How to Drive Pinterest Traffic to Your New Blog

by vbmomblog | Mar 3, 2018 | Pinterest Tips, Traffic Tips

How to Drive Pinterest Traffic to Your New Blog

Getting traffic to your blog is a main priority for new bloggers. It is a priority for all bloggers but after you have been in the game for a while you don’t need as much help as you do at the very beginning. So how do you get traffic to your blog at the beginning?

There are different ways but the one that has worked the best for me is Pinterest. The other options are to do keyword research and focus on SEO, guest post on other popular blogs, and join Facebook Groups to promote your blog. Those ways work but they take much much longer.

I focused on Pinterest and I was very surprised at how quickly the traffic came in! I went from 300 page views in December to having 7,000 from January 8th – February 8th! I also gained 117 subscribers to my email list and my new Pinterest profile went up 705.07%!

Here is a view of my Google Analytics.

Here is a view of my email subscribers.

And here is a view of my Pinterest Analytics.

So how did I do that?

Well, I explain right here in this post.

But to go into more detail I will walk you through it right now.

First I created a new Pinterest Business Account

Some bloggers say you can convert your personal account into a business account and others say it is best to just start a new one. I decided to start a completely new one. If you convert your personal account then you need to make all your boards secret, change your profile bio, and I just felt like it was mixing personal and business and decided it was best to just keep them separate. This way if I want to pin fun crazy things to my personal account I can do that. It also means when I am on my business account pinning it is all business related and it doesn’t have personal interest pins in the mix. It just works best for me to keep them separate but that is up to you!

Start a business account here.

I added Rich Pins

Rich pins provide more context about an idea because they show extra information directly on a Pin. There are four types of Rich Pins: app, product, recipe, and article. This just adds something extra to your pins and it is free and easy to enable

I joined some group boards within my niche

The best way to find group boards to join within your niche is to go to a bigger blogger’s account within your niche and look at the group boards they are on. There are some sites that you can go to as well that will show you but I have heard they aren’t as accurate as they used to be. This has worked well for me because you then snowball into more group boards from the people that were on the first group board.

I joined Tailwind

Tailwind is a program that pins for you on Pinterest. It is good to manually pin as well but you can’t be on Pinterest all day every day so that’s where Tailwind comes in. It is $15 a month and worth! Also, you get a free month for anyone that uses your link to sign up so the potential is there to have it free every month! If you want to try it out for free yourself you can use my link right here.

I joined 5 Tailwind Tribes

Tailwind offers (or it did for me) 5 free Tailwind Tribes you can join or you can create your own. A Tribe is a group of people that are all together in one group (tribe) and you all share your pins in that tribe. By doing this it gets your pins in front of people within your niche to share with their followers. There are rules set up by the creator of that tribe, such as a pin for a pin. If you add a pin to the tribe then you share a pin from that tribe with your followers. Again, this just gets you more exposure for your pins.

Update: Join my NEW Tailwind Tribe here!

I made sure I had Pinterest Pin It Button Plugin installed on my WordPress site

If you have WordPress then install the Pinterest Pin It Button Plugin. This will make all of your images on your blog pinnable. So when someone comes to your blog and hovers over your image a Pin It button will pop up.

I created beautiful Pinterest images for each blog post

Having good Pinterest images is very important. That is what catches the eye for them to actually read your pin and then to either repin it or to click through and read your blog post! I made a free Pinterest image course where I walk you through how I create my Pinterest images.

Then I created several more for the same posts

I like to create more that one image per blog post. Everyone has different styles of what they find attractive. If I make multiple images then I am more likely to catch more eyes. I hide the images within my post so it isn’t flooded with those images. This also helps to share the same blog post more times by not having the same image pop up on the Pinterest group boards Tailwind Tribes you are in.

I created boards on my Pinterest account using keywords

I did research on what keywords to use to name my boards. I went to Pinterest and in the search bar I typed in a keyword and then Pinterest gives you options that are most searched using that keyword. For example, if I put in the word blog then it drops down and says “how to start a blog”.

I filled my Pinterest account with keyword descriptions

When filling out your profile description and your board descriptions use as many keywords as you can. Make it flow and describe each board but Pinterest is like a search engine and uses keywords.

I put a keyword filled description on each pin

Same goes for your pin description. Be detailed and explain what your pin is about and again use keywords.

I set up my Tailwind to pin 50 times a day

You can choose how many times you would like Tailwind to pin for your throughout the day. I did the max it would schedule for me which was 50 times.

I set up Tailwind to pin my pins to the group boards on a one-day interval

Within Tailwind, you can make boards lists to list all of your group boards. So, if you want to pin a pin to multiple group boards you can click on the board list that has them all listed instead of having to click on each group board individually. If you don’t change the interval of the pins then you can end up pinning multiple pins onto each group board and possibly break the group boards rules or flood the feed in that group board. That could cause you to be kicked from the group board. To prevent all of that I change the interval to at least once a day. This is a great way to loop your pins as well.

The remaining spots I filled with pins within my niche to fill my boards.

Not only do you need to share your pins but you also need to fill your boards with awesome pins of others as well. This will help you gain followers. The more followers you have the more people that will see your pins.

I did this solid for over 2 weeks and that was my results.

I was very sick with the flu the last week of January and into February. I was sick for about 2 weeks so I didn’t keep up with my blog traffic very well during that time. I still had traffic coming to my blog from those two solid weeks I was able to keep my Tailwind full. I was shocked that it worked so well and also that it continued to work for a while afterward. It started to taper off and I just started working at a school so I haven’t been able to keep it up as well so it has dropped now.

Again, that is only because I haven’t been able to work on it. After getting over the flu I got a sinus infection and ear infection then finally after getting healthy my dog became ill quickly and needed emergency surgery but didn’t make it. The month of February has been a rough one for our family. Now that we are into March I plan to refocus and get those numbers back up! I can’t wait to show you the results!

How do you drive traffic to your blog?

Vanessa

How to Create Pinterest Images in a Few Simple Steps

by vbmomblog | Feb 24, 2018 | Pinterest Tips

How to Create Pinterest Images in a Few Simple Steps

Creating Pinterest images use to sound so hard to me. When I first started blogging I remember thinking that I had no idea what I was doing and it was going to be so hard to learn. I had no idea that I would actually come to love it and it would be one of my favorite parts of blogging!

I did have some help from other bloggers but now that I have learned the basics I have been able to come up with a few tricks myself!

There are many different ways to create Pinterest images and I think that is half of the fun as well. You aren’t stuck with one program that you don’t like, you can choose which one works best for you. Or you can use them all like I do! It depends on what I want to make on which program I will use.

I use to be worried that my images wouldn’t be eye-catching or they would not look professional and now it is like second nature to get in there and design them just how I want!

FREE STOCK IMAGES

There are several different places you can get stock images from. Not all of them are free, in fact, most of them aren’t. The best place I have found is Pexels.com. They have free images where you can donate if you would like. It says on there that images can be used for personal or commercial use. There are so many different choices on there too for photos.

EDITING IMAGES

Once again there are many different programs you can use to edit images. The one that I use is PicMonkey. They do have a free trial but eventually, they want you to pay to use them. After using PicMonkey I can tell you it is worth the small amount to be able to edit pictures so quickly!

I like to take my images that I got from Pexels and edit them before I even start using them for my pins. The main way that I edit the pictures is that even though the background may be white when you add it to your Pinterest Template that has a white background you can see the difference in color. I will then go in and edit that to match.

You may be thinking, “Well, are you allowed to edit the pictures?” Because I know I was! And yes, you can edit the pictures don’t worry!

MAKING MULTIPLE IMAGES OUT OF ONE

To save myself from always going back to look for more pictures to use for my Pinterest images, I like to make several different images out of one. I will find one that I like. Go to PicMonkey and edit the picture, then I will move that picture around and make multiple different images out of that one.

The best way for me to explain it is to watch how I do it in my FREE Pinterest Image Course.

I walk through everything I am talking about in this post, in my course. By making the different images out of one, it saves me so much time and keeps my pins all having the same theme/look to them. Some say to change it up which I do but others say it is good to have a certain “style” you stick with. Elna with Twins Mommy is very good about her pins all having a certain look to them. When I am on Pinterest pinning I will come across one of her pins and I will know it is hers before even looking.

This helps do that for me. I have a certain style that I feel stands out but at the same time, I am able to play around with each pin and make it unique.

THREE PROGRAMS TO USE

There are three programs I use to make my Pinterest images. As you know one of them is PicMonkey, the other is Canva, and the last one is PowerPoint. I not only use PicMonkey to edit my pictures and create multiple images out of one, I also use it to add the words and turn a stock image into my own personal pin image.

Canva is a fun program that I use to not like so much but now I love it. It is free and it saves your past images on there for you so I like to look back at everything I have created. I also like how it is very quick to add the words and design to the pin. Canva has templates set up for you as well to be able to make much more than just Pinterest images!

PowerPoint is not one that most people would think of. I love PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel so when I came across a blogger that used PowerPoint for her images I had to learn what she did. She taught me a lot and I go over those things in the FREE Pinterest Image Course.

One of the best ways to use PowerPoint is to show off a freebie you may be offering to your readers. Like this for example:

I made the “pile of papers” in PowerPoint. I then took that image and made the actual pin in Canva. Or like this one:

This image I made in PowerPoint as well. Then all you have to do is put it on a long pin background and tada! You got yourself a pin for Pinterest!

The fun part is the creative part. When you take the image and move it around to just how you like it and envision how the words are going to look on the pin. Then adding the words, changing the font, changing the color of the words, maybe making them bigger or small, trying to catch the readers attention. I will change a pin around to make it pop and look appealing to the viewers on Pinterest. I want it to catch their attention for being easy on the eyes and they want to save it and hopefully click through.

I don’t want to catch their attention by it being ugly because they are not going to want to repin in…well I know I don’t when I am on Pinterest.

Think about your style and what you like and make what you think is good. That is the best way to start. Go on to Pinterest and see what pins you find attractive and find your “brand” and then start creating!

What are your tips and tricks for making Pinterest images?