5 Brilliant Ways To Make Money With Pinterest

Did you know that you could make an extra $100+ per day from Pinterest?

This can help you pay off debt faster, save money for a downpayment on a home, or make paying the bills each month easier. Today you’ll walk away from this post knowing how to make this reality possible!

If you told me three years ago that I would be making a living from Pinterest, I would’ve never believed you.

Pinterest was new to me and I really didn’t understand how it worked. I thought people used Pinterest to create inspiration boards or get ideas for dinner. I didn’t know that each image linked back to a website or that it was even possible to make money from Pinterest.

It was only in 2016 that I realized Pinterest was a visual search engine. So, instead of Googling recipes to make for dinner, I would search for ideas on Pinterest.

Pinterest is now my go-to website for whenever I need to search for something online. Whether I’m looking for travel tips, home décor ideas, beauty hacks, or even minimalist living tips – I can find it all on Pinterest.

Related Posts:

• Side Hustle Ideas to Make Money in Your Spare Time
• How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners
• How To Start A Money-Making Blog In Minutes

How To Get Started On Pinterest

If you’re interested  in making money on Pinterest, then you NEED a website.

But, what if you don’t have a website — can you still make money on Pinterest?  Yes. BUT it’s extremely difficult.

Having a website and pinning on Pinterest goes together like peanut butter and jelly. When you have a website and use Pinterest effectively, that’s when the magic starts to happen!

Maybe you already have a website and use Pinterest, but you’re not seeing results. I used to be in this situation a few years ago too. I signed up for a Pinterest Business account and pinned every single photo from my blog to Pinterest.

Then I sat there and hoped that one of my pins would suddenly go viral. But the truth is, nothing happened. I got zero traffic to my blog from Pinterest. My first Pinterest experience was an epic FAIL!

My horizontal photos looked awesome on my blog and received good engagement on Instagram, but they didn’t receive any engagement on Pinterest. My Pinterest account was basically a case study of what NOT to do to make money on Pinterest.

Does this sound like you too? Don’t worry, there’s hope my dear reader!

I gave up on using Pinterest during the first two years of my blogging journey. However, if I learned how to use Pinterest effectively from the start, I would’ve been able to grow my blog and increased my income A LOT faster.

Today you’re going to learn the RIGHT way to use Pinterest so you can make money online, pay your bills, and start living the life that you’ve always wanted. Pretty awesome, right?

Let’s do this!

STEP 1: Start a website (it’s easy and cheap!)

Before you can start making money on Pinterest, you need to have a website. I recommend using a self-hosted website.

PRO TIP: Professional bloggers are self-hosted. Many recommend THIS web hosting because it only costs a few dollars per month and it’s one of the top web hosting companies of 2018. Plus, they have 24/7 customer service which is great.

This is the same web hosting company I used when I first started my blog. It’s the best option for beginners who want to start their own website for cheap.

I know you’re probably thinking you can start a blog for free on Blogger, but this is a big mistake! You do NOT want to choose a free blogging platform because they don’t  allow you to make money from display advertising or affiliates. These two are ESSENTIAL to making money from blogging and Pinterest.

It’s nearly impossible to make money from free Blogger websites. Many advertisers don’t view them as professional as self-hosted WordPress blogs. That’s why I always recommend starting your blog the RIGHT way to anyone who wants to make money online.

It only costs $2.95 per month to start your own blog when you sign up for the Basic Plan through my tutorial. This is a special price that is only available to Mint Notion readers, plus it includes a FREE domain name.

Get access to my complete step-by-step tutorial here: How To Start A Money-Making Blog In Minutes

STEP 2: Create awesome content for your blog

Content is king in the blogging world. The key to creating awesome content is to write blog posts people actually want to read. This means you need to write blog posts that people are SEARCHING for on Pinterest.

For example, people are probably not searching for how your weekend went with your family. However, they might be searching for crowd-pleasing dinner recipes to serve at their next holiday party.

Do you notice the difference? People want to know how they will benefit from reading your blog post.

Not sure what content you should create? I recommend choosing a blog niche (topic) you’re passionate about. Many people pick a niche because they think it’ll be easy to make money. But this is a bad idea. It almost NEVER works and you’re readers will see right through you. You need to love what you write about.

PRO TIP: Your ideal blog niche will be a combination of your passion, skills, and experience.

For more tips on how to start a successful blog, I recommend signing up for my free 7-day blogging course. You can sign up in the form below!

STEP 3: Set up and optimize your Pinterest account

Pinterest is a visual search engine and it’s a highly effective way to grow your blog. One of the reasons why I love Pinterest so much is because you don’t need to have a large following to drive traffic to your blog.

It really comes down to creating Pinterest graphics that make people want to click through and read your post. Here’s what you need to do to set up and optimize your Pinterest account:

1. Set up a Business account on Pinterest

It’s completely free to set up a Business account on Pinterest. Having a Business account on Pinterest is super important if you want to make money because it makes your account look legitimate. It also gives you access to Pinterest analytics. This will give you helpful information such as how many people are seeing your pins and which pins receive the most clicks.

2. Add keywords to your profile bio, board descriptions, and pins

Becuase Pinterest works like a search engine, it’s important to optimize your profile with keywords. This will make it easy for people to find your content when searching on Pinterest. I recommend creating at least ten boards for your profile. Ideally, these boards should all be related to your blog niche. For example, I blog about saving money, making money, budget travel tips and intentional living. My Pinterest boards reflect these topics.

3. Join group boards on Pinterest

Group boards are a great way to get your pins in front of a larger audience. I recommend using Pingroupie to find active and relevant group boards to join. Once you find group boards you’d like to join, follow the instructions in the board’s description which will tell you how to join. This usually means that you have to email the board owner and request to join.

PRO TIP: Look at what group boards other bloggers in your niche are following. This is a good way to find active group boards to join.

NOTE: Lately I have found that pinning to your OWN boards is more effective at driving traffic to your blog than pinning to group boards. I recommend pinning to both your own boards and group boards to see which method works best for you.

4. Pin, Pin, Pin! 

To make the best use of Pinterest, it’s important to pin on a consistent basis. If you’re new to Pinterest, I recommend pinning at least 20-30 pins per day. This might seem like a lot, but it’s very manageable.

You’ll break this down into chunks. Pin 5-7 pins in the morning, another 5-7 pins at lunch time, and then another 5-7 in the evening. This will include a mixture of both your own pins and other people’s pins.

PRO TIP: To save time, I recommend using a scheduling tool such as Tailwind. This will let you schedule content so you don’t have to worry about being on Pinterest all the time. Personally, I prefer to pin manually, but I know many people who swear by using Tailwind. You can sign up for a 30-day trial with Tailwind here.

You might be wondering why you should pin other people’s pins. I understand that you want to grow own Pinterest profile so you can make money, but pinning people’s pins can actually help you!

When you pin popular pins (pins with a high re-pin count), it will help your profile rank better in Pinterest. This means people may notice that you post awesome content, choose to follow you, and check out your website. BINGO!

Bringing people to your website can help you make money. For a more detailed tutorial of how to set up and optimize your Pinterest account, please head over to this post: How I Increased My Pinterest Audience by 1,200% In Just 3 Months

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So now that you have your own website and your Pinterest account set up to drive traffic to your blog, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how to actually make money. Here are five ways that you can make extra money or even earn a full-time living from Pinterest!

1. Make money by using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog

Because Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your blog, you can make money with display advertising.

Display advertising is a popular way to earn an income from blogging. It works well when your website receives a lot of traffic. You can expect to make around $7-10+ per 1,000 page views.

This means if your blog receives 100,000 monthly page views, you can earn $700-$1,000+ per month from display advertising. How can an extra $1,000 each month help you?

Keep in mind that rates will vary based on how many ads you have on your website and which advertising company you work with. For new bloggers, a popular choice is Google Adsense. Once your blog reaches 100,000 monthly page views (which is possible when using Pinterest effectively), I recommend going with AdThrive. This is the display advertising company I use for my website.

2. Make money by pinning affiliate links

There are a couple of ways you can make money from affiliate links on Pinterest:

First: Create an awesome blog post that has at least one affiliate link in it. Then pin an eye-catching graphic to your Pinterest boards that leads to your affiliate blog post.

Example: You can pin a blog post about how to save money on travel which includes affiliate links in the post.

PRO TIP: I like using Canva.com to create all my pins. It’s free to use and they even have a Pinterest template to help you get started.

Second: Create an eye-catching graphic that leads directly to your affiliate link. This means instead of entering your blog post in the pin’s URL, you’ll enter your affiliate or referral link. Keep in mind that you must ALWAYS disclose your affiliate link in the pin’s description. You can do this by saying “affiliate” or “affiliate link” in the Pin description.

Example: You can pin an affiliate link that takes visitors directly to an eBook or product’s sales page.

From my personal experience, I’ve had the BEST results from pins that lead to my blog posts (instead of directly to my referral links). However, I know someone people who have had a lot of success by pinning direct affiliate links. I recommend experimenting with both options to see which one works best for you.

To learn more about how to make money from affiliates, I recommend signing up for THIS e-course. The course creator makes $100,000 per month from her blog, so I knew that I would be learning from the best. She even made more than $300,000 from ONE blog post. She shares her exact strategies so YOU can do it too. Thanks to the teachings in her course, I have been able to turn my blog into a full-time job!

3. Make money by offering Pinterest consulting services

If you’re good at using Pinterest, you can make money by offering consulting services to other people or companies. You can even earn a full-time living through Pinterest consulting.

These services include providing an in-depth review of your client’s Pinterest profile, website, and analytics. You’ll then put together a list of suggested recommendations to help your client achieve their goal. Pinterest consulting is becoming more popular and can be a great way to monetize your social media skills.

Having your own self-hosted website and Pinterest account is essential to helping others to find out about your services and see your work in action. You can share testimonials on your website from previous clients and showcase your knowledge too. Having your own website also helps to legitimize your consulting services because it looks more professional.

4. Make money by selling your own products on Pinterest

Pinterest is a smart way to make money by selling your own products or services. You can create a pin that links to your “Hire Me” page on your website or links to the sales page for your product.

You can sell digital products (eBooks, eCourses, printables), physical products (clothing, home décor, books), or services (consulting, online coaching, virtual assistant). I have pins that lead directly to digital products on my Shopify store. You can get a free 14-day trial of Shopify here.

You can even sell other people’s products on Pinterest by creating a pin that links to your affiliate link.

5. Make money by offering Pinterest Virtual Assistant services

You don’t have to be a pro-pinner to make money as a virtual assistant. Many people or companies are looking hire a virtual assistant to manage their Pinterest account.

Becuase Pinterest is such a powerful tool to build an audience and generate income, offering virtual assistant services can be a profitable freelance niche.

You can offer your services to be a Pinterest Manager (big-picture focus), which usually audits an existing Pinterest profile and implements a new strategy to help the client achieve their goals.

Another option is to be a Pinterest Assistant (small-picture focus) which follows a strategy that has already been set in place. A Pinterest Assistant usually creates eye-catching Pinterest graphics, schedules pins using THIS helpful tool, and finds active and relevant group boards to join.

As you can see, there are many ways you can make money or even earn a full-time living on Pinterest. There has never been a better time to get started in turning your Pinterest profile into a money-making machine!

What are you waiting for?