You've just started your blog and now you look for ways to drive traffic to it?

Have you thought about using Pinterest?

There’s power behind using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog. 

Just take a look at these facts:

• A pin is 100 times more spreadable than your average tweet
• Each pin can drive up to 2 page visits and 6 pageviews
• Ecommerce sites benefit from pinning as each pin can generate 78 cents
• The life of a pin is one week! Compare that to 24 minutes for Twitter and 90 minutes for Facebook.

Is it really possible to get a good amount of traffic in a very short time using Pinterest?

Just have a look at my other blog.

It's only 6 months old, and I get 1,500+ daily visitors from Pinterest.

When I first started my blog...

I had NO CLUE how SEO works and I wanted results... fast.

I wanted hundreds of daily visitors and just knew that SEO wasn't the way to go.

So I looked for alternatives.

Turned out the (absolute) best alternative was Pinterest! 

So, how can you create more traction from Pinterest for YOUR blog?

Here are four tactics you can use to elevate your pinning strategy and bring on the traffic.

How To Use Pinterest To Get Maximum Traffic

Step 1. Sign up for a business account

First things first.

Go ahead and sign up for a free Pinterest for business account or convert your existing account.

When you sign up, you’ll have access to Pinterest analytics – important information about your pins’ behavior (you'll know which pins work or don't)

Then you should apply for Rich Pins, which are pins with more information than your standard pin. There are different types of Rich Pins, each with their own pin upgrades such as real-time pricing and a direct link to your site.

Blog post pins (a type of Rich Pins) are the most valuable for bloggers since you can promote your latest blog post with your logo, bigger headline and a link back to your site. 

Once you've switched to a business account and applied for Rich Pins...

Step 2. Focus on your description

Each pin has a description below it telling the reader what your pin is about.

Typically, if you pin your article, your blog title and a little description of your post should be enough.

But, that's for your AVERAGE blogger.

To really MAXIMIZE your pin’s potential, you have to do more than that.

According to Pinterest’s data of over 10,000 pins, they discovered what makes a great pin.

Ready?

So for high engagement (repins, click, message) your pin needs to be:

• Helpful – make it easy for pinners to find your pin with a spot-on description. According to Pinterest, helpful pins receive 30% more engagement.
• Detailed – in a sentence or two explain what your pin is about. Give enough information to entice a pinner to click through to your blog.
• Interesting – draw on the emotions of the pinner by using sensory-related words and positive sentiments.
• Actionable – include a call-to-action in your description. Using phrases like, “check out…” or “click to find out more” can generate an 80% increase in engagement.

What it ends up looking like, is this:

For some niches you can add text to your image to get more engagement. 

In my survival & preparedness blog I found out that simple enticing images without text work best (like 10-100x better).

Got to test (Pin) a lot. More on that later.

Finally, remember to incorporate SEO-friendly keywords in your description and be as concise as possible.

How can you do that?

Pinterest has a VERY USEFUL search bar.

Let's you have an article about Digital Marketing Tips that you want to promote.

You'll then type in your keyword (Digital Marketing Tips) and Pinterest will suggest the next MOST POPULAR inquieries for that key word.

You then use these "related" keywords and use them in your description.

It’s been shown that pins with descriptions of 200 characters are the most repinnable.

It also doesn’t hurt to add relevant hashtags to your pin’s descriptions.

Step 3. Pin at the right time

Just like other Social Medias you really want to know what ARE the best time to promote (pin) your content.

This is all a numbers game.

Thousandss of pins are shown on Pinterest every hour of every day.

How can you get your pins to outshine the others? What you want in your Pinterest marketing strategy is to have the most repins.

You want as many people as possible to repin your material so that it’s shown more frequently to new users.

The most successful strategy is to find the best time and day to pin. 

From analyzing the data, it looks like the best time to start pinning is on Saturday morning.  Then in the evening.

I get most of my traffic after 5pm EST.

And the worst time to pin is during normal working hours – which makes sense.

But, the BIG secret is this.

You got to pin a bunch.

You got to put in the numbers.

Each day I pin between 30-50 pins of my own content.

Almost 52% of people visit the site less than once a week. So, to reach most of your audience, you need to be pinning consistently.

It's ALMOST impossible to overdo it.

Want another Pinterest Beginner's Tip?

When you first start with Pinterest you got to build your following.

I got about 4k but still manged to have 4.5 MILLION monthly views and 1,500+ daily visitors, so...

You don't need a HUGE one, but 500 followers is a good start.

And you build your audience like this.

Repin (the hell out of) OTHER PEOPLE'S content first (90% of your pins)

And pin 10% of your own content.

Untill you get your first 100 followers.

Why? Two reason.

Numero Uno: To get more EYE BALLS when you promote your own pins.

Numero Secondo: To really GRASP what your audience like and repins.

Once you got your first 100 followers you can reverse the numbers (90% yours, 10% others).

Step 4. Create pin-worthy images

It's not enough to have amazing images. The best images are optimized for maximum engagement.

So, what makes a pin-wortht photo? 

1. It has to be the right size

You know Pinterest favors vertical images. Since up to 80% of pinners view the Pinterest feeds on mobile devices, it just makes sense to use images that are more tall than wide.

So, what is the perfect size for a pin? Generally you want an aspect ratio of 2:3 or 4:5. 

Next steps

Pinterest growth is still going strong. It’s safe to say it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

For bloggers, it really is the absolute best (and easiest) traffic source.

• Want more visitors? Pin some more.
• Want to increase your email list? Pin some more.

To get started with Pinterest simply follow the steps:

1. Sign up for a business account
2. Pay attention to your description copy
3. Learn the right time and day to pin
4. Create sensational pin images