The Secret Pinning Strategy That Will Double Your Traffic!
I launched this blog a little over 6 months ago. I read like crazy about how to monetize my blog, I pinned like a mad woman, and promoted my butt off.
I learned what worked and what didn’t.
I thought I wasn’t doing very well because I was only making a few bucks here and there and pretty much investing every little bit back into my site. My ultimate goal was to learn as much as I could so I can one day work for myself!
And this is what happened….
I tested things…..
I read things…… A LOT of things……
I followed advice from people that knew what they were doing and some that were just guessing. Sometimes I didn’t know where to turn or who to believe since there’s so much information out there.
There is still so much more to learn and I will continue to educate myself on SEO and social media. Algorithms will always change and keep us guessing!!
A few things happened over this past month and I did some serious testing that actually gave me incredible answers!
Here is what worked:
Focusing on one social media platform at a time.
I set up business accounts on just a few social media platforms. Now, I’m a consultant part time for a social media/advertising company so I knew a thing or two about social media to begin with.
However, I honestly didn’t know how huge Pinterest would be for a blog/business.
Having said that, it should be one of a blogger’s/website owner’s most important platforms to promote on!
You can slowly add all the others one at a time. Try not to get too overwhelmed in the beginning and just focus on the ones you’re good at! Learn as much as you can about them so you can excel at promoting your work!
Each social media platform has a specific way that it works best. If you’re serious about making it in this business, then get serious about social media!
Manual pinning
Yes, this might seem like a pain, and no I don’t have all day to do this either, but it’s worth it!
That’s the thing….you see, I got over 20,000 views my fifth month blogging part-time!
I didn’t think it was that big of a deal since I’m reaching for much more! However, I learned quickly that some bloggers only get a few hundred after months of hard work!
I even wrote about it here: How I got a viral pin as a new blogger. I also talk about Carly from Mommy on Purpose’s method and how the manual pinning method helped me!
However, I did something dumb and decided that maybe I needed to try a different strategy and only use manual pinning on occasion.
I wanted to test this manual pinning strategy……
After reading TONS of articles about using only Boardbooster and Tailwind instead of manual pinning, I thought I’d give it a shot.
I was spending a lot of my time pinning and felt I needed to use my time somewhere else so I listened to ALL the bloggers and did a test.
I used the looping feature on Boardbooster and the campaigns and I stopped most of my manual pinning.
So what happened????
I’ll show you…..
My numbers dropped!
Now- I will tell you in the midst of all this I also switched my site from http to https and that was a bit of a hassle, but it was only for one day.
I also left 3 Pinterest Boards that were just sitting on my profile and no one pinned anything to them and they were literally taking up room assuming that hurt my numbers.
I can’t tell you how quickly my Pinterest numbers dropped! I was averaging 600-700,000 monthly viewers and within a month it all dropped to 300,000!
That’s a lot and awful for a new blogger to see!
My daily blog views went from an average of 700-1000 views a day down to 300-400!
That’s a huge difference! 😩
What did I do to fix it??
I checked everything I could, I tried to go back and see if it was something SEO or Google related.
I couldn’t figure it out?!! Nothing was different!
I thought maybe it was because I left 3 boards but it didn’t make sense since those 3 boards had hardly any followers or contributors!
I was just about to buy a year’s membership to Tailwind since everything everyone wrote about said this is the answer to it all! (Although, I do believe Tailwind is great for scheduling, tribes, and checking all of your stats)
Then it HIT ME…..what was the ONE thing I did different in the last month?
I stopped the MANUAL PINNING method!!!!
I mean, I did repin to keep my group boards happy but I set almost everything to automate on Boardbooster campaigns and figured I needed to focus more of my time on posts. However, this wasn’t working and I mean not AT ALL!
And let me tell you, I tried everything to get my numbers back to where they were, I participated in so many Facebook threads and did countless things that I never did the previous months before and nothing worked!!
I decided before I go and invest in Tailwind, I wanted to see what would happen if I went back to the manual pinning method I learned from Carly at Mommy on Purpose .
Guess what happened????
Within days….yes…I said DAYS, my Pinterest monthly viewers started to climb!
And you know what that means? So did my daily views on my site!
I spent one day, maybe 3 times during that day, doing the manual pinning method I used before and from noon until 5pm, my numbers went up 6,000 on Pinterest! That’s huge!
What does this tell me?
Those other methods don’t do a damn thing compared to this one!
As of right now, I’m going to continue with Carly’s Pinning Strategy because quite honestly, don’t fix something that isn’t broke (which I did for some dumb reason)!
I may implement Tailwind down the road once I have many more pins to handle but right now I’m sticking with scheduling new pins on Boardbooster, looping some pins on occasion with Boardbooster, and manual pinning.
****UPDATE-
I said I would update and finally got a chance to!
Since I started the manual pinning method again on November 7th, my views and traffic have just skyrocketed! It took an entire month of finally getting my Pinterest views back to where they were which also brought my traffic numbers to where they were plus some more!
My traffic has just increased and I was even able to apply for a better ad company! Needless to say I will not be switching this up again! My Pinterest monthly views are at 860,000 monthly viewers and every day climbing. I should be hitting a million within the next few weeks!
Incredible! Here is a graph below! 👇
My Blogging Resources
Honestly, as a new blogger who sees tons of courses and ebooks full of information, this method is not only the most affordable but it’s also the best info out there!
Seriously though, you can’t get pinning courses and secrets today for less than $50!
This is a steal and if you don’t believe me, then check for yourself! Soon enough you’ll be back to buy her ebook! I’d get it now before the price increases! It’s worth soooo much more than $47!
This pinning strategy helped grow my blog to where it is today and I’m able to make a great income from my bog because of all I learned from this pinning strategy!
Guess what?? I have a promo code for $5 off of Carly’s manual pinning strategy here!! Just type in this code: PINNING5
I just started this e-book and so far it’s been really helpful and packed full of information! I will update more once I finish it. This is also a very affordable e-book for all that’s included!
I purchased The Busy Budgeter’s Core Affiliate Strategy guide pretty early in my blogging career and I’m so glad I did! Rosemarie really knows her stuff and with the help of her affiliate strategy, I was able to make $100 in my second month with my blog!
Crazy, right?
And it’s just grown from there! You can read more about it here:
Bluehost has been terrific for me so far and I had one minor hiccup on my blog and they helped me right away and it turned out being something on my computer anyway.
Right now Bluehost is running a special price for my readers for $3.95 for 36 months! Bluehost comes with a free domain name and is the easiest and most affordable hosting site to use available today!
This is an amazing deal and if you’ve been thinking about starting your own blog, this is 60% off their original price so take advantage of this deal now!
For a more step-by-step guide on starting a money making blog, click here!
I needed a more professional feel to my theme so I bought one from Bluchic.
I researched high and low the different types of themes available and I fell in love with all of Bluchic’s feminine themes. You can check them out here!
I choose the Adelle Pro theme because I loved the slider look and just felt it fit my taste perfectly. Bluchic has so many others to choose from!
Again, you don’t have to pay for a theme at all, and most beginners start with a free theme and eventually move on to a paid theme. A paid theme is easier if you don’t know much about coding because you can get the look that you want and not spend hours trying to figure out how to do it!
For more of my blogging resources, you can check out this post here! 👇
You might ask….Why am I even sharing this pinning secret?
Because I was where you once were, starting out and having only a few views a day. Blogging or running your own website is one heck of a learning process!!
I’m always testing new things out and learning what works and what doesn’t!
Hope I was able to help some of you!
Update 1/2019-
If you’re interested to see how much my blog has grown all because of this ebook since I wrote this post, click the photo below!
Great article! I’m new to Pinterest for blogging and my current strategy is manual pinning but boy is it a tedious process for slow results. But I’m going to keep at it. I’ll check out Carly’s method to see if that can give me a boost. Thanks!
Yes, it can be tedious for sure! Check out Carly’s strategy, it makes it all worth it in the end! Best of luck to you! 🙂
I am totally going to try this! Automated pinning is doing nothing for me! Wish me luck! Xo
Meaghan
Good luck! Let me know how it works for you! It’s a pain when we have so many other things to do but it’s totally worth it!
Oh wow, it’s crazy how quickly your traffic changed! Glad that it got up again. I’m currently using both Tailwind and Boardbooster but that doesn’t seem to work for me at all. I’m definitely going to try the manual pinning strategy now. Very excited!
Yes Denise, try the manual pinning! I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot of work if you have a decent amount of boards but so worth it! I have to update my post but my numbers have definitely gone back to where they were and keep rising thankfully! Carly’s book is amazing and she even has a Facebook group as well that you can join to help guide you through her strategy! Good luck!
Here, here, manual pinner here and I get over 500k pin views, I only use Tailwind now for the free tribes xx
Isn’t it awesome?! I haven’t used Tribes yet….I need to do this but I just haven’t had a chance! Heard great things about them though!
Super helpful article! Thanks for sharing your numbers and tips. Especially in the beginning, it’s difficult not to use an automated solution like Tailwind or Boardbooster, because you want to focus on creating awesome content! Tailwind and BoardBooster are awesome tools to use in addition to manual pinning, but pinning manually does the trick. Pinterest likes to see accounts that actively engage on their platform. Definitely going to check out Tailwind Tribes soon, though!
Thanks Ciara! Yes, I’m actually going to try Tribes soon. I hear nothing but good things about them so I will give it a try and still use Carly’s method with it! I’ll update once I do!
I do most of my pinning manually, this am told is what the algorithm in Pinterest likes. Actually it is what drives most traffic than automatic pinning.
Yes, John! I couldn’t agree more! Pinterest definitely seems to like the manual pinners!
Hello,
I’m seeing this manual pinning strategy suggest everywhere, and I mean EVERYwhere. How much time does it take each day? For the right amount of page views, of course I’m willing to pin manually! I just haven’t seen what kind of time this would take to do every day. Does her strategy also require Tailwind and / or Boardbooster? I’m surprised Pinterest hasn’t snuffed those out because people are trying to do the work without actually looking at or clicking on pins! That’s no good for Pinterest!
Anyway, great post. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Trinity! I believe Carly did an update in her book and added a section to help those that do use Tailwind. However, her method is really interesting and you can only do it manually but she shows you a way to incorporate Tailwind with it. It can take up some time but it depends on how many pins you’d like to pin manually on a daily basis. It’s totally up to you! Check out her book, you won’t be disappointed! 🙂
This is amazing, I am still learning about how to use Pinterest for business but I really look forward to trying out the manual method.
Pinterest is amazing for your business! Come back and let us know how the manual method works for you! Good luck! 🙂
Great Pinterest tips! Absolutely loved this topic of expanding reach and growing traffic from Pinterest.
Thank you, Dustin! SEO is most important of course but Pinterest is a huge traffic source and some people aren’t aware of just how powerful it can be! 🙂
Do you still did manual pinning after recent pinterest update?
How your blog traffic now?
Yes, I still do manual pinning even after the update! I only send new pins I create through Tailwind the first time through and then after that I repin them manually. I also manually pin from my notifications and activity tab! I used to send my new pins through Boardbooster first but since that disappeared I use Tailwind now. I actually like Tailwind much better since it shows me my board insights and exactly which group boards are doing well for me and which ones I don’t need to waste my time on any longer. Hope this helps!
This is a great article! I especially love the manual pinning strategy which I do everyday and within a week my daily viewers have added up to 162 which is big for me 🙂 thanks for sharing
Hi Virginia! Thank you so much! That’s great to hear your daily viewers went up so fast!! Manual pinning can be a lot to take on at first but gets so much easier after a while and so worth it! 🙂
I’m also trying out manual pinning my only problem with Tailwind is their interface, the dashboard freezes too much and I end up using the same time as i would have pinning manually.
Hi Constance! Yes, Tailwind does seem to freeze up often! Manual pining is really easy and Carly has actually updated her course I talk about and it’s even easier now so check it out if you can! You may not even need Tailwind!