Learn how you can start making money by using Pinterest this week! This beginner’s guide will show you how to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest – no blog or website required! With the best tips for Pinterest affiliate marketing success even for beginners with no blog. Pin your way to passive income or fund your next dream projects with affiliate pins! Take home free planning sheets for bloggers, too! New to Pinterest or want a refresher? Make sure you join the Pinning Jumpstart Challenge!
Spring fashion it was … this time.
I scrolled down the screen and looked at all the lovely things coming up! So many colors, trends, and fashion stores to explore!
And then, boom,… there were those cute maxi skirts for summer! They looked gorgeous!
I ordered them. Yes, “them”. Just to make sure I was well equipped I ordered 2.
Who knew when I would ever see skirts like those again? And they came at a great price! They shipped from England but I didn’t care.
I got to have them!
Actually, I was working as a freelance writer and had a client order that required me to research spring fashion. But instead of making money, I just spent money.
When was the last time you ordered something right out the gate on the interwebs? I bet that happened, right? What if you could turn sides for once and profit from impulse buying? What if you could do that without a website or a product of your own?
Well, you can!
Welcome to the wonderful world of Pinterest affiliate marketing!
Pinterest at first didn’t allow people to use affiliate links. But that has changed. While you still can’t use shortened links (like bit.ly links for example) you can use affiliate links and send people to any place you want!
Instead of sending people to your blog, you can send them to any location in the www. You upload a pin image and hook up any URL you want.
In my course “The Everlasting Pin” I show you many different ways to get pins on Pinterest. For starters, join the “Pinning Jumpstart 5-Day Challenge” and learn how to upload or schedule pins without using paid tools or having a website of your own.
You could also check out this post on how to schedule social media posts for free that has a huge list of free scheduling tools. “Later” is a tool that allows you to schedule up to 30 pins a month for free!
But for now, here is how to upload a pin directly to Pinterest. Click “Create pin” and fill out this scheme:
Now, as you can see, you can add any URL you want. You can use a link that sends people to a sales page of a product you are an affiliate for.
Attention! Don’t forget to disclose you are using affiliate links. Not kidding. Learn more here at the Federal Trade Commission’s website.
Affiliate pins are an easy way to get paid for pinning. You don’t need a blog. You can start right away with just a Pinterest account.
But there are some pitfalls to avoid. (Apart from the disclosure thing)
Some people pick an affiliate offer that seems to be pretty popular. They create nice pins to promote it and send people to the sales page. But zero sales. And hardly any repins/saves.
Why is that? This may be because the product has nothing to do with the topics they usually pin about. So, when choosing a product to promote, it is best to keep it related to your content. It doesn’t have to be, though.
Keep in mind, you still need a board to publish the pin to. Now if you don’t have a board that matches and you go and create a generic one that catches all those non-relevant affiliate links, it can hurt the reach of the pins that go to that board.
But if you do have a board that is performing great and gets lots of repins/saves, then you might want to find an affiliate product that matches this very topic. For example, you have a weight loss board, you could find a related product and pin it to that board.
Could you need some help organizing your blogging workload? Get the free blog planning sheets for subscribers! This monthly planner works great for keeping track of your affiliate pins!
Another mistake I often see is people promoting time-sensitive offers.
Don’t do that. Especially if the offer is only available for a few days or a flash sale. It’s hard to get people to click at the exact right time! Think “Black Friday”, for example. And it’s frustrating for them to click through to an offer that has expired.
The half-life of a pin is about 3.5 months. But I have seen pins of mine take off after someone saved them to one of her boards YEARS after I published them. Pins need some time to pick up steam! They potentially live “forever” so choose a product that is evergreen and available in unlimited amounts. Go with established shops instead of the new kid on the block that might not be around a year down the road.
You can however promote Holiday content! Christmas comes every year and your pins will come up again next time. My Ramadan pins pick up traffic each year, though I don’t promote them myself for years now.
People usually need to hear about an offer several times before they pull out the credit card to buy it.
Does that mean that you can give up on affiliate marketing on Pinterest right away?
No, but choose an “Easy Yes” offer. It should be somewhat affordable, so stay away from $500 courses or $10K coaching programs. Many marketers draw the line of easy at $50 or less.
You can still promote a $500 course. But this is not the perfect product for affiliate sales on Pinterest. Instead, you should write an in-depth review and post it on your blog. Mention the course and how it has helped you to your email readers and on social media and refer them to your review. Add a bonus of yours and offer it to anyone buying through your affiliate link. Plus, optimize your post for SEO as many people will search for reviews before deciding on a course.
For affiliate pins on Pinterest, choose something popular, well-known and trustworthy.
For example, go to Etsy and find a popular digital offer. Etsy is a platform most people are familiar with. So, they’ve already heard about Etsy before, they know how it works, they may even be Etsy customers. And cha-ching… you instantly have several touchpoints built-in! Look out for products labeled “bestseller” or “in the cart of 453,642 people”.
(And yes, Etsy has an affiliate program via Awin.)
Then, Amazon. Who in the online world doesn’t have an Amazon account and shops there? The majority of Internet users shop at Amazon, I would guess. Find a few great picks! I recently found cute office supplies via Pinterest and ordered one from Amazon right away. The sad news is, Amazon has drastically cut affiliate commissions this year and they might do it again. Now their payout doesn’t really justify putting a lot of work in promoting Amazon’s products.
If you still want to give it a try, you could do a page on your blog with your best finds for your target reader or create a Holiday-themed gift guide.
Want another example? Who in the planner world hasn’t heard about “Erin Condren”? So if people use planners and see a new design they LOVE on Pinterest, they might jump on it.
I love watching “Amanda’s Favorites” on YouTube! Those beautiful planners she presents! I ordered an undated weekly planner and later a daily planner just like that. Although I already have a good amount of planners. But with undated ones, you can’t go wrong!
I love planners and stationery! I never have enough to stop buying new stuff.
Those are things you want to be an affiliate for!
Or what about low-ticket courses? Again, choose something that is $50 or less and you have an easy yes. If you promote an Udemy course and it’s on sale when they come across it, they might get it right away. (And Udemy is on sale almost all the time…)
Who wants extra – with your affiliate offer?
Another strategy could be to choose something that comes with extra perks. MailerLite for example is free to use and gives people who sign up through an affiliate link a credit of $20. Who doesn’t like a freebie like that?
Crafting blogger Jennifer Maker has a fantastic course on list-building. She also offers a free ebook to get started with list-building. When people sign up for the ebook through the affiliate link and they later decide to get the full course, affiliates may still earn a commission.
Use these discounts and freebies to promote the product on Pinterest. Who doesn’t like a free gift?? Those are easy to promote.
If you use and love a product you could reach out to the creator and ask for a special offer. Etsy shop owners for example can create unique promo codes for you. Reach out and ask away. If you have many followers on Pinterest or social or you have an email list, mention that!
Will affiliate marketing work on Pinterest?
Ask yourself: Why would a random Pinterest user go and buy a product? They will certainly not go and buy a Porsche just because you have a great pin.
But instead, what would they buy? What was your last instant buy because of Pinterest or maybe a Facebook ad? How much would you spend spontaneously? How can you create an instant desire or FOMO?
After you have chosen the offers, create stellar graphics and write a pin description using keywords.
Then create a pinning schedule that takes the pin to all your related and popular boards. Don’t pin them to your “Best of” board or boards that have different topics. Tweak the image and description before you upload the pin to the next board and don’t save/repin/share it on Pinterest from one board to the other. That might look spammy to Pinterest.
I also recommend you switch to a business account and install Rich Pins. You will be able to review your efforts with Pinterest analytics and create ”rich” product pins. So if you haven’t already done that, do it. It’s free.
Grab 30 done-for-you Canva pin templates and 29 stunning Pinterest-ready images to give you a headstart!
Recap: Getting started with affiliate marketing on Pinterest
Choose an easy yes offer. Ideally, it should be less than $50 and relevant to at least one of your popular boards.
If you use and love a product, you could reach out and ask if there is an affiliate program for it. You can also sign up for a platform like Share-A-Sale where you can find many affiliate programs to choose from.
Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network, Yves Rocher, Fiverr, and ClickBank are other popular options.
Don’t go overboard. Choose 10 products max and then experiment with pin design and description. Track your pinning and the sales you’ve made. After 3 months, keep those that work and swap out the other products with new ones.
If you need a head start download the 30 free Canva pin templates plus the bundle of 29 Pinterest-ready images curated for you! Turn those into pins and start making money this week!
