You probably heard the phrase "It's a marathon, not a sprint" applied to a wide range of situations. Anything that requires some sort of long-term commitment and devotion to excellence and quality over time is a fair game, as far as the saying is concerned. Make no mistake, great relationships require that you stick to somebody regardless of what you feel. Maybe you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, they're not all that nice to you, there are all sorts of things going on around you that can affect your relationship. Despite all of that, whether these threats come from inside or outside, you have to stick to it: this is commitment. This is all about dedication and seeing something all the way through, from the beginning through the middle to the end. Instagram marketing is one of these things.

  It's easy to get tricked into thinking that marketing success simply boils down to getting the right kind of software to do the right kind of job; to produce the right kind of outcomes for the right kind of people at the right time, at the right place. How awesome the world would be if things were that easy. Unfortunately, the world is not some sort of height of sales page, it is the real world. Just like anything that is real, there are all sorts of complications out there and the consequences that you really need to be mindful. Otherwise, it's too easy to fall into a mindset that things should be quick, easy and convenient.

  Anything that is worth having in life is worth sacrificing for. What exactly are you sacrificing? You're sacrificing your sense of entitlement to things being quick, easy and convenient. That's what's going on when people say that something is a marathon not a sprint. Instagram marketing is one of these because if you ever gotten excited about Instagram you know that it takes work.

  It's easy to see the upside. It's easy to see the potential, after all, Instagram has over one billion active users and 500 million active users month after month. These are people who can't help but look for their social media updates. It's as if, they live, eat, breathe and go to the bathroom using Instagram. Given that tremendous traffic potential it's easy to just jump in with both feet and look for the quick payout. How hard could it be? It's all about getting clicks to your profile page so you can direct that traffic to where you wanted to go. Unfortunately, playing the game that way leads to disappointment. You have to understand that there is no one-time, big-time strategy here. You cannot focus on short-term success. If you did that, you're going to put yourself in a one-way ticket to failure.

  Make no mistake, Instagram marketing requires a tremendous commitment of your time, focus and attention to details because of the following: First, you will be focusing on patterns. These patterns won't happen overnight. These patterns only take place when you have enough traction. This means that you have to put in work over an extended period; you have to focus on the long-term. It's easy to declare victory when you notice that the certain patterns that lead to your website are really converting well, but it may turn out to be some sort of statistical fluke. It may be a mirage in a big scheme; the things that you're actually doing is wrong. It may need quite a bit of improvement. Finally, if you want to be successful on Instagram, you have to position your brand the right way. Again, this takes time, effort and sustained focus.

There's an old saying that goes along the lines that if you do not have a brand, you have a commodity.

You probably don't need me to explain to you why it's about idea to compete based on commodities.

Commodities are interchangeable goods.

A sack of rice of a certain variety will be a sack of rice, regardless of where you buy it, when you buy it, whom you buy it from, or a set of circumstances surrounding your purchase it's still going to be that sack of rice.

The same applies to corn, wheat, pork bellies, chicken or what have you.

These are commodities, but there is only one difference that you can compete on, that's the difference in course price.

Again, you probably don't need me to remind you that competing based on price is a way ticket to failure.

You need price competition as much as you need another hole in your head.

As a producer that's the last thing you want to see happen.

Unfortunately, if you do not build the brand people are going to judge based on your price.

Instagram is no different.

You have to build the brand, otherwise whatever content you're sharing would fall between the digital cracks.

There's really nothing to distinguish it from the rest of the content that's out there.

Your brand is just going to be another digital face in the crowd.

Make no mistake, people follow brands.

They're looking for some sort of connection.

They're looking for some sort of persona that they feel can connect with their hopes, fears, dreams, aspirations and other worthy goals and attributes.

In other words, people choose to become loyal to personas.

People are not dumb.

They know that the persona of Kim Kardashian on Instagram, social media and on TV is probably going to be very different from the real Kim K but people don't care.

People just what to see some sort of reality that they read into.

That's the cult of celebrity and this happens with brands all the time.

If you do not play the game this way on Instagram, you are not going to be building your community.

Chances are, you're going to be positioning your brand for ultimate failure.

You have to understand that content expertise can only go so far.

Sure, it's a great thing that you know what you're talking about.

It is an amazing thing that people can bank on what you are saying, but you have to deliver something more.

You have to go the extra mile.

This is where branding comes in.

If you don't brand, you are generic. That's the bottom-line.

What's so wrong about being generic?

What's so wrong about being, yet, another digital face in the crowd?

It's this simple, "If you are just another player, you are all too forgettable."

Forget about making money.

Forget about breaking even or registering a profit.

Forget about making a lasting impression.

That's just not going to happen if you don t have a brand.

  Like the old saying goes, "Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me." This saying is really what's animating on other people's misapprehension regarding influencers on Instagram. You probably heard the phrase "Instagram influencers" for quite some time now. Unless, you've been hiding under a rock, you should know very well that Instagram can deliver a tremendous amount of traffic. This is not some empty statistic, mind you, this is traffic that actually converts.

  How much are we talking about? Well, there is no shortage of online store owners who make tens of thousands of dollars a month after month like clockwork, simply because they got in touch with the right influencers. What are these influencers do? These are accounts being followed on Instagram that people simply pay attention to, that's really where it all boils down. It's all about credibility and authority of these people when they post a new photo of some sort of alcoholic drink, some article of clothing, or even pet dogs, their followers just go crazy.

  It's not a surprise that Kim Kardashian is able to charge thousands of dollars for one picture post, because that post is enough to generate a tremendous amount of buzz. Not only that she directly calls people to action who are actually following her own Instagram but there are all sorts of media buzz created, blog posts are written, new press releases are produced. Any simple acts by such mega celebrities on social media are often trigger a chain reaction of direct and indirect marketing. The bottom-line is influencers do produce results.

  Unfortunately, finding the real influencers that you can afford can be very challenging, why? Since the world came up, advertisers such as yourself are willing to pay top dollar for influencers. There are all sorts of fake influencers accounts coming up all over social media, I'm not just talking about Instagram, I'm talking across the board: Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, you name it. What makes this so dangerous is the fact that their followers are also fake. Finding real influencers can be a challenge.

  The good news is that this is easier than you think. You really just have to put in the time and pay attention to the right details. What you should pay attention to? One thing and one thing alone: engagement. Look at the total number of followers that an account has and look at the average number of engagements that person's post gets. If you do the math, you should be able to come up with some sort of ranking system between different accounts. You should also pay attention to the kind of commercial posts that they published. If they give you a tremendous amount of leeway then go for them, assuming that their followers are real.

  Keep these steps in mind because this can lead to you making a tremendous amount of money, thanks to Instagram. It really all boils down to unleashing the power of real influence. Key phrase, of course, is "real influence." After reading the information above, you should have enough knowledge that you can tell real players from fake ones.

  If you are engaged in Instagram marketing, you probably already know that people do not like to feel like they're just another number or another statistic. Unfortunately, a lot of big-time influencers on Instagram who gotten so big that their heads became big as well. It's as if they reach the point where their heads exploded in terms of ego. So, what happens? That's right, sooner or later, these accounts start to implode. It's not because of the people behind these personas did something really reprehensible, disgusting or downright embarrassing.

  In most cases, they won't make clowns out of themselves. They just keep posting the same stuff that they've always posting. They're basically sticking to the script. They're doing whatever it is that they were doing before. Still, their followers start dwindling. How come? Like I said, people like to made to feel that they're matter. People like to feel that they're not just a number or they're some sort of statistic. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens when you develop a following and you don't engage with their engagement.

  This is the secret. It really is. You engage with engagement. In other words, when you post content and somebody likes it or comments on it, comment back or like back. Show them they matter to you. Show them that they are welcome on your page. Show them that whatever they do that it has an impact on the page and you want to make it abundantly clear to them. When you do this, you stand out like a hero. You really do. Why? The other influential account doesn t bother to do this. So, what happens to these community members? They stick with you because you make them feel appreciated. They know that somehow, some way on your account they feel like they matter. When they engage in any type of activity, you sit up and pay attention and you let them know.

  Manual engagement, however, can be very time intensive. It, also, can be very on you physically because you'd rather be doing something else. It can be quite labor intensive. Thankfully, there are software or automated tools where you can program "recipes" for account actions. These recipes work this way, when the recipe detects an action from one of your followers it then engages in another action. If the follower engages in a separate action, then the recipe would engage to another action to stimulate engagement. This is the key. It's all about getting your community to feel that they matter.

  Thankfully, you don't have to this by hand. You don't have to burn up a tremendous amount, effort and energy pulling this off. There are all sorts of sophisticated, high-value software tools out there that can do this very smoothly. In fact, your followers won't even have a clue that you're actually using software and not actually reading their engagement. As long as you are giving them the content that they came for and you engage with them, they wouldn t care less about your software.

  I'm telling you, time is money. I know you probably heard that millions of times before. I know you have been probably reminded that in many different contexts. In fact, if you're like most people you're probably sick and tired of being reminded of that. Unfortunately, most people do not live out their lives with this core fact in mind. They'd rather waste their time and, by extension, their money. Make no mistake, time can always be turned into money and money can't always be turned into time, but you can get money and buy somebody else's time.

  It is also true that you cannot buy your own time. Once you have spent that minute on something, it's gone permanently. Whatever you invest your time on it grows. If you invest your time in your mind, you become smarter. If you invest your time in your relationships, your relationships become more meaningful, deeper and richer. If you invest time in making money, guess what? You'll become wealthier. If you invest your time in your career, guess what? You'll become wealthier and more influential. That's how it works. Time is like the fertilizer of life. Unfortunately, a lot of people waste their time.

  If you want to save money on Instagram original content, focus on your time. You can't destroy your following with substandard photos, but it's also true that you don't have all the time in the world to take high-quality photos. What are you going to do? This is where a little bit of attention to detail comes in. This is where a little bit of creativity and imagination kicks in. What do you do? You host original photo contests with your community. Sounds pretty simple, right?

  It sounds pretty standard but it isn't, because different niches have different rules for these types of contests. Keep in mind that these rules are informal. These are not sanctioned or, in any way, official policies of Instagram. These are rules that these brands of certain niches came up with. You should research those rules, pay attention to what they're doing right and hold those contests with your community. Chances are, you would probably have to hold several contests before a particular contest gets the results that you are looking for. You just have to stick to it.

  How does this work? You ask your community members to come up with original photos regarding a certain theme. Here is the trick, people can just submit random photos. First, they have to meet quality standards. Second, they have to acknowledge that anything that they turn in will be your property. Finally, they have to guarantee that when they turn in content, that content is their own property.

  When you this, you'll kill two birds with one stone, you really do, why? You get tons of niche specific high-quality content that you don't have to pay money for, after all, this is a contest. Second, as part of the contest, they have to publicize that they join the contest. What does this do? In practical terms, it pumps free traffic to your account. That's how you play the game. Otherwise, you're going to play the game to lose. That's the bottom-line. Play the game to win. Post the contest today.

  There are many things in life that are easier said than done. You have to remember that one of the most powerful marketing concepts you could ever come across is the idea of reverse engineering. It seems like every experienced and effective marketer that I have some across loves saying the phrase " reverse engineering." The problem is, just like the word love, the more people keep repeating it, the less clear it becomes. In fact, it is used so often that most people don't really have a clue of what the speaker is saying. It's as if they're not on the same page.

  I understand why this is the case, because a lot of people are very lazy when it comes to contexts. They don't drill down and choose tools that will specify that's why often times people just talk over each other. Make no mistake. If you really want to create better content than your competitors so you can achieve better results, you need to reverse engineer them.

  Here is how you do it. First, you look for the themes that are hot. If you noticed that your ten competitors keep talking about the same topic, you know pretty well that somehow, some way the target audience that you were trying to reach out to is interested in those topics. Why? If your competitors don't talk about them, then it means that their market is not interested enough. There's a reason why all your competitors seemed to talk about that same stuff because there's enough built-in demand for it. This is how you build on what they are doing right. In a way, you're making your competitors do your homework by reverse engineering them by simply observing them and paying attention to patterns. By connecting the dots, you are able to build on their strengths while avoiding the weaknesses.

  One of the best ways to build on their strengths, of course is to improve on your competitors' content. How do you go about doing this? How do you come up with content that is so compelling that it will draw visitors away from your competitors and shift them to your Instagram page? Well, you can improve content by making it longer. There are tons of short descriptions of photos. Make sure that your photos are up-to-date, this doesn't require much effort. Also, make sure that the landing page content that you feature has multimedia content, for example, when you're drawing traffic from Instagram you're dumping all that traffic to a page, at the very least, include some photos and videos. Make sure as well that your stuff is easy to understand. You have to remember that consumers can be counted on to do nothing if they are a little bit confused. Do not confuse them, avoid that problem. Finally, format your content to be read. You have to feature a very easy to process format, which involves better pictures, fonts and better spacing. Lastly, learn to share this new and improved version of this content on the same network on Instagram.

 You would notice that your competitors used the same circle of influencers, start there. You should also pay attention to the hashtag reverse engineer, start with those. When I say start, I mean do not end with them. Use them as starting points. You will quickly realize that some similar hashtags end up producing more traffic. Increase your visibility by branching out from the initial pool of hangtags that you reverse engineered from your biggest competitors on Instagram.

  Instagram marketing is a lot like boxing. Whether we're talking about Muhammad Ali or Manny Pacquiao it all boils down to the combination. You know that Pacquiao's going to knock you out when you let him set up a combination. It's only a matter of time until he unleashes his devastating southpaw punch on you. You better hope that you're in for a soft landing, otherwise you might be putting your life in danger. The same applies to Mike Tyson. In fact, Mike Tyson can unleash quite a bit of an uppercut. We're talking about not just putting people to sleep, but we're talking about putting people into long-term sleep in hospitals. That's right, I'm talking about a comma.

  I discussed one-two punches in this Instagram marketing article to highlight the point that if you set up your messaging in such a way, you can knock out your audience members and deliver to them the kind of information they need at the right time, at the right place to produce the right results with the right people, and get the right outcome that you're looking for. The right outcome in this case, of course, means profit. That's the bottom-line, it's all about dollars and cents.

  So, how exactly do you pull this off? The one-two punch is set this way, you draw people in through high-quality posts on Instagram. You dump that traffic onto an article that speaks to the needs of those people. This article establishes credibility in your brand and approves that you know what you what you're talking about. When people become truly interested in whatever it is that you are to offer, they would click for an inner page because they want to know more. The deeper they get into your page, the more interested they are.

  Eventually, you would try to convert that traffic into a squeeze page conversion or a mailing list conversion. That's how it works because it's your mailing list that will do the heavy lifting. See how this works? The one-two punch is all about posting high-quality content targeted to a niche on Instagram, getting those people to click on the link on your profile page and then hitting them hard with your inner pages. That's the one-two punch of Instagram marketing.

  What is the secret to all of these? Well, the secret is you don t have to break out in a sweat. You don't have to figure this out from the get-go. You don't have to come up with a hot new idea out of nowhere. You only need to improve on your competitor's best content. I'm talking about reverse engineering them.

  There's a reason why your competitors keep posting pretty much the same content. Somebody, someway, somewhere is clicking. Do the same. Replicate their content, come-up with the better version, and then replicate their distribution channels. This means that you're going to share your content with certain accounts and you're also going to use certain hashtags. Finally, you use this primary content on your site to lead people to conversion. Maybe they're going to buy something, enter their E-mail address to join your mailing list, or download some sort of server. Whatever the case may be, it's all about conversion, conversion, conversion.

  Why is this so awesome? When you use a primary content on Instagram that attracts viewers to your profile page, you are more likely to get shares of that content. The more it gets shared; the more people get to see your profile page and the more you would be able to unleash your LIFO one-two punch on these interested consumers.

  As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. How many times have you heard that saying? How many times does the idea of convincing people up to the last minute, only to fail had crossed your mind? I know that its distressing. It can definitely be downright frustrating. After all, it happens all the time and it really would suck to put in all the time, effort and attention to the details, only to come up with a whole lot of nothing.

  The real problem here is one of the details. A lot of Instagram marketers focused on the big issues. They focused on saying the right things at the right time. They're talking about using the right content and network of influential people. This is all well in good. They're on the right track. They're doing the right things, but the problem is they're so focused on making sure that they go through their content quality checklist the right way, that they ignore one very important factor. It turns out that this is the decisive factor.

  If you fail to call a person to action, you wasted all that time, effort and energy getting that person to pay attention to you and to believe you. It simply goes up in smoke or, if you prefer, you flushed it down the toilet. Regardless of the analogy, it's all a waste. Really, it s a waste! The sad fact is that too many Instagram marketers fail at the most crucial time. They fail to get the person that's reading their content to take the right action.

  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they did not try. I'm not saying that there is no absolutely no call-to-action text there. Unfortunately, when we study their call-to-action text, they might as well have left it out. It's really is that bad. Why? Most of the stuff lack imagination.

  They say, "Click here, visit my profile page, check out my profile page for more information, click on the link to find out more." You know what? People don't care about that stuff. They really don't, because they've seen that many times before and when they see that they blank out. It's as if, you did not write that text; those words did not appear on the screen. They're completely blind to it. Instead, you should focus on writing effecting call-to-action on your reverse engineered, high-performance content. What is this type call-to-action? It has to be specific to the content. You can't keep copying and pasting, click on the link or check my profile. That doesn't work.

   Second, you have to get the reader excited about the content that your profile page contains. You're going to be making promises. You're going to be speaking to people's fears, needs, and a sense of inadequacy. In other words, you are going to tap into psychological needs here, that's why you have to as descriptive as possible. You can't just go through the motions or spit out boilerplate text that is all too forgettable.

  Finally, you have to speak to the needs of the reader. If you were able to do this, you were able to speak with authority. Why? Most of your competitors are simply going to the motions. They're just going through a list, then they are just cranking out generic texts and it's really not having much of an impact. It's just a waste of time. It's like talking to somebody who's flapping his/her lips and not much of anything is going on. That's how pointless it could be.

  You are capable of so much more. You're capable of much better results and that's why you really have to speak to the needs of the reader. Unfortunately, nobody can figure this out for you. First of all, people are not mind readers. Second of all, you are in the best position to understand what the needs of your readers are.

  Use that information. Use that position to come up with a text that truly call people to action because these can pay off tremendously. It really would be a shame to work this hard to get people to your page only to drop the ball at the very last moment.

  The funny thing about Instagram marketing is that if you ask the same question 100 times to 100 self-professed Instagram marketing professionals you will get 100 different answers. I guess this should not be unexpected because there old saying "100 ways to skin a cat." You start with the same objective, but there are many different ways to get to that objective. It's like driving in the city. They made different roads: Sideroads and byroads just to get to the same place. Well, with Instagram and monetization I would beg to disagree.

  Sure, you can promote an AdSense page using Instagram traffic, but that's like using a Ferrari as a door stop or a paperweight. It would be a complete and total waste of an amazing resource. The best way to monetize Instagram traffic is to get your own online store going. Now, you may be thinking to yourself that this is impossible. You don’t own a warehouse. You don't have any interest in running a warehouse. It seems like dealing with physical products, as well as returns and refunds is going to be a massive headache. Let me stop you while you're thinking this.

  Thanks to dropshipping, you can kiss all of that a goodbye. You just set up an account with Shopify, install the Shopify plugin Oberlo, pull up some products from AliExpress and you have yourself a dropship store. Seriously. No joke. Real story. How? Well, it's actually quite simple. When you use your Chrome plugin to populate your store with Oberlo products, when somebody orders from your store that's the only time your Oberlo software will kick in and order from the AliExpress vendor, whose product you feature on your website.

  This all happens behind the scenes and automatically. You don't have to wake up to process this order. You don't have to be there. This all takes place automatically and the best part of all of this is, if you set-up your profit margins right, your Shopify store can make money hand over fist. Just how big are the profits? Well, it's not unusual to find charms on AliExpress for $1 and pay $1 in shipping and then turn around and sell that charm for $15 or $17 in the United States. You make up to $15 in cold hard profit.

  It comes to monetization, Instagram and eCommerce stores are two peas in a pod. They are like Siamese twins, they are the best fit. They go together. Instagram is for the product focused, it is influence focused. People are into buying personas, dreams and perception. People are quite cynical. They know that there is such a thing as reality, but they want to live in a dream. They want to live in some sort of fantasy lifestyle, that's why they follow personas on Instagram.

  Work that angle, work with how that dynamic plays out. This way, you can sell tangible products and if things went south, your profit margin is so big and you can easily absorb it. Now, the key here is to buy ad mentions from influencers. Start low and slow. Target small buyers can limit your losses if things went south.

  Don't put yourself out on a limb. You might get burned, still if you figure how to gain works and you know what you're doing, these targeted small ad buys, shout outs, or other forms of promotions from Instagram influencers can go a long way in helping you make quite a bit of money from your online store. The profit is big enough for you to come put well ahead in terms of profitability.

  I remember the first time I used a bot or software to post content on Instagram. I wish I could tell you that this was my first option. I wish I could tell you that I have figured things out so clearly well in advanced that this was my systematic and methodical way of playing Instagram marketing game. If I told you any of those games I would be flat out lying to you. Truth to be told, I started out just like everybody else. I was posting stuff manually on Instagram.

  When I look at my statistical analysis, thanks to Google analytics, I was blown away. It turns out that while my online store is physically located on a server in the United States and my products are dropship from places in China and India, most of my customers were all over the world. That's right! They live near the western seaboard.

  Why is this a big deal? Why should you care? Well, here is the thing, when I manually did my marketing on Instagram, I used Florida time. You probably already know that Florida time is different than standard time. So, what do you think happened? There is some sort of discrepancy in terms of my sales volume. What happens is I was only able to capture 1/3 of the demand of my target audience because I was operating out of a time zone that is convenient to me. I was operating on a time in Florida. If only, I marketed a little bit earlier in the day, I would have been able to capture 100% of my prospective audience members.

What this translates to, is money. I was settling for 1/3 of the money that I could be making until I grabbed the clue. I finally woke up to the fact, that if I used software like Hootsuite I would be able to capture western standard time, and the best part of all of these, I could be sleeping, working out of the gym, buying stuff at the grocery, walking my little kid through the park, or doing all sorts of things and the software will be handling my posts because I don't have to be physically there.

Post time do matter. In fact, they are crucial because it's all about visibility. You want your target members to find you on Instagram when they are available. You want them to see your brand when they are actively checking out their Instagram updates. This is really hard to do manually because you have to be elsewhere. You have so many other responsibilities to attend to. You have so many different commitments, duties, obligations, and responsibilities.

 Who has the time? Who has the focus? Well, thanks to software, you can focus on your greatest timeframe conversions and then adapt these to your posts. For example, when you know that you make more sales within the specific time range, you can target all your posts within that time range. Use software because they definitely make your life so much simpler. Besides, who wants the unnecessary drama of screwing a post. Who wants to mess around with manual copy and paste that may not translate right? In other words, focus on success, focus on what works and focus on scaling up.