How to Make Money on Pinterest (even if you don't have a blog) (2024)

You have likely heard of the many ways you can make money using Pinterest to drive traffic back to your website where you can, hopefully, get new visitors buying your products or clicking your affiliate links. But what if you have started a blog only to find out it isn’t where your true passion lies? You love certain aspects of it, but running a blogging business isn’t for everyone. (Or maybe you are still working up to that full-time income from blogging. This can be a great way to pay the bills in the interim.)

You can still use those blogging skills you have learned to earn money from home. And good money in many cases! Today, we are talking about some great ways you can make money on Pinterest while using your know-how to work for other bloggers and business owners.

1. Creating Awesome Images

If you are great at graphic design, you can market your pin graphic creations. Not a photoshop pro? Not a problem! There are tons of free tools (like Canva) out there who can make it easy for you to create beautiful, simple images that others might be interested in paying you to make.

Pinterest users notice the image and text before they will even read the description, so you have to make sure your image pops off the screen. Create an image with text that is easy to read and understand. While it is fun to play with fancy fonts, it probably is best to leave the calligraphy and handwritten fonts for another day. In some cases, they are just too difficult to read.

A word of caution: if you are using images that aren’t your own, make sure you have permission to use them before you post them! If you can’t afford to buy pictures, you probably can’t afford the fines that will come with it if you are using the photos illegally. However, there are some great sites that offer affordable images that allow them to be used for client projects. Always read the fine print!

2. Profile Cleanup and Optimization

The last thing people want to do are the boring, painstaking tasks related to Pinterest. Optimizing and cleaning up the profile is so much less fun than pinning pretty images. But, if you like paying attention to detail, you can get hired out to tidy up someone’s page.

As a Pinterest Virtual Assistant, start with the basics and clean up the boards. Update the profile image to one that is a recent, clean-looking image or logo that is consistent with your branding on other social media.

Also, look at the profile description. You can utilize this space to tell users who or what the brand is and good tidbits they will be sharing with them! By adding in some great keywords here, you can reap more benefits in from search.

Next, take a look at board covers, titles, descriptions, and categories. These should all be updated and cleaned up. Feel free to get creative but also add some keywords in here! Search is becoming an excellent way to drive traffic to Pinterest accounts so make sure you are taking advantage.

3. Write Keyword-Optimization Pin Descriptions

There are more than 2 billion monthly searches being done on Pinterest so you would think it would be easy to get some of those searches directed towards you. But as some people have found, since you have only 500 characters to craft the perfect Pinterest description, it can be hard to cram everything you think you need in there. Therefore, market yourself as someone who can create perfectly optimized pin descriptions. It’s a bit of an art and a bit of a science, and people are willing to pay if you can deliver.

First, think search. Take advantage of the billions of searches a month that happens. There is huge marketing potential here! Put yourself in the mindset of pinners and figure out how they will find the content on Pinterest. What searches do you think the Pin should show up for? Since many times pinners are looking for ideas, it is better not to go too specific, but instead, include keywords that would be something that your audience would be looking for.

Hashtags have made their way to Pinterest so don’t forget to take advantage of those! Just make sure they are relevant so you are directing high-quality traffic to your website that is actually interested in you and your board.

There is no need to go back and add hashtags to everything. The hashtag feed is ordered by freshness, so you will probably be wasting your time adding hashtags to old pins. Just incorporate hashtags into your current Pinterest strategy.

4. Pinterest Strategy Consulting

If you can prove your ability to grow a Pinterest brand, even if it is your own, you can hire yourself out as a Pinterest Strategy consultant. Millennials are the fastest growing group of consumers in the US and they are also the biggest audience on Pinterest.

To be a competent consultant, you need to be aware of SEO concepts for Pinterest, because it is not like Facebook or Twitter but instead more like Google. 46% of Pinners use it instead of a traditional search engine like Google. Knowing how to market keywords to drive an audience to pins is vital. You will have to know the perspective markets needs and wants to make sure that you are delivering great content for your customers.

For many, the purpose of Pinterest is to make money and to be found more frequently on Pinterest’s and Google’s search engines. There are tons of brands out there who should be on Pinterest but just don’t get it. If you can convince them that their market is passing them by because they aren’t on Pinterest, then you can take on the role of Pinterest Strategy Consultant.

5. Pin Scheduling & Growth Management

Pinterest would prefer to see 5 -10 posts from you a day, every day, rather than 60 posts all at once and then never again for the rest of the week. That amount of post management can be a lot for a small business to handle every day! This is where you can step in to control all content scheduling and manage growth.

By using tools like Tailwind for scheduling pins, you can optimize when to post. Both of these platforms give you advice on when to post pins based on highest possible engagements so you don’t have to guess.

You can also use Tailwind to monitor your client’s analytics. Even though Pinterest does offer some analytics for you to check the performance of your account, it is pretty basic. Tailwind gives you more analytics and can help you track the growth of fans, followers, boards, likes, pins, audience engagement details, ROI measurement and more.

6. Funnel Optimization

Funnel optimization is used to describe the customer’s journey through a website towards a specific goal, which varies but could include them buying a product off of a site. If you have a mind for conversion, then you could market your skills.

Every year, Mary Meeker analyzes the current internet trends which helps us see consumer behaviors across the board. In 2016, her report showed that 55% of Pinners use the platform to find and shop for products. Compared to just 12% on Facebook and Instagram and 9% on Twitter, it’s clear that companies need to be taking advantage of this market!

The top of the funnel is when you have the chance to reach the biggest audience through search results. By optimizing keywords, you can get more people to find your client’s pin. But of course, not everyone who sees the pin will click through so that is where creating awesome images comes into play.

Now, if the image was compelling enough for the viewer to click, you now have to convince them to take action. What this action depends on is the needs of the business but it could include getting email addresses, joining a Facebook Group, or converting a sale.

Once you have perfected this process, you can help your clients see some amazing results!

7. Pinterest Ads

Promoted pins are Pinterest’s version of ads. Since this is a relatively new ad platform, you can be an early adopter and see some great conversion rates. Running a successful ad campaign on Pinterest requires you to utilize some of the skills mentioned above. If you have perfected funnel optimization, employed the right keywords, and are able to create a strong strategy, you could be able to implement a successful Promoted Pin strategy as well.

However, it is crucial that you understand promoted pin analytics and how to properly leverage them to make the correct changes so you are utilizing every dollar properly. Having a catchy image, and paying attention to timing are all important aspects of a successful campaign. You should always be thinking about long-term strategy because it can take time for pins to get traction, but once it does take off, repinners will take care of the rest.

You don’t need a blog to make money on Pinterest. You just need to be able to provide your clients with results. Results are what people are willing to pay for!