Pinterest is known for it’s potential to drive huge amounts of traffic to websites. In a recent podcast episode that featured blogger Kate Bryan, we heard what a big difference it can make for a blogger and a business. Her site is visited millions of times a month because of referral traffic from Pinterest but what is necessary for that traffic? Content and images!
Thoughts on content
For businesses interested in maximizing the potential of Pinterest, a website with pinnable images is a must. But, this will only take the business so far. Sites that aren’t frequently updated with new products or content are at a huge disadvantage.
For example, let’s take an entrepreneur who has just launched a business based on an amazing new kitchen gadget that she invented. She only has one product and a website with a few professional images of the product. She’s heard of the amazing results some businesses are receiving from Pinterest and knows her business needs a presence there.
She creates her account and pins the few images she has of her product. She also creates some boards that relate to her target market and is regularly active on Pinterest. She brings in new content from the web and repins and engages with her fellow pinners but she’s not seeing much traffic from Pinterest to her site. The traffic and sales she was hoping for from Pinterest just aren’t there.
What piece of the puzzle is our entrepreneur missing? Fresh content.
There are only so many times she can pin the images of her product before her account starts to look like a spam account. But what can she do? She’s not looking to expand he product line yet, but she can add a blog to her site. She has ideas of quick easy to write blog posts related to her business but she also needs images.
Pinnable images
Entrepreneurs and business owners often feel that they are too busy, don’t have the budget or don’t have the talent to produce a blog with pinnable images. With free easy to use resources, creating images is easier than ever.
When it comes to producing high quality images, large brands with huge marketing budgets that can afford professional photographers do have an advantage but that doesn’t mean the small fish in the pond can’t get in on the Pinterest action.
Here are some easy ways that even those with small budgets can create some awesome images and in some cases a camera isn’t even necessary.
Remember Kate’s traffic that I mentioned at the beginning of this post? She is not a professional photographer but she does place importance on what her images look like. To get high quality images it’s no longer necessary to be a professional photographer with expensive equipment.
The digital cameras built into cell phones are amazing and can take some very pinnable images even if you’re not a pro. Here are a couple I’ve snapped with an iPhone:
I was so pleased with this one; I shared it on Instagram too.
Speaking of Instagram the mobile app has filters that can make a ho-hum picture into something more interesting .
You can even pin your Instagram images, which will help with cross promoting your social networks, you can read about that here.
What if you need an image but you don’t have a photo to represent the topic? You have a few options:
- Purchase a royalty-free image from a stock image site
- Use an image from a photo sharing site like Flick rthat allows Creative Commons usage
- Use a free image from MorgueFile (This is where I found the image used at the beginning of this post.)
Be sure to pay attention to the details of how you can use each image, some do not allow modification or require credit be given to the source of the image.
The images located from the sources listed above can be edited to fit your needs in photo editing software. Don’t worry if you’re not a Photoshop wizard, there are some free easy to use resources that can do the trick.
PicMonkey has a free version and a subscription version. The free option has a lot of tools that can get you far in your photo editing. Most of the images I use in my blog posts are created with PicMonkey
FotoFlexer is another free online service that I have used for photo editing and offers some different features than PicMonkey
This image was created using PicMonkey and a photo from MorgueFile. Quotes and helpful hints are very popular on Pinterest so consider using a quote or a useful tip from your post as an image.
The background for this image is a closeup of the side of a box that I took with my phone. The text and effect were added in a 99¢ app called PhotoWizard. The images created this way can be easily emailed and included in a blog post.
Infographics
Infographics are very popular on Pinterest for a couple of reasons. They occupy a lot of Pinterest real estate that makes them hard to miss and they provide a lot of information in a single image. Some are very detailed and artistic but, they don’t have to be to be popular on Pinterest.
I often see infographics that depict a tutorial in the Pinterest feed. Sometimes these are called instructographics. The traffic-generating key to these is to make sure that the pinner needs to click through to your site to get all of the details for the project.
For example, The kitchen gadget entrepreneur could show a series of images of someone using her gadget but for the recipe the reader would have to click through to the site.
Here’s an example of what I mean: Recently, I came across an interesting project on Pinterest from Allison at The House of Hempworths. I applied her technique to some curtains I was hanging and made an infographic on PicMonkey to represent the steps.
This infographic like this could be used to benefit different types of businesses:
- DIY bloggers
- Decorators
- Affiliate marketers of curtains, curtain rods or curtain rings
With software like Photoshop, PicMonkey and FotoFlexer, a photograph isn’t required to make a pinnable image. One of my most popular pins on Pinterest is the image below. It was created 100% on PicMonkey. The Pinterest “P” was downloaded from Pinterest’s business site.
Traffic is a necessity to have a successful online business and Pinterest can be a great source. However, to reap that benefit, some work is required. Pinnable images can be made easily and inexpensively. Do you have other ideas for creating pinnable images? Please share them in the comments below. Thanks!
29 Comments
This is very good information… The specific information about how to get images and improve images is so useful. I have listened to your podcast episode #7 that reviewed some basics of pinterest. Very helpful.
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Thanks DJ! It so so nice to hear when someone finds the in formation helpful. If there’s any particular topic you’d like to read or hear more about, just let me know 🙂
DJ, this is so nice of you to say! Glad you’re finding the blog and podcast helpful 🙂
Thanks so much for the MorgueFile suggestion! They have some great stuff on there.
I just discovered your podcasts & site a week ago or so. I was out of town on a “mom only” trip over the weekend, and I listened to most of your podcasts while I was away. I got some really great ideas from them.
I believe that my site, CubScoutIdeas.com, will eventually get a significant portion of its traffic from Pinterest, so I want to make sure I know as much as I can.
Here’s one question for you. I’ve found that I wind up spending more time on my images (finding or taking them then making them pin-worthy) than on actually writing my content. It has begun to slow down my having content ready to post on the schedule I would like. Do you have any suggestions on how I can speed up my image process?
Thanks!
Hi Sherry,
I’m so glad you’re finding the podcasts helpful. I really appreciate you spending your away time listening to it, I know it usually isn’t very often that us moms have time to get away .
I 100% agree with you that Pinterest can play a big role in bringing traffic to your site. Your content and topic is perfect for it!
As far as images go, I wish I had an easy answer to make it faster. I know when I have to take the photos myself then edit them for a tutorial it does seem to take forever. The process does go faster now than in the beginning. With practice, it gets much easier and quicker. It looks like you might already be using PicMonkey, I love that it is so easy to use. Great collages by the way!
I remember spending hours just trying to tweak an image of a piece of cheesecake. Thanks to some tips I found on Pinterest, I quickly learned that good lighting makes a huge difference and cuts down on editing time.
You might already do this, but what about breaking up the process a bit? Spend one day focusing on images then another day writing. Get a few posts completed and schedule them out to publish so you don’t feel the pressure to everything at once.
Best of luck to you!
Thanks for your question 🙂
That’s a great idea to break up the process! Look forward to hearing the next podcast! Thanks again.
[…] The tool that Cynthia uses to create infographics is PicMonkey. It’s an online image editing service, where you can make a collage of images that are relevant to your business into an infographic (also recently starting to be known as an instructographic). […]
[…] The tool that Cynthia uses to create infographics is PicMonkey. It’s an online image editing service, where you can make a collage of images that are relevant to your business into an infographic (also recently starting to be known as an instructographic). […]
[…] Tips on creating pinnable images blog post […]
[…] i tuoi libri: condividi le immagini delle copertine dei tuoi libri e rendi “pinnabile” (oh che parola terribile!) le stesse immagini sul tuo blog o sul tuo sito personale. […]
[…] using “click to tweet” links in your posts, like the link above. It means creating “pinnable” images for your content. It means using widgets and other tools to allow readers to share your […]
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for an awesome presentation in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada this past weekend. I took away so many great tips as I start my blogging/pinning journey. I’ve checked out Canva, Morguefile, Pixabay – all fantastic resources. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve updated my image and username with useful info, reordered my boards, created a cool lemon graphic with Canva and will be working on making my site more pin friendly. My boards will likely need more tweeking as I go, but for now, I think I’ll keep that onion board. http://www.pinterest.com/getgetty/ Thanks again for everything, you were a wealth of information!
Hi Getty, I had such a great time in Winnipeg and WOW, it sounds like you are off to a great start with your Pinterest account! I just checked out your onion board you should definitely keep it. Who knew there was so much to know about onions!
As someone who JUST got their site…theres even still a intro/auto post on it….this is such great info! 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you so much for the excellent tips! I’m a new blogger, so I appreciate all the help I can get.
[…] Get Traffic From Pinterest to Your Site with Pinnable Images […]
[…] Get Traffic From Pinterest to Your Site with Pinnable Images […]
Nice post. I am loving the pictures you have taken. I am new to blogging and learning things to promote my blog and this post has helped me a lot. Thank you 🙂
Hi,
Nice post. In content marketing images have great value. A unique image attract users to read a post. I am web designer, i always make unique images for my every content, and i must have got result for a particular keyword my website rank 1 (Position 6) in google. Thanks for sharing such a useful information.
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