Ninjas are stealthy, cunning and swift. They can pass from room to room without being seen or heard. Scale a tree like a cat without making a sound. Balance upon the top of a pole with grace and ease...
Wait, what does all that have to do with Pinterest?
By adopting the stealthy ways of the ninja and applying it to promoting your blog posts, you can boost blog traffic and gain more recognition on one of the most powerful marketing tools on the internet.
And let me stop a second to say I can't stress this enough: if you're a professional blogger you NEED to be on Pinterest! Not only do you need to be on there, you need to be active! It's free, it's fun, it's popular and it's not uncommon to go viral. When I decided to start blogging for profit I started posting my blog posts on Pinterest and my daily page views went up by the thousands.
If you're completely new to Pinterest and now sure how to get started, please check out the book recommendations at the end of this post.
Welcome to my dojo. Here you will train to become a sly Pinterest Ninja. You will learn how to approach your audience silently and gracefully and ATTACK them with all your might... with your awesomeness.
▲▲ Pin and Re-pin ▲▲
Some of your Pinterest followers might only get on Pinterest a few times a month (and some less than that, imagine!) so there's a great possibility they've missed your post on their feed. Re-pinning your post will make it appear on your follower's feed again thus giving them another chance to catch it. Don't re-pin all your posts every day. That's just plain spammy. I find it's best to re-pin no more than two different posts a day.
▲▲ Join Group Boards ▲▲
Pinning your image to a group board can expose your posts to tens of thousands of Pinterest users instantly no matter how many followers you have. There's a group board for just about every topic in the world.
Note: the more followers a board has, the better!
Note: the more followers a board has, the better!
Looking for a group board? Check out this crazy awesome group board finder here >> Pin Groupie
Or take the super easy route and join this Facebook group page >> Pinterest Collaborative Boards
In the Facebook group Pinterest users post when they are accepting contributors to their group boards. Just follow the instructions they give.
▲▲ Revamp Your Main Image ▲▲
Let's say you have a stellar post that you're super proud of. You know it's a winner and you put it on Pinterest.... but no one's pinning. What's the deal? An image will get overlooked on Pinterest for several reasons. Among them are:
It's a bland image - it's simply not eye catching.
It's too busy - there's so much happening in the image that it's hard to see what the post is about.
It's too busy - there's so much happening in the image that it's hard to see what the post is about.
Vague photo and title - no one can tell what the heck the pin is about.
Poor quality photo - hazy, small, low quality photos are an instant deal breaker on Pinterest.
Poor quality photo - hazy, small, low quality photos are an instant deal breaker on Pinterest.
So try, try again. Redesign your image, find a style that works and stick with it!
Revamping an image is also great to do if you're using the "Pin and re-pin" method. This will keep your regular followers from getting burnt out on seeing the same pin on their feed over and over.
Revamping an image is also great to do if you're using the "Pin and re-pin" method. This will keep your regular followers from getting burnt out on seeing the same pin on their feed over and over.
▲▲Target all the Audiences! ▲▲
Make multiple images for a pin that will appeal to different genders, races and personalities. This is great to do if you have a blog post that can benefit all types of people. Here's a visual aid for ya:
I made two images for one of my most popular posts just for Pinterest.
The one on the left is rather simple and will appeal to a very wide audience. The one on the right I design specifically to catch the eye of hippies/bohemians/free spirits - a group of people I know will definitely enjoy the post.
▲▲ Make Your Graphics Longer ▲▲
Longer graphics take up more space on a Pinterest page, thus making them very eye-catching.
After I started making my pins longer, I noticed a significant rise in the number of re-pins I was getting.
Longer pins are great for tutorials. You can give a viewer a great sneak preview of how doable a project is.
Longer graphics take up more space on a Pinterest page, thus making them very eye-catching.
After I started making my pins longer, I noticed a significant rise in the number of re-pins I was getting.
Longer pins are great for tutorials. You can give a viewer a great sneak preview of how doable a project is.
▲▲ Pin all the Images from your Blog Posts ▲▲
Don't just pin your main title image. Pin everything and put them everywhere.
A gorgeous photo of the pancakes from your latest recipe blog post can be pinned to your board about photography as well. Why is this important? Let's say someone is only following your photography board. Those pancakes will turn up in your followers feed. They see the pancakes and how yummy they look and see that the image came from a recipe. They just might be tempted to click the image to check out your post to get the recipe.
Don't just pin your main title image. Pin everything and put them everywhere.
A gorgeous photo of the pancakes from your latest recipe blog post can be pinned to your board about photography as well. Why is this important? Let's say someone is only following your photography board. Those pancakes will turn up in your followers feed. They see the pancakes and how yummy they look and see that the image came from a recipe. They just might be tempted to click the image to check out your post to get the recipe.
▲▲What NOT to Do ▲▲
Being a Pinterest Ninja is all about stealth and subtlety - not cheating and dishonesty - or spamming.
No matter what you've read or heard before NEVER change a pin's URL to your URL - even if a pin is not linked to anything. NEVER claim another person's internet property as your own.
That's just plain dirty.
That is NOT the Pinterest Ninja way.
Being a Pinterest Ninja is all about stealth and subtlety - not cheating and dishonesty - or spamming.
No matter what you've read or heard before NEVER change a pin's URL to your URL - even if a pin is not linked to anything. NEVER claim another person's internet property as your own.
That's just plain dirty.
That is NOT the Pinterest Ninja way.
If you're not sure where to get started or need more reasons why you should join Pinterest or if you find the concept of Pinterest confusing, please check out these books:
