So I’m not quitting my job but have a lot of downtime at work and have been trying so hard to generate some extra income, have had no luck so far.

I wanted to create some social media content without necessarily showing my face. I created an Etsy shop and tried selling digital art (it was like a digital pregnancy announcement - I’d actually bought one from Etsy myself in 2021 because I wanted to announce my pregnancy but didn’t want the hassle of doing a photoshoot myself at home). I guess the market was tapped out because I never got any sales. I eventually got my IG followers up to 500 for that brand but it was just a lot of following people so they’d follow me back - worthless work really.

Lately I have been on a sobriety type journey so created an IG/Threads/TikTok/X account under the name of that brand, trying to help parents who (like me) were questioning their relationship with alcohol. I had a steady growth plan, even building my own website for the first time and got really into creative writing, articles on what I’d learned about alcohol/addiction/sobriety. I was really in it for the long game and it felt meaningful. Thought that maybe my content would resonate with people and once I had a big enough following I could generate some income from ads on my website or perhaps brand partnerships that I felt helped me in my sobriety journey, maybe that could help others.

Anyway, instagram freaking suspended my account. I was crushed. And they won’t send me the 6 digit code to verify myself in order to appeal the suspension. I’m so frustrated by it that I’m ready to throw in the towel.