Affiliate Marketing Using Pinterest For Massive Traffic

If you don’t know already, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online for beginners and experience marketers alike. But there is more to affiliate marketing than just referring someone to a product or service in exchange for a commission.

It’s a combination of choosing the right product for your targeted audience which requires the right traffic generation strategies. In this article, we’re cover one of the best traffic sources for affiliate marketing.

Best of all, this traffic source is PERFECT for organic traffic to all of your affiliate marketing offers. So let’s discuss how you can make money in affiliate marketing using Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual search engine where you can share and save content such as images and videos. You can also use it to plan and organize projects. The website was founded in March 2010 by the three co-founders: Ben Silbermann, Prakash Janakiraman and Evan Sharp.

Pinterest is typically more popular with women than men. As of March 2021, the website has more than 400 million active users. In addition, Pinterest is a great way to promote your products and services because it’s visual-based.

The platform allows you to create boards that are organized into categories such as “Home Decor,” “Food & Drink,” or “Fashion.” You can also create custom lists for specific topics.

What makes Pinterest an ideal traffic source is the fact that it’s considered a search engine as opposed to social media. This means users on the platform can search for information based on their search query to find specific pins on boards where they can find that particular information.

How To Do Affiliate Marketing Using Pinterest

If you’re looking for ways to make money from Pinterest, affiliate marketing might be one of the best options. You could potentially earn commissions by promoting products or services related to the content you share on Pinterest.

With over 400 million users online, there is a huge opportunity on Pinterest for achieving a recurring revenue stream from affiliate marketing sales and services.

Pinterest is one of the best traffic sources not only for the organic reach it can provide to your targeted audience, but what makes it an amazing resource is the fact that unlike most other social media platforms where content is “posted, then ghosted”, meaning content that was published a week ago could be considered obsolete and is buried further down the timeline, Pinterest pins have a long shelf life.

Much like search engine optimization, perfectly optimized Pinterest pins show up in search results for a targeted keyword. Pins that were created a couple of years ago could still earn money today.

However, there are some things you need to know before jumping into affiliate marketing on Pinterest.

Let’s discuss some of these things to better position you to make money in affiliate marketing using Pinterest as a traffic source.

Choosing The Right Affiliate Marketing Product For Pinterest

In affiliate marketing, some products will work better with certain audiences more than others. For example, many of my friends on Pinterest are moms, so I would want to promote baby items as opposed to tennis shoes. This means that I would want to optimize my ads for Pinterest for moms that have babies pinned a lot on the site.

Your first step is going to be to look at the types of pinners you plan on targeting on Pinterest. To do this, you will first need to know who might be a good match for your products. Social media sites like Twitter and Instagram will give you some information about what groups of people might be interested in your niche.

This is extremely important as you want to find products that will best resonate with the type of content being pinned and shared by others on the platform.

When it comes to affiliate marketing using Pinterest, products that do well are typically ones that can be very competitive when it comes to search engines such as Google.

Offers in niches such as make money online (MMO), health and fitness and love and relationships can do well on Pinterest.

Although you would find more success in not so common topics such as babies, dogs and other pets, or even woodworking does well on Pinterest if you create the right kind of pins that will attract visitors to your offer.

For more ideas, you’ll want to ask yourself “What type of topics would my ideal reader want to purchase?” There are several sites online that will give you amazing niche ideas that could work well on Pinterest. You’ll need to create Pinterest boards specifically to your niche, but the best way to do it is to find a general niche and then make boards around sub-niches of that niche to increase your reach with your readers.

Traveling is a popular topic on Pinterest but can also be a very profitable one if you tend to do alot of traveling when it comes to doing affiliate marketing using Pinterest. Plus, there are so many ways that you can use the site to make money online.

If you have been thinking about starting an ecommerce business or already have one and want to take your business to the next level then this post will help you understand how to get started with Pinterest. I’ll show you some tips and tricks on how to get more traffic from Pinterest and start making money online.

Where To Find Affiliate Products For Pinterest

Now that you’ve picked a topic or niche for your affiliate marketing journey on Pinterest, you need to find some affiliate products to promote.

There are a number of affiliate marketing networks out there that have hundreds, if not thousands of amazing products that you can choose from to promote. Some of the best networks to give you a good chance of making sales in a multitude of verticals (another word for niches) is sites such as Clickbank and Offervault to name a few.

Clickbank alone offers many different topics that increase your chances of success using affiliate marketing for Pinterest and unlike most other affiliate networks, you don’t have to request approval for your affiliate link.

I’ve typically use Clickbank offers with a good amount of gravity (number used in Clickbank metrics to show approximately how many other Clickbank affiliates are making sales) this will give you a good indication how well the product may convert on Pinterest.

Clickbank is great for the health niche, but I’ve also used a site called Market Health that offers an amazing affiliate marketing program that has a wide variety of health products and supplements to promote on your Pinterest boards and pins.

Some other affiliate networks that I highly recommend you consider when doing affiliate marketing using Pinterest are:

FlexOffers Impact Radius
Shareasale
Offervault
MaxBounty
MaxWeb
Warriorplus

Content Types For Affiliate Marketing Using Pinterest

Pinterest, is a search engine for all things visual, has made it easy to create “pins” and share them through boards with different topics. The format is perfect for people who love to watch videos, look at pictures, or follow recipes.

If you are familiar with Pinterest, you may know that there are certain types of content that do much better than others. You need to introduce your Pinterest followers to your affiliate links in a way that adds both value to the reader in an effort to solve a problem the reader may have and to persuade them into a call to action to purchase your product.

One of the best ways of getting your reader to follow through on the call to action is to provide content typically found on a website that gives them detailed information on there problem and more importantly, the product or steps they need to take to resolve that problem.

If you’ve heard the old adage, “Content is King”, then you understand the power that content has to increase your conversions whether for leads or sales. In addition, if you’re like most businesses, you know that content marketing isn’t cheap and it’s definitely not easy.

But having a website that provides your reader more content acts as “the bridge” between your content and your affiliate offer. You want to create content that is specifically for your products or service that you’re an affiliate of and publish this content to a website such as a WordPress. com or WordPress.org blog.

Blog Content

Internet marketing is full of tools, but when it comes to affiliate marketing, blogs may be the most powerful. Blogs are there to inform, not just to sell. A blog can be about anything.

Successful bloggers use their blogs to increase their reach in social media, promote their expertise, and spread their influencer status. A blog can be an effective affiliate marketing tool because people trust what they read.

When someone reads your blog post and then sees it repeated in their social media feed, they are more likely to click on it because they know you’re someone worth following. They also won’t be able to resist clicking on an affiliate link in your blog post because they know you know your stuff.

As mention before, the best way to get your readers on Pinterest to convert is to provide them content that they can relate to and addresses some type of pain point the reader may be having in regards to your offer.

Blogging is a really great way of creating and delivering content to your audience on Pinterest because it builds on the K.L.T. factor. This stands for Know, Like and Trust. When you get your readers to know, like and trust you, they are more inclined to purchase your product or service or even opt into your email list for even further promotions.

This also establishes you as an authority in that particular topic or niche which helps you build your search rankings on Google to the first page of the SERPs.

There are numerous videos on Youtube that will show you the proper way to setup a WordPress site if you decide to create a website for your content. Best of all, it doesn’t cost much of anything to start a blog on platforms such as WordPress.com if you’re marketing budget is not that big.

Although WordPress.com is a free content management platform many use for blogging, the issue with it is that you’re extremely limited on your blog’s functionality as WP.com doesn’t allow for many third party plugins to customize your blog, but it’s an option nonetheless.

Another issue you may run into with WP.com is that although you’re posting content for free on their website. You’re at the mercy of WordPress as they are in complete control of “your” content and have the right to take down any content that goes against their terms of service.

In contrast, WordPress. org, which is a self-hosted instance of WordPress may be a better option as you will have total control over your content and you won’t be restricted to certain terms of services that you would with WordPress.com.

This may cost you a minimal amount at first, but is well worth the piece of mind of not worrying about your content being deleted from your site.

Blog content can be extremely powerful for affiliate marketing using Pinterest to allow you to create boards and pins around those pieces of content where you can link those pins to specific articles.

Pinterest, unlike most other platforms, considers themselves as an affiliate friendly site which is beneficial for affiliate marketers looking to get more exposure to their products or services.

Infographics

There is a lot we we can learn from infographics. Infographics communicate complex content and data in a quick and easy to understand format. As we use more and more information, infographics become more and more valuable for disseminating information to the masses.

Infographics are a fantastic way to present complex data in an easy-to-understand format. They give people a visual way to see how the data relates, which is perfect for affiliate marketing using Pinterest. The charts and graphs give readers a quick and simple way to grasp and digest information.

As we use more and more information, Infographics become more and more valuable for disseminating content for readers to easily digest your content. Plus, they’re a great way to add some personality to your brand!

There are a number of websites online that can provide you amazing looking infographics pins to use on your Pinterest boards for maximum content exposure. If you’re on a tight budget, a good place to start with Infographics is a site call Canva.

Canva has some really professionally designed Infographic templates that will help you get that edge when it comes to doing affiliate marketing using Pinterest.

Quotes

Quotes are important in communicating the thoughts of someone else. Their words represent their opinions, their thoughts. What is said in a quote can be simple, yet meaningful, or complex with hidden meaning.

The word choice used in the quote is important, as well as the context. By reading these words, it is possible to understand the thoughts of the person, at least in the moment when the quote was said. What they are saying is not necessarily what they are feeling, but it is what they are thinking, at that moment in time.

Quotes are great for creating content for blogs. The quotes can be in response to a discussion or event, they can be wisdom from someone else, they can be thought provoking quotes about current events. They’re also a great way to build your following on Pinterest.

I’ve had much success on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram using quotes as a form of content. And the best thing about utilizing quotes is that “they’re fairly easy to find”. Just do a simple Google search for inspirational or informative quotes and you will find a plethora of really good ones to use to supplement your content to help drive affiliate sales.

List Style Pins

When it comes to affiliate marketing with Pinterest, list style pins work amazingly well to get readers to click on your content. These also tend to work well with blog content. I know you’ve seen these type of posts all over the Internet.

For example, titles such as “10 Ways to Make Money Online Blogging” do really well on Pinterest. You will find a number of Pinterest pins that use these titles to draw attention to their content online.

Psychologically, much like infographics, people are attracted to content that is presented in a neat and bulleted fashion which makes it easier to consume. Plus, the more information you can pack into your title, the better!

When it comes to Pinterest affiliate marketing, these types of pins provide much value to your reader and increases the likelihood that your content will be read and your call to action executed.

Through some analysis of my blog content, I tend to notice that many of my list articles (a.k.a. Listicles) get more engagement from my Pinterest account than those that aren’t list articles. I would highly recommend these types of content pins to drive traffic to your website.

Image Pin Boards

Pin boards are a great way to share and collect your favorite things and then plan and organize them into boards that fit your interests. The way pins work is that you click on the pin and it automatically takes you to the site of where the item can be found and it acts as a link to that site.

Image pins can also increase your content exposure on Pinterest. Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, providing images closely related to your content is critical to your success when using affiliate marketing using Pinterest.

Pinterest prefers certain image dimensions over others as they typically favor pins that are 1000X1500 pixels. This size gives your readers the best visibility to see the entire title of your content while taking up a good amount of virtual real estate on the platform.

How To Use Affiliate Marketing To Generate Traffic From Pinterest

Okay, so now that we understand how powerful Pinterest can be for affiliate marketing, let’s dive into the strategies that one could use to build a massive following on the platform.

As stated earlier in the article, Pinterest is a visual search engine, so we have to keep in mind that we as marketers and content creators need to not only optimize our content for our potential readers, but also for Pinterest and ultimately Google.

Once you’ve found your niche or topic and after you’ve created your Pinterest account, what now?

Well, much like search engine optimization with Google, the same rules apply for Pinterest to make passive income online.

Keyword Research

You need to find keywords in your niche that people are actually searching for in Pinterest to compete with other content creators. You can do this by finding the search bar on Pinterest and start typing specific niche related keywords in the field.

Pinterest will start to autofill your search with relevant and related keywords related to your niche. This tells you that other people on Pinterest are searching for this same keyword or phrase. Write down these keywords as you want to be able to reference these later when you’re ready to build your boards and pins.

Board Creation and Descriptions

Now that you know what keywords you should be looking out for, you’ll want to create boards around these keywords. These boards are essentially collections of pins that go together and relate to each other. They can be anything from recipes to fashion tips to DIY projects.

When creating your board, think about who your audience might be and what kind of information they might be interested in seeing. You want to ensure that you take the time to write board descriptions for each one of your boards that contain relevant keywords or phrases in those descriptions.

This helps Pinterest to show pins from that board closely related to the users search query term and makes it easier for individuals to find what they’re looking for.

Pin Descriptions

Much like creating the Pinterest board, you want to make sure that those same keywords are located in the pin description to help Pinterest serve relevant pins to the user who’s searching.

Also, when it comes to affiliate marketing using Pinterest, you can use a technique called direct affiliate links within each pin. This is one of the beautiful things about using Pinterest as a traffic source, you can place affiliate links directly into your pin to allow users to be sent directly to your affiliate offer from Pinterest.

I would recommend this method to novice affiliate marketers looking to drive traffic to their offers as there are numerous pins with affiliate links with no friction for the user or offers no hurdles for the user to jump through to see your offer.

This circumvents the use of having a blog or website for you to send your readers to, but can work for generating leads and sales although I strongly recommend having a blog to send your readers to inorder to learn more and get more details of your offer.

Another great tactic when doing affiliate marketing with Pinterest is making several different image pins for your content. This allows you to post the same content on Pinterest, but with different looking pins.

This gives your Pinterest account a little more content pins even though they link directly to the same content on your site. Creating different variations of the pin will help in providing your readers new looks to the same content.

Ideally, you want to create anywhere from 10-15 different image pins for the same content. With this amount of pin variations, the likelihood of your the same content being re-pinned to others’ board is drastically increased and can help in getting more exposure. Plus, the more boards you have with a similar theme, the easier it will be to find that specific content when searching Pinterest.

You should also consider creating a few boards based on other topics related to your niche. For example, if you are selling kids clothing online, you could create a board called “Kids Clothing” or “Clothing Accessories.” This way, you can get even more mileage out of your pins by expanding into new niches.

This makes affiliate marketing with Pinterest ideal for those who want to increase their chances of getting traffic organically without the need for paid ads.

Affiliate Marketing with Pinterest Paid Ads

When you’re a blogger or affiliate marketer, it’s important to have a strategic marketing plan for your blog and any products being sold. Pinterest is a great platform for affiliate marketing for a wide range of reasons.

The major benefit of using Pinterest for your content is it’s capability of having a large amount of organic reach compared to other social media platforms such as Facebook, but another great aspect of using Pinterest for your marketing needs is it’s paid advertising platform.

Affiliates who are new to the platform stand to benefit from a basic understanding of how Pinterest advertising is priced, what its benefits are, and how to make a successful advertising campaign.

Paid Media

“Paid media” refers to a digital advertising product most commonly associated with search, social, display, and video. Paid media differs from organic media in that it requires a budget and a strategy to spend wisely. Certain paid media sources can be especially powerful when used correctly, such as when an influencer with a large following is used.

In the case of Pinterest, there are three main types of paid media available: Sponsored Pins, Sponsored Promoted Posts, and Sponsored Promoted Boards.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you sell affiliate products on Pinterest?

Selling affiliate products on Pinterest can one of the easiest platforms to use for making money online. Creating boards and pins related to your content is one of the best ways to get exposure. If you don’t have your own website, Pinterest allows you to provide direct links in your pins to all of your content, which makes the platform ideal for affiliate marketing.

Does Pinterest allow ClickBank links?

The answer is yes. That is, if you are including affiliate links on your site, Pinterest will let you do that. Pinterest allows affiliate links in any way, shape, or form, so even if you want to make money by making your follower’s click on the affiliate links, you are free to do that.

For ClickBank offers, I highly suggest that you create a “landing page” where you can send your traffic to in order to request their email address prior to sending them to your affiliate offer. Just make sure you are complying with the terms, conditions, and policies of Pinterest.

How do I get more Pinterest followers

The easiest way to grow your Pinterest traffic is to start pinning several times per day. This may not be too much for some board owners, but it can work to your advantage in the long run. Start small, set a goal to post at least one pin per day.

You can then increase your pinning to two or three times per day after you’ve established a decent foundation to your Pinterest account. By posting more pins, you’re finding more people are discovering you.

Take advantage of the fact that Pinterest lets you schedule pins to be posted in the future. You can schedule them in large blocks or in small amounts. If you only have time to 15 minutes each day to post, you can schedule one hour in the app such as Tailwinds, which is a popular Pinterest post scheduling app that makes life easier when it comes to consistent pin posting.

In conclusion, if you follow they tips and strategies in this post, you will see success in affiliate marketing using Pinterest. In my opinion, Pinterest is one of the most underrated, under utilized platforms for affiliate marketing. You won’t find the amount of organic reach on any other platform other than maybe Instagram or Tiktok.

Keep pinning and you will eventually see success using Pinterest as a traffic generating source to build your affiliate marketing business and make money online.