How To Grow An Instagram Account From 0 To 10k (without spending money) *beginner guide*

[jayskays]

Hey guys,

So I’m just sharing here my quick simple guide on how to grow fast to 10k without spending money.

I really tried to write it as simple as possible.

I hope y’all enjoy reading and using the guide!

Step 1

Choose your Niche and Setup the Instagram account.

So that this journey won’t be boring I highly suggest you choose a niche you’re interested in and maybe got some knowledge about it.

As an example of this one I’ve chosen a basketball account. The more you niche down, the faster you’ll grow.

As long as your niche isn’t something way too unpopular.

I figured out that for most of the accounts a bio with 3 description lines works best.

Your bio should be short, informative, include emojis, and a call to action or something similar is necessary.

Example:

You also need a profile picture and because this is a growing free guide we won’t buy one.

Just simply create one with a free logo maker such as Canva.

Here’s one I create for this How-to in 20 seconds.

So now you’ve created your account and we can move on to

Step 2

Hashtag research.

This is maybe one of the most underrated things but very important if you want to grow fast.

So you have to research a lot of hashtags. You want to have around 80 hashtags in the range from 5k to 250k.

You then want to use around 25 hashtags per post. There should be around 10 from 5k-50k 10 from 50k-100k and 5 with 100k+.

This will help you get some engagement on the small ones and then ranks your post more and more up.

For a more detailed version type in google: “Instagram hashtag ladder“.

For the research just head over to Instagram’s hashtag section and type in your main hashtag. You’ll then find more and more.

Type down all of them on your notes. This will take some time but trust me it’s worth it.

Step 3

Get viral content

For this, you go to another (big) Instagram page in your niche and look at the posts.

You’ll figure out fast that some performers very well example 50k likes + lots of comments and some don’t 10k likes and few comments.

The ones with a lot of likes and comments are mostly viral content and reached the explore page.

I hope you get which one performs better.

To download the videos just type in your App Store or Play Store: Instagram reposts and just download one.

You now want to download and upload at least 9 videos/pictures.

You always want to write a good caption with a call to action such as tag your ball buddy.

So your account looks legit for the beginning.

After uploading 2 posts and using the Hashtag strategy I already got 16 followers without doing anything else!

Step 4 IMPORTANT

Follow people

And no this works, most people just do it the wrong way.

You go back to your big niche account and now you want to search bad performing posts.

You go on the likes/views and start following those people. You do this because they are real followers of this page and really like the niche content.

This is really simple and effective.

Step 5

Unfollow people

But only unfollow the ones who don’t follow you back after 1 week. For this, you have to download another app called reports or Followers+.

So you can go ahead and unfollow people who don’t follow back.

Do not unfollow more than 50 people per hour.

Step 6

Repeat steps 3,4 and 5.

Post daily at least 2 times and follow at least around 300 people a day.

After a few days, you’ll see more and more people following you.

And if you use the strategy correct you can get 2k followers real quick.

Step 7

After you hit 2k followers more and more posts will hit the explore page and you’ll get a lot of followers real quick from this.

So use the hashtag strategy correctly and you’ll be able to stop following a lot of people daily because of your good content.

(Optional)

Be a part of the community and comment on a lot of posts and like followers post.

So your account is the go-to account in your niche.

I hope that you’re now able to launch your Instagram page. You’ve no excuses anymore…

I know I’m a bit late but I try it anyway:

#inforthegiveaway

[mrspuf]

Good guide. Not very complex, but good for people that are just starting on IG

[jayskays]

Thank you. Yes I tried to explain it simple exactly for people who are just starting out with IG and want to grow some followers without spending money.

[Johnny]

Nice share! And it’s never too late, unless the deadline is passed, however it is not in this case

[Jaha]

Great and very detailed guide, thanks for sharing!

[SBG]

Great overview thank you. I liked the part about going on the lowest performing posts, good insight!

[Maximiliano_Paradiso]

Hello ! Thanks for the info , it is useful !
But I have some questions in my case I
Am dance teacher tango I teach with a system.
And I have the system . And now I open a new style based on that system And I dance other dances too !
What is your recommendation about opening accounts ! 1 only or 1 for every situation or how ?
Please advise !

[jayskays]

You’re welcome

[jayskays]

Yes, this is important because they’re most likely real and engaging followers who are really interested in it.

[jayskays]

Hey @Maximiliano_Paradiso

I would recommend you to only open 1 account as long as you stick to the tango dance niche.
Because otherwise it’s 1. too much work to do and 2. just not necessary because people who are interested in learning the tango dance will also be interested in learning new styles.

If you dance another dance as tango such as Salsa or so I would open another account for it.

I hope that this was helpful and that you’re able to open your accounts soon.

[Luca]

Great stuff @jayskays thanks

[jayskays]

Thank you, you’re welcome

[ossi]

Thank you for sharing. I will definitely try step 4 on my account.

How long did your account take to reach 10k followers?

[jayskays]

I haven’t grown a basketball account, it was just as an example.

One of the accounts I grew with that method hit 10k in month 3 I think.

[SBG]

I am also a London based performer and everyone i know who has a following on insta is because of their personality and their talent ofc, but its all down to the person, not the style. You are the creative, that is who people will warm to so id throw all the styles into one page.

[IGsocialize]

Very nice thoughts but that is not how social media works today
Is recommended to go for a very small niche in order to give to the people what the people want.

[jayskays]

@jayskays

The more you niche down, the faster you’ll grow.

Yes, but it’s not impossible to grow with a bit larger niche. Also, I wouldn’t say that this isn’t how social media works today…
Because I saw some accounts grow with large niches very fast, as an example the travel niche.

[IGsocialize]

@jayskays

Because I saw some accounts grow with large niches very fast, as an example the travel niche.

do you know the methods used to grow ? Don’t think that were organic, most of travel pages are using giveaways groups and they can grow stupid amounts in 2-3 days.

We were talking about organic growth when we mentioned small niches.

[jayskays]

Yes, of course, they weren’t organic, even this method here isn’t organic

Most of them use DM groups and Powerlikes to go viral very fast, and of course shutouts.

@IGsocialize

We were talking about organic growth when we mentioned small niches

I don’t think so, even for small niches most accounts don’t grow organic…

[IGsocialize]

@jayskays

I don’t think so, even for small niches most accounts don’t grow organic…

This is not correct. If it doesn’t work for you maybe you need to change your methods. Search this forum you will find plenty information.