In this post, I am going to be breaking down how to make money on Pinterest with a blog. The three ways that I actually make money with my blog as well as Pinterest and how you can do the same for yourself as well.
Method #1 Advertisements
Now, if you’ve been around the internet, even for a little while, you’ve probably seen these pesky little things like ads, which can be anything like display ads, video ads, banner ads, and you’ve probably seen a lot of them just today on YouTube as well.
Now, the way this works is that you sign up with an ad network that is then going to manage and run ads on your blog or website. So, what do ad networks really look for when it comes to deciding whether or not to partner with a blog?
Now, the first thing that ad networks look for, which is usually the criteria of pretty much every ad network across the world is your traffic. Now, traffic equals your page views or the number of visitors that are actually coming to your blog and checking out and reading your blog posts on a regular basis.
The second thing that ad networks also care about is the country where you are based as well as the country where your audience is based. So, the location of your audience, as well as you is going to determine whether or not you are eligible to apply for a certain ad network.
And the third factor that goes into whether or not you can apply for ad network is the niche that you’re in. Certain niches are not really accepted, or maybe are even forbidden on certain ad networks. And depending on which ad network you join, one or the other might be a better fit for you based on your niche and your audience.
So, out of all the three criterias that I mentioned, the number one criteria, which outranks all of the others is your traffic. Now, obviously the higher your traffic, the more premium ad networks that you can apply to and the more money that you can make with advertisements. Now, new ad networks continue to pop up every single day.
However, I’m going to share with you the top ad networks that are most effective for you if you’re a blogger. So, the first ad network, which you probably already know about is called Google AdSense. Now, essentially you partner up with Google AdSense and if your website meets all of the eligibility criteria, then you are allowed to monetize with them.
There are three criteria that you need to meet when applying for Google AdSense. One, you have to be 18 or older. Two, you should have unique and interesting content. So, it shouldn’t be copied or duplicated content from elsewhere on the web. And three, you shouldn’t violate any of the program policies, such as being in a forbidden niche or maybe indulging in practices which Google doesn’t approve of. Now, Google AdSense might be the best place for you to start, but as your traffic grows, you might want to look into other options as well.
So, the next option that I want to suggest is Ezoic or Monumetric, which are both options that you can look for once you’ve crossed 10,000 page views a month on your blog. Now, Ezoic, on the one hand, is free to join, and depending on certain eligibility criterias, which are similar to Google AdSense, you might be able to join completely for free.
However, when it comes to Monumetric, there is a small setup fee that is required for you to actually pay before you get accepted and can start ads with this network. The third ad network that I want to mention is called Mediavine, and that is ad network that I’m currently running my lifestyle blog on. It is by far the best ad network for lifestyle bloggers. But of course, if you’re not in the lifestyle niche, that might not be the best fit for you.
The minimum criteria you need to meet when it comes to Mediavine is that you should have 50,000 monthly sessions on your blog. You should be on a good standing with Google AdSense, which means that your website should not be blocked or banned by Google AdSense.
You should have unique content, as well as you should have content in the lifestyle niche. Mediavine makes anywhere between $1,000 to $2,000 every single month on my blog, depending on the season, as well as the amount of traffic that my blog gets. Now, while that is no small amount, there are also other ad networks that might be a better fit for you depending on your niche.
So, if you have a relatively large presence and you have more than 100,000 page views, then you can apply to an ad network called AdThrive. However, they do require that you have a majority of audience based in the US, which means that the traffic that you’re driving should be coming from the US for you to be eligible to apply for them.
Their other rules are pretty much similar to Mediavine, so you should be in a good standing with Google, as well as have a secure website and unique content. Now, again, depending on your niche, your audience, and your level of traffic, you are the best person to decide which of these ad networks is best for you.
When it comes to getting paid from these networks, usually they work in net 30 or net 65 days. Now, what does this mean? So net 30 basically means that you get paid 30 days after the month is over, so 30 days after the income is earned.
And net 65 would mean that you get paid 65 days after the month is over, which is the case for me in Mediavine. So, for example, for the month of Jan, I will be paid on the 5th of April, which would be 65 days after the month is over.
Now, again, the relationship between traffic and income is pretty direct. When it comes to making money with ads, the more traffic you have, the more you earn. It is as simple as that. By now you might be wondering, “How does Pinterest fit into all of this?” Pinterest is essentially my source for free traffic. Now, of course, Google is another source as well.
However, because I’ve been able to nail down my Pinterest strategy when it comes to driving traffic, I actually get about 80% of my traffic from Pinterest and 20% of my traffic from Google, which is why I attribute most of my ad income coming from Pinterest instead of coming from Google. Not only this, a large majority of my traffic actually comes from high income countries like US, UK and Canada, especially the traffic that comes from Pinterest.
And that means that I make more money from these countries, because there is more advertising budget and spend that is dedicated to these countries versus countries such as, let’s say, India or Mexico.
#Method 2: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing simply means promoting other people’s products in exchange for a commission every time that I actually make a sale. This usually means that I create a blog post, I create reviews, or I create specific landing pages, which have my affiliate links embedded. And then I drive traffic from Pinterest to these links and to these pages, so that I can get more people to buy from these links.
And in return, make me a healthy commission. Step number one here would be to create a blog post that is related to your affiliate product. Step number two would be to add the affiliate links within your product in a way that is most appealing to your reader. Step number three would be to create a pin specifically for this blog post and add the URL, and upload that to Pinterest, so that more people can find this blog post and find your affiliate link as well.
Step number four would be to wait and watch your conversions and see the money roll in. Now, even though this method sounds easy on paper, it isn’t really easy in practice.
Why? Because again, affiliate marketing is also very niche and traffic dependent. So, the more traffic you get and the more likely your niche is to convert in that affiliate segment, the more money you make.
For example, for my lifestyle blog, I actually don’t generate a lot of revenue from affiliate marketing. And to be honest, it is not my favourite method of generating revenue for my blog. The affiliate commissions that I have in my travel and lifestyle blog are pretty low and usually are running in cents, which means that I have to make hundreds of thousands of sales for it to actually amount to a good sum. On good months, I can make around $500. And on bad months, I make only a $100 or $200.
Some of the most common affiliate networks include Amazon Associates, Flex Offers, Share A Sale, Rakuten Marketing, CJ Affiliate. And if you just type in your niche as well as affiliate networks on Google, I’m sure that you’re going to find tons of more affiliate networks that you can use to monetize your blog with.
The great thing about this method is that you don’t need a large amount of traffic to start affiliate marketing. You can start, even if you have low traffic, as long as you have high quality engaged people that are coming to your website and are actually interested in the products that you’re selling, you can start to make money pretty early with your blogging journey.
And that is the biggest last point for using affiliate marketing as a way to generate an income on your blog. Now, how can you use Pinterest to figure out exactly what people want?
That’s probably your next question, right? So, I have a special tip for you. Here’s where you will do something called keyword research. So, let’s say that you are a home decor blogger, and you want to write all about kitchen shelves. So you’re simply going to type in ‘kitchen shelves’ on the Pinterest search bar.
And then you’re going to look at all of the results that pop up. You’re going to see what is the kind of products that people are buying and what are the kinds of posts that people are reading. Then you can come up with post ideas that are most relevant to this particular topic, and figure out a way to embed affiliate links in.
For example, you could create a blog post, such as den kitchen shelves that are under $50 that you can buy from Ikea or 10 hacks for your kitchen shelves, and then include some affiliate links in that post. The sky is the limit when it comes to creating content that is prime for affiliate marketing.
#3 Digital Products
Now, digital products are products that don’t really have a physical copy. So, think of an ebook, a workshop, a template, et cetera. All the things that you can consume online are considered as district products. Now, this method is an advanced strategy, which I wouldn’t recommend to you if you’re just starting out or maybe even in the first one or two years of your blogging journey.
The reason why I say this is because you do need to have some kind of audience built in before people are going to be buying your product. So I would rather that you don’t waste your time creating products that might not have any audience to sell to. The great thing about digital products is that you have high profit margins, it’s very scalable, you don’t have any physical costs, and you can create the product once and sell it over and over again, which gives you a good stream of passive income.
But the downside of this is that it is not easy to sell products without an audience. This means that if you’re just starting out or maybe even in the first year of your blog, I would not recommend jumping right in into products until you’ve built up some kind of traffic and some kind of audience.
And by audience here, I don’t just mean traffic, I also mean having an email list, because you also want to have a second way to reach out to people instead of just expecting them to convert directly on your blog. Think about it, how many times have you gone to a person’s blog for the first time and purchase the product directly from them?
It’s highly unlikely, right? Unless the person was someone that was well-known in the industry and you already knew that they had a product that you wanted to buy. So, I make money through three main types of digital products.
One is my course, which is Pinterest Traffic Explosion, which is my premium high-end program, which teaches bloggers and website owners how to drive massive free traffic from Pinterest using my signature framework.
The second way that I also make money through digital products is with my membership called Pinfluencer Collective, which is a monthly membership where you get access to design templates, as well as training materials and coaching with me every single month for as long as you’re a member.
The third type of digital product that I have is called templates, which are essentially camera designed templates to give you quick wins when it comes to growing your traffic and conversions on Pinterest.
These three types of products make me anywhere between $1,000 to $3,000 a month, depending on the sales and conversions that I’m having on that particular month. Now, where does Pinterest fit in over here as well? So, the same way that you would drive traffic, whether it is for your ads or for your affiliate network, you would also drive traffic to build your email list as well as your audience when it comes to selling your products.
Now, of course, over time, as your audience gets to know you more and more, they might directly go and buy something from your shop, on your blog, or you could also sell it to them via your email list.
So, the way this works is that when I have a visitor from Pinterest who comes over to my website, they read my content, or maybe they watch a video, and then they realize maybe they wanted to know a little bit more from me. They sign up for something on my email list, which is relevant to that content.
Then I build a relationship with them and talk about exactly my journey, as well as what I can offer them when it comes to helping with my products. And eventually, if that is a good match, it leads to a sale. Some people might even skip the email list phase and become a customer directly from Pinterest itself.
But no matter which method you pick to make money on Pinterest, you need to be having two things that are in place. One, you need high quality engaging content, which is targeted and speaks directly to your audience.
And two, you need a solid source of traffic, such as from Pinterest, so that you can actually bring people over to check out that content and convert them into an income. If you have a strong content strategy as well as a strong traffic strategy in place, then you have the right foundation to actually start making money with Pinterest as well as your blog.
Read this next if you wanna learn how to make money on Pinterest without a blog.