You’ve been pinning for a while now, and you’ve started wondering if you can actually make money on Pinterest without a blog, doing just start!
The truth is, absolutely. Pinterest, like any other search platform, can be monetized. There are a variety of ways to do it, some more demanding than others, but nothing that you can’t handle, I promise.
That said, keep in mind that how much you earn will also depend on the amount of quality outbound clicks your pins are able to generate.
It’s important to note that, like other social media platforms, Pinterest is constantly evolving and changing how marketing works on it.
Does Pinterest Pay You to Pin?
Pinterest, as a company, does not pay you to pin on the platform, the same way Facebook doesn’t pay you to interact with posts, or how YouTube doesn’t pay you to watch videos unless you are part of the Pinterest Creator Program.
Think of it like this: how would Pinterest profit from paying you to use their platform? You cannot create a product and then pay people to use it, that would be ridiculous unless you are doing accelerating beta testing with a dozen or so individuals. That might warrant compensation.
So, if Pinterest does not pay users, how come lots of people claim two make a lot of money with it?
By monetizing their influence. Pinterest gives you the platform to achieve certain goals that can directly impact your total earnings from other monetization streams. For example, Imagine:
- Generating 200,000 page-views of your blog content every month from simply pinning on Pinterest…
- Having a following of 60K engaged audience who are genuinely invested in the content that you create on Pinterest…
- Having a product pin, say a $15 shirt that takes off like wildfire on Pinterest
Now, that’s how Pinterest as a platform can, in a way, pay you to pin. How you decide to tap on the opportunities above will impact the earnings you make and the sustainability of the ventures that you get involved in.
The truth is, some of you are probably making a little money with it by promoting affiliate links and other products. But how much do they make?
How to Make Money on Pinterest Without a Blog
There are many ways how you can make money with Pinterest without a blog. You just need to know how!
We break down the how via the various methods of monetizing your pinning habit below:
- Become a Pinterest virtual assistant
- Make money with affiliate links
- Make money with an eCommerce site
- Sell your digital products
- Teach people your Pinterest strategy
- Become a Pinterest Consultant
- Sell Pinterest Services on Fiverr
- Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
1) Make money with affiliate links
Affiliate links are how you monetize your digital assets such as email lists, social accounts, or blogs by promoting other people’s products. You get paid an agreed-upon commission (flat, or based on the sale amount) for every qualified referral you bring in.
To do this with Pinterest, all you need to do is sign up for an affiliate program that allows Pinterest channel and then use its link to pin it on your boards.
The best thing about this is that you don’t have to create the content for anything – just find an affiliate offer from a company that suits the audience of your Pinterest account (i.e.: wearables if you are targeting fashion bloggers) or something with good potential (i.e.: a new book if you are targeting readers) and pin the link to your board.
Once someone clicks on that affiliate link from your Pinterest account, they go to the merchant’s website, make a sale and you earn a commission.
It takes time for this money-making tactic to pay off, but affiliate marketing is a huge industry because it works.
Best candidates for Pinterest affiliate marketing include courses and books you’ve bought, physical products you have purchased from online stores like Etsy, etc.
2) Promote your Freelance Services
You can make money on Pinterest without a blog by promoting your freelance services. If you have a skill set that people might want to hire, you can promote yourself as a freelancer in your bio or elsewhere on the platform.
Here are a few ideas on how to do this:
- In your bio, include a link to your freelance portfolio in the website section. I have seen people linking to their profile pages on Fiverr and Upwork, and those who have their writer websites, linking to there instead.
- Create pins that link to your portfolio or profile pages.
- Create a board dedicated to showcasing your works. On the board description, add a Call to Action asking people to book you for your services
Popular freelance services that you can promote effectively on Pinterest include website design, graphic design, UI/UX design, copywriting, digital consulting, and SEO writing.
3) Make money with an eCommerce site (Physical Products)
This is the most straightforward way of making money with Pinterest, and it can be done in just a few steps.
First, choose a niche for your business, and be specific about it. This is important because if you sell products that are too generic, then the audience will be too broad and you will not be able to convert well. People love unique items that are hard to find. You can’t focus on finding or creating these products if you are going mass market
Next, create your store. You can build a custom one using WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace. Etsy is also a great place to create an eCommerce store, especially since your products will be exposed to a large audience and you have the opportunity to showcase your work in front of millions.
Before launching the store, ensure that everything is in order. List all your products, double-check prices, add formatted descriptions and customize your store according to your needs. Don’t forget eCommerce SEO. If you are new to Etsy, or Shopify take time to learn their landscape and algorithm.
Optimize your store for conversion by:
- Adding an opt-in box at the top of each page,
- Creating lead magnets (freebies that you offer in exchange for contact information)
- Simplifying checkout processes, as well as
- Using calls-to-action to encourage users to take a specific action.
Now you can start driving traffic to your store using Pinterest, by creating pins that link to your product pages in the respective stores.
To make sure you are making the most of your eCommerce store on Pinterest, use a grid to show off your products or product categories in an organized way. You can also do this by using boards that showcase individual items.
Also, you can use Idea Pins (Story Pins) to create product videos such as quick demos or tutorials to increase engagement, pique interest and encourage some actions such as click-throughs and ultimately, purchases.
4) Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Pinterest managers or assistants are on-demand as new businesses are adopting the platform into their marketing channels.
If you have experience in marketing, writing, or social media and want to make money on Pinterest without leaving your home, then this is the way for you.
Anyone can become a Pinterest VA since the learning curve isn’t as long as other growth strategies such as SEO. You don’t need experience or qualifications, just initiative, and some basic design skills.
As a Pinterest VA, your tasks will include:
- Auditing clients’ Pinterest accounts and providing detailed reports on what’s working and how to improve.
- Contributing content such as images, captions, or descriptions that will populate your client’s Pinterest boards.
- Helping clients find other people on the platform who are interested in their product or services
- Keeping track of competitive brands on Pinterest and following them to stay up-to-date with their latest posts.
- Monitoring analytics for your client’s account so you can correspond accordingly.
- Content planning
- Designing Pinterest Pins for the latest posts using a tool like Canva or Photoshop
- Scheduling pins weekly or monthly inside an approved Pinterest scheduler like the native app or Tailwind. etc.
To start working as a Pinterest VA, you need clients. Fiverr and Upwork are still great places to find freelance jobs for beginners, so head over there and start bidding. You can also reach out to your potential clients via cold-emailing, making sure that you’ve done enough research for each prospect in order to increase response rates.
5) Sell Digital Products
In addition to your eCommerce store, you can create and sell digital products on the above platforms as well.
There are a number of things that make this strategy so effective:
Digital items have lower overhead costs than physical ones which means they’re usually cheaper for customers too. It’s also easier to change prices without affecting production time.
Digital products are also easy to sell and distribute.
You can design these items on your own or outsource them to freelancers who specialize in this area, such as freelance graphic designers. They will work with you from the very beginning of the process until completion so they’ll be able to provide feedback based on their experience too.
The only thing you need to do is know what your competitors are up to on these channels, and keep a close eye on their posts.
If there’s anything they’re doing that looks like it could be more lucrative than whatever you’ve been trying so far then give it a shot and see how well the strategy works for your business!
You can then use Pinterest to promote your digital products. To do that, create highly appealing product pins that showcase the mockups of your info-products and indicate deals if any. Then add these pins to the appropriate pins.
You can also create a few blog posts around what your book or course is about and use Pinterest to promote these posts. You can then link to your product pages from the said posts.
6) Become a Pinterest Consultant
If you don’t want to work as a VA but still want to earn from sharing your expertise, then you can consider consulting. To do this, you need to have used Pinterest successfully yourself to grow businesses or launch new products into the market.
Your clients are likely to be large and medium organizations looking to start or grow their own Pinterest accounts. You need to work with them on a strategy that will be tailored to their specific needs and goals, as well as provide support throughout the process.
The core of this strategy is providing consulting services for companies looking to use Pinterest effectively in order to increase sales by increasing brand awareness through content marketing strategies.
You can find your first Pinterest consulting clients from your existing network. You can also promote your services using cold emails to business owners in your area.
When meeting with potential clients, make sure that you provide them a detailed strategy for their account and explain the benefits of hiring you as an independent consultant versus working with Pinterest on their own.
Use your own account as social proof that your service is effective. Show how you’ve been able to use Pinterest to bring in said number of visitors a month to your own personal blog and how you can guide their team to achieve even greater results.
This model has a lot of room for growth in the Pinterest space since it’s still a relatively new one. There are a few Pinterest consultants, and this means you can easily dominate search queries for the head keyword if you do due diligence. If you want to start earning from Pinterest now, then this is the perfect opportunity for you!
7) Run a Fully-fledged Pinterest VA Business (Virtual Assistant Company)
Another way you can make money on Pinterest is by running your own VA company. To do this, you need to find freelancers who are good at virtual assistant work and delegate tasks to them according to their skill sets.
This strategy requires being really organized because the key here is maximizing productivity so that workers don’t have to repeat tasks and can help you with more varied projects.
You’ll be able to find a lot of freelancers online by doing some research, but it’s important that they’re skilled in the kind of work required for your business so make sure you ask them about their skillset before hiring them as an employee.
Once you’ve got a team of freelancers on your side, you’ll need to work out how much time each person can spend working on a task. Then assign them tasks accordingly and set deadlines so that they don’t have to do the same task twice.
The type of projects you want your VA company to take up are varied as well:
- Pinterest strategy development
- Promoted pins
- Unique pin template designs
- Content curation
- Blog post ideas generation
- Band styling
For inspiration, look at companies like SimplePinMedia and Pinhouus.
8) Sell Pinterest Services on Fiverr
If you want to make money on Pinterest really quickly, then the best way is by utilizing Fiverr.
On this website, you can create a listing where you advertise any kind of service that will take no more than 2 hours to complete and offer it for $20 or less. You don’t need to have experience with your chosen service – many people on Fiverr offer their services for the first time and are successful.
The best way to get started is by looking at similar listings that others have posted, then using them for your inspiration.
For instance, you can create gigs offering to:
- Design 3 unique Pin templates for $20
- Write a descriptive pin description for $5
- Create a Pinterest strategy for $50
- Managing a Pinterest account for $100 a week
- Optimize a Pinterest account with 10 boards for $100 etc.
When you’ve finished creating a listing, it’s absolutely crucial that you promote this heavily so that potential customers will find it.
You can do this by posting about your listing on social media, adding the link to a pinned tweet, etc.
9) Teach people your Pinterest strategy
The final way you can make money on Pinterest is by teaching people your strategy.
This might be an individual who’s struggling to maintain a successful account, or it could be a company that wants to know how they can use the platform for more traffic and sales.
There will always be people looking for help when it comes to Pinterest marketing, so it’s important that you’re able to offer them help in the form of a strategy and tutorials.
To give people more incentive, make sure you offer them a strategy that’s been proven to work and has helped other people.
For example, if most of your income is coming from Pinterest, then it’s a good idea to share your strategy with people who are struggling.
You can also offer tutorials for specific things like how to make a pinboard, how to take the perfect product photos, how to use Pinterest for blogging and more.
The key here is that you need to create a valuable service that people will want.
This means that you should only teach people a strategy if it’s one that has been proven to work.
For example, don’t offer tutorials for how to create boards and pins on Pinterest when these have no effect on traffic or sales. Instead, focus on things like creating content curation strategies, Pinterest SEO, Profile Optimization, Competitor Research and optimizing the account with proper board creation.
You can use these methods in tandem for maximum earnings, just keep track of which one is working the best!
10) Make Money with Pinterest Creator Rewards Program
The Pinterest Creator program gives you a way to make money by creating original idea pins that are most inspiring, helpful, and spark engagement.
Pinterest Creator Rewards Requirement:
To qualify for the Creator Rewards program, interest requires you to be:
- 18 years old or over,
- Having at least 250 followers on your account
- A legal resident of, and located in, the United States or the District of Columbia
- Using the Pinterest app on your phone
- Having created at least 3 idea pins in the last month
- Creating original content
- Having over 150 saves
If you’re eligible, you will be able to apply to the rewards program from your Pinterest app. Note that. despite meeting the above requirements, you will need to be having version 9.33 of the app or newer.
The Basics of Making Money with Pinterest without a Blog
In order to start making any amount of money from your pins, you need to:
Develop a following:
It sounds difficult, but it’s not! The quickest way to build a following on Pinterest is perhaps the most straightforward one-Create exceptional pins.
Exceptional pins that people would pause to save, repin, click through and bookmark. If you continue creating quality pins consistently, you will start getting enough traction. This means more people will discover you, and since you have great content, they will follow you for more of such. With the right strategy, you can surpass the 1000 followers mark in no time.
Optimize your profile for Pinterest SEO:
People on Pinterest will discover you or your content based on the keywords associated with your account. This means that as you create pins, it is important to include relevant keywords that people can search for in the description.
The best way to optimize your account’s Pinterest SEO is by creating descriptive pin descriptions and including 3-4 relevant hashtags. Choose a few words or phrases that describe what your pins are about and make sure they’re used in the description of each pin; this will help people find you based on keyword searches. However, you need a user-friendly copy instead of just stuffing keywords into the 500-character space.
Besides your pins, you also need to optimize other parts of your profile such as your profile name and description, and your boards’ descriptions.
When you first create an account, Pinterest automatically assigns your board’s default keywords to help people find them. If you want more exposure and traffic, research how other users are optimizing their profiles for SEO and use the same tactics as yours! Success, as they say, leaves clues, so trace them!
Use a Scheduler like Tailwind to plan out your content
One of the best things about social media is that you can automate your process.
With Tailwind, for example, you get to plan out all your pins in advance and schedule them according to a publishing calendar.
This way, people who follow you on Pinterest are able to enjoy fresh content from one day to another without you having to literally camp there.
This is important because people aren’t as likely to follow your account when it’s stagnant, and you’ll need a higher follower count for making money in the future.
Plus, there are other perks of using Tailwind like saving templates for quick creation and analytics to track growth.
Can I make money on Pinterest without a blog?
Yes, you can make money on Pinterest without a blog. You will need to work with an affiliate marketing company like ShareASale in order to find companies that are willing to pay for your referrals and posts but it is possible.
What’s Next?
That’s it for our beginner’s guide to making money on Pinterest.
Now that you know how to make a profitable Pinning strategy, the next step is implementing your plan and seeing results.
So follow these steps and soon enough, you’ll be enjoying the profits of your hard work! If something seems unclear or confusing at all, you can always contact us at our website or through the comment section below.
