UPDATED: October 26, 2022

You’ve probably heard about making money online through YouTube, Facebook, and even Instagram, but then you hear about people making thousands of dollars a month on Pinterest. 

Is this not the same image-sharing app that you’re using to find home inspiration, shopping ideas, and style trends? Can people make money on Pinterest?

If you Google “How to make money on Pinterest”, you’ll find various recommendations on how to earn from this app. 

Most of the existing advice online agrees that the ideal way to do this is to establish your own website or blog and populate it with content that you specialize in or are interested in. 

You can then start pinning your content on Pinterest and build a following. This following will be your loyal audience, who will be more inclined to buy the products you’re promoting through affiliate marketing.

The problem with this approach, however, is that we all know that this process can be very time-consuming and even expensive. If you’re not a writer, that means you would have to invest money to get blog posts written for your website. 

What if you choose a niche that nobody is interested in? Are there even products suitable for the content you’re writing? These are all variables that you need to take into consideration.

So, is there an easier way to make money on Pinterest? The answer is YES. There are different ways to make money on Pinterest – affiliate marketing, promoting your own products, or working as a Pinterest VA (virtual assistant) for a small e-commerce site. We’ve outlined nine steps on how you can start to make money on Pinterest from scratch.

How Can You Earn on Pinterest With a Blog?

Blogging and Pinterest work well together when we talk about making money. Pinterest is a social media platform that allows bloggers to reach their target audience online. With the right strategy, you can use it in making money using your content. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Start a Blog

Before you can earn on Pinterest, you need to have a website first. It’s recommended to start a self-hosted blog using a web hosting company like Bluehost

Don’t use a free blogging platform because it won’t allow you to display ads or affiliate links, which you need to earn on Pinterest through blogging.

Step 2: Create Useful Content

Content will always be king when it comes to the world of blogging. You need to write and publish posts that your audience wants to read. They want blogs that they can benefit from. 

So instead of sharing your latest weekend getaway, you may want to share delectable dinner recipes that they can use for their upcoming party. Of course, write about topics that you’re an expert in or passionate about. 

Don’t pick a niche just for the sake of making money. Choose a topic that you love and want to write about when you create content.

Step 3: Create a Pinterest Account

Set up a business account on Pinterest. Unlike a personal account, you’ll get access to income-generating features and Pinterest analytics so you can monitor the number of people who are seeing your pins, and which ones get the most clicks.

Step 4: Claim Your Website

Don’t forget to claim your business website. It will allow you to link your site to your Pinterest business account profile.

Step 5: Apply for Rich Pins

You need to put up content on Pinterest that stands out. You can choose between product pins, recipe pins, and article pins.

Step 5: Optimize Your Profile and Pins

You should add the right keywords to your business account profile on Pinterest. Don’t forget to optimize your board descriptions and pins, too, so people can easily find your content.

Step 6: Start Pinning

You can make new pins for your products or blog posts. Make sure that it’s attractive and click-worthy. You can use canva.com to create unique and attention-grabbing graphics. You can choose premade pin templates if you don’t have time to create your own design.

Step 7: Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Now that you have a blog, the next thing you have to do is drive traffic to it. Display advertising with AdSense can help you earn money from your own blog. But, your blog needs to get a lot of traffic if you want to earn around $7 to $10 per 1,000 page views. 

The rates depend on the advertising company you’re working with and the number of ads you have on your website. Google Adsense is a popular ad company you should consider.

How Can You Earn Money on Pinterest Without a Blog?

Earning on Pinterest isn’t limited only to those who have a blog. You can still make money even if you don’t have one. Here are a few options you may consider:

1. Offer Pinterest Virtual Assistant Services

Help bloggers, online businesses, and social media influencers make the most out of their Pinterest accounts. Help create and schedule pins, perform keyword research, run promoted pins, and build opt-ins, sales funnels, and more. 

Pinterest virtual assistants have flexible work schedules and can take on different clients at the same time. How much you can earn as a Pinterest virtual assistant depends on the client you’re working with but you can easily earn as much as $500 for every client per month.

2. Sell Your Own Products on Pinterest

Pinterest is more than just a social media platform. Pinterest marketing allows you to sell your own products or services. You can create pins that link to the sales page for the services or product you’re offering. It can range from digital products like eCourses or eBooks, physical products like clothes, or services such as online coaching or consulting.

How Can You Earn Through Pinterest Affiliate Marketing?

If you don’t have your own product or if you’re not a Pinterest expert (that’s why you’re reading this post in the first place), then you’re left with the obvious, more practical method which is affiliate marketing.

Don’t be intimidated by this seemingly advanced marketing term because in essence, what affiliate marketing means is that you promote a product (market it) and you get a commission for every sale. How do you find the products to promote?

Step 1: Join an Affiliate Program

The easiest way is to join affiliate marketing programs where you can find products to sell. But not all affiliate marketing programs are very welcoming to beginners without a website or huge online following. 

For example, Airbnb requires that you have at least 1 million page visits a month to even be considered as an affiliate partner. Amazon also requires that you have an established blog or website to become an affiliate.

However, there are affiliate programs that do not require you to have a website to join. One example is Clickbank. For this step-by-step process, we will use Clickbank as our example as you can easily sign-up for this program without much requirement.

Step 2. Choose Your Niche And The Products You Want To Promote

After signing up for Clickbank, you’ll be able to see products from all the different categories that you can choose from. There are both digital and physical products available for you to promote.

Here are the categories available in Clickbank.

Arts & EntertainmentHome & GardenCooking, Food & WineAs Seen On TV
As Seen On TVAnimal Care & PetsBBQAuto
Betting SystemsCrafts & HobbiesBakingBackyard Living
Business/InvestingEntertainingCookingGeneral
Computers/InternetGardening & HorticultureDrinks & BeveragesHealth and Beauty
Cooking, Food & WineGeneralGeneralKitchen Tools and Gadgets
E-business & E-marketingHomebuyingRecipes
EducationHow-to & Home ImprovementsRegional & Intl.
Employment & JobsInterior DesignSpecial Diet
FictionSewingSpecial Occasions
GamesWeddingsVegetables / Vegetarian
Green ProductsWine Making
Health & Fitness
Home & Garden
Languages
Mobile
Parenting & Families
Politics/ Current Events
Reference
Self-Help
Software & Services
Spirituality, New Age & Alternative Beliefs
Sports
Travel

Choosing Your Niche

The next step is to choose your niche, meaning you have to decide on what type of products you want to promote on Pinterest and who you are targeting. But when doing so, consider that Pinterest users are predominantly female with stats showing that 71% of Pinterest users are female and 83% of that are aged 25-54. 

This means it will be more beneficial to choose female-skewed categories. It would also be good to choose categories that you naturally have an interest in because this will make this process easier for you.

You can choose just one category like Spirituality or Travel, however, if you’re not really an expert on anything, it would be a good idea to choose at least three categories relevant to one another. This will give you the flexibility to choose products that are high-paying in more than one category and add a variety to your content.

For example, if you decide that you want to target moms, you can choose Home & Garden, Cooking, Food, and Wine, and As Seen On TV. If you look at the product subcategories under these categories, they are all products that a mother would be interested in. It would not be logical to add the category of Politics or Software because that would totally be a different niche.

Choosing Products

Once you decide on your niche, it’s now time to choose the specific product that you want to promote. When choosing a specific product, you can sort the list based on the product’s popularity or how much commission you will earn. These two factors are usually what many affiliate marketers look for.

Another factor that affiliate marketers on Clickbank look for is “Gravity Score”, which indicates how many affiliates made money from promoting that product. This is a good indication of whether the product is at least “sellable” and worth your time. Of course, you have to make sure that the product you will promote looks legit and does not make impossible claims.

To start, choose 3 different products to promote from different categories. Then generate your affiliate or referral link.

 For example:

  • Crafts & Hobbies
  • Baking
  • Kitchen Tools and Gadgets

Step 3. Create A Profile Relevant To Your Niche

Now that you have your niche and the target products that you want to promote, only then should you start building your Pinterest profile. Instead of using your own name, choose a pseudonym that will be relevant to your online profile.

Step 4. Create Boards

The next step is to create Pinterest boards. A Pinterest board is like an album where you put together all the awesome pins that you’re saving. This is where you will pin the product that you want to promote. Ideally, you can have one board per subcategory of products that you want to promote, however, it will depend on what products you’re promoting.

Step 5. Start Following Members And Re-Pinning Relevant Content On Your Boards

After creating your Pinterest board, the next step is to start following other Pinterest users in the same niche or category. Next, you want to populate your board with pins. Populate your board with pins by other users aside from the pins that you’ve created yourself. 

There is no right or wrong number but a good ratio is having 20% of your own pins for every board. Don’t pin it repeatedly on many different boards as this may be considered spamming.

Step 6. Design Your Own Pins Using A Graphic Design App

Now that you have at least 5 pins on each board, what you need to do is create your own Pinterest graphic. This will be the graphic that you will put into your board and where you will attach the affiliate link. 

It’s not as simple as taking a screenshot of the product and adding it to Pinterest. While you can definitely do that, it’s better to be more creative to catch the attention of Pinterest users. Even if you don’t have any design skills, you can use a free design app like Canva that has many templates available.

Step 7. Pin Your Design Onto Your Board, Add A Title And A Description

Once your graphic is ready, the next step is to add it to your board. Open your board and click on the + sign to add your graphic. Type up the title on the given field and you also need to write up your description, which has a 500-character limit. If you don’t have a blog or a landing page, your description must also have “Call-To-Action” or CTA towards the product that you want to promote.

Step 8. Add Hashtags To Your Pin Description

Just like on Instagram, hashtags are very important in Pinterest. These hashtags can help users find your pins. You want your hashtags to be a mix of broad hashtags and more specific hashtags. This way, you can cover all your potential audience. Add these hashtags after your description.

Step 9. Add Your Affiliate Link To The Pin That You Just Created

The last step is to add your affiliate link directly to the field where Pinterest asks for the website link. As of 2020, Pinterest is now allowing users to directly add affiliate links on Pinterest.

How to Make Money on Pinterest FAQs

How do you get paid from Pinterest?

Keep in mind that the social media platform won’t pay you directly for sharing pins. You can monetize on Pinterest by sharing content that will drive potential customers to your sales page, product page, or blog. You can make money on Pinterest if your blog has display advertising or if people purchase through your sales page or affiliate link.

Do you need to pay when setting up a Pinterest account?

You can create a Pinterest account for free. You don’t have to pay when you set up a personal or business account. You can also use the features cost-free.

Do you need a million followers to make money on Pinterest?

You don’t need to have millions of Pinterest followers to start earning extra money. What you need to focus on is creating pins that are interesting and enticing to drive potential clients to your blog, online shop, or website.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a new source of income, you should consider making money on Pinterest. Familiarize yourself with Pinterest trends and the steps on how to make money on Pinterest with or without a blog and you’ll be on your way to earning money on this social media site.