How to make money on Pinterest without a blog

How to make money on Pinterest without a blog - pinterest affiliate marketingSo, you’d like to take Pinterest for a test drive, eh? See if it’s really possible to make money on Pinterest without a blog or website?

You’ve probably heard you can make money directly on Pinterest and indeed you can. The big question is:

How?

Most would say that you would need to establish a blog, a mailing list, or become a vlogger on YouTube.

While what they say is true, and in fact important in the long run…

You can still make money online even if you don’t need to have any of those yet.

Yes, you can, and it’s through Pinterest.

*Disclosure: Any affiliate links earn me a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you choose to buy after clicking.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the process so you’ll be ready to dive in the world of Pinterest affiliate marketing.

But first…

What is Pinterest Affiliate Marketing?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is when you promote products from various companies and then you earn a commission on either sales and signups.

Let’s use makeup as an example. Let’s say you love Sephora so you sign up for their affiliate program. You will get a unique link which you can use to promote Sephora and their products.

When someone buys some products through your link, you get to earn a percentage from the sale. Basically, you can think of affiliate marketing as recommendations that you get paid for.

Affiliate marketing is not confined to products alone–this can also include online courses. Most online courses have affiliate programs which you can sign up with. And every time someone enrolls through your link, you’re looking at more commission!

It’s not difficult–in fact, you can even make your first affiliate sales in 24 hours

Trivia: Did you know that there was a time that Pinterest removed all affiliate links? They banned Pinterest affiliate marketing because pinners are flooding Pinterest with spammy and irrelevant pins. Good thing that they allowed it again after improving their spam detection system. Read more: Affiliate links are now allowed on Pinterest!

So, how do we make money on Pinterest without a blog?

3 Steps to Make Money on Pinterest (Without a Blog) 

There are three major steps that you should keep in mind:

  1. Sign up to be an affiliate of your favorite products and services
  2. Create attractive pins!
  3. Start pinning away!

Don’t worry, we’ll go through everything you need to know about affiliate marketing on Pinterest.

1. Become an Affiliate

Be an affiliate of your favorite products and services. It’s recommended to start with those you actually use because you can vouch for them.

If you want a more strategic approach, follow these steps:

a. Choose your niche

You can’t just pin random stuff on Pinterest. Try to do a bit of research on what people on Pinterest love and what they are looking for.

Here are some of the popular and so-called ‘evergreen’ topics on Pinterest:

  • Travel
  • Food & Recipes
  • Fashion: Men & Women’s Style
  • Health and Wellness
  • Hobbies and interests
  • DIY Home Improvements
  • Celebrations: Momentous moments

You can also explore the official 100 Pinterest trends for 2019 and see what sparks your interest. When you are confident enough that you know your audience, then, by all means, go follow that niche!

b. Choose your products

This is a pretty exciting step because you get to choose which ones you will be recommending. Sit back, reflect, and think of the products and services you believe in.

Make a list of these, and then note which ones are those that your target market might find helpful as well.

Only pick products that are actually worth to share with your audience. Remember, whatever product or service you become an affiliate of, it will help build your image and credibility.

When looking for products to promote to your audience, don’t just look to see who offers the highest commissions. Over time, even the smallest commissions can add up to a large amount of income when they appeal to your audience and are promoted correctly.” – Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

c. Find affiliate programs

Now that you have an idea of what products you want to recommend, it’s time to see which ones have affiliate programs.

There are two ways to find affiliate programs:

  1. Go directly to the company’s website and check if there is an “Affiliate” or “Become an Affiliate” button. You can also google ‘company/product name’ + ‘affiliate program’ and see which ones come out clickfunnels affiliate bootcamp
  2. Join an affiliate network and access lots of affiliate programs in their database. Some examples are MagickLinks, Maxbounty, and ShareASale.

share a sale affiliate

Side Note: Pinterest blocked any affiliate links of Clickbank products.

d. Apply to the programs available!

Once you are approved, get your respective affiliate links for the products and start putting them on Pinterest!

2. Create Attractive and Stunning Pins

Design your pins in a way that they will attract users to click on them.

Use this handy checklist as a guide for creating cute and wonderful pins:

  • Try to make your own pins instead of grabbing from already existing vendors
  • Try to ask yourself ‘would my audience like this?’
  • Observing the trending pins per niche
  • Keep experimenting with different pin themes and treatments
how to make pinterest affiliate sales in 24 hours

Not a designer? Don’t have time to photoshop or design pins manually? Here’s a list of apps that will definitely help you with that:

3. Start Pinning

Create a board, upload that pin, and put all the right descriptions… and you’re good to go!

During the first few days or weeks, you might not get the results that you want. This can be because of any of the following reasons:

  • The pins are not appealing to your target audience. So keep researching and experimenting to find out what works!
  • Your boards and pins are not optimized for SEO. Again, use the right keywords in the title of the board, pin, and descriptions.
  • You’re randomly pinning with no strategy.
  • You don’t have a pinning schedule.
Exclusive Bonus: Download my step-by-step checklist that will keep you on track of on what you should be doing on a daily basis to massively grow your website traffic on Pinterest.

Yes, you can enjoy pinning, but there are some guidelines that will help you achieve the results you want.

  • Do not be spammy! Do not keep posting over and over again, right after the other
  • Good Pinterest SEO practices. Use proper keywords in the Pin title and description
  • Be relevant. Pin your pins near the most relevant of boards so you get to grasp both
  • Analyze the numbers and stats, and continue from there.

The great thing about technology is that we never really run out resources. There’s this tool called Tailwind that can help you drive traffic to your pins. It’s a Pinterest scheduler, but it’s also so much more.

Here’s what I like best about Tailwind:

  • It gathers data from your Pinterest profile and activity
  • It also gathers data on the behavior of your audience.
  • It suggests the best times and schedules for pinning. This means that your pins will have bigger chances of being seen by your target audience. More views = more conversions.

Related Article: Tailwind Review: Pinterest & Instagram Scheduler, Analytics & Marketing Tool

Follow the Rules

When you start implementing this strategy, you need to be aware of the rules and requirements. If you are receiving a commission, you MUST disclose your relationship with the company.

If you don’t follow the requirements, then you may wind up in big trouble with the FTC.

Whenever you directly link to an affiliate link on Pinterest, you must disclose that it’s an affiliate link.

How to disclose affiliate links on Pinterest?

Here are some options you can use when disclosing your affiliate links:

  • Here is my affiliate link
  • #affiliate
  • #affiliatelink
  • I may receive commissions from the links in this post
You can read more about what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has to say about affiliate marketing here.

Can you really make money on Pinterest without a blog?

Yes, you can!

Maybe it won’t be automatic, and it can take time. You just have to be consistent and you have to keep trying.

The biggest thing you can do is to NOT QUIT. Give it your all, and you’ll soon find yourself reaping the rewards as long as you remain dedicated, hardworking, and passionate.

Affiliate marketing is proven, and you can be one of the many successful affiliate marketers who continue to create a sustainable income from Pinterest.

Want to know more about affiliate marketing in general? Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, will greatly help you and give you everything you need. It was a serious game changer for me!

6 thoughts on “How to make money on Pinterest without a blog”

    • Hi Bettie! I also started using MagicLink as my affiliate program but since most of their products are not marketing related I don’t get to promote them that much on Pinterest. 🙂

      Reply
  1. Hi!!! Rich information, i have just started pinterest affiliate marketing without a blog and i am still learning. so i want to be sure to not break the law doing it. i tried to read the article you linked : “Affiliate links are now allowed on Pinterest!” but i didn’t find the article.
    I watched some videos telling that if i link brands without a website and without clickfunnel pages i got closed my account. is it true?? thanks ! 🙂

    Reply

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