We tell you in detail, with numbers, personal stories and links to tools on how to become a blogger on Instagram - even if you now have ten followers and you hardly know how to use this social network.
How to choose a theme for your blog
To determine the audience for your page and get people interested from the first visit to your account, define one topic for your blog: fashion, travel, food, motherhood, or whatever.
Here are some ways to find a theme for your Instagram account:
1. Find What You Are Good At
Only at first glance there is nothing interesting in your life, because you live in this city every day, go to work and you have a hobby. And surely your environment is also like you: it leads a similar lifestyle and works in the same industry. But for strangers, your routine may be interesting. After all, in order to become a blogger, it is important to be able to look at ordinary things from an unusual angle.
2. Select the case you want to study
If you still don't like talking about everyday life, find a topic that has long interested you: sports, cooking, painting, even if you don't understand anything about it. This is a good opportunity to understand the topic and become a blogger. A newbie success story will inspire empathy in readers - it is easier for people to associate themselves with people who, like themselves, are afraid of something and make mistakes.
3. Look at your subscriptions
Another way to choose a blog topic is to analyze what content you read. This theme will definitely be interesting for you to work with.
And don't be embarrassed if hundreds of people are already talking about an interesting topic. Almost everything has already been invented, but this does not mean that no one wants to hear another story - yours.
Instagram account registration
Change your profile description, avatar, and highlighted stories so that visitors can immediately understand who you are and what your page is about.
Usually they write in the bio: name, city, age . A few lines about work, hobbies and the topic of posts.
Make line breaks to make your profile header look neat.
Avoid caps, unless it's an artistic trick. And don't go overboard with emoji. Proper design of an Instagram account is almost half of the success for promotion.
Indicate one link: to your website, a page on another social network or a telegram channel. You cannot select one link, use the link.tree service.
Photo
Instagram's unspoken law - photos in an account must be combined with each other. Some get fanatic and take dozens of photographs with objects of the same color and the same processing. In fact, it is enough to stick to one style and color scheme. It is important that the pictures do not look random.
ColorKuler : define the main color of the account
Preview : Check how your photos will look in your account before publishing.
Submit only high-quality pictures (of course, artistic ideas are an exception). There's too much competition on Instagram to hope for attention to blurry, grainy footage captured with an old phone's camera.
Create interesting photos. Personal account and blogger account differ in content. Casual photos are great too, but would strangers want to look at them? Think, would you be interested in such a photo with the participation of another person? This is important to understand before becoming an Instagram blogger.
If you keep memories on Instagram and it is important for you to share some life events with your friends, create and complete a second profile, personal.
At this stage, you may find that you don't know how to photograph. This is fixable: free lessons are available on YouTube and Skillshare.
Photo Editing for Instagram
You also need to learn how to process. There are lessons on Instagram and YouTube. Processing is a serious topic for the audience of this social network. Processing lessons from well-known bloggers are even sold, such a course usually costs 1-2 thousand rubles.
Budget-free promotion
1. Traffic from other social networks
When creating a new page, the easiest (and obvious, but we will tell you anyway!) Way is to invite subscribers from other social networks and ask friends who have been on Instagram for a long time to mark your new account.
All free stories are usually tricky, and Instagram promotion is no exception. Almost all methods have some serious "But". We will tell you about everything that is, and it is up to you to decide whether to apply these methods.
2. Massliking and mass following in Instagram
Remember the joke "Only stores follow me on Instagram"? This is mass following - automatic subscription to a large number of accounts. It is important to choose a blog topic close to yours, preferably about thematic, so that there is a higher likelihood of mutual subscription
This is done not only by commercial profiles, but also by human accounts. The program for performing mass following actions on Instagram will cost about 700-1000 rubles. The cloud version will require such an amount once a month, and the application that will be installed on your computer will require a one-time purchase. True, the computer will have to be kept on for the program to work.
Disadvantages of the method: after subscribing, you need to unsubscribe, this causes negative. You can get a ban if you violate the limits on the number of actions per hour (they change, look for up-to-date information about the limits before starting the promotion).
Massliking - automatic distribution of likes. You've probably been a "victim" of likes from suspicious profiles - this is Instagram massliking. A more native method, but still referred to as spam.
3. Activity chats
Aspiring bloggers often form groups to help each other. Not only advice, but also activity in the account, because it affects the ranking. In activity chats, people mutually like and comment on each other's posts. Such comments are easy to calculate: they are uncomplicated ("Cool photo", "You are super"), and the authors repeat themselves all the time. This method is good at the initial stage to get the first subscribers, but to become a famous blogger you need the following steps.
4. Contests and SFS
With quality content and luck, you can get a free mention from the big bloggers. They organize contests or sfs (shout for shout, photo by photo): subscribers share any photo of the organizer in their accounts and mark it. After that, the blogger selects among the participants the accounts that he liked, and publishes photos of them in his profile or in “stories”.
5. In the hashtag
In 2010, hashtag promotion was relevant. Today, with the advent of hashtag subscriptions, this method has a chance again. But there is no proven algorithm of actions yet. Test different hashtags in publications and compare the statistics of posts with and without hashtags: perhaps reaching the top for a certain tag will bring a new audience.
6. Going to the top / recommendations
This is the most realistic way to get Instagram followers for free. Getting into the recommendations brings from a couple of tens to several thousand subscribers from one post.
But getting to the top isn't easy. There are different theories about how the algorithms for its formation work (and Instagram does not disclose official information about this). The most popular and trustworthy - only the reactions that the photo receives in the recommendations affect the top. That is, it doesn't matter how much attention the post gets on your page. Instagram shows it to a small sample of people in Recommendations, and if they are interested, it shows it to the rest.
The top includes photos that attract from afar and make you want to see the full photo. Therefore, there are often photographs of the "Before / After" type, pictures with red arrows.
Paid promotion on Instagram
With a budget for promotion, things will go faster and become a famous blogger easier. But if spending large sums is not included in your plans, spend the money wisely: study the possible promotion channels, and after placing your advertisements, evaluate their effectiveness.
1. Placement with other bloggers
More loyal people will come to you on the recommendation of influencers than from targeted advertising. Bloggers post links to other accounts in Stories or in the main account. Story mentions look more native and cost less.
Find pages with a similar audience and ask the owners for prices. Discuss the details: how you will be introduced, how long the ad will hang.
Record the number of subscribers before the advertisement and one day after. The difference between these numbers is the approximate number of ads that came from. If you know the average number of people following you per day (that's organic growth that you don't do anything for), subtract that number.
Divide the cost of advertising by the number of visitors - you will find out the price of one subscriber.
Use it to compare the advertising performance of different bloggers. At first, it is better not to take several placements at the same time in order to objectively evaluate each site.
2. Targeted advertising
Another option for paid promotion is official Instagram ads. You pay for your posts to appear in the feed not only to your subscribers, but also to a new audience.
By the way, your subscribers can see ads too. Do not be surprised when your friends ask why you are advertising yourself - and you will surely face such questions.;)
Advantages over bloggers' advertising - post promotion can be turned off at any time. For example, a blog post costs 2,000 rubles. You have given this amount and are waiting for the effect. And in targeting, you set up ads, spent a small amount, for example, 200 rubles. Appreciated the result. If he did not suit you, they turned off advertising, if everything is in order, they increased the budget.
Analytics
Stories in which you wake up famous are rare. Therefore, in order to assess whether your actions are bringing results, you will have to use Instagram analytics , which will show advanced data on account statistics.
What indicators need to be monitored
Surely you are aiming for a certain number of subscribers. At first glance, this indicator objectively speaks about the popularity of your page.
But with the introduction of the algorithmic feed, everything has become not so simple: there is no point in an audience that does not see your publications.
Therefore, coverage becomes important: the actual number of users who see the post.
Engagement is a criterion for content success. This includes likes and comments. Track ER growth, engagement rate. There are two ways to calculate it (and they are both very simple!):
ER in relation to subscribers = average number of interactions on posts / number of subscribers * 100%.
ER relative to reach = number of interactions per post / reach of this post * 100%
Where to see statistics
Instagram gives detailed account statistics. To see it, enable the business profile (Settings - Go to business profile). You will get access to page statistics and statistics of each post.
It is impossible to evaluate the statistics of competitors in this way. Third-party services will help. For example, Popsters.ru. He will find the most popular posts, calculate ER, compare accounts with each other.
By the way, you can spy on topics that receive a lot of comments: analyze an account similar to yours in Popsters and filter posts by the number of comments. At the top there will be posts in which there was the most active discussion.
How much bloggers earn
A section for those who, reading this article, were waiting for information when it would be already possible to drop everything and leave to travel at the expense of hotels, tour operators or clothing brands. ;)
Barter
Newcomers are more likely to receive barter offers. Or even looking for such offers themselves. In exchange for a post or story, they get a thing. The terms of posting are discussed in advance: what will be in the post (it is better to prepare the text and photo yourself, only approving the content), which account will be marked. Sometimes advertisers agree on an honest opinion and do not moderate posts at all.
You can find barter offers in thematic Facebook groups or on exchanges, for example, top russian bloggers /.
How much does an Instagram blogger post cost?
The price is very different - from 1000 rubles to millions, in the accounts of the stars. The price is influenced by the popularity of the account and its subject matter - the less frequent it is and the more valuable the audience (for example, motorists), the more expensive the publication is.
You can find out the prices of other bloggers with a trick: write to direct on behalf of the advertiser. Or on exchanges, although prices there may be inaccurate.
When will the first advertisers appear?
It is difficult to predict it accurately: either brand managers or employees of advertising agencies will notice you. Register on exchanges to receive your first orders from there.
As a rule, people are willing to pay for advertising in profiles with an audience of 10,000 subscribers with an activity of 1500-2000 likes per post and active, live (not one-word) discussions.
We also asked the bloggers themselves how to become a blogger.
Personal experience: stories of bloggers
We asked travel, family, and lifestyle bloggers about how they became popular, how they create content, and what advice they would give to newbies.
Alexander Dobrokotov Instagram.com/dobrokotov
“Now I am working on two platforms - Instagram (for photos, videos and jokes) and Twitter (just for jokes). Previously, there were numerous copyright publics in VK, but now I have somehow lost interest in this.
I have had Instagram for a very long time, but before I posted there what they usually post in Stories now. Just for fun and timing. Sometimes I tried various formats, experimented. But in general, for several years the number of subscribers did not really increase and dangled around a thousand. This was especially not annoying, since, I repeat, Instagram was and is leading for fun.
Over the past year and a half, both sites have dramatically pumped up and continue to grow, I don't know what this is connected with, but I hope with the quality of the content. I began to bother a little more with photos, shoot comedy videos (but not vines, God forbid), invent characters, mini-headings, conceptual calculations, attack phenomena that I don't like.
The most important thing, it seems to me, is to find your face and your own style. Instagram is now overflowing with monotonous content. Take a look at the profiles of typical insta-gels. The same bleached and processed photos, the same poses, the same meaningless texts with a bunch of emoticons. Or weiners. The same disgusting sexist videos in the genre "How men park and how women park." This endless kaleidoscope of clichés chokes the set, so something original, honest and witty, I think, should go off.
After 10,000 thousand subscribers, brands began to write to me. I do not like how stupid bloggers “natively” embed advertising products into posts and even ironically about this, advertising products from Auchan “Every Day”. But if the offer and the product are great, then I can make an original post. And it’s easy for friends to help advertise who have started their own business.
I advise beginners to try new things and have patience. "
Diana Yakovleva Instagram.com/thedianeday
“It turned out that no one believed that this could become a serious occupation, and in 2012 many did not consider it a profession. I was influenced by the doubts of others and overcame the decision: to prove to myself and those close to me that anything is possible.
In my case, work on television played a role: a huge load, but there is absolutely no chance of self-expression. Even my first husband laughed at blogging, and that it is fleeting and there are no prospects. But I stubbornly searched for all the arguments in the English-language publications, read many articles on the topic of blogging and took a photo on an ordinary soap dish and was glad to every event.
I started with the online edition of Intermoda: I made reports and added my photos, I just wrote down descriptions of outfits from the shows on the go with a pen in a notebook - I sometimes didn't even have press releases. In 2012, they looked at bloggers with some disbelief.
When I started my first blog on blogger.com, I posted two posts every day from the photos I found on Pinterest and other sites - they were reviews of some fashion trend. And only six months later, I received the first offer of cooperation. Of course, education and work experience as a journalist and editor on TV always helps me, but I have always studied blogging and continue to learn new things - it is inadmissible to relax here) "
Yana Kovaleva Instagram.com/yasminartist
“I am a travel blogger and journalist. I write guidebooks for the Eksmo publishing house and now my book "Kazan for Romantics" has been published. On Instagram I write about travel, I post photos of beautiful places from different countries. I started my blog on Instagram because I wanted to share something beautiful, I wanted to inspire people. I started by exhibiting my paintings - I was fond of painting. I got a good response, many people subscribed to me. I spent a lot of time liking and following others. I just stuck around for hours on Instagram about three years ago, when this social network was at its peak.
It is not difficult to become a blogger, and it is good for them to be the person who wants to share something: their thoughts, finds, their life. I think that a person who tends to keep everything to himself will be stressed by the need to frequently share posts. Because the regularity of the publication is as important as the photos and texts themselves. One post a day at least, or every other day. Many people are not ready to share their lives so often.
Difficulties arise when you leave your life and are distracted from the virtual world. But when you are a blogger, you already have a certain audience. And if you don't post, then your engagement drops, you disappear from the feed of people.
Relatives do not take this seriously and do not see this as a profession. If in the West bloggers are paid for advertising and take this matter more seriously, in Russia advertisers often come on barter or with ridiculous amounts of money that are unrealistic to live on. Therefore, it is not easy to make blogging a profession in Russia. You can receive some barter offers even with 10,000 subscribers, but of course you can't live on covers for an iPhone or a manicure. Probably, you need to seriously invest in a blog to make money on it.
Now I have, with 20,000 subscribers, offers mainly on barter or advertising with small amounts - three thousand, 6,000 rubles. I do not litter my blog, I have it about inspiration and travel, so I do not publish posts about covers or manicure. It's more important for me to stick to the concept than make money from blogging.
For a beginner, I would advise you to ask yourself a question. There is a lot of work behind the external beautiful picture of the blog - creating photos, promoting, working with the audience, with comments. And there may be no return for a very long time. If you are ready for this and agree to share your life, then you should go to blogging. If this is only an opportunity to earn money, and you expect a large income, then I will disappoint you - there are no big incomes until you achieve popularity, which leads to a long way, during which you need to somehow make a living. "
Vera Antamanova Instagram.com/confusion_with_a_k
“Initially, Instagram appeared on my phone in 2012. What to do with another social. the network was completely incomprehensible, and why it, in fact, is needed, too. Like everyone else, I just sent photos there. Realization came gradually, and in October 2014 I decided that I needed to create a profile that would be consistent in the same style, where I could share not only photos, but also my thoughts. So, from a memorable album, Instagram became for me a kind of place for communication, self-expression.
I almost always understood that people would not magically start stumbling across the Internet on my profile. We need to promote it somehow. At that time, SFS and the so-called advertising among bloggers were very popular. I talked a lot with other people and it was thanks to these events that I gained the first 1000 subscribers. Now it is not so easy to do it this way.
Gradually I began to find out that there are various ways to promote on Instagram. Since at first I was literally inventing the wheel, I had to deal with social networking a lot. On my account, with varying degrees of success, I tried almost everything (except for buying bots, this idea seemed stupid to me). Over time, I have formed an understanding that from all this diversity is right for me.
I love my Instagram, it is a reflection of me, my lifestyle and mindset. I am not a genius photographer and I am not the owner of a blue house outside the city. Sorry if I'm upsetting anyone, but your Instagram won't go viral with the wave of a magic wand. Promotion of a profile requires continuous work and self-improvement. "
Step-by-step algorithm: how to become an Instagram blogger from scratch
- Choose a theme for your account.
- Learn to photograph and manipulate pictures.
To become a blogger, namely, successful, you need to create quality content.
- Get involved in promoting your account. Choose free methods (invite friends from other social networks, turn on mass following or massliking, join activity chats, participate in sfs, try to get to the top recommendations, test hashtags) or paid (placements with bloggers, targeted advertising) promotion.
- Analyze the reaction of the audience to the content in order to understand in which direction to develop.
- Communicate with the audience, initiate activity.
- Keep working on your profile.
