This website contains affiliate links. Some products are gifted by the brand. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The content on this website was created with the help of AI.
While I share money-making strategies, nothing is “typical”, and outcomes are based on each individual. There are no guarantees.
If you’re posting pin after pin on Pinterest and still not seeing a dime, you’re not alone. A lot of creators confuse activity with income. Pinterest will reward you with impressions and maybe even saves, but none of that matters if there’s no path for someone to actually buy once they click. Views don’t pay your bills—sales do.
That’s why I want to shift your focus from “how many pins can I crank out” to “how many pins actually make me money.” Because the truth is, ten well-researched, monetized pins can outperform a hundred random uploads. If you’re done working for free traffic, this is where you start building a Pinterest system that converts.
Pinterest is Search, Not Social
This is where most people go wrong. They treat Pinterest like it’s Instagram—posting “pretty” images and hoping someone stumbles across them. But Pinterest isn’t a social platform. It’s a search engine. People aren’t scrolling for entertainment; they’re typing in exactly what they want and expecting useful results.
That means your pins have to show up for those searches. If your title says “Cozy Vibes” but the person is searching “DIY Fall Crafts,” your pin won’t even make it into their feed. The algorithm matches keywords, not your mood board.
Here’s the fix: build your pins around search terms people are actively typing in. Use PinClicks or Pinterest Trends to find keywords with demand, then write titles and descriptions that match. Instead of “My Favorite Living Room Setup,” you’d post “10 Cozy Farmhouse Living Room Ideas.” One inspires you, the other gets found—and clicked.
When you start thinking of Pinterest as Google with pictures, everything changes. Your pin designs, your text overlays, your blog headlines—they all get sharper, clearer, and easier to monetize.
Do This: Open Pinterest Trends or PinClicks and type in a keyword you’d want to rank for. Pick one phrase with at least medium search volume (example: “DIY Fall Crafts”). Create a pin that uses that exact keyword in three places—1) the title of the pin, 2) the text overlay on the image, and 3) the first sentence of the description. Then publish it to a board that also contains that keyword in the board title. This guarantees your pin is aligned with how people actually search, instead of just looking “pretty.”
The Broken Path That’s Costing You Money
Here’s why you’re not making money: the path from your pin to the purchase is broken. Someone clicks your pin, lands on your blog post, and then… nothing. No affiliate link. No product. No email opt-in. Just content with no call to action.
Traffic without a destination is wasted. You don’t want people to just read—you want them to take the next step. That could be clicking an Amazon affiliate link, downloading your digital guide, or signing up for your email list. Every pin needs a monetization plan baked in from the start.
Think of it this way: your pin is the front door, your blog is the entryway, but if there’s no hallway leading to the money room, people leave. Fix the path. Add affiliate links naturally inside your content. Create “Shop the Post” sections. Drop your Stan Store link for a digital download. Guide every visitor to something they can act on.
Do This: Open your top 5 blog posts right now. Add at least one affiliate link or digital product link to each so every click has a chance to convert. Make every pin a funnel: pick one monetization goal per pin (affiliate sale, Stan download, email opt-in), link to a single, matching landing page (not your homepage), put the exact promise in the pin text overlay and title (“DIY Fall Crafts Under $20” → lands on a page with the same headline and a clear above-the-fold CTA like “Shop the List” or “Get the PDF”), add the affiliate/sticky buy links in the first screen, and track with UTM shortlinks (Lasso or your network’s deep links).
Create three variants around the same buyer keyword (e.g., “cozy farmhouse throw blankets”) and kill anything with low CTR or EPC after 30 days; duplicate and redistribute the winners to more relevant boards. Your metric is conversions per 100 clicks, not impressions—optimize headlines, first-screen offer, and link placement until that number climbs.
Stop Counting Pins, Start Counting Conversions
Pinning nonstop feels productive, but it’s not the same as making money. You can post hundreds of pins and still be broke if none of them lead to a sale. Pinterest will happily give you impressions and saves, but those are vanity metrics. They don’t pay the bills.
The only numbers that matter are the ones tied to conversions—affiliate commissions, digital product sales, email sign-ups. Every pin you create should have a job: get the click and lead the user to a clear monetization path.
Instead of asking, “How many pins did I publish today?” start asking, “How many pins generated income?” That one mindset shift takes you out of the hamster wheel of endless posting and into building a system where every pin counts.
Do This: Take one of your pins that’s getting clicks but not sales. Open the blog post it points to and add a clear, above-the-fold call to action within the first screen—this could be a “Shop the Post” product grid, a bold affiliate link button, or an opt-in form tied to a freebie. Then scroll the post and add two more natural placements for links or CTAs (example: in the middle of the content and again at the end). Re-pin that same design with the updated monetization path so every click now has a chance to convert.
Build Pins That Sell, Not Just Inspire
Pretty pins don’t always make money. You can have gorgeous images that get saves but no clicks because they don’t give people a reason to act. On Pinterest, your pin design has one job: stop the scroll and make someone curious enough to click.
That means using clear text overlays, bold fonts, and keywords people are actually searching for. A pin that says “Cozy Vibes” might look nice, but a pin that says “15 Cozy Farmhouse Living Room Ideas” gets the click. Pair that with a strong description and a blog post that sells, and now you’ve got a pin that pays.
Don’t just inspire—sell. Your pins need to point directly to content with a monetization hook: an affiliate product, a blog post with links, or a digital download in your store. Inspiration is free. Income comes when you connect that inspiration to an offer.
Do This: Take one of your “pretty but dead” pins (the ones with saves but no clicks) and redesign it with a sales-driven overlay. Swap vague text like “Cozy Vibes” for a keyword-rich promise that ties directly to your monetization hook—for example, “15 Cozy Farmhouse Living Room Ideas (Shop the Looks).” Upload the new version, link it to the same blog post, and make sure the first screen of that post has a bold “Shop the Post” section or product link. This way, the pin not only inspires but instantly connects to an offer.
Smarter, Not More
You don’t need to flood Pinterest with endless content. What you need are fewer, smarter pins that work harder for you. A single optimized pin built on keywords, designed with a bold overlay, and connected to a monetized blog post can drive traffic for months—even years.
Posting nonstop without strategy just creates noise. Ten strategic pins, scheduled to repeat over time, will outperform a hundred random uploads. This is where tools like Tailwind come in handy—you can schedule your best pins to circulate consistently instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every day.
Smarter also means testing. Track which designs, keywords, and boards bring the most clicks and sales. Double down on what’s working and stop wasting time on what isn’t. More pins don’t equal more money. Better pins do.
Do This: Pick your top 10 performing pins from the last 90 days and pull their CTR and conversion data into a simple spreadsheet. Label each row with keyword, design style, and board. Highlight the top 3 that are actually producing sales, then duplicate those designs with slight variations (new text overlay, fresh background, different keyword angle) and schedule them out with Tailwind.
Archive the bottom performers so you’re not wasting time. Smarter means doubling down on proven winners and recycling them, not flooding the platform with guesses.
Your Pinterest-to-Income System
Making money on Pinterest isn’t about random activity—it’s about building a repeatable system. Every pin you publish should follow the same path: researched keyword → optimized pin design → monetized blog post or product → measurable result. When you set this up, your pins work for you long after you hit publish.
Here’s the flow:
- Research keywords using PinClicks or Pinterest Trends.
- Create a blog post or landing page built around that keyword with affiliate links, a digital download, or a product.
- Design pins with bold overlays that include the keyword.
- Post and schedule them with Tailwind for consistent exposure.
- Track which pins drive clicks and which clicks turn into money using a tool like Lasso.
This isn’t about pinning harder—it’s about pinning with intention. When every pin is tied to income, Pinterest becomes more than just traffic—it becomes a revenue channel.
Do This: Build a simple 4-step workflow you repeat for every pin.
- Step 1: research one keyword with PinClicks or Pinterest Trends.
- Step 2: write or update a blog post around that keyword with affiliate links or a digital product offer baked in.
- Step 3: design 2–3 pin variations with bold overlays that use the keyword.
- Step 4: schedule them with Tailwind and track results in a spreadsheet (clicks, conversions, EPC).
- Run this same system weekly so every pin has a clear path from keyword → click → cash.
