When I first started blogging, I didn’t see the draw for Pinterest. No one was coming to my blog from Pinterest. Besides, it was crazy hard (still is!) to get followers. Then I wrote this one post, 6 signs you’re a good mom, and it blew up on Pinterest. That was several weeks ago, and that article and Pinterest are usually responsible for 90% of my page views. That got my attention. So here are a few things I do to keep Pinterest happy.
1. I create a board just for my articles, and then several similarly-themed other boards I can repin to.
If you’re going to be repinning your blog pins, which you’d better be, you need somewhere to put them. I also have one main board besides my blog board that I pin to as much as possible (mom blog articles), so it doesn’t look like I’m monopolizing it with my repins.
2. I collaborate on big blogging boards.
I do this by finding what big boards other bloggers are collaborating on. Everyone else recommends this group board resource, Pingroupie. But I could never figure out how to contact the people who ran the big boards. I just checked out other bloggers’ group boards, and emailed the owners of the ones I wanted.
3. I make and pin 2-3 different pins for each blog article.
Your blog is going to have more than one image, so why not have more than one pin? The long ones will be the popular ones, but you never know. For 5 steps to the perfect pin, click here.
4. I tried using a scheduler and got blocked. Now I repin 8-10x or more a day, the same pin.
Pinterest marked me as spam for a few days after I used Viralwoot and pinned a few pins 30x in 24 hours. I emailed their support team and got unblocked for a few hours, only to get blocked again! Now I’m using Board Booster, which repins at random intervals. I also try to repin my last four articles at least 8x a day. This is why you need all those boards, especially the group boards, so your repins have a place to go!
5. I build my following by pinning 25-50 pins a day outside of my own content.
I tried to duplicate my efforts on Twitter at building my following, and it rarely works for Pinterest. Following other users rarely gets them to follow back. On Twitter I can get maybe a 33% followback rate. Pinterest is like 10%. You get followers on Pinterest by pinning. It’s as simple as that. That’s why you gotta pin like crazy. I like pinning a lot to the boards I post my articles to so I can disguise all my duplicate pins. Also, you need all the help you can get, so use Tailspin or Board Booster or something similar to automate pins. Since I started using Board Booster I’ve seen a steady increase both in the number of blog views and the Pinterest referrals. Board Booster offers a free trial and then plans start at $5/month.
6. I have my own boards I invite other bloggers to collaborate on.
Having a big ‘ol board is going to get you a lot of followers, and a lot of people seeing your pins. Now I get people emailing me to collaborate on my boards. If you want you want to grow your group boards, make sure you include your email in the description. I also inform other bloggers I meet online about my group board so they have a place to pin their stuff, too. If you want to collaborate on my Mom Blog Articles board, let me know!
One more note on Pinterest: be patient! It took 6 signs you’re a good mom 5 days to start getting serious page views. I’m finding that with my other posts as well. You won’t know immediately if your post is a hit. Keep pinning it!
Everyone tells you to pick one social media platform to focus on and automate the rest, but if you are serious about page views, Pinterest is the holy grail of social media marketing. I used to spend all my time in Facebook groups and on Twitter getting people to tweet my stuff, but now that I see that Pinterest users are the ones checking out my blog, I spend much of my time there.
Let me know if you have any Pinterest tips. I would love to learn more!
Check out my free Pinterest Growth Challenge below:
If this post was helpful to you, you might be interested in Pinterest Domination in Just Twenty Minutes a Day.
These are great tips, Susan! I hadn’t thought of repinning others’ pins in that light! It’s too bad that algorithm has changed again- all of those group messages are crazy!
I can’t complain too much, though. My page views have been a little better than normal lately. So I’m not sure if I want them to change anything!
This is really useful. I pinned it! I belong to one group board, which I was invited to. I have wanted to join more boards, but didn’t know how to go about it. I didn’t think of emailing the owner.
You gotta nail Pinterest! That’s where all your readers are
great article! That’s a great tip re being picked up for being spammy – thanks for sharing.
Yeah, that was not fun, lol
Thank you. I am just starting out on pinterest and really needed some tips. Can you please send me an invite to your mom blog article?
Email Id is shahi93@ gmail com
Definitely! Check your Pinterest notifications
Pinterest is such a great tool
It totally is!
Pinterest is the social media platform I got into after all the others. I’m still learning and this list will help. Thanks!
Great! Good luck to you!
Great tips! I am involved in 3 group boards, and they’re fantastic for reach and audience!
Yeah, and they give all your repins a place to go!
I am currently not on any group boards, so thanks for the advice! I’m pinning this, very helpful.
Yeah, do it!
I so needed this!! I am new at it all
It’s overwhelming sometimes! You just gotta take those tips that make sense to you and run with them
I’m just now really getting into Pinterest so I still have a lot to learn. But these are excellent tips. Thanks for sharing!
Sure! I hope one or two works out for you ?
Love these tips! I’m just now starting to understand the power of group boards. I still haven’t started the multiple pins per post, but it’s definitely on my to-do list.
Just so long as you regularly repin! That’s so important
Right now, I’m stuck in the mentality of seeing Pinterest as pointless. I know, I know.
But, this post seriously has me interested. I have a Pinterest account, but am not nearly as active as I should be (nowhere near as active as you!), and thought it was just a flop. Definitely going to be devoting some time to get familiar. Thanks for sharing! <3
I got zero referrals from Pinterest until my one article that went semi-viral. Since then, I’m like, why am I bothering with other social media?
I really love Pinterest but just haven’t been able to see the return yet for my blog. And I know it is because I don’t have the time to pin like you said to and that is why there are products like Tailwind, but I am just not sure it is the investment I want to make right now.
Yeah, I just take like five minutes four or five times a day to pin. If you’re seeing referrals from other sources, awesome.
Thank you so much for all of these tips. I’ve started to get better at making pinnable images, but I didn’t realize it was helpful to repin all of our own stuff. I’ve got some work to do! Thanks for the group idea too!
Absolutely! Good luck to you!
Pinterest is wonderful for getting pageviews. It’s like 80+% of mine.
Yeah, I have a feeling you could add a bunch more tips to this list ?
Wow this is totally helpful. Mostly because before blogger I would have said Pin-what? Thanks for sharing, I’m saving this one…
Wonderful! Glad I could help.
I’ve got to clean up my boards. I’ve got such a hodgepodge. I pinned A LOT when Pinterest was first created. Like obsessively. Then I stopped for a few years. I’m restarting now and love your tips. Thank you so much! My problem is it’s hard to make an image that’s the optimal size for Pinterest. (You know very tall) I need to find some kind of image creator.
You’re doing great, keep it up!
Candy, I use Spark Post, but the template they have for Pinterest isn’t tall enough, so I use the absolute last option they have for size templates. You also could make the image and then crop it to make it skinnier. I wish I knew of an app that made good long posts for Pinterest ?
I have been blogging for over a year now and made the huge mistake of not focusing on Pinterest since the beginning. I am just learning how to use Pinterest for my blog so I really appreciate your post. I would be interested in joining your mom board if you could please email me the information. Thanks so much!
Done! Check your Pinterest notifications
I just set up my self hosted blog last week and I had searched on Google for pinterest and blogging tips and I had come across this post even before you shared on mom blog tribe. I had not commented the first time around son here I am commenting. I am trying to find out the group boards of late. Can’t find much though
You found my post on Google? Awesome!
Yes if I rem well. I have been deeply searching and reading every article possible on pinterest.
Do send my way if you have any more material related to Pinterest.
Here’s an article I found from another blogger group: http://www.christianbloggercommunity.com/10k-pinterest-followers-6-months/
Thank you so much. I’ll dive into it.
That’s easy. Go to my Pinterest page. I’m on a couple. Just click on them and read the description.
Thank you. I’ll do that.
I never saw the draw to Pinterest, either, when I first started blogging.I really wish I’d started taking advantage of it sooner. Once I started following *most* of the tips you shared here, I saw a huge increase in traffic immediately. I’m currently working on going back through my old posts and adding new images in hopes they will help bring readers to my site!
It’s kinda funny, I saw this article on Pinterest a couple days ago and saved it. I planned on reading it, but I have about 100 different blog related articles to read and I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet… until I saw you commented on my blog 🙂
Yeah, I have read a ton of Pinterest articles, but they all kind of say the same thing. I’m still learning new stuff I haven’t read yet. Pinterest is the way to go!
Love your blog 🙂 I went ahead and followed- hope to keep up! Check out mine!
http://wanderousjournal.wordpress.com
Thank you! Followed you back
Great tips! I really need to expand my blog as I just started it, and this seems like a great way to do so!
I’ve also nominated you for a liebster award honoring new bloggers. Check out my link for the details!
https://savvymamaj.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/liebster-award/
Pinterest really is the way to go!
Great info!! I keep hearing that Pinterest is a gold mine!!!! Great read!
It is!!! All my views!
I am finally reading this and love it!!! I don’t know how I missed it. You have so many great tips. I just started using boardbooster last week. Really slowly lol. I have it barely pinning yet. I am curious how you are able to pin something 8x in a day. Do you use looping? I need to check out what group boards you are on. You have given me so much food for thought!
I do that manually. I will repin my latest post plus my four most popular posts to as many group boards as I can every day.
[…] If this post was helpful to you, you might be interested in 6 Ways I Use Pinterest to Get Page Views. […]
[…] Have several boards that you pin your blog articles to. This is easy to do especially when you’re collaborating on a bunch of boards. When you pin a new article, repin to a different board every few hours or so. They have pin schedulers that do this for you, but I haven’t discovered any free ones yet. Read my Pinterest post about rocking Pinterest here, creating a great pin here, and more tips here. […]