Pinterest! I still don't get it!

I have several Pinterst boards and some followers, but I also don't really get it yet. For one thing, it seems that when you pin something from your website (such as a video), only that image gets pinned. So it doesn't seem to be a good way to link to another site.

I suppose it can be used for affiliate marketing if you can find followers who want to spend their time clicking on your affiliate links. Yet some people have found ways to monetize it, so it's probably a matter of learning more. Maybe someday, but right now it's not a priority for me.

I would be interested how it could be used to market. It's very popular, but it's not really designed to bring in income.

Pinterest is like one big meme site IMO, I haven't checked it out yet, but I see my family and friends sharing photos on their phones all the time. It's like a social site to get people talking or laughing about pictures they posted.

Pictures are always a good ice breaker..

If you search for Pinterests demographic, you'll learn that 80% of users are female and the bulk of them between ages 25-54. As a young man, I'm not interested in it either.

I heard on a podcast last week of a great marketing strategy on Pinterest. Using mini info graphics for your niche with your URL written in the image itself. It's good for branding and direct traffic. You could knock out a dozen in an hour following the same style and dripfeed them. Pinterest looks like an under utilised traffic source to me, few people will go though the effort of creating infographics.

Find Tiffany Dow on this forum and you will learn more than you need to know about pinterest

al

Pinterest probably hasn't been around long enough for people to understand its monetizing capabilities. But what's really interesting is that it is growing faster than any other social medium ever did.

There must be a reason. And with that much interest, someone will figure out how to make money as a result.

I don't get it either, but then it is a girl thing for the most part. I don't get them either. But I know they are always right, and they are all pretty. Some are more pretty than others, but they are all pretty. But I just don't get them anyway.

And NOW, the big question is WHY DO WOMEN "MOST" ALWAYS MANAGE TO MAKE YOU CHANGE YOUR MINDS?

Will definitely take a closer look at Pinterest! Some pretty good people here with really good arguments that even PATTY HEWES couldn't fight off...

Next step...PINTEREST FOR WORDPRESS.....which one is best? No More Question Your Honour!!

I have used Pinterest in the following way:

• Upload a bunch of pictures from my website that I want people to find
• Get a bunch of followers with similar interest
• Get other people to make comments on my pictures; I do the same for them
• Create pictures that are questions, and use my website as the answer

Although Pinterest isn't a huge traffic generator for me, it has brought in some paying clients and people have clicked on advertisements.

Hi, I am using it for one of my biggest sites. Not making loads of commissions yet, but it is really interesting to see what people are interested in.
One bunch of tulips has been passed on to almost 200 people now.
Welcome to send me a private message if you want to have a look at my site and I'll explain how I created it.

Pinterest can be confusing but try finding a free guide or ebook on it either on the WF or on google by typing in keywords like, "ebooks on pinterest" "pinterest guide", etc

The main moto is spreading your network. Definitely pinterest is an influence.

IMO Pinterest is best used for branding and yep you can get laser-targeted traffic from there as well.

Most people wrongly assume PI is just a source for links (though no-follow) and social signals. But Pinterest shouldn't be used for SEO purposes. The SEO benefits should be viewed as bonuses.

It's true the majority or users are women and this can be a very good thing--if you play your cards right. I've used Pinterest for a few clients with good results.

Here's a few things I learned:

1. Be human - Bots and automation are used for SEO and to save time--your blood sweat and tears bring home the bacon.

2. Put thought into your comments. Comment like you would want people to comment on your pics. "Nice picture" says I'm generic and I don't really care. However, "What a beautiful sunset Thanks for sharing!" shows emotion and that you in fact do care.

3. If your a man then when marketing on PI you better get in touch with your inner-female and your comments, style, and personality should reflect it. I'm a guy yet 85% of my clients followers were women and not one ever knew that I WASN'T.

4. Don't start off with empty boards and don't just create one or two boards that are niche specific. By being diverse with your boards your less likely to come off as a marketer even if they know you're a a marketer. Let's face if it, if you're a baker (2 of my clients were) users know and expect to be shown your wares but are going to be more receptive if your images aren't just focused on said wares. Believe me this works.

5. Follow and you will be followed. Start off slow, no rush here. If you don't you'll come off desperate or worse spammy and then you done blown your motor before the race even started. Little and medium sized fish (your target market) hang out with the big fish (the top dogs in your niche) and big fish also have authority. Follow some big fish. Sometimes a few likes or repins from a big fish can send a flood of traffic your way, or a clients way Cha-ching!

6 Comments, likes and repins - Just following people won't cut it, you must get out and be active. Now, this is just the opposite of following as you want to hit the gate runnin' and your objective is quality (comments) and quantity (likes and repins) and yes you can offer both, you must offer both to have any measure of success here.

7. Be careful about where you point PI traffic to. NEVER send them directly to offers and be careful about sending them directly to a thin site (ecommerce etc.). None of the clients I used PI for had blogs or any content per say except product descriptions so I created offsite blogs, drove the PI traffic there, then to clients money site. Did I lose some traffic to my clients site? Yep, but I didn't care cause the traffic that did hit the site converted because the blog (content) drew them in and weeded out the tire-kickers. Sweet!

Note: PI is a visual site and through images people can gauge and/or get a sense of you, your product or service but this doesn't build trust. Content builds trust. Sure you may get lucky and have someone click on a pic and go straight away to your thin site, sales page or squeeze page, but this is no way to use PI, or at least be profitable doing so.

5. PI is a pink site and since most it's users are women your site's color should be too or close to it. If your site is "pinkish" then the transition for PI to your site will be smoother for your traffic. If not a pinkinsh site then think lite neutrals and soft pastels--no joke.

6. Images, videos, memes, and infographics all work well here. Remember your audience though. If you pushing a diet product then DO be pinning pics of beautiful thin people in bathing suits, smiling and having fun. In other words, don't just show them your products or services, show them what it can DO and the END results they can expect if they use your product or service--get in their heads cause once your in there (in a good way) it's only a matter of time until you got em. He-he

One thing I did find harder to do on PI than other sharing/social sites was to gain trust and therefor followers. But I kept at it and after some trial and error the trust came and the traffic followed.

There is of course more to it but this is what I would focus on if I were to go start a new campaign on PI. I just dove in and I'm sure once you do to you'll find it's not that hard at all and it does have its rewards.

Good luck all...

I created an account on Pinterest but I’m still wondering how sharing photos could help you earn income, or perhaps there’s another method on how to do it? Maybe it’s time for me to click its TOS and HELP buttons.

Let's get one thing straight: Pinterest is not about making money!

Pinterest is about getting people interested. That is something else altogether. Because getting folks interested is crucial if you want to make money.

It's not about women or men - because both get interested, and usually see something and their subconscious wiring will already have determined if they like it or not. That is to say, has it made them think? Women are usually more aware of these things and so have a lot more fun on places like Pinterest.

That doesn't mean that men can't, it just means that you have to do more work for them.

ONCE YOU HAVE TEASED THEM, you have already prepared them for your landing page.

This is crucial: you may not get much traffic from Pinterest. It will be better quality traffic because you have already filtered out the people who would bounce. So set up a specific landing page for Pinterest and see just how much better your traffic is, my bet is that its better than Google.

What do you think?

The concept behind Pinterest is so simple yet powerful. In fact you do not need an ebook or guide to learn effective pinterest marketing. As you said, the concept is to publish images. The fact is that you are "publishing images"
- In one of the most popular image sharing social network
- In a social media site that has #2 position in sending referral traffic to a website
- In a social media site that can get you backlinks from the images

Most importantly, images are the most shared media in any social network and pinterest is all about such a media.

The success in pinterest marketing, just like any other form of social media marketing lies in the type of content that you use. I have seen success with the usage of infographics which I am now passing on to my clients. Even though you use stunning infographics and publish it in your pinterest page, you cannot reap the results overnight. You need to promote your pinterest page with SEO and gather followers and then see the magic work

I feel the EXACT same way...

Pinterest can help alot to gain traffic to the website!!As we can give url of our website to any image .

Pinterest is good at its level. Simply it upload image of your link and insert link on image. Pinterest is different but not bad at all.

My wife is addicted to it and it is where she gets her outfit and some workout tips. I believe its more of a 'girl thing' I guess. I have tried it though but haven't had enough time to really study it because its not really my thing though. But if its something that would help me out with backlinks then I'd definitely give it a try.

Sites like pinterest can be useful in promoting or advertising products. People who are fond of sharing photos may also want to use it. But for those who are not, then pinterest is not for you. Good thing about the site is that it's free. If you are a marketer online, this should be a good help since you get to expose your products online for free.

Just because Pinterest is trendy doesn't mean it's an effective marketing strategy; however, there's really no harm in trying another niche, you may never know, you can actually make sales within the realm of this kind of social media. Integrating various tools is always the key.

For me, Pinterest + business ... very good idea.

I've read that Pinterest links are now "no-follow" so there is probably not much SEO benefit

-D.Scott

first, make sure you are login pinterest, then go to the site, what do you see? what kind of site do you think it is? every time I do this, I see many pretty girls ( or half nak*d men, ) pictures for demoing fashion products (cloth, shoes, ..). Considering a majority visitors are women, it is not difficult to know why you do not get it.

The thing is: we do not have to get it as long as we can get traffic from it.

When you repin someone's pin, all your followers will be able to see what you pinned. This gets some good exposure for whatever you pinned and then if your followeres pin it then their followers will see it.

Facebook is a monster ... twitter is like a facebook wall ... pinterest is like facebook photo album.

I have used Pinterest to advertise Amazon products and weight loss affiliate products and have had some good success with it. Since it is viewed by mostly women, I would gear any campaign to women.

Pinterest is a social networking site that allows people to share beautiful photographs they found online or have created themselves. With a Pinterest account you can pin, organize and share photographs and images, create an album about your favorite recipe and plan your wedding all with images.

Pinterest as a whole has the power to transform your business and help you get extra exposure within a short period. But the best way to properly utilize this power is to focus on the advantages of repin. Repining can also help you in terms of SEO. When you pin an image that inspires people they get to comment on it and repin it several times over, helping you get good SEO through back linking, since your source-link will still be on it. But when you do this, make sure you add relevant keyword to the image so it can beneficial to you.

this should help ... it's how to use