Want to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest, but don’t want to start a blog? Then read here to find out how and what to remember so your account will not be shut down.
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Hi there, my name is Richard and you will now learn how to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest without a blog.
Pinterest is a growing search engine with a social aspect. Here you want to create pins and share them with others.
But there is something you need to remember. Let's dive in…
Using affiliate links on Pinterest
Did you know that Pinterest is allowing affiliate links on Pinterest? A few years ago they banned affiliate links because of heavy spamming, but now they have systems in place to detect spam.
So we are now allowed to use affiliate links again as long we don’t spam or the site we are linking to is not banned because of spammy behavior.
So can we now create pins and use our affiliate links?
There is something you need to remember before you are using affiliate links. Rules and regulations still apply. You need to disclose that this is an affiliate link in the description. So every user knows this is an affiliate link. This is FTC regulations that you need to follow and Pinterest need to make sure you are following.
Don't attempt to evade our anti-spam systems, for example, by using shorteners, redirects or intermediate websites to obscure a link's final destination
Pinterest Terms of Service
When we are using affiliate links, we like to use link shortener and other tools that redirect links so we have branded links. That way we don’t have the long links and we have link tracking. This is not allowed by Pinterest and you need to use your affiliate links. Bitly is banned, but other tools may work. Remember that works today may not work tomorrow, so use the affiliate link to be safe.
So remember to disclosure in the pin description that this is an affiliate link and use your affiliate link without link shortening and redirect.
For a step by step guide on how to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest, you can read my guide here.
So why do people still link to their blog on Pinterest?
I see many affiliate links on Pinterest, but most of the users also have links going to their blog.
It's all about providing value, give the visitor a reason to use the link and explain why they want to order this product.
There are so many products out there and if the product costs more then $50, people need to understand why they want the product. The sales page may explain why very well, but many people will still be reluctant to order.
We all want the best product to the lowest price, we don’t want to order ok products that sort of solves our problem. We want the best! And we want to know for sure this will solve our problem.
So how do we know that? By recommendations, especially from someone we know or think we know. So we want to read a couple of articles or watch a video before we order, that way we know what we will get and we know that this product will solve our problem.
I have many products where the creator promised would solve my problem, but after ordering I discover it was hard to use or buggy. Mainly because the product is new and still in development.
So now I want to read more before I order, I want someone to explain to me that this will deliver what I expect and solve my problem. This will now be your job, you want to explain this to your readers so they want to order the product.
How to increase the conversion of your affiliate link
A plain affiliate link will not give any value to the user and your pin description is limited in length.
So how do you increase the conversion of your links?
You want to create a hook that gets viewers to click on your pin. The hook needs to fit what people are searching for on Pinterest, remember Pinterest is also a search engine.
A Pinterest user is hooked by your pin and wants to know more, so they click on the link. This link will lead them to your blog post that explains how you can solve their problem. This can be information you are providing or an affiliate product you are promoting. Your blog post is giving value and bridge the gap between their problem and their solution.
Your job is to bridge the gap between the problem the Pinterest user want to solve, and the product you are promoting.
Every pin doesn’t need to end in an affiliate product, but every blog posts should have a call to action at the end. You want to offer related blog posts, but you also want content upgrades. This is another big reason for you want to create a blog.
You want to build your email list
Users on Pinterest are users that Pinterest owns. If Pinterest shut down your account or change their algorithm, you lose viewers and affiliate commissions.
So you want to make the audience on Pinterest your audience. So how do you do that?
By offering content upgrades that you send to the reader by email. The content upgrade can be a cheat sheet, mind maps, reports, case studies or other useful, easy to create content.
If the content you are offering is good, your readers will give you their email address to receive it. Now you can send more emails to them, educate them, help them and offer more products so you earn money.
One email in your email list is worth $1/month. So if you build an email list of 1000 people, you can expect to earn $1000 each month. The income each month will be different, but over time you will earn $1000 each month if done correctly.
You want to receive viewers from multiple sources
Pinterest is a visual search engine with a social aspect, but there is a search engine out there that is bigger. Most people are using google to find solutions to their problem and they will most likely not find your pins with an affiliate link. So why not also use the biggest search engine out there?
By writing blog posts, you can also be found by google, bing and other search engines. You don’t need to do much with your blog posts to be search friendly so people may find your post on google.
Google will also see you are receiving a lot of readers from Pinterest and rank your content higher, so by receiving readers from multiple sources will together give you more readers then if you only used one.
You are owning the blog posts and none can take them away from you. so you can add more sources of traffic in the future more easily then if you are heavily dependent on only one source like Pinterest.
Conclusion
You can use only Pinterest to make money with affiliate marketing as long as you follow Pinterest’s rules and the FTC regulations. This can work as a side hustle and is easy to start with.
People usually need a nudge to order products and you want to give them the extra nudge by explaining how this product helped you. You can do this in a blog post that will increase the conversation on your affiliate links.
To build something legit that will last over the years, you want a blog so your affiliate links can be found by users searching on google. You can also more easily add extra sources of readers when you have your own blog.
You also want to build an email list so you can continue with your business regardless of what Pinterest does in the future. You are more in control of your business.
If you want to create a blog, you can easily do it by reading my step by step guide.
