How To Start Affiliate Marketing On Pinterest?

Introduction

A few years ago from today, Facebook and Twitter was all that was considered whenever one would talk about social media marketing or product promotions on the digital platforms. These two sites got all the attention from the businesses in order to reach out to their target customers and audience. But, this is no more the scenario today since there are several other sites that have come into existence now. One such site is Pinterest. 

Now, what is pinterest exactly?

Pinterest is often wrongly considered as another social media platform which is not true at all. While it is slightly social since people can kind of use the feature of messaging while also occasionally using the option for commenting on the posts. And for all of those who own a large account, they would often find people who have used the ‘tried this’ feature on their posts on pinterest. So, if it is not a social media platform, then what is pinterest exactly? 

Pinterest is a visual search engine similar to Google Images but a lot better. Pinterest helps create an easy to use platform that is driven through searches and providing results with wonderfully high quality images and graphic content. It also allows the user to follow content that is most relevant for them. 

What is pinterest affiliate marketing?

Pinterest Affiliate Marketing is when a user recommends different products on Pinterest so that their followers can purchase it. When the products are purchased by these followers. The user gets a commission for the sales. The followers will not have to pay anything extra and buying from your link will not harm them in any way. In fact, it is a pretty much win-win situation where the followers can get the products they wish for while the user gets a certain amount paid to him as the commission. 

How to add Affiliate Links on Pinterest?

Creating Affiliate links on pinterest is a pretty simple task. The first step is to create a pin like you would normally do from the profile page of your account. Click on the plus sign that is there beneath the search bar and then click on the option stating ‘Create Pin’. This step is followed by uploading the pin that has been created in order to promote the affiliated product. At times it might so happen that the creator of the product will provide you with an affiliate pin that has been pre-made. These pins can also be used to promote the product but ensure that you are using multiple pins, that is at least 3 pins, in order to promote any affiliated product since you want to ensure that you are appealing to different segments of the audience. Now the user needs to copy the affiliated link and paste it into the website section without shortening the link in any way. The original link has to be used as it is as per the policy of Pinterest. A detailed description related to the pin has to be provided along with the pin while ensuring the use of at least 2 to 3 keywords. The first keyword has to be the primarily targeted keyword while all the other keywords will act as supporting keywords. The user should also ensure that the targeted keyword appears in the title of the pin as well as the description of the pin. This helps in ensuring that the pin created by you would now rank highly for that particular keyword and this would in turn make it more likely that your pin would appear among the initial few pins when someone is searching for those keywords. This process of optimizing results is very similar to that of Google and using the correct keywords can help the pinterest algorithm to deliver relevant content to its users by letting them know the precise content of the pin and what the pin is all about. 

Once the pin has been created, there is one final step which acts as the final nail to doing this perfectly and ensuring that you target the maximum possible users and audiences. Once your pin is created, do ensure that you do not end up saving any of your affiliate pin, or any other general pin for that matter, to the generic boards on pinterest. Whenever a pin is uploaded on pinterest, the pinterest algorithm starts with it’s work of trying to analyze what the pin is all about. This analysis is done on the basis of the keywords used in the description and title of the pin, the image in the pin as well as the name of the board where the pin is saved. For example, saving a pin which is for affiliate marketing in a board that has been named as affiliate marketing or something along those lines would help a long way in trying to optimize the search results for all the followers and help in reaching a bigger section of the target audience and clientele.

How to create Affiliate Pins that get more clicks?

  • Create long and vertical pins. Since most pins are usually squared in shape, making longer pins instead help them stand out amongst the other pins. 
  • Ensure that the pin and title should immediately show what the pin is all about and the problem that it could solve. Ensure that it is extremely precise and specific to the topic. 
  • Use warm colors like shades of red, orange and yellow in the pin. Studies have shown that pins which have warm shades are more likely to be re-pinned than the ones with cooler shades in them. 
  • Ensure that the fonts you use in the pin have legible and easy to read fonts. Even if you are using brush script and cursive fonts, ensure that it is easy to read the context of the text in the pin.

How to research and determine keywords for your affiliated pins?

Apart from the images, the keywords that you use in the pin act as another factor which can either make your pin successful or lead to its failure. Some time needs to be spent for determining the correct keywords that people could possibly be searching for when they look for a specific kind of image. The pin should have focus on one targeted keyword that feels right on point. The other keywords should be related to this keyword. This can be done by considering yourself to be the target audience for the affiliated product and try to analyze and determine the search words that you would enter in order to get similar pins in results.

Building an audience on Pinterest

Building a strong audience or viewer base on Pinterest is a lot more easier than on any other social media platform. Even if you do not have any content of your own or an existing base of target audience, you can simply start gaining new followers by pinning existing content of other creators that people have been liking. The other way to get started on pinterest through a new account is through joining pre existing group boards irrespective of the number of followers that they might be having. The users can also collaborate and invite new people on pinterest once they have sufficient number of followers.

Stay on top of the trends

It is very important to stay updated with all the latest trends since as a user you would want to ensure that the other followers get to see relevant content throughout the year. That also means that you ensure to post content that is relevant and in line with all the holidays and seasons accordingly. One can also post content that is relevant and updated with information that could affect your or the audience’s business ventures like the tax season. 

Plan to Advertise

There are quite a few rules and regulations that one has to follow while trying to advertise content since not all kinds of content are allowed for advertising. The rules are related to the types of links that can be advertised, the kind of content that one can use for linking and also how the content and page is designed. For example, while one is not allowed to use affiliate links for advertising, one can definitely link the advertisements to either product reviews based on the affiliated content or any content that can teach the readers to use a certain kind of tool and then promote these contents with the affiliated links. 

Put your pinterest account on autopilot

For those who have just started with blogging through pinterest, there are high chances that they are still figuring out everything and trying to do it all by themselves. But, today there are several softwares and websites that allow the users to schedule the pins for a whole month at least and then let these sites do the job of uploading it. They also suggest the best time for posting based on analysis and as a user, one would never have to worry regarding the best times for posting the content. 

Conclusion

Pinterest is one of the best sites for affiliate marketing which is growing in popularity today amongst the audiences and customers while also helping businesses to reach out to a major segment of the audiences.