Beginner Pinterest

“Startegies” and Advanced

Tips For Growth
Yes, I called the info in this guide “​start​egies” ­ it’s not a typo.

What’s contained in the guide is your recipe to get started and

GROW on Pinterest ­ with a whole lot of tips and tricks along
the way.

So let’s skip the fluff and the “how do you do’s” and let’s get
right into it.

First things first:

There are two main objectives when beginning to kick butt on

Pinterest.

­­ 1 Optimizing your site to be ‘pinnable’, and

­­ 2 Getting your Pinterest Boards moving and ready for YOUR

pins.

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If your site is like mine was when I first started immersing
myself into Pinterest, it is NOT ready with Pinterest images TO
be pinned.

In fact, if someone DID try and “pin” one of my pages, awful,

non­Pinteresting images would come up.

I had a real mess on my hands, but here’s how I got things going
to make my site Pinterest­ready.

Let’s Get Pinteresting!

First, I created a few new “Round Up Posts” based on ideas I

uncovered while browsing through Pinterest.

What ​Is a RoundUp Post?

In short, a ‘Round Up Post’ is a post that contains your favorite

pins (ideas) on that topic. This allows you to “borrow” (for lack
of a better word) the images OTHERS make for their pins.

If you need to SEE to understand before moving on, here is an

example of a RoundUp post:

http://involvery.com/mason­cupcakes­easy/

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(note: that “mason jar cupcakes” RoundUp post only had about
5 images on it when I first published it. As the post picked up
momentum with Pinterest, I added more and more to give the
page even MORE images to be pinned with)

RoundUp posts absolutely DO give proper linking credit to

those pinners, so make SURE you do that.

But by “borrowing” and crediting these other pinners, we get the

benefit of having those images on OUR web page that others
can use to PIN our web page.

{I’ll tell you how to create these easy RoundUp posts in a

moment and give you an HTML template to copy/paste and USE
in a moment}

So I went and made a couple RoundUp posts before I even

started editing any of my old posts to be ready for Pinterest.

Once those posts were published, I went ahead and pinned them.

Thing is, I didn’t really do it “right” when I started because I

didn’t really know what I was doing ­ but I ​did​ know I wanted
pins out there on Pinterest that linked to MY site working FOR
me while I was cleaning my other blog posts up.

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Now​ I DO know the right way to do this ­ I now know the “big
picture” and have reverse­engineered plenty of Power Pinners
accounts to SEE it work for THEM.. and now I see it work for
ME.

Since you are starting out/cleaning up your Pinterest account, I

want YOU to pin those to your ​Blog Board​.

You remember me talking about your Blog Board and Blog

Category Boards, right?

And remember, the ​ONLY​ things that get pinned to that main
Blog Board are pins from ​your​ Pinterest Business Account
VERIFIED site (ie, the site Pinterest KNOWS you own).

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If your Pinterest­verified site attached to that Pinterest account is
PopcornPuppy.com, you should ONLY have pins FROM
PopcornPuppy.com ON that Blog Board.

Got it?

And the only pins on your Blog Category Boards will ALSO be
pins ONLY to your site.

Ok, let’s move forward…

How To Pin These RoundUp Posts

Each week, RE­pin that pin on your Blog Board to ANOTHER

relevant board.

So, if you only have access to FOUR other boards (with a total
of 5 boards: your main Blog Board, a Blog Category Board, and
3 other ‘related’ boards), you would repin to each of those other
boards each week.

{note: there are printable calendars and planners and trackers

in this package to help you with this}

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So, as an example, you publish a RoundUp Post on your site
titled: ​7 New Baby Gift Basket Ideas I Love

again, a rough example off the top of my head ­ don’t judge lol!

That RoundUp Post consists of other people’s Pinterest pin

images of baby gift baskets you really ​DO ​love ­ and you give
credit links properly.

This concept is genuine “​curated content” ­ you are “curating”

things you genuinely love and giving credit where credit is due.

Once your ​baby gift baskets example post is published and you
CHECK everything to make sure it works, you would pin it to
your main Blog Board.

Then you start your Cross Pinning Strategy.

Basic Cross Pinning Strategy

The next week, you’d repin that pin to your “Baby Shower Gift
Ideas” board (an example board name just to give you an idea of
how this works).

Then, the next week, you’d repin that original pin to your Blog
Category “Parenting Ideas” board.
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Then, the next week, you’d repin that original pin to your “DIY
Crafts To Make or Sell” board.

Then, that last week, you’d repin that original pin to your
“Basket Craft and Storage Ideas” board.

Each board has it’s own target audience, so what you’re doing is
showing your pin to a new target audience every week.

Think of it like passing out flyers. This week you go to one

neighborhood, the next week a new neighborhood, etc.

Cross Pinning is kinda like that. You wait a week between pins
so you always have a pin to that RoundUp post that is new.

Sure, you CAN cross­pin all at one time ­ and I’ve seen a few
Power Pinners that do that ­ but for a new account with limited
boards, I would totally space them out.

This is a BASIC BEGINNER CROSS­PINNING STRATEGY

As you move further along through this training AND you

gather more boards on your Pinterest account, you’ll learn more
aggressive techniques.

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Some other Power Pinners space their cross pins out by only a
DAY ­ others a MONTH.

I do mine a day apart ​now… key word there is NOW.

I sure didn’t when I first started because 1 ­ I didn’t have my

boards set up for that and 2 ­ I didn’t have ENOUGH boards
moving quickly to do a more aggressive cross­pinning technique
to.

HOW you cross pin doesn’t really matter in the long run ­ what
matters is that you DO cross pin.

Remember ­ never pin something just once!

When you’re new to this whole concept, start with a week. It’s
easy to plan and to remember ­ and much easier to learn the
concept without confusing the heck out of yourself.

Once you’ve cycled through all the boards you can pin that
RoundUp post to, you can start over if you want to.

(yes, with the same images as long as the boards you are pinning
to have moved with a lot of NEW pins since your last pin was
there).

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Remember, you’ll be gaining new followers every day. By the
time a month has passed and you’ve completed your first
cross­pinning schedule, you’ll have NEW followers who
probably have not seen that pin before.

Just remember to keep your boards constantly moving with new

pins and repins ­ at least 8 of every 10 being pins and repins to
sites that are NOT yours.

Got that Basic Pinning Strategy?

Good, let’s amp it up a bit so you can see how the Power
Pinners REALLY do it.

Advanced Cross­Pinning Strategy

In our example RoundUp post, the title was:

7 New Baby Gift Basket Ideas I Love

That means your Round Up post has SEVEN Pinterest­worthy

pins in the content of your post.

{insert huge grin here ­ this is why these types of posts do DO

well on Pinterest ­ LOTS of pinnable images that all lead to the
SAME POST}
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Each of those 7 images can be set up in a faster­paced cross
pinning strategy.

It’s really powerful!

But ­ this is also where you can talk yourself into circles trying
to plan this and make yourself nuts (again, voice of experience)

Here’s one easy way to do it.

Make sure ALL your boards (with the exception of your main
Blog Board) are constantly moving with new pins.

Either do it manually, or be smart and use the auto­pinning tools

I use.

You can try them BOTH for FREE, so why NOT try them?

http://www.potpiegirl.com/growth­tool

http://www.potpiegirl.com/boost

Then, since your post has SEVEN pinnable images and there
just happens to be SEVEN days in a week….

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{weird coincidence, huh?}

Each pinnable image can be posted to ​each of your related

boards every ​DAY​.

Each is a ​different image so your followers of each board get to

SEE something new from that post each day AND they are still
seeing awesome OTHER pins because your board is constantly
moving with fresh and awesome repins.

Awesome, right?

Also ­ each of those 7 pin images give you an opportunity to

have seven unique pin ​descriptions targeting different keywords
to help drastically improve your chances of being found in
Pinterest search.

This is where using a Board List Scheduling and Auto­Pin Tool

like I use really helps cut down your confusing manual stuff.

http://www.potpiegirl.com/growth­tool

Note: if I was JUST starting out with a brand new Pinterest

account or an account I was trying to get some momentum with,
I would at ​LEAST ​get the free trial account ​of the Growth Tool

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above and use it ONLY for scheduling my Cross Pins of pins to
MY​ blog posts…

..and I’d do all my repinning of other pins to “keep my boards

moving” manually.

But if you’re not going to take advantage of these tools, then

you’ll have to map this out and do this manually.

Use a calendar and write down what image to pin each day.

And if cross­pinning all SEVEN images…

Make 2 ​more relevant and related boards and then write on your
calendar when to pin what image to what board.

If you do it this way manually, you should be pinning a new

image to each board every day.

So it would be planned out something like this:

Example Advance Cross Pinning Schedule

Remember, that ONE post has SEVEN images, so ALL of the

pins below ALL link to that ONE RoundUp post, ok?

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It takes a full 7 days to finish this cross­pinning for this one blog
post.

Monday:

Image 1 to Board 1
Image 2 to Board 2
Image 3 to Board 3
Image 4 to Board 4
Image 5 to Board 5
Image 6 to Board 6
Image 7 to Board 7

Tuesday:

Image 1 to Board 2
Image 2 to Board 3
Image 3 to Board 4
Image 4 to Board 5
Image 5 to Board 6
Image 6 to Board 7
Image 7 to Board 1

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Wednesday:

Image 1 to Board 3
Image 2 to Board 4
Image 3 to Board 5
Image 4 to Board 6
Image 5 to Board 7
Image 6 to Board 1
Image 7 to Board 2

And then keep on rotating the images you post to your boards in
that fashion each day.

It will take you a week for each of the 7 boards to each have one
of the 7 images from your Round Up post pinned to it...and
those pins better be surrounded by great pins/repins from other
pinners and sites.

{note: with the exception of your main Blog Board and your
Blog Category Boards ­ remember, those boards ONLY have
pins from your site}

Yes, you CAN do that daily cross pinning schedule all at one
time if you want to and pin an image with that day’s board back
to back...that’s fine ­ there’s no need to space them out over the

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course of that one day. With how Pinterest is these days, it
really doesn’t matter.

However, I DO recommend manually repinning something on

each board (other than your main Blog Board and Category
Boards) after doing this all at one time.

It’s not ​NECESSARY ­ I simply think it works better for ​me​.

Tip: ​ Make sure your weekend pins using this re­pin/cross

pinning strategy go out in the mid afternoon. Saturdays and
Sundays are BIG Pinterest activity days ­ so why not take
advantage of that?

This is how you get things started and really build momentum
for your account ­ and start the traffic to your site from Pinterest.

Later in the training, I’ll teach your my 7x7 Pinning Strategy.

But for now, do this to get the momentum going.

Make a plan to do your Cross Pinning each day and then make
time to clean up and edit old posts to make them “Pinteresting”.

And hey, when you’re cleaning up your older posts, make sure
that the main image that gets pulled by Pinterest, Facebook, and
Twitter is correct.
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I’m adding in an additional Bonus Guide that shows how I use a
free plugin to do make sure the right image shows on each social
site and it also has some more tips and tricks ­ it’s in your Bonus
File.

How To TELL Pinterest What Image to Use

There is also some html code you can add to images on your
post that you do NOT want to be pinned (for example, blog
header images that are wider and shorter or small images) and
that code allows you to tell Pinterest what image to use
INSTEAD of that non­Pinteresting image.

The code is in your template files, but it looks like this:

Yep, it LOOKS confusing, but it’s really not.

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You have your ‘normal’ html that makes your post header image
show ­ and then, you add in a few extra lines with that pin­data
stuff.

One spot is where you tell Pinterest what the url is of your post.

The middle spot is telling Pinterest what image to use.

And the bottom spot is where you tell Pinterest what pin
description to use.

That’s all it does ­ don’t let it baffle you =)

Here’s a live, working example from my test site:

http://involvery.com/mason­cupcakes­easy/

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BUT, if someone clicks to Pin that image, this is what they get:

A Nice big, Pinterest­worthy image with a pre­filled description

that helps that pin.

Below is exactly how the code for that image that shows in my
post and the alternate ‘pin­data’ html looks.

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Cool, right?

When taking the time and effort to clean up old blog posts and
make them Pinterest­worthy, take a moment and use that code as
well.

Heck, you’re in there, might as well do it while you’re there.

Know What’s REALLY Awesome About Pinterest?

You don’t even HAVE to be a Pinterest user to GET traffic from

Pinterest….

But you ​DO​ have to have Pinterest­worthy images ON your

blogs posts TO ​get traffic FROM Pinterest.

If the images are small, or ugly, or no images at all ­ no one is

gonna pin your page, right?

So clean it up and get to strategically cross­pinning.

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Now you know some cool secrets and tricks that Power Pinners
use =)

Inside this Beginner and Growth Pinterest Strategy Package you

will also find:

­­ txt files with the HTML code to copy/paste into your post
editor to create Round Up posts,

­­ two printable monthly calendars to keep track of your pinning

(one is totally blank and has a notes area on the side, the other
has a place to track your weekly Pinterest stats on the side ­
they’re not pretty, but there what *I* use and they work just
fine),

­­ and a Bonus Guide with a “How To” for Social Media

images and some tips and tricks.

Some More Little Tips & Tricks:

When I am getting ready to create a new Round Up Post, I use

the “secret boards” feature of Pinterest to make it really easy on
myself.

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I have a “post ideas” secret board, and while I am surfing
Pinterest for pins to use for my RoundUp post, I repin the pins I
might use to that secret board.

That way, all the pins I want to use in my post are all in one
place.

Makes it MUCH easier.

Another Tip: ​ When repinning those pins to my RoundUp Post

Ideas secret board, I will go ahead and edit the pin description
based on what *I* will want to use in my Round Up post.

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Then, all I have to do when adding each image is copy/paste that
new pin description in the template where it tells me to =)

And ANOTHER Little Tip:

I use a free plugin called: Auto Upload Images to make these

types of Round Up Posts REALLY easy for me to make.

You can find it by searching for it inside your ​add new plugins
area of your Wordpress site.

With this plugin installed and enabled, any time I paste an image
url in my post while writing it, the plugin will automatically
upload that image to MY site and change the image location url
to MY site FOR me once it is published.

That’s right ­ I don’t have to download each image and THEN

upload them to my site ­ this plugin does it FOR me.

It’s not a perfect plugin, but it works fine for my needs.

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Another Tip:

Add your Pinterest profile picture and some “hello/welcome”

text to your sidebar and add a Follow Me On Pinterest Button
below it:

That’s all part of the “Be a PERSON” thing and helps people
start to associate your Pinterest image and name with really cool
stuff.

I also use ​this nifty little free tool​ that adds that little “Follow me
on Pinterest” pop up that shows to visitors once a day.

http://www.potpiegirl.com/popup

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Between my picture on the sidebar, the pop up with my picture,
AND the same picture on that Pinterest Profile, there is some
branding consistency going on that really does help.

That’s something I learned by accident way back in the day

when I chose to be known as ‘PotPieGirl’ online.

YES! It’s a very odd name… and NO! It has nothing to do with
me liking pot pies or cooking… it’s just a silly name from a
funny story from back in the day before I was even aware of a
thing called “internet marketing”.

You know WHY I chose the name ​PotPieGirl? Naturally, I had

other names in my list of choices, but it turned out at that time
that Google had NEVER ​EVER had anyone even type that
name/string of letters together in their search bar.

There was NOTHING online that had the word “PotPieGirl” on

it ­ and nothing that used those 3 exact words together separately
(ie, ‘Pot Pie Girl’).

Imagine that...lol!

For the longest time, if you typed ​potpiegirl into a Google

search, Google would ask, “Did you mean pot bellied pig?”
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That still makes me laugh!

But then it got worse…. You’d type ​potpiegirl into a Google

search and Google would say, “Did you mean potty girl?”

I was like, “Oh lordy NO, that is ​NOT​ what I meant ­ and I do
NOT ​want to know what ‘potty girl’ even means!!!”

Hahahaha!

But back then, when it came to potpiegirl and Google ­ Google

was empty and had NOTHING for that word.

I didn’t exist because I didn’t invent myself yet.

It was an ‘empty query space’ in Google ­ but it’s absolutely

NOT empty anymore.

Same with my choice of the site name ​involvery ­ Google had

NOTHING when I started that site ­ another beautiful empty
query space.

It’s not that way anymore.

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I love “inventing” my own search keywords. By doing that, I
am INSTANTLY the AUTHORITY for those keywords.

Needless to say, when I first start this, no one IS searching for

those made up words ­ but that changes.

These days, *I* am a search keyword...with search suggestions

and everything.

And potpiegirl is DEFINITELY a name that people

remember...lol!

Don’t be afraid to blaze your own trail ­ it can be MUCH easier

starting with an empty query space that no one (at that moment)

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is searching for, than to try and compete in an already
marketer­populated query space.

And using tools that help your brand consistently really help:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/popup

Let’s move on…

Another Tip:

Embed your relevant Pinterest board at the bottom of your blog

posts.

Using that Round Up post I showed you before as an example:

http://involvery.com/mason­cupcakes­easy/

If you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see I have my Mason Jar
Pinterest board embedded there.

It’s VERY easy to do…. Just go to the board you want to embed
and click the little 3 dots at the top:

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Then choose “make a widget”:

Then just pick what size you want it to be, grab the code, and
paste it in your blog post.

Here is the direct link to the Pinterest “Widget Builder”:

https://developers.pinterest.com/tools/widget­builder/

That page also gives the code to add “save” buttons to your
page(s) ­ (formerly called “pin it” buttons), you can make
“follow me” buttons, you can make code to embed just ONE
pin, a whole board widget, or a widget that has pins from your
whole profile.

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The Round Up Post HTML copy/paste templates have a place
where I recommend pasting in your board widget AND a place
to embed the original pin for that post to help encourage others
to repin it.

Let’s talk a little more about Round Up Posts

The templates I give you to copy and paste into your post editor
are really easy to use.

Once you have an idea of what the topic of your Round Up post
will be…

­­ Create a Secret Board on Pinterest to collect pins you want to

use. If you’re not sure you REALLY want to use a pin, pin it to
the secret board anyway. You can always delete it, but many
times it’s hard to FIND it again if you do NOT pin it.

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Be sure to take a moment to change the pin descriptions to what
YOU are going to want them to say ­ that way you can just
copy/paste them into the alt text areas as needed.

­­ Go make a Pinterest size blog image and a Facebook sized

image.

If you’re smart, you’ll just use the image tool I use so you can
do it QUICKLY.

http://www.potpiegirl.com/easy­pins

The Facebook sized image will be your blog header image (I use
1200x600 ­ 1200px wide by 600px tall. It’s a PreSet size in my
image tool) so I can just click in my tool to resize for Pinterest,
save it to my computer and then click again to resize for
Facebook, tweak as needed due to the size change, and then
download that image to my computer.

Very easy.

­­Now, go ahead and upload both of those images to your site.

BE SURE TO ADD GOOD ALT TEXT to those images.

Copy the urls of those 2 images because you will need to paste
them in your template I’ve given you.
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This next image might be a bit tough to see, but it is one of my
example Round Up posts with the code that makes it happen (ie,
our template code) next to it:

Here is the example post:

http://involvery.com/brilliant­easy­nursery­closet­organization­d
esign­ideas/

That top image, the wide and short one, is my Facebook image.

But all that “pin data” code makes it so if someone clicks to pin
that wide image, they actually will pin my LONG image that I
put in that pin data code:

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I think both of those images look pretty good and yes, I made
both those images in just a few minutes ​with my image tool​.

In fact, it took longer to upload them to my site than it did to

actually ​make those images.

You will notice a little shortcode like this at the top of your
copy/paste RoundUp Post templates:
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[toc]

I use a free plugin called Table of Contents Plus that makes

these Table of Contents areas on my posts:

These are “jump links” to a specific section on that web page

and they are GREAT for SEO and really help your click thru’s
FROM Google.

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It’s a free plugin and you can easily find and install it from
inside your wp­admin area:

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HIGHLY recommended whether you use Pinterest or not ­ it
helps with your Google click thrus and helps your readers find
what they are looking for.

Moving on down the template, after your intro, Facebook image,

and table of contents, you’ll start pasting info in about the pins
you have collected.

Open one of the pins from your secret board, right click and
choose “copy image location” and paste the pin IMAGE url into
your template where it tells you to.

Then, copy that new pin description and paste it where it says
TYPE PIN DESCRIPTION HERE.

Then type a paragraph or two about that pin using a friendly

tone yet using good relevant keywords.

Then go back to that pin, right click, and choose ‘copy link
location’ and paste that in where it says LINK TO PIN OR
SOURCE WEB PAGE.

Then, I go back up to the <h2> code and fill in where it says to

describe the image.

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I always do this last because the words in between the h2 tags
will be the words used in my table of contents and I tend to do
better picking those words ​after I’ve looked at the image and
typed a bit about it.

That whole process I just walked you through looks like this in
the template:

It might SOUND like a lot, but as you can see, it’s not a lot at
ALL. In fact, it’s very easy to do.

Then, you just repeat for the next image and then the next image
until you have added as many images as you want that post to
have.

If you want more images than the template has code for, just
copy that part of the template code I showed in the red box
above for each additional image.

EASY PEASY.

When you get to the end of your post, you’ll see this code in the
template:
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The first part, embed pin widget from your pin, can’t be done
until AFTER you publish the post AND pin it to your main Blog
Board. You can’t embed a pin that doesn’t exist yet, right?

Then, type a short post summary, paste in your related board url
and invite them via a text link to follow that board… and then
embed a board widget so they can SEE all the ​other cool pins
you have on that related topic.

Optional: Hiding Big Images in Your Posts

Then you’ll see some code that starts with

<div style=”display:none;”><img src= blah blah blah….

You will paste your big, tall pin image url here in this code.

The ​display:none part hides the huge image on your post, but it
can still be pinned by users using a Pinterest browser button.

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Those Pinterest images tend to be H­U­G­E and don’t look good
on all blog templates, so this is a way to hide them BUT still be
able to pin them.

If you DO want that big image to show, just remove that first
<div style=”display:none;”> part at the beginning and the </div>
part at the end.

In your additional Bonus Guide I’m giving you, you will learn
how to use a free little plugin to make sure each social media
site uses the right image.

You sure don’t want Facebook to use a Pinterest image ­ and

you don’t Pinterest to try and use a Facebook image, right?
Right!

It’s easy to do ­ just follow the steps in the included Bonus

Guide.

One last tip and then I’m going to send you on your way.

If you have a RoundUp Post with say 5 images/pins for it ­ and

it starts to do well and get traffic…

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Go back in and add MORE pins to your RoundUp.

That beefs up your post AND gives you a lot more images to pin
that all lead TO that post.

It makes a DRAMATIC difference for a RoundUp post that is

already building momentum!

Ok wait, one LAST tip ​­ you up for it?

I have many “review” style posts on that test site and other sites.

At first I would look at them and think, “There is no way I can

make these “Pinteresting” so I’ll just ignore them”.

That’s a BAD attitude ­ shame on me!

ANY post can be made “Pinteresting”.

Here is a real life example of how I took a post that has nothing
“Pinteresting” about it and made it Pinteresting.

It’s a weather thermometer post ­ exciting right? Not!

But, if you’re shopping for a weather thermometer, it very well

would be interesting to you.
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But it’s not a “Pinteresting” post.

Or at least, it ​WASN’T.

I went online and found some “weather safety” type of graphics

that government agencies want you to share.

I have one for saftey tips in extreme heat, one for tornado safety
tips, and one for lightning safety tips.

And then I pinned ​those images on Pinterest.

My thinking is that if someone is interested enough to share/save

tornado safety tips on Pinterest, then they’d probably be
interested in having a tool that will warn them when a tornado is
coming.

See how I did that? You just have to think a little and get a little
creative and you’ll find ways to make ANY post “Pinteresting”.

Here’s the post I was talking about:

http://involvery.com/indoor­outdoor­thermometers­which­are­be
st/

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Some FAQ:

What if I only have 2 boards to cross pin to?

Then only pin to those 2 boards until you have more boards.

Group boards are great for this purpose when your account is
young and your own cross pin boards are limited.

Good Group Boards are about ​general topics (ie, A Christmas

Group Board as opposed to a Christmas Chocolate Cookies
Group Board).

By all means, feel free to cross pin to my Group Boards!

And also, consider USING pins from our Group Boards in your
RoundUp Posts.

As you get more and more into Pinterest and your boards fill up
with pins, you will see opportunities where some of those pins
could start a board of their own.

For example, you have a Chicken Recipes board and one day
you notice that quite a few of those well­received pins are for
chicken APPETIZERS.

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Well then, start a ​new board for Chicken Appetizer/Party Food
Recipes =)

Your Pinterest Boards will start to take shape based on your

blogging needs and your personal interests (as it should grow) ­
don’t be in a hurry to rush this process ­ just be mindful of what
you pin, what you blog about, what people repin, and what is
WORKING for you.

And also, jumping in the deep end and trying to manage LOTS
of boards when you’re still learning and perfecting YOUR
Pinterest strategy is OVERWHELMING (yes, that’s the voice of
experience there).

My Blog is a MESS! How Do I Know Where To Start?

I hear ya ­ you have all these posts that are not optimized for
Pinterest and the thought of where to start makes you want to
curl in the fetal position and eat donuts.

Been there, done ​that!

Where to start is simply answered by which 5 posts do the best

on your site?

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Start by cleaning them up first, then the next 5 best­performing
posts, etc etc.

You have to start somewhere, so why not start on the posts that
are ​already working for you and improve them?

How Long Will It Take To See Traffic From My Pins?

Very good question!

I have noticed, on average, it takes about 5­7 days for a pin to

“simmer” in and start getting attention and action ­ but don’t be
upset if it takes 10 days or 2 weeks. That’s still normal.

I just took a stroll through my current Pinterest notifications to

see which pins are getting a lot of action now.

I see one that is seasonal (Halloween­related) that I originally

pinned 12 days ago that is getting a LOT of attention today…
and has been for a few days now.

It’s very rare to pin something and see IMMEDIATE action on

it (which is good because I screw up pins a lot of times...lol!).

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Like Google, it takes the Pinterest algorithm a few days to get
things to ‘simmer’ together, but once it does ­ you’re good
for...well, forever!

I’ve got another pin that I keep seeing notifications of people

repinning…. And I pinned that one 2 ​YEARS​ ago.

Right now, that one particular pin for that web page is on over
3,000 boards all over Pinterest.

Sad thing is ­ back then, we were taught that we could just

upload an image to Pinterest and it didn’t have to link to
anything.

So that pin, when the image is clicked, doesn’t go anywhere

(​insert my bad words here).

BUT, I DO have a link to my site in the pin description.

Why Don’t I Just EDIT That Pin and Add My Url?

I could do that, BUT…. then it becomes a NEW pin. The repins

that are out there all over Pinterest won’t change.

Adding/changing the url a pin points to “resets” the pin stats

because it becomes a new pin.
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I’ve heard that if that image IS on your web page, that it might
NOT reset your stats, but haven’t tested that thoroughly as of
yet.

On the other hand, you CAN edit pin descriptions any time you
want to and your pin stats do NOT reset.

How Do You Monetize These RoundUp Posts?

That’s an excellent question ­ how do these RoundUp posts

make MONEY?

You can monetize these RoundUp posts with affiliate links just
like any other post.

I use Amazon links ­ or t­shirt affiliate links ­ or an affiliate link

to ​anything that is related to the topic of the RoundUp post.

Zazzle affiliate links can work if you’re a Zazzle affiliate. Etsy

affiliate links, Linkshare, ShareaSale, t­shirt links, etc etc.

I like using ​my affiliate link to eBates ​and ​Zullily​ as well.

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I’ve also been testing ads from Media.net ­ they are kinda like
Google AdSense ads but they’re from Yahoo and Bing ad
network ­ they’re contextual links and so far, they’ve been
doing pretty well.

I am also absolutely IN ​LOVE​ with and so happy with the new

website hosting company I am using now:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/hosting

I had been with Hostgator for years and years and year, but
finally had enough of their horrible customer support.

It got REALLY bad ­ to the point it could take DAYS to hear

any response on a support ticket. And when your site(s) are
broken and offline, you don’t have DAYS to wait for help.

I shopped all over and finally settled ​on this new company​ a
couple months ago.

Their hosting is excellent, but their customer service is

EXCEPTIONAL ­ I hear back FAST when I open a support
ticket (fast as in MINUTES) and they always go above and
beyond to help me with my sites.

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So based on my love of this new company, I will also be
figuring out ways to work my aff link into posts when I can find
relevant ways to work it in.

If you are looking for website hosting ­ and/or you hate your
current hosting company, please ­ try mine. You’ll love them!

http://www.potpiegirl.com/hosting

A couple things about using Amazon links on these posts.

Before I wrap this guide up, I’d like to touch on a few things
regarding using Amazon affiliate links in these RoundUp
posts….

First off, please hear that I said that ​**​I​** ​use Amazon affiliate
links in these posts ­ that only means ​I USE them, not that I have
any inner knowledge that it’s ok for EVERYONE to use their
Amazon affiliate links in these types of posts.

Secondly, don’t try and get approved for the Amazon affiliate
program with a blog that only has these types of RoundUp posts.

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 Depending on which Amazon rep checks your site, it’s possible
one of them won’t consider the content up to the standards that
Amazon claims to want.

Use your best judgement, do your own due diligence ­ but don’t
ever say, “Well, PotPieGirl told me I could use my Amazon
affiliate links!” ­ because PotPieGirl did ​not ​tell you that, ok?

Get creative… test things.. And don’t be afraid to try a new

image if the first one doesn’t get any traction or another way to
monetize, etc.

This business we’re in is very dependent on our own individual

tests and results.

What works for one very well may not work for the others.

Ideally, consider building a list with that traffic.

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RoundUp Post Strategy Recap:

1. Think of an idea and then add pins to a secret board to

gather those ideas in one place.
2. Go make a big Pinterest image and Facebook image for that
post. ​I use this tool​ to do it quickly.
3. Upload both the Pinterest image and the Facebook image to
your site thru the media tab in your wp­admin area.
4. Copy your RoundUp post template HTML and paste it into
a new post.
5. Fill in and replace everything in that template.
6. Publish post and make sure everything looks and works
properly.
7. Get post url and go add it to the proper place in the pin data
code in your post. Republish.
8. Pin to your main Blog Board then embed that pin in your
post where it says to ­ and set up cross­pinning. (can also
pin ​different images to ​different related boards at this time.)
9. Make note on your calendar of when to cross pin which
image if doing cross pinning manually or note when that
cross­pinning campaign will be done if using a pinning
tool.
10. Share on Facebook. Tweet on Twitter. Share anywhere
else that you normally would.

Done =)
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Using Your Calendar/Tracking Stats

There are multiple “goodies” in your Bonus File inside this

training package.

Included are tracking calendars if you’d like to use them.

I use the daily boxes to note new posts, cross­pinning info, and
also write how many visits my verified Pinterest website
received from Pinterest that day.

There are 2 calendars to use ­ use either or both ­ whatever

works for you.

One has a blank notes area on the right side.

The other, that I use, has some weird letters at the end of each
week ­ this is where I jot down my Pinterest stats from inside
my Pinterest analytics each week (I close my week out on
Saturdays ­ you can do whatever works for you)

Here are the things from inside Pinterest Analytics that the
calendar tracks:

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I get the stats from those 2 areas ­ Your Pinterest Profile and
People You Reach.

What the letters on the calendar mean:

YPP ­ ADI = Your Pinterest Profile/Average Daily Impressions

ADV = Your Pinterest Profile/Average Daily Viewers
PYR ­ AMV = People You Reach/Average Monthly Viewers
AME = People You Reach/ Average Monthly Engaged
TFC = Total Follower Count from your Pinterest Profile Page

I am a true believer in tracking stats, seeing growth, and being

able to go back to see what I did when things go right/wrong.

You can NOT improve on something if you aren’t tracking it.

Again, this is totally up to you, but I absolutely recommend

doing it for awhile ­ and then, maybe check your stats once a
month.

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The top of each monthly calendar also has a place to fill in stats
that Pinterest gives you about activity from your website.

I fill that in when that month is OVER.

At the bottom is the place to fill in your month totals of your

YPP and PYR stats when the month is OVER.

In Closing

I want you to enjoy this new way to get traffic to your site(s).

While it will feel confusing at first, it is NOT something to

stress and obsess over.

In reality, you really can’t screw this up.

Seriously, you ​can’t.

Well, you can ​IF ​all you pin to ​ALL​ your boards are your own
self­promotional pins.

Other than that ­ go for it. Try things. Pin a lot of things at once
if you want to. Make crazy­named boards for fun.

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While there are good strategies, there really isn’t a WRONG
way to use Pinterest…. But there sure are better ways to use it to
help you get better results.

Don’t try and “micro­manage” your Pinterest account. Trust

me, I’ve been doing that for quite some time now so I could
learn it all FOR you.

Make sure your account is doing what it needs to be doing and

then let it be. Go work on something else until it’s time to pin
again ­ or schedule pins again.

Use tools when they make sense for you TO use them and/or
when you are really on a limited time for online work.

I would pin at least 2­3 pins per day per ​board​ per ​day​. Keep
all your boards moving and remember to “surround yourself
with greatness” by repinning really great pins to your boards that
people that follow your board will love.

Pay a lot of attention to any pin you see that has a lot of repins ­
analyze it quickly. What did they do with the image? How is
their pin description? Heck, click through and look at the web
page they linked their pin to. Go look at their ACCOUNT and
see how they pin things and organize/title their boards.

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Let’s talk Group Boards…

Currently, there are 20 Group Boards that are you are welcome
to pin to.

If you haven’t done so already, you can request your invites

here:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/invite­request­form

My rules for our Group Boards are simple…

Don’t pin 3 times in a row to any one Group Board.

As long as someone else pins again after your 3 pins, you are
free to pin 3 more times ­ all day, every day. Ie, no daily limits ­
just only 3 in a row until someone else pins something.

I do NOT mean pin the same image 3 times in a row, ok?

Otherwise, do NOT spam the boards ­ I WILL remove you AND

your pins without warning and without apology.

One thing I do ask is this: When you are looking on Pinterest

for things to repin to your boards to keep your boards moving…
LOOK IN OUR GROUP BOARDS FIRST.
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Those repins from others are GOLD for each of us ­ and that’s
how we all get the most we can out of these Group Boards.

About OTHER Group Boards

Every OTHER group board (ie NOT mine) has its own rules ­
follow them.

Some group board owners might require you only pin things
from a site you own.

Others might say, “No RoundUp posts”. Some might say you
can only pin twice a day, etc etc etc… read the rules in the
Group Board description and FOLLOW THEM.

Note:​ I do NOT have rules posted in MY Group Board

descriptions. Why? Because those boards are not open to
anyone and everyone to join. They are only open to those who
have gone through my training ­ like YOU.

Best rules of all for Pinterest as a whole?

Be a PERSON and don’t be a selfish pinner.

You simply CAN’T mess this up so GO FOR IT!

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Tools I use:

For Images:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/easy­pins

Blog Pop Up:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/popup

Growth Auto­Pinning Tool:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/growth­tool

Pin and Account Boost Tool:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/boost

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Notes:

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