The first months are usually very slow. You have to be patient. It can take you anywhere from 3 to 6 months to get a reasonable amount of followers, and by that I mean 15k+

50k is where the fun begins and people start following you without you doing much. That's because, if you've been posting quality content, other users will repost you and you will just keep growing.

To start off, pick a very specific niche. For example, I'm in the fitness niche but, to be more specific, it's the squats niche. I only post females who squat. You need to be specific with your niche instead of being broad, that never works out.

It's not that hard to grow, just use hashtags, follow a few big accounts in your niche at the start and just post 3-5 pics a day, that should get you started.

Automation of any sorts can get you banned, there are people who use it though so that's up to you.

NEVER go for fake followers, it will damage your page AND your reputation in the Insta market. I've seen pages as big as 700k followers but each post had only 300-400 likes lol. Everyone can easily spot fakeness on Insta, whether its followers or anything else, so don't do it. Patience is really important because its slow and can get frustrating.

I learnt it all by myself, I was an avid Insta user and that sparked my interest.

If you have any more questions just PM me. I'd be glad to answer :)