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:
Carly, after how many weeks can I expect to see the results?
Well, unfortunately, there is just no guarantee or way to determine that. I would think if you haven’t seen any results in a month or more you need to address something – different pins, different titles, more group boards etc. There are SO many aspects of Pinterest that you need to take into consideration.
Ok, I did it. 🙂 We’ll see how it goes! Riddle me this: your checkout picked up my email address? How? It was a very simple checkout. I like for things like this.
hmmmmm I have NO idea!! Maybe it’s just a thing in your computer? (Like, a form filler thing) I hope you love the book!
Your honesty is highly appreciated! Am gonna bookmark your blog and definitely get your book!
HI Erika! I promise to always strive for honesty! 🙂
Let me know if there is another way of paying, other than Paypal. Thxs
HI Colin – there is not, at the present time. Sorry about that!
My mind is BLOWN. I have been blogging since August and I am so sorry I didn’t get this sooner. This will be a game changer! I am so excited to see where your info takes my blog!
Thank you!
I HOPE it takes it big places Natalie!
Hey.. I have purchased it earlier. It is awesome! But since Pinecrest is rolling changes (hash tags, sections, also changes, etc), is there any updated version of the ebook? Hopefully there is, cause Pinecrest is driving me nuts!
HI Isha! Currently there is not a new version, but the information in the book is still relevant. 🙂
Hi Carly
You’ve done a great job with your blog! It’s my go-to for blog learning and straight talk 🙂 I’m brand new to blogging, so I need all the help I can get (and more!) So, I’ve been gearing up to purchase Pinteresting Strategies, but then I noticed that Pinterest introduced Paid Ads recently (today, if I’m not mistaken), so I’m wondering whether you’ll be reviewing your strategies, or if they remain relevant, even with the latest Pinterest model?
HI!! I am working on learning promoted pins myself. BUT they’ve been out for a LONG time, and they are a whole separate thing! The book probably won’t ever address them, no. (And thank you for the kind words – I’m so glad you enjoy the blog <3)
Hi Carly,
I just wanted to say a huge “Thank You”!!!!! I bought your book and already my traffic from Pinterest has nearly tripled in just a week!! I’m so excited to see what the rest of the month will bring as well as the upcoming year. Your strategy is working and I love logging into Google Analytics and seeing those traffic numbers climb by the day. Thank you so, so, so very much!!!!!!
AAAGGHHHHHHH So exciting Keri!! Thanks for sharing – I STILL watch my GA everyday LOL
Hi Carly! Love your refreshing take! I also love that it doesn’t cost too much (thank you!)
I’m a REALLY new blogger. Like only started a month ago new. As a result my Pinterest only has about 50 followers… It seems a lot of the testimonials you have are for people who already have a bit more of a following than me. Would this strategy still work for me? I’ve been burned by stuff like this quite a bit so far… A lot of people’s guide for “beginners” really require you to have a bit of a following first :/
Hey Anna! That’s a tricky question. I was technically a beginner when I started using this strategy… and many many of the readers who’s comments you’ve seen STARTED with no following and then gained a following over time. Time will pass no matter what. I personally think it’s beneficial to do things right from the start – but I also get being cautious, there is SO MUCH BAD STUFF for sale. I wish I could help you more! I’m sorry!
Hi Carly,
How reliant on group boards is this strategy? The niche I am in only has a handful, so I want to make sure that there are other strategies in the book I will be able to take advantage of.
Thanks!
Hey Megan! I really like group boards, and the book puts heavy focus on them. I still believe you need then in order to succeed at pinterest QUICKLY. There are alot of really general group boards where you can post anything tho – can you get on some of those!?
Hi Carly your book is definitely worth more than 32$. I mean how can someone do the Pinterest research so well. The only thing which is concerning me is that i started implementing your strategies 8 days ago and my Pinterest pageviews went down to 65000 from 140000.
I started blogging a year ago and my first blog dwindled off bc I took a 6-8 month hiatus due to a family emergency. So I relaunched a few weeks ago, rebranded, new site, new name, new focus but my niche still isn’t as common as other peoples. I’m set on making it work but I can’t find anything on Pinterest within my niche but quotes and I know readers are there. I just don’t know how to reach them so I’m trying to branch out my range a bit. I just canceled Tailwind bc seriously, it wasn’t doing anything that I shouldn’t’ be able to do myself. At least I wasn’t using it to its full advantage but, I think the best way to learning what I need to do is by doing it manually. I have heard great things about your Pinterest strategy. I am on the edge bc I am broke right now and I just bought another Pinterest ebook which was good and I’m implementing it and seeing a little growth. I mean I’ve only been doing it a week so lol yeah. But something keeps bringing me back to this page. lol Ahhh!! what do I do?
Hey Tasha!! I’ve seen your site and it’s VERY COOL – I am excited for what you’ll do! I do think your niche will be TRICKIER on pinterest, but not impossible, I would try to write general content that people who are your target readers will be into… and THEN real them into the real getting clean stuff, once you have them on your site. IF that makes sense! I think maybe things like info graphics on the health benefits of quitting alcohol etc, might be BIG for you, (I know that’s mild compared to what you’re talking about) but I think it could work! Did you buy the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit this year? My book was in it!
Hi Carly congratulations on your success as a mom and a blogger. It gives me hope. I work full-time so blogging time is limited. I only have 33 posts so far. Would this be something that can work with such few posts? Thanks
YES 33 is a solid number to start with. You’ll want more ASAP, but I think I started with around 25?
LOVE this book. I just have one question. I understand the strategy explained on page 47 (the chart is super helpful) but that only accounts for 3 pins each day. How else do you decide which pins to pin each day? If this is in the book I totally missed it and if you just tell me which page it’s on that would be great!
Hi Cheri!! honestly it doesn’t have to be too specific. I just pick some and pin them at random each day. My heaviest focus is on those “busy” pins of course!
Is this ebook good for a new blog? I just launched my blog and I’m currently working to make new posts for it. A review I read said I would need 25+ posts for your strategy to work, but I’m obviously not there yet.
Hey Veronica!! I didn’t WRITE it with new blogs in mind, but lots of new bloggers LOVE it. I DO suggest you have 25 posts ready before promotion yes!
Thank you for replying! Just want to add that your ebook is absolutely amazing! I read so many tips and strategies I haven’t seen in other Pinterest courses!! Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned. I can’t wait to implement the tips within the next few weeks! I’m definitely going to let you know what my results are 🙂
aawww thank you! I am SO GLAD you’re enjoying it and I look forward to hearing from you!
Hi Carly!
I love your honesty and it makes me trust your words (though I don’t personally know you lol).
I was going to purchase this until you mentioned it was in the the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit 2017. I had purchased this toolkit and been learning on my own pace. I can’t wait to take a look at your material here! I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before, but maybe because there is so much material in the toolkit.
Again, thanks so much for mentioning it! I know nothing is guaranteed but it’s definitely worth a shot! (and if I fail or don’t see results, I usually think it’s my problem, not the writer or the person teaching it) haha.
Of course!!! You already own it once, you sure don’t need to buy it again 😉 Hope you enjoy it!
It’s refreshing to see a post that DOESN’T include Tailwind or Boardbooster. I am not trying to add more monthly bills at the moment. I am a new blogger and will look into your book once I feel a bit more acclimated to the blogging world 🙂
YES – say no to monthly fees lol
I’m interested in getting your book, Carly, but I’m a little concerned that there aren’t many boards I can contribute to within my specific niche (instant film cameras). There are lots of boards about instant photography but none that allow contributors unfortunately. Could this pose a problem?
Possibly Heather! I talk alot about group boards. I do think that VERY tight niches struggle a little more to get established on pinterest. However, there are plenty of generic group boards you could use. They are not AS beneficial!
Hi Carly, your course sounds super interesting! 🙂 The only thing I’m wondering: Pinterest made so many changes to its algorithm lately. Did you already notice if/how that affects the strategy in the ebook? Thanks a lot!
Hey Denise!! This is still the way I pin – it doesn’t seem to have been affected 🙂
Hello, I’m trying to buy your book but can’t seem to go through with the payment. Paypal doesn’t work in Nigeria. Please, can you provide an alternative means of payment other than Paypal? Like charging directly from my card like other services do for international transactions.
I’ll really appreciate this.
My blog needs a lot of work.
I’m expecting to hear from you soon.
I’m so sorry – at the present time paypal is the only option!