast as well. So a podcast is in the works as well.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

obrian

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
96%
Apr 16, 2015
305
292
26
Update on the Luxury Category bot
Well I wasn't impressed with the outcome of the amount of following I got from this strategy, which I gained only 8 followers in a 20 hour span. Keep in mind this was a run that was started on Thursday, so on Friday I started a completely different run. This new run was targeting Tags, and my competition followers. I added 20 IG users that are the biggest in my niche ranging from 10K to up to 50K followers. I ran this at a 15 hour run at 55Likes and 15 Comments an hour. This gained me 23 Followers! So now I am running a similar run but I added users with "Millionaires" and "Billionaires" type of IG accounts. These accounts have minimum 1M to 5M followers, lets see how many followers I gain while standing at 533 Followers right now.

“Vehicles” to move Traffic to site
So I have added a new "vehicle" to my arsenal that will be used to move traffic to my website. As I was reading somewhere that there's nothing wrong with having the same content moved in different vehicles. So I thought about why not have the reviews I do on YouTube to be provided in a podcast as well. So a podcast is in the works as well.
I just started my blog the other day as well, I am on twitter for now. I am planning to go on instagram later on but I really like Pinterest they have a great female audience. If you market your website right you could get real targeted traffic. They are also not really that crowded with marketers.
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
I just started my blog the other day as well, I am on twitter for now. I am planning to go on instagram later on but I really like Pinterest they have a great female audience. If you market your website right you could get real targeted traffic. They are also not really that crowded with marketers.
I don't know why but Twitter to me seems like a pain in the a$$ to be able to build a follower list. As well as Pinterest, and I have tried it in the past, and I never seem to build anything out of it. But that doesn't mean I won't be using them as a traffic vehicle to move more traffic.
 

obrian

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
96%
Apr 16, 2015
305
292
26
I don't know why but Twitter to me seems like a pain in the a$$ to be able to build a follower list. As well as Pinterest, and I have tried it in the past, and I never seem to build anything out of it. But that doesn't mean I won't be using them as a traffic vehicle to move more traffic.
I was thinking the samething the other day, It can be a marketing tool but certain niches is just hard to build on it. That's why I am expanding into other social media platforms to get a more faster growth. I like pinterest though because the female audience is going to benefit my niche alot. I don't about instagram like everyone is trying to sell you something, I am thinking about going on to it and see what it's like though because you can grow your list like a weed.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
INSTAGRAM UPDATE
2vsgkz5.png
I have officially passed the 600 Milestone! The best part is, that it was done in 2 days, that means my new strategy is working, so I am gaining more followers. Just today in 12 hours I have gained 20 followers. I am getting closer to pass the 700 Milestone. I am already planning a lot of things, I have my head spinning all over the place! But I am planning in doing a give away when I reach the 1K Milestone!
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Whats up guys, so I have a lot to update you guys with, but college is keeping me busy, and I have a couple of exams coming up. I am also trying to bring my grade up in two classes. :(:headbanger:

In the meantime I would like to see your input in this, what could be my competitor strategy, why they don't have their website running. They have Twitter, IG, and FB, their IG account has 150K organic followers, FB has 3K followers, Twitter they had an account, and seems like it got deleted. On their IG they have their website url in the bio. When I clicked on the link it takes me to their website but it says "Coming Soon." To me doesn't make any sense lol @Mikkel @Hvazquez07 @Scot
 

Scot

Salad Dressing Empire
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
472%
Jul 10, 2016
2,975
14,055
Florida
Whats up guys, so I have a lot to update you guys with, but college is keeping me busy, and I have a couple of exams coming up. I am also trying to bring my grade up in two classes. :(:headbanger:

In the meantime I would like to see your input in this, what could be my competitor strategy, why they don't have their website running. They have Twitter, IG, and FB, their IG account has 150K organic followers, FB has 3K followers, Twitter they had an account, and seems like it got deleted. On their IG they have their website url in the bio. When I clicked on the link it takes me to their website but it says "Coming Soon." To me doesn't make any sense lol @Mikkel @Hvazquez07 @Scot

How do you know they're organic followers? I don't take stock in most IG accounts. It is too easy to get a lot of followers who dont actually follow your content. Check their posts. If the likes on their posts aren't at least 10% of their total followers, its bullshit.

Their Facebook is most likely more accurate as to what their true following is.

If they don't have a functioning website, they probably just aren't doing a very good job. We have about 5 competitors. Only two are serious competitors, because the other three's websites are poorly function or barely held together by popsicle sticks and duct tape.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

obrian

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
96%
Apr 16, 2015
305
292
26
How do you know they're organic followers? I don't take stock in most IG accounts. It is too easy to get a lot of followers who dont actually follow your content. Check their posts. If the likes on their posts aren't at least 10% of their total followers, its bullshit.

Their Facebook is most likely more accurate as to what their true following is.

If they don't have a functioning website, they probably just aren't doing a very good job. We have about 5 competitors. Only two are serious competitors, because the other three's websites are poorly function or barely held together by popsicle sticks and duct tape.
That's my problem with instagram too many bots and fake accounts. I am going to give a try anyways to help grow my business.
 

Mikkel

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
186%
Feb 25, 2016
815
1,513
29
New Hampshire
Whats up guys, so I have a lot to update you guys with, but college is keeping me busy, and I have a couple of exams coming up. I am also trying to bring my grade up in two classes. :(:headbanger:

In the meantime I would like to see your input in this, what could be my competitor strategy, why they don't have their website running. They have Twitter, IG, and FB, their IG account has 150K organic followers, FB has 3K followers, Twitter they had an account, and seems like it got deleted. On their IG they have their website url in the bio. When I clicked on the link it takes me to their website but it says "Coming Soon." To me doesn't make any sense lol @Mikkel @Hvazquez07 @Scot

They are lazy and don't know what they have to do when it comes to their business. Building an Instagram account is easy once you have things set up. Building a website and monetizing everything is a totally different gear. For myself I know I have been in a bit of action paralysis. I've had this Instagram account for 11 months... why haven't I started to monetize? The reason is because I really didn't even know what I could possibly sell to these people. It was not until 2 weeks ago that I realized how I could potentially sell anything of value to these people. Now it is about switching gears and just putting my idea out there to my followers and see what there response is.

That is my guess for these guys. Now it's your turn to show that you have the business idea and turn it into something. Build your account from the bottom with everyone knowing your business. Who cares if the other accounts have a large following. You will gain a a lot stronger audience if you can provide value right from the beginning.

Look at what your competitors are doing right. Copy them. Then, look at what they are doing wrong, and fix that problem.

Example: My niche is notorious of taking photos and not giving credit. Many times people want to see where the photo came from so they can follow them. Unfortunately they could not, because there was never any credit given. I took the extra 10 seconds to make sure each photo I posted was tagged properly.

This is just one of many examples of how I stand out.
 

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
How do you know they're organic followers? I don't take stock in most IG accounts. It is too easy to get a lot of followers who dont actually follow your content. Check their posts. If the likes on their posts aren't at least 10% of their total followers, its bullshit.

Their Facebook is most likely more accurate as to what their true following is.

If they don't have a functioning website, they probably just aren't doing a very good job. We have about 5 competitors. Only two are serious competitors, because the other three's websites are poorly function or barely held together by popsicle sticks and duct tape.

I take it back Scot you are correct, and I should have known better when I was doing some research on some of my competitors websites. I found some crazy discovering, one of them is a female with 25K followers in IG but her website lacks in many ways. Her website may not be as strong as being an authority site in the niche, but she has build sort of a personal branding on herself, she is somewhat very known in niche, participate in a lot of events that goes on in the niche, and her strongest content is doing products reviews. By the way her website is 4 years old, compared to another competitor who has no IG account, but has a good starting foundation in the YouTube category, his channel is 2 years old and last time he made a video was 8 months ago. lol But his site is much well put together and is 3 years old.

Anyways back to answering your questions Scot, yes his account its bullshit. Because at 150K he is only getting F*cking 1% of likes on his posts. And some of them and I mean SOME of his posts he may get a 2%. Yes, some followers are shit, so what I started doing is I started blocking some of them, because I want to make sure I get quality followers. Because what good is it having a bunch of fake F*ckers if they are not going to convert. But I have to say I am growing pretty good, that I did the formula on my account, and at 660 I am getting without a doubt 20%, and every once a while I get 25% of likes from my followers. What you think Scot? I want at least 75% though I can be happy not satisfy but happy at 75%.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
They are lazy and don't know what they have to do when it comes to their business. Building an Instagram account is easy once you have things set up. Building a website and monetizing everything is a totally different gear. For myself I know I have been in a bit of action paralysis. I've had this Instagram account for 11 months... why haven't I started to monetize? The reason is because I really didn't even know what I could possibly sell to these people. It was not until 2 weeks ago that I realized how I could potentially sell anything of value to these people. Now it is about switching gears and just putting my idea out there to my followers and see what there response is.

That is my guess for these guys. Now it's your turn to show that you have the business idea and turn it into something. Build your account from the bottom with everyone knowing your business. Who cares if the other accounts have a large following. You will gain a a lot stronger audience if you can provide value right from the beginning.

Look at what your competitors are doing right. Copy them. Then, look at what they are doing wrong, and fix that problem.

Example: My niche is notorious of taking photos and not giving credit. Many times people want to see where the photo came from so they can follow them. Unfortunately they could not, because there was never any credit given. I took the extra 10 seconds to make sure each photo I posted was tagged properly.

This is just one of many examples of how I stand out.

Yo Mikkel,

Before I learned how to actually build an IG account, and have it going by itself, to me it was a challenge. But now that I am more experienced on it is a bit easier. But I have to agree, once your account start hitting those milestones it starts to grow pretty quick, as long as you keep interacting, and providing content to your followers so they don't "dry up."

Well I did more research on, lets call him the lazy competitor, his website is a year and half old. Even though it has a "Coming Soon," announcement is getting: Daily Unique Visitors = 27, Daily Page Views= 109, and Daily Ads Revenue= $0.21.

Yearly that would be: Yearly Unique Visitors= 9,937, Yearly Page Views= 39,811, and Yearly Ads Revenue= $70.43


I don't know if those numbers are correct, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that, it motivates me even more, I see my competitor weak areas where I can be strong at it, and build an actual authority website. I mean it feels great, is a great F*cking feeling when you see new likes from new followers, and potential followers on IG. I am pretty sure the feeling of knowing, and seeing that your website gets 1 million Monthly page views, or 1 Million monthly unique visitors is better than sex. lol I want to experience that feeling! (Not that my sex life is bad) o_O

Yea, I am also currently looking to tweak things around, and find how I can stand out. So far I interact with my followers in both languages, and started giving credit, and doing proper reposts. Usually many people do pictures to thank their followers for reaching a certain Milestone, so I am thinking about doing a video for my 1K Milestone. I also stopped posting my Hashtags in my caption, and I do it in a comment instead, and is working pretty well. With the new updates IG got recently, it hides the 1st comment, so the post looks more clean. I am now thinking about experimenting using 19 hashtags only instead of 25 or 30. Things are going pretty well so far, there are nights I can't F*cking sleep, how excited I am of seeing how far I can build this project.




 

Mikkel

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
186%
Feb 25, 2016
815
1,513
29
New Hampshire
Anyways back to answering your questions Scot, yes his account its bullshit. Because at 150K he is only getting F*cking 1% of likes on his posts. And some of them and I mean SOME of his posts he may get a 2%. Yes, some followers are shit, so what I started doing is I started blocking some of them, because I want to make sure I get quality followers. Because what good is it having a bunch of fake F*ckers if they are not going to convert. But I have to say I am growing pretty good, that I did the formula on my account, and at 660 I am getting without a doubt 20%, and every once a while I get 25% of likes from my followers. What you think Scot? I want at least 75% though I can be happy not satisfy but happy at 75%.

I would like to challange you guys to find someone who has 10% interaction or higher. They must have a minimum of 10,000 followers as well.

You can view some of the most popular Instagram pages with the most well liked people, and they still will not break 5% interaction.

It is easy to break 25% interaction when you don't have many followers, but as you will realize, you won't be able to keep your 25% interaction rate.

I can almost garuntee you that you will not be able to reach 75% engagement consistently unless you are consistently posting viral posts while gaining top posts in highly watched hashtags.

If you consistently ban followers for not being as active as you'd like them to be, you will not grow. You will probably misjudge certain people and loose a lot of potential customers.

Just because they don't interact with your posts, what harm does it do to you? You legitamently loose nothing from letting people just be a shadow in the background watching your posts. Not everyone likes to press a like button.

I bet you, that if I followed your account I would be banned based on your standards. I almost never "like" photos that I actually like. It's just how I am, and many other people.

Do what you wish, but I find it severely detrimental to ban followers for not interacting.
 
Last edited:

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
I would like to challange you guys to find someone who has 10% interaction or higher. They must have a minimum of 10,000 followers as well.

You can view some of the most popular Instagram pages with the most well liked people, and they still will not break 5% interaction.

It is easy to break 25% interaction when you don't have many followers, but as you will realize, you won't be able to keep your 25% interaction rate.

I can almost garuntee you that you will not be able to reach 75% engagement consistently unless you are consistently posting viral posts while gaining top posts in highly watched hashtags.

If you consistently ban followers for not being as active as you'd like them to be, you will not grow. You will probably misjudge certain people and loose a lot of potential customers.

Just because they don't interact with your posts, what harm does it do to you? You legitamently loose nothing from letting people just be a shadow in the background watching your posts. Not everyone likes to press a like button.

I bet you, that if I followed your account I would be banned based on your standards. I almost never "like" photos that I actually like. It's just how I am, and many other people.

Do what you wish, but I find it severely detrimentally to ban followers for not interacting.

Actually you are correct, I noticed that even DanBilzerian is not getting nowhere near 10% of interaction from his 19M followers. I checked my block list, and I decided to set them free lol it was only 2 of them, but you are right Mikkel, good point!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Whats up guys, I am currently going trough some hard times, which is a personal setback. But I am still pushing this project forward as I am very confident it will be a huge success next year. Hopefully I can start monetizing it some way even if is a couple of dollars a day, but something is better than nothing, as it will also be reinvested 100% back to the business model itself, until I am able to get a net income of it.

As far as the IG account we are slowly approaching the 800 Followers, so this is highly motivating!
 

devine

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Apr 16, 2015
761
1,446
Russia
Well I did more research on, lets call him the lazy competitor, his website is a year and half old. Even though it has a "Coming Soon," announcement is getting: Daily Unique Visitors = 27, Daily Page Views= 109, and Daily Ads Revenue= $0.21.

Yearly that would be: Yearly Unique Visitors= 9,937, Yearly Page Views= 39,811, and Yearly Ads Revenue= $70.43
Adsense is a poor man's income stream, no matter how big the audience is. Never use Adsense.
Even this forum suffers from this shit and wastes hell of a lot of opportunities.

Also, I wouldn't use social network and onpage metrics. These are just the outcome.
I focus on quality feedback and how people interact with each other. It's easy to get feedback. but It's 10x harder to get people discussing something with each other in comment section.

I also focus on who exactly my audience is - numbers don't matter. It doesn't matter if you have a 100k reach if all these people create less profit than a high-quality audience of 1k. And yes, it's perfectly possible.

Focus on matters that actually matter, don't waste your time on sandbox.
 
Last edited:

Carlitos

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Jul 13, 2016
200
239
New York City
Adsense is a poor man's income stream, no matter how big the audience is. Never use Adsense.
Even this forum suffers from this shit and wastes hell of a lot of opportunities.

Also, I wouldn't use social network and onpage metrics. These are just the outcome.
I focus on quality feedback and how people interact with each other. It's easy to get feedback. but It's 10x harder to get people discussing something with each other in comment section.

I also focus on who exactly my audience is - numbers don't matter. It doesn't matter if you have a 100k reach if all these people create less profit than a high-quality audience of 1k. And yes, it's perfectly possible.

Focus on matters that actually matter, don't waste your time on sandbox.

Hey Devine,

I appreciate your advice thanks for coming in. Yes, lately I have been focusing on looking who my audience are, how they react to certain posts, certain time I post, different captions I use for my posts to see how they respond. Is actually quite impressive and surprising. to see them respond when I ask one simple question. For example I have noticed that so far at midnight I get quite a good response than if I was to post 12PM during lunch hour. Last night I posted a picture with a question in my caption, "Do we have any **niche product name goes here** fans here." Out of that question I got so far 7 comments and 162 likes and increasing. Usually most of my posts now pass the 200 likes mark at 750 followers.


So yes I am focusing on my audience, while it slowly continue to grow I want them to start interacting with my posts more than just liking it. So this is something to learn now and master it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Xavier X

Gold Contributor
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
261%
Jan 1, 2016
474
1,235
These United States
Adsense is a poor man's income stream, no matter how big the audience is. Never use Adsense.

While Adsense has its flaws, and can be lost in an instant, I don't know if I'd say "never use Adsense."
Except I don't get what you mean by "poor man's income," or comprehend the word "never."

It certainly shouldn't be the only or target way a site is monetized, but it isn't worthless.
 

devine

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Apr 16, 2015
761
1,446
Russia
While Adsense has its flaws, and can be lost in an instant, I don't know if I'd say "never use Adsense."
Except I don't get what you mean by "poor man's income," or comprehend the word "never."

It certainly shouldn't be the only or target way a site is monetized, but it isn't worthless.
Adsense is a poor man's income, because it pays pennies, trashes the experience for your visitors and usually shows ads of your competitors.
Adsense forms "looks cheap" impression right away, it turns off the audience, devalue content, devalue any other kind of advertising, ruin potential relationships with advertisers and sponsors, results in inefficient decisions regarding your website monetization strategy and overall development, and that's without even getting into details.

If you're serious about your business, you must never monetize it with adsense. It's not only poor man's income, it's lazy man's income.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top