How to Make Money on Pinterest: Ways & Tips to Grow Earnings

What would you say Pinterest is best known for? The latest fashion trends? DIY project ideas? Event inspirations? If that’s what comes to mind, you’re not wrong — Pinterest is the hub of ideas.

However, the platform is more than just an idea generator; it’s also a discovery engine for people looking to start new projects, make big purchases, and even acquire new skills.

The truth is, many Pinterest users are in a buying mindset. As a content creator or business owner, this could mean money in your pocket if you play your cards right.

How exactly do you make money on Pinterest? This guide explores everything you need to know. We look at popular ways to earn on the platform and offer tips for unlocking and maximizing your earnings.

Can You Really Earn from Pinterest?

Without a doubt. While Pinterest may not be as popular as platforms like YouTube and TikTok when it comes to earning potential, its merchants and creators can certainly hold their own in any competition. Here’s why:

• Pinterest has over 600 million monthly active users.
• Gen Z, who make up 42% of Pinterest’s user base, primarily use the platform to find brands and products.
• It reaches 28% of high-income earners.

The platform is not just a target for established businesses looking to build brand awareness and boost sales; it’s also a great place to sell your own products and services.

How to Make Money on Pinterest

Ready to start making money on Pinterest? Here are six earning ideas:

1. Create Sponsored Content

This is one of the biggest revenue streams for content creators on many platforms, including Pinterest. With this strategy, brands pay you to create Pins that raise awareness or promote their products. Basically, you get money for providing access to your audience.

Of course, not all Pinterest content creators can earn from sponsored content. To attract brands, you need a niche audience that aligns with businesses’ buyer personas and a track record of consistent traffic and engagement.

You also need to give brands their money’s worth. To do this, create high-quality content that aligns with their overall goals and drives your audience to take action. For example, if you’re creating content for a fashion brand, use high-quality photos and videos, and encourage followers to shop the tagged items.

Also, maintain a good relationship with Pinterest (and your audience) by using the platform’s Paid Partnership label when posting sponsored content. Doing so makes you appear transparent, which can boost trust in your content.

2. List Products on the Pinterest Catalog

The next idea is to sell your own products via Pinterest. If you have physical products, add your catalog to the platform. Then, integrate the catalog with e-commerce solutions such as Shopify. This not only keeps your inventory up to date on Pinterest but also enables users to complete purchases directly from your Pins.

With people increasingly using Pinterest as a shopping hub, this idea could help you grow your earnings by boosting sales. Of course, you have to be strategic. To maximize sales:

• Use high-quality, engaging images for your Product Pins.
• Boost your products with ads to reach a broader audience.
• Take advantage of Shopping Spotlight, a feature that positions your products on high-traffic surfaces, such as the search landing page. To get featured, you’ll need to prepare product-linked Pins for consideration by the Pinterest team.

3. Join Affiliate Marketing

This is an excellent way to earn if you receive consistent traffic and engagement, but don’t have your own products or direct brand partnerships. It’s great because it can continue to generate passive income over the long term, as long as your links remain active.

With affiliate marketing, you basically post content for a brand and include your own customized affiliate link. When a visitor buys from your link, you earn a commission from your chosen brand.

To get started with affiliate marketing, choose a network that connects you with businesses. Popular options include Amazon Associates and AWIN.

Next, find brands that align with your niche to maximize sales. For example, if you’re a fashion content creator, find fashion brands within your network.

4. Sell Digital Products

Pinterest doesn’t just allow you to sell physical items; you can also sell digital products like templates, printables, and planners. The beauty of selling digital products is that they don’t require much effort. Design a high-value product once, and people will buy it repeatedly with no additional workload on your end (if it’s beneficial and well-promoted, of course).

This idea works well if you have a niche audience or are especially good at something. For example, selling Pinterest templates could bring you a lot of money if your Pinterest profile captures a lot of interest from other content creators and businesses.

As with physical products, you’ll need to integrate a shopping platform to streamline purchases. Consider popular alternatives such as Etsy, Shopify, or Amazon.

5. Drive Traffic to Your Website

If you have your own products and a website, use Pinterest to increase traffic. To do this, create a visually appealing Pinterest board that aligns with your offerings and embed your website’s URL. You can link Pins to a landing page to drive newsletter sign-ups, to your blog for additional product information, or to specific product pages so that interested users can make direct purchases.

Be sure to follow Pinterest’s Community Guidelines when adding links to Pins. According to the platform’s rules, your website should be safe. Further, linked URLs shouldn’t hold any surprises — users should be able to tell where they lead to.

6. Join the Pinterest Inclusion Fund

While the Pinterest Inclusion Fund isn’t a direct income generator, it can offer support to help you earn on the platform. The Fund primarily focuses on underrepresented creators and merchants to help them grow.

If accepted, you can expect support on topics such as:

• Content trends
• Pinterest best practices
• Pinterest product catalog optimization

The Fund also provides credit and cash grants to facilitate content production and optimization (available to merchants). This can reduce your expenses, potentially boosting profits.

According to Pinterest, merchants who participated in the inclusion Fund last year recorded a 147x boost in outbound clicks. So, while it may be competitive, it’s definitely worth a try.

Tips for Maximizing Earnings on Pinterest

Now that you know the various ways to make money on Pinterest, how do you get started and maximize your income? Here are our top tips:

Create a Business Account

A business account unlocks features that a personal account may not have. For example, it lets you create product catalogs, place ads, and monitor analytics. So, start by creating one.

There are two main ways to create a business account on Pinterest: sign up for a new account (outside your personal one), or switch your personal account to a business one.

To sign up for a new one:

1. Go to pinterest.com and tap the Sign up button. Note: you’ll first need to log out of your current account if you’re logged in.
2. Tap Create a free business account.
3. Enter your email, preferred password, and birthdate.
4. Tap Create account.
5. Enter the required information to Build your profile and tap Next.
6. Describe your business and tap Next.
7. Choose whether you want to run ads.
8. Tap the X icon to go to your new business profile.

To switch from a personal Pinterest account:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Tap the “more options” icon and select Settings.
3. Click Account management.
4. Look for the Convert to a business account option.
5. Tap Convert account.
6. Build your profile by completing all required fields.
7. Describe your business.
8. Select whether to run ads.
9. Tap the X icon to open your business account.

Leverage Pinterest SEO

Most people on Pinterest use the platform as a search engine. So, search engine optimization should be at the top of your list of priorities. It can help you rank high in search results, potentially boosting your sales.

To maximize earnings via SEO:

• Conduct keyword research: Find out which terms and phrases your target audience uses when searching for products or ideas related to your niche.
• Use the keywords: Include identified keywords in everything from your Pin titles to your content to enhance discoverability.
• Optimize your profile: Write a compelling bio that incorporates your niche’s keywords, use a high-quality photo, and add your website link (if available) to make it easy for users and the Pinterest algorithm to understand what you offer.

Take Advantage of Pinterest Features

Pinterest offers great features that can help you make the most out of the platform. These include:

• Pinterest Trends: This feature provides real-time insights into what’s popular on Pinterest. Use it to tailor your content accordingly to maximize account traffic and engagement. For example, if you’re a food content creator and find that “Christmas food” is a trending topic, create content around this idea when selling your recipe or when promoting a kitchen appliance.
• Rich Pins: This feature automatically pulls contextual product information from your website. Pinterest offers product, recipe, and article rich Pins. For product rich Pins, the platform pulls availability details, pricing information, and product features. For recipe Pins, it syncs posts to details such as service size, ingredient lists, and cook time. For article rich Pins, it pulls posts’ headlines, author information, and descriptions. These Pins streamline the user experience and can therefore boost click-through rates.
• Product Tagging: This feature allows you to create a “Shop the look” section. It makes it easier for users to buy products they’re interested in, potentially boosting affiliate link clicks and product sales.
• Instagram Account Claiming: As its name suggests, this feature allows you to claim your Instagram account. This way, Pinterest can effectively attribute all of your shared IG content to your account (regardless of who shares it). The claiming feature also allows you to auto-publish content directly from your Instagram account, helping you maintain an active profile.

Create Multiple Accounts

As with many social media platforms, Pinterest pushes your content the most when it can clearly understand what your account is about and who you’re targeting. So, using a single account to create content across different topics isn’t the best strategy.

Rather than publish mixed content, create multiple Pinterest accounts, each focusing on a specific niche. For example, you could have one account for travel content and another for cooking content if you love creating for both niches. This allows you to earn from both interests without limiting your reach or confusing your audience.

For seamless multi-account management, lean on solutions like GeeLark. GeeLark provides antidetect browsers and cloud phones, allowing you to keep your accounts separate. This not only reduces your risk of posting Pins to the wrong accounts but also streamlines management by eliminating the need for constant logins and logouts.

GeeLark also masks your device fingerprints and allows you to configure proxy settings to hide your IP address. Essentially, the platform makes it appear as if each of your accounts originates from a different device and location. With Pinterest sometimes issuing rate limit blocks due to too many logins, this can help protect your account.

Maintain Consistency

The Pinterest algorithm loves consistent accounts. The more you post, the more it pushes your content to new audiences.

However, maintaining consistency, especially when operating multiple accounts, is incredibly taxing. Luckily, there’s a way to automate Pinterest posting at scale: GeeLark.

Beyond providing antidetect solutions, GeeLark streamlines multi-account management by handling the posting for you. You simply need to set up your cloud phone profiles (each with unique proxy details), download and install the Pinterest app, and search for the “Post images on Pinterest” template in the GeeLark Marketplace. Once you find it, select the profiles you want to post to, upload your Pins, set your scheduling parameters, and confirm your publication. GeeLark will then publish the content for you across all selected accounts.

Start Making Money on Pinterest Today

Pinterest can be a powerful source of income for content creators, brands, and small merchants. To start earning, identify what you can offer and set up your account to generate revenue. Do you create engaging content that consistently drives traffic to your page? Consider reaching out to brands for direct partnership or signing up for affiliate marketing opportunities. Do you sell products online? Integrate your e-commerce storefront and use product rich Pins to enable direct purchases on Pinterest.

GeeLark can help you maximize Pinterest earnings by allowing you to create multiple accounts without raising red flags. What’s more, it can automate content posting at scale, helping you maintain consistency across all your accounts.

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