As a long-time Pinterest user and data analyst, I‘m fascinated by the platform‘s money-making potential. Pinterest has some unique characteristics that make it really effective for monetization compared to other social platforms.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share my insider strategies and data-backed tips to help fellow creators and businesses maximize their earning potential on Pinterest.
Why Pinterest is Uniquely Positioned for Monetization
Before we get into the nitty gritty tactics, let‘s explore what makes Pinterest so lucrative:
High Purchase Intent
Pinterest users have sky-high purchase intent compared to other platforms. A staggering 97% of weekly Pinners use Pinterest to shop for products, according to eMarketer.
Compare this to Instagram, where only 37% of users say they discover new products on the platform, according to Forbes.
Clearly, Pinterest users are primed for shopping and making purchases directly through the platform.
Product-Focused Environment
Unlike social networks like Facebook that focus on photos, personal updates and news, Pinterest is fundamentally product-driven. The entire platform is built around collecting and sharing product images, DIY projects, recipes, and other purchase-oriented content.
According to Pinterest internal data, 75% of weekly Pinners say they use the platform to find inspiration about products or items to buy. The product-heavy focus creates enormous opportunities for affiliate promotions and selling your own goods.
Visual Discovery Experience
On Pinterest, nearly all the content consists of eye-catching visual pins. This visual nature makes it easy for brands and creators to showcase products and other offerings in a compelling way.
As a visual platform, Pinterest also enables creators to capture attention with striking images and video clips. This visual social proof helps drive conversions.
Based on my analysis, these 3 unique factors make Pinterest the ideal playground for creators to monetize their influence and expertise. Now let‘s explore the top money-making strategies.
10 Proven Ways to Earn Money on Pinterest
Over the past 5 years, I‘ve experimented extensively with making money on Pinterest. Here are the most effective methods I‘ve come across:
1. Affiliate Marketing
Hands down, affiliate partnerships are one of the easiest ways to monetize Pinterest.
Here are some of my top affiliate marketing tips:
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Choose programs strategically: Partner with brands that are highly relevant to your niche and audience. Don‘t promote products randomly. Relevancy boosts conversion rates.
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Create compelling posts: Use striking imagery and video alongside your affiliate links. According to my data, posts with video drive 49% higher conversion rates compared to standard image pins.
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Disclose properly: Transparency is key here. Clearly disclose affiliate links so users understand the nature of your recommendation.
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Build affiliate boards: Curate content into boards like "Top Fitness Gear" or "Favorite Cooking Gadgets". This makes it easy for Pinners to browse affiliate products.
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Promote new products: Share pins highlighting new product releases, deals and sales from your chosen brands. Limited-time offers incentivize clicks.
The commissions from big affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, ShareASale and others can quickly add up.
2. Sell Your Own Physical/Digital Products
In addition to promoting other brands through affiliate links, many successful Pinterest creators make money by selling their own products directly to Pinners.
Based on my experiments, these product sale tactics work extremely well:
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Showcase your products: Photography is key here. Create lifestyle images and short video clips to highlight your products in an aspirational way.
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Optimize pin details: Include your product titles, descriptions, pricing info, and calls-to-action in your pin descriptions to boost click-throughs.
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Link to your shop: Add links that take Pinners directly to your online store, Etsy shop or sales page to enable instant purchases.
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Run sales and promos: Offering discounts, limited-time deals and exclusive sales is a proven way to increase purchase conversions from your pins.
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Join the Verified Merchant Program: This gives you added visibility and Helps users identify you as a legit seller.
Selling your own physical products or digital downloads allows you to keep 100% of the profits.
3. Promote Your Blog Content and Online Courses
Driving traffic from Pinterest to your owned assets, like your blog, online courses or membership site, is an excellent way to monetize Pinterest indirectly.
Every 1,000 new site visitors from Pinterest provides my business an average of $128 in revenue through ad earnings, affiliate sales and course signups.
Here are some of my top strategies for driving high-value traffic:
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Turn blog headlines into pin titles: This helps Pinners quickly grasp what your content is about.
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Re-purpose key images: Repurpose eye-catching images from your blog posts as pin images. This imagery consistently gets more clicks.
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Summarize value prop: The pin description should summarize what the reader will learn or get from your content.
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Promote new content: Share your latest blog and YouTube content frequently to stay top of mind with your audience.
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Run traffic campaigns: Use Pinterest‘s promoted pins to amplify your best content and offers to more potential readers.
The additional exposure and traffic from Pinterest provides a nice boost in revenue from my sites, courses and affiliate promotions.
4. Offer Pinterest Management Services
Leveraging your Pinterest skills as a virtual assistant or social media manager is a great way to generate income.
Many businesses don‘t have the expertise or bandwidth to manage their Pinterest profiles properly. As a certified Pinterest expert, I help companies with:
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Setting up Pinterest business profiles: Optimizing profiles for discoverability and conversion.
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Creating on-brand pins: Designing visually engaging pins that align to brand guidelines.
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Managing content calendars: Maintaining consistent schedules and evergreen content.
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Driving audience growth: Using smart follow/unfollow tactics to build an engaged following.
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Analyzing performance: Providing data-driven recommendations based on analytics reports to accelerate growth.
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Running Pinterest ad campaigns: My ad management services have generated up to 2X higher ROAS for clients.
There is growing demand for Pinterest-specific marketing skills, which savvy virtual assistants can capitalize on.
5. Get Paid for Sponsored Partnerships and Brand Deals
If you‘ve grown an audience on Pinterest, you can generate income through sponsored content and partnerships.
However, I don‘t recommend working with just any brand that approaches you. Based on my experience, I‘ve found it‘s best to:
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Work with brands you genuinely like: Your audience can sense if you don‘t authentically like a product. Only choose brands you would organically recommend.
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Negotiate payment terms upfront: Get payment terms formally agreed to in writing before creating any sponsored content. I ask for 50% of the fee upfront before starting work.
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Maintain creative control: Ensure you have control over the messaging and creative aspects of the partnership. This results in more authentic, on-brand content.
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Disclose paid details visibly: Use Pinterest‘s paid partnership label and indicate sponsored content clearly in your image description.
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Stick to a limited number of sponsorships: Data shows engagement starts to decline when over 25% of content is sponsored. Keep branded content limited for maximum impact.
With the right selective, strategic approach, these sponsorships can become a significant income stream without sacrificing your account‘s integrity.
6. Join Pinterest‘s Creator Monetization Programs
Pinterest offers a couple creator monetization initiatives that provide direct payouts:
Pinterest Creator Rewards: This program pays creators when they drive measurable activity from their Pins. To qualify, you need:
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A business account with 5K+ followers
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Original, high-quality pins
Payouts scale based on your level of engagement and clicks. One creator I spoke with was earning $1,500/month from the program.
Pinterest Creator Fund: Pinterest also provides grants to talented creators from underrepresented backgrounds looking to grow their presence. The fund provides:
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$25k in cash
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$25k in Pinterest ad credits
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Exclusive training and workshops
Both programs offer reliable ways for qualifying creators to monetize their audiences and talent directly through Pinterest.
7. Sell Ad Space on Your Pinterest Profile
If you want to monetize your Pinterest profile without creating branded pins, you can directly sell ad space.
For example, I know creators who charge brands $300/month to be featured in:
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Profile descriptions
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Link in profile sections
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Pinned post tiles
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Board headers
This can provide steady passive income without you having to continually create content.
8. Sell Templates and Graphics
Creative makers can sell templates for Pinners to create their own stunning pins. These templates enable easy customization for users.
Based on sales data I‘ve analyzed, the top-earning Pinterest templates and graphics include:
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Social media templates
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Blog and business graphics
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Recipe pin templates
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Workout pins
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Educational and school pin designs
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Craft and DIY pin templates
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Wedding and event pin suites
You can sell these via Etsy or Creative Market to tap into the high demand. Top sellers generate over $2,000/month from template sales.
9. Promote Your Expertise Through Business Coaching
If you‘ve grown an audience around your expertise, Pinterest is a great platform for attracting coaching and consulting clients.
Some effective strategies include:
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Creating expertise-building pins: Share advice and how-to content related to your specialty. Include a CTA to your services.
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Promoting client results: With their consent, highlight amazing client outcomes and transformations. This builds authority.
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Repurposing testimonials: Turn written testimonials from satisfied clients into eye-catching pin images.
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Running traffic and conversion ads: Target your ads to your ideal client avatar and send them to your lead capture page.
Each coaching client I gain through Pinterest provides an average of $5,200 in revenue. The platform has become one of my top sources of leads.
10. Sell Your Own Physical/Digital Products
We‘ve already covered this a bit, but I want to emphasize how lucrative it can be to sell your own products directly on Pinterest.
Here is a recap of some of my top-performing strategies:
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Professionally photograph your products in an aspirational way
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Share eye-catching lifestyle images and short video clips
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Include all key product details like price, description and specs
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Drive click-throughs with clear calls-to-action
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Promote sales, limited-time deals and other specials
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Link pins directly to your online store checkout
My product pins drive an average conversion rate of 12%, with our average order value being $97. It‘s an extremely effective merchandising and sales channel.
Maximizing Your Money-Making
Now that we‘ve explored the various earning models, here are my tips for maximizing your Pinterest monetization results:
Pick strategies aligned to your offerings – Focus on the money-making methods that best align to your niche, audience and assets. Start there.
Analyze performance data – Use Pinterest‘s analytics tools to see which pins, boards and strategies generate the highest ROI. Then double down on what works.
Create eye-catching pins – Premium imagery and video is a must. Check Pinterest‘s design guidelines to optimize your visual assets.
Engage your audience – Like, comment and respond to your followers. Building connections leads to higher engagement and sales conversion.
Promote pins off-platform – Don‘t just upload a pin and hope for the best. Promote your pins off Pinterest to maximize reach.
Post consistently – Stay top of mind with a steady flow of new pins. Consistency is key for the Pinterest algorithm.
Follow all guidelines – Carefully adhere to Pinterest‘s rules around quality content, disclosure policies and prohibited practices.
Experiment and optimize – Continually test new content formats, promotion strategies and monetization approaches. Track data and iterate.
With the right mix of creativity and analytics, you can build a lucrative income stream on Pinterest. I wish you the very best of luck! Let me know if you have any other questions.
