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Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
This post is all about how I make money with affiliate marketing on Pinterest.
When I was a new blogger, I spent a lot of time experimenting with affiliate marketing. I figured out how to make affiliate sales from sharing affiliate links on my blog, but I also started making even more money by promoting affiliate links directly on another channel, which is Pinterest!
These days, I earn $500+ a month from affiliate marketing just on Pinterest.
How do I know that this affiliate income is directly from Pinterest? Because it comes from affiliate products that I only promote on Pinterest — not anywhere on my blog! So I have solid evidence that this works.
If you don’t have a blog or if you want to expand your sources of income beyond your blog, affiliate marketing on Pinterest can be a great way to earn money online.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
In simplest terms, affiliate marketing is promoting products online and earning a small commission when someone makes a purchase through your unique affiliate link.
What kind of companies have affiliate programs? Almost all of them, including Amazon. You can join affiliate programs for travel, clothing, beauty products, home decor, baby products, ebooks, online courses, and more, and earn a commission on all sales you generate.
One way you can make money through affiliate marketing is by writing blog posts that include affiliate links to the products you are promoting. I do this a lot on my blog!
The most important thing to remember is that you should write helpful, valuable blog posts that explain WHY the product you’re promoting is so great and HOW it will help your reader.
But another lesser-known way you can promote your affiliate links is directly on Pinterest. This is one of my favorites because it’s SO easy. No blog posts are necessary, so all you need is your Pinterest account.
How to Use Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
Using affiliate links on Pinterest is actually quite simple!
You will want to either use an existing product image or create your own unique Pinterest graphic for the product you are promoting and write a really good pin description for it. The pin description is really all the space you have on Pinterest to sell the product.
To create a Pinterest graphic, I recommend using the free graphic design program Canva, which contains plenty of free templates where you can add an image and a text overlay. This works better on Pinterest than a plain product image.
Then before you publish your pin, you will want to make sure you include your affiliate link in the pin link, so when someone clicks your pin, they will be taken directly to the sales page for the product. When they make a purchase through your link, you will earn a commission.
For example, let’s say someone uses Pinterest to search for “best planners for moms”. That person likely has a purchasing intention, which means they’re likely to purchase a planner soon.
If you create a Pinterest graphic for your favorite planner, write a great pin description, and link to the sales page for the product using your affiliate link, then YOU will earn a commission if someone clicks your link and decides to buy the planner.
Important Tip: As with sharing affiliate links anywhere online, you must always disclose that you are using an affiliate link on Pinterest in order to comply with disclosure regulations. On Pinterest, this can be accomplished by putting “#ad” or “#affiliate” in the pin description.
Does It Really Work?
Many people wonder if it’s really possible to make money from affiliate marketing on Pinterest. The answer is yes, and I’ve been doing it for several years now with great results.
But I can understand why people might be unsure about it.
Here are a few of the most common misconceptions people have about making money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing, along with the truth about each statement…
You need lots of followers for it to work. Not true at all! Pinterest functions as more of a visual search engine than a social media site, so the number of followers you have isn’t important at all. In fact, I started making consistent affiliate sales when I had fewer than 300 followers.
You need to be a blogger. Nope! All you need is a Pinterest account. Affiliate marketing on Pinterest works for non-bloggers because you don’t have to write blog posts about your affiliate products. Instead, you are just promoting affiliate links directly on Pinterest.
People won’t actually click my link and make a purchase. Did you know that according to Pinterest, 92% of their users use Pinterest to plan a purchase? And 52% of users will purchase something online that they saw on Pinterest? You can absolutely leverage this yourself!
Other Ways to Make Money from Affiliate Marketing
Sharing affiliate links on Pinterest is just one way to make money.
As I mentioned, I also do affiliate marketing on my blog. In my opinion, this is the best way to make money from affiliate marketing because you have more space to write — as opposed to the 500 characters you’re limited to when writing a Pinterest description!
This makes it easier to promote your affiliate links. You can use Pinterest to get traffic to your blog (this is the strategy I use) by linking to your blog posts in the Pinterest graphics you create.
This way, someone will click from Pinterest to your blog post, then click one of the affiliate links in your blog post and make a purchase, earning you a commission.
It’s not as direct as pinning affiliate links right on Pinterest, but it’s a better long-term strategy because you can build up other income streams on your blog.
You also have the potential to get traffic from sources other than Pinterest to your blog posts, creating consistent passive income.
Don’t have a blog yet? Learn how to start one here.
Best Affiliate Programs to Join
Do you want to make money from affiliate marketing on Pinterest?
Before you go, be sure to download my FREE list of 250+ profitable affiliate programs. This will help you find the best affiliate programs that you can join and promote on Pinterest (or your blog!)
Just sign up below, and I’ll send the free list your way.
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