Pinterest is by far one of the best social media platforms available today if you want to make money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing products.
Well, it’s not really social media as much as a search engine for images. It’s not the place to share your thoughts as you would do on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
I first installed Pinterest on my mobile phone about 8 years ago, somewhere in 2014. It was for the pure reason of finding inspiration for my apartment renovation.
I fell in love with it.
I would often search for a specific room design idea and find a great product in the process.
Pinterest made it possible for me to find the exact look and decor I was looking for. And it saved me a lot of time in trying to find that specific information in endless Google browsing.
Why do I tell you that?
Because like me, many other people use it to find specific products. They open the app with the mindset of looking for something to buy.
Well, at least a large part of the users are.
So why is Pinterest such an Excellent platform for affiliate products?
Learning how to make money on Pinterest may turn out to be a very lucrative income stream.
Look at the following 3 facts.
There are, of course, plenty of reasons, but I chose those 3 as they represent the potential of monetizing Pinterest.
1#
It has more than 450 million active international users. When 95 million of them are from the US. This is more than Twitter which has 78 million.
As you can see from the chart below, it is still growing steadily.
Growth of monthly active users of selected social media platforms worldwide from 2019 to 2021 (Statista)
2#
Pinterest is one of the best ways to build an affiliate revenue stream because pins have a long shelf life. While the life of a tweet is measured in minutes or hours, the life of a pin can be measured in months or even years.
3#
Pinterest’s users are mostly going there to shop. Here is another survey from Statista where you can clearly see that when people want to find products to buy, they go to Pinterest.
Not to Facebook or Instagram. 47% of the users switch to Pinterest when they look for something to buy. A rate that no other social platform was able to match
Can You Make Money on Pinterest Without a Blog?
Yes, you can make money on Pinterest without having your own blog using affiliate links.
Follow the steps in this article exactly. The only difference is that you will not have to claim your website.
The downside is that some affiliate programs require your website information to get you approved.
So building your own website may seem like a good idea.
1. How to get started with Pinterest?
First, you want to have a Pinterest account to start sharing your pins with your audience.
1. Set up an account
If you already have a Pinterest business account, that’s great.
If not, create your business account. A business account provides access to reports, analytics, ads, and other great features.
Decide on your name and description – this is how other viewers will see you, so make sure it is compelling enough.
Also, take advantage of using SEO in your description so when people are looking for specific content, they can find you.
Make sure to add your website in the appropriate field and add a Call to Action in your description.
Tip! Use a photo of yourself (if you do not have an anonymous blog), as it will be easier for people to connect with you.
2. Claim your website on Pinterest
If you have a blog, then this step is mandatory. You want to claim and verify your account on Pinterest.
Go to your profile and click > Settings. From there, select “Claim” and follow the instructions to verify your website on Pinterest.
Now that you are done with the setup, you can create Pins.
3. Create Pinterest boards that are relevant to your niche
After setting up your account, the first thing you want to do after setting up your account is to start creating boards.
A board is like a container of all the pins related to that board title. Create boards relevant to your niche and not just random boards on different topics.
Pinterest favors pinners that are targeted, and their boards represent them and what they are focusing on.
You want to create a definition for each board optimized for Pinterest SEO. This makes it easier for its algorithm to rank you higher and display your pins to relevant people.
Tip! You want to create between 5-10 boards to start with.
2. Select the affiliate products you want to promote
Suppose you know how to make money on Pinterest. In that case, as I will show you through this guide, you can promote any affiliate links on Pinterest from almost any niche.
For more information on how to get started with affiliate marketing, read this: How Do I Start Affiliate Marketing From Scratch in 2020?
But you should know that some niches are more suitable for Pinterest than others.
What type of affiliate products can you promote on Pinterest?
- Physical products, then take a look at this list from Shopify that includes the trending products to sell in 2020:
- You can also promote software just like Tailwind (my favorite system), Website design tools (Like Elementor or Wix)
- Email marketing tools like Mailchimp
- And you can also promote information products like downloadable guides, courses, and others of that sort. For example, Clickbank is a marketplace of Information Products and has one of the most popular affiliate programs.
There are many affiliate programs out there for any niche.
You can just type your “keyword+ affiliate program” in Google to find the ones relevant for you.
And you can also look into how to find the best affiliate programs for beginners.
3. How to create beautiful pins that will make you money?
As I wrote before. Pinterest is all about visual search. People click on pins based on how beautifully crafted they are.
So your pins should stand out.
How to create pins?
The easy way is to do it in Canva and for free.
Canva is an online tool that lets you create stunning visuals with a great selection of fonts and templates. Once you create your pins, you can just download them for free.
They have their own selection of free images. You can also use any of those websites for downloading images for free:
- unsplash.com
- https://photos.icons8.com/
- https://pixabay.com/
- https://www.pexels.com/
- https://mixkit.co/ (for creating videos)
Here are some examples of pins I’ve created with Canva:
And it can also be an inspiration pin, like this one from Lily Fashion Style:
Tip! You should have at least 3 different pins for every affiliate link you’d like to promote.
4. How to Use Affiliate Links on Pinterest
Now that you have your pints ready. You want to upload them to Pinterest. This is a crucial step, which also includes adding pin title and description.
I’ll discuss Pinterest SEO on a separate topic in this article, so this step is purely technical.
To create a new pin and upload your Canva image, you need to log into your business account and click on the “Create” menu located in the top left corner.
Select “Create Pin”.
You can drag and drop your Canva image and add your title and description.
In the “Add a destination link” you need to add your affiliate link. You will get a commission when anyone goes to that link and buys something.
Tip! Do not use a shortened link, but use your full affiliate link on Pinterest as it is. If you are not sending users straight to your affiliate product but want to direct them to a landing age of your own, you can use your landing page URL.
Tip! You MUST state it in your pin description if you use direct affiliate links. You can use hashtags link #AffiliateLink or #AffiliateProduct or simply disclose in writing that this is an affiliate product.
5. How to get traffic using Pinterest SEO
While creating a beautiful pin is excellent, it is not enough.
You want to have the people who need what you are promoting find you.
That’s why you need to use Pinterest SEO.
That means you need to optimize your title and description text.
Want to learn how to use Pinterest SEO to get traffic, you can read this post.
Your pin description should focus on 2-3 keywords when one of those should focus on The leading keyword. Your leading keyword should be the term you want to rank for.
You want to use your leading keyword in your:
- Pin title
- Pin description
- Post URL (if you are promoting a link that belongs to your blog or website)
- Post title
How to know which leading keyword to target?
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
What would they like to know?
What would they search for?
For that, you also need to understand what you are selling?
So for example, if I promote a home-based business course. Then what I am selling is:
- It’s about how to create income from home-based businesses from scratch
- Providing step-by-step guides for beginner
- Master the soft skills you need to become successful with your home bases business
From this process, you can start drafting some relevant keywords:
- How to start a home based business
- Start a home based business
- How to make money from home
- Working from home
- How to start working from home
- How to make extra money from home
You want to go to Pinterest and enter a generic keyword representing the product niche. So in my case, it is: “Home-based Business” and look for more keywords.
Once you type your keyword, just like in Google Suggestions, Pinterest will suggest more keywords:
- Home based business ideas
- Home based business opportunities
- How to start a business from home make money
- Home based business for moms
- Home based business for women
- How stay at home moms can make money
Those are all relevant keywords that I can start using in my pins.
It’s pretty simple and does not require too much time.
How to find keywords to supplement the leading keyword?
Now you need to find more keywords to use in your text.
So if I continue with the example above, my other keywords would be:
- Make Money
- Work from Home
- Passive income
- Side Hustle
- For Beginners
- For moms
Don’t put too many keywords in your description. Your description text should flow naturally, and stuffing too many keywords may look spammy.
Combine your leading keyword and supplement keywords in your pin
Now select your leading keyword and another 1-2 keywords and place them in your description.
Your title should include the leading keyword.
In my case, I chose my leading keyword to be: “how to start a home-based business”.
6. Build your community
Building a community with Pinterest is more straightforward than other social media platforms.
You should build a list of followers but follow the people interested in what you have to offer.
You should know that Pinterest works well and ranks you higher when you pin on regularly.
That means you have to keep pinning to start getting traction.
And ultimately you’d switch from asking how to make money on Pinterest to how to make more money with Pinterest 😉
It is straightforward to do.
1. Get Pinterest follows
Go to Pinterest search and search for one of your keywords. Then select “Boards” as the default to search for pins.
You are going to see all the boards that are related to your search keyword.
Now what you have to do is click on one board, go to the list of followers, and just invite the people already part of this board.
Those people may choose to follow you as well.
Please note that you should not follow too many people in one day; otherwise, your account may get blocked by Pinterest. And you don’t have that.
Tip! I suggest following no more than 100 people a day
2. Join Group Boards
A group board is a board where other people can post pins as well. So there are multiple collaborators.
As group boards have many collaborators and followers, you have a favorable chance that your pins would get reshared, and you can get more followers when posting to them.
You can identify a group board by a little circle at the bottom of the board.
Just like this:
How to find group boards?
There are 2 ways:
1# – Using Pinterest boards search
Go to Pinterest search and search for one of your keywords.
Then select “Boards” as the default to search for pins. You are going to see all the boards that are related to your search keyword among them are group boards.
Now, you have to click on one board and click on “Join”.
Some boards request you to follow the board leader or write a message. Just read the instruction on how to join the group board if there are any.
Tip! To narrow your results, I recommend adding the word group or board or group boards to your keyword.
2# – Using Pinterest people search.
Go to Pinterest search and search for one of your keywords. Then select “People”. You are going to see all the people related to your search keyword. See if among them are group boards. And repeat the same process for joining.
3. Use Tailwind for automating this process and save time
I have written about Tailwind before. Seriously, it is a lifesaver.
Before I knew about the tool, I used to pin randomly to my boards and this used to take me a few minutes every day. And you have to spare time to do it every day.
Now I have a tool that helps me schedule my pins based on the best time Tailwind identified as the best time to get more engagement. It takes about 20 min to schedule my pins for an entire week. Cool, no?
But not only this, on Pinterest, each pin lasts about months. So, it circulates around until it fades from the feed.
Smart Loop
Tailwind has a functionality called Smart Loop where you can create different loops for different categories, which means a group of boards.
Add the pins that you would like to schedule to those loops.
And you can create a schedule, to automatically repost your pins every 7 months. Or whatever schedule fits you.
Tailwind provides scheduling recommendations based on the performance of your account. So, your pints are distributed automatically to the best time slots to increase engagement.
Tailwind Communities
I think the biggest functionality I use within Tailwind is the communities.
Just like in group boards, Tailwind is providing you the opportunity to join different communities about your specific niche.
There are Pinterest account members in those communities that are sharing pins posted to that community by other community members.
Those pins are automatically added to their pins schedule.
That means you can share your pins. And enjoy increased exposure to some very active Pinterest accounts.
All they want is to find new content to share with their audience.
When community members are sharing your pins, their increase your exposure to their group of followers.
Sometimes really fast.
I cannot recommend them enough, and I was lucky to discover them by reading a review like this one. It is almost a no-brainer to use them. You can start for free and then can upgrade to Pro for $9.99 a month.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed learning how to make money on Pinterest with affiliate links
Succeeding on Pinterest with affiliate links is one of the best and easy ways to start making money with affiliate products.
Looking to make more money in these crazy times? Take a look at those articles:
- How to Make Money With Wealthy Affiliate in 2020? Is it worth it?
- How to Make 200 Dollars a Day to Pay Off Debt (2020)
Do you have a question or want to add something? Please share your comment below. And if you really liked it, please share 🙂
Enjoy and happy pinning 🙂
