3 Ways to Make Money with Pinterest - the frugal millionaire (2024)

Pinterest is not just a social platform; it’s a visual search engine. What if you could make thousands of dollars per month with Pinterest?! And, what if I told you some of these ways are passive? Here are three ways to make money with Pinterest that you can start implementing today.

*Please note that the first two ways to make money with Pinterest assume that you have a blog. If you haven’t yet started a blog, you can do so here for a discounted price. The first step in making money online is starting a blog, so get started today!

Create and Promote a Product

What is your area of expertise? What are you passionate about?! A great way to make money with Pinterest is by creating and promoting your own product. I know that sounds intimidating, but take it one step at a time!

First, I recommend creating a FREE product to get email subscribers and gauge interest. If you want to create a short guide/ebook on potty training your toddler, for example, you could create a free guide first on 100 fun things to do with your toddler after nap time. This will allow you to build an email list of parents to toddlers, some of whom would absolutely be interested in your potty training book.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create an ebook that sells >>

Once you have your freebie and your product created, it’s time to start promoting. Ideally, you’ll want to rank in the top 10 in Google for your targeted keyword, but that actually takes months, if not longer. It’s completely impossible to write a blog post and have it rank #1 within a day or two.

Pinterest, however, is the polar opposite. A good pin can go viral in a matter of minutes. That is why you should focus on the platform for your product!

After you’ve created your product and freebie, you need to insert them into your blog posts and write fresh blog posts that coincide with your product. Then, create pinnable images that will lead to clicks over to your blog, freebie signups and, eventually, product sales.

The beauty of making money with Pinterest this way is that once everything is set up (your freebie, your product, your blog posts, your images and your pinning strategy), the money is relatively passive. That means you can essentially set it and forget it, and watch the sales roll in!

Get People On Your Email List

I’ve been blogging over three years, but just recently am realizing the power of an email list. You guys, to be totally honest, traffic doesn’t matter if you have a solid email list. And, you can very easily grow your email list with little pageviews. If you want to monetize your blog, every single post should have a purpose: Make a sale (your own product or an affiliate sale) or get an email subscriber. This way of thinking has totally transformed my blog and my business.

So what does this have to do with Pinterest? Well, Pinterest is a HUGE source of traffic for bloggers and business owners. Pinterest is constantly in my top two sources of traffic (the other being Google, or SEO), and it almost always accounts for almost half of my total traffic.

But, traffic without a purpose doesn’t do anything. Sure, it will increase your ad revenue, but unless you’re getting hundreds of thousands of pageviews each month, you won’t notice a difference. Instead, heavily promote your blog posts that will either make you money now or in the future. To do this, you must:

• Write helpful, authentic content with your target reader in mind
• Create stunning, high-converting images (check out these templates if you need help!)
• Join as many group boards as you can and promote, promote, promote!

Need some group boards to join?! Here are 25 that are currently accepting contributors!

Start Your Own Pinterest Virtual Assistant Business

And finally, the third way to make money with Pinterest is by starting your own Pinterest virtual assistant business. This is a relatively new career, but it has HUGE potential and is only going to grow in future years. If you have any interest in being a Pinterest virtual assistant, now is the time to get started.

A Pinterest virtual assistant is a virtual assistant that specializes in Pinterest. Again, it’s one of the biggest sources of traffic for bloggers and business owners, so it’s vital that people use the platform to promote themselves. The problem is a lot of business owners do not have the time or interest in learning the ins and outs of Pinterest.

That’s where you come in.

You become an expert in Pinterest – learning everything from creating stellar pins to customizing your client’s boards to joining group boards to promoting pins and more.

You market yourself as an expert, because you are. You charge competitive rates and finally get paid for what your time is worth. Eventually, you may even be able to quit your full-time job, hire your own virtual assistants, and run your business completely from the comfort of your home.

If this sounds like something you’d love, you may be wondering how to get started.

Have you ever made money off of Pinterest? Since half my traffic comes from Pinterest, I can definitely attribute half of my monthly income to the platform. You can view my latest income report here.