[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Flipping Instagram accounts has become more and more of a hot topic over the past year, especially as the Instagram algorithm has left many “themed” account influencers up in arms. There is a lot that can be discussed in regard to “flipping” Instagram accounts but I want to narrow it down and focus on a couple of specific questions that you may have when thinking about getting in on this craze.

 

Here is a little bit of background on my personal flipping accounts history. In November of 2017, I sold my 1 million follower page @theloverposts for 22k. It took me about 3 years to get this account from 175k when I purchased it to the 1 million that I sold it at. It did not cost me a single dollar to grow this page. (Future blog article about the growth methods used coming soon..hint SFS and L4L!). Prior to that I also sold two smaller accounts that summed up together to being just over 100k followers for $3700. These two accounts were a “themed” color account. One was mint themed and one was pink themed. These were all just sold in 2017. Not bad for an extra side income! I have a goal of selling anywhere from 2-3 accounts in 2018.

 

Now let me teach you the ways to get started….

 

Let’s focus on the following 3 things:

• Understanding the difference between what is “flippable” account versus a “personal/branding” account.
• How to create a flippable account and what it takes to get it to being “sellable.”
• Why creating “flippable” accounts takes time but can be extremely lucrative if done correctly.

Disclaimer: This is not an overnight thing. You do not get to making 40k a year in flipped accounts with 5000 Instagram followers.

 

Flippable vs Personal

 

There is a significant difference between a “flippable” and a personal/brand account. A personal or brand account is designed to be a public forum where they can execute a strategic marketing strategy. It is also a place where the brand can creatively demonstrate its personality to potential buyers/clients.

 

On the other hand, a “flippable” Instagram account is better to be suited as a “themed” or “meme” account. An Instagram of this kind has the purpose of being able to get people to “share” and engage heavily on the content. Think about content that you would want to screenshot and text to your best friend or something you would screenshot so you could go shopping to buy something like it.

 

How to create a flippable account

 

Creating flippable accounts starts simply with your choice of theme for the account. I have a few recommendations that are better than others If you need some help with deciding on where to begin. The most important thing to think about when creating a “flippable” account is the niche in which you are creating one for. It is VERY important to think about the niche in which you are creating an account around because it needs to be broad enough to reach a huge range of people but also narrow enough that it only hits the type of demographic that is the “buying” percentage.

 

Why does that matter? Creating a niche for your “flippable” account that reaches the demographic that is buying is critical to being able to sell your account when you are ready. Advertisers or companies looking to either buy advertising off your page or buy your page outright want to know that if they invest money into the page that they will be able to generate the revenue off of it and get a return. If your niche is too narrowed down, or misses the target buying demographic, you will not be able to sell your account for nearly as much as you would be able to if it did, if at all.

 

Here are some good examples of target niches that you could brainstorm around when thinking about creating your own account to flip:

• Best friend meme’s (@bestiefacts)
• Cute couple sayings/quotes (@mybaedaily)
• Travel (@beautifuldestinations)
• Fashion must haves (@admire)
• Relatable sayings (@emotionquote.s, @perfectsayings, @sarcasm_only)

 

Here are some BAD examples of accounts to create:

• Babies
• Gardening/outdoors
• Firearms
• Politics
• Clothing pictures (non-memed)

 

Why does this take time to do?

 

Flipping accounts is time consuming, but lucrative. In order to flip accounts as regularly as I do, you need to have a large account you use as leverage to help grow the smaller accounts faster. Simply using the hashtag and engagement growth methods while starting from scratch will of course work but the amount of time it would take to get to 100,000 followers is significantly longer. I suggest spending a significant amount of time working on your first BIG account and getting to roughly 200k before worrying about trying to build smaller accounts that you can flip. Upon surpassing the 100,000k follower point the ability to grow significantly faster becomes reality because you can now incorporate SFS (share for share) and Like for Like (L4L). I will get into all these details about SFS and L4L in a blog article in the coming months.

 

I want to reiterate that flipping Instagram accounts is an amazing thing! I have been very fortunate to have been able to leverage my bigger account (that took me 4 years to build!) to help me grow my smaller accounts very quickly. Do not be discouraged if you aren’t able to grow them as fast as you would like. It just takes time but, as with anything, you get better as you go!

 

Also, it is of course possible to financially invest in growing a page (buying shout-outs on bigger pages) to help speed up the process of getting it to where you can 1) start selling advertisements on it, and 2) start leveraging it to build more small accounts.

 

In conclusion, when thinking about starting to flip accounts, spend a good amount of time researching niches that you feel like you can resonate with and enjoy working on while simultaneously picking one that will reach a popular “buying” demographic.

 

Related article: Flipping Homes or Flipping Instagram Accounts?

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