Viral Pins + Affiliate Marketing = Money!
Can you make money on Pinterest? I finally did it! It took a looong time and a lot of work, but I finally had a pin go super-viral and sold OVER $1000 in Amazon affiliate products in less than two weeks! I made over 60 sales!
I also increased my Pinterest monthly viewers to over $1,500,000!!! I know monthly viewers is a vanity metric, but my click through rate has also dramatically increased! More pin impressions means more potential visits right?! I know get nearly 100,000 monthly blog views:)
How To Make Money With Pinterest
I remember when I started blogging, I would see posts just like this and think- must be nice!
I was struggling just to make the 3 required sales in 120 days in order to be accepted into the Amazon affiliate program!
But I am not gonna sugar coat it- I put in work! So much dang work, but it is actually WORKING!! And, PAYING off!
There is no exact method to make a pin go viral, but I can tell you what I did and the results I received!
When I started blogging, affiliate sales seemed impossible! I didn’t have huge traffic and I wasn’t really converting the traffic I did have. But I was constantly looking for ways to improve, instead of giving up. And I wanted to create this post to encourage you and prove that it is possible to make money blogging!
Affiliate Marketing Through Your Visitor’s Intent!
If you want to make money with affiliate sales, you need to be selling to your visitors. Focus on your visitor’s intent. Create a post that sells to your visitor. Aim for the visitor’s that are already looking to make a purchase, and hook them!
How?
Every post is not going to be a money-maker, at least not for me. Most of my posts are just helpful tips, with no intent to sell. And I’m okay with that!
But, back in December, I wrote about Valentine’s Gift Ideas For Your husbands. Not cheesy gifts, but stuff he actually wants – like a back massager! I published months before V-Day so it would have enough time to potentially grow! And grow it did!!!
You can check it out here:
The Best Valentine (or any time) Gift Ideas For Your Husband
My Pin Stats:
In the last 12 days, this one post has received over 14,000 visits. A whopping 90 percent of those are from Pinterest, and over 50 percent of those Pinterest visits are from one pin! NOTE: The Pin image stats above are not right up to date. It takes time for Pinterest to update analytics, but it does show nearly 5,000 visits in the last 30 days from that one Pin.
See the WordPress results below: Note these are February 2020 stats, which were taken on February 12, 2020. So the results were from just 12 days of traffic!
And that post is a money-maker! It’s a Valentine’s gift guide for husbands! It sold nearly $1,000 in Amazon products in the last two weeks!
Amazon affiliate report:
So How Did I Do It?
So let’s get right to it! How to make money with Pinterest! First things first, if you want to make money on Pinterest, you’ll need to have a fully-optimized Pinterest profile.
More on how to optimize your Pinterest profile here – https://stephsocial.com/2020/01/25/go-from-amateur-blogging-to-boss-blogger/
Go From Amateur Blogging To Boss Blogger!
Next, you’ll need a blog. If you don’t already have one, I’ve created a detailed post about how to start a profitable blog here – Should I Start A Blog?
How To Use Your Blog For Affiliate Marketing
And finally, you need to focus on selling products you are passionate about, through affiliate marketing on your blog. One of my favourite affiliate marketing programs is Amazon. They offer a wide variety of products for any niche. But there are many others like shareasale and Jvzoo!
I spent the time to search for unique gift ideas that people would actually really love!
Share blog posts with helpful products and information. Don’t just post products, to post them! Share to help your readers!
Sell To Your Reader’s Interest!
I went through Pinterest search first, looking to see what everyone else was doing for Valentine’s Day gift guides for husbands and I did something a little different!
Sell To People Already Looking To Buy!
It’s harder to sell something to someone that isn’t already looking to make a purchase. So, try and create a post around products or services your readers are already looking to buy!
I used Pinterest keywords that convert – like what to buy your husband for Valentine’s Day, and gift ideas for your boyfriend. These are keywords that convert!
If you want to make more money on Pinterest, create a blog post for people looking to make a purchase. This is key if wanting to make money on Pinterest! If someone is searching for something to buy, you want your site to be the one they visit!
Eye-Catching Graphics
I made my Pins girly and feminine because obviously the post is geared to women buying for their husbands. I included keywords in my image to let searchers and Pinterest know that they will find Gifts your husband will love. Not cheesy gifts!
Check out these beautiful Pinterest templates that make creating pins super easy! You can make 30 click-worthy pins in about an hour with these:
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Viral Pin Strategy
I didn’t just pin it and forget it. I pinned that baby often, and to relevant boards. I shared it on Facebook groups and encouraged other’s to re-pin it! I also shared it to some Pinterest group boards.
I had several other blogs share and link to it! Like Mrgiftguy.com!
Keyword rich description. I included keywords that people were actively searching for like: Valentine’s Day gift ideas, what to buy your husband for Valentine’s Day and gifts for your boyfriend.
I made 5 pins for that particular post. I created 5 separate pins for this one post. Which is pretty typical, as I usually create several pins for every blog post!
I included keywords in the pin image itself. This helps people and Pinterest understand what the post is about!
I pinned to most relevant and active board first and then over the few weeks I regularly repinned to other relevant boards, while also adding new pins for that post. I pinned it to group boards and shared the post on Facebook!
The board I originally pinned to has a high engagement rate, so I think Pinterest ranks it as a quality board.
My Pinterest account is fully optimized! More on how to optimize your Pinterest account here:
Create A Post That Converts
You’ve got them to your post, so now what? This is the hard part- making the sale!
Selling to strangers online, is HARD! Despite what affiliate marketers try and tell you! It took me a long time to figure it out! Here’s what worked for me.
I was real. I was personable in my post and tried to basically have a conversation with my readers. I’m a bit of an introvert and my blog is like my escape. So, my readers are my people! And when you read my blog I want my reader’s to feel like we are chatting. Is that kinda weird? I dunno, it works… i think!
I did my research to find THE BEST products! This is my best advice. I spent a few hours searching Pinterest, the web, and Amazon for gift ideas I would buy for my husband!
I included unique gift ideas. Now, some of these gifts are a little out-there lol, but I thought ‘If I like them, I can’t be the only one’. And, I’m definitely not the only one:)
I included a photo and description of each gift. If you’re going to take the time to create the gift guide, you need to do it right!
What are you waiting for? Make a post you’re passionate about including products you love, and start making money on Pinterest!
