MomCrunch
Can You Use Pinterest To Drive Traffic?
In just ten days since I wrote this post, I have become a Pinterest convert. I know. I can’t quite believe it either. I’ve begun to find the charm in the site, and it’s a lovely way to wind down at the end of the long day, even if I do tend to be more snarky than charming in my pins. But one thing I haven’t really grasped yet is this: will Pinterest act as another channel to promote blog posts and other online content?
It’s clear that it already IS for some bloggers. I spoke with Kelby Carr, founder of Type-A Parent and the author of the soon-to-be-published Pinterest for Dummies, and she stressed the importance of balance when pinning; don’t go overboard on pinning just your own stuff. “I pin a whole lot of other content, but work in some pins of Type-A Parent content as well. I am seeing nice traffic from Pinterest, and it is definitely on the rise. I also added a pin button to make it easy for other to pin the content.”
Kelby is not the only blogger finding Pinterest to be a traffic driver. “I pin timeless recipes and crafts for repeat traffic to older posts in hopes they will like what they see and read more current items,” says Colorado Moms blogger Emily Vaneck. Tonya Staab agrees: “By pinning crafts, recipes and tips from my archives onto my ‘my projects’ board I am bringing new life to older posts that may otherwise go unnoticed.”
Other bloggers use it to be straight up promotional. “I pin book covers to my Great Books board. Each links to a book review in my site,” says Andrea of Great Thoughts. “I pin photographs from Disney trips because I blog often about Disney and those pictures tend to be repinned often, driving new readers back to my Disney posts,” says Amy of Resource Mommy. Andrea of Lil’ Kid Things uses it for promotion but exercises caution. “I try not to go overboard pinning my own stuff, but if I have something I deem pin-worthy, I will definitely throw it in the mix. While I typically post about mothering young children, I’ve found that I am breathing new life into my home projects by pinning some of my favorite ‘afters’.”
I think, for me, the challenge lies here: how does the memoir style blogger – the blogger that works mostly in words and not images – use Pinterest for promotion? I haven’t really figured that out. Katja of Skimbaco says, “I write inspirational quotes on photos to inspire people live life to the fullest and they drive traffic to my blog from Pinterest.” Admittedly, I think if I suddenly tossed up a bunch of pretty inspirational quotes my blog readers would be, well, perplexed. So I think for now I’ll have to keep using Pinterest as a way to look at pretty things and marvel at the ambitious crafts some folks get up to rather than promote my own work. But I’ll confess that I’ve become more conscious of using images in my posts; are they pin-worthy? Time will tell.
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8 Comments
julie/just precious commented on Jan 18 12 at 10:03 pmglad to hear you converted. It didn’t take too long! Great tips, Cecily.
Molly Gold commented on Jan 18 12 at 10:04 pmCecily ~ I completely understand ~ while you are more words than photos, I’m more video than words, and it seems at least for now, the most obvious opportunity for Pinterest is pining photos. I’m with you, enjoying the beauty and off the hook awesome creativity found there. Here is to a way for both of us to find a natural way to incorporate our content.
Dahlila commented on Jan 18 12 at 10:23 pmI too, am a recent converter to Pinterest, but I’m still figuring out the etiquette of the pin. As an Etsy shop owner, I wonder if it’s all right to pin a piece or two of my own goods onto my vintage specific boards. Promotion is always helpful. :-)
I have created two vintage boards, one for vintage decor, one for fashion accessories. So far I’ve been pinning pieces that fall under my shop’s (Dahlila Found) style. I got this idea from someone else & I like it.
thanks for posting. Have fun pinning.
dahlila xo
Lynette Young commented on Jan 18 12 at 11:31 pmWell well well… look at you Ms. Pinterest! Glad you jumped in. I KNEW YOU’D LOVE IT! It works really well for anything visual and bloggers that take the time to actively think about adding or creating pictures that visually represent their words are having a good go of the linkbacks.
BTW – Etsy gals, get a group of 3-4 friends that sell on Etsy as well and do some pinning for each other. It works ;)
se7en commented on Jan 19 12 at 2:27 amOh Welcome to Pinterest!!! Pinterest has been a fairly large source of traffic for my blog this past year. I think like commenting, your most traffic will come from being friendly. I pin work of my blog friends and they intern pin mine… every now and then something gets pinned and hits a cord and boom you will see a traffic spike that doesn’t go away!!! I can never predict the post that goes big but I do make a lot more effort with my crafty photographs than I did before pinning… and always ask myself if there is a pinnable picture in a post.
As for pinning your own stuff… Folks that follow your boards should have a good idea of what you like and what to find on your blog. I have recently started putting some of my posts onto a board, I think by putting them all in one spot and saying this is where you can find my previous posts that I am enabling readers to find crafts or recipes they may be looking for.
Heather commented on Jan 19 12 at 3:10 amI get tens of thousands of hits from pinterest. You’d think the majority would be from the random tips I post, but they actually come from the images I attach to regular posts. The pictures act as a bookmark for pinterest users. It’s another good reason to use pictures on your blogs.
Jessica commented on Jan 19 12 at 1:43 pm@Heather, you have to pin a photo, so if your tips don’t have photos attached, it can’t be pinned :)
Heather commented on Jan 19 12 at 4:21 pmJessica, I know – my point is that some people think pinterest is just for DIY stuff, but the majority of things pinned from my blog are images that go with regular blog posts, NOT DIY stuff. I make sure every single blog post has an image in it so people can pin it.
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