Saturday, September 7, 2013

Using Pinterest to Boost Blog Traffic

What's that you say? 


A way to finally justify all those countless hours I spend repinning kittens and goulashes and inspirational workout quotes? 


Could it be true?


Dear reader, it is.





Enough fun and games. It's time to start making that Pinterest account start working for you, instead of the other way around.



Pinterest has boomed in the past year. It has grown faster than any other social network in historyLook at this chart:



 That's a lot of numbers which basically say, there's a lot of folks on Pinterest these days, and those folks are spending a lot of time on the website--outmatched only by Facebook (I'll do another post later on how to utilize Facebook for similar purposes). Basically, since it's birth three years ago, Pinterest has exploded into one of the biggest social media networks, taking its place among the top six social sites with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Pinterest Advantages


  • Longevity

    • This is one of the most important advantages of promoting your blog through Pinterest. Though the first few hours after posting will win you the most activity, after that, the longevity of your Pin is almost limitless. I've seen Pins for blog posts still circulating years after the post was originally written. And all it takes is one influential Pinner to find it weeks or months later, and your Pin (and thus your blog) could see a huge resurgence in popularity. That will almost never happen on Twitter, where a Tweet promoting your blog post can vanish in a matter of seconds from everyone's feeds. Forever.

  • Images are more eye-catching than text

    • Pinterest is completely centered on sharing and collecting images. This is where you have a chance to really shine and grab people's attention in a way you can't on Twitter and even Google. By creating eye-catching title-images (which I'll explain more below) and filling your blog posts with interesting, quality photos (which are, of course, non-copyright-violating) you can generate huge traffic numbers (interestingly, this will also boost your Google traffic, through their Image search).

  • Analytics

    • This is a relatively new feature offered by Pinterest. If you register as or convert your current account to a business account (at no charge!), you'll have the ability to track what Pins and blog posts are the most repinned, most clicked, and most recent. Previously, these stats had to be tracked through external sites which tracked all of your Pins, not just those related to your blog. Pinterest's new internal analytics now track just the Pins linking back to your blog--which is immensely, hugely, awesomely helpful information!
    • Here's the thingy that shows you all the cool stats on your shiny new Pinterest business account:



  • It's less abrasive than Twitter, Facebook, etc.

    • Let's face it. We all get irritated by people who do nothing but shamelessly promote themselves through social media all the time. While it's perfectly fine to send a few Tweets or post a link on Facebook about your latest blog entry, doing so all day will only cause your following to dwindle. Use these accounts to exchange genuine discussion with your online community--don't use them simply to shove your brand in people's faces. Using Pinterest not only gives you an alternative way to promote, it feels less abrasive and blatant than some of the other social networks. However, you should still keep self-promotion to a minimum (don't Pin a single post more than once); if your content is attractive, quality work that deserves attention, interest and traffic will increase organically--which is the absolute best way for it to happen.

These are only a handful of the advantages Pinterest offers in terms of boosting blog traffic. Now I want to show you a few ways to ensure that you're connecting these two sites effectively.


How To Share Posts on Pinterest

  • Use Image-Based Titling



      • This is extremely important. Notice at the top of this particular blog post, I've placed an image of the post's title, "Using Pinterest to Boost Blog Traffic." Go ahead. Scroll up. Did you see it? Good. The reason you want to do this is because, well, duhPinterest is an image-based site. Titling your post with mere text won't work, because you can't Pin that. You could Pin an image contained in the body of your post, like I could Pin this picture of a cute African pygmy hedgehog:


        • "Shouldn't that do the trick?" you ask. "Can't you just Pin the cute hedgehog and write "Using Pinterest to Boost Blog Traffic" in the description of the Pin? After all, that should boost traffic. The hedgehog is cute, after all, and who could resist that tiny hedgehog face? Well, not many people could, that's true--but I guarantee you many of those people won't care squat about boosting their blog traffic. They'll Repin your hedgehog, delete your description, and write their own--therefore effectively destroying 100% of that Pin's purpose--which is to generate interest in your blog post, not in cute hedgehogs. By making the image you Pin be the title of your post, 100% of the people who Repin it will do so out of interest in your blog's topic. And hey presto! Mission accomplished. 
        • Here are some other title-images I've done:




       




        •  Remember, this works both ways. A lot of people who reach your blog through Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc., will end up Pinning your posts themselves, either because they're bookmarking it for later reference or because they think your content would be useful and interesting to their own followers (yay for this!) Give them a handy title-image to Pin, and you're certain to keep generating traffic.


      • Make your images eye-catching

        • Sometimes this means going the extra mile to find a great piece of quality clip art (I get mine from either foter.com [which is free] or istockphoto.com [which is reasonably priced for the most part].) Then, be sure your text is:
          • easy to read
          • brightly colored
          • not too busy
          • not too boring
          • relevant to your post (resist using cute hedgehogs for every title-image; if your post is about books, use a book. If it's about how to play the accordion, use an accordion, etc.)
          • large and easy to spot in a Pinterest feed
          • not written in Comic Sans (for the love of cute hedgehogs, please don't use Comic Sans)

      • Post at a good time of day

        • It's easy to fall into the trap of "Oh my goodness this post will like change the world I need to share it everywhere NOW!" Okay. Easy. Breathe, my friend. Find out when your Pin is most likely to be seen. A recent study shows that Pinterest users are most active between 2pm-4pm and 8pm-1am on weekdays and weekends, with the most activity occurring on Saturday mornings.

      • Hold Pinterest-based contests

        • Contests are a popular and effective way to attract new followers to your blog. By hosting a contest that incorporates Pinterest, your traffic and following can increase wildly. I've held many contests here on my blog, but the most popular by far have been the contests which in some way involved creating or sharing Pins. Pinterest has an amazing snowball effect when it comes to this kind of thing. Be sure your contest loops back to your blog in some way (you might create an image with the title and description of your contest that links back to the post with the instructions on how to enter). Here is a Pinterest board with a lot of fantastic examples of ways to promote your contest on Pinterest. 



      After I began using title-images to promote my blog posts, I saw a surge of blog traffic and a boost to my blog's following. It's even boosted the page views of posts I wrote one or two years ago. Now, when I go into my Blogger analytics, Pinterest is listed as the #1 referring site for my blog. It generates over 1/3 of my blog traffic now, and that number is growing--and to top it off, that 1/3 is traffic I was not getting before I began Pinning title-images. So these are new readers, and my stats are telling me that many of them are coming back and pinning even more of my posts. When I first saw this, my eyes popped! It's truly made a difference in the way I blog, and I hope it can help you too.

      Ultimately, the best thing you can do is be genuine, professional, and consistent. Don't make social networking all about pushing your product/brand/self image. Focus on the people, not the product. Your most loyal fans will come out of genuine interaction, not shameless self-promo.

      Okay, enough preaching! =) 

      You guys are awesome. Thanks for reading! If you have questions or want to share ways you've used Pinterest to promote your blog, please leave a comment! 






      18 comments:

      1. Hi Jess! Thank so much for your advice!! My question is: how do you make the image based titles without Photoshop. I can't afford Photoshop. Any suggestions?

        ReplyDelete
        Replies
        1. I'd recommend PicMonkey.com. It's a free, easy, and fun photo-editing program that would do the trick. As far as alternative programs you can download that might be more powerful than PicMonkey, I've heard of such programs as Gimp, Pixlr, and Inkscape, but there are many more. Here's a list that might be helpful! http://gizmodo.com/5974500/10-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-totally-free

          Delete
      2. Thanks for all these great tips, Jessica! I have had my Pinterest for a while one but I never really used it for self-promotion! I do mostly book reviews so I have a header including info on the book, so when I PIN it, sometimes it comes out a bit small.

        ReplyDelete
      3. Useful links thanks! All bloggers are interested in getting more traffic to their blogs, whether they just write casually or are interested in making money as well. While there are lots of different ways, (such as different types of social media) to make potential visitors aware that a blog exists, these all take time.

        ReplyDelete
      4. very useful information thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        watch latest bollywood movies songs news just visit on that link
        http://www.latamangesteroldsongs.blogspot.com

        ReplyDelete
      5. One thing that I believe what made Pinterest boom among other social networking sites is the use of visual images that effectively capture the interest of the netizens. This is really a helpful tool if you want to promote your blogs, especially if it talks about DIYs and crafts. This is also a useful tool for the company to promote their products and services because it gives the customers an idea on what to anticipate beforehand.

        Mamie Patrick @ Focused Local Marketing

        ReplyDelete

      6. Thanks for your comment,Generally this kind of error is occurred,when we are failure of Step 2,please check it again,make sure your face book app account permissions should be public to visibilefacebook

        ReplyDelete
      7. Finicky blog…. This is really glorious blog and your consideration is excellent eminence so excited to appreciate this blog and credit for distribution this blog... Coursework help pros


        ReplyDelete
      8. WOW! This is very Nice and well mention Post Which clear my concept for Drive Free Traffic by Pinterest and I applied this on my way and got amazing results which demo is here that How i got FREE Traffic by Pinterest .

        ReplyDelete
      9. PinPinterest com is the captain of my Pinterest ship. I use it to gain followers for myself as it manages my account on Auto Pilot. After looking for a decent tool on the internet for long, I finally settled for PinPinterest. It has helped me get from almost non-mentionable followers and zero traffic to more than 55k followers on my Pinterest and my site being a traffic-magnet B-)
        Auto Like, Comment, Pin, Repin, Follow and Unfollow..it has all the features one can want in a full-fledged tool and even more... The Pin Scheduler lets me schedule as many pins as I want and has a Speed Control setting that makes sure my account is always ban-safe by imitating a human-like speed and behaviour. The thing I like the most about PinPinterest is its sophisticated algorithm, that runs in the background and detects relevant content for my account and pins only such images.

        ReplyDelete
      10. Welcome to Peter__spell official page of wonder. I cast all dark spell on riches,love portion or love spell,marriage spell, good job, appointment,good luck spell, dating, healing of sickness instantly or disease, success spell, protective spell and any spell of your choice. Contact me give me a clla +2348073141298 to get help with anything you want.contact me today and make things better Email: peterlovespell1@gmail.com

        ReplyDelete
      11. If you have any difficulties with your memo paper writing, just contact the reliable writing service.

        ReplyDelete
      12. Develop a form that will help you with job applications. You'll probably be asked to provide information that you won't remember play bazaar . It is good practice to write everything down and keep this information satta king handy.

        ReplyDelete
      13. Picmonkey is still my go-to app though it offers limited features in the free version.
        However, after Picmonkey I love Pixlr, alternative to picmonkey, for its mult-editing features.
        Besides, its interface is simple and intuitive.
        Thanks for adding this app on this list.

        ReplyDelete
      14. I am here to testify for what DR. ODIGIE did for me. I have been suffering from (GENITAL HERPES VIRUS) disease for the past 10 years and had constant pain and inching, especially in my private part. During the first year, I had faith in God that i would be cured someday .This disease started circulating all over my body and I have been taking treatment from my doctor, few weeks ago I came across a testimony of Mara Clifton on the internet testifying about a Man called DR. ODIGIE on how he cured me from 14 years herpes And she also gave the email address of this man, advise anybody to contact him for help on any kind of diseases that he would be of help, so I emailed him telling him about my (herpes ) he told me not to worry that I was going to be cured!! Well, I never doubted him I have faith he can cure me too,, DR. ODIGIE prepared sent me Healing Oil, Soap, roots and herbs which I took. In the first one week, I started experiencing changes all over me, after four weeks of using his Roots/ Herbs, Oil and Soap, I was totally cured. no more inching , pain on me as DR. ODIGIE assured me. After some time I went to my doctor to do another test behold the result came out negative. So friends my advise is if you have such disease or know anyone who suffers from it or any other disease like *Chlamydia *STROKE *HPV, *HBV, *HIV, *VITILIGO *ALS, *HBP, *EBV, *CANCER, *DIABETES,DERMATITIS etc. you can contact DR. ODIGIE for help via email} drodigiehealthcure@gmail.com or WhatsApp number +2347049458624 

        ReplyDelete