How I Get Over 1 Million Monthly Views on Pinterest: 3 Tips for Blogging Success
Due to COVID-19 and the resulting shelter-in-place orders around the world, many people are now working from home.
If they’re lucky, that is.
Others are left scrambling, trying to figure out how to make a living since they’ve been laid off from their jobs. Or trying to get a side hustle going to supplement their diminished income.
That’s why in today’s post, I’m going to discuss one of the best opportunities for those who want to survive in today’s freelance, work from home, social distancing, gig economy.
It’s something that anyone with a Wi-Fi connection can do. It costs very little to start up. And the potential for success is practically unlimited!
I’m talking about blogging.
(*Related article: 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging)
It’s 2020 and starting a blog has never been easier.
So, if you haven’t started a blog because you didn’t think you could do it or you thought it wasn’t “the right time”, think again.
Now is the perfect time to give it a go.
* This post contains affiliate links. I am a Bluehost, Thrive Themes, ConvertKit & Tailwind affiliate, meaning that if you click on a qualifying link and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Please read the Disclaimer for more info.*
If I Can Do It, You Can Too!
Gone are the days in which one had to be some sort of technological wizard in order to build a website – if you’ve got drive, commitment, and a willingness to learn, you can do it.
I’ve been blogging for a year and a half now and boy have I learned a lot!
Related article: What You Can Learn from My First Year of Blogging
Before I started this blog, I had absolutely no prior relevant experience – in fact, I didn’t even know what a blog actually was.
I had zero coding, graphic design, or other technological skills, and no marketing or copywriting experience.
I didn’t know anyone in the blog-o-sphere. And I didn’t have any friends/family who would be willing to share my content or help me get my blog off the ground.
But in this short time, I’ve managed to go from 0 to 1.5 million monthly views on Pinterest and exponentially increase the traffic to my blog – which continues to go up each month.
So, I wanted to share my methods and tools with you in the hopes that they help you to achieve blogging success.
Here’s how I consistently get over 1 million monthly views on Pinterest – and you can too.
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Blogging Success Tip #1:
First of all, you need to have a website. That includes a domain and hosting.
For hosting, I recommend getting a self-hosted WordPress.org paid account, not a free one.
The main reason is because with a WordPress.org account, you actually own and have control over your little space on the internet – meaning you can advertise and sell things on your blog.
It’s worth it to invest in a paid account even if you don’t plan on monetizing your blog right now because you might change your mind later and then it will be a giant pain to transfer everything over.
I’ve had Bluehost since I started this blog and I absolutely love it.
Bluehost is the hosting provider of choice for over 2 million people.
Their customer service (24-hour customer support comes free with your subscription) is excellent. They have helped me on numerous occasions and are always super friendly and responsive.
And at as low as $3.95 a month, it’s totally affordable!
Also, you can get both your domain name and hosting through them, which I prefer because I think it’s easier to have as many services as possible through the same provider.
Not sure what your domain name should be or even what you should blog about? Check out this post & quiz.
*Bonus Tip:
You will also need a theme for your blog – which determines how it will look. If you don’t know how to code and you don’t want to hire a designer for upwards of $2,000, you will need to install either a free or a paid theme. Once again, I recommend buying a theme so that you have a more professional look and so that you get the customer service that comes with it (trust me, you will need it!). I chose Thrive Themes for my blog and I specifically recommend Thrive Architect, an easy-to-use content builder for those with limited IT skills.
Blogging Success Tip #2:
Next, make sure you have the ability to collect email addresses (potential future customers) as soon as possible.
Email marketing outperforms all other types of marketing – including social media marketing.
With social media marketing, you are relying upon that platform (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) to reach your audience.
And we all know how fickle social media platforms can be – remember relics like MySpace or Snapchat?
Platforms that were once the most popular like Facebook and Twitter have now been superseded by Instagram and TikTok.
When you rely solely on social media for marketing, one algorithm change or security breach could seriously inhibit your ability to contact your potential customers.
Whereas when you have a list of email subscribers, you can contact them directly and you don’t have to worry about all the concerns that come with using someone else’s platform.
I recommend setting yourself up for blogging success from the beginning by using ConvertKit professional email marketing.
ConvertKit allows you to prepare emails in advance and schedule them to go out to your subscribers at a certain time.
It also allows you to segment subscribers according to their interests, run A/B testing, set up email sequences, and integrate with your website. And if you’re planning on doing some affiliate marketing, be wary of going with some other email marketing services – some do not allow it.
And the best part is, you can get a Free plan that comes with:
Unlimited, customizable CTAs & signup forms
- 30+ premium landing page templates
- Unlimited traffic
- Customizable domain setup
- Mobile responsive designs
- Seamless Unsplash integration
- Manage 500 subscribers
- Send email broadcasts
- Subscriber tagging
- Creator community support
Click here to create a free ConvertKit account.
Blogging Success Tip #3:
I never wanted to be one of those blogs with flashy advertisements all over the place and pop-up windows and all that pushy stuff.
And to this day, I don’t run ads on my website or have gated content.
I’m really not a salesperson and I struggle when it comes to promoting myself or my content in any way.
That being said, I also understand that to achieve blogging success in terms of traffic, followers, and reach, you have to do some sort of marketing.
I mean, 70 million new blog posts are published on WordPress alone each month – that’s almost 2.75 million posts a day.
So, the competition is fierce and it’s only getting stronger.
You could go the route where you pay for advertising through Google or Facebook, etc. It would for sure get you some fast traffic.
But, I prefer attracting my audience more organically - and for free! - through Pinterest.
My Pinterest Strategy
For each blog post, I create at least two pins. (If you’re interested, I create my pins on Canva, a free graphic design tool.)
I then circulate these pins on Pinterest, where users can click on the image and it takes them to the corresponding blog post on my website.
I save them to 10 of my relevant boards, spread out over the course of 2 weeks, along with other blogger’s pins that are relevant to my topics.
Pinterest has been the single biggest, most essential key to my blogging success. It drives the majority of my blog traffic and there really is a beautiful community of bloggers to connect with.
Pinterest not only drives free traffic to your site, but pins have a longer “shelf life” than other content like Facebook posts or Tweets.
You also have the potential for one of your pins to go viral right from the start, unlike other platforms where you must already have a significant following for any of your content to get any traction.
But the thing about Pinterest is that you have to post an average of 30 times a day for optimal results. And it’s difficult to figure out when exactly you should be posting.
Tailwind: The Most Powerful Tool for Pinterest &Blogging Success
That’s why I use Tailwind. Tailwind is an automated pin scheduler – you can save pins in a queue in advance and have them go out at their scheduled times.
It saves me from having to manually pin all day every day. I can save as many pins as I want to whatever boards I want for as far out as I want!
And the best part is that Tailwind tells you when your audience is most active -so you know exactly when you should be posting your content.
A Tailwind subscription also comes with access to Tailwind Tribes – a collaborative platform for bloggers with groups categorized by niche.
No matter what niche you are in – personal development, beauty, finance, DIY, lifestyle – you will be able to find a Tribe where you can share your pins with other like-minded bloggers.
This group sharing helps to distribute your content to a wider audience and allows you to form friendships/connections in the blogging community.
If it weren’t for Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes, my blog would not be where it is today. It’s a total lifesaver!
You can also use Tailwind for Instagram (although I haven’t because I don’t have an Instagram account).
Tailwind reports that, on average, their members get 1.8x more likes on Instagram and 6.9x more Repins on Pinterest.
Click here to try Tailwind for free.
*Final bonus tip:
Don’t give up. 90% of bloggers quit within 1 year – most after just 2-3 months. To achieve what most cannot, you must be willing to do what most are not. Just hang in there even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable – your persistence will pay off!
Share this & help someone else!
