SEOMadHatter
Elite Member
- Aug 15, 2015
- 1,808
- 2,470
Welcome to another instalment of 'SEOMadHatter clutters the journey section'. This time we're looking at Instagram but with a couple of twists compared to most journals.
We're going to be building IG accounts on scale and then selling them. Or just drawing attention to a whole bunch of subnets. Whichever comes first.
I've been hiding from IG. Building individual accounts requires time, patience and/or the ability to do manual work. I have none of these. I wasn't a big fan of the fan page methods and the prospect of spending months building up pages for my niches... just doesn't appeal.
But I've recently had a little side hustle building up and selling social accounts. It doesn't require manual work and it suits me better. I can build a lot of different accounts in different niches simultaneously without having to deal with individually marketing on them. IG has the biggest demand so it seems like an excuse to get started.
The Accounts
This is absolutely likely to change as I figure out what I'm doing.
Currently, the plan is to make fresh accounts with GMail/Outlook/Yahoo emails. This way I know there's no footprint from someone else and I can provide the email to the buyer so they take complete ownership. I'm hoping to not have to verify a number so they can attach their own if they want access to it.
I am planning to buy some aged accounts and test to see if they get more leeway and can, therefore, build faster. But I'll do some testing and see if it's worthwhile.
The Setup
As with all my projects, it's custom built. I'm not doing anything something like Jarvee can't do but it just means I can cut down my workload tailoring it to my needs. I looked at how the public bots work and changed things up a bit just to keep my footprint down. No secret voodoo, just the further I look like a bot the more leeway I might get. I've spoken to people who do IG on a decent scale and a couple who know the tech side of things and I'm confident it looks different to most bots.
The accounts will automatically build and populate. All I'll need to do is provide the proxies and the niches to target. There's also a setup for actually selling them afterwards but we'll see if it gets that far.
The Building
For now, the plan is to start with a stream of content onto the accounts and niche targeted follow/unfollow.
I know the theory of engagement groups and panel likes and that's maybe something I'll start looking into if things go well. I've also got a couple of traffic systems I could use to try sending some niche traffic to the accounts if growing them within IG is too slow.
I'm going to need to find the fine line between building quickly and hurting the accounts. If it goes too slow it's going to earn less money. If the accounts get hammered it's going to earn less money.
For niches, I'm going with basically everything. I already have image feeds for hundreds of affiliate niches and I'll make sure to target the big IG niches since I know there's already a demand for those accounts.
As for the actual numbers I've got some suggestions from people who actually work on IG. I'll be trying out different numbers and I absolutely expect to burn a bunch of accounts to the ground while testing.
After talking to some guys who've been in IG for a long time I've got some good ideas on how to scale things further but I'll see how it goes. I like to start lean with the bare basics and see how things look before spending too much time on a project.
The Selling
I'm selling on two different marketplaces. I have a script handling promotion and fulfilment. I do have to answer customer service questions post-sale which is why I want to make the accounts decent quality. If I make a bunch of spammy crap then I'd actually have to talk to customers. When I sell them good ones the only thing I tend to get asked is how much I have on stock.
I've been looking at the market and it's all over the show. So many merchants are selling obvious panel boosted accounts or pushing the account way harder than they would if they were using it for themselves. So I'm not going to be competing on price. I'll build the type of account I'd be happy to buy.
Bigger accounts grow faster. Social proof and extra reach. So if I can build and sell 50k accounts then I'll absolutely be doing that.
But, to start with, I'm looking at the smaller starter account market. A couple of thousand followers. They sell cheap but it's still a healthy ROI for very little work and a good proof of concept.
The Journal
Normally I'm not interested in small scale botting but I'm starting with a few dozen accounts until I get an idea of the limits and proxies. I wouldn't expect smooth sailing on this one. Chances are things are going to crash and burn a few times until we make a sale.
If we survive long enough and actually start selling I'll share profit numbers. Until then we have account and follower numbers. The highest number I'm expecting (especially to start with) is the ban rate.
There are still things I need to add to the system but it's workable for now. 10 accounts up and building slowly. Next step is going to look for a better email source (I don't want to register them on shitty proxies and deal with phone verification there) and adding in some aged phone verified accounts. I wouldn't be able to sell them the same way but I want to test and see if there's a difference.
We're going to be building IG accounts on scale and then selling them. Or just drawing attention to a whole bunch of subnets. Whichever comes first.
I've been hiding from IG. Building individual accounts requires time, patience and/or the ability to do manual work. I have none of these. I wasn't a big fan of the fan page methods and the prospect of spending months building up pages for my niches... just doesn't appeal.
But I've recently had a little side hustle building up and selling social accounts. It doesn't require manual work and it suits me better. I can build a lot of different accounts in different niches simultaneously without having to deal with individually marketing on them. IG has the biggest demand so it seems like an excuse to get started.
The Accounts
This is absolutely likely to change as I figure out what I'm doing.
Currently, the plan is to make fresh accounts with GMail/Outlook/Yahoo emails. This way I know there's no footprint from someone else and I can provide the email to the buyer so they take complete ownership. I'm hoping to not have to verify a number so they can attach their own if they want access to it.
I am planning to buy some aged accounts and test to see if they get more leeway and can, therefore, build faster. But I'll do some testing and see if it's worthwhile.
The Setup
As with all my projects, it's custom built. I'm not doing anything something like Jarvee can't do but it just means I can cut down my workload tailoring it to my needs. I looked at how the public bots work and changed things up a bit just to keep my footprint down. No secret voodoo, just the further I look like a bot the more leeway I might get. I've spoken to people who do IG on a decent scale and a couple who know the tech side of things and I'm confident it looks different to most bots.
The accounts will automatically build and populate. All I'll need to do is provide the proxies and the niches to target. There's also a setup for actually selling them afterwards but we'll see if it gets that far.
The Building
For now, the plan is to start with a stream of content onto the accounts and niche targeted follow/unfollow.
I know the theory of engagement groups and panel likes and that's maybe something I'll start looking into if things go well. I've also got a couple of traffic systems I could use to try sending some niche traffic to the accounts if growing them within IG is too slow.
I'm going to need to find the fine line between building quickly and hurting the accounts. If it goes too slow it's going to earn less money. If the accounts get hammered it's going to earn less money.
For niches, I'm going with basically everything. I already have image feeds for hundreds of affiliate niches and I'll make sure to target the big IG niches since I know there's already a demand for those accounts.
As for the actual numbers I've got some suggestions from people who actually work on IG. I'll be trying out different numbers and I absolutely expect to burn a bunch of accounts to the ground while testing.
After talking to some guys who've been in IG for a long time I've got some good ideas on how to scale things further but I'll see how it goes. I like to start lean with the bare basics and see how things look before spending too much time on a project.
The Selling
I'm selling on two different marketplaces. I have a script handling promotion and fulfilment. I do have to answer customer service questions post-sale which is why I want to make the accounts decent quality. If I make a bunch of spammy crap then I'd actually have to talk to customers. When I sell them good ones the only thing I tend to get asked is how much I have on stock.
I've been looking at the market and it's all over the show. So many merchants are selling obvious panel boosted accounts or pushing the account way harder than they would if they were using it for themselves. So I'm not going to be competing on price. I'll build the type of account I'd be happy to buy.
Bigger accounts grow faster. Social proof and extra reach. So if I can build and sell 50k accounts then I'll absolutely be doing that.
But, to start with, I'm looking at the smaller starter account market. A couple of thousand followers. They sell cheap but it's still a healthy ROI for very little work and a good proof of concept.
The Journal
Normally I'm not interested in small scale botting but I'm starting with a few dozen accounts until I get an idea of the limits and proxies. I wouldn't expect smooth sailing on this one. Chances are things are going to crash and burn a few times until we make a sale.
If we survive long enough and actually start selling I'll share profit numbers. Until then we have account and follower numbers. The highest number I'm expecting (especially to start with) is the ban rate.
There are still things I need to add to the system but it's workable for now. 10 accounts up and building slowly. Next step is going to look for a better email source (I don't want to register them on shitty proxies and deal with phone verification there) and adding in some aged phone verified accounts. I wouldn't be able to sell them the same way but I want to test and see if there's a difference.
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