Online CEOs founder Josue Pena says the commonly prescribed advice to “just follow your heart” is bullcrap.
For instance, he wanted to become a professional soccer player, but there came a time when he had to face the facts: he was never gonna be Cristiano Ronaldo. Maybe he could be the CR7 of Instagram marketing though, right?
“And I remember, in July of 2017, I made $11,000 on a cold pitch to 180 people on Instagram,” Josue says. “It was amazing. That money saved my butt.”
He became known as the Instagram guy, started attending events, networking with other big names in the online marketing space, began speaking on stages, and built his income to more than six figures a month.
Josue has now perfected a handful of ways for the average person to make money on Instagram.
The first method is by creating a theme page.
For example, fitness motivation. But niche down. CrossFit for guys, new moms who wanna lose their baby weight, etc.
Get a good, memorable handle. Post consistently. Sell shoutouts or promotions.
Method number two is flipping Instagram accounts.
Basic arbitrage. Buy low, sell high.
A lot of people start their IG account, struggle to grow it, and lose interest.
Some actually build up a decent-size following, but they don’t know how to monetize it properly.
Others are just over it for any number of reasons.
Point being, there are virtually unlimited accounts you could scoop up, for pennies on the dollar.
You could then make some improvements, grow it even more, find better ways to monetize it, and sell it for several times what you paid for it.
Method three is, instead of buying an established account, just roll up your sleeves and build one from the ground up yourself, and sell it when the time is right.
Sure, it’s gonna take more effort, but you don’t have to risk any money and, if you do sell it one day, it’s all profit, right?
So you stand to make a lot more overall.
Josue knows some good posting automation tools you can use to streamline things for you.
There’s no right or wrong way to approach Instagram.
It’s just, what tradeoffs are best for you and your situation?
The fourth way to make money on Instagram, Josue explains, is to do client management.
Meaning, you go ahead and you build an actual Instagram agency.
This is the strategy he used to make his first $1 million online.
ClickFunnels CEO Russell Brunson awarded him a Two Comma Club plaque, at a live event in front of 5,000 people, to commemorate the milestone. Pretty cool.
The big benefit to this business model is that you create recurring revenue. Clients pay you weekly or monthly, ongoing, as long as you deliver and blow up their IG accounts.
“In my case we were charging anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000 per month, per client, in order to grow their account by between 10- to 20,000 followers per month,” Josue says.
“Now from those 10- to 20,000 new followers, they were able to then turn around and make $10-, $20-, $30-, $50-, even $100,000 in just a single month,” he adds.
“And because of that, as you can see, they would just keep paying us month after month after month because our management and our done-for-you service on Insta simply works.”
Fifth and final, you got coaching and consulting.
Hit up potential clients, tell ’em your hourly or monthly rate to hop on a call with them and teach them, and then let them do the work themselves.
This one’s perhaps the trickiest because, well, you need to be legit. No one’s gonna hire you without a proven track record.
And your advice better work or they’re not gonna be happy, right?
So only offer this after you become an expert; and when you do, it can be extremely lucrative.
To learn more from Josue, check out Online CEOs.