Pinterest affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing on Pinterest [how to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest]

You need to create a Pinterest Business account to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest. In some cases, Pinterest allows direct linking, but you may need to redirect visitors to your website, a landing page, or an educational YouTube video. Affiliate marketing on Pinterest also requires an affiliate disclosure and following all the guidelines. 

Pinterest marketing is an asset for affiliate marketers. It relies on search engine optimization and visual content creation. Which can help you create a nearly passive income stream utilizing evergreen traffic from Pinterest. The pins are easy to produce, and pinning does not require much time. You will increase your affiliate revenue if you can spare one hour a day to add fresh pins to your boards. 

I have used my experience and extensive research to write a complete guide on using Pinterest for affiliate marketing. It is primarily for beginners who do not know where to start and visitors interested in starting affiliate marketing through Pinterest.  

Pinterest affiliate marketing for beginners [A step-by-step guide]

You do not need to invest much money to start affiliate marketing. Here are seven steps to earning money using affiliate marketing on Pinterest as a beginner.

Step 1: best niches for affiliate marketing on Pinterest (find your niche)

Here are some elements you can consider to find the best niche for affiliate marketing on Pinterest.

• Traffic: pick a popular subject on the platform or/and search if Pinterest ranks on Google for keywords related to my niche.
• Affiliate income potential: can you find a suitable affiliate program?
• Conversion and outbound clicks: determine if people tend to stay on the platform or click on outbound links
• Your knowledge, hobbies, and ability to learn

For example, if you want to try the beauty and personal care niche, you can focus on a topic like “nail design”. Pinterest ranks number 1 on Google, and nail design has an estimated monthly search volume of 1.22 million. Due to the high traffic from Google and Pinterest users, you can create 5-10 boards around nail designs. Besides Amazon associates, you can find multiple affiliate programs like Nail Hugs or KISS for nail care and design.

Here are 20 niches to consider for Pinterest affiliate marketing:

• Art
• Baby and newborn
• Beauty, hair, and personal care
• DIY and crafts
• Education
• Entrepreneurship and working at home
• Event planning
• Fashion
• Food, drink, and nutrition
• Gardening
• Gift Ideas  
• Health and Fitness
• Home décor
• Motivational quotes and the law of attraction
• Outdoor
• Parenting 
• Pets
• Photography
• Spirituality, astrology, and healing
• Travel

Step 2: Create a website or/and establish an online presence

Most affiliate networks and affiliate programs require a website to accept your application. You will need web hosting (I use and recommend SiteGround) and a CMS like WordPress or Wix to create your website. It would help to set up your homepage and publish a few blog posts before applying to become an affiliate. 

In rare cases, you will not need a website, for example, if you are a macro-influencer or a reference in your field. The brands want to be sure you can bring quality traffic to their product pages. 

Step 3: Find an offer to promote

If you are a beginner, here are 5 affiliate networks you can join.

• Amazon associateJVzoo
• ClickBank
• Commission Junction (Cj affiliate)
• Awin  
• Impact Radius affiliate
• Digistore24   

You can also find affiliate programs by looking at companies’ websites. You will usually have a way to become a partner in the footer menu or at the bottom of the home page. You can also check below to see our list of affiliate programs for Pinterest. 

You should also consider networks like Rewardstyle and ShareAsale if you already have an established online presence. Once you have your affiliate links, you can add them to your website content and go on Pinterest. 

Step 4: Set up a Pinterest business account 

The first step is to set up a Pinterest business account. You can create a new account or convert a personal one into a business account. Then, you need to optimize your account for marketing purposes:

• Complete your profile (describe your business or tell a short story on how you became successful)
• Add a profile picture (yourself, logo, or any business that showcases your brand) 
• Curate and add at least five boards (stay on topic and use Pinterest-suggested keywords for board titles and descriptions)
• Populate your board with evergreen content (unless your niche relies on trends) by saving multiple pins to each board 

Step 5: Have a Pinterest growth strategy and start pinning

It would help if you could start with 5-10 boards and add fresh pins to them consistently. You can use Canva or Visme to create high-quality graphics and any pin. Curate your board and maintain a good balance between inspirational, educational, and product focus pins. 

Pinterest favors users that save and pin fresh pins regularly. It would help your growth if you could be active on the platform:

• Create fresh pins
• Save relevant pins on your board to increase visibility and make it looks more professional 
• Follow and interact with other users in your niche
• Plan and schedule pins 

You can also use a social media management tool like Tailwind to automate and plan your pinning. Tailwind allows you to select the best time and date to schedule future pins. You can still add pins daily by logging in once or twice weekly on your Pinterest account. And joining Tailwind tribes allow you to snowball with content sharing.  

10 best affiliate programs for Pinterest

Regardless of your niche, you can find countless affiliate programs to promote on Pinterest. The best practice is to have a blog post or a landing page instead of directly linking. But both strategies can work for well-known products. Here are some of the best affiliate programs for Pinterest:

• A2 Hosting (web hosting for online entrepreneurs)
• AeroGarden (gardening)
• Amazon Associates (high converting for various niches)
• Aweber (funnel builder and email marketing)
• Blick Arts (art supplies)
• Chewy (food and other products for pets)
• Canva (visual content creation)
• Fine Art America (art)
• Fiverr affiliate program (entrepreneurship and outsourcing)
• HelloFresh (Fresh meal delivery service)
• TedsWoodworking (DIY and home decor)
• Travelpayouts (Travel)
• Ulta Beauty (beauty products)
• Wayfair (home decor)
• Wix (CMS and website building)

Some of the best affiliate programs offer recurring commissions, which is the most effective way to generate consistent income.

We also have three very popular affiliate networks or programs that most people use.

Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest

You can put Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest to send people directly to your offer. However, you should avoid link cloaking. Amazon affiliate marketing with Pinterest can be highly lucrative if you can send massive traffic. You can learn more here. 

ClickBank links on Pinterest [Does Pinterest allow ClickBank links]

Pinterest and ClickBank enable direct linking to ClickBank offers. However, I would not recommend this method. Instead, it would be better to send people to a:

• capture page to collect email and market to them later 
• landing page 
• blog post 
• video if you have a YouTube channel

You will increase your conversion rate, which is a better way to build a sustainable income stream. And Pinterest may block some ClickBank links for various reasons. Overall, ClickBank is one of the most popular Networks where beginners can find affiliate marketing programs for Pinterest.

Esty affiliate on Pinterest

You cannot post Etsy affiliate links directly on Pinterest because it’s against Etsy affiliates policy. Instead, Etsy Affiliates can promote offers on their blog and Authorized Channels. If you want to promote Esty products on Pinterest, you can link to your blog. 

12 tips for Pinterest affiliate marketing

Becoming a successful affiliate on Pinterest may take time, but here are some tips to get results faster.

• Get a new Pinterest business account for affiliate marketing
• Read the guidelines and follow the rules (Learn Pinterest affiliate marketing rules)
• Create multiple pins per webpage 
• Use Tailwind (or another scheduler) to automate and schedule pins 
• Use high-quality image 
• Optimize title and pin description
• Enable rich pins 
• Learn how to use idea pins to grow your account
• Optimize your boards to get organic traffic from the Pinterest search engine
• Be consistent; populate your board with fresh and saved pins
• Send visitors to a capture page to grow your email list
• Monitor pins performance and produce more of what is working
• Complete your profile and add a good profile picture
• Always disclose affiliate content

You must read all the guidelines. For example, Pinterest allows link cloaking, but Amazon associates do not. 

Affiliate marketing on Pinterest without a blog

Using Pinterest for affiliate marketing without a blog can implement different strategies.

• Direct linking when it’s allowed (work better with well-known brands)
• Add Linktree to your Pinterest profile
• Send visitors to your YouTube Channel: combining YouTube and Pinterest marketing is highly effective in generating affiliate sales.
• Use Getresponse or Aweber to collect email by sending people to a squeeze page or a landing page: an email list is one of the most valuable assets for an affiliate marketer.
• Redirect visitors to your other social media for cross-promotion

Affiliate marketing via Pinterest without a blog is possible, but you may have some brands that will not accept your application. Having a massive following on social media, appearances in podcasts/media, being a celebrity (or a well-known influencer).

Best Pinterest affiliate marketing course

The Pinterest SEO traffic secret course from Anastasia Blogger is one of the best Pinterest marketing courses. She teaches you how to get traffic from Pinterest whether you are an affiliate, a blogger, or an online entrepreneur. The course includes 69 lessons divided into 10 modules. It covers anything you need to start getting traffic and sales using Pinterest SEO. 

Final thoughts: why use Pinterest for affiliate marketing

Pinterest has 436.8 million users, and according to Ahrefs, it has an estimated monthly search volume of 65 million on Google. Many of the users are from the US or countries where people tend to spend money online. Pinterest is a search engine that benefits from organic evergreen traffic.

People are generally on the platform to plan a project, find new ideas, and gather information about a product. This means you can use Pinterest for affiliate marketing because you have:

• traffic potential
• users with buying intent
• people with purchasing power

You must put the right product in front of the right people. Learning how to make money on Pinterest with affiliate marketing is a great way to make a full-time income online or to have a side income.

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