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Now that you have your blog up and running, how do you get traffic to it? For most bloggers, Pinterest is the biggest traffic driver. I highly recommend starting with Pinterest. Especially if all of the different channels are overwhelming you. Below are some newbie blogger tips on Pinterest.
5 Pinterest Tips for the Newbie Blogger
If you’ve already got a Pinterest profile, great! You can use it for your blog and you instantly have followers. I started with around 175 when I set mine up 2 months ago. I’ve increased my followers to 194 as of writing this blog post. Update 2/19/18: I set my business Pinterest account 5 months ago and now have 343 followers.
The beautiful thing about Pinterest is that you don’t need to have a ton of followers to use it to get traffic to your blog. I’ll tell you how. Let’s get started.
Set up your Pinterest Business account
The first thing you’ll need to do to get your profile ready is to set up a business account. It’s super easy & free. A big plus of a business account is that you can apply for Rich Pins. I’ll explain more once we get you set up.
Whether you’re converting your current account or setting up a whole new one, you’ll start here.
Hover over the Getting Started in the menu bar. A drop-down menu will appear and from there you’ll click on the Set Up Your Account button which will bring you to this page.
From here you can select whether you want to start a new account or convert the one you already have.
After your account is set up, you’ll want to completely fill out your profile including your blog’s name, URL, a description, and create a Pinterest URL. Mine is simply www.pinterest.com/tiareneeblog
Congrats! You now have a Pinterest Business account. Let’s talk Rich Pins. After your account is set you’ll need to verify the website, but then you can apply for these pins.
How to set up Rich Pins
What is a Rich Pin?
A Rich Pin is a pin that provides more context about the subject of the Pin. Here is an example of what mine look like:
For Food Bloggers, you can add the ingredients and directions right to a recipe pin. For Products, you can link right to where the product is and include pricing for it. I use articles for mine personally.
I had a hard time understanding how to sign up for Rich Pins so I wanted to show you exactly where to go. To set up Rich Pins go to https://business.pinterest.com/en/rich-pins
First, you’ll have to add some metadata code to your blog. I know, it sounds a little scary but please don’t worry, it’s super simple.
Select whether you want to add articles, products or recipes. Then all you have to do is copy and paste it into the backend of your blog. If you’re using the Genesis Framework, I highly recommend using the Genesis Simple Hooks plugin. It allows me to easily add code to my blog without the hassle of trying to figure out where exactly in the HTML I’m supposed to insert it.
After the metadata is in place you need to validate your blog with Pinterest. This is the really easy part, just go here and enter your URL and click Validate.
Yay! Your business profile is all set up.
Optimize Your Profile & Pins
Your business account is all set up so now we want to optimize it so that it will appear in searches for keywords.
If you’re unsure of what keywords to use, check out the search bar. Type one or two words that are related to the niche of your blog and see what populates. These are generally the most popular so start by using them.
Tia Renee Blog Pinterest Profile
I have some words that describe my blog and what I write about in the name bar. Then in the description, I list out the ways I can help my reader.
Pins
The pin description is one of the important parts of your Pinterest SEO. The idea is to write a compelling description what makes the pinner want to click through to your website. But you want to make sure it flows naturally and doesn’t seem like you’re just throwing a description on there for the sake of it.
Here is an example of one I used on my post about organizing my pantry:
Pinnable images for your posts
If you’re not using images on your blog posts, you’re really missing out. People love to see pretty things.
Pinterest is all about the images. Through a lot of my research, I’ve found that it’s best to have 3-5 “pin-worthy” images for each post.
Most of the viewers on Pinterest are mobile so try to use only vertical Pins.
Another thing is that Pinterest loves white space. The more the better. Below is an example of a Pinterest worthy image I’ll be using for this post:
Depending on your niche will depend on what type of photos you use. It is usually best to use your own photos because no one else will be using them.
Stock photos are another option for getting photos for your blog. There are two types, free stock images, and paid stock images.
But one thing that you should never do is just pull an image off of Google. Images are protected by Copyright laws and you need to have permission to use them otherwise you could end up in a lot of hot legal water.
There are some great free stock image websites out. Pixabay and Pexels are two great places to get free images.
Scheduling Pins & Manually Pinning
In order for Pinterest to recognize you as a super pinner, you need to be pinning a lot. Like every day. When I was researching this, I kept seeing that you should be pinning anywhere from 30 – 50 pins per day.
Scheduling Pins
I know, it seems overwhelming but just hang in there with me because I thought so too. Then I found Tailwind. It’s the official scheduler of Pinterest so you won’t be penalized for using it.
I’m still working my day job, so anywhere I can save time is extremely helpful. I use Tailwind a couple times a week to schedule my pins. I’m still in the learning phase so when I have more experience I’ll post a review and share what I’ve learned.
Manually Pinning
Now don’t knock manual pinning completely. I’m currently going through an ebook that is teaching me the benefits on manual pinning as well.
I’m working on implementing it right now. To start though, I keep my Pinterest app on my phone and I pin whenever I have some free time.
Waiting at the doctor, in the check-out line at the grocery store, or if I’m just hanging out at home are when I use this method. More to come on this with results.
Group Boards
Group boards are where it’s at on Pinterest. I just started requesting to join Group Board this week and so far I’ve only been approved for one. Update 2/19/18: I’m now in 20 group boards. They are so helpful when used in your Pinterest strategy. I’ll be doing a more in depth post on this soon.
What is a group board?
A group board is a board that is started by a particular person/blogger/pinner. It’s like a regular board but it has collaborators on who pin their content to it as well.
Each board has their own set of rules which is usually listed in the board description, along with any requirements to be added, which is usually to follow the owner and the group board, and where to request access.
How do group boards help you?
When you become a member of a group board, all of your followers automatically get added to following this group board. So each time a new collaborator is added, all of their audiences are added to make up a super audience for the board.
Let’s look at my Pinterest for example, if I pin to one of my boards, only my followers see it. Now say I pin that same one to my group board, I’ve put it in front of all of those followers and doubled my reach.
I’m working on building up the amount of Group Boards that I’m in. I am also starting my own group board to help out other bloggers.
Join my Pinterest Group Board
Joining Pinterest Group boards can be a little intimidating so I wanted to help you get the hang of it by providing a group board for you to join and get the hang of it. All are welcome to join.
To join my Pinterest Group board please first follow me on Pinterest here. Then send an email to tia@livingwellmillennial.com to request access to the board. Enter your name, Email on your pinterest account, and Pinterest Profile name. It may me take up to 48 hours to approve you into the group.
