b2mcd
Regular Member
- May 5, 2018
- 227
- 229
Hey everyone. Yesterday was my birthday, and I'm blessed to be here for another year. I've learned so much from this community in the past almost 2 years, so it's time to start giving back.
I'm by no means an expert, I'm still learning every day, but I am confident that most of the things I'm doing are working. Without further ado, the following is a short guide for getting Pinterest traffic which has managed to get me an additional 1000 unique monthly visitors and rising.
Keep in mind that this method is not really blackhat at all. It is all manual work, but with enough dedication, you can certainly make it work. The more you do with this method, the more traffic you can expect to see.
1) Make a Pinterest account
This is self-explanatory, but if you don't have a Pinterest account then make one. You want this account to be as legit as possible. Add a profile picture, information in the bio, confirm your website if you want. All you need is one account in which you're going to grow to be a TANK.
2) Warm up the account and sign up for Canva
Ok so now you have an account. Make sure you've confirmed your email, added all your information, etc... Now head over to Canva.com and make an account there. I use Canva to make all my pins, and I highly recommend buying their Pro plan because you get access to a lot of great elements/photos. I believe it costs $12 a month.
Now that you're on Canva, you have to start making pins. This is very very simple, so don't overcomplicate anything. Canva has a "Pinterest Pin" template which you can use as a blank canvas. Then, it's your job to make the pin look good.
While you're getting familiar with Canva, don't do too much on your Pinterest account. You can create a couple of boards if you want, start following a few people, but nothing too crazy. I will get into the Pinterest details shortly.
3) Making attractive pins on Canva
You obviously want to have content that catches people's attention. After all, they are not going to click through to your website if the pin doesn't interest them. There's two ways to grab someone's attention on Pinterest.
Now that I've been in the Pinterest game for a while, I've realized that there's a better way to make pins. I like to use a colored background (generally red, blue, purple, or yellow) and then use two high-quality photos on the bottom and top half. This will leave a space in the center where you can put your clickbait text. Below is an example of how I make my pins. Each one takes about 3-4 minutes.
Your goal should be to make a pin like this for every single article you have on your website. I know this could be time-consuming, but any pin can go viral at any time, so you want to take the chance.
4) Growing on pinterest
No automation, no sketchy tactics, so you're probably wondering how the hell is this going to work? Well, it's very simple: You use Pinterest like a normal individual.
First step: Make 5-6 of your own boards on Pinterest. You can make a board for each main category on your website, or you can choose to do whatever you want. The key is to have a number of boards where you can equally distribute your pins. For this reason, using one for each website category is a great idea.
Second step: Follow people manually. When I'm doing this, I find a popular profile or board in my niche and I proceed to follow all of the people that are following them. Very simple. When you're first starting out, keep the following very low, around 30-50 each day. After about a month, you can follow 150-200 people manually each day with no problems.
The follow back ratio on Pinterest is usually pretty low, about 10-15% if I had to guess. The ratio will be higher if you're following people who are more likely to be interested in your niche. Once you garner a decent number of followers (400-600), you can drastically slow down the number of people you're following. At this point, you have a strong enough following to go viral.
Third step: While you're gradually following people, make sure that you're starting to post pins. Whenever you create a pin you have to be aware of the following:
Make sure that you're occasionally repinning other people's content. This shouldn't be a problem because you'll have a lot to choose from if you're following a bunch of people.
5) Rinse, wash, and repeat.
Continue to repeat the above steps, and you will be seeing traffic in no time. Pinterest is not necessarily easy, but it's not rocket science either. Not all of your pins will go viral or even get clicks to your website, but one viral pin is worth 100 low-performing pins.
Out of the roughly ~100 pins I have posted in the past year, about 10 of them have gone viral. These 10 pins alone drive 1000-1500 unique visitors to my sites each month. I should also mention that this was achieved without being consistent.
Here's an idea of my pinterest analytics for those that are curious (from 10/31/19 - 3/21/2020):
As you can see, you don't need blackhat, spammy tactics to get decent traffic from pinterest. Use the platform as it's intended, and you will eventually see great results.
Closing Remarks
This was a short guide intended to help people start getting traffic from Pinterest. I hear people complain all the time about how pinterest is dead, but that's simply not true.
One thing I've noticed about pinterest is that going viral is pure luck. You can increase the chances by having attractive pins, relevant content, etc.. but what matters the most is people engaging with your pins to make them achieve viral status.
The sky is the limit with pinterest if you have a lot of website content that can be made into pins. I know for sure that I will continue to use pinterest with this method and try to get as much traffic as possible as my sites continue to grow.
A couple of other things to keep in mind:
That's all for this guide, and it's my first one on BHW. I'm honored to be a part of this community, and I truly hope this helps some people out. Questions? Ask them below, I'll do my best to get around to them and give you the best answer possible. Expect more guides from me when I reach my 2 year IM anniversary in May
Hope you guys enjoyed, now go get some traffic!
h
I'm by no means an expert, I'm still learning every day, but I am confident that most of the things I'm doing are working. Without further ado, the following is a short guide for getting Pinterest traffic which has managed to get me an additional 1000 unique monthly visitors and rising.
Keep in mind that this method is not really blackhat at all. It is all manual work, but with enough dedication, you can certainly make it work. The more you do with this method, the more traffic you can expect to see.
1) Make a Pinterest account
This is self-explanatory, but if you don't have a Pinterest account then make one. You want this account to be as legit as possible. Add a profile picture, information in the bio, confirm your website if you want. All you need is one account in which you're going to grow to be a TANK.
2) Warm up the account and sign up for Canva
Ok so now you have an account. Make sure you've confirmed your email, added all your information, etc... Now head over to Canva.com and make an account there. I use Canva to make all my pins, and I highly recommend buying their Pro plan because you get access to a lot of great elements/photos. I believe it costs $12 a month.
Now that you're on Canva, you have to start making pins. This is very very simple, so don't overcomplicate anything. Canva has a "Pinterest Pin" template which you can use as a blank canvas. Then, it's your job to make the pin look good.
While you're getting familiar with Canva, don't do too much on your Pinterest account. You can create a couple of boards if you want, start following a few people, but nothing too crazy. I will get into the Pinterest details shortly.
3) Making attractive pins on Canva
You obviously want to have content that catches people's attention. After all, they are not going to click through to your website if the pin doesn't interest them. There's two ways to grab someone's attention on Pinterest.
- The photos you use. They should be high quality and relevant to whatever article you're linking to.
- The words you use. Think about "clickbait" titles on youtube. This is what you should be aiming for.
Now that I've been in the Pinterest game for a while, I've realized that there's a better way to make pins. I like to use a colored background (generally red, blue, purple, or yellow) and then use two high-quality photos on the bottom and top half. This will leave a space in the center where you can put your clickbait text. Below is an example of how I make my pins. Each one takes about 3-4 minutes.
Your goal should be to make a pin like this for every single article you have on your website. I know this could be time-consuming, but any pin can go viral at any time, so you want to take the chance.
4) Growing on pinterest
No automation, no sketchy tactics, so you're probably wondering how the hell is this going to work? Well, it's very simple: You use Pinterest like a normal individual.
First step: Make 5-6 of your own boards on Pinterest. You can make a board for each main category on your website, or you can choose to do whatever you want. The key is to have a number of boards where you can equally distribute your pins. For this reason, using one for each website category is a great idea.
Second step: Follow people manually. When I'm doing this, I find a popular profile or board in my niche and I proceed to follow all of the people that are following them. Very simple. When you're first starting out, keep the following very low, around 30-50 each day. After about a month, you can follow 150-200 people manually each day with no problems.
The follow back ratio on Pinterest is usually pretty low, about 10-15% if I had to guess. The ratio will be higher if you're following people who are more likely to be interested in your niche. Once you garner a decent number of followers (400-600), you can drastically slow down the number of people you're following. At this point, you have a strong enough following to go viral.
Third step: While you're gradually following people, make sure that you're starting to post pins. Whenever you create a pin you have to be aware of the following:
- Make sure the pin itself has a catchy title
- Fill the description as much as possible with information, keywords, etc.. Make it very natural
- Include the link to your website/relevant article.
- Post the pin to its respective board.
Make sure that you're occasionally repinning other people's content. This shouldn't be a problem because you'll have a lot to choose from if you're following a bunch of people.
5) Rinse, wash, and repeat.
Continue to repeat the above steps, and you will be seeing traffic in no time. Pinterest is not necessarily easy, but it's not rocket science either. Not all of your pins will go viral or even get clicks to your website, but one viral pin is worth 100 low-performing pins.
Out of the roughly ~100 pins I have posted in the past year, about 10 of them have gone viral. These 10 pins alone drive 1000-1500 unique visitors to my sites each month. I should also mention that this was achieved without being consistent.
Here's an idea of my pinterest analytics for those that are curious (from 10/31/19 - 3/21/2020):
As you can see, you don't need blackhat, spammy tactics to get decent traffic from pinterest. Use the platform as it's intended, and you will eventually see great results.
Closing Remarks
This was a short guide intended to help people start getting traffic from Pinterest. I hear people complain all the time about how pinterest is dead, but that's simply not true.
One thing I've noticed about pinterest is that going viral is pure luck. You can increase the chances by having attractive pins, relevant content, etc.. but what matters the most is people engaging with your pins to make them achieve viral status.
The sky is the limit with pinterest if you have a lot of website content that can be made into pins. I know for sure that I will continue to use pinterest with this method and try to get as much traffic as possible as my sites continue to grow.
A couple of other things to keep in mind:
- Pinterest traffic is mostly female. If you can take advantage of this and produce content that directly relates to females, then you're in for a lot more traffic.
- When a pin goes viral, it won't generate you traffic over night. I've realized that pins reach viral status in a slow manner. If you see that a pin is consistently growing in impressions, shares, and link clicks, then you are on to something good.
That's all for this guide, and it's my first one on BHW. I'm honored to be a part of this community, and I truly hope this helps some people out. Questions? Ask them below, I'll do my best to get around to them and give you the best answer possible. Expect more guides from me when I reach my 2 year IM anniversary in May
Hope you guys enjoyed, now go get some traffic!
h
