The popularity of Pinterest continues to skyrocket. So how do you capitalize on the growth to make money with Pinterest?
The number one way to turn you efforts with Pinterest into regular cash flow is to become a standout visual content creator. Oh, is that all????
Becoming a visual Pinterest guru sounds intimidating, but by following some straight forward steps, you can be well on your way.
1. Find Yourself An Online Home.
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Establish a web presence for yourself. Whether that be a blog, company website, online store, YouTube channel, Instagram Account, etc..
Create a place that is your home base, where your visual and written work is housed. Where the bulk of your pins lead and where interested parties can find a collection of your work.
Self-Hosted
My website is self-hosted. This term means that I have a domain (site) name that I own. I have creative control over what my site looks like.
In return, the burden of updating my site and making significant changes to it falls on me. I pay to use the WordPress.org platform to build my site on, as well as, pay a separate company to host my website on their web servers.
Hosted
Sites for website building such as WordPress.com and social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram are hosted. As such, these entities offer easy templates for set-up, ongoing automatic technical and security updates, and server space for your work.
The trade off is that a hosted website owns the domain (site) that your content lives on and design options available to you. And in the case of a social media platform, you can only add content in the format that platform is set up for.
For example, YouTube requires that your main content be in a video format.
If looking for long-term viability of your content online, I recommended going self-hosted.
2. Equip Your Online Home With The Tools Needed To Turn Traffic Into Income.
Set up your online content such that when Pinterest traffic heads your way, you are ready to make money off it. You can most easily do so when you are self-hosted using avenues such as:
- Ads on your site-Google Ads is a great place to start and then expand out from their to other ad networks as your traffic increases.
- Affiliate links in your content-When a reader clicks on your affiliate link and buys something within set guidelines, you receive a percentage of the purchase amount. Affiliate programs can be found through both individual companies such as Amazon and networks that represent a number of companies such as Share A Sale.
- Partnerships with brands-Once you have established traffic to your content, you will be able to approach individual brands and networks such The Sway and Linquia about partnering with them to feature their products and/or services in your content.
If you are building your content on a hosted platform, then you will need check that platform’s rules and regulations as to what forms of monetization that they allow. It will be more limited than self-hosted options.
3. Get To Content Creating
Whether your content is in writing, photos, videos, or a mix of all, make it reflect your personality! Find your niche. Look at your interests/passions because where your heart is, the best content often comes from.
Lots of content creation tips are available online. Take some time to study them. Also, check out the Pinterest Categories Page, to see the type of content that resonates with users and will help make money with Pinterest.
4. Set Up Your Pinterest Account To Do Business
- Get yourself a Pinterest Business Account or convert your Personal Business Account to a business one. You receive access to Pinterest’s super helpful analytics this way.
- Verify your Pinterest Business account. It adds an extra layer of credibility to your account. Check out this easy step-by-step guide from Tailwind
- Apply for Rich Pins. These pins add details to pins that help them stand out to Pinterest users. Check out Kate at Simple Pin Media’s Guide to Rich Pins on Pinterest.
5. Make Your Images Stand Out
Now that you have your Pinterest account set up properly, create your own images for Pinterest or use stock photography. The two stock photography sources that I use are Canva and iStock,. I pay to use images from these sources. Free options are available, but I choose not to use them because I like the assurance that I have the right to use the images for my purposes.
Some helpful tips for best Pinterest images include:
- Pinterest currently recommends 600 x 900 pixel sized pins or a 2:3 ratio. Pinterest has recently started cutting off parts of some really long pins so take the recommendations seriously.
- Light and bright images work best. Remember that people will be looking through a sea of pins in their feed and you want yours to jump out.
- Make sure your images are sharp. Blurry does not tend to work.
- I find that putting a text overlay over my images helps attract attention. Make sure that your font(s) are easily readable. PicMonkey is a simple program for adding overlays.
- Check out how your images look on both desktop and mobile platforms, with the greatest weight on mobile. 70 plus present of overall Pinterest users interact with the site on a mobile device.
6. Jump In And Keep Learning
Now that you’ve got a foundation to make money with Pinterest, hop right in. Experiment and find your own unique style. And just keep right on learning because things in the online world just keep on changing.
For more Pinterest tips:
Grab your free printable cheat sheets for each month of the year showing you what perennially trends on Pinterest all 12 months and 365 days. Cool references that you will use over and over again.
