How to Make Money on Pinterest: 6 Methods to Implement Today

Looking for new ways to make money online? Pinterest is worth a shot. The platform has 498M users and is growing at a spectacular 7.5% rate each year. Most Pinterest users, called Pinners, are women aged 25–34 looking for DIY inspiration, recipes, and ways to improve their homes, style, and quality of life.

What’s more, a third of Pinterest users make over $100K/year, and 80% of users have discovered a new product or brand through Pinterest.

What does this mean for you as an ecommerce entrepreneur? There’s a large audience out there willing to buy your products—as long as you know how to convert them. Learn how to optimize your conversion rate with these 10 tips. 

But even if you don’t want to sell your own products or services, there are plenty of ways to make money on Pinterest.

In this article, you’ll learn how to make money on Pinterest with 6 different methods. Let’s get to it!

How to make money on Pinterest: 6 ways

Before you implement any of these methods to make money on Pinterest, there are a few steps to take:

• Create a Pinterest business account. A Pinterest business account gives you access to analytic tools, custom audience insights, and Pinterest ads. You’ll also be able to create Idea Pins, video ads, retail catalogs, and more.

• Pay attention to trends. Use the Pinterest Trends tool to discover popular search terms. Based on your findings, create Pin titles, tags, and description text with relevant keywords. This will ensure your content rises to the top. Pinterest’s annual trend prediction report has a staggering 80% success rate.
  Below, you can see a comparison of two trends—‘‘girly summer outfits” and ‘‘old money outfits,” showing us that the first is a seasonal trend, while the latter is growing more consistently.

Source: Pinterest

• Study how the pros do it. Pick a niche product you’re interested in selling and see how others are monetizing it. Click on Pins, analyze designs, and explore destination links to learn from successful strategies. You can download the Pinterest app to browse on mobile.

• Add Pinterest “save” buttons to your website. If you have an ecommerce site, consider adding a “save” button or Pinterest Save Add-ons, so customers can save products or pages directly to their Pinterest boards. This encourages engagement and sharing on the platform.

• Set up an attractive Pinterest page. Ensure your Pinterest page has an eye-catching profile picture, username, display name, and bio. Then, Pinners and potential business partners will know who you are and what topics you cover. In other words, they’ll have a reason to follow your page or collaborate with you.

Now that your Pinterest account is ready for business, let’s talk about how to make money on Pinterest.

1. Post content with affiliate links

Pinterest affiliate marketing is the most popular way to make money on Pinterest. This method involves promoting products from other companies and earning a commission on sales generated through your affiliate links.

Source: Printful

Follow these steps to make money as an affiliate marketer on Pinterest:

1. Sign up for affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, or with individual brands. Once your application is approved, you’ll get unique affiliate links to promote products. For example, you can become an Affiliate Partner with Printful and earn 10% on every order made through your affiliate link.

2. Select high-quality products that align with your niche and target audience’s interests. Discover how to find a niche market for your online store.

3. Use affiliate links in Pins. You can create product Pins that link directly to your storefront, blog post, or landing page with more information. Use tools like Pin Generator to automatically create Pins from the affiliate website and add your affiliate link as the outbound link.

4. Use Pinterest Analytics to track the performance of your Pins. Look for metrics like impressions, clicks, and saves to understand which Pins perform well. Adjust your strategy accordingly. Discover which ecommerce metrics you should be tracking.

Find a list of 45 affiliate programs to partner with today.

2. Advertise your own brand

Advertising your products on social media platforms is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. You can create Pins to promote your own brand and link to your sales page or a particular product. Don’t have a product to sell yet? No worries.

With innovative solutions like print-on-demand (POD) and dropshipping, anyone can sell products online—without any upfront investment.

Both business models offer a pay-per-order system, where you only pay for a product once a customer buys it. Your POD or dropshipping partner then sends the product to your customer directly. You don’t need to handle inventory, packaging, or shipping.

What’s the difference between POD and dropshipping?

POD and dropshipping are both low-entry barrier business models. The main difference is the level of involvement in product development and customer experience.

With traditional dropshipping, you source ready-made products from a third-party supplier that packs and ships them right to your customers. Unless you opt for branded dropshipping, these products are generic. This means that other dropshippers might be offering the same products.

Source: Printful

POD dropshipping with Printful lets you place your own unique designs on 366 premium white-label products. This means you can customize items to your liking and, most importantly, add your branding.

Source: Printful

Developing a solid brand identity sets you apart from your competitors. It helps you build a loyal customer base and leaves a lasting impression on people’s minds.

Learn how to build a brand from scratch and discover Printful’s 7 branding tools to create a consistent look and feel for your brand.

Want to start a POD business and sell your products on Pinterest? Learn how to make money with print-on-demand. Connect your Printful account to Pinterest and start selling today.

3. Post sponsored content for other brands

Many brands are willing to pay influencers for posting about their products or services. To make money on Pinterest with sponsored content, you must build a strong following. Create content that resonates with your target audience and prompts them to click on, share, and save your Pins. The more engagement your Pins get, the more likely brands will want to collaborate with you. 

Check out Pinterest influencers like Oh Joy to see how they create sponsored posts.

Source: Pinterest

Follow these steps to make money on Pinterest with sponsored content:

• Post Pins with valuable content in your niche to get more people to follow you. Maintain a consistent aesthetic for your Pinterest profile. Show off how big your audience is and how much engagement you get. Once you have many followers, you’ll appeal more to brands that want sponsored Pins.

• Contact brands or join an influencer network like Influencity to connect with companies that do sponsorships. Talk money, what kind of Pins they want, all that jazz.

• Ensure the sponsored Pins align with your audience’s expectations, even if a brand is paying for them. Otherwise, you’ll lose the credibility and trust of your Pinterest audience.

• Use Pinterest Analytics to see how well your sponsored Pins do. Share those stats with the brands and show them their money was well spent. More positive stats equals more sponsorship opportunities.

You can earn $500 to $1.5K per sponsored Pin! Consider partnering with a brand that loves your content to represent them consistently.

4. Drive traffic to your blog

Does your ecommerce business have a blog? An easy way to increase your income is to create Pins that link directly to your blog posts. This is not a quick way to make money, but it can bring immense rewards in the long run.

By searching for “home decor,” I saw many links to blog posts on the topic.

Source: Pinterest

To make money on Pinterest through your blog:

• Write new blog posts regularly and create pinnable images that appeal to the audience. Include links to products in your blog post.

• Use SEO strategies to optimize your Pins with certain keywords and enable Rich Pins. Find out more in our Pinterest marketing guide.

• Stay active in Pinterest group boards to bring traffic to your blog. Ensure your content, comments, and linked products are relevant to your niche audience. To avoid any issues, follow Pinterest’s guidelines for community and advertising.

• Combine different blog monetization streams—through Google AdSense, posting affiliate links, or links to your products or services.

Learn more: AdSense is a free, simple way to earn money by displaying ads next to your online content.

Pin regularly to maintain an active presence on Pinterest—aim for at least one Pin a week (the more, the merrier). Don’t worry, you don’t need to manually tune into Pinterest daily because you can schedule Pins up to two weeks in advance.

5. Amazon KDP

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program lets authors self-publish ebooks or paperbacks. You can design journals, coloring books, guides, etc., using basic software like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Then, make stunning covers with Canva, Adobe products, or other graphic design tools.

Source: Amazon

To make money on Pinterest with KDP, try these tips:

• Craft compelling Pins featuring your book cover, key benefits, or attractive quotes to draw people in. If you’re not a designer, use Canva for gorgeous graphics.

• Optimize Pins with relevant keywords so they place higher on Pinterest searches.

• Link directly to your Amazon sales page so Pinners can easily buy your book.

• Post high-quality Pins weekly, respond to your followers, and share content in group boards. Building relationships and staying consistent is key.

By marketing your books on Pinterest, you’ll also increase your traffic on Amazon’s product pages. Amazon will see that your book is getting traffic, so they’ll bump it to the top search results.

6. Pinterest ads

Source: Pinterest

Pinterest allows online business owners to showcase their Pins in home feeds, category feeds, and search results. Ads are flexible, with a cost-per-click system and customizable budgets.

To successfully make money on Pinterest with ads, follow these steps:

• Decide what you want to promote—your products, services, blog, email list, etc.

• Design visually appealing Pins and promote them through Pinterest Ads.

• Use Pinterest’s targeting options to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. This helps ensure your ads are seen by people most likely to engage with your content.

• Determine your ads’ daily or lifetime budget and set bids for cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM).

• Use Pinterest Analytics to track ad performance and make data-driven adjustments to improve results. Improve your ads based on engagement and conversion rates.

While this Pinterest strategy isn’t free, it can potentially boost your profits. With Pinterest ads, you can attract a targeted audience, drive traffic to your ecommerce store, and increase sales.

Make your Pinterest presence count

Pinterest is an excellent social media platform for making extra money online. The best part? Most of these methods don’t need any capital investment. But they all take time and dedication.

Whether you choose to promote other brands’ products or your own, you must post consistently. Stay relevant, create content your niche audience likes, and carve your space on the platform. Use the POD model to offer trending products with unique designs to stand out.

We hope this article inspires you to launch your own ecommerce site and start making money through Pinterest. Let us know in the comments below if we missed any strategies on how to make money on Pinterest. Till next time—stay Pin-terested, stay motivated!