Did you know that 93% of users on Pinterest use Pinterest to shop and plan for their purchases?! With 335 million people using Pinterest every month, that’s quite the audience if you’re someone who sells products. If you’re an Instagram Infulencer who’s thinking they can only use Instagram for their affiliate marketing, then think again! Today I’m sharing how to make money on Pinterest as an influencer. Let’s dive in!
This article may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through the link, I may get a small percentage at no additional charge to you.
How to make money on Pinterest as an Influencer
What is affiliate and influencer marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you share a product or service you love with your audience then receive a commission when they make a purchase using your link.
Influencers are generally individuals who have large social media followings and are in turn paid by brands for promoting their products for either brand awareness OR sales. Many influencers are sharing affiliate links and influencing their audience to purchase. But not only can they share these links on Instagram, they can also do this successfully on Pinterest.
Option 1: Pin to the “Shop” page on your website
If you are promoting several products,, there’s a good chance you have a “favorites” page on your website, or maybe even “shop my Instagram”. If so, this is a page you can pin directly to on Pinterest!
- Create a pin image with the different products on your shop/favorites page
- Create a pin title and description (include keywords for your image and products)
- Upload to Pinterest
- Link to your “Favorites” page
- Share to your most relevant boards
Tip: make sure that when someone lands on your page, you’ve made it very easy for them to purchase. Too many steps to get to the product and check out, and you’ll lose them. Research says the best conversion happens when there are less than 3 clicks for users to get to what they want.
Option 2: Pin to blog posts containing affiliate products
If you do have a blog, there’s a good chance you use your posts to promote your affiliate products and pinning to these blog posts is the second option you can use to make money on Pinterest.
Every blog post should use specific keywords for the product and the audience you are aiming to target. Use your keywords in the following places:
- Body of the blog post
- Page URL
- Blog title
- Page description
When pinning this blog post to Pinterest, use the same keywords in the following places:
- Pin title
- Pin description
- Text on the image (depending on the product)
Option 3: Pinning Gift Guides
Going back to the first paragraph, users come to Pinterest to shop! Especially during the major holidays. If you create gift guides for your audience, Pinterest is the perfect place to promote them. Think about gifts for him, gifts for her, for mom/dad, gifts for girlfriend.
You should also break it down by the holiday and be sure to use those keywords in your description: Valentine’s day, birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.
Option 4: Pin to your Instagram Posts
Yes, you can pin your Instagram content! For more on how you can do this, read my article on how you can grow your Instagram account with Pinterest.
If you heavily promote your affiliate products on Instagram, then this option is for you and there are few ways to do it.
The first way to do this is by opening your Instagram page on your computer and pinning straight from your account page. Downloading and using the Pinterest Chrome extension makes this super easy.
The second way to do this is to use a Pinterest scheduler, like Tailwind. In Tailwind you can actually add your Instagram account to your Pinterest publisher page and schedule your Instagram content directly to your Pinterest!
PRO TIP: When pinning and/or scheduling your Instagram content to Pinterest, be sure to update your caption/pin description. Since SEO and keywords are so important, you want to make sure you’re using the right words to target your audience. This ensures your pin will get found by the right people looking to buy!
BONUS!
This bonus tip comes into play when you’re promoting products in a blog post. As an influencer, you have the good fortune of having a lot of images at your finger tips! My bonus tip here is to use as many vertical images of yourself and/or your affiliate product, as you can.
This makes it VERY easy for 1) visitors to pin directly from your website to their Pinterest page and 2) it gives you the ability to add multiple pins for the same post to Pinterest.
Why is this important?
In early 2020, Pinterest came out and said that research shows that users tend to engage more with content and images that are NEW to Pinterest, meaning they have not been pinned on the platform before. Because of this, they are now placing a higher priority in the search feed on content that was new and fresh.
- New content = new URL and new image, never before pinned on Pinterest
- Fresh content = old URL (or a URL that has been pinned on Pinterest before) and a NEW image
So the more vertical images you have in your blog post, the more pins you will have available to pin on Pinterest for that one piece of content, providing more of the FRESH content that Pinterest likes!
As you can see, when it comes to influencer marketing, there’s more than just Instagram! You can make money on Pinterest with your products just the same and open yourself up to an even larger audience.
I work with a few influencers and help them gain new traffic and sales with a strategic focus on Pinterest. If you’re an Instagram Influencer looking to grow your audience through a new channel, let’s chat! Pinterest can do wonders for your website traffic. The more traffic you have, the more opportunity you have for conversions. And who doesn’t like the sound of that?!