*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the full disclosure here.
Make Money on Pinterest with Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing is a great way for anyone to make money without actually creating your OWN product.
If you are a beginner, here are 3 easy steps on how to make money on Pinterest affiliate links – and you do not need a website to do this.
But if blogging is how you want to work from home, these are 4 steps to follow.
- Got your blog self-hosted
- Set up and customized your blog theme
- Published some super awesome blog posts- this was my pillar post
- You’re promoting it the best you can on social media.
You can make affiliate marketing work with or without a blog and I am going to teach you step-by-step.
I can remember the very first affiliate commission I made. I received an email that read the *Congratulations you have made a sale* it was an indescribable feeling!
From there it was no looking back. I started implementing new tricks to make affiliate marketing work, and Pinterest has been the best help.
Let me show you a strategy with an example of how you can start making those affiliate commissions too!
And it’s by using affiliate pins on Pinterest!
Yes, Pinterest allows you to leave affiliate links on your pins following the steps I’ve listed out below.
Let me explain what this means, and how it works.
*This post contains affiliate links. Please read full disclosure here.
This is how you usually make an affiliate commission FROM A BLOG POST.
You place affiliate links within the body of your blog posts to products hoping that people will click on your link and make a purchase. Or you place affiliate banners in your sidebar or other suitable places within your blog post.
Right?
But, with AFFILIATE PINS, it’s different. Its a shortcut to getting people to click through your “affiliate link” without you having to create an entire post on it or placing blog post links. And the best part is you don’t need to be a blogger in that niche!
So you can be a food blogger and still promote products related to fashion! (more on this below) Isn’t that great?
This is a great way for beginners that are looking make money in their early blogging days.
3 steps on how to do this. You first need to set up your Pinterest account to get started. Here’s a guide that will help you.
Next,
- You will need to create an image for that affiliate product to use on Pinterest ( a pinnable/ or a pin image)
- Upload that image on Pinterest and in the URL given, place your affiliate link. So your PIN image and your AFFILIATE LINK are connected.
- In the pin description, write a well-keyworded description of that product and, here’s the IMPORTANT PART – disclose its an affiliate link. You use a hashtag and write #affiliatelink or #afflink or a plain text “affiliate link”
Don’t worry if you didn’t fully understand the steps listed above. I have a step-by-step example below. 2 things not to do
- Etsy/Amazon affiliate links I believe don’t allow you to use direct affiliate links on Pinterest. So do check with your affiliate owners if this is allowed. Although most of them do allow you to create affiliate pins, its always good to make sure 🙂
- Don’t use any link shortening tools to alter your affiliate links, I believe Pinterest doesn’t allow for that.
Examples of affiliate links that can be used: Digital products like ebooks, online courses, links to your Shopify store (or any e-commerce website) are a few good ideas. The important thing is to get approved into these affiliate programs to start promoting.
3 Steps to Make Money on Pinterest with Affiliate Links
I am creating an affiliate pin for an ebook called Pinteresting strategies. I love this ebook because it teaches you how to create a schedule that you can use to manually pin to Pinterest. This strategy gets Carly over 200,000 views to her blog every month! I bought this book and I love it. It’s definitely a good investment if you want to pin manually and not pay for schedulers like Tailwind.
Ok, let’s start.
Step 1 : Create a pin image using picmonkey or canva. Save the image to your desktop.
Step 2 : Upload the image to Pinterest and place your affiliate link. For this, go to your Pinterest account. Click on the “red” plus sign on your Pinterest homepage. In the drop-down, you will see “upload image”. Click on that and upload the image you saved to your desktop.
Step 3: Next, you will see this screen below appear. You then,
- Upload your image here
- Place your affiliate link here
- Write out your well-keyworded pin description, a few useful hashtags, and affiliate disclosure.
This is how I filled out my affiliate pin below,
Step 4: Save it to a relevant Pinterest board of yours. I just saved it to my own board “one fine wallet” blog posts.
Finally… Promote this pin. Try not to go overboard with promoting affiliate links as you might look spammy. You can create multiple images (pins) for the same affiliate link. See which one performs better and promote the better performing pin. I have had a decent amount of sales sharing these affiliate pins.
2 tips to be successful at making money with affiliate pins:
- A stunning pin image – I recommend Picmonkey as I love its features. You can also use canva for this as its a free tool and easy to use. You can only make a sale if someone clicks on your “pin image”. So create some awesome images!
- Join a reputable or highly trusted affiliate program. Readers will buy products, only if the products and the company or people behind it are reliable. For example, some of the recipe ebooks I promote have been featured in People magazine, Women’s health and Martha Stewart. This gives your readers an understanding of how popular your products are and a reason to buy it.
Now remember how I told you, you can promote products in any niche?
This depends on if you get accepted into that affiliate program. And when you do, start creating your affiliate pins and promoting them.
A good place to get easily accepted into is Shareasale. This platform is great for new bloggers.
I got accepted into their program in one week of starting my blog. You can choose from thousands of products they have listed ranging from fashion, food, lifestyle, finance and more.
You can sign up with Shareasale here for free.
Start promoting your affiliate pins and let me know how they have worked out for you in the comments section below.
I apologize; I meant to ask this question also but forgot. Should I use Pinterest for Business or just Pinterest as I am now to try and post affiliate links? Any information that you can give to me would be more than appreciated.
Tracy
No problem Tracy! Opening a Pinterest business account is ideal. It only takes a few minutes to set up. Pinterest would favour your pins if it is from a business account and you need to have rich pins enabled 🙂
Hello Saranya!
I just discovered your blog today and I’m loving how neat and detailed each post is. It’s very well written and I honestly did not know that you could make affiliate sales with Pinterest. This is so cool!
I’m really trying to sign up for your Newsletter but I can’t find an opt in to subscribe to. Could you point me in the right direction?
Thanks Angela!
Yes, you can make money using affiliate links on Pinterest. But you might need to check with the relevant affiliate programs before doing so. I believe Amazon and Etsy store links are not allowed on Pinterest, but this can be an additional way to make a few sales apart from using links on blog posts. And here is the link to my newsletter that was hiding 🙂 https://onefinewallet.com/newsletter
Hello Saranya!
Such a great post found here for Pinterest..love this post. very informative and inspirational
Thanks
What is affiliate link??
It’s a special link you receive when you sign up for an affiliate program. When someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase you a commission from it:)
Please I will like to be part and show me exactly I can start earning some thing little about Pinterest Online affiliate summit. Thank
This is timely. I’ve been looking for this information.
I am very poor, I am an affiliate learner right now, I am very benefited, you gave good information through this blog thank you
Hi Saranya,
I have started a few blogs about a year ago, to be honest I put in so much time and work with no real income, I didn’t know how to do itl, so I joined group that I loved, Wealthy affiliates, and to be honest, I really learned a lot about so much, affiliate programs, blog, getting Google to recognize my site. The problem is I was paying a monthly fee. With all the work I was doing, I was not having any luck generating income. The lack of income caused me to have to let the program go, when I did I lost my sites and all the work I did on my sites. I have been looking for work at home jobs for a number of months and have been hit with scam after scam.
I don’t want to feel defeated, at times I struggle with that… I love pintrest and would love any suggestions you have, I can break free and earn some money!
i Thought with affiliate programs you had to have a website?
Hi Colleen,
I am sorry about what happened to your previous blog. Owning your website gives you full control of your site. I have heard a bit about wealthy affiliates but never went down that route. But don’t lose hope. I began my first blog in September 2017 (which I wasn’t very satisfied with). So I began my second blog in March 2018 from scratch and it has been the best thing ever! We all grow by experience:) As for affiliate marketing without a blog – yes you can share direct affiliate links on Pinterest without a blog as there are a few programs that accept you without a blog, ShopStyle Collective being one of them. Good luck!
Hey Saranya,
Came here from one of your Pinterest pins. Liking this article as you made an easy to understand step by step strategy.
Thanks for sharing..:)
Thanks Jay!
I have been trying this method with no success for about 6 months now. People are repinning my pins just no sales yet! I think what stood out the most to me on your post here was to make sure I have great images. So I will maybe make some new pins and focus on better images! Thanks for the post!
Hi Sandy! Yes, images are key. When someone is scrolling through a bunch of pins, your pin needs to stand out, so they are ready to click through 🙂
Hi Sarayna,
I’m a bit new to this affiliate game, and even newer to Pinterest so I’ve got a question. I understand how affiliate links work, but I’m not too sure how to promote them on on Pinterest. I’ve created a few boards and put a bunch of pins on them. I’ve also created a couple of pins for affiliate offers I’ve promote elsewhere and I’ve had some hits, re pins and saves. Apart from adding your affiliate pin to your own board I’m not sure how exactly to promote them. Any advice will be welcome. I enjoyed reading through this post and have got some value from it, it’s well written and not too full of jargon. I’ve started to try and set up a blog but writing blog posts isn’t really my thing, although I could maybe try harder. It’s only a free WP one at the moment as since someone hacked my bank account I’m a bit short of funds for hosting etc. You say you recommend Picmonkey. I think it might be worth investigating an alternate picture editor called photopea.com as it’s virtually Photoshop without the fees but can be used with Photoshop files etc. which is very handy if like me you’re short of funds!
Hi Alf! Joining group boards are helpful. I understand you are pinning to your own boards, but pinning to group boards gives you a bigger reach in terms of how many people get to see your pins. Do keep in mind that joining RELEVANT groups boards help, not to the share all group boards. And thanks for the info on Photopea, Ill take a closer look 🙂
Hi Saranya,
Thanks for your reply. Could you explain to me what exactly group boards are. I’ve had a look around the Pinterest help section, but couldn’t find any explanation there.
Kind regards
Alf Slawson
Hi Alf,
Just like you create your own personal boards on your pinterest account, group boards are someone else’s personal board that is open for you to share your pins.So you if you have 100 followers and share it within your own boards only the 100 followers and their followers see your content. But if you pin to a “group board” and if the owner of that board has 10,000 followers then your reach is higher. This is the main reason people recommend sharing to group boards with a following bigger than yours. To get accepted into a group board you would need to email the owner of that board and request to join so you can start sharing your pins. Hope this answers your question:)
I’m just starting out and found this very helpful! Thank you for the great advice! ?
Thanks Karen!
Hi Sranya,
I am impressed with this article so helpful and great and am fulfilled after reading it. As Nigerian and also have an account on Pinterest that I just started last month 18th with 450followers till the moment and pinning more a,am happy. Meanwhile,I have been looking for ways to be an affiliate on Pinterest without a blog bit couldn’t fathom it until today that I see I can do it. Once again thank you so much. So to let you know as a Nigerian which my country has a limit to go in the world of internet marketing can you please let me know some affiliate I can join and be getting paid in Nigeria.Also my blog hasn’t been host cos it isn’t easy based on dollar rate here in my country Thanks
Hi Teslim, Going self-hosted is definitely something you might need to consider if you are blogging as a business. And as for affiliate programs that accept bloggers from your country, the best thing to do is a google search of your niche and find a suitable affiliate program. You could also email the programs and see if they allow direct links on Pinterest. Hope this helps.
I have a question. If shareasale is free, why are they asking me for credit card information, or any payment information?
Hi Kelly,
Sharesale pays you via direct debit or check. From what I remember they asked for my payment details to verify my account. Is that the page you are looking at? Let me know if you have any concerns.
Share a sale only sends checks 🙁 has anyone tried this who is from the Philippines?
Hi, Saranya, I felt like a preschooler when it came to pinterest, thanks for coming down to my level. I so much better after reading this post.
Thabk you Cynthia, I am so SO glad!!
I have a large following on pinterest, it is time to start making money on Pinterest. Thanks for sharing these helpful tips.
Yes! Thanks for stopping by John:)
Hi Saranya
Been long time find and article like you wrote, love it so much !! But just wondering can i do what you do from my country Indonesia for affiliate things?
I really new in this, but i am very very interested to this as i am a single parent of 2 cute kid, very welcome hearing back from you😊
Hi Sri absolutely! You can do affiliate marketing from any part of the world. Your only restriction would be joining in certain affiliate programs. But there are plenty to choose from, so that shouldn’t be a worry:)
I really appreciated this post! I have just created a T-shirt store and haven’t been able to figure out how to promote my shirts on Pinterest. I have a blog but haven’t really tried to start making money in it- I’m ready to take both things to the next level and your tips here will help a lot! Thanks so much
Thats great Nichole! You can use direct affiliate marketing for both your blog and your store. Just make sure you are pinning actively every day, so Pinterest recognises you and starts to share your content with the relevant audience!
Best strategy ✌️
Hi Saranya– What country do you live in? I’d really like to start using some of your strategies, but I thought that if you live in the US you cannot post affiliate links directly to Pinterest. Do you know if that’s true or not? Thanks for your help– great article!
Hi Clarrisa, I live in the UK and know of bloggers sending out direct affiliate pins from the US. I think you should be good to share direct links on Pinterest. Just make sure you disclose its an affiliate pin and limit the number of affiliate pins you share a day. 4 pins are plenty 🙂
Thank you for a useful post. I have a few affiliate pins out there but no bites yet. Do you have any recommendations for the types of affiliate products we can promote that will get the best results?
Thank you 🙂
Can I use my own personal Pinterest to do this, or should I start another Pinterest account to do this? If so should I make sure I have other boards and pins on this new account before I start pins like this?
Hi Saranya
Thanks for a very comprehensive post.
I have a question that I’m still not clear on.
How can I pin affiliate pins to my own blog Pinterest account if the product I am promoting has nothing to do with my blog content?
Do I need to have boards for all different product types even if they don’t relate to my blog?
Or do I just need to have a board for affiliate products and won’t either of these two options undermine my Pinterest and blog credibility?
When looking for the right affiliate company’s to join how do I go about that? Do I search specifically for Pinterest affilliate links?
Hi Saranya Ramanathan, such an amazing ideas to start a blog on different niches. Really an useful post with clean and clear details. Thanks for sharing this post-Jamie. Keep sharing.
Thanks Jamie!
Hi Saranya,
Thanks for writing this. It’s very helpful to us affiliate marketers who use Pinterest to drive traffic to the blog. I’m just about to start my journey and it’s challenging.
Valerie
Hi
I have interest to learn online biz but i have not found any good guru to teach step by step. Most called himself ‘expert’ charge expensive cost fee and return nothing and i do not have much investment to start this biz. Most of this IM people selling their package rather than teach you and guide you every steps. And most important is if i need help, you can easily get contact.
I seek your your reply and looking to learn from you
pls message to my inbox so i can further discuss to you abot my plan
Pinterest is so helpful in driving traffic, increasing engagement and for earning money. You’ve done a fantastic job explaining everything! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much Emily!
Amazing content for beginners who don’t want to invest in a blog or ads. I myself got started with a blog but will be punting much time into Pinterest for traffic. Thanks for the information.
Wow, some really helpful tips, thank you ❤️
Thank you mam for valuable content
Hey dear,
Thank you so much for your guidance.
This article is informative and helpful for beginner.
Hi
I’m very new at this so please bare with me. Lol
You said that you do not need a blog or website to post affiliate links to Pintrest.
I am confused as to how you get sales off of a pin? Is it kind of like an advertisement page? Am I making a pin the same as the affiliate?
Thanks in advance ☺️
Thank you so much for posting this article! You helped answer quite a few questions I had and actually made it quite easy to understand.