Want a pretty awesome FREE (and little known) Pinterest tip right now? ⇒
UPDATE: Pinteresting Strategies is now updated and current as of March 2023!
It’s been nearly 7.5 years since I started blogging, and 6 years since I launched the popular ebook Pinteresting Strategies! Since then, it has sold nearly over 10,000 copies on WORD OF MOUTH ALONE – I STILL don’t pay to advertise it!
And, while I use Tailwind from time to time when I take a holiday, I STILL pin manually 95% of the time! Annnnnnd I STILL have great page views from Pinterest!
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
YES – I use Pinterest to get 100k+ page views per month to my blog – with manual pinning!
When I first started blogging and was trying to get page views, I read every single one of these “how to get Pinterest traffic” posts I could find online – for months. Looking for some secret formula that would make Pinterest work for me.
And every. single. post. was a sales pitch for Boardbooster or Tailwind.
Even the expensive courses required you to purchase Boardbooster or Tailwind.
Putting more money into my blog was a non-option, and I decided to do Pinterest without a scheduler. I was desperate to get just enough page views to qualify to apply to a bigger ad network and start making a little money.
But what happened just about knocked my socks off. (Yes – Socks. Off.)
I started pinning in May 2016 and by the end of August 2016 I was working with Adthrive – one of the premier ad networks in the country – and one with a requirement of 100k page view per month.
My pinning-without-a-scheduler method had fast tracked me to a full time blog income.
Read my blog income reports here:
August 2016 Income Report – $483.31
September 2016 Income Report – $3365.39
October 2016 Income Report – $5035.17
November 2016 Income Report – $4768.47
December 2016 Income Report – $5151.57
(As of Jan 2017 I am no longer publishing income reports publicly to the blog – for many reasons. BUT if you love reading income reports, you can get on my list to receive them here.)
So of course I wrote an ebook.
Unfortunately, it is NOT as easy as just pinning and hoping. I put in days and weeks of experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.
And I got it down to a science. Some days, I literally watch my page views climb for the day when I pin.
There is no “Pinterest Secret” (sorry!). BUT there are some crazy important things about Pinterest that you are probably missing.
Everything you could ever want to know about Pinterest is available for us to learn when when dig into it… but no one is spending time IN Pinterest learning. We’re all just scheduling and closing our eyes….
And wondering where the page views are.
So of course, I wrote an ebook, detailing my Pinterest strategy.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PINTERESTING STRATEGIES 2.0.
I didn’t really think anyone would buy it – ever.
But I was more than wrong.
I was wrong to the tune of over 1500 people – in the books first year. And it sells almost 100% by word of mouth. (I don’t advertise it. Except for a few a pins on Pinterest – which, ironically, do very poorly. Ha!)
Hundreds of people have read and loved this book, and I get emails almost every day from people who are having success with this strategy – and learning new things about Pinterest.
There was one problem with creating a Pinterest resource. To continue selling it, it needed frequent updating (because Pinterest changes A LOT on a frequent basis). Because of this, I eventually moved the book into a course format. I’ve had feedback that this makes the content a little easier to navigate, and it makes it WAY easier for me to update when needed.
A (hopefully refreshing) paragraph of truth that may bite me in the butt
I have no interest in “hard selling” you my course.
(As a blogger, I am sick to death of the sales pitches. Nothin’ wrong with selling your product. But raise your hand if your inbox is full of desperate sales attempts… and don’t email me twice in one day because “oops, I forgot to add…” am I right?)
So I’ve decided to sell my course the no fuss way:
If you want my strategy – it’s available. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PINTERESTING STRATEGIES 2.0.
The strategy I use to pin gets me anywhere from 5 – 10k page views per day. (AS OF May 2017 I have had days with 20 – 30,000 page views! That is over 480$ in ad revenue in one day, just in case you’re wondering.)
This course, to my knowledge, is completely different than any other strategy you will purchase anywhere else. (Largely because you don’t need to invest monthly in a scheduler to use it.)
I go MUCH farther into the “Pinterest Algorithm” – you will NOT be just “pinning and hoping!”
Sireesha, the blogger behind crowdworknews.com was one of the first to get a copy of my course and try out the strategies, and she saw awesome results with it – she said:
“Carly’s Pinterest strategies have exploded my Pinterest traffic. I started to implement her strategies in November and by January my Pinterest reach has gone from 700k to over 1 million. This ebook has really changed my Pinterest game.”
Katie, from joyfullmesses.com wrote a post about getting her first viral pin using my tips, and in her post she said:
“Carly put together a strategy I’ve never seen (and I’ve read and devoured everything), and brought me the results I wanted. I literally got my first pin to go viral! When I woke up one day and saw I had 200 people to my site before 8:00 am, and I usually had maybe 20…I couldn’t believe it. Then, it kept going to 500, then 800…I hit a huge milestone for my blog, and I accredit everything I learned in her course. I’m very serious when I tell you its worth your time and money.”
Hilary (the curly one) from pullingcurls.com saw almost instant results:
“I bought Carly’s book after being frustrated by my own Pinning strategy. We live mostly off of our blog income, and I just saw Pinterest traffic dwindling, no matter what I changed with my schedulers. I was using Board Booster, Ahalogy and Tailwind. The day I bought the course, I deleted over 2,000 scheduled pins and started hand pinning. I have had to adjust her plan to work around the days I work 12 hour shifts as a nurse and I am slowly making it work for me. Pinterest traffic is up 30% and I’m excited to keep improving my system based off the principles she showed in the course.”
Amber, who is just starting her blogging journey over at allnaturaljoy.com messaged me and said:
Since reading, ‘Pinteresting Strategies,’ I can’t wait to log in and check my Pinterest followers every day! Before I started implementing all of your secrets, I would go weeks without gaining a follower and now I am getting 30-40 new followers every DAY!!! The best part?? Pinterest is now driving traffic to my blog and I’ve gained 40 subscribers in the last 24 hours!! I’m only half way through the course! I can’t even imagine what finishing it will bring! This is a must read for sure!
I receive emails very often like this one, from Kim @ kimgaleta.com:
“I bought (your course) at the end of May and I’ve been implementing your instructions ever since. I think the biggest takeaway apart from the strategy itself is that I learned to improve my CONTENT! Most of my pins had a couple dozen repins (using BoardBooster for about 8 weeks). Within 2 weeks of using the course, I have hundreds of repins and one even has more than 1k now. My traffic for the first two months of June equaled my entire traffic for the month of May! I can’t wait to see what the end of week brings :)”
(You can read a whole bunch more testimonials over here on the testimonials page!)
I am also going to tell you this:
Lots of people have had GREAT results from using this strategy, and a few have not.
I’m not sure if this is because they’re doing it wrong, or if it’s because they aren’t able to invest the time it takes, or because it just doesn’t work for everyone.
It is impossible to know.
It’s impossible to guarantee that this strategy will work for everyone for many reasons.
Firstly, Pinterest has an ever changing algorithm. I am constantly aware that this strategy might not even work for me forever (this terrifies me). This strategy requires a daily commitment. I spend anywhere from 15 minutes – over an hour on Pinterest per day. This strategy will NOT transform Pinterest pins and pin impressions into clicks over to your blog. YOU need to do that, with pins that scream “click me!”.
There will never be a way to guarantee that this method will work for everyone. But there is also no way to guarantee that any method will work for everyone.
There you go… fair warning. (I am not a sales person. I never have been, and I probably never will be.)
The anti-sales pitch
SO for those reasons, I have been so very hesitant to even try and sell this course.
But, because I spent the time researching it, testing it, and writing it, and because this system works for me (and many others), I’ve decided to just go ahead and put it out there.
There is no launch. There is no sales funnel. There are no guarantees. This is just me saying “This is the method that worked for me, maybe it can work for you too!”
And one last disclaimer. Like I mentioned, this strategy takes a commitment to manual pinning. It will require time every day. I put up to an hour per day into Pinterest. And I make over 2000 dollars per month in ad income on average, which comes directly from page views.
Totally. Worth. My. Time.
So if my experiment in brutal honesty hasn’t scared you away – grab this Pinterest strategy and get pinning.
(If I HAVE scared you but you’re still looking for ways to increase traffic, the Traffic Transformation Guide by Lena Gott is freaking AMAZING, and covers much more than just Pinterest. I have read this book three times… and I will read it again. Possibly my favorite blogging book EVER! She details 21 strategies she used to go from 17k page views to over 400k page views in ten months.)
Buuut if you’re not ready to buy it just yet – you can still take advantage of the FREE Traffic Bonus Guide Lena offers!
Happy Pinning!
If you want some seriously awesome totally FREE Pinterest tips… well, look no further:
I want to learn! Darn. If only I knew about this before I got paid last Friday so that I could budget for it lol. I will definitely get this when my next paycheck rolls around. Pinterest has been frustrating for me so far and I really do feel like I’m not getting it.
Aw I’m sorry about the Pinterest frustration Melanie! I do think this book will help you out with that!
Hey Carly I want to buy this Ebook after looking such a great response in these comments but can you clear my 2 questions?
1. Will this Ebook help me from scratch level? like even chosing about niche/topic? and what to blog and what to write?
2. Secondly creating the pins and where to take photos?
3. and are you sure that i”ll make money after following Ebook? like am not gonna return it but just asking for my own satisfaction coz i already have wasted my so much time but got disappointed even from start.
Waiting for the Reply , You have a good day.
and God Bless you, You are helping so many People
HI Usman – This book is really only about Pinterest. It will not help you decided what to write about or what niche you should be in. This is JUST a pinterest how-to. And unfortunately no, there is definitely no way to be sure that you will make any money after you read it. Making money with your blog takes FAR more than just getting page views from Pinterest (which is the goal of the book). You have to have a solid plan for writing profitable content (and a clear understanding of what profitable content IS). Then you have to learn and implement some monetization strategies (again, not taught in this book, this is a pinterest how to book only). This book will be ideal for you once you get comfortable blogging and digging into pinterest and want to start using pinterest to bring traffic to your blog. I wish you ALL the best on your blogging journey!
Hi Carly! I purchased your book three days ago and haven’t recieved it yet! Could you help me out to find it please? Thanks!
HI Allie! I will email you!
Hi Carly!
I keep reading about your book from so many other bloggers – here’s my dilemma: I already get over 50% of my traffic from Pinterest and have over 200,000 average monthly viewers to my Pinterest account (and it is continuing to grow!). I understand group boards, personal boards, organization, etc. and currently only manually pin. I’m torn between investing in this book or investing in the Advance Pinterest Tips that you mention. I’m just not sure if your book would actually teach me anything new because I’m definitely above the beginner stage. Any advice (or even just a brief outline of what’s covered in your book) would be much appreciated!
Thanks so much! Here’s my Pinterest account for reference: https://www.pinterest.de/jordanbwagner/
I am going to email you Jordan!
Do you start with the abc of Pinterest? i.e. What is a board? How do you create one? For the affiliate program do you teach how to get participants if you dont have a website. Basically how does one get started understanding the semantics What i have found in my efforts to learn into learning about Pinterest I find is the info. Is assuming the reader knows about boards – -posting –the basics Do you cover that? If not maybe you should. Im sure there are lots of people like me going around in circles because we simply do not understand how to start. Its like taking a cake decorating cake when you dont even know how to bake one.
Hope you can Help on this. Thanks
HI Ann! I do consider my book to be beginner friendly, but I don’t talk about what a board is or how to create one – these are things that are VERY straightforward on the Pinterest website itself. Have you tried to just create a pinterest account and poke around in the platform? (That’s how I do my best learning – by poking – lol). I do cover how often to post to the boards etc. I will certainly take your point into consideration for future updates of the book – maybe a “very beginner basics” chapter could be added. Unfortunately, that will be a little ways down the road because a new update on the book JUST came out. As for what you mean about the affiliate program, I am a little lost? Pinterest itself doesn’t have an affiliate program, and if you are meaning the affiliate program for my book (which anyone can join after reading the book) I don’t know why you would want to promote it without having a website. The book is more so about how to get page views TO a website FROM pinterest than anything else. I hope that clarifies it for you! (If you are meaning a different affiliate program, please let me know.)
I love this ebook. I just read the updated version and I have several action steps to accelerate growth. BTW, since I first read the book (original version), clicks to my site have increased 60%.
That is SO FANTATSIC DEBBIE! (And I like to think the new version is far better than the old version LOL).
Hi there- I feel the same way about this as the writer above- Jordan… I get 50-70% of my traffic from Pinterest already. Have viral pins, pin manually, enjoy group boards I’m definitely not a beginner… not sure if this is the right option for me
I’m at Pinterest.com/oldfashionedsus
Hi Susan!! You’re doing great with Pinterest! I had a quick look at your boards and I do think you would benefit – at the very very least – from some of the keyword advice in the book 🙂
Hi Carly,
I recently started a blog and have NO IDEA what I’m doing with pinterest or Facebook, and would love a guide on where to start. I don’t have photoshop and am not finding picMonkey that intuitive, so would love some advice on how to actually create good pins, and then how to drive traffic. I don’t have a ton of content yet, but I feel like it’s out there for no one to see. Two questions:
1. Do you cover content creation and how to easily make engaging pins in this book?
2. Do I have to spend a certain number of hours each week to make this work?
I work full time and do this in my “spare” time – which is usually less than a couple of hours a day. Will your advice work for me, or do I need to be able to devote more time? Looking for all the advice I can get. I’ve loved the posts I’ve seen so far!
Thanks!
HI Carly! (Funny!) The whole thing is such an uphill learning curve isn’t it? I Don’t actually cover content creation in this book because it’s just about pinterest. I do make some references to what your content should be like etc, but nothing in depth. However, AS WE SPEAK I am working on a new guide that is will be how to write amazing blog posts 101 sort of thing… so watch for that in the VERY NEAR future. (Like hopefully before the end of September.) I see SO MANY PEOPLE wasting their time with terrible content that will never make them a cent, and I do think this is a really important aspect of blogging that is being glossed over! And yes, to make this strategy work I would recommend anywhere from 3-7 hours per week (up to an hour per day). That said, I know lots of people who have read the book and then tweaked the strategies to work with a scheduler. (With ANYTHING in blogging, remember you don’t have to do something just because someone told you too 😉 – right?)
Hey Carly!
I have your ebook (and am a proud, happy affiliate!) and lost my download info so I haven’t picked up the updated ebook. Can you tell me how I can get back into my account?
Hey Julie! I am going to email you a PDF right now – I have no idea how to get back into the account lol.
Hi
Just wanted to know can this work for affiliate products? or even an ecommerce store? what I mean is does one need a blog to make this work?
Thanks
HI!! I know lots of people that have had great success with pinterest for their etsy shop, so I imagine the same principles will apply yes. I don’t personally have any experience using Pinterest for affiliate products myself. (Actually, that’s not true. Now that I think about it, I’ve pinned a few pins. They’ve always done poorly so I haven’t focused much energy there.)
Hi Carly,
I purchased your book a few month ago and I’m loving it. I just want to clarify if I’m doing everything right. I’m daily repinning my 16 best performing pins from GA. I’m not sure if I need to repin my old posts that are not performing good? And I’m just curious how often do you repin newly released pins?
HI Iryna!! I would still pin some old pins now and then or better yet since they “are not performing good” MAKE NEW PINS!! I pin newly released pins one-three times per day for the first week, on different board everytime of course. Hope that helps!!
I’m thinking of doing Pinterest which seems for me more difficult then finding a low competition keyword which can rank on first page in G without links. My kitchen blog get like 60k pageviews/month from google without building any backlink.
BUT I want to try other types of traffic and Pinterest seems very power full.
I’m going to buy.
Thanks
HI Silviu!! I would do BOTH! I am JUST starting out trying to find these low competition keywords and so far I am just terrible at it haha But it’s very important to branch out into whatever traffic streams are NEW for you. So for me that’s google, and for you that’s Pinterest. Good luck!
Hello, I have been all over the web trying to find info on how to use affiliate links without having a blog or website. All the blogs I have looked at give you a little info but then the sales pitch comes out. I cannot afford to purchase books that cost $200+. Does your book discuss this? It seems super confusing to me and I do not consider myself to be dumb at all. Any help would be very appreciated.
Hi Kim! No I’m afraid this book isn’t about affiliate marketing. I mean, you can use similar strategies to put affiliate links directly on pins (when permitted) but I think I have made exactly 0$ doing that… it’s a waste of time in my opinion. I’m sorry that wasn’t too helpful!
Hello Carly,
I am french blogger, I have bought your book since I have understood that Pinterest can bring me a lot of traffic.
I am doing all the advices you explain since 1 weekend and for the moment I havent since any change.
I am doing my images pintable but I dont see people pinning them, why ? How many times do I have to wiat to see the stats rise ?
Could you check my account and tell me if you see something wrong on my images ?
https://www.pinterest.fr/emyreality/pins/
I have other questions : its quite difficult to find french groups … For the moment, I am in 5 groups and I havent succeeded to fing others. The other point is my key word. How can I be sure to find the good key words ?
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Emilie
HI Emilie! I would say a big part of your problem is only being in 5 groups. That is just not very many… keep trying to find more! The book goes over how to find good keywords – use the strategies that the book describes 🙂
I’m considering buying your book because it sounds very helpful but I do have some questions. I’m trying to grow my Pinterest Management business. I’m not really a blogger although I do have a few blog posts (I plan on adding more) with 3 pins per post as well as pins for opt-ins and my services. I feel kind of ridiculous saying Pinterest Management business when I have to admit that I have practically no repins at all for my posts and very few clicks to my website. Do you think your strategies would be helpful for me? Do you think your strategies would help Etsy sellers and TpT sellers as they are my target audience? And, I know you say about an hour a day and I’m curious if there is a certain time period during the day you suggest? I work part-time and could definitely do an hour a day but not always during a certain window of time. I’m very eager to see your reply. I was considering purchasing a program from a Pinterest expert for $600 but I find that most all of these programs are all hype and little substance. They basically say the same thing everyone else does. I’ve almost given up and come to the conclusion that the successful people are a case of just pure luck! I’m very eager to see your reply. I think I’d rather spend $32 vs $600. Forgive me for the book I’ve written 🙂
HI Melissa 🙂 As a pinterest manager you might not find THAT much value in this book because there just isn’t time in the day to use this method for many blogs. HOWEVER, it could provide you with a good foundation – I Think you DO need to be able to generate clicks to your own blog from pinterest if you want to be able to do the same for others. This book WILL take you much farther into Pinterst than most of the standard set it and forget it courses. (I’m sorry if that reply wasn’t too helpful! It’s so hard to know what to say lol.)
Hi Carly! I love your book and it has really helped me so much as a new blogger. One question, I’m just starting affiliate marketing and wondered if you have an affiliate program for your book? Thanks!
HI Jen 🙂 YES!!! The link is on the last page – PLEASE join the program. I’m SOOO glad you loved the book 🙂
Hi Carly! I’ve been blogging for almost three months and can’t believe how much information there is to take in! It took me about a month before I finally gave in and bought your book… And waiting so long is one of my biggest blogging regrets! I noticed an immediate difference once I started implementing your strategies consistently and it took about two weeks to have my first “mini-viral” pin (just over 1000 shares, but I’ll take it). There’s also been a massive increase in my pageviews. Now, I just need to get a better handle on my affiliate marketing and ads so that I can profit even more off of this traffic. Thanks for creating something so simple and user-friendly! I’m already signed up as an affiliate and can’t stop telling everyone about Pinteresting Strategies!
EEEEK!!!! These are my favorite comments. I’m so thrilled you’ve seen success with the book! Thank you so much for joining the affiliate program – I wish you ALL KINDS OF SUCCESS in your blogging journey!
Hi Carly. I just can’t stop reading your articles. They are so informative. I would love to purchase your ebook.. But I don’t have a paypal account. Is there possibility of making payment using credit card. Thanks
HI! Unfortunately, I don’t have credit card set up at this time – hopefully in the new year!
Hayyyy! I’d love to purchase the book, but am a bit scared it won’t be right for me. Do you have any refund policy? I couldn’t see one (and I’m Canadian, using a weak dollar due to some recession stuff, so the book is closer to $50 than $30 for me) and wanted to check. Thanks!
Hey Laura-Lee – unfortunately there is a NO REFUND policy. It’s pinterest, and there IS no way to guarantee success. I am also in Canada, and I totally understand where you’re coming from. Even at 50$, it’s still one of the cheapest pinterest strategies out there, and I personally believe, (of course) one of the most unique + thorough. I’m sorry!
Hi Carly, really intrigued about your ebook but was curious whether or not you think it will have the same effect for a beauty blog?
Thanks!
Hey Holly! Beauty is HUGE on pinterest, so I would think yes, you’d likely have success!