It is bound to happen, nowhere on the internet is safe from receiving mean comments from someone about something. For some people that is literally all they know how to do is to speak hate. And some say you have finally “made it” when you start getting haters.
First off, that is extremely sad. The fact that we have to just accept the mean comments and use them as a milestone of “making it”.
I usually receive nice comments or a lot of spam comments but I also haven’t been out in the spotlight much. I am the more laid back, stand in the back of the room kind of person. Which is hard to be and try and have a blog that brings in a lot of traffic.
Thousands of Page Views
Well, recently I had a pin go viral and it shot up to over 24k impressions in one day. I started to receive around 2,000 more page views a day from that one pin. Once I saw the spike in traffic I, of course, made a few more pins and two out of those three are taking off as well.
At first, it was just one big spike and then it started to trickle but then it picked back up again, thanks to Tailwind, and it has maintained for the last 5 days.
Random Blog Post
Sometimes we plan every detail of a blog post out and other times we just write something up quickly. I like to write as if I am talking to my audience. That can be good and bad.
I tend to ramble even though I feel like it is all relevant.
This blog post that took off was one of those that I just rambled on talking about a fun fact I had found.
Cue the Mean Comments
I didn’t realize it at first until I just happen to see on my pin that there were three comments. I read the comments and two of them were brutally honest about my blog post and how it was too long.
That hurt to read.
The third comment was someone saying “thanks now I don’t have to read this”. So based off of the two comments left that third person decided to not even read my post.
If they didn’t then I’m sure others weren’t either based on the opinion of two people that left a comment.
Take the High Road and Learn From Them
It took me a few minutes do decide not to delete the comments but to learn from them. I had just quickly put the post together. I had already planned on making changes so I went in and cut the fluffy, added a more relevant freebie, and moved around some other things.
I then went back to the pin and commented back thanking them for the constructive criticism (taking the high road). Hoping that would help show that I can handle things with my head held high.
I also hoped that would show anyone else that read the means comments and my reply, that it would still be worth reading to see how I fixed it. So far I have not received any more comments on that particular pin. And as of today, it has over 201k impressions for the month it has been up.
Just Hurtful
On my second popular pin for this blog post, I found three comments on it too. One was cutting to the chase on what my post was about. Another was just stating her opinion about something in my blog post. But the third was just mean.
This isn’t something you can hold your head up high and learn from. I could learn from the first two comments on the other pin saying my post was too long.
I can’t, however, change my freebie because one lady thinks it’s ugly. Her comment was only left to be hurtful. There was no other goal behind it, she was just trying to hurt me.
So how do you handle comments like this?
Delete Mean Comments and Move On
I posted in two different blogging Facebook Groups seeking the advice of other bloggers and I received at least 60 total comments and they all said to delete it and move on.
Almost all of them had been in a similar situation and most congratulated me on “making it” by receiving haters and hateful comments.
It is very sad but it is the reality of life.
People are mean and I’m not sure exactly why but you can’t let them get to you. Which is much easier said than done.
Look at The Facts
I had to stop and look at the facts and remind myself this was one person and one comment on how she didn’t like my freebie. On the other hand, I had over 300 people sign up for that “ugly” freebie. So the numbers show that they all liked it!
I haven’t received any mean comments on the blog post or any emails back after getting the freebie. No one who actually went in, read the post, and downloaded the freebie complained. It was only that one person commenting on how she didn’t like my freebie on one of the pins that had over 100k impressions on it.
I had four pins go viral in one month from this blog post with a total of over 490k impressions combined. So the facts were showing that A LOT of people saw this pin and A LOT of people read the post and over 300 people signed up for the freebie.
I couldn’t let one person’s opinion get to me. (again much easier said than done)
There is a time to learn and take the mean comments as constructive criticism, and then there are times to look at the facts and delete those mean comments and move on.
Don’t Let Mean Comments Stop You
I love blogging. I know that I am not perfect. No one is perfect. But I still love to blog and share my tips and tricks I learn with others looking to start a blog too.
I have got frustrated and wanted to quit so many times but I keep coming back because it is something that I love to do. Whether I am making a bunch of money or no money I will always blog.
However, those mean comments really shook me. I hadn’t had mean comments and to receive those it did make me feel like I should throw in the towel.
Then I took time and really thought it over and I can’t believe I let them get to me like that. This is something I truly enjoy doing and it is my outlet.
If you are a new blogger I am sure you have heard over and over again how important Pinterest is. You may have also heard how many bloggers use Tailwind to help them automatically pin their pins on Pinterest. This blog post is a full walkthrough of how to use Tailwind so you can decide for yourself!
Pinterest
First, let’s back up for one second and talk about Pinterest. If you have not heard that Pinterest is the best way to get traffic to your new blog then I am here to tell you it is.
If you are like most then you probably thought Pinterest was just for looking up your next DIY project or recipes. Each of those images (pins) on Pinterest was actually created by bloggers and website owners.
Bloggers write blog posts and then create pin images (like I did above for this blog post) and then they pin that image to Pinterest linking it back to their blog post.
It is like free advertisement space for your blog. The more you advertise the more traffic you can drive to your blog.
It takes a little bit to wrap your head around the business angle of Pinterest if you are only used to the consumer side. Don’t worry I have plenty of resources to help you with all of that though.
Resources to Get Started
In this post, I am including several resources to help guide you through using Tailwind. Instead of writing a 3,000+ word blog post I broke it up so you can choose the area of Tailwind you need help with! Let’s start with these resources below.
The Pinterest Primer course is a free course by McKinzie Bean. She walks you through how to set up your Pinterest Business account for success. There is more to it than just signing up to Pinterest, so check out her free course to get started off on the right foot!
A major part of succeeding on Pinterest is creating beautiful Pinterest images that entice people to share and click through. I created a free course to help you create beautiful Pinterest images!
Why Tailwind
If Pinterest is free why would someone want to pay for a service like Tailwind?
Well, like I said, the more that you advertise or pin the more traffic you can drive back to your blog. So, unless you are willing to be on Pinterest constantly pinning and repinning all day, a scheduler quickly becomes a necessity.
It is very difficult to manually pin all of your pins. You most certainly can at the beginning but it becomes overwhelming fast. However, that said, if you are leaning more towards manually pinning then this is an awesome ebook to help you with that!
If you are wondering about comparing Tailwind with other schedulers out there to get the best deal then let me help you real quick with that. There are currently no others that are partnered with Pinterest. Tailwind is the only authorized user that works with Pinterest.
There was another called Boardbooster and Pinterest recently made it clear they didn’t authorize them and Boardbooster was forced to shut down.
I’m sure that was a sad day for those that used Boardbooster but a very happy day for Tailwind when all of those users switched to join them.
Tailwind is great about supporting its users. There is also a demo video walking you through how to use their features. Like this video.
Plus all of the other videos they have on their site and YouTube Channel. They are also very good about getting back to you right away in the chat box inside your Tailwind account.
Now that you have an idea of how to use Tailwind let’s talk about some of the features.
Tailwind Tribes
Tailwind Tribes is just like it sounds. It is a tribe of users that are grouped together. Inside each tribe, that you can join for free, there is a page full of pins fellow Tribe members have shared.
The purpose of Tailwind Tribes is to narrow down users into groups that are within the same niche. This gives you access to a bunch of pins to repin that are within your niche.
You want to make sure you are pinning other bloggers pins as well as your own. This is a quick way to find pins to repin. This is also a great way to get your pins repinned too.
Within the Tribe, there is a place where you can chat with other members and it shows you the analytics of how your pins are doing within each Tribe.
Tailwind lets you join 5 Tribes for free and if you want to join more you can upgrade.
You are welcome to join my new Tailwind Tribe – First Time Blogger to get started!
Tailwind Smart Loop
The newest feature Tailwind just rolled out is the Smart Loop.
Tailwind gives you 250 loops for free and again if you want to add more then you can upgrade your plan. The Smart Loop feature is designed to loop your pins for you so you don’t have to keep repinning them.
This may sound confusing at first and you may be thinking isn’t that what Tailwind is already doing?
Smart Loop is for your evergreen pins and for your seasonal pins.
There are two different types of loops you can create. If you have pins that are doing great and you want to continue to drip those throughout all of your boards and groups boards you can set up a loop for those.
Or if you have seasonal posts that you want to start pinning a certain time of the year automatically then you can set those up also.
Let’s say you are a food blogger and you want to start your Halloween recipes to start pinning in the summer (yes in the summer at least) then instead of trying to remember on your own, you can set it up to loop for you.
Same for DIY Christmas projects for craft bloggers and so on!
Tailwind Strategy
Each blogger has their own Tailwind strategy so you can start with the basic and tweak it as you go and see what is working and what isn’t working.
Here is the basic run down that I keep reading from other bloggers. So I have personally done this and I have personally read many blog posts and taken courses that outline a very similar strategy.
Use the 80/20 rule – 80% your pins and 20% other bloggers pins
Pin your pins to your own boards and to group boards
Pin other bloggers pins to just your boards. (The group boards are for advertising your pins)
Tailwind Extension
Tailwind has a browser extension (<–scroll to the very bottom of that page) that you can add to make filling your Tailwind queue much easier. After you install the extension just go to your Pinterest account and once on the main feed click the Tailwind extension (feather icon) on your browser toolbar.
All of the visual pins will now be available to click on to add to your queue. After you click on the ones that you want to add click “go schedule” where you can then select which boards you would like each pin to go to.
This extension can also be used while on a blog or site that you wish to pin something from as well.
Well, there you have it! Using Pinterest and Tailwind for the first time can feel intimidating but don’t worry it soon becomes second nature! And it makes it all worth it when you see that traffic come pouring in! Good luck to you, now go get pinning!
