So you are here to learn how to make money online with Pinterest, aren’t you? I will show you how you can use Pinterest to make money if you have a website or not by driving traffic to your website, doing affiliate marketing, selling products, and learning new skills, among other ways.
If you are anything like me, I’m sure you have seen countless ways of making money online. Sometimes you are like, really, another method?
I get it. Here at Avoid The Boss, we only talk about things we have done and succeeded with to help you avoid the boss once and for all.
This post may contain affiliate links; I will make a commission at no extra cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. Read my disclosure for more information.
So What is Pinterest?
Many people assume Pinterest is just another social media platform. Did you know Pinterest is actually a visual search engine and hundreds of people make a living off of the platform?
The major difference between Google and Pinterest is that whereas Google gives you a list of websites after you do your search, Pinterest gives you a list of images. You then click the link inside the image to go to the website.
According to Statista, Pinterest gained over 120 million users at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, when we were all confined indoors. The US has 98 million active monthly users and there are over 360 million users per month elsewhere.
What can you do with all these millions of people? I dare say a lot.
If you are not making money online with Pinterest, you can imagine how much money you are leaving on the table literary.
So, now that we know the power of Pinterest, let’s learn about how to make money online with Pinterest.
How to Make Money Online With Pinterest With a Blog
The fact is that you can make money online with Pinterest without a website and we are going to discuss these methods here below. However, having a blog or a website is the best method of doing this.
Now, if you are looking for a get-rich overnight method of making money, let me put a disclaimer that this is not it.
This takes time and you need to offer a lot of value for it to work.
To make money online with Pinterest using a blog, you will obviously need to have a blog.
If you don’t know how to start a blog, you can follow my step-by-step guide, where I show you how to start one very simply. My recommended host for your new blog is Bluehost, and this is the host I use for this blog.
You can click here to start with Bluehost for only $2.95 per month.
Once you have started a blog, and it is up and running, it is now time to make money with Pinterest.
To give you a brief summary of what you will get in my guide, you need to decide on a niche, which is the topic that you would want to be writing about. Then create great quality content that meets the needs of your users.
With a blog and content, you are now ready to use Pinterest.
These are the methods to use Pinterest to make money online with a blog.
Related: How To Start A Blog From Zero And Make Money: The Ultimate Guide
1. Drive traffic to your blog using pins
You need to start by opening a Pinterest business account and connecting it to your blog.
A pin is simply a graphic telling people what your blog is all about. For example, here below is a simple pin I made for my post on how to make money as a teenager.
I use the free version of a design app called Canva, which is very simple to use. I say simple because I’m not tech-savvy, but I taught myself how to design on Canva through trial and error, a skill I’m still perfecting.
Once you upload your pin to Pinterest, ensure that you use proper keywords in the title and description of the pin so that anyone typing using those keywords can land on your pin and eventually to your content.
Now, please note that you don’t just make one pin and forget it. That will not work.
Pinterest loves a lot of fresh content, and so you need to keep making multiple pins to attract people to more of your content.
You may be wondering where I’m going with all this. Why does traffic matter?
Traffic simply means the number of visitors coming to your website. The more traffic you have, the more money you can earn.
This is especially true if you are using ad networks on your blog. With these, the more people visit your blog, the more they pay you.
Many bloggers rely on these ad networks to make money blogging. That’s why you need a lot of traffic.
Now, back to Pinterest. If you pin consistently using multiple pins per post, with time you will start getting a lot of traffic to your blog. You can then monitize this traffic using ads and affiliate marketing.
2. Affiliate marketing
Following the traffic idea we have discussed above, you can make money online with Pinterest by doing affiliate marketing.
In this section, I will discuss the part of affiliate marketing using a blog. Later I will discuss how to do affiliate marketing without a blog.
But first, what is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing happens when you promote other people’s products or services and then you earn a commission if the people you are promoting to will buy the products or services using your link.
One of the most popular affiliate programs, and which many bloggers use, is the Amazon Associates Program.
If you want to know everything there is to know about the Amazon Affiliate program, this free resource will provide you with videos, infographics, in-depth articles, and any other information you need to become a successful Amazon affiliate.
Click here to learn how you can make money as an Amazon affiliate with any WordPress website.
So, you can make money online with Pinterest doing affiliate marketing. How?
All you need to do is identify the various products that you would like to promote. Secondly, write informative content on your website talking about those products.
Lastly, create pins about your posts and the products and pin them to Pinterest in a way that people looking for such products on Pinterest will find your pins, click on them and go to your website. Hopefully, they will then clink the links in your post and buy the products.
We discussed traffic earlier at the point above. If you have a lot of traffic coming to your blog, it also means that more people are likely to click on your affiliate links and buy the products you are promoting.
Related: Set Up An Online Affiliate Marketing Business in 3 Days With No Experience? Here’s How.
3. Sell products
You can also sell products on your own blog or even on an e-commerce site and promote them on Pinterest using Pinterest pins.
You start by creating the products which could be digital products like ebooks, courses, printables, or even physical products like handmade crafts, clothing, or furniture.
It could even be a service that you are offering, like website design.
You can sell them directly on your website or open a shop on other platforms like Shopify, Amazon, or Etsy.
Using your blog, you can write posts about your products, their features, and how they can help your followers.
Finally, create pins about your product content and upload them on Pinterest.
These pins will redirect people back to your blog and to your e-commerce sites where people will buy and you make money that way.
Best Ways to Make Money Online With Pinterest Without a Blog
If you are just starting and don’t have a website yet, you can still make money online with Pinterest.
Below are my favorite ways to make money with Pinterest without a website.
4. Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant (VA)
A Pinterest VA is somebody who manages other people’s Pinterest accounts.
I can tell you from experience that managing a Pinterest account requires a lot of time. You need to design multiple pins for your posts, upload them to Pinterest, write pin descriptions and then post them.
You also need to keep checking the analytics of your pins to see how they are performing on Pinterest and make improvements on the poor-performing ones.
If you have enough experience with Pinterest, consider becoming a Pinterest VA for busy individuals and businesses.
A Pinterest VA earns anywhere between $50 and $100 per hour, depending on the experience and where you get the job from.
If you have several clients whose accounts you manage every day, it is not a secret that you can make enough money to live comfortably.
5. Do affiliate marketing without a website
If you have no website, you can still do affiliate marketing by putting your affiliate links directly on pins and then posting them on Pinterest.
When people click on those links inside the pins, they go directly to your affiliate product page and they can purchase from there.
Ensure that your pins have enough description so that people can know what you are promoting.
Note that some companies like Amazon do not allow you to use affiliate links directly on pins. If you use this method, ensure you are not going against the rules of the companies whose products you are promoting.
Also, Pinterest does not like shortened affiliate links. So be ready to deal with long ugly links if you are promoting products directly on Pinterest.
You also need to disclose that you are an affiliate, which is a requirement for an affiliate marketing business.
Considering the challenges I have just discussed, it is clear that you are better off doing affiliate marketing using a blog as we discussed above.
Never put all your eggs in one basket is one mantra I live by.
If Pinterest changed its rules to disallow affiliate marketing directly on pins, however successful your business might be, you can easily find yourself starting from square one.
Diversify your options as much as possible.
6. Sell products without a website
You can still sell your own products on Pinterest, even without a website.
Just create pins and upload them to Pinterest, directing Pinterest users to where your products are. You could redirect them to a Shopify or an Etsy store or any other platform where you have put your products.
7. Learn money-making skills on Pinterest
Did you know you can also learn money-making skills on Pinterest?
I told you earlier that just like Google, Pinterest is also a search engine, but a visual one.
If you type the words “learn how to” on the Pinterest search bar, you realize that there are so many things that you can learn, for example, learn how to knit, crochet, draw, sew, bake, decorate, learn a language and so many other things.
If you click on the displayed pin RRLs, they redirect you to where you can learn those skills. They might be blog posts, YouTube channels, courses, etc.
You can learn any skill you want and use it to make money.
Pinterest Best Practices to Make Money Online With Pinterest
To use Pinterest to run a business, you need to put some things right. I will share a few tips on Pinterest best practices that will help you to succeed on this platform.
1. Use a Pinterest business account
Most of the things we have discussed above will not be possible on a personal Pinterest account.
To make the best use of Pinterest, upgrade to a business account that is free to upgrade and to use.
This way, you will also be able to check the analytics to see how your business account is performing and to do many other things that are not possible on a personal account.
A business account will give you access to analytics to see how your pins are performing. You will see data on how many people are seeing your pins, how many are saving them, and how many are clicking to visit your websites.
You can also create boards that apply to your content and products and save your own pins and other relevant pins from other people.
2. Create great visually appealing pins
Competition in business is stiff everywhere, including on Pinterest. You may have the best content or the best products, but if your pins are dull and uninviting, very few people will click on them.
Use multiple bright colors, legible fonts, and appealing photos in your pins.
The more appealing your pins are, the more they will get engagement from users.
Also, check out what the top pinners are doing and copy their success strategies to make your pins as appealing as possible.
3. Use keywords in your pin titles and pin descriptions
I will keep repeating for emphasis that Pinterest is a search engine. You, therefore, need to use keywords that people use as they search.
When uploading pins to Pinterest, there is a section for pin description. Properly describe what people will see when they click on your pin using keywords.
To get some motivation, just type the keywords you are thinking of using in the Pinterest search bar and see what comes up. This shows you what most people type when searching and you can borrow a lot from here.
4. Create multiple pins
Each of your blog posts should have multiple pins.
You should, however, note that Pinterest is in favor of fresh content and so each pin should be unique to avoid suspending your account for spamming.
Also, make sure that you do not post multiple pins from the same URL on the same day. Space them for like 2 to 3 days.
5. Create and join Pinterest boards
Create several boards that represent your blog topics or whatever you pin about and then save pins to their respective boards.
You should also look for other group boards on Pinterest with similar content to yours and apply to join.
Group boards give your pins more visibility as the members of the boards you join get to see your pins and interact with them.
Check out this Pinterest guide for more ideas on how to succeed on Pinterest.
4. Follow Pinterest’s community guidelines
Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to mess up with Pinterest’s guidelines. I have been there, and it is a nightmare to be suspended by Pinterest.
You can find your traffic falling to almost nothing overnight. If you are in business, that is not a position you want to find yourself in.
Ensure that you are familiar with all of Pinterest’s guidelines before you create and upload your pins. Also, keep updating yourself to be familiar with any recent changes that they make.
Check out Pinterest community guidelines and follow them.
Wrapping Up on how to Make Money Online With Pinterest
As you have noted, Pinterest is a great platform that is not likely to go away soon. The more you can take advantage of it, the better for you.
Make money online with Pinterest, with or without a website, but remember having your own website is the better option as you have no control of another platform.
Things can change overnight and leave you without an income. On the other hand, you have control over a property that you own like your own blog.
I’m sure you can already see that I’m not exaggerating when I say you can easily make over $3,000 per month using Pinterest. Many people are making much more than that. Bloggers who have joined ad networks like Mediavine and AdThrive make over $5,000 per month easily.