The Business Of Buying And Selling Instagram Accounts: Everything You Need To Know To Get Started

The Business of Buying and Selling

Instagram has long been known for its social media influencers. From media moguls like the Kardashians to Youtubers, the site is synonymous with social media advertising. However, you don’t have to be famous to get in on this. A profitable business model known as “flipping” Instagram accounts means that anyone who has at least $40 on them could buy an account, grow it and profit from brand deals. Once the account has reached a respectable number of followers, they then “flip” the account for a higher price.

In this article, we’ll guide you through everything you need to know about buying Instagram accounts.

How Can You Monetise An Instagram Account?

The primary way to monetise your Instagram account is to land brand deals and sponsorships.

Once you’ve grown the account to a decent following, you’ll be able to get brand deals.

- Advertisement -

Companies will pay you to post an image or a story of their product so that your followers can see them. The more followers you have, the more you can earn from deals. This is because the product will be advertised on a larger platform, leading to more potential sales.

You can also charge other influencers for shoutouts or posts.

 How Do You Get started?

1. Research accounts you’d like to buy.

Firstly, you’ll need to choose a niche you’re interested in. This will make posting content regularly easier. Once you’ve selected a niche, you need to make sure that you can commit to maintaining the topic of the account. That means if it’s a travel account, you can’t start posting memes, or your followers might start leaving.

2. Buy an account from a legitimate website.

While it’s common to see Instagram accounts being sold anywhere from eBay to Telegram groups, we recommend you only purchase one from a site where transactions are monitored.

3. Grow the account by posting consistently.

Once the account is yours, it’s time to start growing it! Create a content schedule you can stick to. For example, commit to posting three times a week. Ensure your posts are of high quality and will lead to people commenting and liking the post.

Once you repeat this process enough times, your Instagram following will begin to grow. As this happens, you’ll be able to score more deals with companies in sponsorships.

4. Sell the account for a profit.

Once you’ve grown it to a significant number, sell the account for a profit. You can find buyers from Facebook groups. There are many groups dedicated to the buying and selling of Instagram accounts. Join one, tell them more about your niche and a few of your key metrics (followers, engagement rate). For safety reasons, not provide your username until you’re sure a buyer is interested.

As a general rule:

  1. Do not buy an account from eBay. Though there are many listings of accounts with decent followings (some even in the millions), many people have been scammed through eBay.
  2. Do not buy from online forums. Like eBay, these sites don’t have monitored transactions. If you insist on buying from one, try to track down your seller’s post history so you can see if they’re trustworthy or not. Be wary of hack forums. These are breeding grounds for scammers that will try to sell you email accounts and Instagram accounts.
  3. Purchase an account from a middleman company. This way, you don’t have to deal with the seller directly. Some companies provide you with the Instagram handle before you buy, so you can research the quality of the account to determine whether the followers are authentic or if it’s getting enough likes.

What Are Instagram Proxies?

These are private proxies explicitly designed for Instagram. Instagram has many policies against bots and other automation tools you will likely need to run multiple accounts. A proxy service can conceal your activities, allowing you to run these accounts without fear of blocks and bans.

If you decide to flip Instagram accounts for a profit, you’ll need a reliable proxy service. Smartproxy’s Instagram proxy offers everything you need, from over 195 countries for geotagging to an average speed of less than 3 seconds.

Tempted to use free proxy services? With free proxies, you get what you pay for. Nothing. These are scams that are out to steal your account data and passwords.

Smartproxy boasts a network of more than 40 million residential IPs, so you can create an unlimited number of Instagram accounts. A new feature called X Browser makes multiple account management a breeze. If you require any assistance at all, the provider offers experienced 24/7 technical support, so you can get the help you need.

How Do You Know If You Need A Proxy Service For Instagram?

  1. You use bots and social media management software to boost your account’s growth. Bots can help increase the engagement on your Instagram account by leaving likes and comments. Management software like Jarvee can also help with automating sponsored ads and posting promotional content. This process would be highly time-consuming, especially if you were handling multiple Instagram accounts manually. However, Instagram has strict policies against the use of bots and other software. If you’re suspected of using them, your account might get blocked or suspended.
  2. You run multiple Instagram accounts. If you run more than five accounts, you’ll need a proxy. This is because Instagram can detect that you’re running these accounts from one IP address. With a proxy, your actual IP address is shielded from Instagram. This way, you can use the same IP address to run multiple Instagram accounts from different proxy servers.

In conclusionn

Buying and selling Instagram accounts is a huge business because many people see it as a get-rich-quick scheme. While it certainly involves effort, with a bit of practice, you can make more than a quick buck from it.

Just make sure you stay safe. From being scammed at the buying and selling stage to getting your account blocked, there’s definitely room for things to go south. Some people exploit accounts as a tool for extreme marketing or even political manipulation. (Yes, that’s a real thing.)  Always make sure you conduct thorough research on a company before you post an ad for their product.