Pinterest is an image-driven social media platform that’s all about inspiration. People use it to find ideas and inspo for home decor, recipes, fashion, travel and more, but did you know that you can also use Pinterest to make money?
How much you can earn depends entirely on your strategy, but the ceiling can be high. Beginners start at zero but can scale to a few hundred dollars or thousands per month. Pinterest is a long-game platform, and building a sustainable income requires a strategic blend of SEO mastery, consistent pinning and patience.
Whether you’re setting up a side hustle, building your brand or pursuing your dream career, here are seven ways you can make money on Pinterest.
1. Sell digital products
How it works: Use a platform like Canva to create digital products for people to buy. These products can be designed for digital use, such as social media templates, or be items that people can print out and use (think planners, checklists and colouring pages). You can then create Pins that showcase your digital product designs, encouraging people to buy them on a marketplace like Etsy or in your own online store.
Pros
Passive income potential
Low startup costs
Pinterest is perfect for showcasing visual products
Cons
Lots of competition
Building a following and income will take time
You'll need some design skills
Show how your products help. Instead of simply showcasing your products, create Pins that demonstrate how they can help people solve real-world problems. Video Pins are useful for this.
Optimize your Pins. Ensure that Pin titles and descriptions feature relevant keywords so they will rank well in search results.
Bundle products. Bundle products that tackle a particular problem or share a similar theme into one package to provide added value for buyers.
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Make an average of $300 per offer
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2. Drive traffic to your shop or website
How it works: Adding links to your Pins is a simple way to redirect users to your website or online store. This provides the potential to make money in multiple ways. For example, you could increase traffic to your blog to boost advertising revenue, encourage viewers to subscribe to your exclusive membership content, or even increase product sales from your online store.
Pros
Multiple monetization options
Potential for passive income
Adding links to your Pins is easy
Cons
You need to work out the best way to monetize your site
Not a direct way to make money
Can be difficult to make your content stand out
Contribute to group boards. Build a bigger Pinterest following by contributing useful advice to Pinterest group boards in your niche.
Use design tools. Make the most of online design tools like Canva to create eye-catching and engaging Pins.
Use Rich Pins. Rich Pins automatically sync with your website, so these Pins will change in line with updates you make on your own site.
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How it works: Print-on-demand is a simple way to start making money on Pinterest. Create your own unique artworks and designs online, then add them to items like t-shirts, caps, hoodies, mugs and more using a print-on-demand site like Printful or Gelato. Share your creations in Pins and when a user places an order, the print-on-demand site takes care of producing, packaging and shipping the merch for you.
Pros
Turn your creativity into income
No need to store or ship products
Potential to generate passive income
Cons
Lots of competition
Relying on a print-on-demand platform for item quality and fast shipping
Product returns can be difficult to manage
Find out what’s trending. Use Pinterest Trends to find out what products your target audience is searching for.
Pin consistently. Regular, high-quality Pins will help generate interest and traffic for your store. Use Pinterest’s scheduling tool or other platforms like Tailwind to help automate your Pins.
How it works: According to research commissioned by Pinterest, the number one reason people use Pinterest is to discover new brands and products. So if you want to make money on Pinterest, selling physical products is a popular way to go about it. Product Pins allow users to shop for items directly from your Pins, while Pinterest catalogues make it easy to create Pins from your existing product listings.
Pros
Shopping-friendly platform
Integration with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify
It's free to list your products, and Pinterest doesn't charge commissions
Cons
High level of competition
You may need to spend on ads to help your brand stand out
70% female audience won't suit all brands
Use ads. Use a catalogue sales campaign or a conversion campaign to help grow sales for your business.
Become a verified merchant. Apply to join Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Programme for features like a merchant badge, products featured in related Pins, and hosted checkout via Shopify.
Use Collections Pins. Collections Pins make it easy for users to shop for a particular product or similar options.
5. Partner with brands
How it works: If you have developed a large audience on Pinterest, you can make money by partnering with brands. There are actually five different types of brand partnerships available on the platform. Paid partnerships are the most lucrative and common type of collaboration. However, you may also receive a product or service as payment instead, be given free products for giveaways, or be invited to special events that you will then be expected to post about. Some brands also form user-generated content partnerships with creators, where you get paid or receive a product in return for creating content specifically for the brand.
Pros
Turn your large following into money-making potential
Partner with established brands to grow your audience even further
Pins provide longer-lasting content than other social media platforms
Cons
Building an audience takes time
Competitive market
Risk of damaging your reputation for authenticity
Perfect your pitch. Take your time putting together a high-quality profile that will impress potential partners. You’ll need to be prepared to pitch yourself and demonstrate how you can provide value to a business to increase your chances of striking a deal.
Be authentic. People are quick to identify content that feels phony or forced. Make sure you only partner with brands and products that suit you and your audience; authenticity is essential for building relationships.
Follow the guidelines. Make sure you add a paid partnership to the relevant Pins so they are automatically labelled as paid content, ensuring that you don’t breach Pinterest’s rules.
How it works: Running Pinterest ads allows you to showcase your brand and products to a wider audience, potentially boosting sales. You’ll need a business account to start advertising, and there are multiple ad formats to choose from based on your needs.
Pros
Easy integration of ads with other Pins
Content lasts longer than on other social media platforms
Advertise to people looking to make purchases
Cons
It can be hard to make content visually appealing enough to stand out
You need to spend money to make money
Largely female audience won't suit some brands
Get a consultation. Pinterest offers free ad consultations, so it’s worth setting up a meeting to get campaign ideas and tailored advice.
Educate yourself. Join Pinterest Academy to access webinars and courses designed to help you get more out of your ad campaigns.
7. Affiliate marketing
How it works: The next way to make money on Pinterest is one that’s commonly available across a wide range of social media platforms. Affiliate marketing lets you earn money from commissions. Once you choose an affiliate program, such as Amazon Associates or Vrbo, you can add unique affiliate links to your Pins on Pinterest. If someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you will receive a commission.
Pros
Potential for passive income
Low startup costs
No need to worry about storing and shipping products
Cons
Lots of competition for eyeballs
It takes time to build an audience
Low commission rates in some affiliate programs
Check commission rates. Commissions may vary depending on the product sold, so look at rates across different product categories to get the highest payouts.
Don’t just sell. Rather than forcing products on your audience, focus on providing them with high-quality, engaging content that provides value and shows the difference each product can make in their lives.
Check links. Check your affiliate links regularly to make sure they’re still working properly and aren’t broken.
What are the best ways to make money on Pinterest?
The best ways to make money on Pinterest generally involve selling. The platform’s highly visual nature, and the fact that users browse Pinterest because they’re looking for inspiration and new ideas, make it a popular portal for online shoppers.
So whether you’ve got your own home decor or fashion label, you run a print-on-demand store, or you want to sell digital products, there are lots of ways to make money on Pinterest. And if you can create visually engaging content on a consistent basis, sharing affiliate links offers the potential to generate ongoing income from the platform.
How many followers do you need to make money on Pinterest?
There’s no magic number of followers you need to start making money on Pinterest. Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest works like a visual search engine, so there is no specific minimum number of followers you need to monetize your account.
That said, the more followers you have, the greater your money-making potential. Building a larger audience of followers means more people seeing your Pins, more people liking and saving your Pins, and more people clicking through to your store or following your affiliate links.
Success story: April Smith
A teacher and literacy specialist from Arizona, April Smith has a passion for making learning more interesting for kids. Through her website Performing in Education, she provides research-based curriculum resources designed to help teachers engage their students. And thanks to Pinterest, she’s been able to reach teachers across the USA and Canada. April started creating project-based learning curricula and sharing them on her Pinterest account. This helped her drive traffic back to her blog, eventually allowing her to quit her teaching job and sell her lesson plans online.
Bottom line
You don’t need to be an influencer or a big brand to make money on Pinterest. Whether you’re selling your own products, sharing affiliate links or even partnering with companies, there are lots of opportunities to earn extra income. Create a Pinterest account today to find out how you can put the platform to work for you.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, there are several ways to make money on Pinterest. Popular options include selling digital and physical products and driving traffic to your own blog or online store.
Pinterest does not pay users or creators based on the number of views they receive. Instead, you monetize your presence on the platform in other ways, such as driving traffic to your online store or blog, sharing affiliate links, or even through brand partnerships and sponsored content.
Pinterest recommends an aspect ratio of 2:3, so the best image size for Pinterest is 1,000 x 1,500 pixels.
It's recommended that you open a business account to make money on Pinterest. Business accounts are free and provide access to extra tools like analytics, audience insights, ads and marketing tools.
Unlike some other social media platforms, Pinterest does not offer content monetization programs or pay creators directly. You can get paid as a Pinterest creator by partnering with brands to create sponsored content, or through strategies such as selling products and affiliate marketing.
Tim Falk is a freelance writer for Finder. Over the course of his 20-year writing career, he has reported on a wide range of personal finance topics. Whether you're investing in stocks and ETFs, comparing savings accounts or choosing a credit card, Tim wants to make it easier for you to understand. When he’s not staring at his computer, you can usually find him exploring the great outdoors.
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