Interested in learning how to make money on Pinterest?
Wait…
Did you think Pinterest was only for crafts, DIY projects and/or recipes?
I made the same mistake as well, and in this blog post, I am going to share how you can drive a tsunami of traffic to your website, blog, YouTube channel and/or Shopify with Pinterest.
If you’re more of a fan of watching video, I’ve got you covered.
If you’re a reader, just scroll past this video.
Why You Should Use Pinterest
Admittedly, this was a social media site I wrote off long ago.
I dabbled with it in 2011/2012.
However, this past November, I saw a few people on Twitter talking about how they were leveraging Pinterest to drive a metric ton of traffic to their sites.
To top it off, most of this was organic (FREE) traffic!
I went to YouTube University to see what people were doing.
What I found astonished me. I stumbled upon dozens and dozens of Mommy bloggers who use Pinterest to drive up to 100,000 page views each & every month!
Some of these Mom bloggers are earning in excess of $50,000 per MONTH! A couple I found are earning $100,000+ each & every month. Typically they make this money from ads on their blog, affiliate marketing and/or selling their own products.
I did some research and discovered that Pinterest has 322 MILLION monthly active users.
“Monthly” and “Active” were the two words that caught my attention.
I also discovered that 30% of their users were male, which is my demographic.
Now that I verified that Pinterest was a viable channel, I had to educate myself on how this was all done. YouTube University and consuming blog posts from some of these Mommy bloggers was what I did.
In early December, I decided to create a Total Dads Pinterest page.
In the last six weeks, I have pinned 2,479 pins.
That sounds like an absurd amount of pins, and it absolutely is.
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Luckily, I stumbled upon a Pinterest Scheduling tool called Tailwind, that drastically speeds up the process. I spend a few minutes a day scheduling pins for days/weeks in advance
Ok, those numbers look cool, but honestly, I am not too sure what they even mean.
A third of a million impressions in neat, but what about tangible results?
Not server crushing traffic…yet.
I want to point out a couple of things;
First, you’ll notice the first link click came around January 5th, which was just three short weeks ago.
Second, you’ll notice it’s on a steady climb upwards, and one day where it catapulted to 30 FREE website visitors in a single day.
In a month or so, I am going to laugh they I put the word “catapult” and “30 link clicks in a day” together.
One more thing, Pinterest is a search engine, so these numbers should only increase from here. And by the looks of it, the increase will be exponentially.
In February, I should have no problem driving 500+ visitors to my site for FREE. With the exception of Tailwind, which I recommend you check out, if you like FREE traffic. It comes with a FREE 30 day trial, so if you don’t like it, don’t continue using it.
Step-by-Step Plan to Make Money from Pinterest
I will layout a shockingly simple 5 step process to help you start making money on Pinterest.
This does involve work, but as you can see form above, you can start generating traffic from Pinterest rather quickly.
If you’re looking to save an incredible amount of time, I automate most of my Pinterest with a software called Tailwind. They offer a FREE 30 day trial, so try it out, and if you don’t like it, don’t pay for it.
It’s really as simple as that.
Step 1: Start a Website
You need a website, or a place to send the traffic you’re going to soon be generating.
If you do not have a website, no need to stress — I got you!
The other day, I published a step-by-step blog post on: how to start a WordPress blog in under 30 minutes.
It’s a simple 5-step process that just about anyone can follow.
Your blog is going to be a place where you publish content (like I am doing here) and where the Pinterest traffic is going to go. You will want to create consistent content that helps educate, entertains and/or elevates your target market (who your blog is for).
This is an ongoing process, and will be your main hub. Having your own website gives you complete control, and is an asset that will help you make money for years.
On your blog (create one here), you can sell your own products or services. You can also promote other people’s products or services, and get paid a commission. This is known as affiliate marketing.
Again, I layout a stupid simple process to start your own blog here.
If you have a website, or Shopify store, or YouTube channel, this step is not needed.
Step 2: Set Up a Pinterest Business Page
You want to set up a business page, as this gives you access to analytics, which can be insanely helpful.
Having access to analytics will show you what pins are getting the most views (impressions), and more importantly, the ones that are driving the most traffic,
You can see what designs are working and what ones are not.
Triple down on the designs that are driving traffic.
Step 3: Set Up Your Pinterest Profile
Your profile is prime real estate, so don’t half-ass this.
It’s insanely important.
Here is mine:
As you can see, I decided to use my profile picture for my image. Initially, I had my logo, but noticed quite a few others using an image of themselves.
This makes sense, as people connect more with people.
I included keywords in the title and the description. Keywords are words that people use when searching on Pinterest. You can see I added in a few hashtags as well.
My favorite FREE keyword tool is Uber Suggest by Neil Patel.
You also want to claim your website, which Pinterest has instructions on how to do that. If you’re using WordPress, you can do that with the Yoast SEO plugin. It’s super simple, and the plugin is free.
You also want to active rich pins, which is only two steps, and Pinterest lays it out here.
Step 4: Create 10 Boards
Boards are where you’ll house your pins.
You segment your pins in individual boards.
For example, a few of the boards I created of Total Dads are;
- Total Dads posts ( all my blog posts form this site)
- Dads Tips
- Dad Jokes
- Dad Memes
- Workouts for Dads
- Nutrition Tips for Dads
- Marriage Tips for Dads
- Parenting Tips for Dads
- Single Dad Tips
I pin other people’s pins in these boards, and post my own pins (from this blog or my YouTube channel) in these boards as well.
Optimize Each Board
You can add a description for each board.
Each description should include a couple of keywords to help increase your chances of being found in the Pinterest search engine.
Here is what one of my boards looks like;
Step 5: Add 10 Pins to Each Board
The goal here is to fill out the boards.
If you’re just getting started, and you don’t have content on your site, not too worry. You can pin other people’s content on your boards.
This is exactly what I did when I got started. As you produce more content, you’ have more pins of your own to share. I typically create 5 or 6 pins per blog post.
How to Create Pins on Pinterest
This is how you drive traffic to your website.
You’re going to need to create an image to pin.
You can use Canva (FREE), as they have close to a hundred different Pinterest templates.
You can also hire someone from Fivver to create them for you, if you do not have a design bone in your body — like myself.
Just search Fivver for “Pinterest Pins” and sort by rating. This has been hit or miss for me, but you might have better luck than I have. On Fiverr, the going rate is about $1 per pin. Money well spent, if you find a good designer.
Here is the simple process on how to create a pin on Pinterest;
- Click the “+” symbol in the upper right hand corner
- Click Create Pin
- Select the board you want to pin to
- Upload your pin (the one you created or hired someone to create)
- Add your title, description and URL (link to your blog post)
- Click Publish
Rinse and repeat the above each time you want to pin something.
Step 6: Start Following Others
You want to start following people in your niche.
However, I follow all kinds of people, as I re-pin a lot of my followers content. Of course, some of these people will follow you back.
The more followers you have, the more your pins will be seen by others.
I recently installed the Pinterest app on my phone, as it’s very easy to search for people in your niche and start following. It’s also very easy to pin form your phone. I aim to follow 50 people a day, and pin 50 times per day.
Again, I use Tailwind to speed up the pinning process, but also manual pin, as I have found that to be beneficial. Some of the Mom bloggers I follow swear by the effectiveness of manual pinning.
Manual pinning = Not using software, and pinning from your phone and/or desktop.
Step 7: How to Make Money on Pinterest
There are several ways.
If you sell products and/or services, follow the 6 steps above.
If you do not have a product or service to sell, you can sell other people’s products. Again, this is known as affiliate marketing.
How to Make Money on Pinterest with Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is the name of their affiliate program.
You’ve likely purchased a product or 1,819 products form Amazon.
You can actually earn money by referring people through your own personalized link (similar to how Click Bank operates).
Depending on the category, you can earn anywhere from 4 – 10% of what the user purchased.
That might not seem like a lot, I get it.
However, it’s a volume play with Amazon. Also, if someone purchases ANYTHING on Amazon through your link, you get credit. Typically, it’s anytime someone buys something within 24 hours of clicking on the link.
I have a buddy out here who earns $21,000 per MONTH from the Amazon Associates program by reviewing camera equipment on his YouTube channel.
How to Make Money on Pinterest with ShareASale
Another option, that is awfully similar to Amazon is a site called ShareASale.
This site pays out a bit more than Amazon, so that is one big advantage.
You certainly could use both, Amazon and SHareASale.
How to Make Money on Pinterest with Click Bank
Click Bank is an online marketplace of digital products in just about any niche you can imagine.
You can sign up for a free account here.
Once approved, you can view the marketplace to find a product you want to promote.
Most of these product sellers offer a 50% commissions. So on a $100 product, if someone purchases through your link, you would earn $50.
You might be thinking — Why is this 50% and Amazon only 4 – 10%?
Amazon is physical products which have a lot of costs. Click Bank are digital training with very little costs (nothing to print ship, etc)
For best results, I recommend only promoting a product you have experience with as you’ll be able to share your honest feedback (in a blog post and/or YouTube video).
You will get a personalized link to share on your site, so if anyone buys from your personalized link you will get credit for that sale.
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Wrapping It Up
It’s been about two months since getting back on Pinterest.
In December, I generated two link clicks back to the Total Dads website.
In January, I have generated 169 link clicks.
The first six weeks were slow, and spent a lot of time pinning, and figuring things out. Just recently, I am starting to see it all pay off.
One thing I have learned is the design of your pin to be extremely important. Test different colors, fonts, images, sizes, styles, etc.
Like with all marketing, it’s all about testing.
Another cool thing is that you’ll see how others pins perform as well. Let’s say you share someone else’s pin, you see the stats that your account generated it (you don’t see ALL the stats, just what your account did for that specific pin).
I saw the pins that were performing well, and started modeling their design, as it’s proven to generate clicks.
This is also a great way to come up with content ideas. If the pin is generating a lot of traffic, not only is the design working, but the subject of the pin is proven to be working, too.
I noticed a lot of the pins I shared that performed well had to do with confidence.
Which lead me to write these two blog posts:
8 Proven Tips to Boost Your Confidence
How to Boost Your Self-Confidence in 7 Days
Coincidentally, my best performing pin is the second one.
Again, I just saw what was working, and modeled it.
As Tony Robbins often says;
The surest way to achieve success is to model someone who is already successful.
As always, if you have comments, questions or concerns, please post them below.
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.
