How to Make Money on Pinterest without a Blog

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON PINTEREST

WHAT IS Pinterest?

Pinterest is one of my favorite forms of social media. Think of it as a giant pinboard, filled with everything you could ever dream of. Need a recipe idea for dinner tonight? You can find one on Pinterest – any kind of recipe you could dream of. Trying to figure out what color you want to repaint your living room? Check Pinterest – you’ll find all the inspiration you need. In desperate need of ideas for your four-year-old’s birthday party next week? A few minutes on Pinterest and you’ll be ready with a cake recipe, game ideas, and plans for DIY decorations.

On Pinterest, you save ideas – or “pins” – to boards, so that you can come back to them later. Over time, like with any other social media platform, your feed will become curated to your likes and interests, and you’ll immediately receive inspiration for all of your favorite things upon logging in – but you can always search up specific needs, too. It’s a powerful tool for all areas of life, and one that I always recommend when you find yourself stuck and in need of a new idea.

In addition to saving pins, you also have the ability to create them. Oftentimes, bloggers will create pins and link content from their blogs to the pin in order to drive traffic to their site. It’s a fantastic, free way of marketing yourself and receiving traffic from the people who are interested in your content. But today, I want to show you how you can utilize Pinterest as a creator – and make money from it! – without ever having to start a blog.

HOW MAKE Money ON PINTEREST WITHOUT A BLOG

Note: You may be familiar with Pinterest’s Creator Rewards program. This was a program hosted by Pinterest which incentivized creators to make original idea pins – and to make money from doing so! This was a fantastic program, but unfortunately, the Pinterest Creator Rewards program was discontinued in November 30th of 2022. I was sad to see it go! I will be sure to keep you posted if Pinterest releases new ways to work with creators as we make our way through the new year.

Before we begin, you need to make sure that your Pinterest account is set up correctly. That’s right – there’s more than one way to have a Pinterest account, and without the proper setup, you will not be able to fully utilize all of the fun ways that you can monetize Pinterest!

Like most social media platforms, Pinterest has two account options – a personal account, and a business account. If you have just been using Pinterest to save ideas and inspiration for yourself, you may have your account set up as a personal account. For our needs today, though, you are going to want to make sure that your account is set to being a business account. You can very easily and simply make this switch in your profile settings! Once you do so, you will be on your way to bringing in income from Pinterest.

Having a Pinterest business account also opens you up to a variety of tools and resources that you would not otherwise have available to you. Pinterest does a great job of helping content creators continue to educate themselves and grow, and you gain access to so much information by creating a Pinterest business account. With a business account, you also are able to join Pinterest’s Pinterest Academy, an e-learning platform that seeks to help you better understand and get more results from Pinterest ads. You learn tips and tricks on how to grow stronger Pinterest campaigns, and can earn badges as you go to show just how much you’re improving.

Switching your Pinterest account from being a personal account to being a business account will open you to a whole new world of opportunity – not only resources, but a variety of ways in which you can earn money through Pinterest. Are you excited? Ready to jump in? Keep reading – I am about to change your life!

1. AFFLIATE MARKETING

If you’ve spent any time in the digital space, you know how useful affiliate marketing can be. Affiliate marketing is when you promote items for a brand or person, and receive a commission on any sales that can be traced back to you. This is generally done by using an affiliate link specific to you.

If you’re in the affiliate marketing world and are not currently using Pinterest, you are missing out on a great source of traffic and revenue. There are two ways to use affiliate marketing on Pinterest:

Create a traditional pin using your affiliate link

When you create a standard pin on Pinterest, you are given the option to add a link that the user can follow when they click on the pin. If you are using affiliate marketing of any kind, you want to be regularly creating pins with your affiliate links so that users are landing on your pages.

Here’s what it looks like when creating a pin on Pinterest and adding a link:

Create an idea pin connected with approved affiliate partners

Idea pins are a newer feature of Pinterest – and they’re blowing up. Pinterest is really pushing idea pins at the moment, so they receive incredible view counts and traffic. Idea pins are different from standard pins in that you don’t have the option to add your own links – BUT…

You DO have the ability to tag products within idea pins from approved affiliate programs. Currently, the approved affiliate programs include:

Pinterest is continuing to roll out updates with idea pins, so if your favorite affiliate program is not yet connected, don’t be afraid to reach out! It will probably be approved in the coming months. When you are creating idea pins, go to “stickers” and then “products” to add a link. This will add a clickable sticker to the idea pin that will take viewers to your affiliate page! Be sure to select the button stating that this link is an affiliate link, so that the proper disclosure is included.

P.S. For more information on how to monetize through Pinterest and other social media platforms with Shop LTK, check out my Ultimate Guide on Shop LTK and learn how to make money on the platform.

2. SPONSORED CONTENT

I know what you’re thinking…“Iesha, don’t I have to have a blog to do sponsored content?”

Not necessarily!

Influencers can receive sponsorships just as easily as bloggers can, so you can rest assured that you can create content and be paid for it, even without a blog to your name. Remember: it is possible to make money on Pinterest without a blog!

If you don’t feel that you quite understand what sponsored content is, sponsored content is when a brand pays you to create content featuring or promoting their product or service.

It might not be an overt advertising moment, either. Perhaps a water bottle company will pay you to have their bottle featured in one of your workout videos, or a craft supply company will pay you to use their yarn in your next knitting tutorial.

If you find yourself struggling to land sponsored content deals, don’t be afraid to reach out to companies and brands yourself, especially if they are smaller or newer brands or companies. In a lot of ways, influencer marketing is still a developing industry, and companies do not always realize just how valuable it can be. That’s where you can jump in and show them just how much you can help them to grow – while also supplementing your own income.

You can reach out offering Pinterest-specific content marketing services, or, if you are already accepting sponsored content deals on other platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, you can begin adding in Pinterest promotion to your packages as well. The format is not much different from other social media platforms, so it’s easy to use the same content across multiple platforms or to tweak an Instagram or TikTok post slightly to be optimized for Pinterest.

By adding Pinterest in to your sponsored content deals, you are giving your clients and their business a greater reach while simultaneously making it possible for you to up your rates, because you are offering extra value. It’s a win-win!

3. SELL DIGITAL PRODUCTS ON PINTEREST

If you have yet to dive into the world of digital products, you are missing out on a fantastic source of passive income – and Pinterest is ready to take your digital side hustle to the next level.

Everyone loves digital products because, once you create them, you are good to go – your audience can purchase your products as much as they like, and you’re done with everything on your end. They receive an instant download, and you just get to watch the purchases rack up as you sit back and relax – sounds great, right?

If you aren’t already selling digital products, take the time to brainstorm what you could sell. Are you passionate enough about something to write an ebook about it? Are you great at organizing things, and have go-to rhythms and routines that you could put on paper and sell as worksheets for financial planning, meal prepping, or travel schedule organization? Do you love to put together fun things for kids, and could you turn those into cute printables for teachers or moms? Are you a lover of elegant design, and could you take that love and turn it into greeting cards, wedding invitations, and placecards?

The opportunities and options are truly endless – you just have to take the time to consider what will work best for your passions and skillset.

Once you have found your niche and have created your products and made them available for purchase, Pinterest comes in to boost your sales in a way that you never saw coming.

As we said when talking about affiliate marketing sales, all that you have to do is create a static pin within Pinterest and link it to wherever you sell your digital products. This could be a page that you have built into your site, a link to a print-on-demand service like Redbubble, or a link to another platform, like Etsy or Ebay.

The key to marketing your digital products on Pinterest is creating pins that your viewers feel compelled to click. The amount of information available on Pinterest can be overwhelming, and you have to make sure that your content stands out in order to be seen and engaged with. Remember: most people on Pinterest are there because they want to solve a problem, because they feel stuck, or because they want inspiration on how to become the person that they truly want to be. If you present your content in a way that makes the audience feel that you can help them improve their life or solve a problem, they are more likely to click through to your sales page and eventually purchase your product.

Use high quality, vertical images that are aesthetically pleasing. Don’t be afraid to dress up an image graphically in Canva in order to look more professional! Again, you have to give users a reason to want to click on (and save!) your pin.

Also, don’t overlook the importance of your pin description! Pinterest operates as not only a social media platform, but also as a search engine, and so SEO tips and trick do apply to Pinterest just like they would anywhere else on the web. Take the time to do your research, because it will make all the difference in whether or not your pin makes it into the feeds of the people who will need your content!

4. BECOME A PINTEREST VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Let’s say that, as you have been going through this list of options and discovering different ways that you can be making money on Pinterest without a blog, you have absolutely fallen in love with Pinterest. You already loved the platform – you probably spent way too much time on it, and have an abundance of Pinterest boards based around every topic under the sun – but learning that you can monetize your love for Pinterest really sealed the deal. You understand how the platform works, you have no qualms about spending a ton of time on it, and you want to help brands, influencers, and other businesses learn how they can best use Pinterest to increase their own traffic flow and profits.

Oftentimes, people don’t know how to use Pinterest, or they do not truly understand the value that it can bring to their business. If you have a real love for Pinterest, you can offer to work as a Pinterest VA – or Pinterest Virtual Assistant – managing Pinterest accounts for people or businesses. You can create pins, coordinate sponsorships, monitor traffic and analytics, run ads, and generally grow the account to a point of thriving.

Working as a Pinterest VA is a newer thing, so you should plan to pitch yourself to businesses and people whose work you love instead of just looking for open positions. You might be surprised the reception you get, as most people have not even considered hiring someone to run their Pinterest! I would also suggest seeking out Facebook groups or business groups within your local area to offer your services to them. Again – most people do not realize that they need a Pinterest VA, and it can be the perfect way for you to open up their business to the world of Pinterest.

5. SELL PINTEREST TEMPLATES

This one is last because it doesn’t happen directly on Pinterest, but if you’ve been reading this post and don’t feel like Pinterest itself is for you, maybe it’s time to flex those design skills instead. If you don’t feel like you’re ready to start affiliate marketing, or you don’t like analytics or sales, your creativity could still come in handy.

If you’ve ever used Canva, you’re familiar with their built-in templates that you can use to create everything from invitations to posters and more. What you might not know is that, with a Canva Pro account, you can create those templates yourself – and you can sell them!

Using the “Template” tool in Canva, you can create your very own templates from scratch with Canva’s design tools. I love Canva for its flexibility and ease of use, and even if you would not consider yourself a pro designer, you can pretty quickly learn the ropes of Canva. It’s intuitive and simple! Once you create a template, you are then able to sell it somewhere like Etsy or a Facebook group, and your customer can then take your template and use it for themself within their Canva account.

If selling Pinterest templates sounds appealing, I would encourage you to take some time to scroll through Pinterest and see which pins catch your eye. What about them appeals to you? What makes you want to click through? Draw inspiration from what you yourself love, and then create a template of your own with your own unique flair and style.

Again – we love sources of passive income! Selling templates is a fun and simple way to bring in a little extra cash, and it is something that you can do easily in your spare time. After all, who doesn’t love being able to earn money from something that you created while watching the latest episode of The Bachelor? If you enjoy design, there really is no downside to giving it a try!

I love using Pinterest, and I really cannot overstate how valuable it can be as an online tool, even if you do not have a blog. You can still make money off of Pinterest, and it’s a market well worth taking the time to learn and invest in. I hope that you step away from this post inspired to start making money from Pinterest on your own – because it is absolutely worth the effort.

That being said – blogging has changed my life for the better, and I am always going to encourage you to begin your own blogging journey! It truly will open up doors for you that you could never dream of. So hey – if you decide that you are ready to take the plunge into blogging, know that I am always here with resources, tips, advice, and ideas, ready to cheer you on every step of the way.

Either way – happy creating!