How to Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest For Beginners (Step by Step Guide)

Many content creators on Pinterest share content because they enjoy it, but many also use Pinterest to make money with affiliate marketing.

When it comes to promoting affiliate marketing programs, some people choose to blog, others opt for email marketing, and there is a growing group of people who use Pinterest as their primary platform for promoting affiliate programs.

In recent years, more and more affiliate marketers have been using Pinterest to drive traffic, either by promoting affiliate links directly or by directing users to their blogs. So why has Pinterest become a popular choice for so many affiliates? Today, I’ll provide a detailed explanation and teach you how to use Pinterest to launch your affiliate marketing plan.

Why Use Pinterest to Promote Your Affiliate Links?

Pinterest is an incredibly popular social media platform where people share images, videos, and various creative ideas. Currently, Pinterest attracts 450 million visits each month.

According to research, over 40% of affiliate marketers use Pinterest to promote their affiliate programs. Why do so many choose Pinterest? Here are the main advantages:

Predominantly Female User Base: Pinterest’s user base is primarily female, with many being full-time moms who control household finances and have strong purchasing power. The average household income of Pinterest users exceeds $75,000 per year.

High Purchase Intent: Pinterest users have a strong intention to buy. In fact, 89% of Pinterest users are influenced by pins when making purchasing decisions.

Direct Affiliate Links: Pinterest allows you to directly add affiliate links when posting a pin, whereas other social media platforms might prohibit such links.

Longevity of Pins: Pins on Pinterest have a long lifespan. A pin you posted three or even six months ago can still drive significant traffic to your site today.

User-Friendly: Pinterest is very easy to use. Any beginner can quickly get started with just a bit of learning, and it requires no technical skills.

Completely Free: Pinterest is a completely free platform. You can post unlimited pins without any restrictions, simply by registering an account.

Because of these features, Pinterest has become the go-to platform for affiliate marketers.

If you know me, you’ll know that at least half of the traffic to my dozen or so niche blogs comes from Pinterest. I’m very skilled at driving traffic through Pinterest.

How Much Can You Earn by Promoting Affiliate Links on Pinterest?

One of the biggest questions you probably have is how much you can earn by promoting affiliate links on Pinterest. Let me give you some insights.

I have a neighbor named Stephanie. She’s a full-time mom and a food enthusiast who loves cooking various dishes at home every day.

One day, while visiting her, she complained about the high cost of living as a stay-at-home mom. Relying solely on her husband’s income made it hard to make ends meet. But she couldn’t work outside the home because she needed to care for her kids. So, I suggested she start a blog to share her culinary creations and promote it on Pinterest.

After a few years, she had posted over 15,000 pins on Pinterest, and her account now receives over 7.7 million views each month, driving a massive amount of traffic to her blog. In 2022 alone, her blog generated over $130,000 in profit, thanks to traffic from Pinterest and monetization through affiliate marketing, digital product sales, and online courses.

Pinterest is the primary traffic source for her blog.

Of course, as a beginner in affiliate marketing and Pinterest promotion, she was able to earn six figures annually because she purchased my Pinterest Traffic Masterclass. This eBook helped her attract significant traffic on Pinterest in just one month.

How to Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest For Beginners in 2024

1. Choose Your Niche and Products

Not every affiliate product is suitable for promotion on Pinterest, so choosing the right niche and products is key to success, especially when promoting affiliate products.

Pinterest is a platform primarily used by women, so when selecting a niche, consider what might appeal most to a female audience. Some niches I think are particularly effective include parenting, food, home decor, making money online, and saving money.

Beyond analyzing Pinterest’s audience, it’s also important to choose a niche that interests you. You’ll need to consistently create content around your niche, and if you’re not interested in the topic, it will be hard to keep up with regular updates.

I recommend spending some time researching data on Pinterest to find the niche that best suits you.

If you have expertise in a particular area, and the affiliate programs in that field offer good commissions, and the target audience aligns with Pinterest’s user base, congratulations—you’ve found your ideal niche.

2. Choose and Sign Up for Affiliate Programs

Once you’ve chosen your niche, you’ll need to sign up for affiliate programs to get affiliate links, which you can add to your pins to start earning through affiliate marketing.

There are two main ways to choose an affiliate program:

Join a Brand’s Own Affiliate Program: This involves working directly with the brand.

Join an Affiliate Network: This gives you access to a variety of affiliate offers through a single platform.

Which should you choose?

If you already have a brand in mind and plan to only promote its products on your Pinterest account, then working directly with the brand is the way to go.

If you’re still unsure which brands or products to promote, I suggest joining an affiliate network. These networks offer many brands to partner with, allowing you to choose those with high commissions, strong brand recognition, and a wide range of products to maximize your affiliate earnings.

Some well-known affiliate networks include:

• ShareASale: One of the most reputable and established affiliate networks in the industry, offering over 4,000 merchants in areas like fashion, home, garden, health, and beauty.
• CJ Affiliate: One of the oldest and most prominent affiliate networks, with over 3,000 merchants in categories such as travel, finance, and education.
• Awin: A global leader in affiliate marketing, with over 15,000 advertisers in sectors like retail, telecom, and gaming.

To find more affiliate programs or networks in your industry, you can use search engines like Google or Bing.

3. Sign Up and Set Up Your Pinterest Account

Signing up for a Pinterest account is straightforward; just provide your email, password, and birthdate.

Once your account is created, convert it to a business account. This will give you access to analytics, ads, and other features that can help you succeed on Pinterest.

Next, you’ll need to set up and optimize your profile, including your profile name, bio, and photo. Use relevant keywords to describe your niche and the value you offer to your audience (Google Analytics can help you find trending keywords).

If you have a blog, include your blog URL in your bio. This allows users visiting your Pinterest profile to see your blog link, potentially driving traffic to your site.

If you have a blog, you should also enable Rich Pins, which are enhanced pins that show extra information from your website, such as product prices, ratings, and availability.

Once your profile is set up, you can move on to the next step: promoting your affiliate links.

4. Create Pin Boards

Your Pinterest account may feature a variety of niche content, such as both parenting and food-related pins.

To keep things organized and make it easier for your followers to browse your content, create boards to separate different types of content, like parenting and food.

Creating pin boards is similar to creating categories on your blog.

You can also create multiple boards within a single niche. For example, within food, you could have separate boards for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

5. Publish Pins with Affiliate Links

After creating your pin boards, you can start publishing pins and adding them to the appropriate boards.

Publishing a pin is simple: upload an image, write a title, description, and add your affiliate link, then hit publish.

Since Pinterest is a visual platform, if you want your pins to stand out and attract more viewers, it’s crucial to invest time in designing your images so they can catch users’ attention among the sea of pins.

6. Join Group Boards to Attract More Followers

In addition to attracting users by posting pins, joining Pinterest group boards can help you gain even more followers. Group boards are like mini forums where members share content around a specific topic.

For example, if you run a food-related Pinterest account, you can join food discussion groups where food enthusiasts share their pins. By sharing your pins in these groups, you can expand your audience and attract more followers.

You can also connect with other Pinterest bloggers and marketers, which can help you better promote your pins.

7. Learn Pinterest SEO to Get More Search Traffic

Pinterest SEO is crucial because ranking well for keywords on Pinterest can drive significant traffic and followers to your content.

Pinterest SEO mainly involves the following:

Identify Target Audience Keywords: Understand what keywords your target audience is searching for.

Create Attractive Pins Around Keywords: Design eye-catching pin images, titles, descriptions, and even board names centered around those keywords.

Use Pinterest Trends: Pinterest Trends helps you gain insights into the most searched terms and popular content in various categories, improving your pins’ visibility.

Remember, Pinterest is a visually-driven platform, so pin design is very important.

Clear, attractive images with overlay text featuring target keywords can significantly boost visibility. By combining great visuals with smart keyword usage, you can increase your profile’s reach and effectiveness while driving more traffic to your affiliate links.

8. Best Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Course

A few years ago, when I was a beginner on Pinterest, I searched online for various Pinterest courses, spending over a few thousand dollars on them.

I was disappointed because, despite following the course content, I didn’t achieve success on Pinterest. Eventually, I spent over a year studying Pinterest on my own and achieved great success. Now, my blog earns over $50,000 in profit each month through traffic driven by Pinterest.

Many people saw my success on Pinterest shared through my blog and asked me to create a course to teach them how to succeed on Pinterest.

So, I spent three months writing an ebook called “Pinterest Traffic Mastery,” which is over 400 pages long and fully details how I succeeded on Pinterest. If you’re looking for the best Pinterest affiliate marketing course, I believe “Pinterest Traffic Mastery” is your best choice.

9. Track Your Performance and Optimize

After you start sharing pins, it’s important to regularly monitor your Pinterest account data and affiliate marketing metrics.

You might have posted 100 pins on Pinterest, but only 10 of them performed well in terms of traffic. By analyzing those 10 pins, you can understand which content and products resonate most with your audience, allowing you to gain more traffic and increase your affiliate link conversion rates.

You can find built-in analytics tools in your Pinterest business account to help you with this.

10. Automate Pinterest Tasks

To improve efficiency, consider using third-party automation tools to schedule and publish pins.

Tailwind is the best automation tool for Pinterest, allowing you to set up pin content in advance and automatically post it at specific times, which can significantly boost your productivity.

Before choosing any third-party tool, make sure it’s officially authorized by Pinterest, as using unauthorized tools might result in your account being suspended.

Based on my years of Pinterest marketing experience, automated tools perform just as well as manual posting and can save you time.

However, don’t rely entirely on automation. It’s important to find a balance between automation and personalization to achieve success in Pinterest affiliate marketing.

11. Follow Pinterest Marketing Rules

Following Pinterest’s rules is essential for ensuring your success on the platform. As an affiliate marketer, there are four core points to keep in mind:

1.  Avoid Posting Spam: If you post a large amount of spammy or repetitive content, or if all your content includes the same affiliate link, your Pinterest account may be suspended. Pinterest wants you to consistently create quality content that engages users.

2. Disclose Affiliate Relationships: When adding affiliate links to your pins, disclose these links in your pin descriptions. This builds trust with your audience.

3. Respect Copyright Law: Make sure your pin images and content are original. Don’t use someone else’s content without permission—copyright is important.

4. Follow Pinterest’s Advertising Guidelines: If you plan to run Pinterest ads, be sure to familiarize yourself with their ad policies. Pinterest has specific guidelines on what content is allowed, and following these rules will ensure your ads run smoothly.

Best Niche for Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest

To find the best niche for affiliate marketing on Pinterest, you need to understand the platform’s audience. Pinterest is predominantly used by women, many of whom are stay-at-home moms. Based on this audience, the following niches are ideal for promoting affiliate products on Pinterest:

Parenting, Family life, Recipes, Cooking, Home decor, Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Personal finance, Investing, Making money online, Saving money

These niches align well with Pinterest’s user base, making them more likely to generate better traffic and product conversions.

How to Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest Without a Website

You can easily do affiliate marketing on Pinterest without a website in just two steps:

Join an Affiliate Program: Apply to an affiliate program and get your affiliate links.

Add Affiliate Links to Your Pins: When you create a pin, simply add your affiliate link in the link field.

While you don’t need a website to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest, you’ll notice that most successful Pinterest creators direct traffic to their blogs or websites instead of directly using affiliate links. By directing traffic to your website, you can showcase your expertise and improve conversion rates. I strongly recommend creating a blog or website, which can be done for as little as $50. This small investment can significantly boost your affiliate marketing success.

FAQs

Do You Need Money to Start Pinterest Affiliate Marketing?

No, starting affiliate marketing on Pinterest is free. Signing up for affiliate programs, creating a Pinterest account, and posting pins are all free of charge. The more pins you post, the more followers you can attract, leading to more traffic to your affiliate links and higher earnings.

Does Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest Work?

Yes, it works very effectively. If you search for pins on Pinterest, you’ll find many include links promoting Amazon affiliates, blogs, or e-commerce sites. The widespread use of Pinterest for affiliate marketing proves its effectiveness.

Can You Make Money with Pinterest?

Absolutely. Many affiliate marketers earn money by promoting their affiliate links on Pinterest. I personally run several niche blogs, with at least half of the traffic coming from Pinterest. This strategy helps me earn over $50,000 per month through affiliate marketing.

How to Add an Amazon Affiliate Link to Pinterest

First, get your unique affiliate link from Amazon. Then, when creating a pin on Pinterest, add your Amazon link in the “Add a link” option. It’s that simple—see the image below for a step-by-step guide.

How Many Affiliate Pins Can I Share on Pinterest?

Pinterest does not limit the number of pins you can share. You can post as many as you want, but avoid spamming with low-quality pins, as this might get your account flagged or suspended.

Can I Share Affiliate Links from Multiple Affiliate Sites on One Pinterest Account?

Yes, you can promote multiple affiliate links from different sites on a single Pinterest account. However, make sure the products you promote align with Pinterest’s user interests to maximize your conversion rates. Otherwise, posting multiple affiliate links might not result in high earnings.

Final Thoughts

I believe Pinterest is the best social media platform for beginners to start with affiliate marketing. This is why I have consistently chosen Pinterest as the primary platform to promote my blogs for many years.

Pinterest’s content creation process is straightforward, and users are highly motivated to make purchases.

In addition to driving traffic to my blog, Pinterest pins also attract significant traffic from Google.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, you should definitely focus more on Pinterest. It can be a lucrative platform for making money through affiliate marketing programs.