Pin to Win: Make Money on Pinterest with Affiliate Marketing
Welcome to the ultimate guide that shows how to make money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing.
Do you want to make money while doing something you love? Who doesn’t?! With Pinterest and affiliate marketing, it can be done!
I’ve been making a full-time income from home for the past few years with affiliate marketing. And recently started exploring ways to make money on Pinterest. I was absolutely amazed to see some of my friends’ success stories.
If you’re new to the concept, affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s products or services and earn a commission for each sale. Affiliate marketing can open up an exciting new world of opportunity.
Think of it as being a trustworthy “middle man” in online sales. With every referral that results in a purchase, you could be rewarded handsomely with a commission without ever having to create your own product or service.
Before we dive into how to make money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing, let’s talk about why this works so well!
Why Pinterest is a Great Platform for Affiliate Marketing
Pinterest is a magical platform for bloggers and affiliate marketers alike. Unlike traditional search engines, its visual format lets you create stunning content to quickly draw eyeballs to your pins and boards.
And that’s not all – it can even help build meaningful relationships with customers who love using the site!
Nowadays many people (especially women) look up Pinterest before they make their purchase decisions online – giving savvy affiliates like yourself an amazing chance to provide highly-relevant info that’ll reel them in!
Plus, with the ability to use keywords in all of your descriptions, you’ll be optimizing your content for maximum visibility.
Crafting successful affiliate marketing campaigns on Pinterest isn’t just about knowing how to sell products – the real key is understanding the audience and creating content that’s helpful and inspiring.
Take it from us: focus more on catering to their needs than pushing a sale, and you’ll find success with most of your pins!
Now let’s get into the specifics of how you can make money with affiliate programs on Pinterest.
Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
Here’s my step-by-step guide to getting started with affiliate marketing on Pinterest:
Check Out Our Recommended Pinterest Training
Understanding your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is a crucial first step in any successful affiliate marketing campaign whether it is on Pinterest or elsewhere.
By knowing your audience you can build an amazing strategy that speaks directly to their interests and needs, boosting conversions and sales with ease.
Here are some tips for understanding your target audience on Pinterest:
Conduct research
If you want to capture your target audience’s attention, dive deep into their interests and needs. Analyze the content they engage with – from social media posts to popular hashtags – for trends that will help form an effective content strategy.
Create buyer personas
Crafting the perfect customer is key to developing effective content and promotional strategies.
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer.
Your goal: highly detailed buyer personas that effectively represent your ideal customers, including their distinct interests, demographics, and behavior patterns.
Monitor your competition
Monitor your competition on Pinterest and observe their tactics and strategies. Identify what is working for them and consider incorporating similar tactics into your own strategy.
By understanding your target audience, you can create content and promotional strategies that are relevant and engaging, and increase your chances of success on Pinterest.
Be sure to continually monitor and refine your strategy based on feedback and performance data to ensure that you are delivering the most value to your target audience.
Choosing the right affiliate program
Selecting the right affiliate programs is crucial to the success of your affiliate marketing efforts on Pinterest. It’s important to choose affiliate programs that are relevant to your target audience’s interests and needs, and offer products or services that you can confidently recommend.

When considering affiliate programs, you’ll want to look at several factors such as the commission rate, the quality of the products or services being offered, the reputation of the company or brand, and the support and resources that are available to you as an affiliate.
You need to stay ahead of the curve by polishing your research skills! Digging deep into popular products or services in your niche can help you find useful affiliate programs that align perfectly with what your audience is already buzzing about.
Instead of wasting time sifting through endless options, utilize Pinterest’s search to hone in on trending trends.
Leverage Pinterest’s search tool and explore what content is thriving. After analyzing which offerings have already proved successful, see if any of these could tie in nicely with an available affiliate program – it might just be money-making made easy for you.

Another strategy is to reach out to companies or brands directly to see if they have an affiliate program that you can join. Some companies may not have a public affiliate program but may be open to creating one if they see the potential value in working with you.
Ultimately, the key is to choose affiliate programs that align with your values, provide high-quality products or services, and offer a competitive commission rate.
By carefully selecting the right affiliate programs, you can build trust with your audience, and increase the likelihood that they will make a purchase through your affiliate links.
Creating a Pinterest Account
Creating a Pinterest account is not surprisingly one of the important steps to getting started with affiliate marketing on the platform.
Here’s how you can create a Pinterest account. Depending on when you are reading this some of these steps may have changed. But right now, it goes like this:
- Go to Pinterest’s website at www.pinterest.com.
- Click on the “Sign up” button.
- Enter your email address, create a strong password, and click “Continue.”
- Fill in your age and gender information, and click “Create account.”
- You’ll then be prompted to select at least 5 topics of interest to help Pinterest personalize your experience. You can either choose from the suggested topics or search for your own.
- Once you’ve selected your topics, click “Follow people” to find and follow other Pinterest users who share similar interests. You can also choose to skip this step if you’d prefer to do it later.
- After you’ve followed some accounts, Pinterest will suggest some pins for you to save to your boards. You can save any pins that interest you or skip this step if you’d prefer to do it later.
- Once you’ve completed the initial setup, you can start creating your own boards and saving pins.
It’s important to note that if you plan on using Pinterest for business purposes, it’s recommended that you create a separate business account.
To do this, simply click on the “three dots” icon in the top right corner of your profile, and then click “Upgrade now” to access Pinterest’s business tools and features.
Creating a business account will allow you to access analytics and insights that can help you optimize your strategy and track your performance, as well as enable you to run promoted pins and ads to reach a larger audience.
It’s also important to optimize your profile and boards for affiliate marketing by using relevant keywords and descriptions, creating visually appealing pins that showcase your affiliate products or services, and organizing your boards in a way that makes it easy for your followers to find what they’re looking for.
Optimizing your Profile and Boards for Affiliate Marketing
Next, we need to optimize our profile and boards for affiliate marketing is an important part of your strategy to attract and engage with your target audience on Pinterest. This is how to optimize your profile and boards:
Choose a clear profile picture:
Your profile picture should be clear and recognizable, and ideally, it should be consistent with your brand or niche. If you’re promoting a personal brand, consider using a headshot or professional photo that accurately represents your brand.
Write a clear and informative bio:
Your bio should be a brief description of your brand or niche and should include relevant keywords that your target audience may be searching for. Be sure to include any important details, such as your location or website, and use a call-to-action to encourage people to follow you.

Create targeted boards:
Create boards that are relevant to your niche or industry and that appeal to your target audience. Use descriptive and keyword-rich titles for your boards, and organize your boards in a logical and easy-to-navigate way. Don’t do keyword stuffing, please.
Optimize your board descriptions:
Use detailed and informative descriptions for your boards, including relevant keywords that your target audience may be searching for. Be sure to include a call-to-action to encourage people to follow your board or visit your website.
Use high-quality images:
Use high-quality images that are visually appealing and relevant to your niche or industry. If you’re promoting affiliate products, consider creating custom images or graphics that showcase the product in an attractive way.
By optimizing the profile and boards for affiliate marketing, I have seen many people increase their visibility on Pinterest and attract a larger audience of engaged and interested followers.
BTW, you need to test and refine your strategy over time to see what works best for your brand and target audience.
Creating High-Quality Pins
The next step is to create high quality pins for your boards.
Understanding Pinterest’s algorithm
Over the years I have come to know that while we can make educated guesses based on Pinterest’s publicly available information and insights from experts in the field, there is no way to know exactly how the Pinterest algorithm works as it is not publicly disclosed.
However, through experimentation and observation, we surely can gain insights into what works well on the platform and make informed decisions on how to optimize our content for maximum visibility and engagement.
Pinterest has shared some general principles that guide their algorithm, including prioritizing high-quality content that is relevant to users and providing a personalized experience by showing users content that aligns with their interests and behavior.

By focusing on creating high-quality, relevant content and engaging with your audience, you can increase your chances of success on the platform.
In addition to the general principles, there are some best practices and strategies that are believed to work well on Pinterest, such as using keyword-rich descriptions and titles, creating fresh content regularly, and optimizing your boards and profile for search.
By following these best practices and monitoring your performance metrics, you can gain insights into what is working well for your audience and refine your strategy over time.
While we can’t know exactly how the Pinterest algorithm works, we can use available information and insights to create a strategy that is tailored to our target audience and optimized for maximum engagement and visibility on the platform.
Designing visually appealing pins
With millions of active users, creating pins that stand out is key to gaining traction and increasing our reach on the Pinterest platform.
Fortunately, crafting a visually stunning pin is simple with the right know-how.
Here are some tips to help you create eye-catching pins that will get you noticed on Pinterest:
Start with high-quality images
High-quality, eye-catching images are the foundation of any great pin. Choose images that are crisp, well-lit, and relevant to your brand or topic. Make sure the images are in focus, with good contrast and saturation.
Experiment with colors
Bright, bold colors are an easy way to grab a user’s attention and make your pins stand out in a sea of content.
For example, if your brand’s aesthetic is centered around pastel colors, try using a bold, contrasting accent color to make your pin pop.
One brand that does this well is Anthropologie, which often uses pops of bold colors to make its pins stand out in its followers’ feeds.
Keep it simple and easy to read
Avoid cluttered designs and choose simple layouts that are easy to read and understand at a glance. Use legible fonts that complement the overall design of the pin.
For example, take a look at how Domino Magazine uses simple typography with clean, bold lines to create pins that are both visually appealing and easy to read.
Include a call to action
A clear, concise call-to-action (CTA) encourages users to engage with your pin and take the next step. Use action-oriented language that inspires users to click, save, or share.
Test and iterate
Creating visually stunning pins is an ongoing process. Experiment with different layouts, fonts, and colors to see what works best for your brand and your audience. Analyze your performance metrics and make data-driven decisions to refine your strategy over time.
By using these tips to create visually stunning pins, you’ll be on your way to success on Pinterest in no time.
Whether you’re a lifestyle blogger, an e-commerce brand, or a business owner, creating visually appealing pins is key to growing your reach and building a loyal following on the platform.
Creating Content that Resonates with your Audience
As you know by now, creating content that truly resonates with your target audience is the secret sauce to achieving success on Pinterest.
But, how can you make sure your content hits the mark?
Here are some insider tips to make sure your pins not only get noticed but also engage your audience and drive traffic to your website.
Know your audience like the back of your hand
You need to understand your audience, their needs, desires, and pain points, and what content they are searching for on Pinterest. Research the demographics of your audience, use Pinterest Analytics and monitor comments and engagement on your pins to inform your content strategy.
For instance, if you’re a skincare brand targeting young adults, create pins that focus on natural ingredients and problem areas, like acne and dark spots.
Solve a problem with your content
People come to Pinterest to find inspiration and solutions to their problems. Your content must offer solutions to your audience’s pain points. For example, if you’re a cooking blogger, create pins that provide quick and easy recipes for busy moms who don’t have much time to cook.

Use keyword-rich descriptions
To increase your reach, use Pinterest’s search algorithm to your advantage. Use keyword-rich descriptions that accurately describe your content and use the language your audience is searching for.
For instance, if you’re a fashion influencer, create pins that feature the latest fashion trends, and use descriptions like “Trendy Summer Outfits for the Year” or “Sustainable Fashion Brands to Follow.”
Stay on top of trends
Keep an eye on seasonal and industry trends and incorporate them into your content strategy. By doing so, you show your audience that you’re up-to-date with the latest trends and provide them with timely content.
For example, if you’re a fitness coach, create pins featuring home workout routines that cater to the latest fitness trends and challenges.
Fresh and relevant content is key
Pinterest values fresh and unique content, so create content that’s unique, fresh, and relevant to your audience. Avoid creating pins that are too similar to what’s already out there. Instead, provide a unique take or angle on a popular topic.
For example, if you’re a gardening blogger, create pins that provide tips on eco-friendly and sustainable gardening practices, highlighting the latest techniques and methods.
Using Rich Pins to enhance the shopping experience
If you are ready to take your customer’s Pinterest shopping experience to the next level look no further than Rich Pins! These little gems pack a powerful punch, providing valuable information about your products and making it easy for your audience to shop with just one click.
First off, what are Rich Pins?
Simply put, Rich Pins are a special type of Pin that provides extra details about your product, like pricing and availability. They’re especially useful for eCommerce businesses looking to showcase their products in a clear and attractive way.
With four types of Rich Pins available – product, recipe, article, and app – you’re sure to find a style that works for your brand.
Setting up Rich Pins is a breeze, but it does require some behind-the-scenes work. You’ll need to add metadata to your website, which can be done manually or through a plugin.

Once you’ve got your metadata in place, it’s time to validate your Rich Pins with Pinterest. Then, you’re ready to start creating eye-catching Rich Pins for your products!
When it comes to creating product Rich Pins, don’t skimp on the details. Make sure to include all relevant information, such as product name, price, and availability.
Consider adding a brief but enticing description, as well as a high-quality image that showcases your product in its best light. The more information you can provide, the easier it will be for your audience to make a decision and complete their purchase.
One type of Rich Pin that can be particularly useful for affiliate marketers is the Product Pin. This type of Rich Pin provides detailed information about a product, including the price, availability, and a direct link to the product page where users can make a purchase.
By providing this information in an easy-to-digest format, you’ll make it easier for your audience to make purchases, increasing your commissions in the process.
As an example, imagine you’re an affiliate marketer promoting a line of organic skincare products. By using Rich Pins, you can create Pins for each product that highlight the ingredients, benefits, and where to purchase.
By providing this additional information to your audience, you’ll increase their trust in the products and make it more likely that they will make a purchase through your affiliate link.
All I can say is that Rich Pins are an essential tool for all affiliate and eCommerce businesses looking to take their Pinterest marketing to the next level.
Promoting Your Affiliate Products
Now let’s move on to the next step, which is promoting your affiliate products.
Creating boards around your niche
As an affiliate marketer, it’s essential to create Pinterest boards that align with your niche and the products or services you’re promoting. This not only helps you attract a targeted audience, but also makes it easier for them to discover relevant content and products.
The first step is to identify your niche and the specific products or services you want to promote. For example, if you’re an affiliate marketer for eco-friendly products, your niche could be sustainable living.
From there, you can create boards that reflect different aspects of your niche, such as zero-waste living, natural skincare, or ethical fashion.
When creating your boards, it’s important to think about the interests and needs of your target audience. What type of content would they find helpful or interesting? What questions or problems do they have that your products can solve? By creating boards that reflect these interests and needs, you’ll be able to attract and engage your audience more effectively.

For each board, you should also create a clear and descriptive title that reflects the content and purpose of the board. This will help your audience understand what type of content they can expect to find and make it easier for them to discover your boards in search results.
For example, if you’re creating a board about natural skincare, you could use a title like “Eco-Friendly Skincare Products and Tips.”
It’s also important to regularly add new content to your boards to keep them fresh and engaging. This can include Pins from your own website or blog, as well as content from other sources that align with your niche and interests.
By regularly curating high-quality content, you’ll become a go-to resource for your audience and build trust and authority in your niche.
To make it even easier for your audience to discover and engage with your content, you can also use relevant keywords in your board descriptions and tags. This will help your boards show up in Pinterest search results when users search for related topics or keywords.
If we take our earlier example, let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer promoting sustainable living products. You could create a board called “Eco-Friendly Home Products” and include Pins of eco-friendly cleaning supplies, reusable water bottles, and energy-efficient appliances.
By curating high-quality content and using relevant keywords, you’ll be able to attract a targeted audience and drive traffic and sales to your affiliate products.
Don’t Do Direct Linking
If you are thinking of direct linking to affiliate products think twice before hitting that button.
Direct linking in this space can be a recipe for disaster.
Direct linking involves posting an affiliate link directly on your Pinterest profile without creating additional content or value for your followers. This practice is a violation of Pinterest’s community guidelines and can lead to the suspension or even permanent ban of your account.
It can hurt your reputation: Direct linking is a sales pitch, not a genuine recommendation. It can come across as pushy and damage the trust you’ve worked hard to build with your audience.
You’re missing out on data: By skipping content creation, you miss out on valuable insights into your audience’s interests, behavior, and preferences. This data helps optimize your strategy and create content that resonates with your readers.
No SEO help: Direct linking doesn’t do anything to improve your search engine rankings, meaning potential customers won’t find you easily.
It’s unsustainable: Direct linking generates short-term revenue but won’t lead to long-term success. To build a sustainable affiliate marketing strategy, focus on content creation that provides consistent value for your audience.
Instead, create high-quality content that adds value. This includes informative blog posts, detailed reviews, and how-to guides related to your niche.
For example, if you’re promoting a skincare product, you could create a blog post or video tutorial on how to use the product and how it can benefit your skin. You can then use Pinterest to drive traffic to that content, providing valuable information, reviews, or recommendations that can encourage your followers to make a purchase.
By delivering content that people love and find useful, you can build a loyal audience that trusts your recommendations and is more likely to make purchases through your affiliate links.
Joining group boards to increase visibility
Joining group boards is an effective way to increase the visibility of your Pinterest content and reach a wider audience. Group boards are collaborative boards that multiple people can contribute to, allowing for greater exposure to a larger number of followers.
The first step is to search for group boards in your niche. You can use Pinterest’s search feature to find group boards related to your niche by searching for keywords and selecting “boards” from the drop-down menu.

Another way to find group boards is to look at the profiles of other influencers in your niche and see if they are members of any relevant group boards. You can also use third-party tools like PinGroupie or Tailwind Tribes to find and join group boards.
Once you have identified relevant group boards, you’ll need to request to join them. Some group boards have specific instructions on how to request an invite, such as contacting the board owner via email or filling out a Google form.
Other group boards may have open invitations that allow you to join immediately. It’s important to follow the board owner’s instructions carefully and provide any necessary information or credentials to increase your chances of being accepted.
When participating in group boards, it’s important to follow the board’s rules and guidelines. These may include rules about the frequency and type of content that can be posted, as well as restrictions on self-promotion or affiliate links.
By following the board’s rules and contributing high-quality content, you’ll be able to build relationships with other group members and increase your visibility on Pinterest.
By joining and participating in relevant group boards, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your affiliate products.
As an example, let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer for outdoor gear and equipment. You could search for group boards related to hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities, and request to join them.
By contributing high-quality content and building relationships with other members, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience and increase your visibility on Pinterest, ultimately driving more traffic and sales to your affiliate products.
Creating a pinning schedule for consistent traffic
Creating a pinning schedule is a crucial part of maintaining consistent traffic to your Pinterest account. By pinning at regular intervals, you’ll be able to keep your content in front of your audience and increase the likelihood of engagement and clicks.
Start by determining the optimal number of pins for your account. This will depend on a variety of factors, including your niche, audience, and the amount of content you have available. A good starting point is to aim for 15-30 pins per day, spread out over several hours. This will give your content maximum exposure throughout the day without overwhelming your followers.
Next up, decide on the specific times and days you will pin. The best times to pin will vary depending on your audience’s location and habits.
Generally, you’ll want to schedule pins during peak traffic hours when your audience is most active on Pinterest. This may require some trial and error to find the optimal posting times for your account.
Once you’ve determined your pinning schedule, it’s important to use a scheduler tool to automate the process. There are a variety of tools available, including Tailwind, Hootsuite, and Buffer, that allow you to schedule pins in advance and ensure they go live at the right times.
This can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run, allowing you to focus on creating high-quality content instead of manual pinning.
It’s also important to monitor your analytics to determine how well your pins are performing. This will help you make informed decisions about what content to pin and when, as well as which boards and group boards are driving the most traffic.
Use analytics tools like Pinterest Analytics or Tailwind’s Insights to track your metrics and adjust your pinning schedule accordingly.
Let’s say you’re promoting home decor products. You could create a pinning schedule that includes 20 pins per day, posted at 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm EST.
This will allow you to reach your audience at peak traffic times throughout the day, increasing the likelihood of engagement and clicks.
You could also use a scheduler tool like Tailwind to automate the process and track your analytics to ensure your pins are performing well.
Using promoted pins to increase reach
Promoted pins are a powerful tool that can help you increase the reach of your affiliate marketing efforts on Pinterest. By promoting your pins, you can reach a wider audience than your organic reach might allow, and increase your chances of driving traffic and sales to your affiliate products.
First, decide which pins to promote. It’s important to choose pins that are already performing well organically, as this will increase the likelihood of success with your promoted pins. Look for pins that are driving high engagement, clicks, and saves, as well as those that align with your affiliate marketing goals and audience.
Next, choose your target audience for the promoted pins. Pinterest allows you to target your pins by demographics, interests, behaviors, and keywords, so take the time to research your audience and determine the best targeting options for your campaign.
You can also use Pinterest’s “lookalike” targeting feature to reach users who are similar to your existing audience.
Once you’ve selected your pins and audience, it’s time to set your budget and bid. You can choose between a daily or lifetime budget, and set a bid for how much you’re willing to pay per click or engagement.
It’s important to monitor your spending and adjust your bids and budgets as necessary to ensure you’re getting the most out of your campaign.
Once that is done, monitor your results and adjust your campaign as needed. Use Pinterest’s analytics tools to track your performance and see which pins and targeting options are driving the most engagement and conversions.
Use this information to make informed decisions about your promoted pin strategy going forward, and adjust your targeting, bids, and budgets as necessary to optimize your results.
For example, if you are an affiliate marketer for beauty products you could promote a pin featuring a tutorial on a popular makeup look, targeting women aged 18-35 with an interest in beauty and makeup.
You could set a daily budget of $20 and a bid of $0.50 per click, monitoring your results and adjusting your targeting and bids as needed to optimize your campaign.
Measuring and Improving Your Performance
Congratulations!
You’ve implemented your affiliate marketing strategy on Pinterest, and now it’s time to evaluate your success. The key to improving your performance is to use data to your advantage.
Understanding Pinterest Analytics:
Pinterest provides valuable data about your account, including which pins are performing well, which boards are driving the most engagement, and where your audience is coming from. By utilizing Pinterest Analytics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your overall performance.
Measuring Your Performance with Affiliate Marketing:
In addition to Pinterest Analytics, it’s important to track your affiliate marketing metrics to evaluate your success. Consider using a tool like Google Analytics to monitor your click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated from your affiliate links.
Identifying Areas for Improvement:
Once you have your data, take a deep dive into your performance to identify areas for improvement. Are certain pins or boards underperforming? Are there products that aren’t resonating with your audience? Use this information to adjust your strategy and improve your results.
Testing and Optimizing Your Pins and Boards:
Don’t be afraid to test and tweak your pins and boards to optimize for performance. Experiment with different images, headlines, and descriptions to see what resonates best with your audience. You may also want to consider testing different posting times to maximize engagement.
By measuring your performance and making data-driven decisions, you can continuously improve your Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy and drive more traffic and revenue to your website.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of our ultimate guide on how to make money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing.
As you prepare to embark on your Pinterest affiliate marketing journey, here are some helpful tips and advice for successful outcomes.
First is persistence and patience.
You may not see immediate results, but if you stick with it, you will eventually reap the rewards. It’s important to focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience. It’s not about pinning as many affiliate products as possible but rather creating actionable content that is valuable and interesting.
It’s also essential to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing algorithms of Pinterest so that your approach may be adapted accordingly.
Don’t be afraid to try out new tactics to find out what works best for you in terms of your niche and target market. Utilize creative strategies as a way to stand out from the rest and draw more attention and engagement from viewers.
Overall, with a well-thought-out plan combined with an innovative mindset, you will be able to monetize your Pinterest account successfully and drive massive amounts of traffic over time.
Be sure to keep track of how different posts perform in order to adjust your strategy when necessary.