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What Progress Have You Made on Pinterest? [Discussion]

Posted By Darren Rowse 9th of March 2013 Social Media 0 Comments

This week has given us a chance to look at Pinterest from a few different angles.

If you’ve not had a chance to get into Pinterest, I hope that our Complete Guide to Pinterest got you inspired to set up an account and start pinning. If it didn’t, EcoKaren’s story of Pinterest success should have convinced you of the pulling power of the network.

Our look behind the scenes of Pinterest practice with Jade, my own Pinterest consultant, hopefully gave you a bit of insight into the ways you can learn more about the platform—or find someone who already does! Her expert advice on creating Pinterest Personas should help you take your first steps toward setting a Pinterest strategy for your blog.

Pinterest

Today, we’re interested to hear your stories. Have you already established a Pinterest account for your blog? If you  have, how’s it going? How are you managing it, and what kinds of results are you getting? Let us know of your successes—and the other stuff!—in the comments.

If you’re not yet in Pinterest, we’d love to hear why not. Is it that you don’t feel your audience uses the network, or is the problem time constraints—or something else entirely? Is there anyone among our readers who uses Pinterest personally, but not for their blog? I’d love to hear from you, too.

So let’s get talking. How’s Pinterest helping you as bloggers? Let’s hear about it!

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Two things: 1- It’s fun. When I get any idle moments I go pinteresting. Using it as a verb now.

    And 2- I am on a learning curve about curating images and what really is visually appealing as opposed to what is not.

    For example. I have a board called ‘WOW’. And it is difficult to add to it ONLY photos that would make your jaw drop. I get tempted. It is a good exercise.

  2. Kathy Gossen says: 03/09/2013 at 1:01 am

    Love Pinterest! In fact, I recently wrote a post on optimizing your post images to go viral and a big part of that is setting your image up for Pinterest success by using the title of your image to your advantage. I also like using Pingraphy to schedule my pins as the post pin-terrific time is usually around 4 pm EST and I’m not always online at that time. You can find me on Pinterest at <a href=http://pinterest.com/CornerstoneKat.

  3. I’ve always found Pinterest on the top 10 sources of traffic for my site yet I’m not a Pinterest user. But clearly my readers are. So this past week I (FINALLY) installed a Pinterest plugin and started making key landing pages more pinnable by updating images so that they work as a pinterest image (have a message, include logo, etc.). It’s been too soon to see if the pinterest images are really working but clearly the simple step of adding the pinit button has had a HUGE impact.

    So thanks for getting me moving on that front – cheers :)

  4. I setup a Pinterest account a while ago. Traffic from my pins only accounts for about 5% per month but, besides Google (and the direct/none referrer) it is my top traffic source (I have a very small site – about 500 unique visitors per month).

    My links from Pintererst has surprised me. It comes in at #4 on my list of links with about 10% of the total. It seems to have jumped up in the past few months.

    Pinterest has a lot of potential but it helps if you can create compelling graphics or want to follow the trends.

  5. For my business, I am more interested in quality traffic than pageviews. Pinterest has been a wonderful tool for increasing traffic and pageviews. I use it as an additional tool, but I believe providing good content to the audience I specifically cater to is a higher priority. From my analytics I see clearly my demographic is targeted to a high-end audience with the highest numbers from New York City, Long Island’s Gold Coast and East End Hamptons area (nearer to our local showrooms). Those visitors stay on the site a very long time. Pinterest visitors stay on for a quick visit. I find people on Pinterest want to stay on Pinterest, which is a great visual tool and a good place to send clients to for project inspiration. With that said, if one visitor amounts to a kitchen sale…great, but I don’t count on it. It’s just another tool, and I prioritize my time and energy allotment accordingly. I am baffled that with the number of visitors my site/blog receives, I dont get more commentors…but perhaps my audience prefers their anonymity.

  6. After reading that post, I am targeting to use pinterest for marketing and networking. Really appreciate the post!!!!!!

  7. Pinterest sends a good amount of traffic to my blog. When Pinterest first came out, I thought “Oh NO! Not another one!” But within a couple months, I was noticing traffic from Pinterest in my analytics, and my website designers contacted me right away to point it out, because they noticed it, too. They suggested some custom “Pin it” pins on specific pictures, and designed those for me. I’ve had really good results from using Pinterest! In fact, here’s an article on how Pinterest helped me, by the folks at Imagemakers, who developed my site: http://blog.imagemakers-inc.com/2012/11/is-pinterest-a-good-way-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website/

    In the arts / crafts world, Pinterest is huge. But many professionals (designers, writers, artists, etc.) in the field (at least in my niche) are wary of it still – it amazes me how adamant they are against it!

    I think Pinterest is fun, it’s engaging, and it allows people to get into a “visual conversation” – which can translate into increased traffic and sales. And it’s a terrific platform for those of us in the visual arts world!

  8. My Pinterest account has the biggest following of all of my platforms. People are so incredibly visual, it’s the perfect medium, especially being a DIY lifestyle blogger (who totally guested for you about Pinterest awhile back!)

    Pinterest is hands down the best way for me, in my niche, at least, to find like-minded people. Because THEY’RE ALL THERE. Such a great community.

  9. OMG Darren, I added the Testimonial board early yesterday to a retail site I manage on Pinterest, after reading your post on The Complete Guide to Pinterest, and within an hour sold a product right from it. It was amazing.
    I don’t find it working as well for my blog yet but must follow more of those tips. Thanks for the help!

  10. I have a Pinterest business account for my jewelry business, and it’s surprising how much more “action” is happening there vs my Facebook Fan page. Yet I’d been still pouring effort into a meager Fan page than optimizing my images for Pinterest or putting together a weekly Pinterest “to do” list.

    This series has been really helpful because of the tools recommended as well as the best practice. I’m so glad it’s Friday finally so I can implement a lot of changes this weekend! Thanks!

  11. It’s been quite long time since I’ve been actively doing frequents re-pins, comments, and adding new pins. I’m getting pretty much decent from it. To be honest, Darren, I didn’t know it could be this great traffic source for my blog until I read your dPS blog case study.

    Thank you so much!

  12. After reading EcoKaren success story with Pinterest – I was compelled to take it rather seriously. I want to learn more and more about it. What do I plan to use Pinterest for?
    hmm,… To generate a huge traffic to my blog I guess. It’s all about the networking part like Gjivan Shrestha said above.

  13. I’ve booked marked this pinterest series and I plan to use it for my case study. I’m also going to share this for #SoMeSa.

    I have a Pinterest account set up and a profile but that’s about it.

    I look forward to sharing how this advise worked for me.

    Would you say that Pinterest is better for driving traffic than instagram?
    …so many options so little time.

    • Instagram is good for sharing the behind the scenes stuff and engaging with your core fans. Pinterest is more about visual curation. You can get a lot more traffic – and potential sales – from people who previously didn’t know about you. They call this social discovery. It really depends on your blog, though, and how you plan to leverage Pinterest

  14. Hi,
    Well I think Pinterest has really gained a lot of importance among people. The concept of boards and pin facility has made it so popular among people. Thanks for the share!!

  15. I’m using Pinterest but I spend most of the time on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest is a great place to get more traffic. So impressed that you were able to get 3,000 visitors from Pinterest to your blog, might love to spend more time on Pinterest.

  16. I am new too pintrest ….can some tell me how to get followers and more visits to any website or blog??

  17. Try adding NewsAssist to your list of tools? NewsAssist is an open source Firefox add-on that provides an editor (blogger, journalist) all necessities for News Searching, Editing, Publishing, Content distribution to social media. It is a powerful tool and a great working environment that is fully integrated with Firefox. It is aimed to increase the productivity of blog and website editors without having to leave the web browser.

    “free blog tool”:http://www.newsassist.org

  18. Thanks to Darren and Karen I am trying again with Pinterest.
    Its tough as I am more text oriented than visual, but many people are visual, so working to focusing in that direction.
    It is slower for me to learn Pinterest than other media as well.
    Thanks for the kickstart.

  19. Thanks Darren for the opportunity to share my case study.

    As of today, the post I mentioned has received 455,000 pins and getting more by the day.

    Like anything else on the web, you have to decide how much time you want to invest in which platform. And not all businesses can benefit from the same platform, Pinterest included.

    However, I’m all about the functionality of a platform and maximizing my time. It takes literally seconds to browse and repin or pin articles from the desktop using the Pin It bookmarklet. (available from Pinterest) And it’s an instant “Pay if forward” system where people reciprocate gladly which grows your community of followers.

    I’ll see you on Pinterest! (username=ecokaren)

  20. I think there are some wins that you can get from Pinterest but building the whole strategy takes a lot of time and that is time that you could be spending building your brand and profile on the likes of Twitter or Facebook.

  21. Pinterest in one of the major source of traffic from social networks. Whenever i publish a new post, after facebook share, tweeting it, then i go for pinning it at pinterest. It works best for me and i am happy with pinterest.

  22. I started a Pinterest account just so I can get more traffic to my Squidoo lenses, however, I’m beginning to use it more and more for my blog. Now I always try to add at least one image to each blog post that I can pin. I still need to figure out how to follow people and share my pins but, overall, I think Pinterest is exceeding expectations.

  23. I don’t find it working as well for my blog yet but must follow more of those tips. Thanks for the help!

  24. Been with the Pinterest and I think generating traffic from it does takes time. Currently, I just continue pinning, pinning and pinning.

  25. I get some american traffic but facebook is more effective for my website.

  26. Am I the only person in the world that do not like that website. Although I am on it, I find it extremely boring and uninspiring. It hurts my intellect sometimes. Sorry.

  27. I’ll be honest…probably haven’t used Pinterest to it’s maximum potential.

    We have a designer who creates images for our posts, then we add to Pinterest but I haven’t put much marketing effort into the account.

  28. i have a pin account,which can generate some traffic,but not much.Next step,i think i need find some more interesting and related images.

  29. I’ve just joined it and I find it really hard to use. Facebook and Twitter is easy, but I don’t really know what I’m doing and what is going on – nor do I know who’s seeing anything I pin.

  30. Pinterest is great site to share images and also help to collect Favorited images. thank you for this post.

  31. I really like the Pinterest interface, and it’s efficiency in showing high definition photos for product showing or just sharing creative arts…. thanks for writing up the complete guide for us… it’s really helpful for large scale and small scale businesses.. keep it up!

  32. It’s been too soon to see if the pinterest images are really working.

  33. I found that is important to be a pioneer pinner. Don’t just be a repinner. In other words, don’t just repin what others have already pinned. Always be on the lookout for new pins that no one else has found. If you’re like me, you see a lot of the same pins come through. I pay attention, though, when I see something fresh and new. I’m much more likely to follow that person too.

  34. I have Pinterest and actively use it and manage it. What I have found, and i’m not sure if anybody else has this same problem… is that yes, i do get new followers on Pinterest almost every day but they stay as that… Pinterest followers… now, how to “convert that” into blog followers as well?!?!

  35. We are on Pinterest as well, we have a mix of repins, images pinned by others from our site, and our own content created for Pinterest. We also have videos, thanks to a previous Problogger post recommendation.

  36. Hey Darren,
    Nice post with great information and I really enjoyed this post while reading and Yes, Pinterest one of the best social networking site to promote any blog and it also helps to drive traffic to our blog. Thanks for sharing this post.

  37. Hi, Darren!

    I’m not going to create a Pinterest account yet. The reason is that I have no time to manage and do not want to be mediocre … if I get it to use and performance.

    I think this idea should also apply to blogging.

  38. I am new to Pinterest and I have not noticed an increase in traffic! After 5 days of pining products I have come up with a good idea! Make sure I have quality products and keep pinning until I find my spot! Thanks for info!

  39. I have stopped effort on Pinterest, simply because I find that my audience (technology) don’t really dwell on Pinterest much. Would love to know though from the others here if they have a technology blog

  40. I’ve been on Pinterest for ages and I love it! As a craft/ DIY blogger, every post I write has pictures and those pictures are perfect for sharing on Pinterest.

    Recently I have seen a huge increase in my visitors from there and I put it down to two changes I have made this year:
    1. I went into each of my boards and completed the description and chose a category for them. In some cases I adjusted the titles to things that people might search for – boring, but effective!
    2. I joined some group boards and started actively pinning to them.

    Most days Pinterest is my top source of blog traffic.

  41. pinterest is an social media web sites by which i m getting traffic from there using some tricks

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