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Once you’ve started your WordPress blog and created amazing and helpful content for your readers, then it’s time to learn how to promote and share those blog posts with the world!
One traffic source I recommend new bloggers to learn and use is Pinterest.
One question I often get asked is “Is a Pinterest business account free?”
A short and simple answer.
Yes, it is absolutely free to create a Pinterest business account to drive FREE traffic back to your blog or website!
So, in this lesson, we are going to help you set up your Pinterest business account!
By signing up for a Pinterest business account, you’ll be able to promote your blog, content, products, and services and drive traffic back to your website!
Switch From Pinterest Personal Account To Business Account
Before we get started, I want to address another question that my readers often ask me.
“Should I sign up for a new Pinterest business account or should I switch my personal account to a business one?”
Here’s my answer.
Suppose you have a personal account and you mostly pin images that are related to what you’re going to blog about.
For example, if you pin a lot of fashion or makeup images and you plan to create a blog in one of those niches, then you can switch from a personal to a Pinterest business account.
Plus, if you’ve already gained some followers who are interested in those topics, this may be helpful when you are pinning your content related to fashion or makeup.
However, if you don’t want to mix your personal interests with your blog, then it’s best to create a brand-new business account from scratch.
I always recommend starting from scratch, but it is ultimately your decision and what you want.
Now, I am excited for you because we are going to help you register and set up a Pinterest business account for your blog!
Don’t forget to save this blog post here on Pinterest so you can refer back to this guide and learn how to set up your Pinterest business account the right way!
1. Create Your Pinterest Business Account
The first step to setting up a Pinterest business account is creating one!
You can follow these simple step by step instructions to create your account.
Step 1: Click here to create your Pinterest business account.
Once you’ve opened the link into a new winder browser, proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Set up your Pinterest Profile.
You can input your business name using your blog name. For example, mine would be Finsavvy Panda. Next, check off “Yes” and input your website. I am assuming you already have a blog/website.
Next, select your “Country/Region” and “Language.”
Step 3: Describe your brand by choosing one of the categories given to you below.
If you can’t find your category, you can select “Other” for now. For example, I couldn’t find personal finance or make money, so I selected “Other.”
Step 4: Continue to describe your brand.
The page will ask you to describe your brand by selecting 1 out of the 9 options:
- I’m not sure
- Blogger
- Consumer Good, Product or Service
- Contract or Service Provider
- Influencer, Public Figure, or Celebrity
- Local Retail Store or Local Service
- Online Retail Store or Marketplace
- Publisher or Media
- Other
I personally selected the “Blogger” option. 🙂
Step 5: Answer the question, “Would you ever be interested in running ads on Pinterest?”
This is just simply letting them know if you’d be interested in paying for promoted ads in the future.
Pinterest offers something called “Promoted Ads” and you have the option to pay for ads. The “Promoted Ads” feature on Pinterest can be useful for you once you have more experienced with using Pinterest and converting high affiliate offers or selling your own products in the future.
Even though you are interested in driving free organic traffic from Pinterest in your beginning blogging journey, you can still say “Yes, I’m interested in advertising.” It’s up to you! 😊
Step 6: Pinterest will ask you “Where would you like to start?”
I recommend clicking on “Build your profile” under “Showcase your brand.” That way you can immediately fill out your Pinterest profile, which is quick and easy!
Step 7: Edit your profile
Edit your profile by filling in the fields. You can also click on the “Change” button to upload your logo or profile image.
I highly recommend paying special attention to the “About your profile” field. The best practice is to optimize your profile, in no more than 25 words, by including some keywords or phrases that will increase the chances of people searching for your profile once you have more authority on Pinterest.
Don’t try to be “unique” or “cute” by using words or phrases that people don’t usually search for. For example, don’t use phrases like “dolla dolla bill$” or “shop ’til you drop” because no one will ever search for those words or phrases.
I’ll explain in more detail how you can create and optimize your Pinterest business profile after you claim your website in the next section.
Congratulations! You’ve now created your Pinterest business account!
Now, it’s time to learn how to set up your account.
2. Claim Your Website or Blog on Pinterest
The first thing we’re going to do now is to help you claim your website on Pinterest.
It’s important to claim your blog or website because not only will this optimize your profile and help you bring traffic back to your site, but it will also allow you to access your Pinterest Analytics.
Similar to why you should set up a Google Analytics account, being able to see your stats on Pinterest through their analytics tool will allow you to analyze and see which of your Pins are getting impressions and pageviews. That means you can see your top performers that drive traffic back to your posts or pages.
Your profile picture will also appear on all the Pins that come from your site along with a “Follow” button for your Pinterest account.
Follow instructions here to learn how to claim your website or blog on Pinterest.
3. Create Your Pinterest Business Profile
Now that you’ve registered for a Pinterest business account and verified your website, I am going to go through three simple steps to help you create your Pinterest Business Profile.
Step 1: Optimize Your Pinterest Display Name
By inputting a few relevant keywords in your display name, Pinterest users and Pinners can find you more easily when they are searching for certain keywords or phrases in the Pinterest search bar.
Using my Finsavvy Panda personal finance blog as an example, I input my blog name (in case someone is looking for my name) along with some keywords that I blog about.
As you can see, my display name is “Finsavvy Panda | Save Money, Make Money Online, Personal Finance.”
Depending on your niche, you are going to find keywords or phrases that match and align with the topics you blog about.
There are many different keywords that you can use and take advantage of. However, you are limited in characters given the small field, so keep it short and concise.
Step 2: Fill out the “About your profile” field
It is important to fill out the “About your profile” field when you are editing your Pinterest profile.
Similar to optimizing your display name from step 1, your “about me” profile gives Pinterest users and your followers a quick description of what you blog or write about. As of the time writing this article, the description field only allows you to write up to 25 words so use this space wisely.
Using my personal finance blog, Finsavvy Panda, as a quick example, I typed this into the “About your profile” field, “Save money & make money! Grab your FREE budget printables to help you gain financial freedom. 👉 bit.ly/2Mcccer”
As you can see, I want to target quick and basic keywords like save money, make money, budget printables, and financial freedom.
Here are some quick examples and ideas for different blog niches.
If you’re in the healthy living niche, you can use keywords like:
- Clean eating
- Healthy recipes for dinner
- Breakfast recipes
- Quick and easy meal planning
- Healthy lifestyle
If you’re in the beauty niche, you can use keywords like:
- How to look pretty
- Skin care tips
- Korean skincare tips
- Makeup tutorials
- Beauty tips
- Makeup looks
If you’re in the self-development or self-care niche, you can use keywords like:
- Self-development
- Positive mindset
- Self-care
- Healthy habits
- How to become happier
These are just quick and easy examples to show you how to optimize your Pinterest profile with keywords that Pinterest users or Pinners search for. At the same time, these keywords also describe what your blog and niche is about. You can set up keyword targeting to discover keywords or phrases.
Step 3: Include Your Logo or Profile Picture
You should always include a profile image on your Pinterest Profile. This could be a headshot of yourself or your logo.
By including a profile image, you’ll increase brand awareness of you and your blog as time goes by. On top of that, users who see a profile image, especially if it’s a picture of yourself, will see you as more inviting.
I personally don’t use my own image, but I use an image of a panda which has worked out well for me. I am a shy and very introverted person, but I will probably include a picture of myself in the future once I feel more comfortable! 😊
This is entirely up to you and there is no right or wrong approach to uploading a profile pic. Do what makes the most sense for you and your brand.
Now that you’ve optimized your display name, the description about your blog or website, and included a profile image, it’s time to create your Pinterest boards.
3. Create Your Pinterest Boards
Pinterest boards are where you save, collect, and organize your Pins. Think of these boards as folders or categories to help you keep your Pins, inspirations, and ideas organized. For example, I have many variations of boards to separate my categories for:
- General Personal Finance
- Making Money Ideas
- Saving Money Ideas
- Budgeting Tips
- Investing For Beginners
- Meal Planning On A Budget
Depending on your niche and what you blog about, you are going to create boards that are relevant to YOU and YOUR audience. It’s best to create boards based on your content ideas and what you will be writing about most often.
For example, if you’re in the mommy niche, you can create boards like:
- Baby Shower Ideas
- Baby On A Budget
- Motherhood
- Parenting
- Raising Baby
- Postpartum Recovery
Here’s another example of boards you can create if you are in the self-development niche:
- Personal Growth & Self Development
- How To Be Happy
- Self Love and Self Care
- Positive Mindset Tips
- Healthy Habits
You can use the Pinterest search bar to name your boards according to relevant keywords that get searched for. When naming your boards, or giving your boards a title, always make sure it’s short, concise, and to the point!
You’ll also want to check out how to create pretty Pinterest board covers here for your personal boards. It’s really quick and easy to do! This will make your profile look more professional and organized. I was able to create mine in literally 10 minutes!
In addition to creating your own personal boards, you can also join Pinterest group boards. By joining group boards on Pinterest, you can also save and share your Pins on other bloggers’ boards. Learn how to join group boards on Pinterest and determine whether this is a good strategy to drive traffic back to your blog.
5. Save or “Pin” Pins Into Your Pinterest Boards
The term, “Pinning” is the same as saving or bookmarking.
According to Pinterest’s definition:
Pins are bookmarks that people use to save ideas they love on Pinterest. Pins can be images, videos or products. If you click through the Pin, you can visit the website to learn how to make it or where to buy it.
I’m sure you’re excited to add and promote your own Pins to your boards, but assuming you are a new Pinterest Business user, I am going to teach you how to save or Pin other people’s Pins into your boards first. I also have a great and informative tutorial on how to Pin on Pinterest here.
You may be wondering what is the purpose of saving or Pinning to boards.
To answer that question, Pinterest wants users to save, collect, and organize their Pins into related boards and categories.
By Pinning into relevant boards (which I will talk about more in the next section), Pinterest is able to learn and recognize what your boards and Pins are about.
For example, if your blog post is about “10 Vegetarian Dinner Recipes,” Pinterest will expect users to save this pin into boards that are about “Family Dinner Recipes,” “Meal Planning For Vegetarians,” “Healthy Eating & Living,” etc.
There are a ton of board titles that this pin can be saved to. The more related the board name is, the better it is for your content because Pinterest will recognize this pin is about food or recipes.
DON’T DO THIS: You don’t want to confuse Pinterest by saving your content about “10 Meatless Dinner Recipes” to boards like “DIY Home Décor” or “Budgeting Ideas” because they do not relate to each other at all.
5. Save Pins To Relevant Boards
When saving or Pinning into any boards, always make sure you are saving Pins that are relevant or related to that board.
Let’s use these Pins I created for a beauty blogger with the online Canva tool as an example.
Say your pin leads to a blog post about “How To Get Rid Of Oily Skin” or “How To Get Rid Of Pimples” that looks something like this:
Be sure to save that pin to boards that are related to this topic. Board names or titles like these are okay for you to save the pin into:
- Skincare tips
- Skincare
- Skincare routine
- Beauty tips
- Beauty hacks
- How to look pretty
- Beauty bloggers
- Teenager lifestyle
The more focused and narrow the board is (e.g. in this case, “skincare tips”, “skincare” or “skincare routine”) the better it is.
However, it doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t pin to other more general boards like “beauty tips” or “beauty bloggers” because it’s still relevant.
You still want to save that Pin and reach an audience who may be interested in general beauty tips to get rid of oily skin. Just NEVER save a Pin about skincare to a board that’s about losing weight, making money online or parenting!
By saving Pins to relevant boards, you are telling Pinterest what that Pin or content is about. You don’t want to confuse Pinterest thinking it’s about losing weight, making money online, or a chicken recipe.
I also created these Pins for a travel blog to help you make sound judgment when Pinning your content.
Let’s say your blog post is “Travelling New York City On A Budget” and your Pins look something like this:
You can save this pin to travel-related boards like:
- New York City
- Travel & Eats
- Travelling New York
- Destinations To Visit
- Things To Do In New York City
You could also save this to boards like:
- Saving Money
- Budgeting
- Frugal Travels
- Frugal Tips
That’s because your post about traveling to New York City includes content that teaches your readers how to stay within a budget or travel on the cheap while visiting New York City. There is an audience in personal finance who is looking for ways to save money while traveling.
However, I highly recommend saving a Pin like this to boards like “New York City” or “Travelling New York” FIRST (this is a priority) before you save that same pin into another board called “Saving Money.”
You want Pinterest to recognize this as “Travelling New York City” rather than “Saving Money Tips.”
Next Steps to Creating a Pinterest Business Account
Congratulations, you’ve officially created your Pinterest business account!
If you are a beginner who just started using Pinterest, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the platform before learning traffic strategies. I also recommend learning how to create your own Pinterest Pins by using a handy tool called Canva here.
There is a free version, but I am using the Canva Pro version because it gives you access to over 75 million premium stock photos and it allows you to create folders and organize your work, which is worth the investment! With the free version, you will be limited to free stock photos and you won’t be able to create folders or subfolders to organize your designs.
Canva is very easy to use especially for beginners who have no experience with graphics or design. I have absolutely NO graphic design skills nor experience, but I’m still able to create great Pins that drive traffic back to my blogs, so I do recommend creating a Canva account here!
Once you have a basic understanding of how to create boards and save some Pins, along with creating your Pins to promote your blog posts, your next step is to learn how to get traffic with the platform.
If you have any questions about Pinterest, just send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to help! 😊
Hi Ling, Thank you for this super helpful information! One question for you – I was wondering what are the pros and cons of changing my personal Pinterest account to a business account vs. starting a new business account? I’m a super visual person and have used Pinterest for years! Thanks!
Hi Kerrie
I’m glad you find the information helpful!
It’s all a personal choice, so I wouldn’t say there are pros or cons of either switching or creating a new Pinterest business account.
If you have a personal account and you already have Pinterest boards that are related to what you will be blogging about with all the related topics and pins saved, then you’ll benefit from switching to a business account. Pinterest will most likely have recognized those boards you have. For example, if you already have a board called “crafts for summer”, they know that this is a summer crafts board already, and if you plan to write content about that, you can save your pins in there. As long as you don’t mind that your friends and family are following you and that they know this is your blog, then I would say you can switch to a business account from the personal.
However if you don’t want to mix personal things with your blog then I recommend creating a new Pinterest business account. I personally like starting fresh, and I like having a personal account as a fun thing on the side, but again it is a personal choice and it differs for everyone.
I hope this helps you decide! 🙂
Thank for your response. Yes I would love that article on blog post.
Looking forward to it . Thank you.
Hey Sandrine,
Here is an article on how to write your first blog post for beginner bloggers:
https://www.blogsavvypanda.com/first-blog-post/
Let me know if you find this helpful in writing your posts for pinterest traffic!
Hi Ling, hope you are well.
I have some questions here.
Regarding affiliate marketing are you saying – if I use a kitchen appliance and talk about it in my blog, is it possible to earn from that??
How does that work or what makes it possible?
How are Bloggers paid? Through the bank or cheque? How to join pairbus? How to build out the blog post?
Yes, bloggers can get paid through direct deposit to your bank, PayPal and other different ways. Bank, PayPal and checks are very common. I have a post right here that explains the details of how do bloggers get paid. I recommend reading it to learn more.
Yes, you can earn money online with your blog when you use affiliate marketing. You can recommend almost any product in this world and earn an income including kitchen appliances. There are many of the programs that you can join and if you want to know more about affiliate marketing you can read this article here.
If your blog is completely new and you literally just started it, I do not recommend you jumping right into affiliate marketing yet until you have set up your blog set up correctly and you have content ready to be promoted.
About the blog post, I can draft up an article that teaches you how to write a good blog post. I will let you know once it’s done.
I hope this helps in the meantime! 🙂
Hi Ling
Can you please explain about pinterest plagiarism?
Let’s say I am doing a blog on on smoothie and I searched the internet on benefits of a certain vegetable, how do I include that in my blog, without penalties.
Please explain how to reference to others who are more knowledgeable than me?
Thank you Ling for your time and patience.
I am interested in building my blog, but this is so new it like a different language. Sometimes, I don’t even know what to ask.
Thanks again. Have a good night.
Hi Sandrine
These are great questions that you’re asking, and it’s okay to feel new. Every new blogger will have these questions about Pinterest and drafting their first blog post.
So, if you were reading an article about the health benefits of the vegetable or fruit, and you want to include it in your post about smoothies, you can always reference that article that you got the vegetable information from and link it back to their post.
For example, let’s say you got some facts from healthline.com, you can say something along the lines like… “according to Healthline, this vegetable is…” and create an link for that blurb sourcing it back to the health line article you got it from. This is sourcing someone or an article and it’s also know as “external linking” on your WordPress.
Let me know if this helps! 🙂
Thank you for your response! It is quite helpful.
Hey Ling how are you doing? How do I join GROUP BOARDS on PINTEREST, and how do I get paid with PINTEREST?
Hi Hannah
I recommend visiting this post about how I use Pinterest to monetize my blog:
https://www.finsavvypanda.com/how-to-make-money-on-pinterest-for-beginners/
You can also get tips from my previous blog income reports here:
https://www.finsavvypanda.com/category/blogging/
You’ll need to email the group board owner and ask them if you can join their boards to become a contributor. If you want to focus on learning how to use Pinterest to drive traffic back to your blog, I recommend investing in a course or ebook that will help you. Because I can’t cover everything you need to know about Pinterest in a simple sentence or even in a long post, usually, an ebook or course that is dedicated to teaching you everything about Pinterest is a game-changer to bringing tons of traffic back to your blog. 🙂