This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.
Do you have a pinterest account? Do you just love finding awesome products and creating beautiful boards of things you love? If you said yes to these questions then earning passive income with Pinterest might be right up your alley.
There is plenty of information out there about how bloggers and online businesses who use Pinterest to make money. The fact is that you don’t necessarily need a blog or website to earn money promoting products on Pinterest or any other social media platform for that matter, but for this post, I will focus on Pinterest.
There was a time when Pinterest stopped it’s users from creating pins with affiliate links. The reason was because users were spamming people and sending them to scammy sites.
Since then Pinterest has gotten more sophisticated with their spam detection procedures so they are now allowing links with direct affiliate links.
Earn Passive Income With Pinterest
What are affiliate links?
Affiliate links are basically links to products you use and love with your affiliate referral code within the link. This is how the companies of products you refer know that you are the person who made the referral and in turn, you get the credit for the sale or new customer sign up or whatever it may be.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”50-Blog-Post-Titles-That-Convert-To-Clicks”]
How to find affiliate programs to promote
There are affiliate programs for tons of product and services you use on a daily basis. You are probably not even aware of them if you are new to affiliate marketing. They may not always be labeled “affiliate”. Some might be labeled “referral”, “refer a friend” or “invite friends”.
Here is a short list of referral programs for popular products that you are probably using right now.
Refer a friend programs
Board Booster
If you don’t see a link to a product you use and love, then contact the company and ask them if they have an affiliate program. Make sure you let them know you plan on using the links on Pinterest so they are aware and are ok with it. Some companies don’t advertise their program directly on their site. It never hurts to just ask.
Affiliate Programs (no website/blog needed)
Here are a few affiliate programs that you can join that have great potential. These two companies work with hundreds of retailers so you have access to a huge data base of products to promote. I’m sure there are more out there, these are just a few that I have come across and use regularly.
Maven
Affiliate Programs for Bloggers
CJ (formally commission junction)
Play by the rules
You must play by the rules when promoting products on Pinterest. First of all you must always disclose that the link is an affiliate. You can simply add “affiliate” at the end of your pin description.
Pinterest also requires you to use the full affiliate link. You can not cloak or shorten the link with programs like bit.ly or pretty links.
Don’t go overboard or spam users with your affiliate links. This will turn off people and will result in unfollows and it could get kicked off Pinterest all together.
How to boost your earnings
The best way to go about adding affiliate pins and earning a commission is to add them to relevant boards. For instance, you do not want to pin an affiliate link to a pair of shoes on a personal finance board, this is spamming and you won’t make any affiliate sales this way.
Instead you should create different boards specifically for your affiliate pins. Using the same example as above, if you create a board called “Fashionable Shoes” and pin all your affiliate shoe pins to it, this is not spamming people.
People are looking at your “Fashionable Shoes” board because they are interested in shoes. People are much more likely to make a purchase because that is what they are looking for and in turn you make affiliate commission with your pins
Keywords are Important
Create awesome keyword rich descriptions to your affiliate pins. If you just pin an image of the affiliate product and add your link, then your pins will not get many eyes on them. But if you add relevant keywords related to your product, then your pins will show up when people search for the product and increase your chances of making a sale.
Create multiple images of your affiliate product to get more eyes on them. Make long vertical pins with different angles of the product. Adding a text overlay to your images will also increase the number of eyes on your pins.
Join group boards that are related to your specific affiliate products. Group boards are a great way to get more eyes on you pins. Be sure to read the board rules, if the specify no affiliate pins then don’t pin them to that board, you will get kicked out.
Schedule your pins
Scheduling your pins with Board Booster is one of the easiest ways to pin your affiliate pins on autopilot as well repin them consistently onto your boards with little effort. Using Board Booster to auto pin is very inexpensive and will save you a ton of time.
Here is how I set up my pins to rotate through my boards using Board Booster.
First click on “Pinning Tools” then “Scheduler”
Then click on “Add Board” in the right hand top corner
You will be giving a list of all your Pinterest boards
Next select the board you created for affiliate links then click continue
You will be shown the following options
For now, just click the “Submit” button then Board Booster will create a “Secret Board” with the same name as the one you selected.
Next select your newly created secret board (you will need to refresh to see it).
Select the icon as shown below.
Now you have the option to create advanced settings for your board.
Lastly, select Advanced settings and set it up as shown in the screenshot below.
Now that your secret board is set up and scheduled to repin you affiliate pins, all you need to do is add your pins to the secret board and they will rotate through with little effort.
In Conclusion, Pinterest could be a great way to start earning passive extra income. Remember to always follow the rules and use Board Booster to set up you pins on autopilot for maximum exposure with less effort.
Are you ready to take Pinterest affiliate marketing to the next level? If you said yes, then the you need to check out an awesome course on How to Make Your First Affiliate Sale Within 24 Hours Using Pinterest by House of Brazen.
Do you have any tips or thoughts on using Pinterest for affiliate marketing? Please leave a comment to share them.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”50-Blog-Post-Titles-That-Convert-To-Clicks”]
Thanks for sharing.
I’m curious – What is the minimum time you do between re-pinning the same pin?
I’ve heard some people say 30 days, but they tend to have a TON of pins. Would just a couple of days be okay in your opinion? Or even a couple of days in a row? In theory because of the time people are online, and the way the algorithm works, you could pin the same thing a few times in a row and people wouldn’t see duplicates. But that’s just a theory. 🙂
It all depends…
If you are pinning to other people’s group boards, then you need to follow their rules so lets say you have 60 pins and one of those boards allows only two pins per day, then your pins will be rotated about every 30 days to that specific board. The more group boards you are a member of the more of you pins will be seen.
If you are pinning to your personal boards then you can pin them as often as you wish. But you should be pinning other pins as well. The recommendation is the 20/80 rule (20% your pins and 80% others) but you can go as high as 50/50. Just make sure there is a good mix of your pins and others as well, you do not want to look spammy.
If you have group boards that you created, then it would be ok to pin just your pins as often as you wish. I just wouldn’t pin a bunch of your pins all at the same time. This way there is a good mix of your pins and pins others have contributed.
Thanks Lisa!