Woo-Hoo! One MILLION+ RePins on Pinterest!

byPotPieGirl

8.3K followers

Updated 6 years ago

So exciting to see hard work pay off! I recently reached a big Pinterest goal and I'm pretty excited about it =)

One of my Pinterest accounts has hit over 1 MILLION repins!

(and yes, ONE of my Pinterest accounts - I have multiple Pinterest accounts for multiple blogs - and NO, this is not my "PotPieGirl" Pinterest account - that account does not do well at all due to the topic of the pins. Blogging/MMO pins are a bit more difficult to get serious traction with on Pinterest).

So you may be wondering...

- What does that look like in my Pinterest analytics?

- Tips and tricks for HOW I did it, and

- What do all those repins mean in relation to TRAFFIC to that blog?

Well, let's jump in and I'll show you =)

I am such a HUGE fan of Pinterest!

In my opinion, Pinterest is THE easiest way to drive traffic to your blog.

Pinterest is also very helpful for new blogs - those pins can start sending traffic LONG before your Google SEO traffic starts.

And once you mix Pinterest AND Google SEO together - whoa! That's when the magic happens!

My Pinterest Stats:

You may have noticed that Pinterest business accounts show how many monthly impressions that account's pins get on Pinterest each month.

For this specific Pinterest account that now has over one million repins, this is what that stat looks like on my Pinterest account page:

That 9.6 million number means that my pins that are pinned (saved) by that account are seen by other Pinterest users over 9 millions times in a 30 day period.

That stat, at face value, doesn't really mean ALL that much, but for this account, at least 98% of those pins are linking to MY sites - which is truly awesome because...

THAT brings TRAFFIC to my site =)

My Traffic FROM Pinterest:

It's all fun to get repins on Pinterest, but all we REALLY care about is the TRAFFIC those pins send TO our sites, right?

Right!

Here's what my daily traffic has looked like the past month or so:

That graph shows anywhere from 6,000 Page Views a day to closing in on 10,000 Page Views a day.

Now that we're in the 4th quarter of the year, that traffic will continue to go up and spike since I have quite a bit of seasonal and Holiday-related blog posts.

Like all traffic online, the 'summer slump' happens there on Pinterest, too.

You can see the 'summer slump' in action here in this graph which shows my monthly Page Views so far this year:

(yes, the 'Summer Slump' is a VERY real thing!)

Now, to be totally transparent, that traffic is not ALL from Pinterest.

That blog has a healthy mix of traffic from Pinterest AND from Google and other search engines.

Now, Let's Talk Earnings =)

I'm not a big "Look how much *I* make!" type of blogger at ALL.

Plus, MY results don't mean they will be YOUR results.

Repins are fun.... Traffic is GREAT...

BUT...

If you don't know how to convert traffic to SALES and money - well, what's the point, right?

That particular blog is monetized with Amazon affiliate links, Google AdSense ads and with some other affiliate programs sprinkled in here and there.

If that blog was ALL I did online,and I just wanted to avoid getting a "real job" (ha!), I'd be quite happy since it makes about $2k to $3k a month on average with all things combined (with it obviously making more during busy seasons).

Above all, it works FOR me fairly passively and hands-off, for the most part.

Sure, I'll go post something new once in a while, I'll update older posts for better results, etc - but I truly can leave that blog completely alone for a month or 2 and everything still works just fine.

Considering how much OTHER stuff I do online, that makes that blog one of my favorites because it doesn't need ME to work =)

I'm not going to share earnings screen shots of that blog since it's really not my style, but if you'd like to see earnings from another NEW blog I have, you can read this Case Study post.

(note: If you're interested, there's also a follow up post to that 6 month Case Study here: How long for a new blog to make $500 a month)

Pinterest Tips:

- Create not only "good-looking" Pins for Pinterest, but also "clickable" pins. Best way to do this is to promise a solution to a problem with the text on your pin - and then GIVE that solution in your blog post.

Solving PROBLEMS is the key to successful blog posts - especially for Google traffic!

I'll be honest and admit that reaching over one million repins on my pins is a fun "vanity" metric.

Plus, those repins help spread my pins ALL over Pinterest so they are seen by more and more of the 200+ million Pinterest users.

But what I REALLY want is clicks ON my pins so they end up on MY blog posts.

If you have a Pinterest Business account, you get analytics on every pin that leads to your site which gives you stats for activity on that pin over the last 30 days.

Impressions = how many times that pin was "seen" by other Pinterest users over the last 30 days.

Saves = how many times other Pinterest users have saved (re-pinned) that pin over the last 30 days.

Clicks = how many Pinterest users have CLICKED that pin to go to the blog post over the last 30 days.

Impressions are good, saves (repins) are great... but it's the CLICKS that matter.

I'm not utilizing Pinterest to build the Pinterest site - I'm utilizing it for MY site =)

When your pins are "clickable", you can get stats like these on individual pins:

It's the CLICKS that matter so make sure your pin images encourage CLICKS to YOUR blog posts.

Personally, I prefer a LOT more clicks than saves (repins) on any pin I create.

- Pin consistently throughout the day. I use an approved Pinterest auto-pinning tool. I simply schedule out my pins for days, weeks, sometimes months in advance which makes Pinterest very "hands off' for me now.

(here's my post & video showing how I use my auto-pinning tool, if you're interested)

For new Pinterest accounts (or for blogs that have few posts), keep pinning consistently, but pin lots of OTHER people's pins in between your own.

Don't "spam" Pinterest with the same pin over and over and over - it won't work well and will probably risk your Pinterest account.

- Board Names on Pinterest are super important lately. You want your pins saved to boards with keyword relevant titles on those boards (but not TOO "niche", if that makes sense)

For example, if your pin is a chicken recipe, don't only save that pin to a "Recipes" board, but also have a Chicken Recipes board (and/or a Dinner Recipes board, Cheap Family Dinners board, etc etc - but don't get "too niche" with it and have a board named Easy Chicken Recipes with Cheese and Potatoes, for example - unless you blog about LOTS of different chicken recipes with cheese and potatoes)

I've learned that Board Names are like the 'secret sauce' for awesome Pinterest results these days. In fact, my Pinterest board name strategy is such an important factor for Pinterest these days that I have an entire training guide just for THAT.

(that training guide is called "Pin Signals" and you can find it on my training and resources page on PotPieGirl.com)

- Make NEW pins for OLD posts. Don't relay on just ONE pin to work for each of your blog posts. Make multiple pins that link to the same post.

If you have a post that isn't doing that well on Pinterest, make a NEW pin for it.

Hint: I make NEW pins for old posts ALL THE TIME. I've learned that new pin images are the best way to breathe new life into an older post on Pinterest.

- Pin descriptions are SO important! Write your pin descriptions with good (relevant) keywords. In fact, write your pin descriptions like you'd write the opening paragraph of a blog post.

- Try different pin sizes. The standard pin size right now is 600 wide by 900 long - but don't be afraid to test and try different pin sizes. I also use 600x600 (square) and 600x1260 (longer than standard).

As with all things blogging - test, Test, TEST for yourself to see what YOUR audience resonates with.

I've learned with Pinterest that there is NO "one right way" to work it - you have to test and try to find what works for YOU.

- Link to OTHER relevant Blog Posts - Be sure your most popular posts from Pinterest have GREAT internal linking to your OTHER relevant and most important content.

And don't just link to your other posts, make them more like a Call To Action link than just a "mention".

Make it OBVIOUS (and remember, Pinterest traffic is BIGTIME mobile traffic - those visitors are looking at your posts from their phones. Little tiny text links don't get noticed so make it obvious)

I've learned that Pinterest traffic tends to be more of a "window shopper" type of visitor so take the time to funnel that free Pinterest traffic to your money pages.

Don't HAVE any relevant posts to link those popular Pinterest posts to?

CREATE new posts.

Here's an example: I had a post last Holiday season that was doing CRAZY well from my Pinterest pins for it.... BUT, I really didn't have any OTHER related blog posts to send that traffic to.

So I created a NEW post on a tightly related topic and almost instantly had traffic to that new post just by linking TO it from that old post and pinning it on Pinterest (and now that second post is also crazy popular all year long!)

I created that new related post in December of last year, and here's the monthly Page Views to JUST that ONE Blog Post since it was published:

Yes, those thousands of monthly Page Views are to just ONE blog post from Pinterest (and some Google traffic too).

You can see that post spike in January (when the topic was seasonally VERY popular) and then slowly drift down to only 4,000 - 6,000 Page Views a month during the 'off season' (and during the Summer Slump) - and now it's trending UP again and will most likely surpass last year's traffic since that post in established AND with TONS of pins pointing to it now.

Moral of that story - if you have any posts that do well from Pinterest, really look at your post and think how you can funnel that traffic to work better for you.

Ok, that about wraps it up - this post has gotten VERY long.

Thank you for reading!

Hopefully something in here helps YOU out.

Questions?

Please, freel free to ask!