How You Can Optimize Pinterest for Small Bloggers *

Have you wondered how to optimize Pinterest for promoting your blog.  Pinterest is an important platform for even the smallest blogger, but much of the available information is geared toward helping bloggers who have a lot of traffic. You know what I mean, big bloggers, big accounts, big followings.  How can I grow my small blog and how long will it take to have an effect?

 

This is a great question because there seems to be an assumption that bigger grows faster, which is not always true. Even if you’re small, you can achieve big growth with a few simple action steps.

It’s all About the Images

It’s all about the images.  Pinterest is a visual search platform and you have to always remember that.  This is the biggest factor in growth. When you’re a small blogger you’re most likely running on a small budget and having to bootstrap most elements yourself.  Taking your own pictures or creating your own images may save you money but if you’re not good then it might be worth investing money in your top 20 posts that receive Pinterest traffic by hiring out.

If you just can’t swing it in the budget, pick a template, font, and design.  Stick with it.  Branded photos make a huge impact.  

Evaluating Growth

Lately it seems Pinterest is funneling people more into following interests rather than people. (pinterest.com/explore/”enter your term here”) For this reason, I would not depend on follower numbers to give you an accurate reflection of growth. Page views are way more important.

For example, one of our accounts with over 25k followers grew by a mere 650 followers in November but her page views went from 48k to 85k! I’ll take traffic any day over the follower number.  This is why it’s SO important for you to understand your Google analytics and finding out what pins are driving traffic to your site.

 

How Long Will it Take

I know the waiting game is super hard but consistency pays off here.  Keep pinning the best of what you have mixed in with new posts.  Stay the course, don’t get distracted and you will start to get traction. To assign a timeline for growth is impossible.

Each account is unique and growth depends on many factors — scheduling tool, how many times per day pinned, dedicated readers, etc. Focus in on who your target is and keeping aiming there.

Stay calm and keep pinning!