Tracking Your Backlinks

To see who is driving traffic to you website, go to http://pinterest.com/source/[WEBSITEURL]/. This will show you exactly which users have pinned content from your website and linked to you.

This does a few more things for you. First, it allows you to easily repin items from other websites without having to dig around to find the content. This is great if you’re trying to repin content from your own websites or if you want to engage with people you know from other websites.

Engaging Those Who Pin You

It’s fun to know where your traffic is coming from and the above URL will show you in greater detail than Google Analytics who is pinning your stuff, but what do you do with that information?

You encourage more traffic of course. Now that you know who is pinning your content, become friends with those people and repin their content. Engage with them on the site and incentivize them to continue pinning your content and interacting with your website and your boards (together).

Like any social network, Pinterest is about creating relationships with the people you meet on the site and using those relationships to grow your business. The more you do on Pinterest and the more time you spend there, the better results you will see from that time.

Encourage Pinning on Your Site

Make sure you install the Pin It button on your website so people can easily pin your content as they read it. Already there are dozens of plugins if you use WordPress and the Pinterest API is surprisingly robust for a site that is so new. Use those tools and generate buzz in your content at its source. Make sure people know that you will send them invitations to Pinterest if they want one as well – it might take a bit of time out of your day to send those invites, but it’s worthwhile if traffic starts to flow because of it.

Getting the Most Out of Your Pinterest Account

If you want to get the most out of Pinterest, use it wisely. Interact with people, generate interesting content and images and encourage people you know not only on your website but on your other social networks to repin your content. The sheer volume of traffic being driven by Pinterest is incredible and can be a major asset to your social marketing campaign if harnessed correctly.

What Attracts Followers?

In general, you attract followers with your pins. Originality is crucial. You cannot simply pin the same images that other people have pinned before you, because then you offer nothing new or original. If you can find virtually unknown images or if you pin your own crafts or photos, you’ll see a much faster, larger growth of followers on your boards. Creativity matters here as well – just because a picture of your dog taking a nap is original doesn’t mean it’s particular creative. Now, your dog standing on his hind legs with a plate on his nose – that would be original AND creative.

You should also have your own style. Don’t try to copy what someone else pins or pin things only to attract more followers. You’ll be followed by those that appreciate your sense of style, and it will help you carve out your own niche that makes following you more worthwhile.

Pinning consistent, high quality images is important as well. If you want to build a list of followers, you need to update Pinterest regularly and use only visually interesting images that attract people to your posts. It’s also helpful if you often pin craft items with information on how to build them (recipes may work as well) so that your ideas can spread and people will talk about your pins in the future.

Finally, even though your own pins are most important, you should also be repinning other people as well and finding ways to interact with other users. When you interact with a user they will see your other pins, and may repin you if they find what you posted to be interesting. Pinterest is a lot like Twitter Ð users like to follow people that follow them, so following other people and repinning their posts can be a huge help.

Building Your Pinterest Followers List

If you follow the above tips, posting interesting photos, maintaining an active Pinterest account, and interacting with other users, you can build a Pinterest follower list that rivals even the best known websites and pinners. But perhaps the most important part of Pinterest is that you develop your personality through the service. You cannot run a Pinterest account just to build followers. You need to show off your personality and have others like you for what makes you unique. Only then will you develop a genuine follower list and develop a reputation on the site.

Drive Traffic to Affiliate Sites – Pinterest is a powerful tool for driving traffic to nearly any site you link it to. That said, affiliate marketers will have a very easy time generating traffic if they produce high quality pinboards that capture attention. Say, for example, you are driving traffic to dog training products with a review site. To promote this, you could pin the cutest, most enticing pictures of dogs you can find. People love cute pics of, well nearly anything.

Pin Other People’s Stuff – Like any social network, the more you interact with others, the more you will get out of Pinterest. So get on the site, start pinning and other people will pin in return. The classic reciprocal relationship of any good social network will develop quickly. If you pin other peoples’ stuff, they will pin yours. You like mine, I like yours and so on. Just make sure you stick to things that are representative of your account and don’t just go on a pinning spree.

Provide High Quality Images to Offer Value – Why bother offering all those images if you don’t spend some time working on them? More importantly, why allow a perfectly good opportunity to provide value pass you by? Much the same as with Google+, Twitter or Facebook, your pinboards must provide value to the people who view them. That means things like infographics, storyboards and interesting content that will attract attention instead of just filling up space. Don’t be another user with 200 pictures of kittens or half naked women. Offer something of real value and you are guaranteed to generate more traffic and better returns on your investment on the site.

Like any good social network, nothing you do on Pinterest will immediately translate to cash in your pocket. The site doesn’t work like that. But if used properly, Pinterest can do three things for you.

• Generate lots of targeted traffic to your sites
• Build relationships with like minded users in your niche
• Provide value to those users and convince them that your products and/or recommendations are worthwhile

If you use Pinterest to its full potential, you will gain all three of these things as benefits and therefore start to earn more money for whatever business ventures you are currently promoting with Pinterest. It’s not a money tree, but with the right approach, the site can be a powerful tool.

How Much Traffic Are We Talking?

Like most websites early in the development process, Pinterest isn’t yet releasing traffic data. But we can look at other social networks in their infancy to get a good idea of the kind of growth Pinterest likely is experiencing. Facebook, for example, once it reached the 20 million member mark, generated more than 7 million visits per day with an average of 20.5 page views per visitor. Twitter’s numbers were slightly lower in terms of daily visits per user, but much higher in terms of page views per day (those early numbers didn’t take mobile use into account).

So, we can conservatively estimate that Pinterest members login on average once every 2-3 days and view at least 15-20 pages or boards per login. For someone like you, whose goal it is to generate traffic to your own website, those numbers are very, very enticing.

Why Pinterest Is a Traffic Goldmine

A lot of people make the very good point that despite Facebook and Twitter receiving unprecedented numbers of page views per visitor and an extremely high return visit rate, traffic didn’t always translate off site. Many advertisers complained early on that Facebook’s user base had a habit of staying on the site, to the point that overall web traffic started to fall in some sectors.

Pinterest is different, however. Whereas Facebook is a self-contained ecosystem, Pinterest is designed to showcase off-site content. Boards are loaded with links and users are eager to see new and interesting sites other than Pinterest.

For site owners and entrepreneurs with something interesting to share, Pinterest offers the perfect place to showcase it. In the very truest sense of the word, Pinterest is a global bulletin board and one that every business with visual components – actual or fabricated – should be using.

First Steps with Pinterest

Like any exciting new social network, Pinterest is slightly different from each of its contemporaries. You don’t interact with people or content in the same way you would on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The goal is to provide the most interesting, share-worthy content on the site, not to show off what you ate for lunch (unless you’re on vacation).

So, when you create your Pinterest account, don’t phone it in. Create a clear marketing plan and generate content that will attract interest from a full range of users – including people in your niche and others alike. Well chosen images and links, along with an active account on which you visit and pin other people’s content will get you much further than spamming your products or services every other day.

For those of you who make a living on the Internet as affiliate marketers, this simple, very easy to use site represents a boat load of opportunities for traffic generation, improved conversions and greater return on investment from social marketing. Here are just a few ways how.

The Traffic Connection

One of the biggest obstacles to affiliate marketing is getting enough traffic to your website to actually start converting those reviews and ads you’ve created. You can’t get people on your email list or pass them to the landing page of a product you’ve reviewed if you have no traffic. A 4% conversion rate sounds fantastic until you consider how little that is with only 200 hits a month.

Pinterest makes it easy to get targeted, niche-specific traffic to your site and it doesn’t cost you a thing. Be careful to avoid some of the common traps first time Pinterest marketers fall into though. Don’t just start pinning boards full of the products you promote – no one will want to click through on those.

Instead, think in the same frame of mind as you do when creating your landing pages. Offer real value to the people who view your boards. If you are promoting health and beauty products, pin pictures of beautiful women who have used said products. If you are promoting hosting companies, post infographics of different online statistics. If you are promoting dog training products or video courses, post pictures of dogs doing amazing tricks or just some really cute puppies. Traffic comes to those who offer real value.

Building a Brand

One thing a lot of affiliate marketers fail to do is build a brand that allows them to sell to the same customers more than once. A recognized, trusted brand gives you the foothold you need to scale your efforts, replicate your successes and reach out to more people with less effort.

Pinterest offers a number of tools to make doing this even easier. Instead of spending hundreds of hours on Facebook replying to inane comments, surf Pinterest looking for fun things to comment on and pin to you own boards. Pin as much as you can, interact with people on the site and generate a relationship that will make it easier to get the pins you need to your content when you post something new.

Brand building isn’t about polish as much as it is interaction. Put yourself out there and create something people remember and you’ll have a much easier time generating traffic in the future, especially with the incredible tools available on Pinterest.

This free online scrapbook helps you organize your WebPages, images, and videos based on your interests. It allows you to lookup and share images on the Web.  Pinterest is a magical tool you can use to promote your business and increase the traffic to your site. Users are all praise for Pinterest as it brings in double the amount of visitors compared to other sites.  Here are tips to use Pinterest to attract visitors and spread word about any new product on your line.

Direct Method of Promotion

Pinterest does offer some leniency to self-promotion but not much.  There is a direct method to help build your brand. The “gifts” section allows you to place a price tag next to the picture of your product. The prices are usually in American dollars. Create a product board for your account, upload the photos but make sure to include the price tag into the description area. After doing this, your products will be pulled into the “gifts” area.

You can also have your pin boards’ stream into your Facebook or Twitter accounts.  At the settings in your Pinterest account, you can adjust the options for Facebook or Twitter.

Another viable option for you to incorporate your business to Pinterest is to have a few of your workers as contributors to your boards. They can also pin some of their favorite items on their own accounts.  You may also build up an interactive group board where other users or followers can pin their favorite products of yours to the board.

Indirect promotion methods

The next step to building a brand on Pinterest is the indirect method that drives your visitors to advertise your products. You should add a follow button to your product page which will help drive new traffic to your boards and pins.

The follow button is a nice alternative to saying “check me out”. It allows your visitors to check out your latest gear or products on your Pinterest page.

Another next clever method is to put a “pin it” button to your individual product images. Your objective is honest, to create new attractions with new and existing customers.

You do not have to use the “pin it” button with every image, you could run a specific campaign for a targeted group of merchandise for a while and route the stock out.  This may help you keep track of traffic during a specific marketing period or validate your inventory’s selling power.

Other techniques are more based on your outward effort to establish a network. You could offer a little information about your interests. If you like cars, pin up a radical car model. If you like movies, pin a video trailer. Interaction plays a key role to building up your company. Your interaction with other users may entail whether your brand will be established or not.

You may want also to name it to match the keywords that you have entered into the photo descriptions. What do you mean photo descriptions? Let’s first take a moment to discuss PD’s.   A photo description is a micro form of advertisement and it should reflect what the product is about with the price tag. If you add a price tag with the “$”, Pinterest will drag your image into the gift section for potential buyers.

For example, if you’re selling Xbox 360 games, a PD could look like this “Resident Evil 5, Xbox360, New $20” and a few more descriptive wording. Your bulletin board could be called “Xbox 360 games” and it could be the tag word within the photos. You may want to link the photo back to your website product page for the consumer to buy. Make the descriptions short, sweet and catchy for your viewers.

Interaction is life

After Pinterest grabs your photos for the gift sections, it is time to move onto the second phase. The second phase is intended to be social, build up your network, like you have done on Twitter or Facebook. Find similar interests or your own personal interests and follow them. Comment on their image and re-pin a few of theirs. Yep, that’s right! Go out and search for the movers and shakers, see what is popular and interact with them.

Most Pinners forget to interact with their followers or network that they happen to build up. If you neglect this type of mediation, then what is the point of being on Pinterest? Don’t forget the new followers; welcome them to the “team”. This is a way of showing appreciation to your supporters and it has benefits. Not once did this interaction add a few new followers.

Do not forget to have your blogs and products “pinnable” on your website, too. Your fans from Pinterest are likely to visit your products, especially if the images are likeable. Do a blog post about your latest offerings with a mention of the images being showcased on Pinterest and have them actually available on your profile. I have done this and even linked my Pinterest account to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. This step boosts traffic from your followers at these two social media giants to your Pinterest account and vice versa.

Traffic Is Huge

While official numbers are still pending, we know that Pinterest catapulted into the top 100 sites in the world and top 20 in the United States in a little under six months. Almost all of this traffic is direct – meaning the site has developed a huge following based on its brand, effectively going viral through other social media sites.

So, what does this mean for you? It means that there is a lot of traffic coming through and leaving Pinterest. Since the site is so simple to use – you pin pictures and snapshots from other websites to a board to share with your fellow users – you can generate traffic to almost any site you own with relatively little effort.

?Where’s the Money?

How do you make money from site that is designed almost solely to send traffic away? It’s surprisingly easy. In fact, because Pinterest pushes people away from the main site by having them click on links in the Pin Boards, you have a huge advantage if you own a business or promote products through affiliate links.

First, Pinterest users expect to be sent to other sites, and a lot of those sites have things to purchase on them. Amazon affiliate review sites, IM products, business landing pages and more are being promoted with Pinterest to great success.

There Is a Catch

Of course there is a catch. This is a social network and people expect to be engaged…socially. So, if you share low quality images of your website where you’ve plastered big banners saying “buy this product” people won’t appreciate your efforts and you are highly unlikely to convert that traffic. To remain social and true to the spirit of the site, your Pinterest boards should do the following:

• Showcase Only High Quality Images – Quality, enticing images are necessary to attract attention and build a following to you Pinterest profile.
• Link to Value-Adding Content – When someone clicks on a picture, make sure they land on a page that is loaded with valuable information they will find interesting and useful.
• Create or Capitalize on Social Trends – Look for trending boards and add content that supplements them. Be a useful member of the Pinterest community and create new content people will want to share.

Additionally, you should be active on the site, pinning not just things you want to sell but sites you genuinely like and lists of things that are interesting to you – mountain bikes, trails you ride, video games you play, places you’ve been, etc. Much like Facebook or Twitter, it is the people who participate that will have the most success with Pinterest.

There are actually lots of ways to maximize Pinterest for profiting  both personally and business wise. Here are the first 5 ways on how you can do that:

1.  Create a board pin that features your products. Put in a keyword-dense description and catchy phrases. You can even opt to offer your other pins as freebies. This can attract pinners and your followers to constantly visit your board. This type of board is great especially for affiliate marketing.

2.  Create a board that showcases yourself and what you are good at. This is an authority board, a great way to drive traffic to your website that features your specializations. There are many website owners’ reporting  that most of their traffics come from Pinterest. Better maximize it  for driving traffic back to  your own websites and blogs.

3.  Create a board pin to collaborate with other pinners. Collaborating and networking are vital if you want to stay long in this industry. You have to build relationships based on trust and camaraderie. Show appreciation to your followers by welcoming them, sharing great pins with them, liking and repining their pins, and acknowledging their efforts. You can never know how the relationship can expand your reach to the World Wide Web.

4.  Linking your Pinterest to other social media like Facebook and Twitter. This is one best tool to get more followers. The more followers you have, the most likely you get more traffic to your  websites and blogs. Your followers can also become your customers and clients. The possibilities are endless. You can also put your Pinterest button to your websites so that your visitors can easily opt to follow your Pinterest account, too.

5.  Creating enjoyable boards can stimulate your creative mind and thus makes you more productive in the long run. Remember, when other pinners see you as fun, they would tend to follow you than when all you do is just pin items that tries to sell to them. Part of any business is creating an atmosphere of comfort between you and your clients. One best way to do that is to show them that you are somebody they can trust and is fun to follow. Mixing business with pleasure can do lots of wonders, not only for your company’s benefits, but to your own advantages, too. If you like and enjoy what you are doing and your interaction with your network is light and fun, it adds to your wellness and healthy stature.

There are still many ways to make your Pinterest a profitable avenue for you. Look around Pinterest and see what’s hot and you might get more ideas for your board. And always remember, the profit is in your Pinterest relationships. Happy pinning!