I feel like this is one of those posts that needs a disclaimer right away.
So here it goes…
This strategy is not going to work for every kind of site. In fact, you may find this to be a complete waste of your time.
OK, there.
Can’t say I didn’t warn you. 😉
But hang with me. Some of you will find ways to use this strategy for your own sites.
Let’s Talk About Pinterest
No doubt you’ve heard of Pinterest by now.
If not, where in the world have ya been? 😉
It’s the online image-sharing phenomenon where people (mostly women) share images they find on the Internet with their followers.
It has elements of both Facebook and Twitter because people can comment on and “like” pictures you post, and they can follow you to keep up with images you share on your “boards.”
Boards represent areas of interest. If you like shoes, you might create a board called “Shoes” and share various shoes you like on the Web.
So every shoe you post, can go to your “shoe” board and so on.
Every image that gets pinned to a board links back to the web page the image is on. So as you can see, there is some traffic potential if images from your own site get pinned.
People also pin images because of the associated content. For example, someone might have a board for Pinterest strategies where they pin images associated with articles on Pinterest.
When their followers click the image, it takes them to the article.
What is an Infographic?
Before I jump into my experiment, let’s talk about infographics.
They are typically large images that illustrate data, statistics, etc. People love to share them on social media because they look cool and they make it easy to absorb the information presented.
In a world where our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, you can say a whole lot with pictures and a few tidbits of information.
These images are a hit with social media!
My Little Experiment
So rather than just sharing other people’s work, which is what a lot of people do, I thought I’d try creating my own infographic in Photoshop.
The plan was to add it to a new page on my site, then share it on my hair-related Pinterest account to see what would happen.
Now, I’m no Photoshop expert. I know just enough to be dangerous, as the saying goes. 🙂
I also have a membership with Photos.com, so I used a couple of cartoon images to compliment my creation.
And instead of just creating an infographic with stats and figures (which is what most infographics illustrate), I decided to make it more tip/instruction-based (often called “instructographics.”)
I tinkered around (literally) in Photoshop, and after about 45 minutes or so, I came up with this image…
I added it to a new Page (not a Post) on my site and then pinned the image to my natural hair-focused Pinterest account, where I have about 1100 followers.
Wait! I HAD 1100 followers when I posted that infographic, but I just went to my account to confirm the number and looks like I’m up to 1800 now. 🙂
OK, back to my experiment…
Within 2 days of posting, the image was shared over 100 times and I didn’t even expect that much.
Three weeks later, the number of pins/shares totaled over 3,000 — meaning 3,000 people shared/pinned this image to their own Pinterest boards.
And of course, the image links back to the page on my site where the images is hosted.
See the screenshot below showing the number of Pins.
For the record, the image was only pinned about 200 times directly from my followers.
The remaining 2,800+ pins came from followers of my followers. So I had a bit of viral action going on!
Now to you Pinterest pros out there, these numbers may look small-ish, but I was happy with the results from my little creation. 🙂
What About Traffic?
Did I get 3,000 visits from those 3,000 pins?
No. Not even close.
This image is still bringing in traffic from Pinterest everyday. But the total amount of visitors in a 3-week period is about 500 or so.
So that’s not a lot of traffic in three weeks (relative to the traffic the site gets and how many times the image was pinned). However, there are a lot of things I could have done differently to maximize the exposure.
For example, I added it to a Page instead of a Post.
As you probably know, when you create a Page in WordPress, it doesn’t go out to your blog feed or email list. So there were no notifications sent out when I launched the page.
I also should have added more content to the page to make it juicier so it would be “Post worthy”.
Low Expectations. High Hopes.
To be honest, I hadn’t seen any natural hair-related infographics on Pinterest before so I wasn’t really sure how mine would be received.
Now that I know people in that niche like this kind of stuff, I have a lot of different ideas for how I can incorporate infographics within existing articles to help illustrate points, educate, etc.
With natural hair being such a visual niche, I think there may be some added potential if I’m a little more strategic with my execution.
There are so many things I could have done and I’m looking forward to testing some more.
Not to mention, I really enjoy creating the images. If nothing else, maybe I can create Photoshop templates for people and sell them.
But that’s a whole other blog post! 🙂
Creating Your Own Infographics
If you know your way around Photoshop, GIMP or any graphic editor, you have a big advantage because you can create your own images for free.
There are no limitations to what you can do.
However, if you don’t have software or don’t care to learn, no worries. There are several sites out there that will let you create your own infographics like PiktoChart or Easel.ly.
Visual.ly even allows you to create and share them.
Want more options? This site has a list of over 20 infographic creation sites and tools.
And if you don’t mind outsourcing, you can hire a graphic designer at Dribbble.com. Yes, that’s “dribble” with 3 B’s. 🙂
More Tips for Creating Infographics
- The images are supposed to be easy and fun to read. Don’t make it too text-heavy or it defeats the purpose. It shouldn’t look like a blog post.
- Most infographics you’ve seen probably display stats, but they don’t have to present that kind of data. You can make an instructographic like I did with the one above.
- Think of information that is relevant to your audience and break it down into digestible bites of information.
- Brand your image with your site URL. Remember, when it’s shared on Pinterest, the image will become clickable and take the person to your web page where the image is located. Even if the image is shared on places where it won’t be clickable, it never hurts to add a call to action. Branding, branding, branding!
- If you add statistical data to your image, be sure to cite the sources somewhere on the image.
- Use Google images (search for infographics) to get inspiration and ideas for your own designs.
- Use them as informational teasers and direct people to your site for more info.
Is This Worth Your Time?
There’s only one way to know and that’s to experiment like I’m doing.
As I’ve already mentioned, there were quite a few things I could have done differently to maximize the exposure, but I was pretty happy with the results of my first infographic creation that took me less than one hour to create.
This seems to be worth my time for my hair site because it’s such a visual niche — the perfect environment for Pinterest.
The other thing I love about Pinterest is I spend less than 15-20 minutes per month pinning other people’s pictures and my own, and it’s my 3rd most popular traffic source for Napturally Curly.
Once you unlock the formula for the right kind of image/content to pin, you can reap the rewards.
But I also believe this can work with all kinds of sites if the image is eye-catching and interesting.
There are a lot of infographics shared related to Internet marketing, social media, etc. So I’m going to be experimenting on this site too.
In fact, you can follow my 2 Create a Website Pinterest account here.
As you can see, it’s a bit vacant since I don’t use it, never really shared it, and I don’t follow many people on this account yet.
If you use Pinterest for Internet Marketing and blogging, leave your username in the comments so I can see how you use it.
This Isn’t a Fad
Pinterest is the real deal and so many people are using it to drive traffic to their sites today.
In fact, when I asked my StudioPress Theme contest participants to name their best traffic-building technique, many mentioned Pinterest.
Cynthia Sanchez, a self-proclaimed Pinterest addict and owner of OhSoPinteresting.com (I love the name!), even created an entire business around the site and she’s ready to help you — so check her out!
I had the pleasure of meeting her at a local meetup last year. I kept her business card handy so I could give her a shout.
Quality Check
The other item you have to pay attention to is the quality of traffic that Pinterest is sending.
Are people viewing more than one page? How long are they staying on your site? What’s the bounce rate?
Remember, not all visitors are quality traffic.
For my hair site, the average person who comes from Pinterest stays 2-3 minutes, views 2-3 pages and the bounce rate is around 50% — which is right under my site’s average.
So it’s decent quality traffic relative to the rest of my referring sources.
In any event, I will keep playing around with infographics. Whether I will focus more on selling custom templates or using my own to build traffic remains to be seen.
All I know is I’m sure having fun experimenting.
Will keep you posted!
Now, it’s your turn. Share your Pinterest experiences.
Update 2014: Listen to my podcast where I discuss more traffic building tips using Pinterest.
Pinterest is no doubt an awesome website.I love to use it for my traffic.
Hello Lisa,
2 days and 100 shares of image is really a good number, I mean it is not a joke.
I found myself helpless in generating traffic from infographic but somehow I reached your blog and found such a wonderful solution.
Thanks a lot,
Cheers 🙂
traffic from pinterest is temporary ,, we should work on permanent traffic
No traffic is permanent — not even Google traffic because your rank could drop at any time. That’s why you have to diversify your sources.
Once your images go viral that traffic can build over time. Has that ever happened to you on Pinterest yet? It’s amazing. And it’s the ONLY social media platform that brings me traffic from the SAME image 2 years later. Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus does not have the same results for me. That’s why you have to continue to diversify your traffic in different ways.
You’re awesome! I definitely want to try this Pinterest campaign. Any tips for acquiring followers, I just created an account, so I have 0 followers.
Hi SamS,
I literally got all my followers by following other people and sharing their content. No real tricks or fancy strategies… just following others.
im now is trying to make my blog on top with pinterest, thanks for your info
Lisa it is great article! Thank you for sharing this!
Hi, thanks for a lovely article, btw. I loved the tip to keep your hands of your hair, need to remember that! I do love Pinterest, yet although I would love to keep it more professional, it’s still more of a guilty pleasure for me than a strict business, so my boards are still a mixed content…
Everyone sharing there own ideas about Pinterest but the biggest benefit which i got from this is it’s marketing experience. Overall nice post i would say. thanks for sharing
Pinterest is really the new hit .now all the images in your blog can be pinned at pinetrest my colliegues say they noticed a traffic jump once they used pinterest but I am yet to see significant result
Lisa Irby very nice post regarding Pinterest in which you cover all most all the aspects beautifully. I also have a pinterest account but i don’t know how to use it. But after read your whole post i able to understand the structure of it.
Thanks for sharing such a valuable post.
all along i thought pinterest in is only for getting backlinks where you edit your profile and insert your homepage link, but pinterest for traffic is completely new idea for me. i will give it a try. thank you
i’m using Pinterest now. I hope it will drive traffic to my blog with awesome
pinterest is popular social media site for photo sharing and it get huge number of organic traffic to our website. nice tips thanks for sharing with us.
Hi lisa.. great post i would say.. today i really want to thanks your official you tube Channel due to it’s awesome tutorial. 2 Year back is start my carrier on blogging and every time when i get demotivated i watch your video and find the right way to how i can make money online. Today the things are much better than the past. So again want to thanks you..
Very informative content Lisa! I really feel that using Pinterest in your link building strategy is a very good way to generate natural backlinks to your website. I also agree that creating your own images gives you a huge advantage and is also cost effective saving you a tremendous amount of money and time. AWESOME POST!!!
I am SEO beginner. I dont know about Pinterest so far. This blog is very useful to me. Now i got how to use Pinterest to make traffic towards my website. Thank you so much. Please keep sharing like this to us.
Thanks for the links for websites to create your own infographics.
I still do not understand how to synchronize between my website with a pinterest account.
thank you
Pinterest is future of SEO in 2014, i also did experimenting with infographics and got around 100 plus followers in a day…
Pinterest really helped to get traffic (especially targeted one) .
Thanks
Hi Lisa, I love the tips and idea you have shared in this article. I especially liked the part about- “So rather than just sharing other people’s work, which is what a lot of people do, I thought I’d try creating my own infographic in Photoshop.”. Seems like a tough task but I am going to give it a try and see if I can get some good result. Waiting to see more article from you.
I have an account and know how to use Photoshop so I am on my way.
Thank you for explaining this to us Lisa. This is the 2nd time I have read an article that suggests using pinterest. I think I need to just stick with one or 2 social media channels. It gets very hard to keep up with all of them and I end up not doing anything.
I created a quote image in Photoshop for my hair site and it was a HIT!
Yep! Amazing how the simple images can go over so well.
Hi, these are really nice tips and I particularly liked use of pinterest. Another thing that works is working on keywords with high demand and low competition.
I just opened photoshop to do my own experiment for my garden office business
Pinterest really helps alot, heading towards creating an Infographic.
Thanks
I just opened photoshop to do my own experiment for my furniture
We’ve been using Pinterest for a while now for our business and while we create vision boards, we haven’t tried infographics yet. With your info and sources, we’re going to give it a try…thanks!
Interesting article. I may give Pentrist a try. I have an account and know how to use Photoshop so I am on my way.
Thanks for the nice post. Now I will will also try infographic to generate traffic to my website.Actually It is a new SEO technique also.
Infographics are really great and as I observed people love them.
I don’t use infographics to SEO. Maybe, I must consider. Thanks!
I love infographics, but haven’t figured out what sort of information I would want to share on one. But I do get a decent amount of traffic from Pinterest. I try to make specific boards for specific topics.
I have been trying to form good links in different ways but nothing worked out for me. I know you are an Expert in SEO. I have one question on what are the disadvantages I will face if I enable dofollow comments on my blog?
Thanks Lisa, this article is excellent… my creative juices are flowing 🙂
I do blogging, I write 4 times a week,I really don’t understand the phenomenon? that is it good to update your blog time by time or to first prepare your blog content fully and then publishing it on blog?
Which way is better?Please Help,I really confused about this 🙂 Thanks
Pinterest is increasing, and will keep get larger and larger, so get on the board now and make your consideration to start seeing the advantages it can bring to your business. It’s really proved and I’ve found a big result of my business after using pinterest and infographics. Thanks a lot guys.
I have used pinterest for the sake of sharing my post images and which drives me some traffic but not dedicated much like you have mentioned would like to try out this methods
Great little experiment – thanks for sharing. Getting traffic to your site can be a daunting task and every little tip helps. Plan on trying this out with a couple of my Pinterest boards.
I just opened photoshop to do my own experiment for my garden office business.
I haven’t adding anything of my own yet, but I’m getting about 3 to 5 followers for every 10 I follow. That shocked me! I’m trying to build up a bit of a following before I start pinning my own stuff.
One thing I have seen in the past is that people are repinning stuff like quotes and motivational images!!! Just my 2 cents!!!
Yes people love those kinds of things. Even when I share them on FB it goes over well. I created a quote image in Photoshop for my hair site and it was a HIT!
Hi Lisa,
Great post. I make quite a few infographics although I use adobe illustrator not photoshop. There are a number of advantages to working in vector, probably the main one is the fact that every graph, chart, icon, or other element can be resized and recolored and reused on a new infographic. So each time you make a new infographic it gets easier and quicker with better end results.
These techniques using Pinterest are quite interesting. I could see how they could work great for some website types. I definitely have to do more research on the subject. Once again, a great & unique article from you, thank you.
im now is trying to make my blog on top with pinterest, thanks for your info.
I do blogging, I write 4 times a week,I really don’t understand the phenomenon? that is it good to update your blog time by time or to first prepare your blog content fully and then publishing it on blog?
Which way is better?Please Help,I really confused about this :)Thanks
I want to write a guest post for you?Please give feedback soon.!
Though I always wished to create infograph to share it on Pinterse.But I never actually know the right way to use Photoshop.Any suggestion please?
Its Great post. I’m not at the traffic levels you mentioned but I apply a lot of the practices that you do for my main blog (and they work). What are your thoughts on content “distribution” via social media or elsewhere?