Looking for Pinterest growth?
Smart move. Pinterest is a long-term source of quality website traffic.
Unlike other social media posts, Pinterest pins can reappear in the Pinterest feed for months – even over a year. I’m still getting floods of traffic to a blog post that was first pinned in January 2016.
Pinterest is my absolute favorite social media platform – even if it is more of a search engine than a social platform.
On my “worst” month, I get 10x more web traffic from Pinterest than the others combined.
In my best month (November 2016), I got 172 times the traffic!
- 649,913 clicks to LouiseM.com from Pinterest.
- 3,768 total from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+.
And Pinterest is single-handedly responsible for my traffic growth the first 20 weeks of 2017 over the same period in 2016.
Amazing, right?
Yet I don’t write much about Pinterest because – it seems so easy! But I’m gonna share my secret weapon with you today. And it’s why being a success on Pinterest is so easy.
It’s a Pinterest scheduler called Tailwind.
I hold it largely responsible for tripling my followers over the past year (4.9K –> 15K+), and increasing my monthly Pinterest referral traffic by over 50 times.
Because all I do on Pinterest to get these results is – just keep pinning! Which is fast and easy with Tailwind.
Note: You can try Tailwind FREE for 30 days with my link. If you decide you love it, it’s $10 per month when you pay for a year in advance ($119), or $15 paid monthly. I’ll get a small bonus for referring you if you do.
How to Schedule Pinterest Pins with Tailwind
With Tailwind, you can sit down once a week and schedule 100 pins before you know it. The secret is in pinning your own content to multiple boards. You simply set the minimum interval you want that Pin to be posted, and Tailwind spaces out the repeats into the appropriate time slots. They even determine your best times to Pin!
You need to have multiple Pinterest boards appropriate to your business in order to make best use of Pinterest’s power.
- One board for all your own blog posts.
- One board for each of your main blog categories and/or product categories.
- More boards for your subcategories (take a look at your blog “tags” for ideas).
- And, quality group boards pertinent to your blog and business.
Next, create Board Lists in Tailwind. You’ll find this feature under the Publish icon. Create a list for each of your main blog topics. Mine are Blogging and Social Media. Add all appropriate boards to each list you create.
P.S. I now have 7 board lists, with more personal boards, and fewer group boards.
Now You’re Ready to Schedule to Pinterest
1. Go to pin or repin as usual, but click the Tailwind Schedule button.
2. Assign the Pin to your Board Lists and/or individual boards. For this one, I used both my Blog and Social Media board lists. Note that Tailwind eliminated duplicates.
3. Change the Pin Description now if you wish. Then click the Use Interval button.
4. Set an interval to space out the Pins of this same image. You can use the slider, or type in a number. Then click the Set Interval button. I pin about 12 times a day, so every 3 days spaces them out enough for me. If you pin less often, space them by more days. This is just to prevent seeing repeats close together, if people look at your Recent Pins page.
5. Click Schedule and you’re done! Tailwind will place the pins into the next available slots on your schedule, at the interval you specified.
There’s so much more to Tailwind, but this will get you off to a fast start!
For more tips, view these excellent tutorials from Angie Gensler.
This one shows how TailWind’s SmartScheduler works – when you’re ready to add more time slots. Don’t even worry about pinning more than 30 times per day, as there are no benefits to pinning more than that. Start with 5 and build from there.
Below, how to use the Chrome extension to repin top content from Pinterest (10 minutes).
To sign up for a free TailWind trial, click here. You can schedule 100 Pins! Cost after trial: $9.99 per month, paid annually, or $15 paid monthly.
• • • Click Here to Try TailWind for FREE • • •
(proud to be a TailWind affiliate!)
Pin this post so others can enjoy Pinterest growth too!
Nanouk says
Hi Louise, thanks for this great post! I was looking for info about the interval button and tadaaa 🙂 I do have another question: do you schedule your pins from your blog (aka you use your own pin it button in your posts), or do you upload your pins into tailwind? If you upload them, how can you make them rich pins?
Hope you can help me! Thanks in advance!
Louise Myers says
You can pin them and schedule from your Pinterest board, you can install the Tailwind extension and schedule directly from any website, or you can upload them. I haven’t tried that, but pins uploaded to Pinterest retain the Rich Pin feature as long as linked to a Rich Pin enabled site.
Gaurav Heera says
I have read so many articles or reviews concerning the blogger lovers
except this post is really a good paragraph, keep it up.
Luba says
I pin on Pinterest to generate interest and traffic to my Etsy site. Does it make sense for me to sign up with Tailwind? From what I’m reading it appears to be more for bloggers.
Louise Myers says
Hi Luba,
I write about Tailwind from a blogger’s perspective bc that’s how I use it 🙂
If you use Pinterest for your Etsy store, Tailwind is sure to save you time, and keep your pins circulating. If you don’t have many pins yet, or boards to pin to, then you probably don’t need TW yet.
ER says
Hi Louise! I appreciate the helpful post. I have a question regarding pinning. Do you only pin your own pins or do you also pin other user’s pins? I ask because from my understanding, Pinterest likes to see users pin the content of others as well as their own. What are your suggestions in this regard?
Louise Myers says
I don’t really know where that thought came from (it’s definitely pervasive tho). My suggestion is to pin others’ content that performs at least as well or better than your own. Pinterest likes to see that you share high quality content that gets saves and clicks.
I now pin less than 5% of others’ content. But I do not recommend this for accounts that need to get established as a quality resource, or that don’t have a lot of their own content.
Adam says
Awesome article Louise! I didn’t realize you could set intervals within the Tailwind scheduler popup. Thanks for the tips!
– Adam
Louise Myers says
Hi Adam,
Interval scheduling is a lifesaver.
I had to edit your comment bc I don’t allow keywords instead of names, or deep linking.
anon says
So what are you using to create the Pins in the first place?
Louise Myers says
Try these design tools for non-designers.
I personally use Photoshop.
PATRICK BARNETT says
Great info.
How many of my OWN pins should I have before I begin to use Tailwind?
Patrick
Louise Myers says
It’s a great question. Sorry for an “it depends” answer, but…
If you want to automate and start growing your Pinterest account, you honestly could start with little or no content of your own. Find top-quality, viral content in your niche to Pin. This will start building your authority with Pinterest, and your followers.
That said, you might wait until you have 4 to 7 different URLs that you have pins for. Then you could schedule each to at least 4 different relevant boards. Space out your pins to those URLs so you have no more than 1-2 pins to the same URL each week.
After a month or more, you can repeat the same process. I recommend not sharing the same pin to the same board more than once per month (or more).
Julie Galaise says
Hi Louise, i have à questions about your answer here: How do I « Find top-quality, viral content in your niche to Pin. This will start building your authority with Pinterest, and your followers.« ?
Thank you and I really enjoy your style, very easy to understand for beginners.
Louise Myers says
You can simply search on Pinterest and click through to the articles on the pins that come up near the top (for the most part they are popular, with some new pins mixed in) to ensure the content is good quality.
Or try Tailwind Communities. Join tribes in your niche. You can see on each pin how many times the attached article has been shared (includes FB shares). Find a few of the members you can trust for quality content and this process will be a lot easier!
Holly says
I found this very helpful, thank you!
I’m trying to get into Pinterest more for my website, and I keep getting stuck on the same thing–perhaps you can help me?
I’m very confused about the pinning and repinning. Are you pinning the same pin to your board over and over? I know you sail Tailwind eliminates duplicates, but I’m confused as to where you should pin these to if you only have 7 boards, how are you preventing duplicates?
Louise Myers says
Tailwind does not eliminate duplicate pins. They eliminate duplicate boards in board lists added to a pin.
After your round of pinning to all relevant boards is finished, you can start another round to the same boards. It’s recommended to wait 30 days between pinning the same pin to the same board.
Pinterest has confirmed it’s not necessary or desirable to remove duplicates.
Or it’s much easier to just use Tailwind SmartLoop and let it determine the intervals for your pins to post again and again.
Holly says
Thanks! That clears it up for me.
Billie says
I see it has been a while since anyone added a comment, but you are discussing a topic that confuses me and I’d like you help if possible.
My confusion is that you generally add a Pin to your own post and people share it. One post, one Pin it seems.
On the other hand, you are talking about uploading many Pins to Tailwind. How many Pins do you need to create and upload? Seems like you might need several hundred per month to keep feeding that machine with fresh Pins to distribute. Right or wrong?.
Louise Myers says
There’s no specific quantity “needed.” It really depends on how much effort you want to put into Pinterest.
Many people start with at least 3 different pins per blog post, and add more new pins to old posts over time, especially posts that are popular or money-makers.
And you don’t pin each pin image just once – you should have multiple different boards that you can add the same pin to with Tailwind’s Interval Pinning or Smart Loops.
After 4-6 months, you can start that process over again with the same pin image – though I don’t recommend reusing images that “flopped.” Replace those with new ones and try again.
Hope this helps.
Trijit says
Hi, i m a new blogger and it’s just 6 months old and has 22 blog posts. I daily create 16 pins for 4 blog posts. That means 4 pins for 1 posts. Now suggest me how should i pin ? How much pin should i schedule per day? I have total 65 board (personal and group boards) with 2k followers. Is 3 days intervals ok? Please suggest me…
Louise Myers says
Pinterest doesn’t specify what exactly will get your account marked as spam. In general, I recommend no more than 1 pin to each post per day.
Less pins of better quality per day works better. Most people find best success with 10-30 pins per day. You really have to track your own stats to see what works best for you.
Julie says
Hello. WOW!! I just came across your website today while searching for insight/help in using Pinterest as a platform to help with my craft sales and inventory. As I am not new to Pinterest, I’ve been using it a few years for ideas, suggestions and searching for recipes, etc. Currently I do not have a Biz Pinterest account, hence my reason for my initial search for 2020. While reading your website, I was SO happy to see you have a course “Pinterest 101: Biz Basics” and at a cost that I can afford! There are no words for how happy I am to have found your course and to get started. I do have several questions regarding your course. 1.) Is it a self pace taught course that I do on my own time? Since I work a 9-5 job. 2.) Does the course have an outline of where to begin or is it set-up automatically for the best starting point and takes me through to the end? 3.) Does the course include unlimited access for future use to refer back to or to refresh in certain areas?
Thank you.
Julie
Louise Myers says
Hey Julie,
I am so sorry that I forgot there was a mention of and link to that course here. I had to archive the course, because Pinterest is changing too fast for me to update the course and keep the price reasonable.
Unfortunately I don’t know of an effective and affordable course, for that very reason.
I hope you tried my FREE Pinterest email course though! Lots of info, and all free.
Ryan says
Louise-
Help me understand this. So I have a ton of blog posts on my site, product reviews, all sorts of things. I setup a Pinterest account a few years back and created lots of general board with pins from other people, etc. and then some boards of my own like “Product Reviews”. I have created a lot of informational content , “best product for x “ guides, etc.
I’m trying to understand how to use tailwind correctly as you said. So I create various additional boards on my account like the categories I mentioned above…. and then do I just go pin the content from my site and add to the boards FIRST, and then use tailwind to RePin those pins on a schedule? ( so basically “load up” my Pinterest account with all the content off my website by pinning the content straight to my boards, which then I have tailwind add on intervals)?
Or do I use Tailwind to create the Pins by entering my blog URL for the content, the desired image for the Pin, and then the destination board?
Given I have hundreds of pieces of content I would think the last thing I said is the way to do it, by scheduling different content to be pinned at different times.
Then over time when I have pinned all the content at least once, do I then go back and tell Tailwind to re-pin content off what is in the now populated boards on my site? Or have it go back to my site and create another pin (which I would think would make it duplicate)
Sorry for the long message just trying to figure out how to get all my content pinned using Tailwind and thus drive traffic to my site
Louise Myers says
You can add content to Tailwind from Pinterest, from your blog with the TW browser extension, or upload directly – it makes no difference.
Given you have a lot of content you want to schedule, yes it would be easier to start them with Tailwind and stagger the dates the first of each pin will go out, so you don’t flood Pinterest all at once, or have to remember to go back and start more pins on different days.
When you have pins that performed WELL you can start the process again. They will be duplicate no matter how you do it. So, only do this with pins that did well. If they didn’t, make new pins.
I peeked at your account and recommend you HIDE all boards not relevant to your business. Set them as secret. Right now you have 7 images of long hair featured on your profile. Confusing to say the least.
Here’s more on Tailwind for Pinterest. Lots of tutorials and videos on mastering Tailwind.