All you need to know about Pinterest

I'll be updating this thread as I learn more..but so far, this is what's working for me really well on Pinterest:

1. Create a few boards for NON-promotional purposes. This will help you gain followers
2. Follow people!!!
3. Re-pin pins!!
4. Like pins!!
5. The above 3 are VERY important for getting followers. Everytime you do one of these actions the pin owner gets an email with a call to action to follow you from Pinterest. People see Pinterest as a fun game right now and WILL follow you, like and re-pin your pins if you interact with them. I suspect this will change over time..but for now it's a traffic goldmine.
6. Make 1 or 2 promotional boards, but don't saturate it with promotional pins. When you make the pin, put the URL you are promoting first, before any description, just like you would on YouTube.
7. Put the Pinterest button on your site's images. There are plugins in the DL section of this site for this.
8. Search the Pinterest site for people pinning to your niche. Pin something they will like, and then start following, liking, repinning them. They probably won't know what you're up to, and will likely start following your pins.

This is off the top of my head, but if I think of anything else I'll update. This is pretty much what all these Pinterest WSO's are saying.


Update:

1. Keep in mind that most of Pinterest's visitors are woman. Pinterest marketing won't work very well for power tools and the like for a while .

2. Here's one of my own strategies that's working for me VERY well. People LOVE infographics, and they go viral very easily. Create an infographic in Illustrator or have it made on Odesk (it's worth it), post it to your blog, put the Pinterest button on it and drive traffic to it. If it gives value, it has a very good change of going viral.

Don't make the infographic too text heavy, and make sure it looks nice.

I don't comment very much but I been here a coupla years lemme give my lousy 4 cents (it's down to 2?) (wtf)(someone around here is makin a penny off that, :=). OK, pinterest is gold. I am opposed to the thread for it. A>shhh B>see A.
TPinterest is great and brings people together, yess we need to capitalize and monetize it but just Once, can't we keep the really good stuff on the dooowwwnn low?

Dude, this BHW. You should be more worried about people posting methods concerning Pinterest to Digital Point, which I would never do. If we don't share with each other on BHW, the entire community will fail.

Don't worry, 90% of people who read the thread won't take action.

zenmoog said:

I don't comment very much but I been here a coupla years lemme give my lousy 4 cents (it's down to 2?) (wtf)(someone around here is makin a penny off that, :=). OK, pinterest is gold. I am opposed to the thread for it. A>shhh B>see A.
TPinterest is great and brings people together, yess we need to capitalize and monetize it but just Once, can't we keep the really good stuff on the dooowwwnn low?

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Exactly why i canceled my plans on hitting pinterest, With all these people selling bots instead of using it their self i already see i would have wasted my time.

Why would you give up on a site that's getting traffic on par with Twitter or Facebook? Ever?

The noobs that are using bots will find themselves locked out of Pinterest before long, imo. The site is tolerating it now because it helps them build traffic. Once users start complaining, they will crack-down. It's the same with every social network. They are aware of it, they just don't care that much yet.

Thank you OP for this. Your advice is spot on.

I have just started on pinterest and am building my boards organically as a test run right now. There has been a huge increase in complaints lately from pinterest users about spam (translation - bots) and I do believe that it will be a matter of time before something drastic is done to weed out this issue.

I am female, so when I check out what is pinned, a huge turn off for me personally is seeing boards with nothing but direct links to A******n and it takes only a short time to see that there is nothing of interest on those boards - result is no clickthrough to the money site.

Mixing a blend of "pretty pictures" along with a mix of commercial stuff on your boards will give you more opportunity to get that $ clickthrough.

Just my 2 cents worth and a females perspective on the eye candy site aka pinterest

Yep. You gotta mix it. Spam is obvious. I got a few angry PMs..sorry guys if I ruined your plans for writing the next big WSO. The WSO market for Pinterest is already pretty saturated anyway.

codexehow said:

Yep. You gotta mix it. Spam is obvious. I got a few angry PMs..sorry guys if I ruined your plans for writing the next big WSO. The WSO market for Pinterest is already pretty saturated anyway.

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Lol how many "angry" people contacted you?

I agree the bots will make maybe some some fast sales but Pintrst will clean it up no doubt. I decided to just try pushing traffic by pinning good, interesting pics. I post on blog, then pin. Traffic is steady but few clicks. My followers all 27 of them(lol) are real users, mostly women. One of my followers has a shiitload of posts. I gave her pins a look and surprise!, she has them going to a free ipad offer. no site, no blog, just a landing page and a brick wall (the offer). This will go down along with her account eventually and that base she built gone. I may eventually put a flash stuffer on my blog but my account and all the work at Pntrest will be white hat. Not saying don't share good technique but i see a good thing getting pounced on and ruined. Hope not and good luck to all, there is a lot of $$ to be made there but I think bots will get your account banned there soon. Also the first post in this thread is awsome and I will be looking for more of his ideas. I agree follow, like and repost. Blend in and use your IM knowledge to leverage all of this great traffic, GL!!

Anyone up for a pinterest group where we pin each other's pins?

Rules are simple:
1) The pics must be interesting.
2) No direct linking to CPA Offers, Amazon etc..
3) Have your own blog or site.

Let me know if anyone is in.

zenmoog said:

I agree the bots will make maybe some some fast sales but Pintrst will clean it up no doubt. I decided to just try pushing traffic by pinning good, interesting pics. I post on blog, then pin. Traffic is steady but few clicks. My followers all 27 of them(lol) are real users, mostly women. One of my followers has a shiitload of posts. I gave her pins a look and surprise!, she has them going to a free ipad offer. no site, no blog, just a landing page and a brick wall (the offer). This will go down along with her account eventually and that base she built gone. I may eventually put a flash stuffer on my blog but my account and all the work at Pntrest will be white hat. Not saying don't share good technique but i see a good thing getting pounced on and ruined. Hope not and good luck to all, there is a lot of $$ to be made there but I think bots will get your account banned there soon. Also the first post in this thread is awsome and I will be looking for more of his ideas. I agree follow, like and repost. Blend in and use your IM knowledge to leverage all of this great traffic, GL!!

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Bots are just temporary money makers so whitehat is going to win in the long run.

Yeah, I think overall Pinterest is pretty optimized for getting traffic to your blog, where you can make money indirectly. I wouldn't even bother with CPA offers. If you have a blog that is optimized for either AdSense or affiliate marketing and you have good, unique content, you should do well. (blogs that try to dab in both text ads and affiliate banners tend to have high bounce rates. Too much sell, not enough sizzle)

I like the idea of a Pin group. I'd suggest Yahoo Groups for organization.

I think u r underestimating the cpa angle here. Find a women's (or men's) apparel aff. program and go through their web pages looking for eye-popping, color filled dresses and shoes. I use Google's ad network and u can create custom links that will go to the page in their catalog or web page. So basically>>> build a blog to post ladies stuff i.e. "FashionWhore.Plogspot-com (lol, just an example), remember to have keyword in titles and posts that relate to the niche. Have a click on the pic or description go to the page at your advertiser's site that has the product info (and your aff link). Every time you post a pic you open your toolbar "pin" button and post to Pinteresst. Don't forget to put the link to your blog in pin description but also put the price of the item you pinned. When you place a $ symbol into the description box of any pin it automatically puts the pin onto their "Gift" pages. Rinse, repeat. Not just for fashion, use imagination and Do Not jus6t pin only aff. offers. Blend in other related stuff on your boards. I also have 2 adsense ads running on each page and 1 aff. ad for the same ladies apparel store that the pics on blog lead to. So far I have had 3 sales not much but just set it up. Also, kudos for the post in here I saw about ad placement. I switched yesterday to a medium rectangle under post title instead of top left/right and doubled clicks overnight. I can't wait until tomorrow when i see full day.

Amazon Promotion is the way to go. I think this would work great, have your own blog and choose product which relates to women. Make a detailed review of each product in your blog. Then Pin them once you have lots of followers. I ain't making huge since I don't invest a lot of time but I still make an over $40 per day which is pretty decent because I barely work for 40 minutes on Pinterest promotions.

zenmoog said:

I think u r underestimating the cpa angle here. Find a women's (or men's) apparel aff. program and go through their web pages looking for eye-popping, color filled dresses and shoes. I use Google's ad network and u can create custom links that will go to the page in their catalog or web page. So basically>>> build a blog to post ladies stuff i.e. "FashionWhore.Plogspot-com (lol, just an example), remember to have keyword in titles and posts that relate to the niche. Have a click on the pic or description go to the page at your advertiser's site that has the product info (and your aff link). Every time you post a pic you open your toolbar "pin" button and post to Pinteresst. Don't forget to put the link to your blog in pin description but also put the price of the item you pinned. When you place a $ symbol into the description box of any pin it automatically puts the pin onto their "Gift" pages. Rinse, repeat. Not just for fashion, use imagination and Do Not jus6t pin only aff. offers. Blend in other related stuff on your boards. I also have 2 adsense ads running on each page and 1 aff. ad for the same ladies apparel store that the pics on blog lead to. So far I have had 3 sales not much but just set it up. Also, kudos for the post in here I saw about ad placement. I switched yesterday to a medium rectangle under post title instead of top left/right and doubled clicks overnight. I can't wait until tomorrow when i see full day.

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I don't like the way normal Amazon ads look and never click them but on one of my older blogs i have put Amazon product links in the pic description. What i am waiting for now is approval on QVC aff program. The place is loaded with pics of girly stuff that i can post, pin, repeat. I think that successful Pntrst marketers will use protect their boards by not trying to game them to the point it is obvious and by actually becoming a real contributer to the place. I accidentally (for lack of a better word) have met some interesting and funny people there through comments and following each other. It's getting addicting, lol etc. That reminds me, I noticed comments under certain pins getting viralish. This is good because it is another way of weaseling in your profile link and possible clicks to the blog. Suppose we get the right pic (something potentially controversial, like a fur coat). Then we comment under a different account about how people that wear it suck, etc. Then reply under another or get a freind or 2 to fan the flames, etc. Anyway get the ball rolling on a long, heated pin and find a way to leverage. I would Not recommend any issue that is racial, religious, etc. Keep it light, people shop more when they are happy. :=)

Hey there, I have been reading this thread.. and I am trying to understand this part.

use Google's ad network and u can create custom links that will go to the page in their catalog or web page

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I am looking to learn more about this.. I am not seeing WHERE I can grasp the part about the custom links... I have also searched on youtube about this part. Forgive my ignorance, I am reading as much as I can on this forum to learn. I have made a blogspot, and I have been creating boards in the niche usually 8 pins only of which 2 are aff offers, I am trying to be cool and not overdo it. If you could point me in the direction about the custom links.. that would be awesome. I thank you in advance for your help.

Aiza77 said:

Hey there, I have been reading this thread.. and I am trying to understand this part. I am looking to learn more about this.. I am not seeing WHERE I can grasp the part about the custom links... I have also searched on youtube about this part. Forgive my ignorance, I am reading as much as I can on this forum to learn. I have made a blogspot, and I have been creating boards in the niche usually 8 pins only of which 2 are aff offers, I am trying to be cool and not overdo it. If you could point me in the direction about the custom links.. that would be awesome. I thank you in advance for your help.

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Go to Goog aff network and login. Click on "advertisers" tab. Assuming you have been approved for at least 1 program, u will see it listed and 2 boxes that say "view all links" and "create link". Click create link and a page will open for u to input info that will create a link to whatever page you want in that advertisers website. So leave the create/edit window open for now and open another window for your advertisors site. Find a Good pic that would make a lady say "wow" and click to learn more. Copy the url of that page. Enter it into the box on your open googleaff create/edit page that says "
Destination URL

Title= something that will tell u which pic (i.e. red dress)
duration= ongoing
Merchandising Text= I just leave blank
Save.

It takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes for the "test link" button to return the page without error. so don't panic when the link fails it just takes a bit to go up.
Now before u leave the advertisers page (your new campaign destination page) and right-click the awsome pic and save to computer. Now go to your blog and put the pic into a post. Link the pic and/or the caption text to your newly created link page. If you have the Firefox browser extension for Pntrst you will have a "Pin" button in bookmarks toolbar. Click it and remember to put the $ sign and price at the top of the "description" box and a short but sweet comment- something like "Springtime Collection" or better yet, a blurb from your advertisers page, "Spring Line is In! Most important>> Don't forget to put the url of blog post containing the pic.
When they come to your blog by clicking the link in your pin description at Pntrst, they will arrive at the blog post that has the pic. Hopefully they will still be curious and click the pic or the caption and be whisked away to the dress's (or whatever your pic is of) page on your Goog aff.'s advertisors site so u can make some dough if they like it enough to buy. This is why product choice is important. The pic/item has to be quality enough worth jumping through a hoop or 2 (click link in description at Pntrst >>> click on pic or caption at your blog). Hopefully the impulse buy (or any type,lol) will open the purse or wallet. The more pins+more followers and views at Pntrst= more traffic to your blog and to the cash register. Did I mention there a lot of nice looking babes in there? I don't think there is are messaging options in Pntrst at present but there could be some good IM and booty possibilities if there were, :=) GL All!!

I have been using LinkShare -- several advertisers have good commission structures, and many will approve you without a website if you just mention social marketing (but many will also reject you. Apply to a ton and you'll get in at least a few.) I'm in 5 programs with 8% to 10% commissions, mostly centering around women's products (Clothes, jewelry, cookware, etc.)

i usually dont do this but infographic do go viral alot and quick

inumel said:

i usually dont do this but infographic do go viral alot and quick

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I've noticed this too --

Here's a link to an infographic generator that may be useful. http://create.visual.ly/