For me, Pinterest seemed very complicated to understand when I started blogging 6 months ago. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I never used Pinterest ever before (not even a personal account!).

So I first had to learn what Pinterest was all about and then needed to learn how to use it as a blogger. I had to move from basic to advance level starting from ground zero! I was throwing a zillion questions to bloggers in emails, facebook groups… I was going crazy!

So I wanted to create a guide that answers questions that I had when I started.  If you are a new Pinterest user or someone that has used Pinterest but never gained those “pageviews” from it, then read on my friend.

I am going to help you GET YOUR PINTEREST GAME ON!

Hopefully, at the end of this post, you become a confident pinner! 🙂

Note: Don’t be hard on yourself trying to consume all the information in here. It took me almost a month of reading blog posts, and ebooks to figure this out. Give yourself the time to grow and you will get there soon.

At the end of this post, you will see my blog analytics and statistics to show any new blogger that this is possible, and you can do it too!

WHAT IS PINTEREST?

Pinterest is a platform like Google. Just like you would search for a new outfit or a new recipe on Google, people search for the same on Pinterest. You can search for pretty much everything on Pinterest– recipes, clothes, books, advice, tips, hacks… anything! There are about 175 million users on Pinterest, EVERY MONTH! And these users are people that are ready to buy from Pinterest. So you have more chances of selling your affiliate products on Pinterest as compared to any other social media platform.

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HOW CAN PINTEREST HELP BLOGGERS?

Just like you want your blog posts to show up when someone does a Google search. You want your pin to show up when someone searches for a product in your niche on Pinterest.

Let me explain.

Say you are a food blogger, and your niche is related to diabetic dessert recipes. So when someone searches for diabetic Christmas desserts you want your posts to be featured as the first few posts on the Pinterest feed. And if it does…

Bingo!

People that are searching for those recipes are going to find their way to your post. This is every blogger’s dream to get that engaged audience from Pinterest. And it is possible, even if you are just starting out.

WHAT ARE PINS/ PINNABLE IMAGES?

Long vertical images that are bright, clear and have a strong title that would make the reader want to click through to read it! You can create these images using canva or picmonkey.

Use social sharing plugins to get these images shared easily. When you have the social share buttons on your blog, users can share your content on Pinterest instantly.

A good top rated social share button is social warfare. It’s clean, neat professional-feel, and doesn’t look like it is interfering with your content when someone is reading it. And best of all it’s only $29 the entire year! I use social warfare on my blog if you want to see it in action.

4 steps to SET UP PINTEREST ACCOUNT FOR BLOGGERS,

1. You need to create a business account instead of a normal Pinterest account. IIt’seasy to create one, free to use and you can sign up for a business account here.

2. Set up rich pins. Rich Pins make your meta description stand out bolder, so when people are scrolling through their Pinterest feed, your pin standout. 

Its especially helpful for food bloggers as your recipes index and star ratings will show up with your pin. Getting more visitors to your site.

3. Create board covers– You need to categorize your pins into boards (groups) so it’s easy to categorize your content. Check out my board covers from my Pinterest profile that are sized 500px X 500px on canva.

4. Your Pinterest profile, pins, and boards need to be well keyworded in the alt title and description as shown below. These keywords will help Pinterest algorithm understand what your blog content is about. This will help you rank better in their feed. 

If you go to your WordPress dashboard > media  > add new. This is where you add new images to any of your blog posts. Make sure you fill out the ALT TEXT with a short description and about 4-6 keyworded hashtags. And in the DESCRIPTION fill out relevant keywords as I have shown below. This will automatically show up on your pin images when you share it on Pinterest.

CREATE SLIDES ON YOUR PROFILE

This little tip gives a professional look to your profile and highlights what your content is all about. You can head over to my Pinterest profile to see “a slide” that shows right at the top with only posts on my blog.

You can add up to 5 boards to make a slideshow. I prefer to have only one slide from my site which says, “One fine wallet blog”, so I know traffic that view my profile will make their way to my blog.

But it’s totally up to you if you want to feature more than one.

This is how you do it,

In your Pinterest account, go to settings > profile > showcase and click edit. Add up to 5 boards to feature on the slide.

Next, click on the “slots” and add which group board you want to be featured at the top of your profile as a slideshow and click “save”.

SMART FEED? WHATS THIS?

When you open your Pinterest account, you see a set of pins automatically showing up. This is called your smart feed. It’s what Pinterest has chosen as “the best” – most popular pins on Pinterest. This smart feed will show you pins relevant to your niche. You want your pins to show up in this feed. So when people open their Pinterest app your pins are what they might get a chance to see. The only way to be voted popular by Pinterest is by creating great pins, and by pinning regularly.

WHAT DO YOU PIN? WHERE? WHEN?

As a new Pinterest user, I was confused how to pin, when to pin and how many times to pin.

Now, I pin 40 pins a day. 20 of pins from my own blog posts and 20 pins of other bloggers in my niche. I pin them to group boards (more details on group boards below) and to my own boards, spreading out the pins so my followers get to see a variety and not the same pins over and over.

You might wonder, why should you pin others pins? Isn’t it like doing someone else a favor?

Here are 3 reasons to explain why,

• Pinterest likes it when you are pinning a variety of content and not just from your posts. You will look like a champ in front of Pinterest!
• Pinning someone else pins might also help you gain some followers in the process. They notice you pinning their content and might eventually end up being your follower 🙂
• When you share someone else’s pins, your profile does show up along with their pin. Curious readers might want to click your content as well, to see if you have articles that might be of interest to them.

GROUP BOARDS?

So, now you want to know what are group boards. Group boards are someone else’s board you are going to pin on. Anyone can create a group board and invite people to pin to it.

Why are group boards important?

Say you are a new blogger with a small following of 200.  But with a group board, they might have around 8,000 followers or more. So your pin image is reaching a larger audience and more chances of getting shared! Joining group boards are essential to gain visibility. How do you find group boards to join? Pin groupie is a good place to start.

Or you can simply search for topics in your niche on Pinterest, find someone you like and see if they have a group board in their account.

To join a group board you need to be invited by the leader of that group. It is usually the first person on the list of contributors in that board.They usually mention how you need to apply to them in their group board description.

USE THOSE HASHTAGS!

Hashtags have just come into Pinterest and I have personally found them to do good to my pins. They seem to be shared better and come up on relevant Pinterest feeds. I usually use around 4-6 hashtags for each pin, with relevant keywords. Although I believe there is no limit to how many you can use.

Pinterest in action! 

But I’m sure you still have a lot of questions after reading this. To be honest, Pinterest is a vast topic to understand. But don’t under-estimate it.

I didn’t believe Pinterest could bring me traffic and be wasting time doing a lot of “time-draining” blog promotion.  After getting into the Pinterest “routine”, I get to spend more time with family while my pins are in circulation on Pinterest and gaining traffic to my site.

There are a lot of Pinterest guides that I had bought in the past, some useful and some a total waste of money (no kidding!). This one however answered all of my questions. It takes you from basic to an advanced level. Filled with pictures and videos (over 2 hours long!) it made learning Pinterest a breeze. Here’s the link to this Pinterest ebook that will drastically increase page views to your blog.

LIKE SOME PROOF?

Today is the 6th of March 2018, and I started this blog on the 16th of February. Yes, not even a month old! I have reached almost 3,000 pageviews in just over 2 weeks of starting! And this PINTEREST guide is what helped me get here. You can view the modules/chapters of the ebook in the link and started implementing the exact strategies to make your blog a success. Here is a quick view of my google analytics with pageviews from the past 20 days since I started this blog!

Most of my traffic has been from Pinterest!

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WAS THAT TOO MUCH INFORMATION?! It can be if you are hearing it for the first time.

Take your time. Just as much as your blog posts are important, getting your Pinterest act together will help you in the long run.

A little bonus:

If you haven’t started your blog yet because you are feeling a little nervous (I know I was!), here’s some FREE technical help to get you set up 🙂

I got my blog self-hosted and installed WordPress in 10 minutes with them! You can chat with them online and get set up right away, they will stay with you till WordPress is installed and up and running!

This was big for me as I am the worst person on the planet when it comes to technology- ha!

Got any questions for me? Leave them in the comments below.

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