I’ve previously mentioned how the summertime is usually a slow time for my business. I also mentioned how I use this time to work on big projects that move my brand forward. This year, one of those projects looked like learning, understanding and setting up Pinterest to increase traffic to my blog.
Why You Need More Blog Traffic
I’m beating a dead horse here, but you need a blog for your freelance business. It allows you to show people what you do, established you as an expert in your field, allows you to monetize in different ways and allows you to capture leads by having them sign up for an email list. Sorry, but you can’t do all of that on Twitter or Facebook. You need your own space on the internet.
Now, in order for all of those awesome things to occur, you need to actually get eyeballs to your website. Using Pinterest to increase traffic is a super low-cost way to get those eyeballs.
Why Pinterest
Pinterest is like Google but with images. People go to Pinterest to search for helpful articles just like they would on Google. However, unlike Google, people on Pinterest can repin and share what they find on their own Pinterest pages.
Pinterest is also the third largest social media network after Facebook and LinkedIn with more people joining daily. This means there are lots of opportunities to find new readers for your blog.
Best Practices for Using Pinterest to Increase Blog Traffic
I’ve been experimenting with Pinterest the last few weeks. In two weeks alone I’ve been able to increase my repins (how many times my content is shared) to less than 10 repins to almost 300 repins. My pageviwes on my website also increased by 1,000 within a week with a big chunk of new traffic coming from Pinterest. I also know this will continue to increase as I add more content to my Pinterest page.
This means my ad revenue has increased, my email list is getting bigger and I have new potential clients, customers and social media followers.
- Pin content to group boards. Group boards are Pinterest pages where several different people pin content to a board with a particular interest. Additionally, they also repin the content found on the group board. Some boards have thousands of potential readers so it’s a great way to put your content in front of a new audience.
- Have high quality images. I spent a lot of time creating high-quality images – sometimes even multiple images per blog post – for Pinterest. I happen to enjoy creating images, but if you’re not very good at it or don’t have the time, you can always outsource it.
- Have an organized and well- branded Pinterest page. If you go to my Pinterest page, you’ll see I spent time creating different boards for multiple areas of finance. You’ll also see that I made cover photos for the board with my brand colors. This organizes the content so people can easily find what they are looking for.
- Automate as much as you can. I use Boardbooster to automate the images I pin to group boards. I also use Tailwin to schedule out pin postings to different boards. Combined they both cost me about $20 a month which is well worth it for the results I’ve been seeing.
Pinterest is an awesome low-cost tool that can help you increase blog traffic and possible revenue in a very short amount of time. While it takes some time to set up, using Pinterest to increase blog traffic is single handedly expanding my reach.
