How to Make Money with Your Pinterest Account as a Beginner

Part 1: Set Up Your Pinterest Account for Success

In order to set up your Pinterest presence, you need a Pinterest account.

So either you download the Pinterest app or go to the pinterest.com website and sign up using your email address to create an account.

After you’ve done this, then you can start creating pins.

To create pins, you need other things too, like Pinterest boards, understanding Pinterest analytics, and other tools to help with your Pinterest journey.

First: Create and Organise Your Pinterest Account Through Pinterest Boards

You need a Pinterest board where you can have different categories of boards to help keep your Pinterest account organized for your audience.

To create your board on Pinterest, you can do that through your Pinterest profile.

It is best to create different types of boards that are specific for the kind of content you’ll be creating.

You can have a board that is the main idea of the content you’re creating and have other boards that will be like subcategories.

For example, you can have a board that is titled “Kitchen Appliances,” then other boards can be “Air Fryer Meals,” “Sustainable Microwaves,” “Easy One-Pot Meals,” and so on.

Also, there’s an option to keep your board private or public because you want to have a large audience and share with the public.

It is best to make boards that are for the public due to what you share there.

How to Create Pins Like a Pro and Upload Them
Next, you need to start creating pins and uploading them to your Pinterest board.

But how do you create pins? You need to make beautiful designs that are visually appealing.

One website that is beginner-friendly you can use is Canva.

There are already made pin designs that you can get inspiration from to help you create your own pin for your Pinterest account.

Canva is also easy to set up; you can just go there and sign up with your Gmail, then you can start using it to create pins.

One unique thing about Pinterest is that it is more of a visual platform, so when making a pin, you should try to include images in your pin, not just text.

The platforms where you can get free images online include Canva, which now collaborates with various stock photo platforms in order for us to have free images to use on Canva.

Another platform you can get images from, although it’s paid for, which I’ve tried, is Depositphotos.

So when you’ve created your pin on Canva, you can download it and upload it to your Pinterest board.

To learn more about creating pins, watch this YouTube video.

Understanding How Pinterest Really Works
For those using Pinterest for business purposes, you need to understand how it works by looking at your analytics.

How the pins you post daily to your different boards are performing, what time of the year they perform better, and when they do not.

Pinterest, just like every other platform, is a social media platform where people go to search for things.

So, it has a search engine that helps people find things they want and save them.

I feel like Pinterest is more organized because even if you’re not using it for business, it’s a personal account where we can still save your ideas on the boards you create, which are very easy to create.

It is more of a visual platform because it is filled with beautiful pictures.

Making it more of an idea creation platform to help you get ideas and get inspiration from them through pictures.

One of the ways this platform looks very free is because lots of people using it have a free account to help maintain your platform, and how to take it revenue just makes their money through advertising.

So you can see lots of adverts on the platform, so that’s one stream of income taken care of from Pinterest.

They also have other means of making money on their platform which we will also be talking about how you would be making money on Pinterest below.

Part 2: How to Build Loyal Pinterest Followers

Now that you’ve created your Pinterest profile, created your Pinterest boards, and you’ve started pinning, you might be asking how do you build and maintain your audience by engaging with them.

Let us look at different things that would help you maintain and keep your audience engaged at all times.

Use SEO to Get Your Pins Discovered on Pinterest

To be able to maintain your audience and have very good engagement with them, you have to be as specific in your writing as possible.

This has to do with your search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO involves the kind of keywords you use to help your audience find you easily.

So, you need to use the right kind of keywords so that you can attract the right audience and they can keep coming back to your content.

When your SEO is optimized properly, when people search for keywords on Pinterest, your pins will come up.

For example, if you want people who are interested in one-pot meals to come to your page, you should be specific in the recipe so you can save the example one-pot rice meal; what type of rice it is, like chicken fried rice.

For example, you can say one-pot chicken rice meal. Sometimes when we hear the word search engine optimization, we think it is hard.

No, it is very simple just use the right kind of words you want people to search for in your content and leave the rest for the Pinterest algorithm to help you connect your audience to your content.

Remember, these keywords are like phrases, so if you don’t use the right type of phrases, you might not get the right audience.

Optimize your pins to get your Pinterest profile noticed; these are the places you need to use the right keywords to attract the right audience.

Offer Freebies to Expand Your Audience and Engagements

To help you have more engagement with your audience and grow a large audience, another thing you can do is to create a Pinterest contest.

You can offer something that you want to give the audience for free and say if they can repin this post they’re going to get this gift.

Also, before you create any Pinterest contest, make sure that you align with Pinterest regarding their rules on contests.

Running contests helps you build a large audience. You’re giving out some things for free.

Friends and family of these people who interact with your content are going to see your pins, which will help you gain more audience.

It has to be something that you know will be beneficial for your audience.

Take your time to create a beautiful contest because, in the end, you’re going to get a good result.

So, you can say they should repin content from various topics or boards of your choice.

Join Other Boards and Re-Pin Other Creators’ Content
One good thing about Pinterest is that it is very flexible.

If you can’t create pins because you are busy, you can join boards of the same interests or niche as you and repin the content on the boards.

This can also help you reach audiences of different creators like you which can also help you build your audience now because you’re sharing the same pin and you get more attraction to your Pinterest profile through this.

So what you have to do now is go and look for boards that can take you in, click on joining them on the profile of the boards if they are open, and when you join them you start repinning their contents.

This is also a way to collaborate virtually on Pinterest and help other creators.

Part 3: How to Turn Your Daily Pins Into Pay checks

Pinterest Creator Fund: To sign up for the Pinterest Creator’s Fund, which can help increase your income, you need to apply for the Pinterest Creator’s Fund application when it opens.

It gives you access to financial and educational resources which will help improve the content you upload on the platform and build your audience engagement and interest.

With the Pinterest Creator’s Fund, you have to upload high-quality pins consistently.

You should know that the Pinterest Creator’s Fund was designed to help support creators and improve their content creation process to give them a better result on Pinterest.

You should also know that earnings through Pinterest vary depending on many factors like niche and many more.

Increase Your Blog’s Income Through Pinterest: Making money on Pinterest through blogging is one of the most common ways to make money on Pinterest.

You can start by creating a blog, and linking it on your Pinterest profile.

It is best to write topics that are Pinterest-worthy so that they can easily resonate with your audience.

Once you have started building the right audience, you can monetize by placing ads on your blog posts like Mediavine, Ezoic, Google AdSense, and other platforms.

You can also sign up for affiliate programs and paste their links on your blog post.

It is important you maintain quality by creating high-quality blog posts and pins, and regularly updating the information on your blog posts. This is an example of a blog monetized through Pinterest.

Create Affiliate Pins That Pay You: Creating pin-worthy affiliate content will help you earn more money through Pinterest because you will be promoting different products through your pins.

To start creating Pinterest affiliate content, you need to join affiliate programs like ShareASale, Amazon Associates, or any other affiliate program you have researched.

For this type of monetization process, most successful people I know doing this have a blog which helps them link the content easily.

When you have successfully joined these platforms, you need to start promoting their products by writing about Pinterest-worthy content so that when people search for something like it, your pin can show up.

When you start writing and uploading your content, do not forget to link the products in your website or blog post. This process of making money on Pinterest takes time and effort.

You have to be consistent and do not expect you will get a breakthrough with just a few pins. Keep on uploading as many pins as possible.

This is an example of affiliate content on Pinterest.

Work and Build Profitable Relationships With Brands: Working with brands is another way to make money on Pinterest.

To be able to do this, you need to build your audience to make it large enough for the different types of brands you will be working with.

This will also help you get good analytics on audience engagement with your pins and profile, which you can show to brands to assure them that when they work with you, you can help increase their sales.

To start, you need to join influencer marketing platforms like AspireIQ, Influence, Izea, and many more platforms out there.

Once you have done this, you can also start reaching out to brands yourself by sending them emails and telling them about what you can offer them.

Also, remember you need to be patient with this process and be consistent.

Do not compare yourself with other creators’ earnings because it varies and can be due to various factors.

Make and Sell Your Digital or Physical Products: Creating and selling your own physical or digital products is another great way to make money on Pinterest.

You need to start by setting up an online store using platforms like Amazon, WooCommerce, Etsy, or Shopify.

Then set up a Pinterest business account and connect your online store with your Pinterest account.

This might come with some cost initially when setting up the online store.

When you are done with this, you can now start creating pins related to the products you have in your store and also making sure that these items are being searched for on Pinterest.

So when you keep promoting your pins, your audience starts seeing it and they can go to your online store to get your products if they need them.

You can sell things like printables, templates, your own homemade products, DIY items, or clothing and lots more. This type of Pinterest monetization does give substantial earnings.

Make Money With Sponsored Posts: Nowadays, almost all the working population on this planet uses social media, which makes it easy for businesses to advertise their products.

This is why brands need you to work with them to create content about their products or services that your audience will love and engage with, which in turn increases their revenue.

So, to make money on Pinterest, you can work with brands to create sponsored content and get paid.

Collaborate With a Brand: Collaborating with brands can help you earn on Pinterest.

This can be through receiving their products for free, and they can tell you what they would like you to write about them in your pin description.

Nowadays, we can easily tag on Pinterest, so you might just tag the brand in a visible and logical way in your pin so that your audience can go to their website to get their products.

This is an example of a brand collaboration post on Pinterest.

Offer Your Pinterest Skills as a Service: If you have been able to build your Pinterest account by learning everything about Pinterest and you have a community.

You can easily use this track record as proof that you can help other Pinterest business accounts grow.

This is a great way to make money on Pinterest by offering your services to other Pinterest users who want to grow on the platform but do not have the time to commit to it.

You can go into the business of managing Pinterest accounts to make more money.

I would recommend you keep upskilling yourself to know the different tools Pinterest managers use for things like creating pins and scheduling, understanding the different content seasons, and the analytics.

To get inspiration, here is a profile of a Pinterest manager.

Create Short Videos: We know that Pinterest started by being a platform for just sharing visual images like pictures.

But over the years, we have seen the demand for short video content increasing.

Now Pinterest likes its creators uploading short videos on the platform.

You can help brands create these types of short videos which will be high quality and help increase and maintain their presence on Pinterest.

Short videos I have seen on Pinterest are cooking videos, product use processes, art and crafts, and many more.

You can see an example of a Pinterest video here.

Track Your Pinterest Account Performance Through Pinterest Analytics 

Keeping track of your analytics will help you know when to post your content on Pinterest, because this tells you when your audience is searching for that type of content.

Keep in mind that it is a search engine, and you need to make use of your analytics to know how and when your different pins are performing well.

This Pinterest analytics tool will give you information on your engagement, impressions, pin clicks, outbound clicks, shares, and many more pieces of information.

So try to stay updated with it as much as possible.

Yes, you can make money on Pinterest. There are several ways to do this, although not directly from Pinterest paying you.

You can earn by joining affiliate programs, monetizing your blog, creating sponsored posts, working with brands to promote their products, and creating pins related to products on your e-commerce website.

To prove that you can make money on Pinterest, read this blogger’s income report post on how much they made through Pinterest.

To get followers on Pinterest, you have to put in the effort as a creator.

Pinterest is just like every other platform, you need to be consistent with it.

You can do this by creating pins that meet your audience’s needs.

Also, engage with your existing followers using the chat feature, partner with brands and influencers in your niche, use relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions, and take advantage of trends to grow your followers.

There are also other factors that can influence your follower growth rate on Pinterest.

I believe when you do your best on the platform, you should be able to grow your followers. Engage with others’ content by liking, commenting, and repining.