power of pinterest – tips & tricks

So I’m a marketing exec by day. Educated, experienced, and all that jazz but for the first 8-10 months of the existence of this blog I didn’t use much of the knowledge I had to work in favor of this blog. To be honest, I started this just to keep our dear friends who live far away updated on the progress of the house renovations. Then one day I posted a crafty thing I made and received more comments than ever. I thought I would throw my craft stuff into the mix, and since then the blog started to evolve. It has been my personal escape for the past year so I never wanted it to feel like “work”. I still don’t.

Well, it is about time to take this a hair more seriously and start implementing some of my knowledge into making this blog better. Not to make it a business but it is a steady hobby now and one that should get some extra loving. So as I do this, I want to share these tips and tricks with you. Many of you are bloggers so I hope you find these tips useful.

Pinterest is the fastest growing site out there. According to Business Insider, Pinterest reached 10 million users in 9 months. That is just incredible. Mind boggling, actually.

Why am I telling you this? Because you can use Pinterest to your favor as a blogger/crafter/DIYer if you know how to harness the power. If you have no idea how to really use Pinterest, please check out this very informative post over at The Blooming Hydrangea: How to Use Pinterest.

Take this an example. I have Celiac disease, which means I cannot eat anything with gluten. Sucks most days, but I when I was first diagnosed almost 4 years ago, I found The Gluten Free Girl. First blog I ever followed. Recently, I pinned her gluten free oreo recipe.

Do you see that? Within a very short period of time, 1355 people have repinned that link, 196 have liked it and 14 people (including myself) have commented on it. Potentially, that is 1355 people who have visited The Gluten Free Girl’s site to check out her recipe. If handled correctly, Pinterest can be a major source of traffic to your blog/Esty site/website.

So these are my tips:

• Watermark your photos. I know it is a pain, and takes away from the photos sometimes but do it if you are serious about what you are posting. 
• Look into adding a Pin It button directly to your posts. 
• Make sure you link directly to the orignal source. Give credit where credit is due. This helps you and helps encourage other pinners. 
• When you have a great project you are proud about, pin it directly from your site. Establish that control from your own blog. Great pins get a ton of traffic. 
• Be descriptive in your descriptions. It helps people find your pin via the search tool. 
• Follower pinners who have similar tastes. When you follow more, more people follow you. As your number of followers increases, the more potential your pins have to go viral. 

And if you are really interested in digging this this further, these are great reads:
This is a very interesting article about how Pinterest is now becoming a top traffic driver for retail sites. It is worth it if you are at all curious about this stuff.
As with everything in this digital age, there are downfalls and things you should consider. This covers how to avoid copyright issues and other pitfalls of Pinterest.

So this is my first post of this type. Let me know if this interests you at all and I will throw one in the mix every few weeks if possible.