HOW TO GO VIRAL ON PINTEREST IN 2023

Want to know how to go viral on Pinterest? The Pinterest algorithm has changed a lot over the past year or so, and old tactics that were once gold-standard in the Pinterest world simply don’t work these days.

In fact some of these actions can now even get your account penalised! And nobody wants to go to Pinterest jail. Believe me, I’ve been there and it’s not a nice place!

This is why you need to keep up with the Pinterest trends to increase your chances of going viral.

Unfortunately many blog posts about going viral on Pinterest are no longer up to date or simply don’t contain enough useful information that can really help you succeed with Pinterest.

Some bloggers even omit the truth about things they did to make a pin go viral such as paying to promote their pins because they don’t want to admit they essential bought their way to success.

These days it is a lot more difficult to go viral on Pinterest than it used to be.

It is still completely possible though, so I have gathered all the information I know and put it into this easy to follow blog post so you can implement the ideas.

Here you’ll find Pinterest tips and tricks, as well as all you need to know about how to give yourself the best chances to make a pin go viral on Pinterest in 2021!

Before we start I’m going to go through some important things you need to know about Pinterest and separate some Pinterest myths from facts!

It is crucial to have a good understanding of Pinterest to get the most out of it and to be able to use it to your potential!

So… What is the Benefit of Going Viral on Pinterest?

You are probably wondering what is the point of going viral on Pinterest right?

It’s not as popular as Instagram, Facebook or TikTok and it’s not going to help you get collaborations or press trips so why should you bother using it?

The truth is – if you are a small business owner or a blogger, Pinterest can be a game changer. It can drive a lot of traffic to your website FAST.

And in the long run that is way more valuable than gaining followers on any social media platform.

What more website views means:

• you can potentially make more sales if you sell products on your website.
• you can earn more passive income if you have ads on your website.
• it can help you to get accepted by an ad network (and therefore earn some money) if you currently don’t have that much traffic coming to your site as most advertising companies require a decent amount of webpage views before they approve you.

Basically more website views means more money for you. And I’m sure that’s something you are definitely keen for.

After all – you’ve done all the hard work on your website so isn’t it only right you make some money through it?

How Does Pinterest Work?

Many bloggers actually overlook Pinterest as a way to increase revenue and website traffic because they simply don’t understand how it works.

They think it is just another social media channel, and something popular only with middle-aged mums who want to look for home interiors or recipe ideas.

But Pinterest is far more powerful than just somewhere for people to go to get inspiration on home decors and food. And it isn’t even a social media channel.

Pinterest is a visual search engine. Imagine Pinterest as the picture version of Google.

Someone types in what they are looking for in Pinterest, then pictures or ‘pins’ come up that best match what they are looking for (like the websites that come up when you search on Google – only Pinterest displays images instead of words).

The person clicks on one of the pictures for more information and then they get directed to the website that is attached to the image – which is hopefully your website! It’s as simple as that!

But Surely Google is a better Search Engine than Pinterest??

So Pinterest is a Search Engine. But surely people just use Google when they want to search for something? Yes of course, but a lot of people like to search for things on Pinterest because Pinterest is visual.

Having pictures instantly makes it easier for people to gain inspiration – whether that is for future travels, interior design or what to cook for tonight’s dinner.

Many people will of course go through Google instead of Pinterest, and the majority of bloggers will be oh-so-familiar with our good old friend SEO – Search Engine Optimisation.

Search Engine Optimisation is basically knowing how to optimise your posts so that they will rank well on Google. It’s a lot easier said than done to be able to master SEO.

If you’re new to blogging and are still learning the ropes, here’s one thing you need to know. If you have a good understanding of SEO and keyword research then your articles will perform better on Google.

Better performance and higher rankings on Google means people are more likely to click on your website. So the goal with SEO is really to get your articles into the top 3 on Google (ideally position #1).

BUT it can often take months for Google to rank your article. And even if you write a kick-ass blog post, Google may not even rank it if your website is new because it doesn’t yet deem you as an ‘authority’ (how rude right?!).

The game of SEO with Google is a long and slow game – it can take around 6 months just to rank for an article and for people to start noticing it! This can be quite disheartening for some people.

Pinterest SEO is Instant!

Luckily though Pinterest can rank your content STRAIGHT AWAY!

The search results for something you type into Pinterest will be completely different to the search results that will come up if you type the same thing into Google.

As Pinterest ranks ‘pins’ straight away, even if you are a new blogger and you know you don’t have a hope in hell to rank on Google for your article – or even you are an experienced blogger but you have written about a very competitive keyword, if you know how to use Pinterest properly – or even just a basic understanding, you can get traffic on this article on the same day! How amazing is that!

So yes, whilst a blogger (or any website) who ranks well on Google with SEO will (almost) always do better in the long run, Pinterest is a great place to go to get extra traffic for your website.

Do not rely on it as your main way to get traffic though – you still need to work on SEO for Google!

Should Bloggers Focus On Pinterest SEO Or Google SEO?

I will be honest and say as a consumer I much prefer Google to Pinterest. Google will always give you the best answers straight away as it prioritises trusted and high quality websites.

With Pinterest this isn’t always the case – they don’t even take your Domain Authority or age of your website into account when deciding how to ‘rank’ your pins.

I know this may offend some people – but do note this is only a small minority of bloggers that I am talking about when I say what I’m about to say. And if you are totally honest I am sure you will agree too.

But I do actually see Pinterest as an easy way out for some bloggers who don’t want to put the time into creating high-quality and informative articles that will rank on Google.

They see Pinterest as a shortcut to get traffic and would rather focus on mastering Pinterest and creating beautiful pins all day as opposed to working on SEO.

The amount of times I have clicked on a pin because it looked eye-catching and professional, but when I read the article it was really not very good quality is incredible.

And I’m sure the same has happened to you. You kind of feel cheated right? So yes do work on Pinterest and increasing your views, but please write good quality articles first!

Does Instagram Drive More Traffic To Your Website Than Pinterest?

Now you may think that if a blogger has over 100k followers on Instagram (for example) then they will automatically get a ton of traffic to their website from their followers swiping up to read their articles.

But actually this is simply not the case. In my experience and in the experience of blogger friends who have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, Instagram has an EXTREMELY low conversion rate.

In other words, it is very hard to get people off of Instagram and onto your website. People just want to click through stories or scroll down.

They aren’t looking for anything in particular – they just want to stay on the app, mostly as a way to procrastinate or pass the time.

With Pinterest on the other hand, people are actively going onto Pinterest to try and find something.

They are looking for something – whether it is inspiration for their bathroom redecoration or ideas for how to decorate a cake – it could be a million different things.

They are going onto Pinterest with the aim to find an image that will lead them to a website that will contain the information they are looking for.

People rarely just scroll down endlessly on Pinterest – they are actively looking for something that will catch their interest and lead them to a different website. And that website could be yours!

So even if you have a small social media (or no social media!) following this does not matter for Pinterest! Pinterest works independently of social media platforms.

Even if you don’t have that many people following you on Pinterest, you can still get many website clicks every day!

If you’re like me you probably suffer a lot from imposter syndrome on Instagram and often doubt yourself as a blogger or compare yourself to others, but Pinterest can be a great way to not feel like you are in a comparison game!

Another great thing about Pinterest compared to Instagram is that anyone can still find your pins even years after you have posted them!

Try doing the same with a popular hashtag on Instagram – and good luck. With pins you can still gain traffic from them years down the line!

Just like posts on Google written years ago can still be found easily, the same is true of Pinterest.

This makes it a much better time investment than Instagram as all the time you invest in Pinterest should hopefully pay off in the end. I wish we could all say the same for Instagram!

HOW TO GO VIRAL ON PINTEREST

So now we’ve got all that out the way (phew) we can move on with what you really came here for – how to go viral on Pinterest!

There are some boring admin bits you need to ensure you have done correctly first before you create your pins. Setting up your account correctly will help you later on down the line.

Setting Up Your Pinterest Account Correctly

• Business Account: First you need to make sure your Pinterest account is set up correctly. Make sure you have a Business Account and not a personal account. This way you can get access to all of the analytics for your pins and account.
• Use Your Brand Name: Make sure your Pinterest account is the same name as your website or your Instagram handle and not your personal name (unless that is the name of your brand!) so it is in line with your brand and people can find you quicker.
• Set up your Pinterest profile: Write a bit about yourself, what your website is about, and include a profile picture. Make sure your face is clearly visible in the profile picture and it isn’t just a picture of scenery with a tiny you somewhere in the middle. If people see a face they are more likely to want to follow you, plus your followers will instantly recognise you. It just makes it more personal.
• Claim your website: By claiming your website you can access the analytics for the pins from your website. You can see how many impressions, saves and website clicks each pin creates (whether it was pinned by you or someone else). You will see when your website has been claimed as a little globe with a tick will appear next to your website URL on your Pinterest account.

And a little time needs to be taken to set up your boards. This was my least favourite part but trust me it needs to be done well to help your pins rank later:

• Create relevant boards: Create boards that will reflect the kind of things you pin about. For example if you are a travel blogger you may want to have a different board for each country or city you have written about. Creating boards helps you stay organised and helps other people who visit your page as you are both able to access specific pins quickly.
• Make sure you create enough boards: Definitely do not just pin everything into one folder as people won’t want to look at that and it doesn’t look professional. Be sure to create enough boards – I have over 100 so don’t be shy!
• Give the boards a title and cover photo: Make sure you name your boards clearly so it is obvious what people can find inside each board. Make sure to give each board a cover photo that has a nice picture on too so it entices people to click on it. I create my board covers with Canva so I can write the board name over the photo. There is also a space for you to write a board description – more about this below.
• Create a ‘Best Of …’ Board: And also make sure to create a ‘Best Of…’ board and keep this board at the top so people can see all your pins together if they wish.

Now that is done you can start pinning! There are several things you can do to increase your chances of making a pin go viral:

• create eye-catching pins
• optimise your pin with keywords
• optimise your boards with keywords
• pin images from your blog posts as well as your pins
• pin at the correct frequency and time
• pin to your most relevant board first
• promote your pins ($$)
• participate in group threads
• pin to group boards

Of course you don’t need to do them all, and most people (myself included) never promote their pins. I’m just telling you all the available options.

The first two bulletpoints however are the most crucial ones so we must learn how to do these if we want to increase our chances of going viral on Pinterest.

Let’s take a look how and why:

1. Create Eye-Catching Pins

YOU NEED TO CREATE AN IMAGE THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO CLICK ON!

The number one thing you need to do to increase your chances of going viral is to create eye-catching, scroll-stopping pins. As I mentioned earlier – Pinterest is a visual platform.

When you type something into the search bar in Pinterest you can get thousands of relevant images popping up. But how does the viewer know what pin to click that will give them the most information? They don’t.

All they can do is scroll down until they see a pin that entices them enough to click on it and learn more. Just like on Google where somebody clicks on the title of an article that they like – only Pinterest uses an image.

But as there are so many images on Pinterest, you need to make yours stand out so people will notice it and actually want to click on it.

Make sure you use a high quality image and that it has been edited well – if you are looking for some Lightroom presets to buy to save you time on your editing you can buy my preset pack here for $15 (for desktop and mobile!).

The presets are incredibly versatile and compatible with literally any photo and this is one of the cheapest but high-quality preset packs you will find.

If your picture quality is poor then it sends out the message to the viewer that your article is also going to be of poor quality so make sure you only put out good pins.

A high quality picture will give the viewer the impression that the article is going to be of equally high quality. Please don’t disappoint them yah?

Read below for step by step information on how to actually create these eye-catching pins!

2. Optimise Your Pin With Keywords

YOU WANT TO GET YOUR IMAGE TO THE TOP OF THE SEARCH FOR THAT KEYWORD

Not only do you need to create eye-catching pins but you want your pins to appear at the top of the search.

There’s no point spending ages creating a beautiful image if it is stuck right at the end of the search (or not even visible on the search!) and people have already clicked out of Pinterest before they have even seen your pin!

This is why you must spend the time to optimise your pin with keywords once you have created it!

Just like in Google – the higher up your pin is, the more likely people will click on it. Did you know that roughly 90% of all Google clicks are made on the first page of Google?

That’s right – most people don’t even click onto the second page of Google before they have clicked on a title that appeals to them.

And whilst Pinterest doesn’t have pages like Google does, the lower down your pin is in the Pinterest search, the less likely people are to even see your pin, not to mind click on it!

So trying to get to the top of the search results in Pinterest is important too.

But if Pinterest is purely pictures, how does it know what images to put at the top of a search?

Well just like Google, it will show you results based on keywords – it’s just you can’t see these keywords on Pinterest when you are scrolling down. Every pin has a ‘pin description’ area where you can write what your pin is about.

At the beginning I just used to write anything to fill up this space, but then I realised this space is your opportunity to tell Pinterest keywords that your pin is relevant to!

If you include lots of relevant keywords in your pin descriptions then Pinterest is going to understand exactly what the pin is about, and it will prioritise your content and display it when people search for these keywords.

Make sure however you don’t keyword stuff this pin description or just write lists of keywords as Pinterest will pick up on this. Make sure your pin description is sentences that actually make sense!

You’ll find detailed information below about how to actually do keyword research for Pinterest!

3. Optimise Your Boards With Keywords

This is another important factor that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked. When you pin an image or pin, Pinterest will always ask you to save it to one of your boards.

This way pins on similar topics can be grouped together and so they can be easily accessed when needed.

Just like pins, the boards that you pin your images or pins to have space for you to write a description (known as a board description) as they are keyword sensitive.

Fill this board description with keywords that are relevant to the board (again, make the sentences flow naturally and don’t keyword stuff the description just listing things).

Writing a good board description with relevant keywords helps Pinterest identify what your board is about, and therefore helps your pins in this board rank higher so make sure you don’t skip this step! 

If you are not sure which words are keywords, carry on reading as I will cover this further down.

HOW TO CREATE VIRAL PINS ON PINTEREST

Create your pins in Canva: you can either use the pre-designed Pinterest Pin covers they have (and just change the title and pictures) or you can create your own.

I used to just use the pre-designed ones but now I like to create my own designs. Here are some tips and best practices for how to design your own pin in Canva:

Some Tips For Designing Your Own Pins On Canva:

• Make Sure Your Pin Is Vertical! Whilst I do sometimes pin images (not pins – images are pins without text) that are horizontal, make sure all the pins you create are vertical! The standard Pinterest size pin on Canva is 1000x1500px. You can always make it a little longer if you wish so it stands out a bit more when people are scrolling (instead of clicking on ‘Pinterest Pin’ in Canva you would click on ‘Create A Design’ at the top right hand corner, press custom dimensions and then type in the size of pin you would want, for example 1000x1750px.
• Use An EASY TO READ & Large Font! This is so important! Like many other bloggers, in the beginning I focused too much on aesthetics and not on practicality or user experience, so I would often include fancy fonts on my pins (read: not very illegible at a quick glance!). But remember people will only see a small version of your pin when they are scrolling down, so if they can’t make out the title instantly (it is too small or the font is not easy to understand) then they aren’t going to click on your pin. And this could cost you a lot of potential viewers to your website! Even if a font looks ‘boring’, if it is easy to read then use it! You can always bring your pin to life with colours so the font doesn’t look so dull! Also titles written in capitals tend to perform better than titles in lower caps.
• Don’t Include Too Much Text On Your Pins! Similar to the point above, when I first started making pins I used to include too much text on my pins – thinking the more text, the more information the user has and is more likely to click on the pin! But people need something they can read instantly at a glance as they are scrolling down. Your pin is going to be small on the screen, so don’t include too much text. It is better to have a shorter title with a larger font, than to have a longer title in a smaller font that nobody can read.
• Make Your Pins Colourful! People are more likely to click on a colourful image than a dull faded one – it’s just how we are programmed. Colourful pins will capture people’s attention. Also make sure the colour of your font contrasts the background so it is easy to read. For example if you are using a white font, don’t use a light yellow or faded cream background as when your pin is small it will make it really hard to read the writing. Try to use contrasting font colours with your background so the title will stand out when people are scrolling.
• Use HIGH QUALITY Images! To increase your chances of a pin going viral the image need to be of high quality as high quality images always perform best on Pinterest. If you don’t have any you can always use stock images – Canva has a good selection.
• Write Catchy Titles! If you use an eye-catching title your pin is a lot more likely to get more clicks and saves. When I first started using Pinterest I thought the pin always had to display the exact title of what my blog post says – but it doesn’t! You can give your pin a different title to your blogpost: you can shorten the title or use a more captivating title. Please make sure however that whatever your title of the pin is, that it is related to your original blog post title – do not invent a title that doesn’t reflect your article as this type of click-bait is infuriating. Make your title short and concise so people can see instantly what your pin is about. But make it catchy so it will capture people’s interest instantly and make them want to click on your pin! More clicks = higher chance of getting your Pinterest pin to go viral!
• Use A Text Box Behind Your Title! It is good to have a text box behind the writing on your pin so the viewer’s eye is drawn to the title and not the background. Of course include images on your pins, but don’t just put the pin title on top, especially if the background image is quite ‘busy’. Ensuring there is a plain background text box behind the title will catch the eye of the viewer more.
• Create Several Different Pins For Each Blog Post! Again, when I was a Pinterest beginner I thought you were only meant to make one pin per blog post. Now I have about 3 or 4 for my blog posts. I design each pin differently using different colours, a slight variation in the title and a different design.
• Write Your Website Name On Your Pin! Most people put the name of their website at the bottom of their pin. This way people will recognise the pins as yours quicker, and be more likely to click on the pins and save them if they like your content and previous blog posts (like I said earlier – always create good quality blog posts!).
• Don’t Copy Other People’s Pin Ideas! Yes it’s easy to look to successful Pinterest pros for ideas on how they create their pins, but don’t copy. I have one friend who (unknowingly) created a pin that had a very similar style to another blogger, and this blogger messaged them and told them they didn’t like how their design was so similar as their viewers might mistake my friend’s pin for her pin – seeing as this blogger always creates her pins in the same style. Needless to say my friend felt really bad and didn’t do that pin style again. Although it’s impossible to know how every blogger on Pinterest designs their pins and like my friend you may do this genuinely by coincidence – other bloggers may start to notice if you copy someone’s pin style. And well that doesn’t look too good on you. You can look to other people for inspiration, but create original designs unique to you. Unique pins will stand out more when someone is scrolling – if all the pins look the same how will the viewer choose which one to pick?!
• Think About Giving Your Pins A Similar Look! Pick a few designs that you regularly use (I often switch it up between about 4 designs) so your audience may even start to notice your style pin, thus making them likely to save them and click on them! For example you may always use the same font or same layout for each pin. Get experimenting, have fun and see what works for you! You can check in your analytics to see which of your pin styles performs best.
• If Using Multiple Images, Make Sure There Is A Theme! Lots of people find that designs with 4 different images on them do well. You may want to include some of these as well as pins with just one image. If you do create pins with several images on them though, make sure the colours of the images fit well together so they match and look a lot more professional. A way you can achieve this is by using presets to edit your pictures so they all have a cohesive and uniform look. Click here to shop my 12 easy to use & versatile presets for only $15!

Canva Tools:

• To add text boxes just click on the ‘Elements’ tab on the left and under ‘Shapes’ you’ll see a box you can include on the image. You can alter the shape of this box (it defaults to square) to be rectangular which you may prefer.
• To move a text box or image to the front, highlight what you want to move and then click on ‘Position’ at the top right hand side of the screen. It will give you options to move items to the front or the back of your design (for example you don’t want the text box covering the title!).

RESEARCH KEYWORDS FOR YOUR PIN!

Optimising your pin with keywords is so important and it goes hand in hand with creating great pins if you want to increase your chances of going viral on Pinterest.

If you don’t add keywords to your pin, Pinterest won’t know what it is about – and it won’t appear on the search bar when people are searching for it!

Add suitable keywords to your pins and they will show up more in searches. More visibility means more clicks, saves – and more views on your website!

Find Keywords Using The Pinterest Search Bar

Similar to Google, when you start typing something into the search bar in Pinterest, it will autocomplete the search for you and suggest related keywords below.

These are the most searched keywords people are typing in Pinterest in regards to that particular subject or niche. These keywords are what people want answers to.

Keep a note of these and try to include some in your in description if they are relevant.

You’ll also notice when you click enter to confirm your search, that a whole lot more related keywords pop up right underneath the search bar (you can even see the arrow across to scroll for more.

Below all these keywords are the pins related to this initial keyword. Use these in your pin description to create long-tail keywords.

When you are tying to get your articles to rank on Google, you will target long-tail keywords (ie: ‘wedding colour schemes’ as opposed to just ‘wedding’ – basically a few words as opposed to just one broad word).

This is because it is a lot easier to rank for long-tail keywords as opposed to broad or short keywords as there is less competition for them.

It is the exact same for Pinterest! So the key is to include these long-tail keywords in your pin descriptions so it is easier for your pins to rank higher!

This method above works for absolutely anything you want to search for in Pinterest, whether it is home ideas, travel ideas or occasions.

If you include the most searched keywords for a subject in your pin descriptions it will make it a lot easier for people to find your pins as your pin description is exactly what they are looking for!

Keyword Placement

Now you know the important keywords people are searching for on the particular topic, make sure to place the most important ones in your title and in the pin description.

The pin description can hold up to 500 characters (usually a few sentences) so there is plenty space to include several long-tail keywords in the pin description. You may want to consider placing a few hashtags at the end.

HOW TO POST YOUR PINS PROPERLY TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF GOING VIRAL

If you look at the bullet points I mentioned earlier, you’ll see there are 5 more bullet points at the bottom that I haven’t talked about:

• create eye-catching pins – COVERED
• optimise your pin with keywords – COVERED
• optimise your boards with keywords – COVERED
• pin images from your blog posts as well as your pins
• pin at the correct frequency and time
• pin to your most relevant board first
• promote your pins ($$)
• participate in group threads
• pin to group boards

PIN IMAGES FROM YOUR BLOG POSTS AS WELL AS YOUR PINS

Another rookie error myself and a lot of bloggers made when they first started using Pinterest was to only pin their pins! They totally abandoned the actual images on their blog posts!

I used to wonder why there were lots of images on Pinterest without writing on them, and then it dawned on me that these were regular images from people’s articles that they were posting!

And often the plain images get a lot of clicks and saves too if it is a really nice picture!

So pin all the images from each blog post to the most relevant board. You can copy and paste the title and description from the pin you created for the article so you don’t have to do lots more keyword research!

By including your images onto Pinterest it is giving you more exposure on Pinterest when people type in that keyword.

Sometimes even a few of your images might even come up near the top of the search which is great as it rapidly increases your chances of people clicking on one of your images!

Some bloggers may not have that many images on their websites, but travel bloggers like myself will have a lot.

As mentioned earlier, Pinterest prefers vertical images so I prefer to upload these to my posts instead of horizontal images – but I will still include horizontal images sometimes.

Whilst typically they don’t get as many clicks and saves as vertical pins, sometimes the change in shape can catch the viewer’s eye and draw them to your pin.

PIN AT THE CORRECT FREQUENCY AND TIME

You’ll see the 5th bullet point said to post at the correct frequency and time.

Previously people could pin as much as they wanted and it would be fine, but nowadays Pinterest recommends pinning no more than 25 pins per day.

Any more and they consider that it could be spam. So don’t go pinning all your pins at once (I know it is tempting!).

You want to spread them out throughout the day as well – pinning lots of images all at once is no longer considered best practice.

But let’s face it, who has time to remember to keep posting every hour? Not me anyway! Enter Tailwind.

With Tailwind you schedule all your pins or images to be posted at an optimal time (it selects it automatically for you, but you can change it if you wish) and spread out throughout the day.

Remember the majority of Pinterest audience is American so optimal timings for posting to Pinterest are different if you are in a different time zone!

You can also paste the pin description that you wrote earlier in Tailwind easily so you don’t have to manually add it in Pinterest which can be very time consuming!

Don’t forget to add the pin description – you know it is important!

Tailwind is so helpful as people can pin all their Pinterest content for the week to Tailwind, and they don’t have to worry about manual pinning!

However, lately many people have noticed that manual pins are performing better than pins through Tailwind. Let’s see how this pans out.

Post Your Pins To The Most Relevant Board First

This point is important. If you want to pin your pin to several relevant boards (for example: Sydney, NSW, Australia and your ‘Best Of…’ board) – always pin it to the most relevant board first – which would be the Sydney board.

That way it is even clearer for Pinterest that your pin is about.

So if I had a post on the Spit To Manly Walk I would first post the pin and all the images to my Sydney board, then to my NSW board, then to my Australia board.

Then I would post only the pins (not the images) to the ‘Best Of…’ board. You should keep your ‘Best Of…’ board just for pins and not all your images too, otherwise it could get too busy and literally have thousands of images in there which would make it really hard for people to find specific pins and articles at a glance.

These days however Pinterest is not prioritising pins that have already been pinned onto other boards, so you don’t want to go overboard and pin the same image or pin to too many boards.

5 boards used to be a good number to pin an image to, but now it seems that you can only pin each one to one board.

A few months later if the pins has done well, you can try pinning it to another board. I am not a fan of this system personally as in a few months time I will probably forget.

Promote Your Pins

I don’t have personal experience about paying to promote pins so can’t give much information on this. But I do know people who have and as you can expect – it bought them a lot of traffic.

If you want to give it a try – go ahead! Perhaps just try it with one pin and see how it goes.

Participate in Group Threads & Pin To Group Boards

These last two points are something I am incredibly lax at. You can find groups on Facebook to join such as Travel Bloggers Guide To Pinterest. You can participate in the Pinterest threads on this group.

This basically means you post a pin there, then everyone who participates that day needs to save your pin – and you need to do the same to everyone else in return and save all their pins.

This will mean your pin will get a lot of saves and views (and increase your chances of it going viral) as each blogger is supporting each other.

I very rarely participate as I find it so time consuming as there are so many bloggers who take part but I am sure it is worth the effort!

How Many Views Do You Need To Go Viral On Pinterest?

There is no specific number. Rather it is deemed as a number that is significantly higher than what you normally receive.

If you normally get 100 click to your website per day from Pinterest but then all of a sudden you are getting a few thousand from one particular pin – then this pin has gone viral!

What Should You Do When You Go Viral On Pinterest?

If you do go viral on Pinterest in the early stages of your blogging career make sure you take advantage of this achievement!

If you currently do not display ads on your website this could be a great time to get accepted onto an ad network and make money passively from your website!

See if your viral pin makes your website page views go above 10,000 for that month. If so you can then apply to ad networks such as Monumetric or Ezoic.

For SheMedia you typically you need 20,000 monthly page views to be accepted and the traffic has to be primarily female and US based, but you generally earn more money than the previous two ad networks.

If you reach over 50,000 monthly page views then you can apply to Mediavine – the ad network which I use and highly recommend.

Note that I got accepted onto an ad network before I cracked the Pinterest code because I worked really hard on implementing SEO so I could rank well in Google.

If you focus on the long game of SEO, it will pay off in droves later as your traffic should never decrease. But your website traffic with Pinterest can really fluctuate.

I know people who got accepted onto ad networks because of a viral pin, but then of course the following month their page views dropped down to the same number they were before the pin went viral so they didn’t end up earning that much on the ad network, unless their website traffic went up again with another viral pin.

95% of my website’s traffic comes from Google, which is always a much better and more consistent and reliable way to get traffic than to constantly have to promote your website to your followers or create pins and hope they go viral.

Displaying ads on your website is one of the easiest ways for bloggers to make a stable income every month and the great news is that the money will be passively coming into your bank account so you don’t have to hustle for it every single month!

You literally make money as you sleep – hurrah for that!

 

I hope you found this article helpful and that it increases your chances of going viral! Feel free to leave any comments for me below!

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