Pinterest-How I Pin

Pinterest is an amazing resource to drive traffic to your blog. Pinterest and Facebook are consistently fighting for the #1 spot for referrals to my blog. The beauty of Pinterest is you don't have to be an amazing, professional photographer to have a photo "accepted" which lets all of us have an opportunity to have our recipes seen. The key is getting them out there, developing the "relationship" to lure more followers, who in turn will see your next pin. 

Hopefully, you all read my last post on Pinterest and have organized your boards. Now it's time to start using Pinterest for exposure for YOUR blog. 

Let's use these bars as an example-Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

If you've set your boards up, you probably have a few categories you can pin these bars under. Bars, Cheesecake, Cookies, Chocolate, maybe even some group boards. Four boards. That's some good exposure on Pinterest. Just don't do it all at the same time.

Such a waste of good exposure, see above? I pinned those lemon bars to 3 different boards but guess what, those will be nudged down by someone else's pins in a matter of minutes. It's better to scatter out your pins during different times of the day. And I usually won't pin the same recipe twice on the same day. Watch what you pin. Check your activity and see which pins are getting repinned. It may be what your pinning just isn't of interest to others right now, or it could be the time you are pinning. I find my best repin activity is after   about 8pm. The kids are in bed and the adults have some time to get on Facebook and Pinterest.

Speaking of Activity, see that word circled above? ACTIVITY. Anyone can click on it, to check you out. I do. If I'm thinking about following someone, I want to see what they've been pinning lately. If all I see are pins from their blog and no where else, I probably won't follow them. Always remember to share the love.

Here's a look at my activity after I deleted those 2 extra pins of the lemon bars.  Nice variety of sweet things. I probably need to go find some veggie dishes to pin, and some meat, to round out my activity. But it's not all from my blog. Anyone checking me out will see I am pinning what I like, not just what I make. Hopefully, they'll like what they see and want to follow along.

Remember-the more followers you get, the more people who have the opportunity to see your pins, repin them, click over to your blog and check out the post. This won't happen overnight, but when it does, you'll love it. We all know how easy it is to pin something, takes less than a minute.

You can also Pin again older posts, a great way to revive interest-

These Cream Cheese Bars got a little more action, just by repinning them. They'd been collecting dust for almost a year.

One other thing I want to mention. When you are pinning from someone else's blog like I did with these amazing Turtle Mousse Cups from Sugar for the Brain

I told Marjorie in my comment on her blog that I pinned it. 

I know you're all good bloggers, you visit others and leave thoughtful comments. If you pin it, let them know. I'm not saying anything will come of it and I don't expect it when someone visits me. But when you read over your comments, don't they make you feel good? Don't you feel good when you go to that Pin board from your blog and see how many things have been pinned from you! Sometimes the Pinterest account name doesn't match up to the blog name. Sharing is caring, let them know you care. 

What to see what's been pinned from your blog lately?

 www.pinterest/source/yourdomainname

Do you have a Pin It Button on your blog, to make it easy for readers to pin your posts? If you don't, you need to add it.  

How do you use Pinterest? What tips can you share with me?

I'll be sharing at a few of these great parties and next week, we'll talk about Facebook.