You probably know that some bloggers drive some crazy traffic to their website every month.
However, many people suspect this traffic is not sustainable. Pinterest can be fickle and viral spikes make consistent traffic hard to find. But this isn’t the case for everyone!
In this Anastasia Blogger podcast, you will find out that by using Pinterest marketing SEO techniques it is, in fact, possible to generate this traffic every month.
We chat about:
- Why Anastasia’s career set her up perfectly for Pinterest SEO
- How Anastasia made more than her day job within one year of using Pinterest marketing.
- The way that you can monetise traffic from Pinterest (every month)
- The changes in Pinterest for 2020 and beyond
Listen on Apple Podcasts/ Google Podcasts
Anastasia Blogger Background
Anastasia’s first job, in 2007, was as an editor working for an online magazine.
Her role included studying SEO (Search engine optimisation) for Google and social media platforms i.e. Facebook.
Therefore, she learnt a lot about the theory of online marketing, without even knowing it.
She worked for some different:
- Digital agencies
- In house marketer for companies
But it wasn’t until she moved to Portugal in 2017 that she ever considered moving from an…
Employee to Entrepreneur
She saw that her clients were making money as they were willing to invest a lot in SEO and social media marketing.
This led her to have the feeling…
“If a business can make money online, why can’t a blogger?”
Portugal is quite a poor country (but stunning!) and the job opportunities were terrible for her.
So in 2017, Anastasia started her blog as a side hustle.
After a year of slow growth, she found that her payment from one advertising network was about the same amount as she was getting from the day job!
Crazy huh?!
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying… so how does she make money?
Ad Networks
Ad networks are vital for Pinterest because they help to monetise traffic.
You literally don’t need to sell anything or do anything else other than get people to look at your website and put ads on there.
There are really 2 main ad networks that bloggers need to try and get on to receive decent money:
- Mediavine
- or AdThrive
Mediavine requires 25,000 sessions per month
It pays around $20 per thousand visitors.
170,000 monthly pageviews made around $1,500 in one month.
Note a session is how many times users engage with your website.
Page views is how many pages are viewed
For example, one person visits your website = one session
They look on 4 different pages in that go = 4 page views
RPM = Revenue per 1,000 impressions
RPM can be the highest during the last quarter of the year because many ad networks have an annual budget.
So, they need to spend it all to get the same budget or more the following year.
AdThrive has a higher minimum requirement than MediaVine at 100,000 page views per month.
Both companies are great as they have excellent customer & publisher support. If you’d like to learn more then check out The 5 Best Ad Networks for Bloggers.
Anastasia tried both and found that Mediavine paid her slightly more each month compared to AdThrive.
I can almost hear your mind saying…
How did Anastasia achieve so many pageviews each month as a new blogger?
That’s a great question and the main focus of this podcast.
There is one answer to this…
Pinterest Marketing!
So Anastasia only started using Pinterest after a few months of blogging.
She noticed some bigger bloggers income reports showed they received 80%+ from Pinterest marketing alone.
She already knew it takes some time (1 year+) for Google to recognise your site.
However, Pinterest doesn’t care about the sites domain authority.
She didn’t see traffic immediately, but once she worked out the platform, her traffic started snowballing.
So will Pinterest still be able to bring you traffic in 2020 and beyond?
Related content:
- How to Use Pinterest for Beginners
- How does Blogging Make Money?
- 5 Pinterest Hacks to Skyrocket Your Traffic
Pinterest Marketing Changes in 2020
Pinterest is still improving its algorithm to fight spam.
There have been some recent major cleanups that ended up blocking lots of accounts including some legit accounts.
Anastasia explains how to avoid this in the video below. As someone who got caught up in the blocked accounts, take it from me that it can be VERY annoying if it happens!
Pinterest became a public company in mid-2018.
This means they are pushing harder for advertising on the platform.
Therefore, people are worried about the reach of organic pins.
Anastasia agrees it may be a transitional time that takes a couple of years to settle down, but it’s unlikely there will be drastic changes overnight.
Pinterest still needs to earn the trust of advertisers.
Hence, it will certainly take some time before organic traffic will take a hit.
Pinterest won’t reduce organic traffic completely because:
- It is still a search engine (search features like Google)
- It cannot only show sponsored pins as regular users won’t like it
Google went into the direction of monopolising search results with ads, maps, snippets from the website in the search results so people won’t have to click on the website to find the information.
So what does this mean for you as a blogger?
Avoid Outdated Techniques
(37 mins)
There are 2 techniques, which have changed.
They still help to expand your reach (particularly for new accounts).
Group Boards
Mid-2018 Pinterest announced that group boards were not created for the way that “content creators” were using them.
Boards were not for the promotion of pins but for collaborations of smaller groups of bloggers.
Therefore they drastically reduced the distribution of spammy group boards.
These boards were hurting the accounts of those who were creating them and also the accounts that were saving pins to them.
Be very selective and only spend 10% of your time applying to them.
Manual repinning
Pinterest didn’t like it when people manually repined their own pins to other boards.
The most important thing to be aware of is this:
Pinterest doesn’t want duplicate pins on the same board more than once every 3 months.
Fact.
If you use the mobile app you get the warning saying you have already saved the pin to a certain board. If you get this message…
DO NOT REPIN IT TO THIS BOARD!
If you don’t get the warning sign then it should be OK.
Note this warning sign doesn’t come up if you are using a laptop.
Understanding Pinterest Marketing
If you’re like me, you know it’s important to understand how something works before diving in.
Well here are some little gems from the Anastasia Blogger podcast…
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is really two things:
- A social media platform
- A search engine
Because of the two functions of Pinterest, it’s possible to get traffic spikes from viral traffic as well as getting traffic from SEO.
However, after 6 months or so there is a certain level of Pinterest traffic you will receive without viral spikes in traffic.
Psychology of Pinners
It’s important to understand the psychology of people using Pinterest too to get the most out of it…
People use Pinterest for inspiration, not always the exact answer.
That is slightly different from Google.
Therefore, Pinterest has much shorter keywords (75% are only 1-3 words)
Google tends to have longer keywords as people look for a specific answer to a question.
Pinterest Facts & Stats
Here are some important facts to be aware of too:
- Users on Pinterest scroll down about 60 pins on average, so you don’t have to be in the top few to receive traffic.
- The majority of Pinterest users are on mobile devices (which again means they will likely search for fewer words)
- There is also a “search suggestions” tab based on the interests of the users due to their past history and activity.
From Visually.
The Two Pinterest User “Modes”
It’s also important to realise that people typically have 2 modes when using Pinterest:
- Active (type in a query)
- Passive (browsing on the feed)
Therefore, if a user searched for something a day ago and you create a pin the day after, they may find your pin in their activity feed when browsing.
Handy eh?
So how can you make the most from using Pinterest?
How to Use Pinterest SEO to Get Sustainable Traffic
There are some things you can do to massively help get more traffic from SEO on Pinterest.
Always optimise relevant keywords in the following places:
- Words on your Pin images
- Pin title
- Pin descriptions (enabling “rich pins”)
- Pinterest board (most relevant board first!)
- URL of your post
- Words on the website itself
Check out Anastasia’s video to see more detail about how to use SEO on Pinterest…
As you can see there is so much you can learn from Anastasia on Pinterest SEO.
How Long Does it Take to See Results From Pinterest SEO?
The short answer is 3 months.
But that will only work if you are consistent.
Pinterest needs at least 10 pins every day minimum for your account to be seen as active.
Plus, when you start you will need to save popular pins from other people.
Does Pinterest Work for ANY Niche?
No!
Of course, you can get some traffic in any niche.
But they are not all equal.
Here are some niches that you will get more traffic on Pinterest:
- Recipes
- Home decor
- Fashion
- DIY
80% of users are women looking for inspiration for everyday life.
Here are some niches that don’t do as well (but do get some traffic):
- Business
- Blogging
- Personal development
It’s also pointless for a local restaurant or car repairing company to get traffic from Pinterest!
People will always use Google for that.
Top 3 Tips if Anastasia Could go Back in Time
If Anastasia could go back to the day that she moved to Portugal, here is what she would tell herself:
- Write more content that works on Pinterest straight away (food, DIY etc.)
- Stop underestimating yourself (you can learn it!)
- Start a YouTube channel sooner
Full Podcast Transcript
Links
Here are the best ways to get in contact with Anastasia or to check out more of her work…
YouTube (leave a comment on any video to get a response)
Anastasia Blogger Podcast Summary
Anastasia clearly has so much knowledge about SEO.
When you combine that with what she has since learnt about Pinterest you have someone that is ahead of many people in generating traffic from Pinterest.
Yes, there are changes to Pinterest.
But it’s certainly still possible to get organic (free) traffic from Pinterest in 2020 and beyond.
Keep changing for the better
Mike
P.S. What was your favourite takeaway from this podcast? Are there any questions you have about Pinterest SEO?
Drop a comment below!
You seem to have so much information about the Pinterest SEO technique. I feel like this is very good and I should try it myself and see how much I can make with it because your post shows a whole lot of information I need to know about making money with the traffic I get. I understand here that I don’t need to be in the first few to make good money. I will need to bookmark this. Thanks for helping me learn more about Pinterest.
I’m glad it helped Henderson. Anastasia certainly knows her stuff about Pinterest!
hello Mike;
I appreciate your article, I was wondering how to develop a business online without knowledge of digital marketing or rich content to attract traffic, I subscribed to pinterest recently but it is just to feed my passion on graphic design which is my field and your testimonial brings answers to many of my concerns, I will subscribe to be on the page for your next publications.
Great question! If you’re looking to learn more about digital marketing I would always recommend Wealthy Affiliate the community and training in there is amazing for the value.
I’m glad to hear you have some graphic design experience as I found that was the hardest part when starting out with Pinterest. There’s a learning curve to knowing how to organise your boards and the tactical side, which you can learn here.
I hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions
Hello Mike, Pinterest is a fact growing site and its been a very good means of helping affiliate to gain traffic to their sites lately. I had no idea about such podcast which can be this helpful. I have been making use of social media in business for a long time and with the rate at which Pinterest is going, I would love to learn more about it and see how it can be helpful to my online business. Cheers.
Hey Benson, Pinterest is without question the best way for new sites to get free traffic from a social media platform. There is a learning curve and it doesn’t work for every niche, but if you have any content that fits with recipes, DIY, home decor, fitness or the likes then it’s possible to do very well from Pinterest
Hey thank you for the awesome post! I use Pinterest everyday almost, but I did not know that to be considered active you need at least ten pins a day! That’s a lot of pins! So you think Pinterest is good for religious and psychology sites? I have been using it for that with little success.
Hey Jessie, that’s just a number plucked out of the air but yes you do need to pin regularly to be considered active. You can use schedulers like Tailwind to do that though.
Psychology and religious subjects are not the most popular on Pinterest but there certainly are some people interested in it. Recipes and decorations/ DIY projects are some of the most popular on Pinterest so if you have any content along those lines it will typically do much better
This is not bad. I have been using Pinterest for a few months now and I know that there are a very large number of users for that platform. It is not bad to see you give us some information about it here because it is something that I feel like I need to try for my own business and it will get me traffic. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it John!
Incredibly detailed and actionable post… I appreciate how much work has gone into creating this Mike.
I’ve only recently started using Pinterest (about 4 months) and it’s been an irritating ride so far. It seems pretty flaky (my account was suspended last week by an over-zealous spam bot – but now reinstated) and it’s VERY browser sensitive for such an established site.
I’m no noob to online marketing, but I’ve never really touched Pinterest so I’m just beginning to cut my teeth, and hopefully I can crack it!
Thanks again.
Thanks for that comment I appreciate it!
Pinterest is soooo annoying! Anyone that says it isn’t is lying!
Saying that it can be a great FREE traffic source, but it will take hard work and consistent actions to get there.
Without doubt the 2 most common errors I see from people getting frustrated is:
1. Not making their pin designs good enough (check this post out)
2. Not making appropriate Pinterest content. Some niches like recipes and visual things do better. And long list posts and “How to’s” are the only thing that ever gets any serious traffic.
Good luck with the Pinterest beast. Let me know how it goes.
Mike
Thanks Mike… checking out your pin designs post now!
You’re welcome, seriously do ask any questions if you have them. There’s really no tricks or anything with Pinterest just consistent new good pins with good SEO
I have been struggling with Pinterest I followed some of your tips and my latest pin impressions rose from about 30 to over 1000 🙂
YES CLAYTON!!!!
That’s amazing, keep going with it.
My best tip is, without doubt, try to create good pins regularly.
I’ve been created one new pin a day (with 5 different headlines) for the last month on our new blog and seeing some real traction.
Keep me posted on how you get on
Nice Tips
Thanks!
I really enjoyed reading this post, do you have like a pinterest growth course i can purchase?
Thanks, I don’t personally but I would highly recommend Kristin’s design course here.
Design is by far the most important thing about seeing growth on Pinterest. You can learn the tactics and SEO stutff in this free article https://maketimeonline.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-blogging