I Deleted All My Pinterest Pins… and Then Ignored It for a Month

About a month ago I did something that, depending on how you look at it, was either strategic or unnecessary. I deleted every single pin on my Pinterest account and essentially started over.

The reasoning made sense in my head at the time. I’ve been redesigning articles on one of my websites, Earthbound Tours, into a cleaner, more structured format. The layout is different, the flow is tighter, and the overall presentation feels more aligned with where I want the brand to go. I didn’t want older pins pointing to outdated versions of articles that no longer represented the direction I’m building toward. Or to point to random nonesense, which is what it was doing anyway. So instead of gradually phasing things out, I wiped the slate clean.

I also told myself that once I reset the account, I would finally go through Jay’s Pinterest training properly.

Building Your First Pinterest Account

Not skim it. Not bookmark it. Actually follow it step by step and build a real system.

That part didn’t happen.

Other projects took priority. Redesigning articles took time. Client work and other moving pieces filled the calendar. Pinterest became something I would “get to soon.” A month went by without me touching it.

Today I published a new article in the updated Earthbound format and created a fresh pin to go with it. That brought my total pin count back up to three. Three pins on an account that used to have a lot more.

Out of curiosity, I logged into Pinterest to see what kind of damage I had done by disappearing for a month. What I saw honestly surprised me.

The numbers aren’t massive, and I’m not presenting them as such. What surprised me wasn’t scale, it was movement. There were still monthly views showing. There were impressions happening. Something was circulating even though I had essentially abandoned the platform.

I then checked the performance on individual pins.

Again, nothing explosive. But there were impressions, saves, clicks. With three pins.

That was the moment I realized something important. Pinterest isn’t behaving like traditional social media. It’s functioning more like a search engine with a longer tail. Content doesn’t disappear just because you step away for a few weeks. It continues to get indexed and surfaced. That changes how I look at it.

Since I was already in analysis mode, I decided to check Google Analytics on Earthbound Tours to see whether the redesigned articles were holding attention any better.

What stood out to me wasn’t traffic volume. It was engagement. Certain pages are seeing slightly longer engagement time. Pages per session is nudging upward. There are steady impressions building rather than random spikes. It’s early, and it’s small, but it’s measurable.

That told me something simple. The redesign work isn’t wasted effort. The structure improvements are helping readers stay longer. The content flow feels better, and the metrics are quietly reflecting that.

When I look at both sets of data together, Pinterest and Google, the conclusion is obvious. The issue isn’t whether the content works. The issue is distribution consistency. I put energy into upgrading the asset, but I didn’t commit to building the traffic engine behind it.

And that part is on me.

I’ve seen enough members here follow Jay’s Pinterest training and post real, steady results to know it works.

From 334 to 6.9K Impressions: How I’m Growing Pinterest in a Tiny Niche at 76
My Pinterest Numbers: January 1 to February 8 (What Actually Happened)
Jays Strategy is Working

If I’m being honest, the only reason I haven’t committed is time management and resistance to adding another system to learn. It’s easier to refine something familiar than to intentionally carve out time to build a new channel properly.

The reality is I don’t need ten hours a week. I need one or two focused hours and the discipline to follow through. Watching the early signals from just a few pins was enough to remind me that the opportunity isn’t theoretical. It’s sitting there waiting for consistency.

I’m not declaring that I’m starting the full training tomorrow at sunrise. I know my schedule, and I’d rather be realistic than dramatic. But this was enough of a spark to stop pretending I don’t have the time. It’s more accurate to say I haven’t prioritized it yet.

Seeing movement after doing almost nothing is motivating. It tells me the ceiling is higher than the current effort.

For those who have committed to the Pinterest training, what made it click for you? Was it traffic growth over time, or just building the routine? And for anyone who has reset a platform from scratch, did it slow you down long term, or did it actually clarify your direction?

I’ll keep sharing updates as I actually put the work in. This month was a reminder that deleting everything wasn’t the mistake. Ignoring the rebuild was.

That part I can fix.