Pinterest Affiliate Marketing 2024 – Can you Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest Without a Blog?

What is Pinterest and how does it work? How do you make money on Pinterest or passive income? If those questions have been in your mind for a while now, then you have come to the perfect place! 

Promoting your website or online business using social media might be difficult. When you first start out on Instagram and Facebook, you won’t be able to reach a large number of people unless you spend money on boosting or advertising.

So, is it possible for you to market your website for free? And my answer to that is yes. And it’s done through Pinterest.

Get started: What is Pinterest?

Before we get started on how to make money on Pinterest, we would have to talk first about the definition of Pinterest.

When you hear the word Pinterest, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Isn’t that simply a website for photographs and quotes?” ”. Sure, it is, but it is also so much more. Pinterest is a visual search engine for ideas such as recipes, home and design inspiration, and more. 

Simply put, it is like Google where you type something in a search engine but instead of texts and blog posts, Pinterest will give you photos (or videos).

In fact, if you Google various recipes or design ideas, you will usually discover Pinterest near the top of the search results. Consider your own Pin as the first image people see when they open that search result. Viewers will click on that pin or photo, and before you know it, hundreds of people will be on your website.

And, no, you do not need to be tech-savvy to use and navigate Pinterest. 

How To Create A Pinterest Account: Step by step guide

If you’re new to Pinterest, you’ve come to the perfect spot because I’ll show you how to create a Pinterest account that is aimed for making passive income.

Create an Account

To get started, you would have to create an account of course. Signing up for Pinterest is a simple process. When you click the Sign Up button on the homepage, you can quickly sign up using your Facebook or Gmail account. You may also enter your email address, password, and age manually.

Following that, you will be asked a few additional questions, such as your language, area, and five topics of interest.

Create your Profile

Simply click the menu button in the upper right corner of your page and select Settings to modify your profile photo, name, and bio. On that page, you may also begin linking your website and other social networking sites.

Convert to a Pinterest Business Account

If you are an online business, blogger, or content creator, then you already know how important statistics or analytics are for you to grow and see what best practices work for you.

A Pinterest Business Account can provide you with all of this and more.

To convert your personal account, simply click the dropdown option again, go to Settings, and then Account Settings to change your personal account to a business account.

You will notice the option Convert to a business account at the bottom of the page. Simply fill out the required forms and you’re ready to go!

Now that you have your own Pinterest account, you may ask: What if you do not have a blog or a website? Can you still make money on Pinterest or passive income? And my answer to that is – Yes! And that is through affiliate marketing.

Before we move into any details, I want to answer some common questions about affiliate marketing on Pinterest. 

People often ask me: “Can I make money  or passive income on Pinterest with affiliate links if I don’t have any website or write blog posts?”, “Are you even allowed to use direct affiliate links on Pinterest?”, “How do you do the affiliate disclosure to be safe?”, “What are the best affiliate programs for Pinterest?”

In this post, I will show you what you should do with affiliate links to increase your affiliate income with Pinterest free traffic.

 

What is Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Programs?

To get started, what is affiliate marketing?

Simply said, affiliate marketing is the method through which an affiliate (in this example, you) receives a commission by selling the items or products of another person or business. Consider this as you going to networking gatherings and handing out business cards or introducing a product in the hopes of giving him a lead that leads to a purchase.

The same is true for an affiliate marketer’s role: you are someone who introduces items and services from the internet to others, and you receive a commission when a sale is made.

When someone clicks on your affiliate link, a cookie is placed in their browser to determine whether they will complete the transaction, browse other items, subscribe to the company’s email list, and other actions. If the consumer does any of the acts above, the business with which you are affiliated will know that they came from you and will reward you for it.

The advantage of affiliate marketing is that it is a business that can be started for free. You won’t have anything to spend your money on because the products are already existing.

But do remember that it is a best practice to disclose affiliate links and let your target audience know that you are receiving a commission. 

Now, your next step would be to look for and sign up for affiliate programs.

Finding particular businesses that provide affiliate partnerships and affiliate products may be quite time-consuming. This is why there are affiliate programs and networks.

Their primary function is to connect you with various products and organizations that provide affiliate products. These networks will also manage affiliate monitoring, reporting, and payment.

Some popular affiliate networks include: 

• Impact.com Marketplace for Content Creators –  this one is my favorite!
• Awin 
• Amazon Associates
• CJ Affiliate 
• ShareASale 
• RewardStyle 
• Flexoffers 
• Rakuten Marketing

And many more! Your possibilities are endless when it comes to affiliate marketing 🙂

Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Links On Pinterest?

In theory, you can make money or passive income with affiliate marketing and affiliate links because your affiliate links will go directly to the site of the product you are trying to sell as an affiliate.

But in reality, you will find out that most of the affiliate programs will require a website upon registration. You will be filling out applications to join any affiliate program or network, and on most of them, you will have to provide a website.

Some affiliate networks probably will allow you to add links to your social media profiles, and in this case, Pinterest would work perhaps. But just be prepared that most of the affiliate programs will require a site.

Another thing you need to check out as soon as you join any affiliate program is whether or not they allow using direct links from social media.

For example, I’m showing you one of the affiliate networks – it’s called ShareaSale. It has products from many different niches.

If you don’t know where to start and how to find great affiliate marketing offers, you could start here on Shareasale – it’s a really big network that you will most probably find something for your audience and for your niche.

Once you are accepted to the ShareaSale network, you will have to apply for each individual affiliate program separately. This means you don’t have access to all of them by default just by joining.

You need to know that before applying you can open each specific affiliate program and read their Terms and Conditions. Some of the programs will specifically focus on affiliate links in social media. But I have to warn you that not all the programs even mention this rule. 

It is also important to disclose affiliate links and that you are receiving a commission.

For example, for this particular product in their ToS they say clearly:

“SOCIAL MEDIA Promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms is permitted following these general guidelines: (a) You ARE allowed to promote offers to your own lists; more specifically, you’re welcome to use your affiliate links on your own Facebook, Twitter, etc. pages. For example: You may post, “Try PicMonkey for all of your photo editing and graphical needs.”

Affiliate Marketing: How To Create A Pin With A Direct Affiliate Link

Now, let’s start affiliate marketing on Pinterest and earn some affiliate sales!

To give you an idea of how to create a Pinterest pin with a direct affiliate link, I will keep showing you an example using Shareasale. 

So we are going to upload the pin image on Pinterest, add the pin title and pin description with all the keywords we are trying to target with this Pinterest pin, and with relevant hashtags. And one of the hashtags should be #affiliate. 

You can also use the hashtag #sponsored or #ad – this is for disclosure because Pinterest is following the FTC guidelines and it’s a common practice on the internet that you have to make a disclosure.

I don’t recommend placing keywords mindlessly – you have to actually do keyword research and add all the keywords related to the product you are advertising. Otherwise, your Pinterest pin has very little chance to generate a lot of clicks. 

If you want to learn how to do keyword research on Pinterest, here is a video I made:

I also have the Pinterest SEO Traffic Secrets course for those of you who want to dive really deep into all the rules of search engine optimization for Pinterest platform. These strategies will help you grow organic traffic – meaning, you will do the work but you don’t need any ad budget for this traffic. 

So to finish the creation of your Pinterest pin, you have to place the destination link. In this case, it will be a direct affiliate link to the product. 

All you have to do is go back to Shareasale, and among the other links to the product, you will check the default text link. Get the HTML code and select URL only, and you can now place it in your destination link. 

To save the pin, ideally, you will have to create or already have a board with the keyword you are targeting. 

This was one way of using Pinterest for affiliate marketing. And another way that could work even better, in my opinion, is by adding your affiliate links on your website or blog. 

An example of such a post would be: Best Gifts for Mother’s Day.

In a blog post, you create a collection of great gift ideas and explain why each of these gifts is so amazing.  This provides additional value and builds trust, so people read your post and really feel they should buy that gift. 

The same applies to products is Picmonkey from my previous example. If I just send them directly to Pincomkey’s landing page, they might get interested but since they don’t know how to use the tool, they will just leave the site without buying. 

However, if you send them to your blog where you explain how to use Picmonkey and why the tool is so great, you are adding value and building trust – and conversions are higher if you use this method. 

But of course, it requires more work from you, so you could actually try both and see what works best for each specific product or offer. I’m sure that depending on the product price, it can be easier or harder to sell with direct affiliate links.

It depends on the niche and on the types of products that you are promoting with your affiliate links.

How To Start Making Money With Pinterest Affiliate Marketing

Now that you’re convinced that affiliate marketing is a profitable side hustle, let me walk you through the steps to start using Pinterest for affiliate marketing. And you can take my word for it since I am one who practices Pinterest affiliate marketing and have successfully marketed a large number of items from my affiliate partners.

So, how do you get affiliate sales on the platform?

Find your niche

Whether you write blog posts or not, you still have to determine your niche. What products do you want to promote? This implies that before deciding on a product or service to market, you should have at least a basic understanding of what the product is and what category or niche it belongs to. Is it fashion? Tech? Travel? Beauty?

You would want your Pinterest profile account to be organized and not put in just random images of products.

If you do, make sure you separate and organize your pins into different Pinterest boards.

However, the benefit of writing blog posts is that a blog post can help you describe the product more effectively and you can convince your readers to check out your link. 

Create Pins that are Eye-Catching 

A great Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy is to create pins that are high-quality and eye-catching. Do note that users on Pinterest get attracted to pins that are vertical and has a bright photo. 

Another great way is to do collage pins that showcases products. This especially works for OOTD pins, holiday product recommendation pins, and more.

You have to always remember that Pinterest is a visual search engine so you will have to attract your target audience with appealing Pinterest pins.

Who Should Use Pinterest?

Pinterest is an amazing site that can be your main source of traffic and affiliate sales, therefore it’s ideal for anyone with an internet company, a website, or their own social platform. Or in other cases, those who do affiliate marketing!

Pinterest may help you present your business or website to a broader audience with only a few free pins!

eCommerce Business Owners

If you offer or sell products, Pinterest is an excellent place for marketing them. You may share individual photographs or a collection pin of your top products! And, thanks to recent Pinterest changes, you can also create short videos that effectively promote your items. This also works if you offer digitally created things like art, pictures, and more!

Remember that the majority of Pinterest users are consumers and people looking for inspiration (decor, apparel, etc.), so take advantage of this because there’s always a high chance that you will reach your target audience on the platform!

Service-based entrepreneurs

Pinterest is one of the best social media platform to market yourself and your services if you are seeking for clients. Pinterest is home to individuals who live off of content marketing since you can simply do it for free on the platform and are likely to reach a large number of new users!

There are several pins from service-based businesses such as online coaches, freelancers, and others who use Pinterest to advertise themselves and get new clients. I do Pinterest Coaching for professionals and bloggers myself, and I constantly receive new clients via Pinterest.

Content Creators

Pinterest is the hidden weapon of every successful content producer. Yes, bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and other social media influencers go to Pinterest when they need traffic on their platforms and to reach their target audience. 

Pinterest attracts interested individuals, therefore if you provide intriguing material, you will undoubtedly gain a few more following with your target audience through Pinterest.

And, unlike Google, where it can take months (or even years!) to reach the top or even the first page of search engine results, Pinterest simply takes a few days to promote your content to a large number of people.

Affiliate Marketers / Affiliate Marketing Professionals

Just like what I have already explained in previous points of this post, you would want to go to Pinterest if you want to earn passive income through affiliate marketing. Pinterest is a playground for affiliate links! Yes, amazon affiliate links, and other affiliate products.

All you need to do is start with affiliate marketing and make affiliate pins and follow the Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy and best practices I have provided, and you are already good to go! 

Here’s another tip for you: If you struggle to understand the basics of search engine optimization for Google, check this free training by Mike Pearson who has his Google SEO figured out and making over $10,000/mo with each of the two niche blogs he runs.

If you found this post useful, you might want to save THIS PIN below to your Pinterest Marketing board to check the post later when new updates are announced.

Pinterest Affiliate Marketing 2024 – Can you Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest Without a Blog?

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1. Can You Make Money With Affiliate Links On Pinterest?
2. How To Create A Pin With A Direct Affiliate Link

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