I'm trying to sell instagram followers through instagram. What are some free ways I can market my account and get purchases?
Try to follow Instagramers that shoes a lifestyle related to your industry. If you sell clothes, try to follow fashionistas and use popular hashtags on every image you post. Use Statigram to collect statistics of your posts and see what's the best day and time to post. Try posting 2-4 times a day.
@slava75 I don't think instagram is the go-to place to sell stuff, but if you look at users like /jeffstaple and /maestroknows you can see that they actively promote their products on Instagram. However, they are very influential in their spheres, so it makes sense for them to use Instagram to create buzz about their products.
I've made the majority of my income the last 6 months using Instagram, first starting a fitness apparel company and marketing to the huge fitness population on instagram, and then helping others market their instagram. The only free way's I know of are liking/following/commenting with other instagramers in your niche. Once you have a decent following you can start doing shout for shouts in which you and another account feature each other in the hopes of gaining new followers.
Why sell directly ? You could build up a site from this traffic. 1) Whitelabel dating site 2) Meme site etc...
People have provided some new ideas for selling on Instagram -- not ones I've tried yet. I'm also assuming that some of these same strategies are like what we do for Pinterest, only Instagram is meant for mobile devices?
Instagram can be a great place for businesses to sell but particularly for those that have products/services that lend well to visual. Social commerce platforms like Soldsie allow for in-stream purchasing so that users can start the purchasing process directly within Instagram. Basically Instagram can be a great place for pushing products.