Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers)

[Luffy]

A lot if you are using the follow/unfollow method

Could you explain what the follow/unfollow method is? Is it the same as shout for shout? I just want to know what to avoid exactly.

 

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[RichyV]

BTW Instagram has changed their algorithm as of yesterday morning and everyone doing mass unfollowing via bot is getting banned or temp blocked.

Thanks for the heads up!

Could you explain what the follow/unfollow method is? Is it the same as shout for shout? I just want to know what to avoid exactly.

It's where you follow other IG accounts with the purpose of a high percentage of them then following you back. When you then have a large amount of followers you then begin un-following accounts to try and increase your perceived value. With instagram, the higher your follower to following ratio, the higher your perceived value.

 

[Luffy]

Thanks for the heads up!



It's where you follow other IG accounts with the purpose of a high percentage of them then following you back. When you then have a large amount of followers you then begin un-following accounts to try and increase your perceived value. With instagram, the higher your follower to following ratio, the higher your perceived value.

How do IG know if an account with a large following have used this method or not? Is there some kind of history you can look at? What if my followers are purely from shoutouts? Would I be suspected then?

 

[Spoonman]

What do you think the future of this kind of advertising on IG holds? With IG rolling out paid ad service, will there still be a market for what your doing?

Looks like I missed the boat on the AMA, but if you've got one more answer left in you, I'd love to know what your thoughts are on this.

 

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[JimD]

What do you think the future of this kind of advertising on IG holds? With IG rolling out paid ad service, will there still be a market for what your doing?

As long as IG shows all your uploads to your followers then paid ads would have no affect imo

 

[JimD]

Could you explain what the follow/unfollow method is? Is it the same as shout for shout? I just want to know what to avoid exactly.

The follow/unfollow method is basically what it says, you follow people with the intent that they follow you back. Then after a certain amount of time you unfollow them. You then repeat this process over and over again to gain followers.

 

[Luffy]

The follow/unfollow method is basically what it says, you follow people with the intent that they follow you back. Then after a certain amount of time you unfollow them. You then repeat this process over and over again to gain followers.

I see, thanks for the reply.

 

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[eliquid]

I have a programmer background and while I prob. won't be coding up my own bot like you, I would like to know if you can share:

1. Top 3 things NOT to do. Top things you learned that got your accounts banned ( example, posting every X seconds hurt you, not using proxies, etc )

2. Are you using public or private proxies ( shared or dedicated elite )?

3. If someone wanted to grow their new account by hand ( lets just say 1 account ), what's the best strategy you have been doing that someone could emulate manually ( likes, follows, postings, etc ). I'm looking to start one in a certain niche and I'm new to Instagram, so just wondering best course of action.

 

[JimD]

I have a programmer background and while I prob. won't be coding up my own bot like you, I would like to know if you can share:

1. Top 3 things NOT to do. Top things you learned that got your accounts banned ( example, posting every X seconds hurt you, not using proxies, etc )

2. Are you using public or private proxies ( shared or dedicated elite )?

3. If someone wanted to grow their new account by hand ( lets just say 1 account ), what's the best strategy you have been doing that someone could emulate manually ( likes, follows, postings, etc ). I'm looking to start one in a certain niche and I'm new to Instagram, so just wondering best course of action.

1. follow/unfollow method(IG is going ban crazy on people abusing this doing this right now), using a bot to comment 150+ a day, and doing over 2500+ likes a day

2. I'm using private dedicated instagram proxies.

3. doing targeted likes in your niche

 

[Luffy]

I'm sure this idea has been done before but I came up with this idea just now to do a follow for shoutout strategy.
However it's impossible to actually use this model to grow without having a bot that post shoutout pics everyday.

Have you heard about this during your time on Instagram?

 

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[JimD]

I'm sure this idea has been done before but I came up with this idea just now to do a follow for shoutout strategy.
However it's impossible to actually use this model to grow without having a bot that post shoutout pics everyday.

Have you heard about this during your time on Instagram?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by your method here...?

 

[Luffy]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by your method here...?

Basically, I write in my comments or others comments section for people to follow me in exchange for free shoutouts.

 

[JimD]

Basically, I write in my comments or others comments section for people to follow me in exchange for free shoutouts.

yeah it could work and it also can be reported as spam by the page owners...but it doesn't hurt to try. Test your ideas with an account that you are not worried about losing.

 

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[Luffy]

yeah it could work and it also can be reported as spam by the page owners...but it doesn't hurt to try. Test your ideas with an account that you are not worried about losing.

Yeah but there is one problem. What if I get a whole bunch of followers at once and are unable to meet their demands for the shoutouts?

 

[JimD]

Yeah but there is one problem. What if I get a whole bunch of followers at once and are unable to meet their demands for the shoutouts?

That is a good problem to have. What would stop you from shouting them out?

 

[safff]

Great read and happy to have found this thread now as have just started two accounts on ig.. mind me asking how slow is 'normal' growth at first?

I'm finding it pretty slow, 2 follows and around 6 likes a post but then it is a very new page so not concerned. Just not sure how much to expect over what sort of time? What should I be aiming at say after a month of posting twice - three times a day? Cautious of thinking something isnt working and changing it when in reality its just a case of time.

 

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[JimD]

Great read and happy to have found this thread now as have just started two accounts on ig.. mind me asking how slow is 'normal' growth at first?

I'm finding it pretty slow, 2 follows and around 6 likes a post but then it is a very new page so not concerned. Just not sure how much to expect over what sort of time? What should I be aiming at say after a month of posting twice - three times a day? Cautious of thinking something isnt working and changing it when in reality its just a case of time.

This depends heavily on your niche and how good your page/content is, I would say a "normal" growth range can be from 50-200 new followers a day depending on your niche, and depending on what you're doing to actually grow the account.

 

[Luffy]

That is a good problem to have. What would stop you from shouting them out?

It is but what if I get overwhelmed is all I'm saying.

 

[JimD]

It is but what if I get overwhelmed is all I'm saying.

Well, only you can really answer that? The worst that can happen is that they will be upset?

 

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[Luffy]

Well, only you can really answer that? The worst that can happen is that they will be upset?

True, well I guess there is no point in thinking about it untill I get there if I get there hopefully.

 

[ilrein]

Thanks @JimD

Particularily liked:

As of right now I only do "like" actions.

I do about 1900-2100 targeted likes a day per account with a delay of about 17-28 seconds per "like".

the average new followers I get from this method can range depending on niche.

the norm can range from 250-500 new followers a day

• ~2500 likes per day
• Use a ranged, random delay in between likes
• Target likes to a specific niche
  
• Avoid unfollowing

Hmm...doesn't seem overly difficult from a technical perspective...

And your path to monetization is to leverage affilate marketing; but you don't want to do it long term, although it's already brought 6 figures and you've gotten 4 million followers in the process.

You've shared so much here...so much value. Thanks man...

 

[Luffy]

Well that was useless. I tried to comment on someones elses comment section to follow me for free shoutouts and I didn't get reported. I didn't get any backlash. Instead they(IG) blocked my comment before I could even post it, luckily though nothing happened to my account, just thought I'd share that, back to work.

 

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[RazorCut]

Well that was useless. I tried to comment on someones elses comment section to follow me for free shoutouts and I didn't get reported. I didn't get any backlash. Instead they(IG) blocked my comment before I could even post it, luckily though nothing happened to my account, just thought I'd share that, back to work.

There are a lot of spammers on IG leaving comments to try and get people to interact or follow their dodgy accounts. If I could get comments blocked instantly based on the users intent (and therefore keywords) I would for sure.

How many users did you post to? One cannot be taken as indicative of the majority. Sounds like you were just unlucky.

 

[TonyStark]

This depends heavily on your niche and how good your page/content is, I would say a "normal" growth range can be from 50-200 new followers a day depending on your niche, and depending on what you're doing to actually grow the account.

Do you have any tips on how to grow an account?

 

[Luffy]

There are a lot of spammers on IG leaving comments to try and get people to interact or follow their dodgy accounts. If I could get comments blocked instantly based on the users intent (and therefore keywords) I would for sure.

How many users did you post to? One cannot be taken as indicative of the majority. Sounds like you were just unlucky.

It appears the comment was blocked based on the key words like you said. I'm not sure but I'm just guessing, also I didn't comment more than once as I felt like doing more would be risking my account being taken down.

 

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[RazorCut]

BTW Instagram has changed their algorithm as of yesterday morning and everyone doing mass unfollowing via bot is getting banned or temp blocked.

Curious as to where you discovered this information.

 

[TJPB]

Thanks for the great AMA @JimD ....some very good info in here!

 

[JimD]

Do you have any tips on how to grow an account?

Please check my posts earlier in this thread...

 

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[eliquid]

So I took the plunge based on this thread and Jim.

Opened my first Instagram account via an emulator on my desktop, choose a niche, and started with some "safe" variables for likes and uploads.

I bought FollowLiker for this.

Got my first follower this morning and got my first 10 likes as well. Lets see where this goes once I push the numbers up slowly over the next 4 weeks.

Plan is to slowly roll up the new account over 4 weeks and to start a new account every week in a different niche to push my own products and offers.

 

[ilrein]

Nice, I'm thinking about hacking my own bot together, and I got just the product/niche to go for...