Looking for some ways to make money on Pinterest, but really aren’t sure how it’s done?
One of the first websites I created did really well on Pinterest, without me really trying, (I wasn’t even Pinning after a while).
I know that probably goes against most of what you’ve ever read about Pinterest but, the thing is, it really does depend on the niche.
I didn’t know much about Pinterest back then and I was just pinning straight product images….
Nothing fancy, no big long images with alluring text.
But when people are searching for things to buy online, they will often search for things on Pinterest for inspiration and repin what they find – any product image that appeals, will do for them.
As a result, Pins can quite quickly just take off when it comes to straight product images and, at the time, I guess there was less competition for the kind of stuff I was pinning.
So, if anyone clicked these product images, they’d click through to my blog post, where there would be the full post and an affiliate link, (usually) to the thing they wanted to buy.
If you’re not sure about affiliate marketing yet, I will delve into that a bit more in a moment.
In any case, I have had much more of a uphill struggle trying to get traffic to THIS website from Pinterest because; it is a whole different ball game in this niche.
Firstly, there you’re going to get less traffic to your Pins in business related niches….
Then there is the increasing level of competition and then you need to create really eye catching images…
But even if you do work it out and manage to get some decent changes, you have to cope with the regular changes in the Pinterest algorithm.
Also, whereas once joining any group board going was a great thing in the past – I heard on an episode of the side hustle show, that this is now a thing of the past.
Only very small, very targeted group boards are meant to be worthwhile…. but then again, all this could change.
Despite these factors; Pinterest is still, (in my opinion) one of the best social media related platforms out there for generating free organic traffic.
It’s not like Facebook, where a shared post can last no time at all. Pins can stay around circulating on Pinterest for YEARS!
Plus, you can automate a lot of the process if you use a simple tool like Tailwind, which isn’t expensive, (you can get a free month via this link).
As I write this, I’m about to go through a brilliant Pinterest course by Anastasia Blogger and I really hope this could help me to organize a system to generate more traffic to my blog.
Update: I completed the course here & already have had some great results, I highly recommend it.
So, what are some ways that you can make money with Pinterest….
1/ Pinterest Affiliate Marketing – Without A Blog:
wrote an in depth post completely dedicated to this topic right here.
In this case, you can build up one or multiple Pinterest accounts in different niches and actually use images to direct customers to products via affiliate links.
If someone clicks your pinterest image and they purchase something after going via your affiliate link, you will earn a commission.
e.g. Image of a dress on Pinterest —-> image of dress links directly to online store via your affiliate link —-> customer makes a purchase —-> you earn a commission.
When you sign up with affiliate programs and are accepted, they will provide you the means of creating your own personalized affiliate links to their products.
These links are tracked, so when a purchase is made after going via your link, you get rewarded for it.
Many affiliate networks require you to have a blog, or large social media following, in order to join them. But there are some exceptions!
One such exception is a company called MagicLinks and I wrote a full review of them here.
Pinterest banned people from using affiliate links on the platform for a while in the past and there are certain rules you need to abide by – you can find out more info about that over here.
2/ Promote Companies For Sponsorship Deals:
If you build up a large following in a particular niche, you can approach companies and ask for Sponsorship.
If your Pinterest account is getting hundreds of thousands, or millions of views per month, then a company in the same niche that you’re pinning for has a good chance of being viewed on your account.
So, for example; if you post about running – you could approach your favorite running shoe brand, or your favorite energy gel brand or sports drink, for example.
Approach companies with your impressive stats… Such as; how many people view your account each month and what audience you are targeting,
Why should they partner with you? Do some research about what sort of price point your should be going for, (depending on the amount of views you’re getting) and offer them a deal.
For example; this could involve pinning every day for a certain number of months.
PIN ME FOR LATER! 🙂
3/ Promote Your Blog On Pinterest:
This is probably the one way that most people know about, but some people don’t know how bloggers actually make money from Pinterest.
Well, there are several ways in which bloggers can use Pinterest to boost their earnings.
Pinterest is much like a search engine, but for images that often link up to blog posts. It’s therefore a way to generate traffic to your blog.
In fact, some bloggers rely on Pinterest for a majority of their traffic!
The more traffic you have, the more potential you could have to make money…. but how?
- Through paid advertising, if you’re signed up with an Ad network, (such as Mediavine, as I am here) the amount of money you earn goes up with the number of views you have on your website. So, the more traffic from Pinterest you receive, the more money you can make.
- Affiliate commissions – often bloggers will link our to products and services in their blog posts that they recommend. If you make a purchase, the blogger earns a commission. join a free course to learn more about affiliate marketing.
- Their courses & products – once a blogger is established, they will often create their own products. Pinterest can be a way to drive highly targeted traffic towards their landing pages for these products, where they can generate sales.
- Grow their email list – often bloggers will use Pinterest to drive targeted traffic to a lead magnet. This will be something for free they can offer, in order to get you to sign up to their email list. Once you’re on their list, they can keep in touch with you, alert you to future posts being published and also, promote their courses/products and affiliate offers to you directly.
So, as you can see – there is a large number of ways that bloggers can leverage Pinterest to make money.
If you’d like to do the same – get my free guide to a money-making blog here.
4/ Drive Traffic To Your Business:
There are all types of businesses that you could promote on Pinterest – whether it be a small local business, or an online business.
Not all businesses are going to be a great fit for Pinterest, but more and more are making use of the platform.
A good idea is to simply do a search for related keywords in the search bar and see what comes up!
If you don’t already have a website and blog for your business, you’re missing an opportunity.
By writing a regular blog on your site for topics related to your business, you could get traffic straight from Google to your business and these blog posts are also things that you can share on Pinterest and drive traffic too.
Just because you’re blogging for your business, it doesn’t mean there won’t be other ways you can additionally make money from your business blog; you could also make money from pairing up with local businesses and advertising them on your blog, for example.
Once you have a healthy amount of visitors, your blog will become an appealing space for advertisers – of course, you’d want things that could compliment your business, obviously things too close to your own business are going to be competition.
5/ Use Pinterest To Boost Your Google Rankings:
Despite the fact that links from Pinterest to your website are no-follow, They actually do help your post rank in Google.
This isn’t always the case and will depend on various things, (such as how much competition there is for a particular keyword).
But I have noticed that even some relatively new bloggers can outrank authority blogs because their post has tonnes of shares on Pinterest.
It has been said that this isn’t specifically because of the links from Pinterest, as they’re no-follow… But due to the fact that posts have a lot of traffic going to them and a lot of engagement.
So, if you’re getting more traffic to certain Pinterest popular posts, this can improve your ranking in Google and this is worth doing Pinterest for that alone!
Naturally, better rankings in Google will lead to more organic traffic, which can lead to more earnings for you.
6/ Use Pinterest To Promote Your Designs, Crafts & Creations:
There are so many ways you can make money online right now.
A couple that I’ve been interested in are Print on demand, with Merch by Amazon and Self-Publishing low-content books With KDP.
With Merch, you create designs that you upload onto clothing items and sell on the Amazon platform – except you don’t have to worry about the printing or the shipping, or even customer service.
You can get organic traffic directly from Amazon, although many are now using paid Ads too, as the competition is really high.
With low-content books, you design the covers and simple interiors and upload them on to Amazon – so, notebooks, journals, planners. No in depth writing involved.
Pinterest is now regularly being used by those using POD platforms, or many others, such as Etsy sellers, to promote their products.
For example; say you were in the business of creating simple Cat toys. You then may set up a Pinterest account entirely dedicated to Cat toys & accessories.
Grow it to a huge level and Pin all of your products & other peoples on your board.
You would link your images back to your online store or platform – such as Etsy.
If you sell any sort of product online, whether it be via an E-commerce store, Amazon, Print on demand and so on, it’s worth setting up a related account on Pinterest and share your stuff!
7/ Teach Pinterest Strategies To Others:
While Pinterest can be great, the algorithm is regularly changing, it can be confusing at first to know what you’re doing.
But once you do crack Pinterest and start getting good traffic to your blog, business, or website – you could create your own courses to share your secrets and strategies.
Pinterest can naturally be a good place to find customers – but you could also sell your course on Platforms like Udemy, or create your course on a platform like Teachable.
So, that concludes my 7 great ways to make money with Pinterest. Are there any that you’re doing right now?
I’m working hard to boost my Pinterest traffic and have recently had some exciting results, after one of my pins went viral.
However, the main way I generate traffic is still straight from Google – free traffic from the search engines.
The way you can bring traffic to your site using this method, is all the result of Keyword research and both on and off page SEO.
If you’d like to learn how you can get free traffic from Google to your blog, this is where I learnt how.
Is there some other way that you make money via Pinterest?
Let me know in the comments below!
