PotPieGirl’s Pinterest Survival Guide
Whew – Pinterest is crazy these days – so noisy!
It’s not the like the “good ‘ol days” when genuine content creators had a great chance of being visible.
Between algo updates and mass-generated AI pins… and stolen pins – HOW can we keep up and survive – let alone THRIVE on Pinterest these days?
It’s time for bloggers doing GOOD stuff on Pinterest – creating genuine content – to have the upper hand, don’t you agree?
One night, I sat on my back screened porch, stared at the woods and just thought about all the odd little things I do on Pinterest that I feel (actually I KNOW) give me a bit of an edge on the competition.
As I thought of things, I wrote them down on a notepad.
I ended up with FIVE full notepad sheets – front AND back.
Here’s just a few of those pages:
(yes, my handwriting kinda really sucks haha! But in my defense, I was “brain dumping” and not thinking about how it LOOKED)
Turns out, there are a LOT of weird little things I do on Pinterest that make a BIG difference for me.
For example, remember when pin images used to be “clickable”?
You’d open the Pinterest app, see a pin, and click the IMAGE and go to the post?
Remember that?
Whew, I know we’ve all missed that!
But guess what?
I know how to make pin images clickable again =)
It’s a nifty little trick using a tool that Pinterest gives ALL business accounts – but I see no one USING it.
I use it.
I call them ‘Power Pins‘ – and they are AWESOME!
You can even use old pin images to make them =)
Oh, and we all love our Pinterest Analytics dashboard, don’t we?
But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see pin analytics for INDIVIDUAL blog posts?
I know how to do that, too – and it is SUPER handy.
(especially for those evergreen blog posts that bring the most traffic – and money. It’s SO important to be able to track them at the post level WITHIN your Pinterest Analytics dashboard!)
==>> See how in my Pinterest Survival Guide
Oh and another weird thing I do…
Know how everyone talks about “seeding” new boards by re-pinning top-rated RELEVANT pins to a new Pinterest board?
Yeah… I don’t do that anymore.
I found a better way to start new boards on my accounts.
Speaking of “re-pinning” – there’s only a certain time-frame that I repin ANYTHING.
(hopefully you know that standard repins do NOT hit the homefeed – only “fresh” pins do)
Also, when I first publish a new blog post, I have a very certain way I pin that very first pin image.
The very first pin to a brand new blog post url (that Pinterest has never known before) is THE most important pin you can make for that post.
I use a free online tool to check my post to be SURE I am on point with my topic/keywords…
(you gotta get it right the first time!)
And then I make that very first pin a very specific way.
It works very well.
That “first pin” strategy is also the best way to pin an old post that you have re-worked and republished.
Ever have a post that used to do AWESOME on Pinterest – but now it’s flat-lined and won’t do squat?
Yeah, I got a fix for that too =)
I also have little weird things I do for pins that ARE working…
For handling pin “annotations”…
For getting MORE pins on Pinterest – without actually PINNING them…
And… my BIGGEST pet peeve of all:
Stolen Pins.
All in my Pinterest Survival Guide!
So let’s start with that – stolen pins.
Ever wonder WHY stolen pins WORK?
It’s really a very good lesson in how PINTEREST works.
Seriously, it is not the MOST frustrating thing when you finally get a solid pin image / blog post combo that is rocking along and then… BAM!
Someone steals your pin.
And worse yet, that beautiful pin image YOU created is now linking to some Apple apps or Google sites rando irrelevant landing page…
And it took ALL your traffic.
Why… WHY does that even work?
First off, Pinterest isn’t quite what everyone says – the whole “fresh pin” concept isn’t quite what we’ve been told.
Pinterest likes NEW.
New urls specifically.
If it’s an “old” image, the algo doesn’t really seem to care.
So if someone grabs YOUR pin image and links it to THEIR new post, the Pinterest algo will probably choose to rank that pin over your pin image linked to your OLD url.
(Old url = a url Pinterest has known about for quite some time.)
In other words, YOU keep pinning an image / blog post url consistently… and it stagnates over time.
But another account takes that SAME image and links it to a NEW url (pinned for the first time by ANOTHER Pinterest account)… their stolen pin will win in rankings.
Fair? Nah – not even a little bit.
The way it is? Yep.
So…
What should you DO when YOUR pin is stolen?
It’s a very simple solution.
Steal It BACK!
Yes, steal your own pins haha!
Just grab that pin image from the stolen pin page – re-upload it to Pinterest… and try again.
Here’s a Pro Tip:
Grab that image from the stolen pin page – re-upload it to Pinterest… and link to a DIFFERENT blog post url on your site.
YES – be sure the post content is relevant to the pin (you don’t want frustrated visitors!) – but using a different blog post url on your site has shown me the best results in stealing my own pin images back.
What I do when linking to a different blog post on my site is this:
— I put the pin image IN that post at the bottom as a “related post” type of thing that links TO the original blog post.
— I put a quick text link towards the top of the post so someone coming for that specific into can easily click to it.
When it comes to stolen pins, don’t settle and let them have it – TAKE IT BACK.
Ok, let’s move on to my FAVORITE weird little thing I do on Pinterest…
My “Power Pins”.
Let’s talk about how to make your pin IMAGES clickable.
Read The Rest Of PotPieGirl’s Pinterest Survival Guide
NOTE: if you NEVER log in to Pinterest, and everything is automated – don’t bother reading the rest. This guide is for GENUINE Pinterest users who create GENUINE content, ok?
My strategies require actually LOGGING IN to your Pinterest account.
I want Pinterest to be better –
I want genuine content creators to DO better ON Pinterest…
My Pinterest Survival Guide will help.
Your pdf guide will be delivered to you instantly after completing your sign up.
If you have ANY issues or questions – contact me at: jennifer(at)potpiegirl(dot)com
So many Pinterest Creators have sent me GREAT feedback about this Pinterest Survival Guide – I know you’ll love it too!
Rather me pin FOR you?
I get it – not enough hours in a day, right?
Check out my client info page here.
I LOVE making pins for other Pinterest bloggers!