Looking to turn your Pinterest addiction into a lucrative income stream?
Look no further!
In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to make money with Pinterest. Discover powerful strategies that will transform your pins into profit and open up a world of earning potential.
Pinterest is an incredibly popular website. It was first launched in 2010 and in 2022, Pinterest had 433 million monthly active users. That’s a lot of people using the platform, right?
Can you get paid from Pinterest though? Or is it just a place to share content and discover cool Pins?
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways you can use the platform to make money.
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Pinterest does not pay you directly like other social media platforms like YouTube or Twitch. But there are still plenty of ways you can make money with Pinterest and below, I’ll cover 12 of them! I’ll also give you tips for making money on Pinterest, and answer some common questions you may have about making cash on the platform in the FAQ section.
Table of Contents
How to Make Money with Pinterest
Here are the best ways you can use Pinterest to earn money.
1. Use Pinterest Ads to reach new users
- Best for people who’re selling digital and physical products online.
Did you know that one of the best ways to make money with Pinterest is by using Pinterest ads?
These are called Promoted Pins and these look like regular Pins. The difference is that they are strategically placed where your audience is most likely to see them, like on your target audience’s home feed, category feeds, and search results.
You do have to pay for Promoted Pins, so this is a spend-money-to-make-money type of venture.
Handily enough, Pinterest has a guide all about ads. You can check that out here to learn more.
Using ads is particularly useful if you have something you want to drive traffic to or build an audience for.
If you have a clothing store, for example, then you can use Promoted Pins to reach new customers who may be interested in your brand.
While you are spending money, it’s worth it if you can get a good return on that investment. If those ads result in 10x more traffic to your store or website, then you can up your profits.
Setting up ads
You will need to have a business account in order to create ads. You can learn about business accounts here.
Advertisements
The amount you pay will depend on the budget and spending limits that you set for your campaigns. Learn how to set your bid here.
You’ll need to go to Ads Manager at ads.Pinterest.com to start running ads. The first time you access Ads Manager, it will ask you to select your country. Make sure you choose carefully because this will determine your billing currency and you won’t be able to edit this later.
So, if you have an online business, then consider running ads on Pinterest to get your products or services in front of potential buyers.
2. Share shoppable Pins for your products
- Best for people who sell stuff online either on their own website or on a third-party site like Etsy.
Another way to increase sales if you sell products online is to create and share shoppable Pins for your products.
These are known as Product Pins.
Products Pins can be used to get your products in front of people on Pinterest who are already looking for ideas and things to purchase.
These Pins are enriched with metadata and formatted to let people on Pinterest know that they are shopping.
Product Pins contain:
- Pricing information
- A product title
- A description
- A link back to a specific product through which a customer can place an order
Pinterest has a guide all about Product Pins, including links to posts that provide more information on them, so you can check that out here.
3. Make money on Pinterest with affiliate links
- Best for anyone who’s looking to make money on Pinterest without selling any of their own products.
Affiliate marketing is a popular money-making method online because it allows you to earn money selling products, without having to create any products of your own.
With affiliate marketing, you join an affiliate marketing program and get affiliate links for products.
You can get affiliate links for products in pretty much every category you could think of from clothing to electronics.
Then, you can post your affiliate links in various places online, such as:
- Blog posts
- A product resources landing page
- Videos
- Social media platforms, including, you guessed it, Pinterest
When someone clicks on one of your affiliate links, they’re taken to the product page, as they normally would be.
If they make a purchase, you will receive a commission on the sale.
So, you make money selling other people’s products.
You can leverage Pinterest in your own affiliate marketing venture by creating Pins that link to content that incorporates your affiliate links.
This could include links to blog posts, YouTube videos, or any other content that incorporates your affiliate links.
Sharing your affiliate links on Pinterest is a great idea because it means your links that be found by anyone who’s searching for that particular product, and you can earn a commission if they make a purchase.
Tips for affiliate marketing on Pinterest
Since Pinterest doesn’t have its own affiliate links, the commission you earn will depend on the terms that you have set up with external affiliate programs or merchants.
Here are some tips for affiliate marketing on Pinterest:
- Make sure that you follow the relevant guidelines on affiliate marketing. So, be sure to disclose when affiliate links as present, as the FTC guidelines state. You can learn more about the FTC’s guidelines on affiliate marketing here.
- Make sure that you only share direct links. Pinterest discourages the use of link shorteners or tools that disguise the real URL. So, make sure you don’t use those types of tools when sharing affiliate links. You can learn more about Pinterest’s policies here.
- Be sure to optimize your Pins for keywords that are related to the affiliate products you’re linking to. After all, Pinterest operates as a search engine, so by making sure that your content features keywords that users are searching for, the content is more likely to generate clicks and engagement, which could lead to an increase in sales.
- Create board themes. It’s not a good idea to just create a bunch of unrelated affiliate links and throw them together on the same board. This is unlikely to get your results. Instead, you should put thought into your Pins, and curate Pins around a central theme.
- Create good descriptions. It’s important to take the time to write some good descriptions. It’s important to convey why these affiliate links or Pins are important and be sure to use related keywords and hashtags for Pinterest to use in the search results.
- Make sure you use high quality media. You want people to click on your affiliate links, so be sure to make high quality Pins.
- Don’t just share links. People don’t tend to like it when all you do is promote affiliate links, so be sure to create quality boards that are useful to the user.
4. Make money blogging (indirectly) on Pinterest
- Best for bloggers & website owners
Pinterest can be a valuable tool for bloggers. Bloggers can use Pinterest to drive traffic to their blog.
As a blogger, you can make money from the ads on your site, affiliate links, and sponsored content. The more traffic you can get to your blog, the better.
More traffic results in more views on ads and more people to potentially click on your affiliate links. It can also open up more sponsorship opportunities.
So, using Pinterest to get more visitors to your blog is a great idea. Incorporating Pinterest into your traffic building strategy can help to drive revenue.
Ranking for keywords on Google is obviously incredibly important and all bloggers should ensure that they’re working on this.
But ranking for keywords on Google can also be complex and time-consuming, and it’s often changing its algorithm, which also makes it hard to maintain a consistent ranking.
On the other hand, ranking for keywords on Pinterest can be more straightforward, and it can help you to build up a following for your blog as well.
Interestingly, 85% of Pinners say that Pinterest is where they go to start a new project.
You could capture some of this content if you can create useful content that aligns with what your potential audience is looking for.
If you have a blog about sewing, for example, and you create useful Pins that are related to the keywords that your audience is looking for, then a Pinner who’s headed to Pinterest to learn about sewing can see your posts, click through to your blog, and then be able to learn from your site.
Tips for using Pinterest to promote your blog
Here are some tips you can use to help you to grow your web traffic through Pinterest:
- Make sure you create content that’s highly relevant to your blog. You don’t want to create content that doesn’t align with what the user is looking for.
- Have a browse through Pinterest Trends to see which keywords are trending with users on the platform. This way, you can see if there are any trends that you can leverage to increase traffic to your own blog.
- Create multiple Pins for each blog post, which have an optimized title, description, and image that’s related to the keywords that users are searching for. This can get more users to your posts.
- Save your Pins to boards that have optimized titles and descriptions. Again, be sure to incorporate keywords that your potential audience is searching for.
- Create article rich Pins. Rich Pins are a type of organic Pin that automatically syncs information from your website to your Pins. Rich Pins are a free product that’s available to anyone on Pinterest who has a business account. There are a few different types of rich Pins. If you’re a blogger, then Article rich Pins are particularly useful. Article rich Pins add the headline or title, the description, and the author of the article or blog post from your site. You can learn more about creating rich Pins here.
5. Make money on Pinterest by posting pictures using “Shop your Look”!
- Best for influencers, bloggers, or brands who want to promote their products.
On Pinterest, shopping engagement grew by 20% in 2021.
So, shopping on the platform is a priority for many Pinterest users.
If you enjoy topics like fashion, beauty, and home decor, you could leverage that to make money on the platform. All you need to do is help users to shop your look.
For example, let’s say you post photos of your outfits. Then, you could tag the specific items in that photo so that your followers can shop that look themselves. So, you would link to a pair of boots, or a dress, or a skirt, or a sweater for example.
You can also do this with beauty products too, as I mentioned before.
For example, you could share a skincare routine or a makeup routine, and then tag the items you’ve used, like your foundation, moisturizer, or mascara.
“Shop the look” Pins allow you to earn extra money just by promoting what you already wear and use.
Once your account is set up, you can create your “Shop the Look” Pins, and then earn money if someone orders the items using your links.
Shop the Look Pins are a good way to link to several products at once in a single Pin. Whether it’s an outfit post or a home décor post, each product available for purchase in the photo is shown via a white dot that users can click on to see more.
Using Collections Pins
Pinterest actually allows you to tag products in a collections Pin so that people can shop your look
Collections allow people to find products from fashion to home décor Pins. When a person taps on a collections Pin, they will see a search icon in the bottom-right, and when they click on this, white dots will appear on the Pin that people can then tap to view and shop for exact or similar products.
Learn more about creating a collections Pin here.
6. Create sponsored content
- Best for influencers, bloggers, or creators with a large following.
Companies want to get their products and services in front of their target audience. One of the ways they achieve this is through influencer marketing.
Companies pay influencers to promote their products and services on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and, of course, Pinterest.
You may be able to work with brands if you have a large enough following.
You could work with brands to create sponsored content specifically for Pinterest.
Or you may be able to get a higher rate for sharing a sponsored blog post or social content from other platforms with your Pinterest audience too.
Once you have a following on Pinterest, do some research to find companies in your niche and then approach them for sponsorship opportunities.
If you have a decent following and good engagement on there, it will be easier for you to find brands that are willing to pay you to promote their products or services. You could offer them a deal to display their branding on your Pinterest account for an agreed upon period of time, such as a month, six months, or a year.
7. Create Idea Pins to promote brand partnerships
- Best for influencers, bloggers, or creators with a large following.
You can use Idea Pins to promote brand partnerships.
Idea Pins can be used to record multiple videos and add images, lists, and custom text in a single Pin.
Just like with other Pins, Idea Pins will stay on your boards once you’ve published them.
Creators on Pinterest can tag a brand or company that they have a partnership with in an Idea Pin.
When a creator adds a paid partnership to their idea Pin, the paid partnership label will automatically appear when the Pin is published. Brands need to approve the tag in order for their name to appear with the paid partnership label on an Idea Pin.
According to Pinterest, “A paid partnership is a relationship in which a creator creates content with a brand that they have a material connection with in order to promote the brand or its products. These partnerships are already established by the creator and brand outside of Pinterest.”
So, you can use the paid partnership tool to be matched with brand partners, and possibly get paid for promoting partner brands.
Using Idea Pins on Pinterest
Here’s how you can use the paid partnership tool:
- Create an Idea Pin. You can learn more about how to do this here.
- On the “Finishing touches” screen, tap “Advanced settings.”
- Toggle on “Add paid partnership label,” and then select “Add a brand partner.”
- Search for the brand to tag. You can tag only one brand per Idea Pin.
- Select “Add” beside your desired brand.
- Select “Add” on the “Approval needed” popup window. Before the request is submitted to the brand, the Idea Pin must be published.
- The selected brand now appears in the “Advanced setting” screen for review.
- Return to the “Finishing touches” screen and click “Publish.”
Once the Idea Pin is published, the “paid partnership” label will appear on the Idea Pin without the brand’s name. The brand will get a notification email and they will have the option to approve or decline the tag. If the brand approves the partnership, then its name will be added to the “paid partnership” label.
Brands can pay you to make this type of content and share it with your audience. And, they may also choose to use the Pin as part of their ad campaign.
There are plenty of brands that are looking to work with creators, so this can be a really good option. To get brand partnerships, it’s a good idea to ensure that your posts have a niche and that you have an audience of followers and good engagement. You don’t need a ton of followers to get a brand deal though.
8. Manage other people’s Pinterest accounts for them
- Best for people who are looking for a way to make money on Pinterest without selling anything or working with brands.
Managing other people’s Pinterest accounts for them is a good option if you:
- Don’t want to sell stuff
- Want to know how to make money on Pinterest without a blog
- Are not an influencer and don’t want to partner with brands
It offers you a way to make money without having to sell anything, have a blog, or partner with brands.
Managing a Pinterest account can be pretty time consuming, and many people, like those who run a full-time business, just don’t have the time to run it themselves.
So, some people will hire someone to manage their Pinterest account for them.
This can be a virtual assistant type of role where you’re responsible for creating and uploading Pins.
You could get paid to do tasks, like creating and uploading Pins and keyword research, and even help develop a Pinterest strategy for your client’s primary business objectives, like growing web traffic or increasing conversions of shoppable Pins, for example.
So, you can get paid to work as a Pinterest virtual assistant and help with tasks like creating and uploading Pins. Some positions may involve marketing strategies too.
You can find Pinterest manager jobs/Pinterest virtual assistant jobs online.
If you can, try creating a portfolio that outlines the results that you have gotten from growing your own Pinterest account and other businesses’ Pinterest accounts so that you can share it with potential clients. This will show clients that you have experience running Pinterest accounts. There are plenty of resources online that can help you to learn about managing a Pinterest account.
9. Sell Pinterest templates
- Best for people who are creative and have an artistic flair.
People want to save time, so they use Pinterest templates. You could earn money by selling these templates.
You can create your own set of Pinterest templates and sell them on sites like Etsy or even through your own website.
What’s good about this method is that once you have made your templates, you can get a recurring income from them, provided you can get them in front of the right audience.
10. Teach others how to make money on Pinterest
- Best for those who have been successful on Pinterest and want to monetize their strategies.
Another way that you can earn money with Pinterest is to, well, teach others how to make money on Pinterest! If you are successful making money with the platform, then you can teach others how to do the same.
You can create eBooks, video series, or courses on how to make money on Pinterest and sell them.
11. Learn a skill from Pinterest and monetize it
- Best for anyone looking to learn and monetize a skill.
You can learn about so many different things on Pinterest, like carpentry, baking, and gardening. It’s basically like a huge online library where you can learn about a bunch of different things.
Pinterest allows you to gather and organize these resources in one place, which is awesome.
You can use Pinterest to gain a marketable skill and then monetize that skill.
For example, you could learn all about baking there, and then start a baking YouTube channel. Or, you could learn about carpentry and start building and selling your own furniture. There are so many options.
You can learn so many different things on Pinterest and many of them are marketable skills.
So, think about what you can learn from Pinterest, and then make money from it.
Also, depending on what you decide to learn and how you decide to monetize it, you can then turn to Pinterest again to promote your products or services.
12. Pinterest Creator Rewards
- Best for content creators.
If you’ve been researching how to make money with Pinterest, then you will have likely seen the Creator Rewards program mentioned on various websites.
With the program, creators could earn money for creating original Idea Pins in response to monthly reward goals created by Pinterest.
Unfortunately, the Creator Rewards program ended in November 2022, so this is no longer a money-making option on the platform. Pinterest has created another program called the Creator Fund. However, this new initiative is only for “underrepresented creators.” So, many people won’t qualify for it.
Tips for Making Money on Pinterest
Above, I’ve given you lots of methods for making money with Pinterest. In this section, I’ll cover some simple tips you can use to make money on the platform with whatever method you choose to use to earn money there.
Create eye-catching Pins
Pinterest is a popular platform, which, as I said earlier, has millions of users. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your posts stand out. After all, there are tons of Pins on the platform, so you need to make yours eye-catching and also professional looking.
There are lots of tools you can use to help you create high-quality Pins that will grab the attention of your audience.
Canva, for example, has some great templates. There are plenty of other places to find templates or high-quality images you can use to create great Pins.
Unsplash, for example, has a ton of high-quality images, and many of them are free!
So, create some great high-quality Pins that will catch the attention of your audience.
Use Pinterest SEO
Keywords are so important on Pinterest. They help users to find your content. While Pinterest is a social media platform, it also functions like a search engine like Google, and just like on Google, users can enter keywords to find what they are looking for.
That’s why it’s important that you use SEO strategies.
When you use the right keywords to describe your content, it helps people to discover your Pins through a direct search and also through Pinterest’s recommendation algorithm.
It’s important to incorporate your keywords in multiple places, such as in the:
- Pin description
- Text overlay
- Board title
- Board description
- Profile description
You can find keywords by doing some research on Pinterest.
First, create a list of terms that are relevant to your business. These can be broad terms, like “Mexican recipes,” “mahogany furniture,” or “skincare products.”
Then, enter a term into the Pinterest search bar.
So, if you have a skincare blog, and want to write content about skincare, then you can type in “skincare” or whatever other keywords you want into the Pinterest search bar. When you type a keyword into the Pinterest search bar, below, you’ll see a drop down of various related keywords.
For example, when I enter the word “skincare” into the search bar, I see related terms appear, such as, “skincare routine,” “skincare products,” and “skincare tips.”
You can add any relevant keywords to your list.
Another way you can get more keyword suggestions is to enter a term into the search bar, like the “skincare” example above, and then click one of the suggestions, or just search for the keyword that you initially typed in.
Once you’ve hit search, you’ll get a bunch of results, and underneath the search bar, you’ll be able to see some colored tiles that suggest related keywords.
You can click on these keywords to view even more niche suggestions.
Spend some time researching the platform to get keyword ideas.
It’s a good idea to get some more niche suggestions, which is why those related keywords are so valuable since these more specific keywords may not be as heavily targeted by other creators but are easier to rank for and still relevant to Pinners.
Once you’ve created a list of keywords, you should start using them.
Make sure that you use keywords in a natural way, rather than just stuffing as many of them as you can in there.
Also, make sure that when describing your Pins, you use simple and to-the-point descriptions. It’s also a good idea to use hashtags in your descriptions.
Engage with other Pinterest users
It’s also a good idea to interact with other Pinners on the platform.
While the search algorithm is important, which is why you should be using SEO practices, Pinterest is also a social media platform.
So, if you want to ensure that you’re getting the most from the platform, then it’s a good idea to do things like click on people’s follow links, Pin other people’s Pins, and comment on people’s posts.
So, follow other users and interact with their content, and this can help to generate engagement for your posts as well. You can always unfollow people if you don’t like the Pins you’re getting in your feed.
Make sure you have a business account
If you want to make money on Pinterest, you need to have a business account.
This is so important for making money with the platform because many of the money-making options on there are only available to those who have a business account. For example, you will need to have a business account if you want to use Pinterest Ads.
Also, having a business account is important if you want to contact any brands for things like partnerships and affiliate links. Business accounts also give you access to features like analytics. Business accounts are free too, so you should definitely get one if you want to make money with Pinterest.
Schedule your Pins
If you want to use Pinterest for money-making purposes, then it’s a good idea to upload consistently. One of the best ways to do this is to schedule your Pins. That way, you don’t have to worry about forgetting to upload or being late with your uploads.
Adding new Pins over time, on a consistent basis, will help you to reach more people than you would if you were to upload a whole bunch of posts at once.
You can use a tool like Hootsuite to help you to schedule your Pins. Hootsuite isn’t free, but it can help you to schedule your Pins and therefore potentially make more money with Pinterest.
Have a press or media kit
There are many ways to make money with Pinterest, and one route you can try is working with brands.
If you are planning on going with the more influencer focused route, rather than the selling route, then you’ll want to have a press or media kit.
A media kit is a document that includes statistics and data on your followers and engagement. So, this can include key facts and statistics about your blog, business, or Pinterest following.
Hootsuite has a media kit template you can use, and you can also create them on Canva.
Having a media kit is a good way to let brands know what you have to offer.
Pinterest Monetization FAQs
In this section, I’ll provide some answers to common questions that people may have about making money with Pinterest.
Can you get paid from Pinterest?
Pinterest does not pay creators directly. However, you can leverage Pinterest to earn money by doing things like sharing shoppable Pins for your products, creating sponsored content for brands, promoting your blog, or selling Pinterest templates. Basically, any of the methods on our list above can help you to get paid on Pinterest.
How do beginners make money on Pinterest?
Beginners can make money on Pinterest by selling Pinterest templates, managing other people’s Pinterest accounts/working as Pinterest virtual assistants, or doing some affiliate marketing.
How many views on Pinterest do you need to make money?
Pinterest doesn’t pay you per view like YouTube does. Instead, Pinners make can make money by using Pinterest to promote a blog, for affiliate marketing, or to promote products or services that they’re selling. Creators on Pinterest can also earn money by partnering with brands to create sponsored content. Check out our list for more ways to make money on Pinterest.
How many followers do you need to make money on Pinterest?
The number of your Pinterest followers doesn’t matter as far as how much you can earn. Of course, the more followers you have the more exposure your pins will get. That said, to be successful, I would aim for at least 1000 followers. But you can start with zero followers and if you post interesting content, your followers will increase rapidly.
The number of followers on Pinterest doesn’t decide the amount you earn. However, you need at least a thousand followers to successfully market through affiliate links or sponsorships.
How Much Money Can You Make on Pinterest?
The amount of money you can make on Pinterest will depend on the money-making method that you use. For example, the amount of money you make from affiliate marketing is going to differ from the amount of money you earn from creating sponsored content.
I’ve included some numbers below to give you an idea of how much money you can make from some of the Pinterest money-making options on my list above:
- Blogger: $22 an hour on average. Pay ranges from $5 to $50 an hour.
- eCommerce seller: $75 an hour on average. Pay ranges from $5 to $193 an hour.
- Affiliate marketer: $75 an hour on average. Pay ranges from $5 to $193 an hour.
- Influencer: $21 an hour on average. Pay ranges from $6 to $38 an hour.
Pint It!
Making money on Pinterest does require time and effort, but it can be really profitable. And as you can see, there are plenty of ways to earn money on the platform, like sharing shoppable Pins, affiliate marketing, and promoting a blog.
So unleash your creativity and start monetizing your pins today! With these proven methods to make money with Pinterest, the possibilities are endless. Get ready to pin your way to financial success!
dojo
I have never considered earning a revenue from Pinterest (to be honest I’m not that active there anyway), but it does make a lot of sense. I’ll try to follow your advise and see what results I can get from this.
Satrap
Yeah, give it a try, Dojo. Let me know how it goes.
Maria
Do you have the steps to use shopsense with Pinterest? I’m interested since I’m constantly it! I’m obsessed with it! I’m a SAHM right now and would love some income while I’m home! Am I able to set up shopsense on mobile or do I have to do it on desktop?
Satrap
Maria, here is the link to ShopSense’s (now known as Collective Voice) official blog where they explain in detail how to set things up: https://www.collectivevoice.com/
I hope that’s helpful. Let me know if you have any other question. Good luck.
Clever
Hello,
Just wanted to let you know that the above link does not work. (404 page not found)
Saeed
Thank you very much for taking the time to let me know, Clever. I have updated the comment.