Want to start affiliate marketing on Pinterest but not sure of where to start? This guide will help you get started.
What is affiliate marketing?
With affiliate marketing, your role is straightforward.
You drive traffic and generate sales through your unique affiliate links and get a commission every time someone makes a purchase using your link.
Here is how it works in a nutshell:
- First you sign up to an affiliate program or a network
- Then you find a product from the network that you want to promote
- Copy your unique affiliate link of the product and place the link where people can click on it
- Then you drive traffic to your link (I believe this is the hard part)
- Finally, you earn commissions on sales made through your links.
Here is an example from my personal experience.
I signed up to the Amazon affiliate program last year. After I got approved, I took affiliate links for some bathroom blob mirrors I wanted to promote. The mirrors were trending on Pinterest at the time. I created pins with pictures of the blob mirrors and added my amazon associate affiliate link as the website address of the pin.
When my audience sees my pin and decide they want to buy the mirror on amazon, they click on my link and make a purchase. Amazon will give me a commission every time someone buys the mirror using my link.
Please note that Amazon and Etsy are few affiliate programs you can link directly on Pinterest. Affiliate links for many other products such as products from clickbank, JVZoo etc, cannot be added directly on Pinterest. Pinterest may suspend your account if you do because it’s against their rules. Instead, you need a landing page or link hosting page to drive traffic to.
How much can you make from affiliate marketing?
There really is no limit. Your marketing efforts and the price points of products you promote will determine how much you earn.
That said, according to Glassdoor, the average salary of an affiliate marketer is $59,060 per year but can range from $58K to $158K.
As a beginner, you can make around $100-$1,000 a month..
The amount you make will ultimately depend on a variety of factors such as:
- Your niche
- Your audience size or traffic
- The affiliate programs you sign up for and their commission rates
- The quality of your content.
- If you can find products with recurring payments.
Like any business idea, to be successful and make sufficient money, you’ll need to put in the work
What are some advantages of affiliate marketing ?
There are so many reasons why we are all interested in affiliate marketing.
- Low Start-up Costs: You don’t need to spend any money upfront. Well except the cost of running a blog, a few marketing tools and a landing page where you will be posting your links. Running a blog is pretty cheap these days and you can use this step by step tutorial to start your blog for only £2.95 in less than 30 minutes.
- Wide Range of Products and Niches: there is flexibility to promote many different products or services.
- Flexibility and Location Independence: You can work from anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection.
- Passive income: It can eventually becomes passive income. You create content once and make money from it over and over again.
6 Steps to start Affiliate marketing on Pinterest
Pinterest is extremely popular for driving traffic. Below i’ll go over the exact steps you need to promote your affiliate links using pinterest.
Step 1: Understand Affiliate Marketing and Pinterest Guidelines
Pinterest has specific rules for affiliate marketing. While you can directly use affiliate links from platforms like Amazon Associates or Etsy, for most other products, you’ll need to use Pinterest to send people to a blog post or landing page that contains your affiliate links.
This way, people can click on the blog post or landing page and then find the affiliate links there. It’s a way to work within Pinterest’s guidelines and still use affiliate marketing to earn commissions.
Step 2: Identify Your Target Niche and Audience
If you want to do well in affiliate marketing on Pinterest, it’s crucial to pick a specific topic and know who you want to reach.
Think about what you’re interested in & what you know about?
We know the demographics of Pinterest is mostly women. Choose a niche that fits popular female Pinterest topics like fashion, home decor, health, or personal finance.
By understanding what this audience likes and what problems they have, you can create content that they’ll find helpful and interesting.
This way, you’ll have a better chance of success with your affiliate marketing efforts on Pinterest.
Step 3: Sign Up for relevant Affiliate Programs
Do some research and find trustworthy affiliate programs that fit your chosen topic. Look for programs that pay good commissions, have high-quality products or services, and use reliable tracking systems. If you can find subscription-type products with recurring commissions, even better.
Some of the well-known affiliate networks beginner like include Amazon Associates, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and Impact.
It’s always beneficial to apply to programs that grant automatic approval, especially as a beginner. For some programs, you’ll need to wait for them to approve your application. Initially, you may get rejected if you don’t have sufficient content or a website or social media following. And that’s ok, you can always try again later.
Step 4: Create Compelling and Click-Worthy Pins
On Pinterest, it’s important to create attractive pins that catch people’s attention. Attractive pins = high number of clicks and high chances of affiliate sales.
Here are some tips to help you:
- Use clear and appealing images that look nice.
- Add short and bold text on the images to show why the product is great.
- Include a clear call to action like “Shop Now” or “Learn More” to encourage people to click on your pin.
- Write descriptions that explain the product well and use important words that people might search for.
- Research and use keywords in your descriptions and board names so your pins can be found easily in searches.
Step 5: Create Boards and Sort Pins Strategically
To make it easier for people to find your content, create boards that are related to your topic and organise your pins accordingly.
For each board, write a description that includes relevant keywords and give the board a name that reflects the content.
Try to strike a balance by providing valuable content on Pinterest while strategically promoting affiliate products. This way, you can offer something helpful and interesting to your followers while also earning from your affiliate partnerships.
Step 6: Pin Consistently and Engage with the Pinterest Community
To get noticed by more people and build a bigger audience on Pinterest, there are a few important things you should do:
- Pin regularly: Try to share new and good-quality content every day or at least a few times a week.
- Repin and interact: Repin interesting content from other users, follow accounts related to your interests, and engage with the Pinterest community by leaving comments and joining group boards.
- Work with influencers: Connect with popular pinners or bloggers in your field and team up on group boards or guest pins. This will help you reach more people and get more attention for your content on Pinterest.
Your 20-Minute Action Plan to start affiliate marketing on Pinterest:
Ready to get started with affiliate marketing on Pinterest? Follow this 20-minute action plan:
- Spend 20 minutes today researching and signing up for relevant affiliate programs in your niche.
- Allocate 20 minutes each day to create three visually appealing pins promoting affiliate products, ensuring they align with Pinterest.
Final thoughts on affiliate marketing using pinterest
I hope this guidance brings you closer to your desire to start affiliate marketing on Pinterest. I will be taking this advice my self, so stick around if you’ll like some updates on my progress with affiliate marketing on Pinterest.