I started this journey well over 2.5 years ago. On 19th May 2021, I posted my first photo on Instagram.

At that time, I didn't even know how to use Instagram. I accessed my account by logging in via chrome browser. That's how I posted my first pic with zero followers and without any intention. Then, gradually I gained some knowledge about the application.

That time I had a huge miss understanding. Which is, getting more likes and followers equals a celebrity. I started chasing after them. I reached 100 followers by following and being followed by my friends. Then I reached from 100 to 500 followers by just doing the thing you already know.

Yeah, the Follow for Follow Back game. Not only that, but I also tried many other ways, including joining random Instagram groups and adding bot followers. It was a huge headache, but I achieved what I aimed for.

One day I realised that, I've 500+ followers right now, but I'm only getting a maximum of 20 likes for each of my posts. But why? What have I done wrong? Why are people not liking my posts? These questions turned my mind to find a solution.

These are the two main reasons why I was getting very few likes, even though I had 10X followers:

1. I followed the wrong people, or those people were not interested in my content.
2. I had a lot of dead followers. Meaning, they would never engage with my account or content; they followed me just because I followed them.

This was my Turning Point.

What I've done is, I removed all the Dead Followers and kept only 50 dedicated followers.

Why?

I only need people who love and support my content. No matter how small it is. I understood the truth "Good things takes time." I started building slowly. Posted consistently and reached 1K followers after three months. This was a significant achievement for me and provided a motivation to keep moving. I hit 10k after a year by posting colour graded images and creating flashy transition tutorials using Capcut. (You can still find them on my account in the Reels section).

I've reached where I am today by following these steps: