START GETTING NEW PINTEREST FOLLOWERS EVERY DAY
Before I started blogging my Pinterest account had zero followers. That’s right. Zilch. I didn’t even know people used Pinterest to get traffic to their blog.
I was very frustrated with Pinterest because I had no clue how to use it to its full potential.
{This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links.}
Now Pinterest is my #1 traffic source. I just hit over 25,000 page sessions within the past 30 days so I could qualify for Mediavine.
I get new Pinterest followers every single day without even trying.
As a new blogger I want to share my success and tips with you because I understand the frustration that comes with having no one follow you, no one seeing and re-sharing your pins and ultimately little to no page views.
Pinterest is free. If you can get new Pinterest followers every day you have the potential to receive thousands of page views a day because their followers might see your pins too!
NEW FOLLOWERS = MORE BLOG TRAFFIC
As you can see in the above photo, I don’t have thousands of followers, but just last week I gained 79 new Pinterest followers. One day I had 22 new people follow me!
To get new Pinterest followers you should:
OPTIMIZE YOUR PINTEREST NAME
My Pinterest profile is over @LuckyMojitos if you want to check it out.
When people see the name Lucky Mojitos what do they think of? Alcohol? Gambling? Well I can tell you what they don’t think of: money tips, recipes, parenting hacks, DIY. You know. All things that I write about here on my blog. See where I’m going with this.
Here is what my Pinterest name looks like in my profile.
This way people who want to get money tips, (food, DIY, etc.) and learn about what my blog has to offer know they should be following me. Don’t make your audience do extra work or guess what you have to offer them.
Go into your Pinterest profile right now and make sure it includes your blog name and several keywords associated with your blog that people would search for. You’ll get new Pinterest followers almost immediately by doing this one thing.
LEARN HOW TO MANUALLY PIN
I used Boardbooster for 1 month. My traffic increased and then they shut down. Story of my life.
After that I decided to dedicate my time to understanding and improving my pinning strategy before using any pin schedulers. After using the trial version of Tailwind they have become my pin scheduler of choice.
I purchased Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies book and loved it. Carly is a super sweet blogger who gets over 200,000 pageviews a month to her blog with her unique and exclusive manual pinning strategy.
Read my honest review and learn how to become a Pinteresting Strategies affiliate.
Carly actively answers questions in her Facebook group (Blogging Like We Mean It). She has a lot of successful, money-making bloggers in her group that also give SEO, traffic boosting tips, and Pinterest help for FREE!
I did my own research on how to get traffic through Pinterest and I mean like private investigator shit.
Carly’s book reveals a very different way to pin using Google Analytics that I have not seen mentioned anywhere else. She does NOT actively promote her book yet she makes a ton of sales because of all the positive reviews it gets.
Here is my own review of Pinteresting Strategies with the pros and cons of the course, my results and Q&A with Carly. (Plus a $5 off promo code!)
CREATE NEW PINS
When I started blogging I created just one pin per post. I pinned it to my relevant boards and that was it. Yea, that’s not how it works.
Now I go back to my old posts and periodically create new pins for them. After I do that I start by pinning them to my own boards first then gradually pin them to relevant Pinterest group boards.
Make pins that are vertical and stand out. (Square pins may become popular in the future, but I haven’t seen them gain much traction yet). I’ve been doing 600X1100 at the moment and it seems to work for me.
In one of my blogging share groups I have seen the WORST pins of my life! They have no description, bad fonts, and even worse graphics.
Don’t worry. I too have been guilty of making many bad pins.
Here are 3 different pins I created for 1 post. See how different they are. Ones I thought would do well didn’t, while others are shared every day. Test it out by adding new pins to your boards and giving it time to gain traction.
Get creative with your wording too.
If you write a post about a vacation spot in Mexico write something like “5 Must-See Places to Visit in Mexico City” versus “My Trip to Mexico City”. The pin should convey a solution to a problem your readers have.
Reds and bright colors stand out.
Make the font big or legible.
Sounds like a no-brainer, but it isn’t. If you aren’t sure if your pin is good ask someone else to take a look and give you their opinion.
Name your pins instead of leaving them as IMG9639.jpg. It’s yet another place to add in a keyword. For this post I changed the pin name to be “how to get new pinterest followers” and also changed the alt text to have more keywords.
ENABLE RICH PINS
When you enable rich pins on Pinterest it puts your name and site information underneath your pins. This makes it easy for other pinners to visit your site and it also pulls the meta description for your pin making it much more likely people will follow you or visit your site.
Melissa Griffin has a very easy tutorial to enable rich pins here. If you prefer video just search for one on YouTube.
Here is one of my pins.
Underneath my name you’ll see the meta description (After you pay…financial track!) that is automatically pulled from my site.
Then below that is my own description for the pin I added (A list of…vacations…).
The benefit of adding the meta description and your own pin description is because you have ANOTHER opportunity to stuff in keywords without sounding spammy. In my case Pinterest will know to show this pin to people who are searching for the term debt-free.
PIN FREQUENTLY
Don’t pin all your pins in one sitting. Pinterest rewards active pinners, regular pinners, and ones that share “new” content.
I pin 3 to 4 different times a day. It varies based on my schedule, but for the most part I pin when I wake up, right before work, at dinner, and before bed.
You’ll get new Pinterest followers by pinning more frequently because your pins will be exposed to new people at different times each day.
TAILWIND & TRIBES
Tailwind is a Pinterest approved pin scheduler. I have been using the free version for a long time and it is such a useful tool for pinners.
Tailwind gives you recommended time slots to pin based on when your audience is most active. This is huge because what’s the point of pinning your pins at 2 PM if very few people are going to see them?
You can check your profile performance, board insights, website insights, pin inspector and more.
Now here is one of the main things that I attribute to helping me get over 1,000 page views every day for the past 10 days. *drumroll*
Tailwind Tribes. Think of these like Pinterest group boards, but better.
You add your pins to the tribe you’ve joined. Most of my tribes are money and financial boards. Then wait for the magic to happen.
Like most Pinterest group boards you share a pin for every pin you add. Each board has different rules. As long as you share pins that are attractive and stand out you’ll be having other tribemates repinning and sharing your pins like crazy.
Tailwind also notifies you when your pin is shared and who pinned it. This is a great feature because you can directly return the favor to the person sharing your pin if you like. It even lets you see the potential impressions you’ll get from that specific repin.
What I like about tribes over Pinterest group boards is I get more repins and in my opinion it’s so much easier to be accepted into a tribe.
If you don’t have Tailwind I suggest you try it out for free and get a $30 credit using this link and explore tribes in your specific niche and their analytic tools. You’ll also be able to schedule pins for free too.
I will update how my traffic does after trying the paid version of Tailwind for a month or two and see how it compares to just manually pinning. If it goes how I think it should, my traffic will double what it is now.
SHARE GROUPS
Share groups are a powerful thing when used correctly. It kills me to have to save other people’s pins to my “general” group board. I get it, not everyone blogs or shares money tips. Pins that don’t fit any of my boards end up on the “Blogger Pin Share” board.
When you create a brand new pin do NOT start with general share groups. First add your pin to your own relevant boards, then relevant group boards, and finally to general share groups. Pinterest learns what type of pin you have based on what boards it is added to.
Let’s say I write an awesome post about “6 Tips to Save Money in the Summer”. I then share it with my Facebook group. They then add it mainly to their general blogger sharing board. Well Pinterest may assume that my pin is about blogging or Pinterest because that’s what it’s being told.
Related posts:
* How I finally started making money blogging
I only share my pins to general group boards after Pinterest has had a chance to identify it with what I want it to be associated with such as finances or money. Some groups will specify what type of board to add the pin to (e.g, food, beauty, DIY, etc.) and that is perfectly fine, but if it’s just a share all pin group you may want to wait until it’s been pinned a few time to relevant boards.
KEYWORD YOUR PINS
I write a lot about money tips and frugal living. When I write my pin descriptions I try to include as many keywords as possible, but in a natural way.
Example:
1) Here are my 10 best money tips to get your finances in order through budgeting. Live a debt-free life by following these frugal ideas and reach your money goals faster. #savings #financialfreedom #hustle
2) Here are my 10 best money tips to learn how to save money, make money, manage money, budget, live frugally, achieve a debt free life and invest. Get your finances in order. #money #finances #debtfree #financialfreedom #budgeting #cash #frugal #thrifty #savings #debt
See the difference.
ADD HASHTAGS
Hashtags are a great way to add in a few more keywords to your pin without sounding forced.
Same as the keywords in your pin description, don’t overdue it and don’t use the same keywords over and over. I try to include somewhere between 3 to 6 hashtags.
JOIN PINTEREST GROUP BOARDS
In one of my Facebook groups there was a big discussion on the power of group boards and whether joining a slow moving board can hurt your Pinterest score.
If you didn’t know, Pinterest looks to see what type of pinner you are. Do you often pin things that aren’t popular, that are spammy or lead to bad sites? That’s an entirely different topic.
Well anyway, you should join group boards that have a good amount of followers. If you only have 100 followers, joining a group with 1,000 followers may be a good start. Big groups means a bigger audience, but it also means pins move through faster. Sometimes smaller group boards are better because your pin will be around longer and be more likely to be pinned.
A good way to see if the board is active is after you pin some pins to it see where those pins are at the next time you pin.
In one of the group board I was in it had been almost 2 weeks and I could still see my pins on the same page. Not good.
Also if you see only the same few people pinning to it that’s not good either.
This is where Tailwind is a good resource because they let you know how well your boards are doing based on repins, virality score, and engagement score.
You’ll get new Pinterest followers by joining group boards because other bloggers within your niche will see what you have to offer and if they like it they’ll follow you.
TAKING A GOOD PINTEREST COURSE
Everyone and their mother has a Pinterest course that they want you to buy. They tout graphs showing huge spikes in traffic and the potential to get thousands of people to your blog every day.
How do you know which is the best course to take?
DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!
Before buying any course or blogging tool I did my research. Ask around, read the reviews.
I learned a lot about Pinterest through Facebook groups, research, Carly’s course and this Pinterest Manual right here.
It is written by Scrivs, creator of BBC (Billionaire Blog Club). You may or may not have heard of it, but I think it’s the best blogging course out there because of all its features, video, and the fact that Scrivs is ALWAYS adding new content. I’ve never seen anyone do that without adding additional charges. I’m not trying to sell you this blogging course (it sells itself), but want you to know more about the person behind this manual. He is the kind of guy that updates and updates his courses to give you the best and most current information.
When Boardbooster died he created a whole new video series on how to use Tailwind. That’s just sick. I love it.
Anyways, Scrivs’ Billionaire Blogging Club Pinterest Manual is 165 pages long. It is currently in its 3rd edition and has a bunch of pictures. I’m a visual person so it works for me.
BBC members get it included for “free” with their club membership, but not everyone has that kind of money. His BBC course has continued to go up in price because it has been underpriced for a long time and I never say things like that..ever. I love me a good deal.
I can almost guarantee you won’t be sorry after buying the BBC Pinterest Manual and at $39 what do you have to lose. You get that money back in the traffic you’ll gain from using Pinterest the right way.
When an update or change is made you get it automatically without an additional charge. It goes into detail how to create a really good pin, getting followers, group boards, and how to put everything all together. If you are a Pinterest novice (or not) this is where you want to start. I recommend it over other Pinterest courses for these reasons: Scrivs updates it, it’s cheap, and he answers questions if you just email him.
START YOUR OWN GROUP BOARD
Starting your own group board is a great way to gain new followers because they have to be following you in order to be invited to the group. Even people who don’t get in will probably follow you because it’s in their niche.
I just started my own secret group board to build up some pins before I open it to contributors. It’s going to be a Money Tips and Tricks board and I really think it’ll do well. Check back for an update on that as well.
BRAND YOUR PINS
I am no Pinterest expert, but I think branding your pins is a great idea for several reasons.
It’s harder for people to steal your pins. Yes people do that and they suck!
It makes your stuff easily recognizable and if your followers like your stuff they’ll pin it because they trust you.
It makes for a cohesive look. Every pin doesn’t have to look exactly the same. Maybe your brand you pin with a logo, through the colors or fonts you use, or with your site name. My earlier pins look so different from my new ones. I don’t delete them though because I don’t want people to have bad links from pins they may have saved.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I get new Pinterest followers every single day just by doing these few things, most of which I only had to do just one time. Enable rich pins, optimize your Pinterest name, start adding keyword enriched descriptions, and join more group boards and Tailwind tribes.
Don’t be discouraged if you only have a handful of followers. It’s only recently that I started consistently getting new Pinterest followers and at the rate I’m going I’ll more than double my followers before the end of the year.
If you have any tips to get new Pinterest followers leave a comment below. I want to keep adding to this list to make it better.
If you found this post helpful please feel free to share it!
This is the inspiration I needed today! Been looking for more ways to increase my Pinterest traffic. Thank you for all the tips!
REALLY good advice – thanks for sharing. I definitely need to focus a bit more on Pinterest – I’ve been very haphazard with it.
I know that Pinterest is really important for bloggers, so I need to spend some time with this. Thank you for the very informative post, I will come back and work through some of these things.
Thanks for the tips! I’m going to put these to use on my own Pinterest.
I’ve been really focusing on my Pinterest lately, so this couldn’t have come at a better time! Thanks for sharing!
Some great tips! I need to get into group boards now!
Pinterest is CLUTCH! I’m definitely going to take the information from this post to build up my following for my website. Bummer about BoardBooster, right? That was the program responsible for me building the following I have for my first website. Definitely need to check out Tailwind now! Thanks for sharing!
Yes! As much as I love not having an added blogging expense I think TW will free up more time for me and I think it will boost my traffic even more. Best of luck!
This here is Pinterest gold! Thank you!!
Glad you liked it. Will be updating it with more information as I learn more.
This post has so many great tips! I will use this all the time, thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome 🙂
I struggle with Pinterest! I need to try your tips!
wow, a lot of info! New to blogging myself and working on my blog & Instagram for now but pinterest is definitely something we need to work on!
Excellent tips and strategies. Thanks so much for sharing your Pinterest success.
I am so lost with Pinterest…so thank you for this! I see I have some work to do!
Thanks for all this info- I pinned to digest later 🙂
These are some great tips! Planning on reviewing this again so I can incorporate some of them.
I needed to hear a lot of this. Pinterest is great, but it takes a lot of work. Sounds like the work is worth it if Pinterest is where your ideal customer is.
Wow, I have so much to learn! This is the most straightforward, helpful post on Pinterest I’ve read. I have some work to do!
That is so nice of you to say 🙂 I tried my best to be as detailed as possible. I’ll be adding more info in the future if I think it’ll help people get more traffic and Pinterest followers so stay tuned.
Excellent article that I needed! Cant wait to see how this strategy works for me.
These are great tips! Pinterest is very confusing at times for me.
Wow! This was some great advice on how to increase Pinterest traffic. Thanks for the info!
This is such a great post! Thanks for all of the tips, and help.
Thank you, thank you, so much! I have been meaning to do a deep dive into Pinterest and start promoting my blog through it – and this is exactly the content I needed! It’s clear and concise, and well laid out. Thank you so much! September will be Pinning month for me!
You’re very welcome. It took me a long time to see some real traffic to my blog. Now that I understand Pinterest more and how to use it I get more visitors in a day now than I did in a month when I first started. Don’t give up and join some FB groups. They offer great tips.
The biggest problem I used to face in maintaining my Pinterest account was my irregularity in posts. I started searching for an automation tool, and then I discovered PinPinterest [com]. PinPinterest is the right tool for those who are unable to give time to their Pinterest account. All it needs is a five-minute setup, and you are free to go, PinPinterest will take care of the rest.
I’m going to have to look into that. I’ve been using Tailwind, but still trying to figure out how to use it to it’s full potential. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve been dabbling in Photoshop and similar programs for years. Nowadays, it has become a necessity for use with making quotes for all social networks including Pinterest. One thing I find frustrating is having an idea in my head of the font color and styles I would like to use over a photo, but then I realize I can’t even read the text — but it’s necessary. People really do have to be able to read the text or why put it on there in the first place? 🙂
So true. Being able to do Photoshop must be a huge plus too. I try to do split A/B testing to see which pins will do better and I’m always surprised. Sometimes ones I think will take off are a flop and ones that are just okay, take off.
If you get a duplicate/second comment, please just post one or the other. I forgot to accept the Privacy Policy before I tried to post. 🙂 I just want to say that I for a long time felt frustrated when designing quotes because I’m limited by what actually looks good with the text. If I have to question whether or not it’s legible enough, I have decided to not use it. Background placeholders do help, but I would like there to be more options. One I’ve been experimenting with is using a glow or outline around the text, but of course, not to complicate things either using a blurred or darkened picture or using text placeholders is the best thing.