How to be successful on Instagram

When I heard of the potential Instagram could do for my art, I scoured the internet for one simple answer. How do I become successful on Instagram?

I've searched tirelessly on the internet for a simple way to obtain follows, get likes, get featured and etc. Most articles would tell you, write an interesting bio, like lots of photos, post regularly, post interesting stuff, and lots more. Generic stuff really, of course I tried those and my follower count rose at a snail's pace. Don't get me wrong! What i've read absolutely works but it became stagnant at a certain point and i'm sure many of you have been in that position. So what was the problem and how did I become successful on Instagram?

First i'll take you back to when it started.

I was introduced to Instagram about 10 months ago (as of this post) by a friend who told me I could created a public profile for my art to get some recognition. It took some motivation for me to get started (because lets be honest, getting motivated to do new things is hard) but when I did, it was hooked and the feeling of productivity hit me every post i made.
I wanted to know how I could obtain more followers? How do I become like the hotshots of Instagram? What made them special? I scoured the net and did lots and lots of research into the nooks and crannies of Instagram articles, I made my bio look great and engaging just like the guides told me, I hash-tagged as much as I could. I posted VERY regularly, I followed a lot of big names, luckily I had some pretty good content so I didn't worry about that. My account looked good and presentable with creative content coming out very regularly but there was one problem and that was I couldn't get past 200 followers.

So, How do you become successful on Instagram?
And the answer is "to keep going".
I bet you expected some grand cheat or something very different from all the articles, its not really. Its simple really, when I say to keep going I mean if things become stagnant and you feel disappointed about all the effort you put into your work without receiving the feedback you desired, you keep going. You see what works and what doesn't because becoming successful on Instagram isn't as simple as just waiting to get lucky and go viral or suddenly you get noticed by a big-shot and have your following ten folded. No, its working hard everyday on your content. It can be art, travel, animals, features, fashion, whatever you love doing. Just be prepared to make slow process and be patient. For me, I focused on posting despite losing motivation and slowly I realised to just create content "for me". I reduced my regularity in posts to longer increments and heightened my quality of work (before I was just posting 2-3 times a day because I read somewhere the more you post the more notice you'll get). As I kept going I finally hit a sweet spot. I've been posting with trial and error, losing followers overnight and gaining them in the day just to catch up to yesterday over and over again. My followers went from positives in a day (not losing followers overnight) to 20 a day, then 50 and 200. This happened because of all the little things I learnt from the journey because I kept going. I learnt things like liking the first 6 posts of every follower for interaction, I talked with people who made similar content and made connections, my artwork developed into something completely unique from my first post. You just never know when it'll happen, all you can do is just keep going.

Sorry if it wasn't a "HEY EASY WAY TO GET FOLLOWERS AND BE SUCCESSFUL ON INSTAGRAM" article and my repetition of "keep going" might of annoyed you. My point is, success isn't easy and if it was, It wouldn't of felt earnt. Doing things the hard way is ALWAYS worth it because if it was easy everyone would do it.
I hope you i've inspired you, have a nice day or night everyone!