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How to Make Money on Pinterest? 7 Ways
Pinterest is an amazing platform where you can find arts and crafts products, recipes, tutorials, and other creative content.
Started in 2010, it provides a creative outlet for individuals while opening opportunities to earn money. Here are seven ways you can make money on this platform.
Start a Blog
(Unlimited earning potential)
Starting a blog is one of the top ways to make money on Pinterest. Bloggers from different locations in the world reach their audiences here. Unlike with social media platforms, like TikTok and Instagram, bloggers can actually make money on Pinterest.
It’s because Pinterest works like a search engine. Pinterest target readers that are proactively looking for specific content. Plus, its content focus on visual appeal. In turn, bloggers in the food, photography, and handicraft niche make good money through Pinterest.
If want to start a Pinterest blog, follow the tips below:
- Pick a niche and stick to it
- Add a Pin showcasing your blog post to drive traffic to your website
- Post sponsored or affiliate content
The bottom line here is that readers look for posts about various topics and keywords on Pinterest. If you have what they’re looking for, Pinterest can show your content on search results.
In turn, readers can see your pinned posts and visit your website if they’d like to learn more about the topic.
Teach Pinterest Strategies to Others on Udemy
(Sell your course for $9.99 to $199.99 and keep 25-97%)
Udemy Summary
- Wide target audience of learners
- Earn passive income from your courses
- Get your payments within 1 to 2 days
- Short minimum course duration (30 min)
Udemy is an online learning and teaching platform. You can use this to share your Pinterest skills and knowledge.
Let’s face it, social media use, particularly on the technical side of it, isn’t commonly taught in formal educational settings. People most likely learn about using these platforms from other online resources, such as Google.
With Udemy, you have the opportunity to teach the technical and even profitable use of Pinterest.
And, Udemy offers more than 15,000 courses, responding to various topics people are searching for in the platform. So, what are the chances that many are looking to learn about Pinterest, too?
Drive Traffic to Your Etsy Store
(Leverage the power of 45.7 million active buyers)
Etsy Summary
- Easy to set up & maintain your store
- Market to a large audience – 45+ million active Etsy buyers
- Built-in analytics to analyze your performance & make data-driven decisions
- No shop fees
Suppose you’re selling products or crafts through an e-commerce website like Etsy. In that case, you can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your storefront.
Since Pinterest is a search engine, people also use this to look for certain products, including handmade crafts. Using this basic knowledge, you can post your products on Pinterest and link the Pin to your Etsy storefront.
Create appealing Pins to get people searching through Pinterest interested enough to check your Etsy store. Since Pinterest works like a search engine, make sure to add relevant keywords for people to find your Pins.
Finally, Pinterest offers a feature called Promoted Pins. This works similarly to Facebook ads. While these Pins look like normal pins, they’re actually ads.
Promote Affiliate Products
(Earn up to 40% commission)
FlexOffers Summary
- The platform has over 16,000 advertisers to choose from
- It’s easy to browse advertisers by using keywords or narrowing your search to the categories that interest you
- FlexOffers give you support from the beginning and maintain a high-quality service and you can earn even more money by referring other publishers to the platform
- Two-level authentication adds a higher level of security compared to other platforms
Another great way to make money on Pinterest is to promote affiliate products and services.
It’s when you work with companies to promote their products and services. You’ll need to include their product link on your Pinterest Pins. Then, when visitors click on the link and purchase products from your partner company, you’ll get a commission.
Bloggers outside Pinterest also make money this way, proving that it is a legitimate option. When it comes to looking for partner companies, you can do so through affiliate networks, such as FlexOffers and ShareASale.
When considering affiliate marketing on Pinterest, take note of these:
- Some companies don’t let affiliate marketers post links on Pinterest. So, check first with the affiliate manager if you can post their link on your Pinterest before signing any contract.
- There are companies that don’t allow taking images from their websites. If you’re thinking of doing this to use their images as pins, check first if the company allows it.
- Pinterest wants you to post affiliate links as is. Avoid masking or shortening your links.
- Make sure to disclose your affiliate relationship.
Promote Companies and Ask for Sponsorships
(Unlimited earning potential)
Another option to earn money from Pinterest is through sponsorships. You can reach out to companies and offer to feature their products or services on your Pinterest. This strategy can work well if you have a large following and reach on your account.
Besides that, it helps if you can provide quality pins to get companies on board with your plan.
To make high-quality pins, consider the following factors:
- Photo quality
- Brand placement
- Pin design
- Pin concept
Build an Audience and Sell Your Pinterest Account
(Sell an account for $25 – $500+ depending on its size)
Suppose you have the knack for getting a huge following on your Pinterest account. In that case, you can create an account, build an audience and sell it.
Marketers looking to reach specific Pinterest audiences are in need of ready accounts to launch their campaigns. You can try starting Pinterest accounts in various niches so you can reach more audiences.
Pro tip: If you’re looking to share Pinterest strategies on Udemy or similar platforms, growing Pinterest accounts adds quality to your portfolio. This also provides you the opportunity to test your strategies and prove how those work.
Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
(Earn up to $50 per hour depending on your experience)
There are many Pinterest users who find themselves with a huge following. For some of them, posting new content is a challenge, and having help can certainly make a difference.
That’s where you can come into play and get virtual assistant jobs to help people and brands manage their Pinterest accounts. Besides the Pinterest stars, you can also offer your services to bloggers, e-commerce website owners, and social media influencers.
Some of the tasks you’ll need to deliver include:
- Researching for keywords
- Creating pins and content
- Using a scheduling tool, such as Tailwind
- Pinning process automation
- Running Promoted Pins through Pinterest Ads Manager
- Sales and marketing strategies
One of the many perks of working as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant is the work flexibility. As you’ll most likely be handling several clients for various services or tasks, you won’t need to work by the hour. The job is output-based, so as long as you’re fulfilling your duties, you can work anytime you want.
You can even work anywhere you want. All you need is a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone, an internet connection, and some noise-cancellation headphones for a conference call with your clients.
This profession can provide a steady flow of cash, with some virtual assistants reporting $500 earnings per client.
4 Tips to Make Money on Pinterest
With these Pinterest tips, you can start reaching larger audiences on Pinterest. After all, a huge following more often translates to better earning potential.
1. Make Sure You Have a Business Account
A personal account on Pinterest can work if you’re a hobbyist looking to share your work or ideas. Aside from that, it’s okay to use if you’re using the platform as a search engine for your interests.
However, aiming to use Pinterest to make money requires a business account. Having this can make it easier to reach companies and brands for affiliate links, sponsorships, or partnerships.
A Pinterest business is absolutely free and lets you use its analytics and other marketing tools.
2. Create Eye-Catching Pins
Canva Summary
- Over 250,000 free templates to choose from
- Free version available (up to 5GB storage)
- Canva Pro starts from $12 per month
- Automatically post designs to social media
One defining characteristic of Pinterest as a platform is its focus on visual stimulation. Because of that, you’d want your Pins to be the first thing people notice when they search for your target keywords.
Besides being eye-catching, your pins should also be relevant to your concept. And since you’re trying to attract brands to take interest in you, these should look professional, too.
There are plenty of free tools online to help you create beautiful, high-quality visuals for your pins. One of the best examples is Canva, widely utilized by cross-platform marketers. It has built-in templates and images, perfect for social media posts and traditional advertising. You can use this tool on their website, or download it on your computer or smartphone. Besides the availability on multiple devices, this tool is user-friendly and doesn’t require advanced designing skills.
3. Learn How to Describe Your Pins
As previously mentioned, Pinterest works as a search engine as well. Considering this, you’ll need to work on keywords that people use to search your pins. These keywords pretty much describe pins, so most are simple and straightforward.
If you’re figuring out which keyword to use on your pins, you can use the Pinterest search bar. To do this, just type something relevant to your Pinterest niche. For example, for a food or cooking niche, try typing “how to cook.” Then, check the suggested keywords under the search field as those are what users are currently looking for.
4. Use SEO Best Practices to Show Up in Search Results
To get your pins higher on the search results, you should definitely use SEO best practices. Here are some you can follow:
- Add keywords reflecting your brand to your display name.
- Verify your account.
- Follow other Pinterest accounts to increase your visibility.
- Try video pins.
- Post original and high-quality content.
- Optimize your images with the right ratios.
- Be consistent with your SEO practices.
