Suspended Pinterest Account - It's Baaaack!
Those who may have read my blog from late last year (and of course if you haven't you really should - insert shameless plug here The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Online - My 2018 In Review) you will know my Pinterest account was suspended about then.
I gather it was suspended because I tried to use a direct affiliate link in one of my pins. I don't really know, but I did try to link to the Level 1 Online Certification Training about that time!
I may have got an email from Pinterest, but I really don't recall seeing one. I just went to log in one day and *POOF* my profile and account were gone.
Of course, I filled in the form asking very nicely to be unsuspended (actually I did it twice over 4 weeks) and never heard a thing back.
So undeterred I simply created another account and set to work rebuilding.
The unfortunate thing about that is that you can't link your website to the second account because it is already linked to the first account and you have no way of accessing that because it is suspended.
Anyway to cut a long story short after adding a new pin to the second account today I went to follow more people, as I have read we should do, and lo and behold if my first account didn't come up as trending and someone to follow!
There it was in all its splendid glory, alive and well, and ready to be followed once more.
I haven't received an email from Pinterest to explain or advise that I had been unsuspended but it looks like I'm back in business.
I've done 9 weeks of pins on the second account which I will now have to get onto the original account but all in all I am one happy camper.
So the moral of the tale is two fold:
- Don't give up if you have a suspended account maybe it will come back; and
- Don't use straight affiliate links always link back to your own website to avoid suspension in the first place.
I hear people are having wonderful success with it so now I'm back Pinterest is going to be my #1 social media platform moving forward. I am going to give it a red hot go.
Are you using Pinterest? Are you having any success with it? Do you actually get clicks back to your website?
I'd love to hear your Pinterest stories and any tips or tricks you've found to improve your success with it.
Oh and just a little late edit: I have reached 2000 followers here at WA - woo hoo! So thank you everyone for your follow, I am diligently following you all back. Gotta love this community.
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Yes indeedy Dougie. I couldn't believe my eyes when it was just there out of the blue after so much time.
Thanks for stopping by for a read and leaving your comment.
My understanding is that Pinterest allows affiliate links now as long as they are disclosed as an affiliate link in your post.
I have found though that random things do trigger off their spam filter sometimes. For example my account was suspended because I was following hundreds of people and everytime it stopped me because I did it too much i waited and did it again after It started letting me again. But from what the person I talked to said is that if you do actions that replicate a bot it just auto triggers their spam thing and it suspends your account.
I don't think I was doing anything bot-like lol, I've read too many stories of accounts being suspended for all sorts of reasons so it seems a bit fickle to me.
But people seem to be having success with it so I'll get pinning and see if I can keep the account alive this time :)
Yeah I really still haven’t gotten a good grasp of it yet. But just with everything in this business it’s a learning curve and it takes time.
You will be pleased about that one Heidi, seems to be the flow internet-wide, raw links cause no end of bother for marketers.
You will be able to build on your experience, best wishes as you expand on Pinterest.
I see others have said affiliate links may be OK, I'm not going to take the chance anymore. I'm a slow learner but it's rather painful to have all your work disappear so I'll just be linking back to my site from now on.
Thanks for the comment Alex, appreciate it as always.
Hi Heidi
I am so happy for you - that means all your work has not been lost AND your first Pinterest page is trending! Congrats :-)
I am a little worried now though because I have created two pins which link to blogs here in WA - aaargh! hope I haven't been suspended, my Pinterest has only been going for about a month!
Thank you for sharing.
Blessings
Louise
I need to have a bit closer look Louise, cause at first glance it looks like those pins with the links back to WA are still in there!
Surely they would have deleted them before restoring my account? Not sure if the links are actually there, as I say I need a spare hour to have a good look.
Best of luck with yours.
Oh wow! I never knew Pinterest suspended accounts. I am just glad to know that you got your account back. pinterest is also my number on social media site. In fact, this is my first day trying to go full force with it.
I do know with Pinterest it works just like a search engine. Use SEO and link back to your site. When you link to your site, you will get social shares too, well at least with social warfare share buttons you do.
Also make sure you have a good image on your site, that any visitor can pin to Pinterest. It's best if you have the pin it button. It makes it a lot easier for the visitor to pin your image. Once you have people pinning the image, it will just get repinned over and over. Creating more traffic.
Well, I am still learning Pinterest myself, but, I do know and understand the massive benefits that Pinterest brings so, I am like you. I will master that platform.
Thanks for sharing your story with us. I will take note not to link any affiliate links. And I wish you the best with your Pinterest I know you will do GREAT!
I didn't know either Lakisha until it happened! It was quite a shock I can tell ya.
Thanks heaps for the tips. I do have share buttons on all the images on my site so that's a start. I'll be putting your tips into practice this weekend as I start to build it up again.
I know it's a miracle Shaunna!
Just created a heap of work for me this weekend repinning all my posts and hopefully getting it back in shipshape but I'm pleased not to have two accounts :)
I think the first time it just doesn't work Mickey, you just can't get your pins to stick, but I persevered and I think that's when it happened and they slapped the suspension on me.
I have a habit of pushing the envelope just that little bit too far lol.
Hi Heidi, I'm glad that you are back in business with Pinterest.
Thank you for sharing the valuable lesson: No affiliate links. Just a link to our website or wherever the pin came from. Later this week, I am hoping to get my account going. So, this is perfect timing.
I hope you have an awesome week.
Hi Sondra
People are getting great results with Pinterest and a couple of my mentors outside of WA also recommend it highly, so I was a bit bummed that I couldn't link my website properly to it for the analytics, but it's all go now.
Hopefully it stays unsuspended!
Think positive. You learned your lesson. So, you are good to go.
I hope you have a productive week.
ps I also hope you are getting to spend little time with your horse. I haven't because it has been too cold here.
Thank you for having auch a contageous positive attitude! I love it! Glad to hear you are back up and running.
Ah well no point whinging about it lol, ain't nothing could be done I am just looking forward to building it into what I think it should be.
Thanks for the follow too by the way. Following you back :)
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It's good you got your account back. I lost my first Pinterest account I started in 2013, I think! Presumably it was deleted due to lack of activity on my part. I started another account about a year ago but I do struggle with understanding how Pinterest works.
All the best to you Heidi with Pinterest.
I must say I don't have a very good handle on how it works either Valerie, but I'm hoping the more I use it the more I'll understand.
I will be having a look for any training that has been provided here so I am pinning to make the most of the platform.
Best of luck to you and your pinning.
Thank you Heidi :)