I’m sure you have heard as it’s been quite a while, but direct affiliate links are no longer banned on Pinterest!
Woo hoo! Seriously! This makes Pinterest Affiliate Marketing a must-have in your online money making strategy.
What this means is that you don’t only have to hope and pray that someone will make it to your blog, and read through your entire blog post, and maybe click on your affiliate link.
Someone can now click on your affiliate link directly from Pinterest and you can receive your affiliate income with a lot less effort.
Now, please keep in mind that this doesn’t mean Pinterest is now a free for all spamming network! You need to stay authentic if you want to make it in this type of business, and creating affiliate pins for everything under the sun won’t convince anyone of your authenticity.
If you are just starting out and you’re not sure how Affiliate Marketing works in general, please check out this post on Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers and Virtual Assistants.
Pin Descriptions
Since you are no longer depending on a whole blog post to convince someone that they should try a product or service, you need to supercharge your pin description.
This is for two reasons.
The first is that you need to have a lot of keyword rich text so you rank higher in Pinterest searches. You are not the only one with Pinterest Affiliate Links, and the further down you are in the search results means the less likely your pin will be seen or clicked on.
The second is that you need to convince someone why the product/service is soo great in your pin description so that they actually click the link. You also want your pin to be shared by other pinners, which they won’t want to do if there is no pin description.
A lot of bloggers/Virtual Assistants/Online Business Managers use a software called the Tailwind App to schedule their own pins and related pins, and it doesn’t allow you to schedule pins that don’t have a description.
PS. You get included specialized training from Tailwind inside my Pinterest Principles Course!!
As a busy entrepreneur, the last thing you are going to do is to start writing pin descriptions for other people that didn’t include one. You probably barely have time to write your own!
So make your pin descriptions juicy, intriguing and SEO rich to increase your chances of getting clicked on!
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Pinnable Images
You know me, I love to design…
Most of the affiliate programs you belong to will have their own set of graphics you can use to promote their products. If they are smart, they will also have pinnable images they will provide you with as well!
Whether they do or not, you still need to create your own pinnable images in your own branding for the same product/service.
Yes…. you should be using both. Increase your chances… duh.
My rule of thumb on this is as soon as I recommend a product or service in a blog post, I automatically create direct Pinterest Affiliate Marketing links for them with the brand’s graphics and with my own.
If you are wondering how to upload Pinterest Affiliate Marketing pins, don’t worry, I cover that down below.
Affiliate Boards
Affiliate boards… huh?
What I mean by that is I have a Pinterest board specifically dedicated to my affiliate pins! It’s called “Tools and Resources for Bloggers and Online Entrepreneurs”
and the description I have for the board is “Tools and Resources for Bloggers and Virtual Assistants.”
Hey! While you’re there, you might as well follow me so you don’t miss out on any great content…. LOL
The nice thing about having a board specifically related to my Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Pins is that I then don’t feel spammy about it. If someone is searching through that board, they know it’s all of the products or services that I recommend!
Also don’t think you are limited to 1 board. If you blog about a variety of topics, you can have several boards for your recommendations on different types of products!
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Disclosures
As we all know, we must do our due diligence and let people know when they are clicking on affiliate links.
Blogging is a business of developing trust and followers, and this will not happen if you are tricking people into clicking affiliate links.
You must disclose that the pin is an affiliate link and make sure that the disclosure is visible and noticeable. Starting off your pin description with #affiliate is a really good way.
Here is the link on what Pinterest has to say about affiliate links, and you can always check up on the FTC regarding disclosures.
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Pins
So now you are probably wondering how to put your first Affiliate link on Pinterest. The good news is that it is pretty freakin’ easy!
1. Go into the board where you want to place the Affiliate pin and click on the “Save Pin” circle with the plus sign as shown below.
2. Here is where you will locate the Pin Image from your computer and add a title, pin description and the URL to where this pin will go (the affiliate destination).
In Pinterest Principles, I go over the best plugin to use to make your affiliate links look great. Apparently, Pinterest does not like the use of bit.ly links and personally, I think they look terrible!
4. Once all of the information has been added, choose the appropriate “recommendations” board and click “Save”. You’re affiliate Pin is now live!
And now you are ready to use Pinterest Affiliate Marketing!
Congrats! You should have everything you need here to start using Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Links!
Did I leave anything out or do you still have any q’s that need answering? Email me anytime and let’s chat about it!
Happy Pinning!