Pinterest is a popular social platform, but it also works like a search engine. Think about it: when you use Pinterest, you’re often searching for something, like creative ideas, DIY hacks, recipe inspiration, or tips and advice on a specific topic.
It’s more targeted than Google and the results are more visual, keeping users scrolling for hours.
More and more people are using Pinterest professionally to market their content, which can help them make money.
Yes, you can earn money by creating graphics, pinning content, and basically just browsing Pinterest. If this sounds fun to you, keep reading to learn how to make money on Pinterest and even how to make a full-time income from the site.
Why Pinterest?
- Impressive algorithm: Like other search engines, Pinterest SEO can help you catapult your content into the home feed.
- High purchase intent: Pinterest users often use Pinterest with a purchase in mind, as if it were a catalogue of everything from interior design to fashion to cosmetics, making it a valuable place for brands to share their products.
- Evergreen content: Unlike Instagram or Facebook, where posts disappear over time, Pinterest pins remain searchable and discoverable for years after they were first posted, providing a long-term return on investment.
- Trend Focus: Pinterest is one of the best social media platforms for keeping up with the latest trends. By sharing high-quality, on-trend content on Pinterest, you can quickly gain a larger audience.
- Valuable indicators: A Pinterest business account can give you valuable insights into how your platform is performing by sharing the number of clicks, saves, reposts, and outbound clicks your pins receive.
- Still growing: Pinterest’s user base continues to grow, reaching 498 million monthly active users, and we expect further growth as consumers and creators adopt Pinterest as their primary search engine.
1. Use Pinterest to increase your blog income
One of the best ways to make money on Pinterest is to use the site to grow a blog. Many bloggers focus on SEO to drive traffic, which is not a bad idea.
However, SEO takes time to pay off. Leveraging Pinterest is a much faster way to get more eyes on your content. Driving traffic on Pinterest can help you make more money from your blog. No matter how you make money – through ads, affiliate marketing, selling products or services – getting more traffic from Pinterest can help you increase the revenue you make from these methods. In this article, Holly talks about her success in both areas: increasing traffic and revenue.
2. Earn revenue through ads
Ad revenue is one of the easiest forms of income you can make with a blog. It’s completely passive and depends only on traffic. The more page views you get, the more ad revenue you’ll earn.
Every time you share a blog post, create a few promotional Pinterest images. When people see your image on Pinterest, they can click through to your site, interact with your ad, learn something new from your content, and become a regular reader.
If you publish or create content on platforms like Medium, Vocal, Microsoft Start, etc., you can also create pins for these articles to generate more traffic and ad revenue.
3. Earn affiliate income
Affiliate marketing involves using a unique link to promote products or services you love. When someone clicks on that link and buys a product or signs up for a service, you receive a commission.
The best thing about affiliate income is that the possibilities are endless. Depending on your conversions, you could make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month from affiliate sales.
Your affiliate income depends on your numbers, the quality of your product, and how well you present it. If you have a solid product, are honest and transparent, and have a lot of traffic on your site, you should be able to make a decent income from affiliate marketing.
You can use Pinterest as a tool to promote your affiliate posts with eye-catching images and descriptions. You can also share your affiliate links directly on Pinterest, so you can make money with affiliate marketing even if you don’t have a website or blog.
4. Sell your products
If you sell products on your blog, website, Etsy, or a print-on-demand platform like Spring, make sure you use Pinterest to market these products as well. You can create images for your product sales pages and even promote content that mentions your products.
Once visitors sign up for your email list, your Pinterest traffic can easily be converted into sales and a loyal audience.
Pinterest Monetization Basics for Bloggers
Now that you know all the ways bloggers can use Pinterest to make money, let’s see how to get started.
Pinterest can be intimidating for some bloggers at first, so it’s best to start at your own pace and build your presence on the platform.
- First, set up a business Pinterest profile for yourself and fill out your profile completely.
- Next, create boards related to your blog topics, or you can even create one main board to showcase all your best blog posts.
- Keep in mind that Pinterest prioritizes keywords, so we recommend researching some common keywords in your niche and including them in your profile bio, board names, and board descriptions.
- If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to keywords, start by searching for specific terms on Pinterest and see what comes up. Also, consider the keywords you often use in your blog posts.
- Start pinning relevant content to your boards along with your own content.
- Create a high-quality, bold, vertical image for each of your blog posts. You can even create multiple images per post to test different designs.
- Use Canva to create your images and consider using stock photo sites like Unsplash, Pexels, Ivory Mix, and Deposit Photos.
- Consider joining group boards on Pinterest related to your niche. This will connect you with other content creators who can share your pins with you. In return, you’ll share theirs, helping you both promote your pins and drive more clicks to your site.
- Please note that some group boards have specific rules that you must follow, so keep applying and following until you join the right board.
- You should be pinning content every day. To save time, use an automated pin scheduling tool like Tailwind. Tailwind allows you to schedule your pins in advance so you can plan your schedule for a week or month at a time. Tailwind also has Tribes (similar to group boards on Pinterest) that you can join to promote your own pins or pin other people’s content on your behalf.
Implementing a solid Pinterest strategy may seem like a lot of work, but it’s not that hard once you get the hang of it. Most bloggers only spend 1-2 hours a week on Pinterest and usually find it pretty enjoyable.
To make things easier overall, we highly recommend batch processing tasks like creating images, applying them to group boards, scheduling pins, etc.
Get Results
It can take weeks or even months to see results on Pinterest, and you might need to test your strategy a bit and rely on expert resources.
It’s inspiring to see how many bloggers have dramatically increased their blog pageviews and income within a matter of months.
Kristin Larsen is a blogger who increased her monthly pageviews from 5,000 to 17,000 after just one month of using Pinterest. About six months later, her pageviews skyrocketed to 200,000 per month, and her blogging income increased enough that she was able to quit her day job and blog full time.
Find out more about Kristin’s success in this interview and check out her course, “Positively Pinterest,” which helps bloggers implement the right strategies to grow on Pinterest.
5. Sell your freelance Pinterest services
Another way to make money on Pinterest is to become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant. A Pinterest Virtual Assistant (VA) helps people manage Pinterest to market their content more effectively and drive more traffic to their site.
As a Pinterest VA, you can work with bloggers, local businesses, online stores, and many other clients. You’ll be performing many of the tasks I mentioned earlier for bloggers.
This includes:
- Setting up a Pinterest business account
- Create custom pins and idea pins
- Creating a board and board description
- Keyword research
- Search and apply for group discussion boards
- Creating and paying for Pinterest ads
- Schedule Pins in Tailwind
- How to access insights and run Pinterest audits for your clients
Some people may not have the time or interest to manage a Pinterest account, and that’s where you come in. If you enjoy Pinterest, you can learn how to master these skills so you can offer a full service or an ala carte service depending on your clients’ needs.
Pinterest VAs can easily charge $350-500 per client per month for full-service ongoing projects.
Many Pinterest VAs earn a steady part-time or full-time income. If this business idea interests you, check out the Pinterest VA course created by Kristin Larsen. In this course, you’ll learn everything you need to know to become a Pinterest VA, including how to find clients, how to close deals, how much to charge, and tips for scaling.
The course also includes a technical training and skills section with videos and screenshots to help you understand the different tasks you may perform for your clients.
If you want to learn how to become a Pinterest VA, sign up for Kristin’s free masterclass here.
How to find Pinterest VA job listings
If you aren’t working for your own brand, finding a Pinterest VA job is surprisingly easy if you know where to look. Social media is huge, and most businesses are aware of the power that Pinterest has.
Try searching for VA Pinterest jobs in the following ways:
- Cold Outreach Pitch your expertise directly to influencers and businesses
- Search the job board Social Media Management and Marketing Jobs
- Browse the Freelance Forum We recommend Freelancing Females for new accounts
- Promote your expertise Through a clear and SEO-friendly business website
- networking Ask for referrals and recommendations within your professional circle
- Building a Social Media Business Specializing in Pinterest VA
- View Facebook Group Blogging Niche for Individuals Who Need Your Services
How to make money on Pinterest: Conclusion
If you’re looking to make $500+ a month from home doing what you love, Pinterest is definitely the way to go. It could be a great way to establish a new, flexible income stream as a side hustle or even land a new full-time job.
However, you probably won’t learn to master Pinterest overnight, which is why I highly recommend enrolling in a course like Positively Pinterest (if you’re a blogger or small business owner) or Pinterest VA! (if you want to help others with Pinterest).
Pinterest is an amazing tool, but it changes and updates frequently, so you need to stay up to date with the latest strategies and skill sets.
Originally published on September 9, 2019. Content updated May 2024.
