Pinterest tips that might surprise bloggers

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au
My most Pinned Pinterest image
I've read so many blog posts lately on how to use Pinterest to grow your blog traffic, how to triple your Pinterest views and how to be intentional with your Pinterest boards. I've even written one or two myself! But what I truly believe about Pinterest is something altogether different to all this and no matter how convincing the arguments are, I still love Pinterest just for itself.

I started my Pinterest account 18 months or so ago when I was looking for somewhere to save my favourite pictures and quotes without clogging up my laptop. I am a sucker for a significant quote and for pictures of beautiful things. I will never be a DIY pinner or recipe pinner because that's not what I enjoy. I've seen recipes that have been re-pinned thousands of times, but I just can't muster any interest in that side of Pinterest. Give me a picture of a beautiful ballgown or a kitten and I'm hooked.

As far as using all the intentional methods of growing my Pinterest account and getting more hits on my blog, I just don't want to turn it into that kind of tool. The key methods seem to be joining group boards (all that does is flood my Pinterest feed with stuff I can't keep up with), or use a scheduling tool to re-pin for me (that takes a lot of the fun out of it). I also read that you should pin and re-pin your blog post pics over and over again - that just drives me crazy when I see others do it and makes me want to un-follow the person.

I looked at my stats (as I do on occasion) and my top three pins of all time are Remembrance and Deliverance (the angel at the top of this post) and the two below. All are completely unrelated and have nothing to do with my blog. I have no idea why they were pinned hundreds of times and I don't really care - if they made someone else happy then I'm happy too. Other pins that have a real resonance with me have often never been re-pinned.

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au
two of my most Pinned images - totally random and unrelated to each other
So, I'm going to go out on a limb by giving some different Pinterest tips and here they are:

Tip #1 It's okay for your Pinterest page to be about images that you love and that catch your eye. You can pin recipes that you like, home decor that inspires you, cute puppy pictures, exercise routines you may never get around to actually doing, and innumerable other irrelevant-to-blogging ideas and it's okay.

Tip#2 You don't have to use Pinning with the hidden agenda of trying to wrangle more visitors to your blog. You can include your blog boards, and at the same time still have room for lots of other interests - that way you can have fun and still feel like you are being proactive with your blog.

Tip#3 You don't have to follow the blog/pin rules - it's okay! If you want to do all the work and follow all the advice that's okay too, but for the rest of us, lets just back pedal a bit and relax and stop trying so hard.

I intend to continue my cyber hoarding ways and enjoy any new followers that find me. If someone follows me because they like my "a little loveliness" board or my "a touch of gothic" board, or my "kittens sleeping" board - rather than my blog board then that's fine by me. I just think that it's much more fun to Pin for pleasure rather than always for a purpose - my stats may suffer but who really cares? - ultimately for me Pinning is just another fun way to pass the time and it's okay for me to say that!


39 comments

  1. I've almost abandoned my Pinterest account - and it is interesting to see the pin I get the most traffic from. It wasn't from my blog, but something to do with a disabling condition my mother suffered from that has to do with invisible disabilities. It gets repinned over and over again. If I do pin, it is only for enjoyment. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

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    1. It's funny how there is so much hype about pinning for your blog, and yet the most popular pins are ones you'd never expect! We'll keep on enjoying ourselves Alana and too bad about the stats!

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  2. Leanne, like you I have decided all the frenetic blog promotion just ends up in deceiving traffic numbers. I do read posts by other bloggers and share the ones that I think deserve sharing but on the whole, I have decided to just enjoy the writing and if the traffic comes....it's more than welcome

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    1. Exactly Lata - blogging loses something when it becomes all about key words and image sizes and pinning and re-pinning. Let's just enjoy other bloggers we like and write for the joy of it :)

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  3. Leanne, I love Pinterest too, mostly because of all the great images and posts I find there. I have never known it to make any difference to my blog traffic and not really a way of connecting as FB or Twitter might be.

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    1. I'm the same Corinne - I converted my Pinterest page to a business one and enabled rich pins and even though my stats look better, it doesn't make much difference to my blog. So with that in mind I'm just going to keep pinning for fun :)

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  4. Pinterest can be quite addictive...I go through phases with it. It's been great to look for and pin quotes, outfits, home decor, travel and tattoos. I think I used it most for tattoos! :) I do pin my blog stuff but I don't think it gets repinned...doesn't bother me too much though. :)

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    1. I'm with you there Sanch - I had a whole board of tattoos when I started, but it gave way to something else that caught my fancy. I pin my blog stuff but don't really see much re-pinning.

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  5. This is so timely. I've been "using" Pinterest since I began to blog. I set up my boards and post my blog posts every week to them. That was it. Now I read a post about getting more engagement from it. Then you wrote this. I think I'll have to figure my way through how I really want to use it, but your advice is good. To have fun, and love the journey! Great post, Leanne. Thanks so much.

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    1. Thanks Cathy - I think Pinterest has its place with blogging but I just felt that all these posts on maximising your pinning for your blog didn't seem to do much unless you sold out to using Pinterest just for that - and I don't want to because I love pretty pictures!

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  6. Leanne, I am with you. I like just the fun of it and don't even post my blogs, but maybe I should, but use it for my business in a very loose way because I added boards of cute, unrelated stuff!

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    1. I put a couple of boards up for my blog stuff but the majority is just what I started with - pretty and cute and thoughtful and that's what I pin the majority in (glad you do too :))

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  7. I use pinterest and I also pin my posts but I have never cared about traffic. To me Pinterest is that great place to get awesome quotes, DIY crafts, home improvement ideas, etc. It's a great network.

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    1. My thoughts exactly Parul - I love all the amazing stuff you discover and I don't want to lose that!

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  8. Excellent advice, Leanne. So many people seem to be busy hacking this or that, increasing their followers by thousands of percent that they forget just to have fun and enjoy life is a GOOD thing!

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    1. Thanks LuAnn! I am a great believer in enjoying what you do - especially when it's in your leisure time - I don't want to try to compete with these very driven bloggers and pinners.

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  9. I've been cheating on my Pinterest page with my Instagram page. Great advice!

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  10. Love Pinterest but find it so distracting Leanne! I know blogger friends who get most of their traffic from there - they are super-organized and quite focused. Me? I just drool over all the photos there. :) Great tips though - and you make it sound pretty easy. :) Looking forward to connecting more with you!

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    1. thanks Vidya - I'm looking forward to meeting more of you on Write Tribe over September too :)

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  11. I should follow your good advice and just have fun. I do like to pin beautiful things, but I don't go back to them because there's so many.

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    1. I don't go back to most of mine either Sherry - but I just love how relaxing it is and that's why I think I'm allowed to cut myself some slack and ignore the business advice and just have fun

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  12. I understand this and agree! I've been on Pinterest since it was a concept being tested out so I don't think like the usual blogger/pinner either. I NEVER look at my feed! I use it to socialize and talk with friends. I have secret boards where we actually have planning meetings. I originally started just to use it as a place to save recipes and ideas instead of bookmarking everything to my computer. You are exactly right. I pin what I want, where I want, whenever I want and as many times as I want!

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    1. Oh Wendy I love you :) It is soooo nice to find a kindred Pinterest spirit!

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  13. I'm still trying to figure out Pinterest, and there is so much information out there, I get lost. I love your perspective on it - thank you!

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    1. I think Pinterest works for people like me who see things they like and save them in folders on their computer - Pinterest is just a neat way to do that without using up your hard drive :)

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  14. I like to have some balance on my Pinterest too. My "cats" board is an example of that. Whatever we do, needs to have some elements of fun as well. Life doesn't have to be dull.
    Thanks for sharing it on #TipTuesday.

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    1. You're so right Debbie - we all need a cats board or two to balance out all the hard work of blog building!

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  15. Great advice! It's so easy as a blogger to get wrapped up in what you "must" do and get obsessed with the numbers. I prefer to just do what I want and hope for the best!

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  16. This is great! It's important to remember that what works for one person (in building a blog) is not so effective for the next. Also, that rules are meant to be broken! Great post!

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    1. thanks Amy - I think Pinterest works well for food blogs and for people that really work at it, but I just find it all a bit too much pressure and I wanted to say that it's okay to just enjoy it for its own sake :)

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  17. Hi Leanne...just found this post of yours and I so agree. Sometimes all that STUFF is just exhausting isn't it? In the end, if we don't enjoy the journey why bother. Thank you for THAT excellent reminder! ~Kathy

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    1. so true Kathy - I started to get caught up in all the "grow your blog" stuff and realized that's not the way I want to do things - small but authentic is going to be my mantra I think :)

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  18. I think that this is my philosophy also, for all my Social Media Platforms and Pinterest and my blog. I want to create relationships with those who I follow and who follow me. I want to find commonalities, enjoyment, creativity and fun. Maybe that's why I stink at self-promotion and scheduling updates! Trying to get a bit better, but don't want to lose the connections either!

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    1. that sums it up beautifully Nikki - it's just so not about the numbers for me. I think everyone wants to connect but we want to stay real and not lose what we started out with!

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  19. I use pinterest how it's meant to be used by sitting and pinning things I love! I hate multiple pinners of the same thing because if I didn't want to see it the first time I won't want to see it the 10th time either. My pinterest is linked to my blog but I don't actively push followers there
    AliceMegan

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    1. You are a woman after my own heart Alice - I am so over seeing the same blog pins appearing every day in my feed - I want pretty things and stuff I like - which is what my feed should be about. Thanks for stopping by :)

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  20. I simply love Pinterest for me. Followers or not, I know where to find what I'm looking for and sometimes it's a great mindless past time. Thanks for sharing at the #AnythingGoes Link Party.

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Thanks so much for your comment - it's where the connection begins.