Since its founding, Pinterest has helped people make creative recipes, design fun DIY projects, glean clothing inspiration, and complete thousands of other miscellaneous projects. Pinterest works as both a marketing and creative platform — meaning there’s plenty of genius ways you can make money.
Rather than seeing Pinterest as your usual social photo-sharing platform, it’s actually a great way to monetize your profile.
As of March 2020, Pinterest gained 70 million monthly active users, with over 330 people using Pinterest every month. Pinterest is currently the third-largest social network in the United States.
Many bloggers and influencers harp on this subject a lot, and you’re probably skeptical.
But believe it or not, there are many ways to make money with Pinterest, and as the network continues to grow, so do your opportunities to monetize your profile.
For the past decade, Pinterest has been helping people find how-tos and products they love. There are several different ways you can learn how to make money on Pinterest.
Let’s look at some effective ways in which you can make money with Pinterest.
32 Ways To Make Money on Pinterest
In short, Pinterest is more than just a social media; it’s a search engine. Users look for inspiration, solutions to their problems, and answers to their inquiries.
This is where the money-making part comes in. In this section, I’ll go through 32 ways you can earn a profit using Pinterest.
1. Start a Blog
Perhaps the most popular way to make money on Pinterest is through a blog. In fact, if you were to Google “how to make money on Pinterest” right now, I can bet that starting a blog would be the top hit.
Like I mentioned above, Pinterest is not so much a social media platform, but a search engine based on images rather than text. Bloggers of all niches attribute Pinterest marketing to much of their success, whether it’s food or finance.
Over the years, Pinterest has gathered a massive blogger presence. And contrary to misconceptions that Pinterest is just like any other social media platform, it’s much more powerful for bloggers to market their products and gain a profit with their content.
Rundown: Making money with a blog on Pinterest:
- Create a Pinterest account
- Pick a blogging niche (fashion, finance, food, etc.)
- Create a Pin (or an interesting image that shows what your blog post is about)
- Create content
- Post it on your blog
- Monetize the content with ads or affiliate products
- Post the image on Pinterest
Of course, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the basic rundown.
Users search for an idea, which directs them to your pin. From there, they click on it, which redirects them to your blog, thus driving traffic to your website and gaining potential customers.
2. Create Engaging Blog Content
Content is crucial. The key to creating engaging content is writing blog posts that people actually want to spend the time to read. That means writing blog posts people are actively searching for on Pinterest.
To be honest, people don’t want to know how your weekend vacation went with your family. They want to know the recipes you made, the outfits you wore, or the places you went.
In simple terms, people want to know how they can benefit from your post.
But to do this, you have to narrow down your niche. That way you can understand your target audience and create content catered to them specifically.
3. Create Pins That Link to your Site
The trick is to upload images that stand out to your audience so much, they’ll click on them. This means using product photos or intriguing graphic design templates that will draw in users.
Then, link these images directly to the product or appropriate page on your website. The key is to be precise; don’t link them to your home page. Linking them to the exact product will cut back on time scrolling through web pages, which in turn, speeds up the purchasing process.
The fewer scrolls and clicks someone has to do to follow through with their purchase, the better.
4. Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Before you quickly scroll past this step, let us ease your conscience: you don’t have to be an expert or hold special qualifications to be a Pinterest virtual assistant or VA.
Pinterest virtual assistants help social media influencers, online business owners, and bloggers optimize their Pinterest accounts. This includes things like:
- Creating pins
- Automate the posting of pins
- Conducting keyword searches
- Running Promoted Pins
With over a million blogs and online businesses, it’s no surprise that Pinterest VA’s are in high demand. Pinterest VA’s can earn up to $500 per month from each client.
For more information, learn how to become a Pinterest VA. This course will teach you everything in the bullet list above (and more), as well as how to find, gain, and retain clients.
5. Promote a Company and Gain Sponsorships
First, find your target audience. That will help you build your Pinterest following. Then, find and select companies that appeal to your audience.
For example, if you’re targeting the “health and fitness” audience, reach out to companies that sell gym equipment, workout gear, energy drinks, or protein supplements.
As you grow your account, share your statistics with the company’s you’ve selected and ask for sponsorship. To further appeal to the sponsors, offer them deals like they can use their branding on your account for a year.
6. Join Group Boards
You’ll often hear from other bloggers: “Group boards! Group boards! Join group boards!”
While this may help grow your Pinterest traffic, it’s crucial to join group boards that are specific to your niche.
To join, you must contact the board owner and ask for an invitation. Most group boards contain instructions in the board description on how to contact them to request an invitation.
Group boards are a great way to get more eyes on your pins. Generally, group boards include board rules, so make sure to read and abide by those carefully. If the board specifies no affiliate pins, then don’t pin them to that board.
If the board doesn’t allow affiliate pins, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t join them. Group boards are still a great way to gain attention and get more followers. Once you grow your following, your followers will see your affiliate pins in their feed.
7. Use SEO to Get Discovered on Pinterest
To make money on Pinterest, people have to be able to find your boards, first. Using SEO strategies can be a big help. This will allow people to find you both on Pinterest and through major search engines, like Google.
Help Pinterest users find your pin with strategic keywords that describe the product or style. Your “About” profile allows 200 characters (or approximately 50 words). The key is to be clear and concise, using popular keywords searchers commonly use.
These will help your pins rank higher in Google search results, so be descriptive.
Using the same SEO strategies on your pins is also crucial. Each pin allows 500 characters of description, so make the most of it by adding links and keywords. But include your keywords carefully — not in a forceful way.
8. Become an Affiliate Marketer
To successfully sell a product, you need to appeal to the right audience. Instead of signing up for random affiliate programs, select brands or products that will specifically appeal to your followers.
Start-ups and big brands offer affiliate opportunities, so conduct your research to find what’s available in your preferred field.
9. Use Affiliate Links to Promote Products
Affiliate marketing is partnering up with companies to promote products and/or services. The company provides you with an affiliate link to insert in your pins. When someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you’re paid a commission.
However, Pinterest has changed its opinion on affiliate links many times in the past. They originally allowed it but banned it in 2015, and now they’ve allowed it. This is why it’s important to stay updated on Pinterest’s changes so you don’t get penalized.
Helpful Tip: You can track pins and boards for the number of clicks. You’ll receive a tracking code to add to links to track all the sales that come through you, but to collect your own data, we suggest using URL shorteners.
10. Cater to the Crafters
The variety of crafts available on Pinterest is endless. Crafts are perhaps the easiest thing to sell.
Many users who succeed in selling crafts on Pinterest target a specific group of crafters, like scrapbookers, fashion crafters, or gift-makers. Carefully consider the audience you’re selling to.
Ask yourself the question, who is most likely to buy my product? Is it stay-at-home mom’s looking for affordable hair bows for their daughters? Or is it the working woman looking for some alone time, perhaps a DIY spa treatment?
Think about how you can create products that can make someone’s life more convenient and say, “This is exactly what I need,” when they buy it.
11. Create a Shopping Collection
If you consider yourself a fashion guru, creating a shopping collection on Pinterest can serve as an excellent way to make a little extra income.
Nearly 50% of Pinners use the app for the sole purpose of shopping. With Pinterest’s Collections format, you can upload an image and tag your products within it, so users can shop your look immediately.
Creating a collection is like creating your own digital storefront, so people can browse your selection.
12. Create Eye-catching Images, or Pins
Unlike many social media platforms, Pinterest is based entirely on images, which means your pins need to stand out.
Especially if you’re trying to make money, your photos need to look as eye-catching and professional as possible.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of digital tools you can use to create such images, like Canva. Canva is a graphic design platform, used to make quality, creative graphics for social media, flyers, presentations, documents, posters, and other visual content — a great tool for a visual platform like Pinterest.
Canva is free and easy to use, and it offers tons of free templates that you can use to edit your images in appealingly.
13. Join the Community
While it’s important to post regularly, embracing the “social” part of the platform by liking, repinning, and commenting on others’ pins is just as important.
Likewise, following accounts or boards is a great way to encourage follow-backs as well.
Repinning and clicking their links helps keep you on the map. While Pinterest is a search engine, it’s also a social media platform. Engaging with the community is one of the best ways to get noticed.
By following other accounts, you’re increasing the chances for people to visit your profile and thus, click on your links, view your ads, and buy your products.
14. Partner With a Brand
Once you’ve gathered a large, quality Pinterest following, you can make money by promoting the products or services of a company via sponsored Pins. Regardless of your chosen niche, your followers show that you have something valuable other brands may want.
By curating a shared board with a brand, you simply partner up with a brand and they pay you a flat fee to create a Pinterest board for their company. This allows you to kill two birds with one stone — not only do you get paid, but you end up gaining more views and followers from people who are looking at companies similar to your niche.
By partnering up with a brand, you can still make money on Pinterest without making up your own product. You’re essentially selling access to your audience.
When choosing a company to promote via sponsored pins, it is very important that the products the company is offering appeal to your audience. If it isn’t, you’ll have a hard time making money.
15. Conduct Keyword Searches
Keywords help people discover your pins, both through a direct search and through Pinterest’s recommendation algorithm.
As I’ve touched on before, Pinterest is like a search engine, which means using keywords to describe your pins is essential to growing your profile. To narrow searchable keywords, start by looking at the pins that pop up at the top of your feed.
The simplest and most concise descriptions are the ones you want to really look for.
Conduct quick and easy keyword searches at the top of the page in the search bar. Start typing something related to your niche or products. For example, if you’re into cooking, start with a search for “how to cook” and let Pinterest auto-fill in the rest.
Whatever the top results are will show what people are currently searching for.
Also, having a business account can keep you up to date on what searches are trending, but I’ll touch on that more later.
16. Create a Media Kit
Creating a media kit is another great way to make money with Pinterest. Media kits let potential business partners important details about your business or Pinterest following, as well as any key statistics and facts.
Having a media kit is one of the easiest ways to tell people what you can offer their business.
Canva works as a great tool to create a media kit, too. Your media kit should include:
- A short bio about you and your business
- List of your services
- Number of following and impressions
- Any relevant information about your audience
If you’re searching for partners to collaborate with or are interested in hosting advertisements and/or sponsorships, preparing a media kit is worth your time.
A document media kit features factual aspects about your engagement and followers and provides information about your brand and its value. It may also include prices of specific advertising and promotional opportunities.
Select from one of Canva’s many graphic design templates to make a modern PDF available for download, or feature the information right on your main website or blog.
Once you’ve got a media kit, reaching out and partnering up with companies becomes a whole lot easier.
As with all social media platforms, producing high-quality content is the ultimate key to success, so make sure you’re proudly and confidently creating pins for your audience.
17. Set up a Business Account on Pinterest
Perhaps the first and most important step to making money with Pinterest is signing up for a business Pinterest account. It’s completely free to sign up and use.
Only Business accounts can use catalogs and Shopping ads. So you can either upgrade your existing personal account or create a fresh new business one.
If you want to make money on Pinterest, having a Business account makes your account look more legitimate.
It also gives you access to Pinterest Analytics, which provides you with helpful information — such as which pins receive the most clicks and how many people are seeing your pins — and understand your overall presence on Pinterest.
Make sure to include relevant keywords in your profile bio, pins, and board descriptions. This will help boost your rankings.
18. Start a Podcast
Here’s another great thing about Pinterest: it’s a huge learning library. Almost anything and everything has been pinned about. Whether it’s baking, thrifting, building, or crafting, someone out there has done it.
Not only can you find all of these things on Pinterest, but you can choose, gather, and organize them.
But instead of sitting on that knowledge, why not make something from it? Why not turn your newly gained skill into a money-making talent?
Of course, there are so many routes you could choose, but one of the most up-and-coming is podcasting.
Despite the false narratives that podcasting is dead, 50% of all homes in the U.S. are podcast listeners — that’s about 60 million people. And it’s only continuing to grow.
Using your Pinterest to promote your podcast can earn you quite a bit of money. From cooking ideas to fashion inspiration to motivational stories, if people like your pins, they’ll show up more often in their feed, which will drive them straight to your podcast.
Pinterest really is a fantastic way to promote your podcast, build your brand, and spread the word of whatever message you’re trying to convey.
One simple strategy you can use on Pinterest is audiograms, which are small audio snippets from your podcast episodes. Many podcasters hail audiograms as great marketing tools which leave your listeners wanting more.
Once they click on the audiograms, they’re redirected to your podcast page, where they can stream the entire episode.
Using audiograms is a great way to strengthen your social media presence, as well as add diversity to your content.
If you have a video podcast, you can also post short clips of videos on your profile and encourage your followers to share them with others. The key is making quality, shareable content.
19. Learn to Knit or Crochet
Just like podcasting, there’s a wide variety of other skills you can learn to monetize on Pinterest. Hand knitting or crochet, for example, is one of the most widely selling talents on the platform.
Handmade items sell great as gifts. Whether it’s hats, scarves, sweaters, or baby blankets, you can make something for everyone.
When factoring in price, consider both the cost of materials and the time needed to make the product. This should give you a general idea of how to price your items.
Then, once customers receive their product, encourage them to post a photo and tag your business or Pinterest profile to help spread the word and grow your brand.
20. Create Calligraphy Art
While many think calligraphy art is just a fun hobby, it’s actually growing as a serious career. According to Career Explorer, the average salary for a calligrapher in the United States is around $64,490 per year, with high-level calligraphers earning up to $148,800.
Several calligraphy alphabets have been created over the years, and modern calligraphers typically choose from one of those. They illustrate beautiful lettering and texts for all kinds of events and documents, including weddings, maps, invitations, death and birth certificates, stationery, quotes, poems, letters, and more.
In most cases, calligraphers work as freelancers, taking special orders from clients. Graphic design firms reach out to calligraphers to help create logos, educational institutes hire calligraphers to write diplomas, or wedding planning businesses ask calligraphers to write invitations.
Occasionally, film and television companies reach out to calligraphers to design images or props.
However, one of the key requirements of being a calligrapher is patience. In many cases, calligraphers have to write and rewrite drafts, often with hand cramps. Once the calligrapher feels confident, they start working on the final draft.
Calligraphers can use the power of Pinterest to advertise their services. Start by creating boards that show off your design, and include little teasers featuring your work, like invitations or thank you cards.
You can sell your products or tutorials. Share your knowledge of the subject by creating a blog or posting short videos of DIY calligraphy art, then link back to your page and encourage viewers to sign up for a mailing list to keep them in the loop of new designs.
Once you’ve gained a large following, you can start writing e-books that include instructional lessons, worksheets, organization printables, calendars, etc.
21. Become a Photographer
Are you an aspiring photographer looking to expand your services? Try using Pinterest.
With a free Business account, you can post your photos and link them to their website. As with all social media platforms, Pinterest allows you to connect and engage with your clients. Pinterest also acts as a great portfolio, where you can pin your work and make it available to your followers.
In addition to making money with Pinterest, many freelance photographers advertise their services by blogging. As Itouched on earlier, Pinterest and blogging go hand-in-hand — they both work well separately, but together, they’re exceptional.
With your Pinterest account, refer back to your blog, where you can write articles on subjects like favorite camera gear, posing tips, favorite editing software, social media tips, favorite sessions in your city, etc.
Keywords can also help with your engagement on Pinterest. Simply conduct photography-related searches and see what’s trending. This will help you narrow down the keywords to include in your photo descriptions.
22. Create “Shop the Look” Pins
As long as your account is set up as a business account (what you need to do if you want to make money on Pinterest), you can create Shop the Look pins.
Display a sleek design space or stylish outfit to spark inspiration. Then, tag the specific products in your photo so followers can shop the exact look — or items that are similar — themselves.
For products you’ve tagged in your pins, users can click on that small dot that appears over an item, view the item, make a purchase, and earn you a commission. In some ways, it’s similar to affiliate marketing, but it’s with individual products on individual pins.
23. Schedule Pins
With Pinterest, the key is to be as consistent and engaged as possible, otherwise, you risk losing interest. The more consistent you are, the more people will see your pins.
But despite how much we all love Pinterest, no one can spend all day, every day on the app. That’s why scheduling your pins can help.
Pinterest schedulers come in handy when you don’t have the time to sit down and pin your photos. There’s plenty of scheduling tools available, but Tailwind is the best scheduler available right now to schedule your pins.
Tailwind is the ultimate marketing app created specifically for Pinterest and Instagram. The toolkit helps your schedule posts at the best times, discover content, create beautiful pins, expand your reach, measure results, and above all, helps you create a pinning schedule.
Now, you can sit back, relax, and let your pins post themselves. You no longer have to schedule times into your day to pin, Tailwind does it for you. The app is both affordable and convenient.
24. Pin During the Most Popular Times of Day
While gaining followers certainty plays a big role in making money from Pinterest, so do the number of views you receive, and this largely depends on the time you post.
Back in the early days of Pinterest, when you Pinned was super important. If you pinned at the wrong time, basically no one would see the post.
Now, Pinterest includes Smart Feed, which helps filter searches based on what content the searcher wants to see. While the Smart Feed feature may make it seem that when you Pin isn’t important anymore, you still need to know the best time to post.
In simple terms, your followers need to interact with your content the second it’s uploaded and you need to know when that is.
I’ve researched multiple studies to narrow down the best times to post.
According to Fannit, the best time to Pin is two windows: 8-11 PM, and 2-4 AM EST.
However, according to 10Alike, the ideal times to post are between 2-4 PM EST and 8 PM to 1 AM EST. Other studies recommend not posting during work hours.
After gathering data from multiple large digital marketing companies using Pinterest, CoSchedule conducted a study in 2019 of the best time to Pin.
Here’s what they found:
- 80% of the US population is located in the Central and Eastern time zones.
- Statistic recommend planning your Pinning schedule within these time zones
- Users are most active on Pinterest in the evening
The study found two peak times: 8-11 PM and 2-4 AM.
Another study from Sprout Social found:
- Best day to pin: Saturday.
- Best time to pin: 8-11 PM.
- Other popular times to pin: 9 PM, 2-4 PM (EST) and 8 PM to 1 AM (EST).
While these statistics are helpful in a general sense, the best time to pin also depends on your niche and what exactly you’re pinning.
For the majority of Pinterest content (B2C, or business to consumer), Saturday is the best day to pin. However, it’s not the ideal time if you’re B2B (business to business), because your audience isn’t on work-mode.
25. Follow Pinterest’s Rules and Regulations
Of course, it’s always important to respect the platform by following its guidelines. You read into Pinterest’s Community Guidelines here for both business account owners and personal users.
For starters, if you’re getting paid to promote any product or service, you must always disclose that the link is an affiliate. That’s a Pinterest requirement from the FTC.
You can do this by simply adding the word “affiliate” at the end of your pin description, or #affiliate or #affiliatelink in the text of your pin.
Pinterest also requires you to use the full affiliate link. You can not mask or shorten the link with programs like bit.ly.
Don’t go overboard or spam users with your affiliate links. This will turn people away and result in unfollows, and it could ultimately get kicked off Pinterest.
26. Stay Up to Date With Changes
Since they started in 2010, Pinterest has made frequent changes to its platform, and it’s important to stay up to date with those changes as they can affect the way you make money with Pinterest.
Over the past few years, Pinterest occasionally deems affiliate links to be too spammy and cracks down on affiliate marketing. Stay up to date on Pinterest’s changes and preferences so you don’t get penalized.
To learn more, make sure to frequently read their email lists and check out Social Media Today to stay updated.
27. Know your Audience
To more efficiently grow your Pinterest profile, you must first know and understand your audience. A great way to do so is through surveys.
Conducting surveys is the easiest way to figure out what your followers really want or how interested they are in a certain topic. Once you receive the survey results, examine competing accounts.
For example, if your followers express an interest in food boards, look up other popular food boards and see what’s trending. Then, find ways to create even better food boards.
28. Narrow Down your Passion
Before even starting your Pinterest account, start by narrowing down your passion. This is easier for some people more than others.
Once you’ve figured out what you’re passionate about, see if people are using it to make money, and find ways you can, too.
Let’s say you’re a health-nut. You love healthy food and healthful living. Now, narrow down a specific target audience: women in their mid-twenties looking to change their diet and live their happiest, healthiest lives.
Now you’re ready to create a Pinterest account that appeals to this audience.
Create boards, post pins, create a mailing list, and draw people to your boards. You don’t need a million followers to sell to your audience, either. In fact, views matter more than followers.
And if you’re not sure what products to sell, don’t worry — you’ll get there eventually. Once you gain a larger following, marketers will approach you with offers.
29. Create Contests
If you want to sell your own products on Pinterest, look into making contests that users can interact with. They’re popular and can help you to make money.
But creating a contest may seem overwhelming at first. Here’s what Pinterest has to say about its contest guidelines:
“Contests are a common tactic businesses use to get people to engage with their brand, and we’ve learned a lot about how they work on Pinterest,” says the new Pinterest rules aimed at removing spam. “Done well, they can be a trigger to help people think about and talk about your brand.”
Bottom line, contests engage your users, but they can also motivate people to add Pins they aren’t truly interested in. That’s why Pinterest prohibits the requirement of saving a specific image for the sake of a contest.
If done properly, contests can serve your account well.
30. Re-pin Other’s Pins
Like with most social media platforms, Pinterest lets you repost or re-pin other’s pins to stay active. As long as you don’t go overboard, rep-pinning can serve as a great tool to grow your account and gain more followers and views.
Re-pinning from similar accounts is key. Eventually, you’ll pop up on other user’s home feeds, thus causing your brand to receive more attention.
31. Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to your eCommerce Site
If you’re an online shop owner or have an eCommerce site — whether it’s through Etsy or Shopify — you can drive traffic to your site and make money with Pinterest. This way, you’re utilizing the power of Pinterest’s search engine in similar ways bloggers do.
That means making pins to promote and advertise new products, organizing boards for different themes or styles, and conducting keyword research.
But for users looking specifically to make money with Pinterest, I suggest you look into Promoted Pins, which is essentially Pinterest’s version of Facebook ads.
You can make the most of your Promoted Pins to meet different goals (app installs, traffic, brand awareness, etc.) and decide whether to put ads in search mode or browse mode.
32. Teach Pinterest Strategies to Other Users
Once you’ve mastered the above points, the next step is to make money on Pinterest by taking advantage of your knowledge.
If you’ve grown a large following, received multiple sponsorships, or partnered up with various brands, other pinners will want to know how you did it.
You can learn how to monetize your knowledge in Pinterest with ebooks, courses, tutorials, coaching, how-to videos, etc. Starting a blog will help you share your experience and reach out to other people who want to do the same.
As Pinterest continues to grow, a small industry has developed around it, with people developing tools to help Pinterest users.
So, there you have it: 32 creative, innovate, and effective ways to make money with Pinterest. Once you get started, you’ll see how easy it is to boost your Pinterest income!
