Does anyone remember the beginning of Pinterest where it was invite-only and full of pins that said things like “She put vinegar on her face. See what happens next…”?

I used to laugh at Pinterest because it just seemed like such a quaint little nook in the Internet realm that was perfect for moms trying to balance everything from work, raising a family, cooking, and cleaning. I never thought twice about its power as I pinned countless recipes that I never even got around to trying.

Then, as the platform evolved, I realized that out of nowhere, these housewives were now rolling around in dough, filthy rich.

What used to be an innocent platform chock-full of recipes and DIY projects is now a secret powerhouse for bloggers like you and I. While these mamas are making tons of money on Pinterest in just mere months, it seems like the fashion, beauty or lifestyle niches haven't fully realized the power that Pinterest can offer us. The focus seems to be on Instagram, but Pinterest is where the money is at too!

Pinterest Traffic > Instagram Traffic

Although we all know and love Instagram for the visual experience it offers us, Pinterest offers a much more significant return on time investment compared to Instagram. Why? Because pinning is another set-it-and-forget method of marketing, and here at The Blogger Bible, we're all about working smarter, not harder.

Imagine how you yourself use Pinterest: You see really cool pictures of magical places and pin it to one of your carefully-curated boards full of stunning travel photos. You spot a delicious recipe and pin it to your constantly-growing list of recipes to try for your weekly date nights. You might catch a DIY tutorial that caught your eyes (I'm sure that's actually how a few of you found me!) and want to try it out as soon as you get home from work.

Each time someone pins a pin, a sequence of events happens: 1) They click-through to your website to read your article, 2) they will re-pin it for future reference, 3) that pin is shown to their friends that follow them on Pinterest, and 4) that pin can potentially show up on stranger's Pinterest feeds as suggested pins. If your blog post is great, then people will re-pin it, thus spreading your blog post like wildfire. This is completely different from Instagram, where success is measured by the amount of likes and comments you receive rather than people actually clicking the website on your Instagram profile. Again, think about your own browsing habits: how often do you click a link on an Instagram profile versus how freely you click-through with pins on Pinterest? Another thing to think about is that people on Instagram also don't re-post images as much as people on Pinterest re-pin articles.

Pinterest's sole purpose is to circulate articles and blog posts from all over the Internet and also encourages users to share and/or click and read your posts, unlike Instagram, where the interaction pretty much stops at viewing an image. People don't even have to double-tap to like your Instagram picture... they can just quietly appreciate it and scroll on. You can post a photo on Instagram from your blog post and tell your audience to click the link in your profile to read it, but people are lazy: since your photo is not clickable, they won't navigate back to your profile to then click on your link and then read it. That's just way too many steps for us technology-driven and impatient folks.

Growth can Multiply Exponentially on Pinterest

I started focusing on Pinterest back in December of 2016 but neglected it for some months until just around April of the following year (thanks to Instagram sucking my soul). I regret that I didn't prioritize Pinterest to build my traffic sooner because just from April 2017 to July 2017 my traffic shot up from under 350,000 monthly pageviews up to 719,000+ in July. By August, I was at 930,000+. And now, I hover between 2 million to 3 million per month, depending on the time of year.

Here are a few screenshots of my growth:

4/24/17

5/29/17

6/26/17

7/7/17

7/25/17

8/2/17

It's also worth mentioning that I probably spend less than 12 hours a month on Pinterest. So going back to what I was saying: it's definitely worth investing time in Pinterest, because you will definitely get a significant return on your efforts.

How Pinterest Benefits You as a Fashion, Beauty or Lifestyle Blogger

A lot of bloggers in these niches scour Pinterest and wonder where they could possibly carve out a spot for them to "fit in." I am frequently told some of the following:

"Pinterest isn't my style! It's just so tacky."

"Pinterest is so 'mommy,' and I don't think I would attract the right demographic."

"I'm a male blogger, so Pinterest wouldn't work for me since it's mostly women."

Yes, it's true that there are some gaudy-looking pins and clickbait out there on Pinterest, but neglecting to market on this platform is like refusing to use Instagram because you see a lot of ugly accounts. While it may not be as aesthetically-pleasing as platforms like Instagram can be, that's not it's purpose. You can't compare Pinterest to any other social media platform because, well... it isn't a social media platform.

Hold on, what?!

Yeah, you heard me. Think about it: what aspect of Pinterest is actually social? I don't ever remember sending messages to people on Pinterest and very rarely have I ever commented on a pin (seriously, I've probably only done that, like once, in all the years I've been on Pinterest).

Pinterest is not a social media platform. It's a search engine, just like Google, but even better. But it's very much geared towards the blogger community and also acts as a marketplace for us to share our content with our audience. How many times have you personally gone onto Pinterest instead of Google to find recipes, DIY tutorials or beauty tips? Pinterest is exactly like Google, but the majority of websites that are on Pinterest are blogs rather than brand websites.

Again, we aren't on Pinterest necessarily for aesthetics. We are on it so that our content can be seen and read. People on Pinterest love reading stuff. So do not deny yourself the opportunity to grow your blog and page views with Pinterest - if you're intending to grow an audience and make money from ad networks, your ad income will depend on Pinterest for page views. Trust me.

It's pretty much non-negotiable for you to be hopping on this bandwagon. If you don't, you're missing out on an incredible opportunity to explode your blog's traffic. And it's all free too.