Great Pinterest Tips and Tricks for Bloggers

Have you seen Pinterest's new design?

The pins are bigger and . . .

It's a lot harder to find the website they came from.

Now, maybe this is just me, but that's what I think.

Because where it used to say beccabrownies.blogspot.com

it now says repinned from whoever you repinned it from. 

So, when I try to find the site that has whatever delicious recipe the pin describes, I get taken to another board. 

And another. And another. 

Anyways, this will come up later in one of the tips. 

1. Make a Great Caption

You know how with some blogs, when you pin something, words will automatically pop up?

Like it would say . . . Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Patties from Occasional Indulgences Handbook - a fun twist on peppermint patties. A carrot cake patty base covered with carrot cake bark, these are melt in your mouth delicious and decadent. 

When it would normally say carrotcakepattiesimageedit4 , something like that. 

Making a good caption really helps, because it let's people know what's in the dessert, and who it's from. 

I think on Wordpress there's someway to do it that's all fancy, but I'm on blogger, and it's a little different. 

Here's how. . .

(BTW, these pictures are Lisa's from Wine and Glue. All I did was add an arrow to make it more clear. I have no idea how to copy images like this and post them. If anyone knows, please help!)

When you pick the size you want your photo to be, there's a little blue rectangle.

Click on the properties button. 

It will say title text. In that space, right something. The best thing is writing what food it is, what website it's by (yours obviously) and then separating that with something, like this - or this ~ 

Then give a description of what it is. Most people like to add hashtags then. (I don't)

Then just click okay and do the rest of your post. 

That's it!

2. Put the website it's from . This is included in your caption if you do it, but even if you pin it from someone's website (i.e., not your own) and it doesn't include it, you'll want to add what site it's from. 

This is especially important with pinterest's new design. 

3. How to pin your own text

If you don't want something weird showing up for your pin like cake-batter-pudding-mousse-image-5-edit, then there's something you can do!

Before you pin it, highlight the text you want it to say. I usually highlight the title. That is automatically what will pop up when you pin it. I think this just makes pinning it faster and easier. 

4. Put your pins vertical.

(again, this is Lisa's picture)

When you look at this, which picture's stand out? I think it's the yellow pants, and the chocolate cookie dough cupcake. 

Both are vertical. Vertical pins stand out a lot more, and can get noticed easier. 

Whenever you post something, include a vertical pic. Try to make this the one that you add text to. 

(You know, text like this)

The part that says funfetti cake batter pudding. 

So, always put the text on a vertical pin (along with any other pictures you want to)

5. Pin things at good times

I'm sure you heard this before. What it means is you want to be pinning things at times when others are usually on. They'll notice them more, and be more likely to pin them, giving you more traffic. 

Good times to pin things are the afternoon (2 to 4 p.m.), the later evening (like after 8 p.m.), and Saturday morning. 

6. Group Boards

I'm kind of on the fence about this. I don't belong to any group boards, I just know that lots of people have said stuff like "I just joined this group board and my traffic has doubled you should do it too yadayadayda."

So while I haven't done it, just know that lots of people have, and it's helped them.

7. Pin it Buttons
You know those Pin it buttons on images? You know, with some blogs, when you hover over a photo, there's a pin it button so you can pin it right there?

I totally love that. Lots of times I'll find the photo I want, and when I try to pin it the thumbnails are so tiny that I can't even see which one I want.

To see a great tutorial on how to load that on YOUR website, there's one at Blogger Sentral

Now. With some blogs, they don't have this feaure.

Since I like the pin it button thing (like really REALLY like it) I don't always want to do the regular way.

With a blog like this, all you have to do is install an add in (don't worry, it's pretty small and won't take up tons of space on your computer) from either
Firefox

or QuickPin for Chorme

See, now when you right click on the image, this will pop up.

(that photo is from Kevin and Amanda if you can't tell)

8. Hashtags
This is another one I'm on the fence about.

Hashtags are those things you'll see with this # Ex. Cake Batter Pudding Mousse from Occasional Indulgences Handbook - so delicious and easy with only 3 ingredients! cake batter# pudding# mousse# easy#

When I started seeing all these weird number symbols popping up in my pin descriptions, I'd delete them.

But, lots of people are saying they're really helpful in generating traffic.

Apparently what they do is provide a link to other pins with the same hashtags.

Bloggers have said they get a lot more traffic on their pinterest page by having hashtags.

So, I guess it's a matter of preference, just something to think about.

9. Pinterest Profile Photos
This is a pretty simple tip but we'll go over it anyway.

When setting up an account, you can upload an image to be in your profile. You can choose what photo you have.

No matter what you do, do not leave it with the red pin symbol! This tells people you are a new pinner, or a spammer.

You can either decide to have a photo or a logo. It really depends. For most companies, logos are best.  But for bloggers, personal photos are best. (despite the fact that mine is a logo (because my mom made asked me to), this is important)


I realize that nine is no where close to five tips. I started typing this and realized I had a lot more than five. I probably should have aimed for ten, but I could not find any more tips! So, yeah, ignore what the picture says, there are nine tips. 

And guess what, no photo credit again! I created this at Picmonkey. So you'll have to see my new way of doing photo credit tomorrow.


Oh by the way : These are just things that I've heard around the web, and sometimes kind of figured out on my own.