I'm currently an Elite Popular Investor on eToro (approved value investor) with about $2 million in AUM with annual returns of 60% vs about 15% for the S&P 500 $SPX500 . How did I start and how did I grow?
I joined eToro in 2016 with very little knowledge about investing. But I was always sharing what I was learning. Everyday, if I was reading an article, I would post about it. This brought engagement on the fees and people would go to my profile to see my returns. Even though the first six months I invested was a disaster, eventually, I made great investments (for example, investing in Apple $AAPL in 2016) which made me recover.
After the 2017 cryptoboom $BTC followed by a correction in 2018, many copiers left and my AUM fell. Only in 2020, I was able to recover. How did I recover? Through communication. My YouTube channel helped a lot so did all my research. I was posting my analysis on eToro. I was also helped by eToro when I did a webinar with them and I was added on the Editor's Choice. I also asked eToro to pin my posts.
The greatest boost in my AUM happened this year after the GameStop $GME Short Squeeze happened. I predicted the GameStop Short Squeeze since 2019 and made a 3300% profit on it.
What's more important, however, is that you have a strategy and you focus on it. Don't change your strategy just to gain copiers. My portfolio is down this month mainly because of DouYu $DOYU and UNFI $UNFI and I have lost many copiers. This doesn't mean that I will change my strategy just to keep copiers. Over the long-term, I still believe in the company.