So you want to know how to make money on Pinterest this year?
The Good news is I’m going to show you exactly how I make money using Pinterest!
This post won’t be going through all the old ways to make money on Pinterest, because let’s face it, these are outdated and will often get your account banned!
Pinterest has become more than just a place to save your favourite recipes or get wedding inspiration!
Since 2010, Pinterest has grown into a visual search engine providing solutions to many commonly known problems.
Why wouldn’t you want to make money with a platform that has over 290 million active users every month?
Marketer’s now, more than ever, are using Pinterest to drive traffic to their websites and Ecommerce stores and it’s FREE!
Myth Busted!
Pinterest does not pay out money in any way!
However there are several ways to make money using Pinterest, with many people turning this visual platform into full time income.
There are ways to get started for very little investment!
Save this Pin and Come back later!
What you need to know..
As I mentioned before, these Pinterest money making methods are 100% what’s currently working.
Gone are the days of posting direct links to affiliate products and spammy websites (although people still do this!).
Pinterest are changing the “old” user experience and will only show your content if it’s authentic and somehow provides value.
A combination of an aesthetically pleasing image and attention grabbing text overlay can get you a lot of traffic, using this visual search engine.
Making money on Pinterest involves a lot of upfront work, research and some sort of budget to get going.
If you are looking to make money on Pinterest without putting in the work, then this post is not for you!
Yes, you can make money with Pinterest without a Blog/Website, but it’s going to be harder for you and Pinterest are cracking down on affiliate linked Pins.
For a small investment of a professional Blog/Website (under $75 a year), you’ll see huge rewards and realise why it was worth it!
If you don’t have $75 to spend on a business that could generate 6 figures in a year’s time, then do not start a business right now! Better yet, start a money making side hustle today and use the cash to put into your business.
If you’re willing to put in the work and are dedicated to making your online business work then let’s get started…
The tools that will fast track your success
Pinterest loves active pinners.
Your success on Pinterest boils down to actively creating and pinning images daily.
My current Pinning Schedule Involves me Pinning 30-40 pins a day!
And if that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is!
But that is what you will need to do to keep your Pinterest Account active and drive traffic to the product/service/site you’re offering.
I started using Tailwind, which is an authorized Pinterest Scheduler, to save a lot of the manually work.
For under $15 a month, you’re able to automate the Pinning process, which is golden if you want to turn Pinterest into a passive income source.
You’ll get one month of Tailwind free with this link, so give it a try.
You might find you like the manual process better but you have a whole month to decide for free!
Have a variations of 2-3 pins per link. This will ensure you aren’t just spamming the same pins over and over.
Make sure you pin other people’s content too, especially if you’re just getting started.
It takes me roughly 3-4mins to create a new image for Pinterest using Canva but you also have the option of purchasing some Pre-made templates from Creative Market to save you time in the long run.
Plan your week for success and create a schedule that works for you!
My weekly schedule looks like this:
- Spend 1 day creating ‘fresh pins’ on Canva for my 40+ blog posts
- Spend 1 day manually adding Pins (for the whole week) to each of my boards
- Spend an hour or two scheduling Pins for the whole month using Tailwind Scheduler
- Spend 1 day creating Fresh content for my blog (approx 4-5 Blog posts)
If you create a schedule like this, you’ll see results really fast like I Did.
Step by Step Guide: How to Make Money on Pinterest
I’m going to go through 2 methods of making money on Pinterest; one with a blog and one without a blog.
It’s totally possible to generate extra cash on Pinterest without having a blog, but down the line it’s important to establish a base for yourself.
Having a fully established blog is a great way to do that.
Blogging will give you the opportunity to not only promote your posts via Pinterest, but also gives your online business a foundation, one that people trust!
You DON’T need to know it all in the beginning!
I went from beginner to blogging ninja in just 6 short months. There is nothing that separates you or me, except drive and determination.
Once you have that, you can do anything.
1. How to Make Money on Pinterest WITH a Blog
The first steps are to create a standout, money making blog and drive traffic to it through Pinterest.
The traffic that you drive to your blog, just means the amount of people that visit your blog either daily, weekly or monthly.
If you follow the below Pinterest strategies, you’ll be able to drive a bucketload of people to your blog every month in no time.
In 2 months, I went from having 200 visitors a day to over 2500 visitors a day, and I attribute that all to Pinterest!
There is no reason why you cannot do the same.
While I agree that it’s important to get the right information first before jumping into it, it’s probably more vital to just get started!
This is the way I got started and so far hasn’t let me down.
Learn as you go and research each step as and when you need it!
If you want to start a blog, I highly recommend starting a self-hosted blog with Bluehost before you learn how to make money on Pinterest. You’ll get a fully fledged, protected site for $3.95/month and a FREE domain (worth $14). Click here >>
Trust me, this is a small price to pay to look professional and a much simpler set up from the start!
In the above guide, I go through all the steps you need to take to get your blog started.
Once you have followed those steps, you can come back here to learn how to kickass on Pinterest.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Start your blog
By far the best way I have found to make money on Pinterest is by starting a blog. Getting started with a blog this year really couldn’t be easier.
Many webhosts offer a one click integration with WordPress, which is the best platform for starting your blog.
Even if you’re a beginner blogger, you’re going to want to get a self hosted blog. There are free services out there that allow you to blog for free.
Don’t choose the FREE Blogging route..
FREE is always an attractive offer, that is until you try to turn FREE into a way to make money a few months in. You’ll soon start to see certain limitations on where you can take your blog.
Let me give you the reasons why that is not a good idea (my own experience):
- They’re slow
When you start a free blog on Wix or WordPress, because you are essentially sharing the same server, your site speed will be significantly slower than that of a self hosted network.
- Domain looks spammy
Domains on Free blogging platforms look like this: www.gamingtubz.blogspot.com. It’s not professional and think about why someone would trust your advice when you cant afford 3.99 a month self hosted blog.
- Can’t run ads
You see the ads running on this site? Well that’s one of the ways I make money with my blog. Free Blogging platforms do not allow you to run ads on ‘their site’. If you plan to run ads on your site later on down the line, this one is a biggie.
- Limited No. of Pages
Some sites only allow you to have a total of 20 pages TOTAL! If you plan on writing more than 20 articles, they’ll make you upgrade to a premium plan anyway.
You can set up your very own blog in today for as little as $3.95/month (WITH A FREE DOMAIN) with Bluehost.
Bluehost is a good choice for web hosting; they start as low as $3.95/month but what’s really impressive is their improved customer service.
Not only that, but they also offer a one click WordPress install, making it even easier to start a blog this year.
Don’t wait, take action and put in the work now.
A small investment for something that could be making thousands in a few months!
A domain name for a year will usually cost you about $15.
Bag yourself a FREE domain with Bluehost on their 1-3 year plans and save some cash.
2. Set Up Your Pinterest Business Account
Once you’ve followed all the steps to getting your blog set up (including writing amazing content), you’ll need to set up a Pinterest Business account.
It’s totally free and Pinterest show you step by step how to do that here..
Their guide is beginner friendly, so don’t panic!
TOP TIP: Make sure your profile has your website url as well as relevant keywords in.
3. Create some Pinterest Boards
As you’ve already completed necessary keyword research (detailed on my How to Start a Blog guide), you should have a plethora of keywords/sub-niches to use to get your Pinterest boards off the ground.
If you’re new to Pinterest, a Pinterest Board is a place where users saver all of their ‘pin’ images.
You’re going to want to create between 15-20 boards to start with and then start saving 20+ relevant pins (by other users) to each board.
This is will take a few hours.
But it’s essential!
When you save pins, you drive a small amount of traffic to your Pinterest Profile, thus increasing awareness.
TOP TIP: Make sure each board has a detailed description and keywords inserted. This will help the search engine recognize what your boards are about.
Using relevant hashtags (#) is an essential way to get noticed on Pinterest.
4. Create & Publish Beautiful (Clickworthy) Pins
Til this day, Canva is my no.1 choice for Pinterest Pin creation.
Canva is a FREE online design platform, that allows you to design beautiful Pins that’ll get you clicks every single day.
Simply sign up to Canva and create templates for each of your pins.
You’ll want to use these ‘Pinterest Approved’ dimensions for all your pins:
- 600px by 900px
- 735px by 1150px (my fave)
- 1000px by 1500px
Use colours in your pins that are relevant to your brand. In my experience, bright pinks and oranges work best. But I have also used mint green and blue pins, and those generate loads of traffic too!
Don’t use text that’s hard to read.
When creating Pin titles, the ones I have found to work best are:
“How to…”
“7 Best…”
“Why you should…”
Use free stock images in the Canva library when your just getting started. There are some definite winners in there!
TOP TIP: Make sure you include a detailed pin description with your specific keywords when you upload a pin to Pinterest. Only use 4-5 relevant keywords as hashtags, too many will confuse Pinterest.
5. Join Group Boards & Tailwind
I’d only recommend joining group boards on Pinterest once you have at least 100 followers and have posted a good amount of content.
Which, if you follow the strategy above, shouldn’t be long at all.
Although group boards aren’t as effective as they used to be, they are still worth a shot. However don’t spend too much time on these.
Tailwind Tribes are much more effective when it comes to getting traffic and boosting your profile.
When you add your pin to a Tailwind tribe, other Tailwind users will see them and choose to repin it to one of their Pinterest Boards. This could potentially be huge, depending on how much other followers that user has.
With Tailwind tribes, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have or how many images you have.
Check it out…
Here is a repin notification from one of my Tailwind tribes on a brand new blog with under 400 followers.
This repin came from a Pinterest user that has over 110,000 followers.
That means your pin will potentially be shown to all of their 100,000 followers.
This is huge!!
TOP TIP: If you don’t use Tailwind for anything else, use the Tailwind Tribes feature because this will elevate your profile like no other.
Use only your very best-looking pins for the most impact.
Yay!
You’re ready to start making money with your blog using Pinterest..
By now, you have completed the necessary steps to get your Pinterest Profile and Blog off the ground!
You have:
- Started your Blog (using a beautiful theme)
- Produced helpful and valuable content (10-20 articles is best)
- Created your Pinterest business account
- Created Boards and Written “SEO” driven descriptions
- Designed and Published your own click-worthy pins
- Joined group boards and Tailwind tribes to boost traffic
Your main objective is to drive traffic to your Blog on a daily/weekly basis.
5. Monetize Your Blog
Once you have even a small amount of traffic visiting your site daily, you’ll be able to make money with:
a) Paid Ads
Once you hit a certain amount of traffic every month, you’ll be able to run ads on your website. Companies like Google Adsense, Ezoic and Mediavine offer such a service depending on your monthly viewers.
Google Adsense do not have any requirements apart from well written original content, but their payouts are very high.
My payouts were virtually non existent with Google Adsense. Now I use Mediavine to run ads on my website and my earnings have increased 400%.
Currently I’m at $30 RPM (which is estimated earnings per 1000 impressions). As their requirement is a minimum of 50,000 monthly sessions a month, you’ll be earning on average $1500 a month just from ads.
If you are consistently pinning content on Pinterest manually or using Tailwind, you’ll be able to generate traffic to reach this requirement in a small amount of time.
The great thing about this is you will be earning passive income for Blog Posts you created months, sometimes even years ago!
b) Selling Your Own Products
You can use your blog as a way to sell products you’ve created yourself.
For example, some bloggers have courses or even design templates they sell on their sites.
You can include links on your website that link to your products on Shopify, Etsy and Amazon. This will maximize your daily profits and increase brand awareness.
c) Affiliate Marketing
Promoting other people’s products is a fantastic way to get additional income from your blog.
An example of how it’s done:
When you pin an image to your Baby related Pinterest profile, the visitor will click and go straight to your blog. There, they’ll see a post discussing the best baby products for new moms in 2021. Each of those products will have a special affiliate link to a product on Amazon (using the Amazon Affiliate Program.)
The commissions are typically around 4-8% but the potential volume with this type of blog is huge.
The earnings from promoting affiliate links on your blog depend on your niche and the products your promoting.
Alternatively you could promote digital products instead for an affiliate commission. There are a wide range of digital products with an affiliate program.
Do your research and make sure the readers know what you’re talking about!
Key things to remember:
Do your research to pick a Blog niche that where you can be authentic and provide value, more importantly makes money.
Combine all of the above monetizing strategies and you can easily make $10k every single month!
2. How to Make Money on Pinterest WITHOUT a Blog
Affiliate Marketing has made many a Pinterest user a lot of money online over the last few years!
It’s one of my favourite ways to make money online for the last few years.
It is perfect for you if you have a low budget and want to start making money online today.
This is by far the quickest way to start seeing results because it doesn’t require a lot of experience and every tool is available to you today!
How to get started:
Find a Product you would like to start promoting.
You can do this by searching various Affiliate Networks and Programs and choosing one or a few products that fit within your niche.
*Note: A few of these programs will require a blog/website to get set up.
Then you need to build a webpage which acts as a landing/opt in/bridge between your Pinterest Pin and an Affiliate Offer.
You will need some sort of landing page builder such as Clickfunnels, Builderall or Kartra. (*Builderall is my choice and one I currently use).
Builderall offer a FREE 14 day trial, for all sign ups. So if you just want to test the water and see what works, these are fantastic options.
Build a very simple bridge page enticing the visitor to click through to your affiliate offer. At this point, it would make sense to start collecting emails to use later on for Email Marketing.
That way, if your visitor doesn’t buy straight away, you’ll be able to send offers direct to them via email.
Always take the opportunity to capture leads and build your email list from the start!
Mailerlite offers easy to use email marketing templates and is FREE to get started..
The 3 step affiliate marketing process goes like this:
1. Create Eye-catching Pinterest Images
Landing/Bridge Page
Affiliate Offer
Doing this allows you to build up credibility and trust, as a result the visitor is more likely to purchase the offer you’re promoting.
The Bottom Line
Making money using Pinterest will take time, especially if you have a low starting budget.
If you’re consistently pinning and creating content, you can see results within a couple of months like I did.
The Good news is a lot of the hard work is done upfront, in a few months you could put all of this work on Auto Pilot using Tailwind or even be able to pay somebody to manage it for you!
Voila! Passive income!
The important thing is not to give up! Keep Going.
Good luck!
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