On October 2, 2010, my hipster friend Lisa asked me to join an exclusive invitation-only website called Pinterest. Her exact words were, “This is a website I think most of us could fall in love with.”
Lisa needs to get herself a crystal ball and change her name to Miss Cleo, because truer words have never been spoken.
Instantly I was sucked into Pinterest, where columns and rows of pin boards updated regularly to reveal amazing photos of recipes and organizing tips and home interiors and gardens. I became a pinning zealot, staying up late at night to scour other pinner’s boards and find beautiful pictures to repin. I absolutely loved it.
Nearly two years and 20,000 followers later, I still adore Pinterest. But my reasons for loving it have changed. I now love it not only for the unending stream of ideas it produces, but also for the referral traffic it sends to my little blog. As a blogger, Pinterest has been a complete game-changer for me. I wrote a lot of tips about my experience with the power of Pinterestlast year, but today I want to give even more specific advice on how to get your blog entries to go viral on Pinterest.
First, let me explain some background history just in case you aren’t a regular reader here.
When I look back through my blog stats, there is a clear shift in my traffic beginning in November of 2011, and I give all the credit to Pinterest. A full year earlier in December of 2010 I had written a short entry with instructions on how to take glowing pics of the Christmas tree that I learned from Click Workshops. That post sat on my blog for a nearly a full year with just three comments on it from personal friends and no other activity. Considering I only had about five readers back then, this wasn’t a big deal. But then one night while perusing my sitemeter stats I discovered that there had been thousands of page views to my small personal blog in just a few hours. Suddenly, all these comments started rolling in for this year-old blog entry. I was stunned. It didn’t make much sense until I was able to pinpoint the referring URLs that brought such an enormous wave of traffic. Em from A Bunch of Scrap and Stacy at KidStuffWorld had pinned and repinned the picture of my son in front of the Christmas tree with a description of “How to take Glowing Pics of the Tree”.
And just like that– within the span of a few short hours– the image of my little boy standing in front of our bright Christmas tree went viral on Pinterest. Those two ladies unknowingly gave my blog the biggest boost of it’s career.
For weeks the image blasted across Pinterest like that sheep on the Sheep Launcher game on my iPhone. Just when it would begin to lose momentum and fall back down to earth another popular blogger would repin it and shoot it back out into the universe like a woolly little pin-ball in aviator goggles. Every time my blog stats spiked I imagined a sheep pin-ball bouncing around and racking up thousands of points along the way. Is it weird that I just admitted that out loud? This is how my brain works, people.
Since that first viral post, my blog traffic has grown steadily but significantly, and I’ve come to rely on Pinterest as the main source of traffic generation for my blog. And I’m not the only one. According to this recent article from TechCrunch, Pinterest sends out more referrals than Twitter, StumbleUpon, Bing, and non-organic Google all combined in the great referral race. If you are in the food, DIY, craft, interior design, fashion or any other girly blogging niche, Pinterest referrals should be your analytics bread and butter by this point. If you are in one of these niches and haven’t seen a significant boost in your traffic from Pinterest, then keep reading. This post is for you.
Last March my friend Rachel at Grasping for Objectivity emailed me to ask what all the Pinterest fuss was about. She wanted my advice on how to make her posts more pin-worthy in an effort to drive more traffic to her blog. Rachel is a super-witty mommy blogger who I like to call the Queen of Jeans. She has been posting hilarious entries about how women should avoid the dreaded long-butt in mom jeans for years. But as a mommy blogger, she was struggling a bit with how to make her posts more pin-worthy. She was also interested in the “geekery underworkings of new social media”, to use her words. After we exchanged some emails she put her backfield in motion and made a few small changes to the way she presented her blog entries and photos.
Here is the advice I gave Rachel on how to make a post go viral on Pinterest, along with a few other Pinterest etiquette tips I’ve picked up along the way:
First and foremost, make sure your blog images are able to be pinned! If you use flickr for your blog photos, your pics might not be able to be pinned. If your images are showing up saying “Sorry You cannot pin this image” then you need to read this post on how to make your images pinnable again.
Write pinnable and viral worthy content. Duh…. pretty obvious, but it needs to be said. Your post needs to tell people how to do something faster, better, cheaper or easier than they’ve ever heard before. Or it needs to stand out as something unique that grabs a pinner’s attention and holds it long enough to get them to click through to your site. If you’re lucky, they will like what they see and stick around for a while.
Create a pinnable graphic image. Whether it’s a “How To” DIY post or just a beautiful picture that showcases your talents, make sure every post on your blog has an attention grabbing and eye-catching pinnable image.
Write a catchy headline for your images. Think of pinnable images as tiny magazine covers. You’ve got one shot to grab attention, so make it count. A straightforward description on your photo lets the pinner know exactly what they are getting themselves into if they click on that pin. This can be an excellent way to get the “pin now, read later” crowd. But on the other hand…
Don’t cover up great photography with text. Sometimes a pin needs no introduction because the image is beautiful enough to speak for itself. Just let the caption do the talking and keep the image free of clutter. “Pinterestizing” photos by placing text labels on them is so common now that sometimes it’s refreshing to pin pretty word-free images that don’t smack of an advertising campaign. Also it’s sexier not to reveal too much up front, right? Keep the mystery alive and all that.
Create and join collaborative boards that are relevant to your audience. If you want a more social experience and a way to gain more exposure for your pins, team up with other bloggers or pinners in your niche to create a few specialized collaborative boards. Zina Herrington at Let’s Lasso the Moon is a MASTER of the collaborative pinboard. The Parent Watercooler collaborative board has nearly 300,000 followers, with each pin averaging about 100 repins each. With hundreds of repins it doesn’t take long for a popular pin to spread like wildfire.
Be very descriptive.. I always try to have good etiquette and type out a detailed description of exactly what I’m pinning onto collaborative boards instead of a just posting randomness like “cool site!” or “heck yes!”. If you are descriptive, this allows the pin to be more searchable, which results in more repins. I also try to mention the original source in my comments since it’s just nice manners to give credit to someone for their work. Now, I’ll admit that I don’t edit every single repin with a full description, but if I pin something original for the first time, I usually try to get a fair amount of info in there.
Get social on Pinterest. Or don’t. Your choice. 
There are long conversations, discussions and debates happening in many of the comments on Zina’s boards, which is what really makes Pinterest an interactive social networking site. I enjoy the social aspect to an extent, but I will admit that a lot of days I just want to retreat to my happy place and pin in silence inside my pin boards. There is no right or wrong way to use Pinterest for social networking, just please remember to be kind in your comments. Keep in mind that the original poster has access to all pins back to their site, which means they can and will read your comments about their projects. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, then don’t post it in a comment section. It’s just good comment karma, in my opinion.
If you are wondering how you can see what people have pinned from your blog, simply enter this in your browser: http://pinterest.com/source/insertyourdomainhere.com and replace the “insertyourdomainhere.com” with your website’s domain name. This should take you to a page of pins that people have pinned off of your blog. Prepare to become a stalker of this page. If you’re a dedicated blogger it’s a great barometer to see your most popular posts and what people love from your site.
Don’t post The Ugly. Another great pinner who gets a ton of pin comments is Michael from Inspired by Charm. At the time of this article has over 1.5 MILLION followers (and quickly multiplying) on Pinterest. Isn’t that awesome?! Michael says he has no idea how he got so popular, but I have no doubt it’s because he pins only the most beautiful and inspiring things he finds. Plus he has really good taste. In my experience, most people like for their pin boards to be chock full of beautiful, magazine worthy pictures. There are exceptions to this, sure, but overall, if you want to see your blog posts get more attention you need to be posting pretty stuff because that’s what people like to pin.
Be cautious about pinning for money. This has nothing to do with going viral, but everything to do with your reputation as a pinner. This is my own personal opinion on this matter, and those you who are allegedly making millions off your pins will laugh in my face to read this, but please don’t pin a ton of stuff just to get paid for them. I’ve been approached by a number of companies offering to pay me for pinning their products to my boards. Aside from the fact that it is kind of shady, I don’t want to lose credibility with my followers because I’m spamming up their pinterest feeds with products that I may or may not like just for a paycheck. I also know that it would be glaringly obvious if I started pinning products like a madwoman when my past pins are not product centric at all. Pinterest is my little happy place. I don’t want to spam that up. Now, if I got paid to pin pics of pretty houses or gardens, then…. maybe. LOL
Put a “Pin It” button at the top and the bottom of your blog entries. Hard code it in there or do it by hand every time. It’s pretty simple to figure out how to hard code it if you can use Google and have a little time. Even if you just keep a draft post with the code in draft at all times, use that “Pin It” button! There is a book out about common sense website development practices called Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. It basically says don’t make your readers work for anything. Make your site as obvious and intuitive as possible. Putting a Pin It button right at hand just makes sense if you are hoping to go viral.
Give your pinnable images a very descriptive title. This is yet another way to make life easy for your readers that takes about .002 seconds of your time. Here is what my code looks like for the image at the top of this post:
title=”How to go viral on pinterest- tips for making your blog traffic skyrocket from Pinterest referrals by Unskinny Boppy” src=”http://unskinnyboppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/how-to-go-viral-on-pinterest_thumb.jpg” alt=”how to go viral on pinterest” width=”504″ height=”504″ />
Note the title= wording in bold. If you hit “Pin It” on this post and choose that first image, the descriptive title will automatically get popped into the comment section of the pinterest box so your readers don’t have to do any work. They can edit if they choose, but it’s already filled in for them if they are lazy like me.
So there you have it. That is the gist of what I told Rachel about how to use Pinterest to it’s full advantage. Some are painfully obvious, but if you follow these guidelines you might see some unexpected success. In Rachel’s case, she took all of that advice and ran with it.
And I’m very happy to report that last week, Rachel’s butt went viral while she was attending BlogHer in NYC. Her post about The Gap selling gateway mom-jeans got pinned and repinned by a few popular bloggers, and BOOM. Rachel’s rear end became an overnight Pinterest sensation. She got so much traffic from Pinterest that her host’s server crashed, then her backup server crashed, then much panic ensued, all while she was trying to enjoy the BlogHer conference. She finally got things sorted out with her host, but only after enduring the whole site-crashing viral pandemonium ordeal because of a few pins by a few people who were pleased by her posterior-posing posts. She just might have the most famous fanny on pinterest at the rate she’s going.
Here are some of the ways Rachel took her site to a new level with Pinterest. After our March email exchanges, Rachel created a personal Pinterest tracking page for her most popular posts. (Sigh….I can only daydream about being so well organized.) She shares how she created her tracking page at the Birmingham Blogging Academy. Basically, she kept track of how many referral visits that her most popular blog entries have received from Pinterest and also how many repins they’ve gotten. Her simple home-grown analytics system reveals some interesting information that I wanted to share with you.
They show a clear trend of the two specific types of pins that drive the most traffic.
1. The Pin First, Read Later pins
2. The Read First, Pin Later pins
Of course there are many other types of pins out there, such as the Pin Now, Read Never pins– These are the pretty pictures of far away lands that I will never visit, or the fields of lavender that I will never smell, or the inspiration quote that makes me get misty eyed, or the hilariously obscene one-liner e-cards that crack me up. These are the pins that don’t entice me to click since it gives me everything I need right up front. The picture just makes me happy or the joke makes me laugh, so I pin it on a whim with no intention of ever going to the website to see more. These particular pins might result in a ton of repins, and I’m sure they do drive some traffic to the sites, but I don’t think that they are the type of pins that will get a consistent influx of traffic to your blog.
Since this is a post about how to go viral and I could likely write an entire e-book out of all the different types of pins, let’s focus on those two types mentioned above for now.
Rachel says of the three posts that she’s had go viral on Pinterest, the least productive was her 101 Books to Read Aloud to Children post. It’s had over 60K repins, but only brought about 27K hits to her website. Now, I know that 27,000 visits is a significant amount of traffic, but to have had 60,000 pins you’d think it would have been more productive for her blog traffic. But this was a classic Pin First, Read Later post that people pinned simply to keep on hand in case they need it for reference later. This a much easier pin for people, so will get around quicker because it doesn’t require a lot of effort.
In the middle was her “How to Teach Your Toddler All 50 States At Breakfast” post. It got 29K repins, but brought 42K hits to her blog. The graphic title was intriguing and eye-catching, which brought a fair amount of traffic to her site.
Finally her Gap sells mom-jeans post, which has 45,000 repins on Pinterest, but has driven a whopping 360,000 hits to her site with no signs of slowing. This was the post that crashed her server. And this is a shining example of why the Read First, Pin Later type of post is the ones that will give you a case of the virals.
So according to Rachel’s (admittedly highly unscientific) findings, if you’re going for immediate hits to your website, you should try to write the Read First, Pin Later type posts. In other words, make your pin so juicy that all those bored women perusing Pinterest just can’t resist clicking it. If you want to achieve a slow but steady stream of traffic, you should try to create a Pin First, Read Later type post. There are advantages to both types, and in my opinion, you should aim to create a mixture of both types on your blog.
Another interesting thing to note from her findings is that one of her posts that has had nearly 30,000 pins was actually written in 2009, long before Pinterest ever became popular. Just like my Christmas tree post, her long-archived blog entry was rejuvenated by Pinterest popularity. In Rachel’s words, “all I did was make a pretty graphic, and bam – it went nuts.” So, if you are an established blogger with years of blog entries under your belt, you might want to spend a little time dusting off the old archives and “pinterestizing” the graphics in a few of the better posts that got little attention. Ask a few friends to pin the new graphic for you just to get the ball rolling, and then see what happens. If the post content or the picture is eye-catching enough, you might stumble upon a little treasure trove of traffic that might not have ever found you otherwise. AND you don’t have to spend time writing a new entry to get it. Because let’s face it, blogging is time consuming work. I’m all about cutting some corners and using what you have to save effort.
Speaking of graphics, let’s back up just a second and add a few more tips to the list….
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Pins. As I mentioned in the list above, an eye-catching pinnable photograph is the first basic step for a viral post. You’ve got to make your blog image to stand out in the sea of overwhelmingness that is a Pinterest feed. Also, you’ve got to make it easy for your readers to pin. If you haven’t noticed, most bloggers are putting their most pinnable image right up at the top of the post where it’s front and center and blatantly obvious. Both Layla from The Lettered Cottage and Heather from At The Picket Fence shared this great tip at the Haven Conference, and I want to share it here. Think about what pictures you want to be your most pinnable from the very beginning of your project. Consider it when you are staging and snapping your blog photos. Along with the other pictures you take of your project/ room/ recipe, take a few pictures that are off centered, so that there is blank space over to one side where you can add text for a title just as a magazine cover would. When you are editing your pictures, take one of the off-centered pictures, slap a bold title on it and make it 100% clear what the pinner can expect to see on the other side of the click-through.
This is a great way to generate the Pin Now, Read Later type of pin.
One of the most in-you-face examples that I’ve seen of using a Pinterestized picture to make a blog post go viral is this “How I Organized my Entire Life” post from Modern Parents Messy Kids.
Photo via Modern Parents Messy Kids
Have you seen this one?
It’s very clever, even if it’s a bit sneaky. The author took a pic from Martha Stewart Living, added some catchy text in a readable font, and inserted it into a blog entry about all the things she WANTED to do to organize her entire life. About halfway through the post she says “And then I woke up. DAMN. IT. “ I laughed so much when I read this post, because it was the perfect bait and switch Pinterest marketing ploy. She’s had 245 comments and thousands of repins from that one image. Somebody give this lady a standing ovation. Well played, my friend.
Another Pin Now, Read Later post that has been an huge source of Pinterest driven traffic for me is The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Painting Wall Stripes.
I haven’t had any overwhelming surges of traffic from this like I have with the Christmas tree post, but instead I’ve seen more of a steady but consistent stream of traffic trickling through from it. This is the ideal way to go viral, in my opinion, since major traffic surges will send a self-hosted blog into a 404 tail-spin of server crashes if your host can’t handle the load. Talk about stressful! That is something we’d all like to avoid even though it’s a good problem to have. That is exactly why I put a nice easily pinnable image right up at the top of this post in the hopes that it will become a Pin Now, Read Later post for some people. Plus. a nice steady stream of traffic over many months is what allows me to let my blog coast for a few weeks without posting. I still have traffic and page views coming in to older posts, sometimes even more than I do with new posts. Everyone must have Christmas in July fever, because my Christmas tree post has skyrockted again in the past month, sending tons of traffic to my blog. I KNOW that my posts have gone really viral again when two of my in-real-life friends in different parts of the county send me facebook messages saying that they had just seen Garrett’s picture pop up in their Pinterest feeds and gush about how famous I am. LOL! I don’t feel famous in any way, shape or form, but Garrett’s backside sure is! Come to think of it, maybe my son has the most famous fanny on Pinterest! Sorry, Rachel. hehehe.
Brainstorm ways to write creative content that will get you to the top of the stack. Need help brainstorming? Here you go… People on Pinterest (read: middle aged home-owning women) love “how to” posts with easy ideas showing them how they can do things themselves. Appeal to all the inner Virgos of the world by demonstrating how to organize home or closets. Show them a shortcut to create their favorite recipe in less than 30 minutes. Women love shopping. And fashion. They love shoes and handbags and jeans that make their butts look good. And pretty updos that don’t take all morning to create. Women are vain. Women love to pin exercise and workout ideas. (No comment on the follow-through.) Women love Christmas, Halloween, Fall and Easter decorations. Imagine how much traffic all those elf on a shelf list ideas have gotten and will continue to get! Women love fun or educational ideas for their kids. Women love ideas on what to feed their toddlers and pack in their kids lunches. They love photography tips. They love pretty new free font ideas. Women love decorating their houses and looking inside other people’s houses. Women love planning weddings and feathering their imaginary or real baby nursery nests. There are MILLIONS of blog ideas that could go viral at any moment. I encourage every blogger out there to climb aboard this Pinterest wave and ride it to the end, then figure out what the next wave will be.
Ultimately, there is no exact magic formula that will make your posts go viral on the internet, but hopefully some of these tips can work for you. Sometimes it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right post. It’s certainly an exhilarating feeling to see your numbers climb to places you once thought were unreachable. I hope that every blogger gets to experience it a few times in their career. But when it does happen please promise you’ll head back over here and share your post in the comments.
Just don’t forget your aviator goggles, mmkay?
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out the Social Media webinar from March 12, 2013 where I discuss the NEW look of pinterest and the analytics it offers for your pins, the best types of pinnable branding and size for your photos, along with some good info on how to save valuable real estate inside your blog posts.
omigosh. so much fantastic information. i will have to read it six more times to take it all in. and i pinned it. fabulous!!
Thanks Skye!
Great post and tips as always, Beth!
I explained how to make a Pinterest Tracking Page on this post: http://birminghamblogging.com/2012/06/25/guest-room-three-hacks-to-access-your-sites-pinterest-statistics
It’s pretty heady, but there it is! If anyone wants help with it, I’m available.
Also – Beth, I totally think that you should go into business selling the service of “back-pinteresting” people’s blogs. Find their posts from 08 and 09 that would be Pinterestable, tweak a cover photo, then pin it for them. I thought about it, but I don’t have time. Plus, you’re better with pretty than I am.
Thanks Rach! I’ll update the post with your link on that tracking page.
Oooo that’s a great idea about the business! Hmm, I could make the graphics but they’d have to dig through their own archives. There isn’t enough hours in the day to do that for them!
Thank you both for the wealth of useful information here! You should trademark the term “back-pinteresting”!
Great post, Beth! Love these tips.
Thanks Erin!
oh wow!! What alot of great information!! I have never taken seriously the titling of my pics. Changing that!! Thanks!
Definitely do that, Janel. It’s easy for us as bloggers to do it, and I love it when an image is pre-filled out for me on Pinterest. Saves so much time in the long run.
Beth, this is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing! I re-read 5 times
Thanks Miriam! I re-read it a couple of time to edit out the 4 am errors that I made! LOL
Beth- another great blog post. I am a fan and you are terrific.
Wow, thanks so much! I really appreciate your kind words!
This is, hands down, the BEST Pinterest post I have ever read! Thank you!
Well, ROCK ON! That makes me smile!
Thank you SO much for the information! (I think I need to pin this
–Elena
‘a casarella
Please do pin it! Thanks for sharing!
This post is incredible….I had no idea!!…truly printing this incredible information for my files to refer to often!!!….Popped over from the Hometalk FB page!
Aw, thanks Shirley! If you print it out does that mean I’m published? Hmmm LOL
Seriously amazing Beth! I have to go back slowly and absorb every detail…and pin it of course! lol Thank you for the shout out…wow to be in the same sentence with the lovely fabulous Layla is an honor.
What’s so funny about your tree post is I totally pinned that WAY back before I even knew you. lol Glad that has changed, as I think you are the best!
Heather
Thank YOU for all your great advice at Haven! And for being one of the big bloggers I was referring to that picked up my Christmas tree post and made it so popular! I’m so glad to have met you too! I have really enjoyed getting to know you personally and see your blog grow!
Fantastic info – read it first, pinning it now
Ha! I’m glad you took my words to heart.
Wow Beth – what a post! There’s sooo much here I need to go over it again and again so I don’t miss anything. Thank you for the great advice and Happy Pinning (oh, that reminds me – I have to Pin this!)!!
Thanks so much Heather. It’s a huge beast of a post, I know! You remember how I said I couldn’t get motivated to write anything these days, well this is what some caffeine and an all-nighter will produce from me.
I’m now back here…reading this post for the third time! Such great information! Thank you so much for sharing!
Jessica @ Mom 4 Real
Thanks so much for absorbing it all! I know it’s a lot to take in but I had so many thoughts it was hard to edit them all down.
Amazing. WOW that is great information! Where do I start?! lol Thank you so so much for this post!
Jen
Pin first, read later, Jen! LOL
You are a Pinterest superstar! Thanks for the great info.
Kelly
SUPAHSTAR!!! :throwing my hands in the air and taking a knee:
Insanely good post Beth
Thank you, thank you my dear.
xoxo
Thank you for sharing this! Lots of information! I need to re-read this again!
xx
Anne
Thanks Anne!
Great and informative post Beth! I’m going to have to pin it and read it 100 times to absorb everything you said!
Great article. I pinned that Christmas tree so many months ago! It was one of my first pins on pintrest. I just read this one via fb. Most “tips” are common sense info but you’ve really provided some great tips here, so thank you! I have a blog that just sits idle and I always dream of ways to make it go idle. One day…
Great post Miss Shimmery Fabulous Christmas Tree Girl
Loved this post!!! I am not a blogger (yet), but this makes me want to try it! I love Pinterest and this is one of the best articles about it that I have read to date!! Thank you so much for the info and ideas! Pinning for my followers!
I really enjoyed your post! Lots of interesting information to take in.
Talk about an eye-catching title
I love it. It drew me in from way across the blogosphere 
And now my pinterest genuis……
……I’m pinning this!
blessings,
karianne
Such GREAT information in this post. Thank you for sharing some of your insight. I especially appreciated the tip about the link that can be used to check things that have been pinned from a site. I suspect you’re right that I’ll become obsessed with that little gem.
first–I’m pinning this! hahaha
Second–I remember that post and that picture of your son
third–I saw you a few times at Haven, and regret we never had the opportunity to “meet”.
great post Beth!
gail
This was such a great read, Beth! Great job!!!! So many little tips and tricks I wasn’t aware of. I’m hoping to go viral {well….maybe someday….} until then, I’ll get to creating & pinning!
I am SO pinning this!!! Beth, I think this is so amazing. I had no idea about the importance of naming the photo. I’ll have to reread that part before it sinks in. And I had no idea that was your little boy in that photo of the Christmas tree!
Awesome Stuff, girl! This post will definitely go viral!!!
Yup! I can tots see the breaks, now! Sorry, I’ve been sick and am just now getting on my feet!
Great post Beth! I’ve had a few blog post go viral but nothing like Rachels! I too just recently got an email from a friend in CA telling me they say me on the “everything” board! Woohoo I feel like I’ve made it in life! lol.
Great, great, great post. I’ve been playing around with ways to make our posts more pinnable and to drive more traffic to our blog through Pinterest since I read that same stat about traffic sources. You’ve given me more concrete things to do and challenged me to improve my content to make it Read First, Pin Later or even Pin First, Read Later.
And I was one of those thousands who repined your Christmas tree shot — via my mom — but it was definitely a read later pin for me.
But when I saw the post on Blogtalk on Facebook about this post, I hopped over immediately!
Amy
Thank you for all the great advice and for helping me see Pinterest in a whole new light! Blogtalk said this was a must read!
Hugs and thank you again,
Bj
Thank you so much! I think this is the most informative blog post that I have ever read! I will use all of this info!
LOVE IT!!! Such an amazing post! Found ya via Pinterest, too!! Well played, playa!
PINNING this now!
Great information, my friend!
Thank you so much for this info, very helpful!! (And, naturally, I found this post through Pinterest). I just wanted to say something about the blogger who took the image from Martha Stewart Living…not only is that illegal, I think it goes against the very spirit of what you’re talking about. Even though Martha Stewart Living is a big company, someone took the time and effort to set up and take that photo, and in my opinion, those are all Pinterest hits that should be going to Martha Stewart’s site and not the blogger’s. If someone doesn’t have the capability to take such a beautiful photo, the answer isn’t just to go steal someone else’s, it’s to learn to take better photos for your blog! Or buy the rights for an image from an inexpensive stock photography agency like iStockphoto or Shutterstock. Photographers deserve money for their photos, please don’t just steal them, even if you credit the original webpage!
Great info and tips! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, Beth, this is some kind of informative Pinterest post. You and Rachel are so smart, so much to take in. I haven’t used Pinterest nearly as much as I need to & it is my #1 source of traffic, so I need to get going on on learning some new skilz!
Oh my word I remember you now!!! I started blogging late last summer and I came across your tree picture and was like, “holy crap this girl rocks”! Then in the midst of life and being “blog” confused and overwhelmed, I lost you
So I just clicked on your post from blogtalk and violia, I found you again 
hehe. GREAT post and the fact that you kept my attention through it (I’m guilty of being a photo scanner reader) is amazing! 
Nicely done. Pinned and saved so maybe I can get some more pinterest traffic. Thank you !
Great post! Thanks so much for the well detailed scenario of pinterest. Although I think it’s “a happy go lucky” world out there on Pinterest.
Beth,
I came over to say thanks for your kind comment on my guest post over at Heather and Vanessa’s and got lost in your blog! It’s fabulous. I thoroughly enjoyed the info regarding pinterest.
Thanks again,
Lynn
Great post! TONS of great tips, I loved it!
Anna
Pinterest brought me here and I’m so glad I came to “read first and pin later”. You have filled my head with some great information and I can’t wait to see how it affects my pin-ability. Thanks so much!!! Off to pin this
Pinterest actually brought me here and I’m SO glad I clicked through. Such a wealth of information and such a friendly, generous post. I’ll be putting all of your tips into practice. Thank you!!
One of the people Pinterest “allocated” to me when I first joined, got so many repins on whatever he pinned {he’s a great pinner!} that I couldn’t believe – it was, still is, 1000 or 2000 repins on ONE pin, all of them. So, I checked his profile – he has {last I looked} 1.3 million followers! I enjoyed your post and will look out for more from you.
Linda
This was so interesting! Thanks Beth! I was going to stop there but realized that I sounded so generic it could possibly be spam. I learned a lot, especially the tip about titling your pictures. Great stuff!
Wow. Great tips. I can’t wait to try some of these tips and hopefully generate some traffic to my blog. Thanks for sharing. ~ Angie
Beth, what an awesome post! Thank you for sharing such a wealth of knowledge about Pinterest. I’m quite certain this one will go viral
WELL DONE! I’m going to use your tips and hope to go viral someday too!
This is fantastic info! I use a lot of the tips that you mentioned and have picked up some new ones after reading this!! It is so amazing to see a blog post go viral and I have had it happen a few times now and I learn from each one what I did differently each time. Pinterest has become by far my number 1 traffic referral. It was a game changer for me as well! Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this great stuff!! Cheers!
Fantastic advice! Well written, a very enjoyable read! Thank you!
What a great post! Shortly after starting my blog I realized that about 75% of my traffic was coming from pinterest, but nowhere near the numbers you and your friend have seen! Way to go! I’ll just keep plugging (and pinning) along and keep my fingers crossed. Such good information- a lot I already knew, but a lot I didn’t!
Thank you do much for this blog!!! Your picture inspired me to read now, pin later. I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a while but have had doubts because I thought, ” we’ll who would read it?”. Guess I never thought of this. Also, I’m a candle consultant and have been trying to get business to my site through pinterest and I know you said don’t pin for money-would you say that’s the same thing? I’m not really finding much luck as far as traffic to my site.
Thank you again, your new follower….
Hey dear! Excellent advice and I just actually read the WHOLE THING in one sitting….AND will pin now!
My website: http://www.TitusTwoFriends.blogspot.com is more of the relationshippy stuff, and I’m working on making it more Pinteresting. What works best for “adding text” to photos? Any suggestions?
Keep up the good work–you have a nice writing style (very engaging and informative). And CLEAN (spelling, grammar, etc)–my red pen didn’t twitch even once!!! Whoohooo!
Deb in West Virginia <
If you’re looking for an easy and FREE way to add text to photos, try photoscape. I use it to add text, blur out children’s faces (I’m a teacher,) and individually edit photos. It also has a great “batch editor” feature which allows me to easily add a watermark logo and detailed photo name to all photos with one click. It works for me! http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php
The best tips ever! Thanks so much! I just have had some difficulty in pulling up that Pinterest tracking page. Maybe It’s user error and I need some lessons in Geekery too! Keep up the good work, you have inspired me so much!
Seriously great information here – Just two questions that I think would make this post a comprehensive resource:
1. How big should you make your photos?
2. When is the best date / time to pin on pinterest?
Blog on chica – can’t wait to read more!
Just started blogging this week. I only have two articles, one introducing myself and the 2nd to promote my new business. I’ve been pinning for about 6 months. I’ve been reading tons of blogging ideas, it’s hard!!! Did you have a lot of computer knowledge when you started this? I thought I was pretty computer savvy, but it’s way more tough to figure out than I thought. Anyway, very interesting blog. Keep up the good work!
I recently discovered your site via pinterest on that wall stripe post no less. That post is what brought me back today cause I’m in the mood for some serious striping. After reading this post, I believe, my new friend, I am here to stay. You have a heart of gold. Thank you for not pining just for money. Thank you for organizing such brilliant information for us newbie bloggers. .. and thank you for all the awesome DIY ideas – can’t wait to dig into your archives!! Your talents and heart are appreciated!
xo – tami
Wonderfully helpful info–thanks for sharing all of your insights! It is very appreciated
Beth- I must admit that when I did a skim over of your article I thought I was going to get the same pinterest marketing rehash I have seen all across the web. Thank you for disappointing me! I am quite glad I read your post to the end.
One thing I would add to your “Get social on Pinterest tip,” and that will make your life a lot easier, is to use PinAlerts.com. This is a free tool that automates checking the Pinterest source page and sends you an alert when you have a new pin. In your case I recommend receiving a daily digest of your pins, so you are not overloaded with alerts =).
I fully disclose that I am a co-founder of this site, but it will still save you a lot of time! Keep up the great work and pics! ~Paul
Thanks so much for commenting, Paul! I’ll check out PinAlerts and see what it’s about.
Beth- I thought I would let you know that your comments cannot be read on the iPhone or iPad. I’m emailed all the new comments on this article, and I read all of them. However, any time I try to do it on my ipad or iphone your site won’t allow it. I am a heavy user of mobile devices, so I may be an outlier. Yet, I thought I would let you know. ~Paul
Thanks for letting me know. I’m not sure what is causing this, but I’ll mention it to my website designer. I can see the comments from my iphone, but I haven’t checked from my ipad. I wish I knew how to help!
PS- I’m going to be part of a Google Hangout on March 12th discussing how to use Pinterest to it’s fullest potential. I will share the link once I have more information, but I’d love for you to tune in!
Best of luck with the comments. Send me the link when you find out about the G+ Hangouts. I will definitely be there if I can make it. ~Paul
Ah, I just realize that I follow your Pinterest for Business boards!
Great site!
If you are following us then you saw this post under our Pinterest Marketing board =). You will have to let us know if there is anything more we should cover.
I know you get pitched all the time, but it would be great if I could convince you on doing a review for PinAlerts.com. There are a lot of people who would benefit from PinAlerts, but getting above the noise on Pinterest is difficult to do.
If you are interested let me know! Again, thanks for your valuable insights on Pinterest!
Beth, thanks for the great insights and the link to the Birmingham Blogging Academy!
No problem, Wade!
Thanks to Rachel for letting me talk so much about her rear!
Wow. Such incredible information you’ve shared. Thank you so so so much! I’ll be looking at blogging/Pinterest in a whole new way.
Thanks Beth,
You are Appreciated So Very Much. I’m Fun
of Viral Marketing and Pinterest puts the Icing
on the Cake for the Spread of a High Quality
Content Marketing Message, as I Now
Understand it even better reading Your Post.
Thanks Again for spending the time to
share Your Thoughts. I’ve already
Re-Pinned Your (PIN) Message with an
Awesome Image that Introduces some
Real Advantages in life’s Journey…Peace!
ok, i haven’t read all the comments and replies, but i have a question – one of the times pinterest changed format several months ago, the amount of people i had repinning my things dropped significantly. i always pin the things i blog about into my blog board and i used to get lots of repins on them and was slowly building up traffic {i’m a newbie}. now, the only people that repin things i pinned are people that are following me on pinterest. it’s like no one else can see them unless they’re following me. and if i search the pinterest.source/yourdomainnamehere.com thing, NOTHING i’ve pinned, anyone following me has pinned, or anything that was pinned before this change happened, shows up. do you know why that is?
Beth, That was very informative and helpful, thank you. I have to say, as a new gal on Pinterest (only 2 mos under my belt), I am fascinated. I am looking to start my blog, and need tips and help….ugh, as I am more creative than technical. I am a mom, jewelry maker, but would like to express my other kooky antics, that keep the creative juices flowing, in revamping my Newport Beach condo. Any tips on starting my Blog…… ? p. s. That simple xmas pic truly is adorable!! Shari
YES this: ““Pinterestizing” photos by placing text labels on them is so common now that sometimes it’s refreshing to pin pretty word-free images that don’t smack of an advertising campaign.”
I have become so burnt out lately with Pinterest being nothing but photos with “must-read” title texts screaming across them. They depress me, as they seem like headlines that say, “I’m only in this for the money” and make it obvious that the blogger wrote the post specifically to get pins and lure traffic, not for any of those old fashioned motives of the old days like helping people out, making connections and other corny stuff.
I never click on them or pin them, just because I’m kind of snarky that way.
Great post, and I love your writing style.
Great post Beth! I have seen that picture of your son many times
I have a post that has gone a little viral myself and it’s so funny/awesome how it just keeps going and going! Too bad it”s an image I didn’t watermark. This was a very informative post Thanks!
Hello my dear Beth – your wonderful post here has gone viral, hasn’t it? I’m spreading it around a little more today by linking it to my great blogging tips and advice post too!
This is a pretty good post and does help with the pinning/blogging connection. I’m in a weird position because I have bazillions of followers on pinterest, but my blog is still really small. I’m pretty sure that’s because I’m mostly an art and creativity blogger and art is just not the most popular topic on pinterest. Whenever I pin about food and crafts, I get much more traffic. I need to take some of your hints on the technical stuff.
You mentioned that some people don’t know why they got so popular… I know why I got so popular. It’s the pinterest folks. They liked my boards in the beginning and made me a tastemaker. Then, when they got rid of the tastemakers (I wish they’d bring it back) they made me an automatic follow for new pinners. Then when there was some conflict over the content of my artsy boards and political opinions and I got into trouble with flags, they took me off the automatic follows and I slowly lost about a quarter million followers, leaving me about 400k. Now I’m back on the automatic follows, but only for my “art and paint” board, and my followers are almost up to a million (!) It makes me a little nervous, knowing how much trouble I got into when people who didn’t choose me were made to follow me, but so far, no problems.
It’s kind of weird being famous on pinterest. I’ve had some people in real life recognize me. Anyway, let’s see what happens when I pin your post.
This is some really good info and tips. I’m excited to try them when I get my site running. And I have to say you are very witty! Thank you for sharing!
How do I find creative collaborative pin boards to join? Thanks for the info!
Thanks for sharing all of your great tips. Pinterest is absolutely amazing and I am trying to fully utilize it. Thanks again – Have a wonderful week
Damn fine post! I kept having to come back to it as there was SO much information in it, and I’d started reading it in the middle of a hectic breakfast time on the farm!
Thank you!
Janie x
PS I shall go repin in honour of a good viral explosion
That “How I Organized My Entire Life” photo is total copyright infringement, and I don’t think anyone should be encouraged to take someone else’s work or photo & use it to get traffic or pins.
I’ve seen that image on pinterest, only to find it a stolen photo used as a ploy.. I was bummed to see it here.
This is fantastic, and exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’m taking notes and preparing to implement your suggestions right.now. <3 do you mind if I share your post on my blog?
Thank you for this. I have an entirely new outlook on the images I pin and post on my blog. You have inspired me to make changes and be more conscious of my pictures, instead of just focusing on content.
Loved this article. I skimmed it and then freaked out because you know Rachel here in Bham and I do too…craziness! Love how small the blogging world can be sometimes. I had the same type experience as you with a post going wild…my chicken & spinach pasta bake and the hits just keep on coming…love it! There’s still room to improve though, thanks for sharing and I’d love for you to come follow along with my boards on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/hmbrown1/
You are SO WISE!. I joined a community bord & I try to look at ALL the people who pin to it. Thats how I found you thru someone elses repin to a blogging board. I think I have beautiful boards, I make lovely jewelry & pin some to MY STYLES bd. I started blogging- http://Blog.BeadZbyRoz.com where I share my story of my transformation into beading. How do I post my blog to Pinterest? What advice can you give me? I want to go viral. I want to inspire others that it is NOT too late to start again. I’m 73 & doing all this social media stuff & I was a technophob. I’ll do whatever you say! Thanks
You said: “Every time my blog stats spiked I imagined a sheep pin-ball bouncing around and racking up thousands of points along the way.” That does sound a little eccentric, but is really just a manifestation of an active and highly creative mind, in my view. I enjoyed your boog very much.
I love Pinterest. Browsing pinboards is such a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share my interests. It is really great news that even those without an invite can just sign-up for Pinterest now. I didn’t get an invite, but I just applied to register and Pinterest sent me an invitation a couple of days later. So, it wasn’t hard to get an account.
Do you like pets? If so try my site: http://www.mypetpins.com for some animal images to pin.
So much information….will re-read and pin it! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. feel the hugs wherever you are!! xo
Great tips, Beth, and thanks for the links.
Great post and helpful info – thanks so much Beth!
hey beth! i love all these posts of urs! such amazing, creative and fun information!
plus i feel like repining everything from ur diy boards on pinterest! Fabulous fabulous work and incredible ideas. i gotta visit this site more often now. U got one more fan now!
Thanks so much Raveena! You’re so sweet!
What great information!! I have a question for you — where do you learn to make your buttons? Trying to learn all of this bloggy stuff. It’s time to get serious
BTW — LOVE the tree photo. How sweet!! No wonder it went viral.
Thanks Gabby! You can use Ribbet.com or picmonkey to add text to your photos for a pinterest “button”. Is that what you are talking about here?
I’m getting my feather duster out now- ready to go over the archives. Excellent advice!
Ha! Dust away! Wanna come do the rest of my house while your duster is out?
WOW – Well, it totally worked on me, and I, like others here, feel jaded by all the “Pin me Now!” images in my feed. But I popped over here and read the entire post – TWICE. To me, this just illustrates a main point – write and post pinnable (quality) content! You have a great writing style, and this is just full of information. And now I will subscribe to your feed to see what other jewels of wisdom you have! Bravo on this one!
Very helpful info. Thanks!!
” . . . all those bored women perusing Pinterest” (Hilarious).
Great post. Thank you!
Great info. Thanks for the detailed info on pinterest. Not a lot out there to read in regards to this side of Pinterest.
Hi there! I’m relatively new to the blogging community, and was forwarded this email by my friend Angela at http://lipglossbreak.com. All I can say is….WOW! I have so much to think about. I had no idea that these tools existed (or, better yet, that the very people who get millions of pins would actually TELL US HOW TO DO THAT TOO!) This is really incredible.
Thank you so much, for your lovely post and blog!
Best,
Amy
Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against
hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on.
Any recommendations?
Great post – one of the best (if not THE best) I’ve read on this topic. I’m going to employ some of these suggestions and hope that I can do it as well as you do. I love to write and have two blogs, but I seem to be suffering from the infamous writer’s block right now. I think you’ve sparked my enthusiasm, and I’ve even thought of some topics! Thank you for the inspiration!
just found you through that christmas tree pic on pinterest. the pic that we all try to achieve every year. your blog is great. having a great time wandering around reading your articles. just subscribed to you.
i just started a children’s fashion blog a few months ago and having a community of people like you willing to share tips is great!
thanks
C
Great info! Allows me to research before restarting my blog!
Thank you and I look forward to more along these same lines!!!
Loved this post! Boy do I need some help because my pins aren’t getting pinned all that often. Any tips you could offer. Now that I’m retired from my full-time job I hope to be able to blog more often. I blog for the fun of it my blog isn’t monetized. If it was, I might make enough money to buy a starbucks chai latte once a week!
Why users still make use of to read news papers when in this
technological world the whole thing is available on net?
I so needed this! My blog, Photography and Faith, gets hits from Pinterest the most. But my pins aren’t always appealing lol I guess I just need to make them prettier! I have a big thing with the “pin now, never read” because I post lots of photography and quotes.
thanks for sharing your tips Beth! I have been trying harder to follow a lot of these. One question would be do you have any tips for how to become part of a collaborative board without starting one of your own from scratch?
I read first and am pinning now
Good stuff!
I’m just diving in and this post was a huge help. Thanks for the inspiration!
These are great tips! Thanks, girl!
Such a great post. Thanks for breaking it all down for us!
Someone from Australia started following me on pinterest and I looked at their boards and saw this post and as I am a new blogger I read it, you are what do they call it? A GENIUS! thanks for the elaborate and awesome post…blessings!
Thanks for the great and helpful information! Boy, do I have a lot of work to do! Haha
this is the information that I really needed to help my blog. Thank you so much. There was so much info on here that I ahd to save it on my computer so I can read it again and again.
What a great post! So much information! Definitely going to PIN it so that I can keep coming back. My question is this: how do you get invited to group boards? lol Does that sound silly? I had gotten invited to a few from people I didn’t know so I declined and now I”m thinking that maybe that was a mistake??? Just curious.
Thanks for such a great post. 
Thanks for sharing all the “secrets!” I don’t know how to add titles to my photos, though. I am a blogger. I scanned the comments to see if I was missing something. I don’t have Photoshop – maybe that’s the problem?
Margo- the title can usually be changed when you upload the photos or before when save the photos to your computer. Just rename the images for your post with a pinterest friendly title instead of “IMG 4424″ or whatever your camera auto-names them. Hope this helps!
Thank you!!! This is the most amazingly thorough and helpful post on pinterest that I’ve come across.
I’m going to have to re-read it and definitely do it. Naturally, I found this post through your pin
Great post! This is so helpful! I’ve recently discovered the need to “pinterisize” photos and since I’ve started doing that, I’ve received a lot more traffic. I’m slightly obsessed with repinning posts and photos I’ve come across, but never really used it to my own personal advantage. Thanks for the great ideas!
I have had several of my “MANICure Monday” nail images get repinned only to get my bubble popped when they led to a no end crap site with tons of other random pics. Luckily I always watermark my pics but still I’m losing the traffic from the coming straight to me. How do we handle those situations?
That is so frustrating and unfortunately so common these days. Lots of bloggers are truncating their feeds so their content cannot be scraped easily and reposted. This slows down the scrapers but it doesn’t stop them completely. There are plenty of people with enough time and inclination to sit there all day and copy/paste your stuff onto their own blog. I’ve had it happen very, very often. The content scraper sites will just delete your comment and ignore you when you ask (or demand) that they remove your stolen content. I think if every blogger filed a Google complaint against them they might get blacklisted by Google which would put a big dent in their site traffic.
As for the blogs who just feature your pics without your permission– it’s up to you how to handle that. If they link back to my site I typically don’t mind too much if they use my pics. I’ve recently learned that is just the price of putting stuff out there on the internet- it’s bound to get taken. I have tried to ask people to take down my content and wound up feeling bad about it, so I’ve made the decision that if they are an individual blog (not a scraper site) I won’t ask again. It’s not worth my time to be policing my photos when I put them out here to be shared by the world.
We haven’t been able to gain much traction with Pinteret. Will give this a shot. Thanks for the advice.
What great info! Thanks so much for sharing!!! Life to the full, Melissa
Thanks for all of the great tips! Happy pinning!
Reading this months after you originally posted, but it just shows the power of Pinterest, since that’s how I came to your blog! Excellent post. I’m a new blogger, and I’ve already noticed a huge difference in hits when I Pin my projects.
thanks for the advice. I’m new to Pinterest and still trying to figure it out.
Great advice! Thanks for your honesty and openness to help others succeed!
Wow! This is one great entry and is very useful too. Thank you for your beautifully written tips and examples Beth. I am glad to have found your blog!
Great post, going to read it a couple of times as there is so much info, and then try and use it!
Great article! TFS
Great post. I just had someone today ask me how to go viral on Pinterest. I’ve had a few Pins that were very popular but one that drives my blog everyday. It’s been pinned well over half a million times but. In the 8 months since I’ve posted it I have had over a million page views on that post alone. It is absolutely insane! In fact I have even developed a product based off of this DIY post. I would love to share more of my “From Pinterest to Product” success story if your interested. Lesley
What a helpful post! Thanks!
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Wow, this was a great post. I loved the part about how nice it is to have some text free images. We do tend to get crazy with labeling everything! I am, of course, pinning this post.
I totally remember pinning that christmas tree lighting post and it seemed that it was everywhere. It was good advice too. I was able to take some relatively decent pic of my daughter in front of the lit tree.
This post is great! I’ve started working on a lot of my images to make sure they’re pinnable. What happens when there are no famous bloggers pinning your posts? What do you then?
Howdy! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to check it out. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Superb blog and wonderful design and style.
I just wanted to post to say thanks for writing such a fantastic advice ridden article.
I am new to Pinterest, having a website and have just posted my first blog; so this was a great help.
I’ll be taking all your comments on board and hoping to get some success in driving traffic to my site.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the article. Very interesting and I must put some Pinterest links on my blog!
Thought you might be interested to see this use of Pinterest: http://9gag.com/gag/1852845. This photo grabbed a large amount of screen space!
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Great post with lots of great information. I am a very new blogger and will be using these tips!
Thanks again,
Katie
That was a great article Beth, thanks. I’m loving pinterest and it’s clearly driving good traffic.
I love the reach that it has and also the longevity of pin life.
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with
Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success.
If you know of any please share. Thanks!
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Some great Pinterest tips we are going to try thanks BETH!
Very good blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any discussion boards that cover the same topics discussed here?
I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get opinions from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Bless you!
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A lot of great information!
Absolutely great post; thanks for sharing all of this information! I loved the MPMK post and had to leave a comment over there as well making it 266 comments
) That picture of the glowing Xmas tree is beautiful! I’m still stumped as to why none of my posts haven’t gone viral yet though. I put a lot of time and effort into thinking up great topics and even design pin worthy images/graphics. Of course, I’m still building a following 
) Seriously, though, I feel like my images are just as pin worthy as others so not sure what I’m doing wrong. Would it be too much to ask for you to stop by and take a quick look at some of my most recent posts? Maybe you’ll be able to spot something? I’d really appreciate it! I also write for The Blog Hangout too: http://www.thebloghangout.com/communities-on-google-are-you-reading-the-guidelines/ and http://www.thebloghangout.com/9-things-your-blog-site-should-contain/ are my most recent.
Thanks so much for posting this! I’m a new blogger and all of this information was really helpful! I’m glad I found your blog!
Marie H.
www. progressionbydesign.com
{Melinda} Great article … our blog doesn’t really fit into the DIY or crafty category. It’s basically a mentoring blog for mamas and doesn’t often lend itself to “traditional pins.” But slowly we’ve developed a “look” to our pins that is recognizable and we try to add a short bit of text that tells how this article is beneficial.
Last week, we pinned a post on “How To Stop Your Child’s Whining” that received more than 1,000 repins (great for us) and our traffic hit levels we’d never seen before. This was an old post … we just redid the graphic and pinned it. Never thought it would provoke that level of response. You just never know …