11 Real Ways To Make Money With Pinterest
While it might be easy to think of Pinterest as being nothing more than a spammy swamp of recipes, DIY crafts, and outfits, there's truly more to the social media platform than meets the eye.
I mean, did you know that Pinterest has more than 445 million active monthly users, or that 90% of weekly Pinterest users utilize the platform to make purchasing decisions?
The fact is that Pinterest is a massive social media platform. And this means it's possible to make money on Pinterest if you know how to leverage it.
How To Make Money On Pinterest
There are plenty of ways to make money on Pinterest if you get creative. And many of these methods don't require having a website or even begin a pro at affiliate marketing!
1. Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
One of the main ways to earn money on Pinterest is to promote affiliate products directly with your pins.
Pinterest is a visual, product-driven platform. Therefore, affiliate marketing pairs very well with Pinterest. Affiliate links were previously banned on Pinterest. However, according to updated Pinterest affiliate policies, you can now engage in affiliate marketing on Pinterest.
You just need to refrain from spamming and disclose that you're promoting a product as an affiliate by using #sponsored, #ad, or #affiliate. Then, you should be good to try Pinterest affiliate marketing.
The process of directly linking to affiliate products on Pinterest is pretty straightforward. A quick search of #affiliate on Pinterest brings up loads of results like this pin for a bracelet (note the use of #ad and #affiliate):
Clicking through the link in this example brings you to an ecommerce clothing store. If someone purchases this bracelet within a certain time-frame (depending on the cookie window), this Pinterest user earns a share of the revenue.
It might not be a lot of money considering this bracelet is $9.59, but this particular account is doing Pinterest affiliate marketing at scale.
You can also get started with so many affiliate marketing networks, including Amazon, ClickBank, FlexOffers, and more.
Pro Tip: Create eye-catching Pins on autopilot using AI and the help of Pin Generator!
2. Send Pinterest Traffic To A Blog
Another method to make money with Pinterest is by funneling traffic back to a personal website.
Sending Pinterest traffic to WebMonkey is the main way I actually make money from Pinterest. I host Mediavine ads on WebMonkey that pay me whenever someone visits my website. And I also have plenty of affiliate partners so people from Pinterest can convert on offers.
Mediavine ads alone make $500 a day or more. And WebMonkey earned $272,000+ in 2022, with over 50% of this income coming from Mediavine.
Social traffic only accounts for about 10% of my total traffic, but Pinterest is spearheading the charge alongside my YouTube channel.
Plus, I've just started to put more effort into Pinterest recently. Some bloggers are able to make thousands of dollars a month and drive an incredible amount of traffic to their websites just from Pinterest alone, so there's plenty of opportunity.
And again, I now make all of my pins with Canva and with Pin Generator, my new favorite Pin creation tool. So, you don't need to be a graphic design master to start leveraging Pinterest for your online business.
3. Sell Products With Pinterest
It doesn't matter if you run an Etsy store, a Shopify website, or are into dropshipping: Pinterest can funnel highly interested traffic to your storefront.
For example, I ran a print on demand Etsy store in 2019 where I tried to sell meme mugs. I also tried running my own dropshipping store to test out the model.
In both instances, I was able to create an organic sale by making an Instagram page for my shop and engaging with people interested in my niche. The exact same method can work on Pinterest.
If you sell crafts, clothing, home goods, or anything that seems remotely popular on Pinterest, you might as well create a Pinterest account to start some free promotion. And this is actually a great way to earn passive income with Etsy and similar marketplaces.
It might take a while until you can drive paying customers to your store. But social media marketing can be worth the effort in the long run as you attempt to build a brand.
Extra Reading – How To Make Money With Memes.
4. Create A Niche Affiliate Website
Like blogging, another idea to make money on Pinterest involves creating your own website for the purpose of affiliate marketing via Pinterest.
Don't get me wrong: you can make money on Pinterest with direct affiliate links. However, funneling to your own landing pages provides many benefits.
You have complete control over your own website unlike direct linking. Additionally, you can create valuable content to promote affiliate products, use an email grab to build a list for future marketing efforts, and even grow organic traffic to your site for an additional revenue stream.
Plus, running a high quality site will broaden the range of affiliate networks you can be accepted to, and you can also sell your website later for additional profit.
One example of a great Amazon affiliate website I stumbled across is Roasty Coffee.
Roasty Coffee currently ranks on the first page of Google for plenty of terms relating to coffee makers/buying guides, and the site is also in Mediavine, so it's making some decent passive income.
Between the plethora of Amazon affiliate links and direct partnerships with coffee companies, Roasty Coffee is definitely making a great income (not to mention their ad revenue).
Need Affordable Website Hosting? – I definitely recommend checking out SiteGround Hosting! 🙂
5. Work As A Pinterest Virtual Assistant
If you're looking for an online job, you can always earn money on Pinterest by becoming a virtual assistant who specializes in making and scheduling pins.
I started hiring a Pinterest virtual assistant on Upwork about 2 months ago. In that time, she has been able to transform my Pinterest marketing efforts, growing both my monthly engaged users and total followers quite significantly.
As you can see from these results, she knows what she's doing:
If you know how to grow a following on Pinterest and to provide value to a blogger/business owner, you can definitely make money with Pinterest by offering your services.
Becoming a virtual assistant will take time, know-how, and some practice. However, there are plenty of remote job websites where you can create a social media management listing to attract clients.
I also recommend joining Facebook groups that are relevant to blogging or a niche you specialize in and to pitch clients who may be in need of VA services. And you can also find jobs on Upwork or Fiverr to get started.
Extra Reading – How To Become A Pinterest Manager.
6. Create A Pinterest Shop
Did you know that you can now create a Pinterest shop and sell products from your own catalog on it?
That's right: Pinterest now lets you upload your products into catalogs, tag your products in pins, and even integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify!
You can add up to 50 data sources to your Pinterest shop. Overall, it's an easy way to turn your business profile into an actual ecommerce presence. And this works well for niches like gifts, fashion, beauty, and home decor.
7. Sell Pinterest Graphics & Templates
There's a pretty significant market out there for visually appealing pins and template bundles. I've even seen people selling a monthly subscription service for new Canva pin templates.
Just take a look at what these Fiverr sellers are charging for their Pin design services:
Many of these sellers also have 50-100+ orders, and also offer premium packages to upsell clients on more pin designs/faster delivery times. There's clearly a market here.
So, if you're decent at graphic design and looking for a way to make money using Pinterest, this could be a decent side hustle opportunity.
I suggest using Canva if you sell pin templates for money since this is how many people make their pins. And I've used Canva for years and find that it's incredibly easy to use. My post on how to make money using Canva has even more ideas you can try out!
8. Sell Pinterest Courses
Another common way to make money with Pinterest is to funnel people to a course.
Bloggers do this all the time for blogging guides, but you don't have necessarily have to follow this formula.
I've seen Pinterest courses for all sorts of topics…investing, parenting, making money online, and plenty of individual e-books are quite common. If you're an expert at something and can package the material into a valuable course, there's no reason you can't make some money.
You can use websites like Udemy, Teachable, SkillShare, or many other platforms to package and sell online courses for money.
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money Online For Beginners.
9. Influencer Marketing
While this is probably the least reliable way to make money on Pinterest, this may be an option for you if you have an active and engaged following in a particular niche.
Many brands use social media influencers in their marketing mix. In fact, influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing customer acquisition channels out there.
While this form of marketing is similar to affiliate marketing, payment terms are generally structured differently. An affiliate is paid a percentage of a sale, whereas an influencer can make money for brand promotion/providing awareness and isn't always on the hook for direct sales.
Popular influencer marketplaces include:
Now, many influncer networks prioritize Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but there are still opportunities for Pinterest on many platforms.
Some simply require you to post pre-created content while others may entail creating some sponsored content. However, from what I know about sponsored deals and have been offered personally, you can make some serious money without much work at all for sponsored content.
Whatever the case, I'd recommend checking out some of these marketplaces if you have a robust Pinterest account in a particular nice.
10. Sell Pinterest Optimization Services
Once again, the world of Fiverr is an awesome way to start making money with Pinterest.
There are a surprising number of Fiverr or Upwork sellers offering Pinterest optimization, SEO, or overall account strategy coaching. Plus, they're charging a decent amount.
For example, this one Fiverr seller is selling a Pinterest optimization service for $166:
This seller has over 1,000 orders, and I guarantee that her gigs don't take more than half an hour. Not a bad rate if you ask me.
This Pinterest money making idea is nice because you just need to understand Pinterest SEO. You don't need to be a graphics expert or actually spend time running accounts for your clients.
Extra Reading – The Best Skills To Sell Online.
11. Make YouTube Content About Pinterest
One final idea to make money on Pinterest is to create YouTube content about Pinterest to help other content creators.
Making money on YouTube, while hard, is certainly possible. Plus, there's nothing stopping you from creating a social media-focused channel that talks about growth hacks and best practices for platforms like Instagram, YouTube itself, and Pinterest, of course.
I started a channel in 2020, and since then, it's crossed 15,000 subscribers and now makes $50 a day in advertisement revenue:
Now, I have a personal finance channel, but I do mention Pinterest and other ideas for making money online. Plus, my good friend Ben has over 60,000 subscribers right now, and his channel completely focuses on social media growth.
So, if you're not a huge fan of just sticking to Pinterest, just know that your options as a content creator are pretty open!
Tips For Getting Started
Now that you know how to make money using Pinterest, I want to share a few tips that I've found useful over the years while making money with this platform:
- Try Several Ideas: Personally, I've made money on Pinterest by funneling traffic to a blog and through affiliate marketing. So, don't be afraid to test a few ideas to find what works for you.
- Invest In The Right Tools: I enjoy using Pin Generator and Canva for all my Pinterest marketing needs since they save time. You can invest in this tool or other graphic design tools to help you create stunning pins.
- Hire Extra Help: I work with a Pinterest marketing assistant to make money with my blog. You can always hire help for your online business if you need assistance in turning Pinterest into a revenue stream.
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide on making money on Pinterest helps you make the most out of this massive social media platform.
If you play to your strengths, pick a strategy, and put in the effort, I'm confident you can make money on the internet and diversify your income streams with just a few months of work.
Personally, I use a bit of Pinterest affiliate marketing and the advertisements on my blog to monetize my Pinterest audience. It took me a while to get here and I had to learn (and now pay) to figure out how to make the platform work for me, but there's plenty of opportunity out there.
As long as you actually provide value to your audience and slowly grow a following, more and more opportunities will present themselves. Just be patient, work hard, and keep a few irons in the fire! You'll be making money online in no time!
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