I’ve always been a very private guy.
I published a journey here before in the level 2 section and midway, I had some success and felt like I have to keep everything to myself and my team.
To be honest, I still feel the same. I know that we have a lot of idiots here who will pick up a method and make a Youtube video about it, hoping for more views and more ad earnings. That’s just what irks me the most. Ruining the whole method just to show something to their 100 subscribers.
I really don’t have any problem sharing. I know 99% won’t do whatever I did anyway. Plus the insights of those who will do it are gold.
But the forum’s dying a little bit. We have no marketplace. All we’re left are leaders who, after earning from the title they gained from ganging up on one of the previous pillar of this forum, are now too high-profile to contribute anything worthwhile.
Plus, I’m moving on from M/S as a provider. I figured the next thing would be a manual growth agency and a shoutouts selling business. So I really don’t need to hide my tests anymore. If we succeed, feel free to use it to get your business back.
I’ve got the agency down. Partnered up with a brilliant SEO guy and should be ready to mass-market by the first quarter of next year.
This journey will be about setting-up the foundations of the shoutout selling business.
What I’ve got so far?
1.) I am still in the middle of creating processes and systems. I’m assigning 3 of my VAs to work with me so I can delegate some of the heavylifting.
So far, I’ve got the lead generation and research process done. A rudimentary process, but easy enough for my VAs to follow along: http://bit.ly/34Gd8zv
After researching for leads, they’d input it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R6ubet-Zm3TFbgV1nm7KuBSERb1_QmcZJOUkXN-6r8U/edit?usp=sharing
I know, I suck at excel. Shut up and stop laughing.
And that’s where I ended it yesterday. I’ve got the lead research done and that’s enough for now. I think I will handle prospects myself for the time being.
2.) I’m also partnering up with someone in this venture and what a huge boost he’s given! 41 big accounts, nothing less than 10k followers and the biggest is a 741k account. We’re starting offering shoutouts with those.
3.) Slave networks. To start with, I’ll be using a network of 50 Travel Niche slaves.
As the title suggests, the goal of this journey is to make M/S still a viable option for me to grow the current mother accounts and to grow new ones as well.
For this, I’ve designed a few tests.
The failed ones:
1.) Running via API only. No luck for me. Slaves are getting blocks from the beginning. Some can’t even do 1 follow.
2.) Running via EB only. A little better but doesn’t last long. Still getting blocks.
So I added 1 new variable to the tests - follow sources.
So far, the tests I’ve done:
1.) Follow followers of an account - What I used for the previous tests. Both on API + EB so no luck here.
2.) API + Follow Specific Users - Blocks still encountered. Didn’t reach daily limit.
3.) EB + Follow Specific Users - A little better. Some of the accounts (4/50) were able to reach daily limits.
This is where I got a little confused…
Alongside my tests, I also have been running some accounts manually and testing there as well. One of the accounts I’m running is a client of a friend. I wanted to test running it manually with a proxy.
That account can follow 150-200 per day without getting blocks (as long as I space them properly).
In essence, Jarvee shouldn’t be getting blocks as well, right? The software promise is to emulate a mobile phone using the IG app (via API) OR emulate a mobile phone doing actions using the browser.
So I thought maybe it’s the bot and the whole automating of actions. This is where I had some sort of inner conflict.
I’ve always been a proponent of looking everywhere else for something wrong before blaming the software. But the problem is I tested every variable I could possibly think of.
I tested using 4G proxies (borrowed them, never bought any myself). I tested using DC proxies.
I tested different account providers. I even tested using my personal account - super aged, created on my mobile phone, no history of automation - and I still got fucking blocked.
So I started focusing tests surrounding the software itself.
First, I thought maybe it’s the botting part itself. Maybe automation REALLY is dead, whether it’s Jarvee or anything else.
Turns out, I was wrong. I used Fibergram to automate actions on my personal account and I got to 150 follows without a problem.
Then yesterday, while I was in a haze thinking about other tests I could do, I noticed something weird the EB does. (This is while testing EB+Follow specific users with a super wide gap between actions)
See, the way Fibergram does it, if you provide a list of usernames, it will type each on the search bar, look for the account, and follow it.
What EB does is go to the accounts directly using the URL. That’s why under follow sources, if you’re using specific users and you copy a username, what you’re copying is a link to the account.
Maybe this is just me being paranoid but isn’t that a little unnatural-looking?
If our goal in automation is to emulate human behaviors as best we can, then the actions done via EB are kind of absurd. For a regular user, even if say, you’re using the browser on your phone, you would go to the search function first, type the username in, and follow the user you will find.
I tested doing this manually. 50 follows done, with a 10-20s delay in between, no blocks. This is for an account that gets action block from the first follow.
Which brings to question – how does Jarvee behave when we’re using the API? Is it going to the users’ page directly without using the search function?
How about if we use the follow source option “Follow followers or target account”? I’m not very much updated but I believe it does so by scraping the most recent followers (the number depends on what you input) and then following those which have been scraped (considering filters as well).
If so, then Jarvee will come up with a list of usernames to follow. Is it going through the search button and input the usernames one by one or is it going to the profile URL directly? I’m no programmer so I’m not sure if that can even be done via the API.
(If @DanielAdmin could spare some time and clarify this, that would be super awesome!)
Moving on…
I thought there must be a way to force Jarvee to go through the search function before following a specific account. And there is, by using the follow source option “Follow by username/full name/bio”.
The idea is to add a list of keywords that Jarvee will use to search for accounts. If the accounts have the keyword on their username, name, or bio, they will be found and be followed.
So I’ve put in the usernames I’m targeting as keywords and lo and behold, I got no blocks for 50 follows straight (delays and settings apply).
There are just a few problems with using this option:
1.) Jarvee will not remove the keyword after using it. So if you’ve put in “john_doe”, it will follow that specific username but it will also follow “john_doe1”, “john_doe2”, “john_doe3”, etc. The only solution is to remove the keyword from your list manually which can be easy if you have 3-5 usernames used as keywords in there, but if you have a lot, it becomes quite a headache.
2.) The keywords need to be put in horizontally with commas in between and there is no option to import a list. So if you have a list of scraped usernames, you’d need to add them manually one by one. Maybe there’s a better option, like a program that will convert a column to a row and add commas in between. I’m too sleep-deprived to look for one.
3.) Sometimes, you get the wrong account. If you are targeting, say, “maybeitstime” as a specific user to follow, Jarvee will show accounts ahead of it in the search results – (maybeits_time, may_be_its_time, frases._.sad99, maybeitstime). So Jarvee will follow those 3 accounts before it follows the exact username you were actually aiming for.
I’ve submitted a feature request to address the first 2 issues but apparently it’s not urgent enough to be put to priority. I’m hoping to show results in the next few days so it can be bumped up. That way, I won’t have to manually remove keywords and turning the follow tool off and then on again. That would definitely speed up my tests.
As for #3, I was actually planning on putting in a feature request for a new follow source option. Something like “Follow users via search” or “Follow searched users” whatever the name could be. The function is what’s important.
Basically, Jarvee would use the search function, input a username, find the CORRECT account and follow it. But I don’t have much clout here that I felt a little ashamed of putting in 2 feature requests at the same day.
I really hope this pans out so I can show results and hopefully get those requests done asap. I’m super tired from all these tests and doing manual work and watching EB the whole time just makes me even more tired. 
“Where’s your proof?”
Well… it’s a little complicated. I’m using a different software so I can’t post screenshots. That’s not allowed and I could get banned.
But I’ve got the proof. If you’re a level 2 or a level 3 user, I know you understand so if you’re looking for screenshots, send me a DM.
Going back to the shoutouts business…
My tasks for today:
1.) Full audit of each niche of the big accounts and an action plan on how to grow them. While their follower numbers is pretty awesome, their engagement needs some work. Some have super shitty engagement (0.5%-2%). I need a plan to bump them up to at least 5% to be workable.
2.) One of my customers on SpeedyVerify is interested in buying shoutouts. He’s also from here, not sure if he’d like being mentioned so I’d rather not. Quite frankly, I’d love to just provide it for free to get a nice review on the website. Will have to connect with him today to get the ball rolling.
3.) Budgeting. My plan is to have all mother accounts to have their own mobile phone which can be pretty expensive. But if my predictions are correct, each account would be earning enough to get their dedicated phones + 10x over. I’d have to cut a little from my income on other ventures. Which is sad since I was planning on buying myself a pony this Christmas.
4.) Research how to get leads OUTSIDE of Instagram.
5.) Research how to edit content, do it myself to understand it better, then delegate editing all content to post on the mother accounts, which reminds me
6.) Research content sources + download content
Testing for M/S tasks:
1.) Still the same follow source and settings. This time, I’ll try on all the accounts and try to reach 50 each.
2.) I will begin exploring likes and comments but only to those accounts which reached their daily limit. I want to see how EB behaves using those tools as well.
