If you’re using Ocoya to its fullest potential, we know it has helped you get tons of social media traffic by now. The next logical step is putting all of this hard-earned traffic to a good use by monetizing it. And boy oh boy does Pinterest have some serious potential for that! In fact, it allows you to make direct sales from the platform itself by utilizing the Buyable Pin functionality, which is bound to be of great help if you’re doing eCommerce.

However, don’t limit your thinking that eCommerce is the only way to monetize the platform once you start getting some traction. There’s also the option of affiliate marketing, driving traffic to your blog, selling services, building your personal brand, sponsored posts and many other ways that we’re going to reveal in today’s post. The main idea is to get your creative juices flowing and start thinking about the right monetization strategy for your niche. Let’s get started!

1. How to monetize Pinterest with affiliate marketing

So why affiliate marketing? For starters, because it doesn’t require you to have your own product, meaning that anyone can do this. If you’re new to the world of internet marketing, affiliate promotions basically mean that you’re getting a percentage-based cut of the sale… but only if you actually make a sale. Mere clicks don’t count!

That’s one of the beginner-friendly Pinterest monetization strategies that we often recommend to newcomers because it’s simple, to-the-point, and works like a charm, all without having any kind of barrier to entry. Moreover, it tends to work in almost all niches, provided that the product you’re promoting is a good fit for your audience.

Once you’re all signed up and good to go with your affiliate program of choice, you’ll be able to get a personalized link with tracking functionality, making it clear whom the sale should be credited to. Of course, it’s crucial that you promote a product that you actually believe in, because otherwise, it might hurt the reputation with your followers you’ve worked so hard to develop.

Pinterest even allows you to tag your pins and add personalized offers to them. Note that it’s a requirement to disclose that you’ll be making a commission from the affiliate sale, so make sure you comply to prevent any unwanted account closures. As for the various affiliate networks you can join, try signing up with:

- Amazon Associates

- Like to Know it

- Share a sale

- etc.

Before choosing one, make sure that it meshes well with your niche and that it isn’t against the vendor’s policy to promote their offer using social traffic. And once you get the ball rolling, don’t expect money to magically rain down the sky either. You’ll actually need to put in some effort into designing attractive pins as well as researching suitable affiliate products.

2. How to monetize Pinterest with sponsored posts

Have you managed to amass a following on Pinterest over time? Good! Now it’s time to capitalize on it by partnering up with a sponsor in your niche. It’s a win-win arrangement for both of you – they gain highly-targeted advertising by leveraging your audience, and you gain a non-intrusive tool that lets you monetize your presence on the platform.

For this to work, however, you’ll need to build up a substantial following. Otherwise, your partnership request might get denied. At the end of the day, companies are looking for established content creators with a dedicated following. To get in touch with them, consider utilizing platforms such as:

- AspireIQ

- Hashtag Paid

As for how much you’ll be able to earn, this mostly depends on the size and engagement of your following. To give you a ballpark number, this can be anything from $100 to several thousands of dollars. However, it goes without saying that you’ll need to actually have quite a loyal fanbase to get anywhere close to that number and be accepted into the program in the first place.

3. How to monetize Pinterest with Pinterest Creator Fund

It’s not guaranteed that you’ll get accepted, but if you do, you’ll get $25.000 worth of goodies in the form of ad spend, cash grant, and equipment stipend. However, get ready to put in some work into learning the ropes, as the 5-week program will teach you all you need to know about creating content that inspires, getting brand sponsorships, gaining industry insights and more.

Every quarter, the Fund cycle begins anew, and rebrands itself with a fresh central theme. However, the drawback is that Pinterest Creator Fund is only available to account holders from the US. As time goes on, we may see the opportunity extended to residents of the UK and Brazil. If you’re from somewhere else entirely, don’t despair! There are other ways on how to monetize Pinterest, so keep on reading!

4. How to monetize Pinterest by sending traffic to your blog

If you’re having issues with monetizing your content on Pinterest directly, another way to go about it is to send it straight to your blog and go from there. Interestingly enough, actually getting your pins ranked internally on the platform is a much easier endeavor compared to, let’s say, attempting to drive organic traffic through Google.

Once your traffic is redirected to wherever you want it to go, you’re free to experiment with new and innovative approaches on how to monetize it. You could, for instance, run ads on your blog or get them to sign up for your newsletter, so you can monetize in the background.

It might seem strange at first, but Pinterest users are actually accustomed to clicking through the pins to see what’s on the other side. With that being said, you’re still going to need to incorporate your Pinterest essentials if you want to get some traffic and clicks to your pins, which includes:

- Optimizing your pins by targeting keywords

- Designing graphics that catch the eye

- etc.

One thing that isn’t always talked about on Pinterest is that it’s okay for multiple pins to link to the same target page on your website, as long as each of them is sufficiently unique. In other words, it’s probably not a good idea to just re-post the same pin over and over again. However, even something as trivial as changing the font or using another background or rewording the title could do the trick. More or less, the goal is to convince Pinterest’s algorithm that it’s unique.

5. How to monetize Pinterest with product pins

Statistics suggest that 85% of Pinterest users have made a purchase through Pinterest product pins at some point. After all, the platform was designed to let its users be inspired, get ideas, and shop away. That’s why you should seriously consider setting up a shop on Pinterest. In fact, the platform allows you to create product pins, a special type of pin designed exactly for this purpose.

And the beautiful thing is, it’s okay to use them for promoting digital products as well, so there’s no need to limit your thinking to physical products exclusively. Put on your creative cap and see how you, too, could leverage this by promoting:

- Courses

- Guides

- Templates

- etc.

To fully take advantage of this functionality, there are some technical steps to go through, including opening a business profile or converting your existing personal profile, claiming your website, as well as studying up on Pinterest’s TOS to make sure you’re not stepping on any toes.

Additional tips on how to create high performing Pinterest pins

While knowing the best ways on how to monetize Pinterest traffic is a skill that you’re going to have to learn at some point, keep in mind it’s going to take a bit of work to get there. To put it bluntly, no amount of monetization methods will help you move the needle if you don’t have a tight grasp on how to actually generate traffic internally from within the platform. With that in mind, we’ll share a couple of industry tips and best practices so you can start implementing them today.

Use a scheduler

Yes, that’s a shameless plug. Use Ocoya! In essence, scheduling tools allow you to keep populating your account with fresh pins while you’re out and about and doing something else (yes, even while you sleep). This signals the Pinterest algorithm that you’re still active on the platform and keeping things fresh and updated.

This is much, much better compared to trying to get the content out all at once (a bad idea for several different reasons). Instead, social scheduling tools like Ocoya allow you to post at opportune moments to maximize the visibility of your pins. This ensures that your pins will go live when there’s a high chance they’ll get noticed.

Just take a look at our quick demo videos to see how easy it is to get started with Ocoya.

Get in the habit of pinning consistently

Whoever gave you the impression you’re going to be rolling in dough from just one pin is, well, not being quite honest with you. Seeing success on Pinterest takes consistency over time – noticing a general life trend here? Once again, you can either develop a habit of doing it regularly, or taking advantage of Ocoya’s built-in pin scheduling functionality.

As you populate your profile, keep in mind the general best posting practices and recommended pin dimensions. Design them using bold fonts and colors that stand out and get noticed in the noise of other pins.

Don’t forget to include a description

Although Pinterest is a visual search engine, sometimes its algorithms need a little bit of help understanding what the pin is about. At the very least, include the main keyword you’re trying to target, as this will help boost your pins’ searchability. It might not be a bad idea to throw in some long tail keywords while you’re at it.

And, if you can find the time, try to come up with a proper description. No time? No copywriting skills? Once again, Ocoya comes to the rescue with its built-in AI copywriter, so that’s no longer an excuse. In fact, you can have it generate meaningful descriptions in a matter of minutes or even seconds.

Incorporate the cliffhanger factor

The ultimate goal of any Pinterest marketing is to get your visitor to click through from Pinterest’s platform and visit your website. How exactly you want to achieve that is up to you, but the general formula revolves around teasing them (with the solution to their problem, an answer to their question and so forth), with a clearly defined reason to click through to the other side.

In case you’re selling physical products, you could for example say ‘click here to reveal the best price’. The exact approach might need some refining depending on your niche and industry, but you get the gist. Whether you love or hate cliffhangers on a personal level, realize that they’re a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, and you’d be shooting yourself in the foot by not using them.

‍

Pinterest traffic is generally easier to go after compared to trying to rank in Google in 2024 and beyond. Therefore, we suggest you incorporate this traffic strategy into your overall marketing plan as soon as you can. Who knows, as time goes on, Pinterest might change its philosophy from being friendly to beginner marketers to being just another oppressive algorithm that only rewards existing players and lets all the others who are trying to make a living struggle. But as it stands right now, these are great times to get on Pinterest today and start posting! With industry-grade AI-powered content generation and post scheduling tools like Ocoya at your side, there is no reason to delay it any further.

‍