So you’ve heard that you should be using Pinterest to promote your blog content, but you don’t know how it all works! You’re here because you want to learn how to get started on Pinterest as a blogger – and how to set up a Pinterest business account.
That’s where this Pinterest beginner’s guide can help.
There’s a learning curve. You know it. And I certainly do know it!
So this is why I created this easy Pinterest guide for bloggers that want to get started.
In this post, you’ll learn about:
- Key steps of setting up a Pinterest Business account for your blog
- Getting your profile set up
- Creating boards
- Designing Pinterest pins
- Pinning pins to your Pinterest account
It’s the basics, but you have to start somewhere!
DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.
Bookmark this post on Pinterest!
What Is Pinterest?
Before we jump to the details of starting an account on Pinterest as a blogger, let’s look at what it is and why it’s important for you!
Although it likes to position itself as a social platform, Pinterest is a visual discovery and visual search engine.
Stats from the Pinterest investor’s report from February 2023 show that it’s used by approximately 450 million users around the world.
Of this population, 93 million are from North America.
Pinterest is predominantly used by women (76.2%), so if your blog’s target audience is geared toward women, you should be pinning your content to Pinterest!
So, Pinterest is a HUGE opportunity for blog traffic if your blog niche is geared toward a female audience.
Niches that do well on Pinterest include:
- Food & Drink (recipes, how-to’s)
- Home Decor, DIY, Renovations
- Fashion & Style (clothing, hairstyles, makeup tutorials, nail polish, tattoos)
- Hobbies and Crafting
- Parenting
- Financial tips
- Self-care and wellness
- Fitness
One of the best ways to grow your blog is to have Pinterest pin images in your blog posts.
This allows a site visitor to bookmark your post on their own Pinterest boards, generating more exposure on Pinterest itself.
If you skip having Pinterest pins on your blog posts, and you’re in a popular niche, you’re making a blogging mistake that can limit your readership.
Take a bit of extra time to add a Pinterest pin and see your traffic grow over time!
| READ MORE: How To Grow Blog Traffic With Pinterest
How To Get Started On Pinterest: Step-By-Step
What are the key steps to getting started on Pinterest?
1: Create A Personal Account
If you don’t already have a personal account on Pinterest, I recommend creating one today.
Why? Two reasons:
- If you want to pin anything unrelated to your blog, you can do so on your own personal boards.
- You can search to see if your preferred blog Pinterest account name is still available.
You also want to use it to save your personal pins.
Step 2: Create A New Pinterest Account For Your Blog
When you’re getting started on Pinterest for your blog, try to keep your personal account separate from your blog one.
Sure, you can transform your personal account into a Business one, but you’ll have to hide all of your personal boards as “secret” boards.
It’s easy to make a mistake by pinning a personal pin to one of your blog’s public boards. This is why it’s important to keep your blog and personal accounts separate.
I recommend using Google or Facebook for your preferred way to sign in. Avoid using your blog’s business email (the one with your domain name in it as @yourdomainname.com). If for any reason you let it lapse, you won’t be able to sign in.
If you use Google, use your blog’s Gmail email address. You’ve created one, haven’t you (best idea for any sign-ups related to your blog!).
Step 3: Set Up Your Business Account
There are two key reasons why you’ll want to set up your blog’s Pinterest account as a business account:
- Access to analytics on the pins from your site
- You’ll have rich pins, with your image and a follow button next to your pins
- Your website will be verified as legitimate
If you set up your new Pinterest account as a personal account first, click on Settings / Account Management and there you’ll see this:
| READ MORE: Instructions from Pinterest for setting up your account and verifying your site.
Step 4: Set Up Your Pinterest Profile
The next step for getting started on Pinterest is your profile.
For this you’ll need to:
- Add your headshot photo: people are attracted to smiling faces, so avoid impersonal logos
- Your name, but include your blog name if you can and Pinterest keywords for your niche. Mine is: Margaret Bourne | Blogging Tips | Start A Blog | Blog Coach
- Your Description, which tells people what your niche is and the topics you cover. Use Pinterest’s keywords for this so that your profile is found by others. Don’t go crazy with this section, even though you have
| RELATED: How To Find Pinterest Keywords To Optimize Your Pins And Profile
Step 5: Set Up Pinterest Boards
The next step in getting started with Pinterest for your blog is to set up your boards.
Remember the blog categories that you carefully chose when starting your blog?
Now it’s time to use those categories and key topics as your Pinterest boards.
A few tips on naming your boards:
- Do your research on Pinterest for board names
- Use short keyword phrases Pinterest uses (e.g. Start A Blog, Writing Blog Posts, Email Marketing Strategies, Blog Tools… you get the picture!)
- Make them reflect the content you already have.
- Start with one board per category/topic.
How To Create Pinterest Board Covers
While not necessary, branded board covers make your profile look consistent and “on brand”.
For example, I kept to a standard pink colour that’s one of my brand colours. I included my two fonts – Glacial Indifference, and Ramland Clean.
Here’s how to make them quickly and easily:
- Create a custom image at 600 px x 600 px in size
- Choose your preferred background (keep it simple)
- Use a legible font (sans serif, bolded is best) and at most one accent font.
- Place your text in the middle.
- Add your logo or URL at the bottom
- Make copies of this image so you can make all of your boards in the same style.
Next, you’re ready to add the board cover to Pinterest.
- Go to the Board
- Click the + sign at the bottom of the board.
- Add the board cover as a pin. You don’t need to add a URL, but if you would like to, use the category on your site or the search results page for that keyword.
- Click Edit Board
- Edit the cover image to the pin you just added.
- Remember to fill out the description for the board, while you’re making edits.
Step 6: Start Adding A Few Relevant Pins
Now that you’ve created boards, the fun part begins!
You can start adding pins to your blog posts and then pinning them to the appropriate, relevant boards in your Pinterest account.
But what if you haven’t published any blog posts?
You can pin a few pins on relevant topics from others – just don’t overdo it!
Step 7: Design Your Own Pins
Now it’s time to design your own Pinterest pins.
How do you do that – and do it so that somebody is attracted to click on a Pinterest pin.
Start to think like an advertiser: what would make somebody interested in finding out more?
Here are the best practices for click-worthy pins:
- 1000 px x 1500 px (2:3 ratio) size
- An attractive, relevant image (use stock photos if you don’t have your own)
- Text in an attractive font that’s readable (sans serif fonts like Raleway, Poppins and Glacial Indifference are my favourites); at most one handwritten font to emphasize word
- Text copy that tells what the pin helps do and the result: “How to… like a ” or “Blog traffic tips to boost your followers”.
- Try to use dynamic power words that evoke a feeling (for example, “I must know this”, “I’ll feel accomplished if I create this.”
Read my full post on how to design gorgeous Pinterest pins.
You can get started with a pre-designed pack of free Pinterest pin templates, courtesy of moi…
Step 8: Add Pinterest Pin Images To Your Posts
Now that you’ve created Pinterest pin images, it’s time to add them to your posts.
For this, I recommend the handy Tasty Pins plugin.
It not only gives you the Pin It button but also lets you customize your Pin Title and Pin Description fields – without having to use HTML!
So much easier!
You want to customize the Pin Title and Description fields with keyword-optimized content.
This is so that when somebody pins from your site, that specific information is included.
You also get to add the Pin ID after you’ve pinned the pin image to Pinterest. This gives Pinterest analytics tracking for any pins pinned from your site.
Here are the steps for adding the Pinterest pin image to your blog post:
- Add an Image block and upload your pin image.
- In the block editing area on the right-hand side, you’ll see options to add your preferred Pinterest title and description
- Add your Pinterest Title and Pinterest Text (the description).
- Use keywords you find in the search bar of Pinterest for your topic in a natural way.
- Tell the Pinterest user what they can expect from your blog content when they click the pin.
- When your post is published, pin that pin image directly from your blog post.
In Pinterest, you’ll be able to see the pin, and the Pin ID – the long number in the URL for that pin.
Add the Pin ID number where it says Pinterest Repin ID in the Tasty Pins on the Block Sidebar in WordPress.
VOILA! You’re all set.
Convinced you need the Tasty Pins plugin now? You’ll thank me when you get it.
PRO TIP: Don’t overwhelm your blog reader with too many pin images. I add a maximum of two to my post that are visible.
With Tasty Pins you can disable other images (such as horizontal feature images) from showing up as an option for pinning.
You can also include additional hidden pins for the reader to choose from when they click your social sharing button’s Pinterest button.
Step 9: Pin Between 2 And 5 Pins A Day
You may be tempted to pin a whole bunch of pin images to your new account.
STOP!
If you pin too many pins (no more than 25 a day), you risk having Pinterest penalize your account due to spamming.
So what’s the best way to get started on Pinterest with your pins?
- Pin 2 to 5 pins a day
- Only one pin per blog post per day
- Pin in intervals of 2 days apart to avoid being labelled as spam
- Experiment by using both static and video pins
| RELATED: How To Use Pinterest To Grow Blog Traffic
Step 10: Analyze Your Pins And Adjust Your Strategy
You can determine which kinds of content and pin styles get the most traction for you by looking at your analytics.
To do this check out click on the Analytics tab. “Overview” will give you an in-depth analysis, including a breakdown of your impressions, engagements and outbound clicks.
Outbound clicks are what matter the most. If these are not growing, something is not working.
It could be that you need to adjust your Pinterest pin designs and wording to attract interest.
More Pinterest Strategies For Bloggers
Interested in learning more about Pinterest strategies and Pinterest tips and tricks to maximize your opportunities?
Check out these posts:
- The Secret To Designing Pinterest Pins That Get Clicks
- 11 Pinterest Tips For Blogging Success
- How To Use Pinterest To Grow Blog Traffic
More ways to grow your blog traffic:
Need a deep dive into Pinterest?
I’ve developed a beginner’s course: Pin It Better that will help you master Pinterest, with cool strategies you may have not thought to use before.
QUESTION: As you get started on Pinterest, what are you finding to be your greatest challenge?
Did you find this Pinterest guide for bloggers helpful? Share it on Pinterest – thanks!
I love Tasty Pin. I got Tasty Pin on your recommendation and I’m happy I did. I”ve been more intentional with my Pinterest strategy lately, and I’m starting to see some real growth!
That’s fantastic! Yes, I’m seeing Pinterest is loving the static and video pins lately. Whatever they did is working.
This the biggest challenge i have found with pinterest is the idea of having to post multiple pins everyday
Trying to get other people to pin my posts are a challenge. Outreach is hard, and I don’t know how to get things to be “pin worthy”
This is exactly what I needed to up my Pinterest game, will pin for reference!
Thank you and I’m glad it’s helpful!
This post was one of the most beneficial posts for me to read as a new blogger and pinner. I have been wanting to create board covers, but I hadn’t taken the time to figure it out. You explain it perfectly. I am going to favorite this article and refer back to it as needed while I am building up my Pinterest account. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!
You’re welcome Ciara! I’m glad this is helpful to you. It can be so overwhelming as there are so many components to Pinterest.