Pinterest for Travel Bloggers: An In-Depth Guide to Help You Drive Traffic Like a BOSS

Pinterest for Travel Bloggers: An In-Depth Guide to Help You Drive Traffic Like a BOSS

This guide, Pinterest for Travel Bloggers, is designed for all levels of bloggers and pinners.

If you’re relatively new to travel blogging or to using Pinterest for Business, I recommend reading from top to bottom.

If, on the other hand, you’ve been at it for awhile and simply want to take your travel pinning to the next level, feel free to skip down to the section labeled Pin Like a BOSS.

While I typically don’t write content aimed at other travel bloggers, I wanted to share my knowledge on the topic as Pinterest consulting for travel brands has recently become my main source of income, and in my 2 years of experience working for clients with varying travel content and styles, I’ve learned a thing or two (or three or fifty).

It’s also something many travel bloggers have expressed frustration with, and with friends coming to me regularly for advice these days, it made sense to put it in one place for the sake of convenience.

Pinterest is an extremely powerful tool for growing your travel blog, and today I hope to convince you to allocate perhaps more time to Pinterest than any other social network.  

Bold statement, I know, but let’s be real–we’re all frustrated with Facebook’s constantly changing algorithms and sure, Twitter is great for networking, but it takes a very special kind of person to figure out how to drive blog traffic from it (but if that special person happens to be you, please email me, I’m desperate).

Let’s get pinning, shall we?

The Power of Pinterest for Travel Bloggers – AKA Why You Need to be on Pinterest, Like, Yesterday

As of October 2015, Pinterest sees 100 million active monthly users; nearly 50% of those users reside in the US.

According to Pinterest, nearly 70% of people visiting the site are also taking action (saving pins or clicking through to websites).

People are increasingly using Pinterest as a search tool, just like they would use Google to search for information.

You don’t need a huge following to see huge traffic.  With just over 1.3K followers, I’ve turned Pinterest into my number one traffic source and see thousands of referrals from the platform per month (with minimal effort!).  I’ve achieved the same for clients with followings of all sizes.

You don’t need a lot of blog content. When done strategically, a few pins can go a long way.  You don’t need thousands of articles to put Pinterest to work for your blog.

Using Pinterest doesn’t require any special skills. There are many free tools available to help you create beautiful graphics for Pinterest, and the platform is fairly intuitive to use.

It doesn’t require a huge weekly time commitment to begin to see significant growth.Unleash the power of Pinterest to grow your travel blog! Check out the full post to find out how.

But perhaps the most powerful thing of all…

Content on Pinterest has staying power.  Unlike other platforms (*COUGH*TWITTER*COUGH*) the content you pin will be around and discoverable forever and ever.  Especially if your pins become popular and accumulate thousands of repins, they will be shared and shared and shared to infinity and beyond.

And Pinterest’s growth shows no sign of slowing down–it’ll be worth your while to jump on board now and claim your own little slice of the Pinterest pie.

Types of Travel Content That Perform Well on Pinterest

  • Packing Lists
  • Packing Hacks
  • Travel gear
  • Travel Hacking
  • Sample itineraries
  • How to save up money for travel
  • How to save money while traveling
  • Destination-specific budget breakdowns
  • Destination guides
  • Anything related to solo female travel
  • Travel statistics & infographics
  • Listicles
  • Travel photography
  • Travel quotes

Types of Travel Pins that perform well on Pinterest

The Basics of Pinterest for Travel Bloggers

Consistency is key – Pin every day if possible.  Spreading your pins out throughout the day is even better, but not 100% necessary, especially at first.  No need to overdo it–between 20-30 pins per day is ideal.

Use portrait-oriented images – Also sometimes referred to as “vertical images,” these are taller than they are wide. Don’t use those in your posts?  Crop them.

Add text overlays – The pin should tell people what the article is about at a quick glance.  Pretty images do well on their own, but images with text nearly always out-perform plain images in terms of converting to click-throughs.

Don’t forget the URL – You know, that thing that actually directs people back to your blog?  When uploading new pins manually, you’ll have to edit the pin and add the URL to direct it back to the appropriate blog post.  If a pin doesn’t link to anything, you will see “Uploaded by user” at the bottom left.Adding a URL to your Pinterest images

Don’t just pin your own content – Pin other people’s content more often than your own.  Pinterest’s algorithms will reward you for your generosity (and your followers won’t think you’re an egomaniac; you might well be, but they don’t need to know that).  Some sources suggest following an 80/20 rule.

Follow people that inspire you – Don’t be afraid to follow a crapload of people on Pinterest.  I promise you, your credibility as an influencer will not suffer here.  Besides, where else are you going to get great content? Searches are one way, of course, but following people who consistently pin high-quality content is a sure-fire way to find the Pinterest gold.

Here’s a list of influential travel bloggers on Pinterest I recommend you follow to get started:

Go the Extra Mile

Convert to a business account – If you’re going to be using your Pinterest account to promote your travel blog (your business), you’re required to convert it from a personal account to a business account.  Instead of pinning as Leah Davis, I now pin as The Sweetest Way.  My website is connected to my Pinterest account and the URL appears in my profile. Full instructions for converting to a business account can be found here.The Sweetest Way on Pinterest

Apply for Article Rich Pins – Article Rich Pins are pins that show extra information in addition to the description you write in yourself, including your blog’s name and logo and the title of the article it links to.  Not only are they are useful for branding your content and making your pins look more professional, but they help your pins appear more often in searches and feeds.  They also tell people at a quick glance that the pin is legit and doesn’t link to spam.

Enabling Rich Pins requires adding a short snippet of code into one of your blog articles and submitting the URL to Pinterest for validation.  Click here for instructions.  If you use an SEO plugin like Yoast, be aware that the SEO title you give your article is the title that will appear on your Rich Pin. Using Article Rich Pins - Pinterest for Travel Bloggers

Organize your boards – Do this however you see fit, keeping in mind that the majority of people visiting your profile will only bother looking at the first 5 rows of your boards.  Put the ones you want to garner the most attention close to the top.

Pin popular pins – You know those pins with 3209465 repins?  You want some of those on your boards. Why? Because those popular pins will then show up in people’s searches and feeds, giving your account extra exposure.  And when someone new pins that original pin (the one with 3209465 repins), Pinterest may suggest your board to that pinner as one they might enjoy, giving them yet another way to find (and follow) you. Finally, you already have the proof (3209465 repins) that these pins link to high-quality content, meaning your followers are likely to dig them as well.Pinning popular pins on Pinterest

Comment on popular pins – The reason for this is simple–more exposure for your account.

Pin things you actually like – Yeah yeah, we’re travel bloggers and we should focus on creating and curating great travel content, right?  Primarily, yes.  But the benefit of having boards outside of your main niche is that you’ll become visible to people who you might not have reached otherwise. Have a passion for baking? Create a board all about cakes. Love DIY and interior design? Pin the projects that interest you.

Not only will this help you reach a larger audience and keep you from losing your mind (you don’t want pinning to feel like work, after all) it will keep your account looking and feeling more authentic and less like a travel content farm.

Join group boards – When you’re just starting out, one of the best ways to gain exposure is by finding and joining popular group boards that fit your niche.  These boards can often have tens of thousands of followers looking for great content, so make pinning to these boards a daily priority.

Make sure you read and follow their pinning guidelines so you don’t get removed, and do NOT repeatedly pin the same image over and over (another good way to get banned).  There are typically instructions for how to join group boards in the board description.  If not, you can always try commenting on a pin or sending them a direct message to request an invitation.  Not sure where to find group boards?  Click here.

Use your analytics to pin strategically – The greatest benefit of a business account is that you have access to detailed analytics about your audience and their activity.  If a certain type of pin continues to outperform others in repins and click-throughs, use this information to repeat that success with subsequent pins.

Find out where your audience is primarily based and pin for their time zone and at times when they are most likely to be active (typically in the evenings after 8 pm).

Pin Like a BOSS

Be a pin perfectionist – Because of Pinterest’s visual nature, high-quality pins are the key to your success.  Do sloppy pins get repinned?  Unfortunately for us all, they often do.  But sloppy pins are a waste of potential.  I’ve personally been known to pass by many a pin, even knowing that it probably linked to quality content, purely because I didn’t want an ugly eyesore on my board.

If photography is not your strong suit or you only shoot with an iPhone, you might be better off using stock images, because Pinterest is one place where low-res and low-quality photography just does not cut it.

To quickly and easily create beautiful Pinterest graphics, I prefer PicMonkey.  The free version works just fine and can even be used for basic editing if you don’t have editing software like Adobe Lightroom, but the paid version (PicMonkey Royale, which costs just $33 per year) gives you access to tons of added options including premium fonts and advanced functions like airbrushing, filters, effects and overlays, and more.  It also allows you to use the fonts you already own; I’m constantly adding new fonts to my repertoire, which I download for free on sites like Font Squirrel.

Another excellent resource for creating pins is Canva.  I find it slightly less user-friendly, but it does have a number of free design templates that make creating nice looking pins quick and painless.  To make your pins stand out from the crowd (since most people use the free elements only) don’t be afraid to spend a dollar here and there for the premium stuff.

Aspect ratios between 2:3 and 4:5 get repinned 60% more than extremely tall pins.  The best aspect ratios for maximum repins on Pinterest via The Sweetest Way

Use primary colors in your images.  Pins with more reddish tones get repinned more often than blues.  Brighter images get repinned more often than extremely dark ones.

Don’t be afraid to create multiple pins for the same post.  Make a pin for every image in the post if you want!  Experiment with the design and even change the text to see what works best.  The text on your pin doesn’t have to match the title of your post–just make sure it’s not misleading.

Stay true to your brand – This applies to everything from your pin design to your board titles to your comments on other people’s pins.  A few examples of how to brand your Pinterest account from top to bottom:

  • Put your logo or URL on all the pins you create
  • Use your own photography whenever possible
  • Create boards that cover all the topics you blog about or things that fit your personality – I have a board all about wine, for example, and another one all about maps, (I don’t even blog about maps I just really, really love them)
  • Create a board for your blog’s best content – Place it in the top row of your profile so people visiting can find your good stuff quickly and easily

Examples of branded pins for Pinterest by The Sweetest Way

My logo always appears (subtly) on my pins.  I stick to clean fonts and use no more than two different colors for my text.

Check out Anglo-Italian Follow Us, Bacon is Magic, and No Money, Will Travel for examples of beautifully branded pins.

Don’t forget keywords – You want your pins to be easy to find in searches, so you need to use relevant keywords in your pin descriptions, image titles, and alt descriptions on your blog.  When saving my pins, I make sure to give it a descriptive title; for example, instead of saving a pin as “airplane window” I might rename it “Saving Money on Travel.” When an image is pinned directly from your website, the text that shows up as the default pin description is that image’s alt text.  If you’re not already giving your images keyword-rich alt descriptions, start doing so now, especially if you’re adding your pinnable images directly into your posts (which I’ll get to in a minute).

Use a call to action – Whether it’s on the pin itself or in the pin description, invite people to “Click to read!” or “Find out more!” or whatever you want the pinner to do.  Pins with a strong call to action generate up to 80% more engagement than pins without.

Create your own group board – Gain followers and reach a new audience by inviting other people to pin to your boards.  Just make sure to invite only pinners you know and trust to pin high-quality content.

Don’t waste your time pinning to crappy group boards – This is going to sound harsh, but some group boards out there suck a big fat one.  I mean they really, truly suck.  They may have 55K followers, but if Pinterest doesn’t think the content there is any good, no one’s going to see it–not even the 55K people who chose to follow that board.  You can spot one of these boards by doing a quick scan–do most of the pins have 1 repin or no repins at all?  That means no one is seeing them, and your time is better spent pinning elsewhere.

Make it easy for people to pin directly from your website – Install a social sharing plugin that includes Pinterest or a plugin that causes a “Pin It” button to appear whenever someone hovers over the images in your post (I use both).  Because I want people to pin a specific image (the vertical image with text that I’ve created) I like to add this image to the end of my post with a call to action to make it obvious and as simple as possible for readers to find.  Others use it as their featured image so it’s the first one the reader sees.  Whatever works!

Pin It!Unleash the power of Pinterest to grow your travel blog! Check out the full post to find out how.

Schedule your pins using a third-party app – If you don’t want to have to worry about being on Pinterest every single day, it is worth the small investment to use a scheduling app.

Tailwind is what I use, and I genuinely can’t recommend it enough.  Pins are scheduled based on when YOUR audience is most active, to guarantee you the best possible engagement.  Pins can be scheduled quickly and easily using the browser extension, and they can be scheduled to multiple boards at the same time (and pinned at intervals that you choose).  Finally, you get access to detailed analytics like follower growth and repin data, not to mention feedback on pin design, profile completion and more.

Pinterest Faux-Pas to Avoid at All Costs

  • Linking to an article with a misleading image – With a few exceptions, it’s best to use an image that’s actually in your post to create a pin; otherwise, users might see this as deceitful. If the post has no images that would work well as a pin or contains no images at all, my suggestion is to use a stock image that at least relates to the topic of the post.
  • Pinning the same pin to 80 different boards at the same time.
  • Repinning something and leaving the description blank.
  • Stuffing your description with hashtags – Hashtags were reintroduced on Pinterest in the last year, but there’s no need to go overboard. I’ve been using 2-3 relevant hashtags in each pin description and this seems to be sufficient for now.
  • Using other people’s images to link to your own content – NO NO NO NO NO.  NEVER EVER.

The Jury’s Still Out…

I have yet to see conclusive evidence on what the best practices are regarding the following:

Branded board covers – I’ll be the first to admit, beautifully designed and on-brand board covers can make a profile look legit and well-organized.  Whether they actually influence people’s decision to follow you is up for debate.  If you have the time, go for it, but in the beginning, it’s probably not your highest priority.

Place Pins and maps – As stated earlier, Article Rich Pins are my preference over Place Pins because I prefer people know what my article is about so they click through to read it.  Another thing that irks me about Place Pins is that the source is listed as Foursquare, not your blog.  I personally have never used the map function as I find it a bit awkward and clunky, but then again I’m typically finding travel inspiration on Pinterest (i.e. researching), not actually using it for travel planning.  This is not to say that my way is the right way; if anyone out there has data supporting one type of Rich Pin over the other, I’d love to see it.

The ideal number of boards – I’ve seen accounts with as few boards as 5 and as many as 300.  One advantage I can see to having many boards is that you may be able to repurpose old content–in other words, cross-pin it to another applicable board at some point after the initial pin (if you have a pin about Barcelona, for instance, and boards about both Europe and Spain).  This can breathe new life into your old content and give people a second chance to repin it.

Finally…

Give it time – Pinterest growth, as with all things blogging-related, takes a considerable amount of time.  Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t see results right off the bat, especially if you’re building up a profile from scratch.  It takes many days and weeks of pinning consistently and pinning high-quality content for you to get in Pinterest’s good graces. Furthermore, the average half-life of a pin is 3.5 months.  That means a pin will only have seen about half its engagement after that period of time.  Sometimes a pin will begin to pick up momentum months after originally being pinned.

Also, remember that repins will not always equate to blog traffic right away.  Plenty of people pin articles that they want to read later, and then of course there are people like me (account managers) who don’t have the time to read even half of the content they’re pinning (although it’s good practice to make sure the link works and at least give it a quick scan). Repins do matter because you want your content disseminated as far and wide as possible, but be patient with those repins converting into real traffic.

Ready to take your Pinterest game to the next level? I’m creating my very own Pinterest course this year, and I want you to be the first to know about it. Join my mailing list to get all the updates and to find out when it’s launching.


As a travel blogger, using Pinterest is an absolutely essential part of a good social media strategy. Still thirsty for more Pinterest tactics and advice tailored to your brand?  Schedule a one-on-one consultation with me.


Sources of Pinterest statistics: here and here.

*This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them, at no extra cost to you.

124 comments

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thank you Alana! 🙂

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hi Stu! So happy you enjoyed the post and found it useful. I would not recommend landscape images on Pinterest. But I wouldn’t be mad if you wanted to pin my aspect ratio chart 😉 Cheers!

  • Sarah

    This is absolute gold! Thank you so much for sharing. I was only thinking the other day (ok, week..ok, month) that I need to sit down and get my head around Pinterest – so thanks for the head start and inspiration!
    Sarah recently posted…Rio Lagartos: A spot of flamingo countryMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      That’s awesome, Sarah! So happy I could be the catalyst to get you working on Pinterest 🙂 It will be worth it!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      That’s great to hear, Suzanne! 🙂 And thanks!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re so welcome, Helen! I’m glad you found some useful info here. Happy pinning!

  • Yasmine

    This is so useful. I’ve been using Pinterest for my travel blog for the last few months (previously only used it for fun) and it’s easily been the best social media platform for me. This post is so helpful to confirm some things I knew and teach me a few new tips. Thank you!
    Yasmine recently posted…A street art guide to BolognaMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Awesome Yasmine! Glad you liked it, good luck and happy pinning! 🙂

  • Maya

    Great points in this article, I didn’t know about a lot of them – for example to put my logo on pins. Thanks for putting this together!
    Maya recently posted…Road Trip through Southern AlbertaMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Happy you found it useful, Maya! I think the logo or blog name appearing on a pin makes it look more professional and polished. Cheers, and good luck!

  • Joella

    Great post Leah! I’ve been on Pinterest since the very, very early days but only recently started to use it for my blog. I like it because I actually find it fun- unlike some other kinds of social media (Twitter… ). But, one thing has been driving me nuts- do you know how you can find out how many times a pin has been repinned in total? Like say I pinned a pin, then you repinned it from me and 80 people repinned it from you (still with me?) the number 80 would show up on “your version” of the pin, not mine. So how can you find the total repins altogether? Or maybe you can’t! I guess it doesn’t matter really, but I’m always curious when I’m getting a lot of traffic from a pin. Road trip itineraries seem to do well for me- I do need more followers though!
    Joella recently posted…A Million Prayer Flags in KāngdìngMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Joella! You know, I’m not sure there is a way to ever know just how many times a pin has been repinned…or how many “versions” of it are floating around out there in Pinterest land. That would be cool to know, but yeah, not sure that’s possible. I know you can see which of your pins have been driving the most traffic in a give period of time in your analytics, but that’s it. I enjoyed Pinterest for personal use before using it for business too, which I actually think gives us a leg up on people who’ve only ever used it as a business as we’re able to think from an user’s point of view. I know it’s helped me a lot to have that insight!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks Matt!! I’m so glad you like it, I hope you can put some of my tactics to good use 🙂

  • Edith | [travel.create.repeat]

    Wow, such a great post! I’ve been struggling with Pinterest and am still not sure if I should invest time in it… You see, I blog in Dutch. And Pinterest works mostly for English bloggers, I think. Otherwise I might get a lot of traffic from beautiful pins, but no one will stick around on my blog because they can’t read any of it. What’s your social media expert advice on this one? 😉
    Edith | [travel.create.repeat] recently posted…Zigzaggend langs de vulkaan | Hiken op Santo Antão, KaapverdiëMy Profile

  • Paul Fournier

    Great guide! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! Bookmarked. 😀

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You are so welcome, Paul! Best of luck!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      So happy you found it useful, Laura! Good luck!

  • Billie Frank

    Thank you Leah for your incredibly detailed post on pinning. It’s inspired me to up my Pinterest game. I’ve been doing horizontal pins as I like them better and that’s our blog format. I looked at Canva and as I’m a bit tech-challenged, it made me cringe. Will look at PicMonkey as I need a way to turn my horizontal photos vertical. I also really appreciated the info on Rich Pins. Just messaged my tech guy, I’m saving this link as a reference.
    Billie Frank recently posted…Exploring Palo Duro CanyonMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You are so welcome, Billie! Vertical pins will really perform so much better than horizontal ones. PicMonkey makes it super easy to just crop them to the right proportions, just make sure you’re not starting with too small an image, otherwise your pin will end up minuscule! Good luck!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks so much, Suze! I hope it goes well for you using the business account 🙂

  • Dave Brett

    Super useful mammoth post Leah! Thank you so much for sharing and putting this together, Right I’ve got some pinterest work to do :D. I do feel an ebook brewing here btw 😀 😀 😀

    • Leah Davis (author)

      So glad you liked it, Dave! I’m happy you think that (about the ebook) would love to chat w/you more about that! 🙂

  • Claire

    Thanks Leah for such a detailed post.
    I am not a big fan of social media so I decided to pick one to do well. I chose Pinterest. Your article had perfect timing!
    Thanks for sharing all those tips and advice. It is refreshing from all those articles that push me to do 5 things which are not working with my personality at all.
    I just have to do it my way and be patient 🙂
    Claire recently posted…My top 7 favorite places in KyrgzystanMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      That’s awesome, Claire! I think you made the right choice going for Pinterest. If I could never ever send a tweet again in my life, I’d be pretty happy. Glad you enjoyed the post, good luck!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Ohhh I had no idea they were coming out with a phone app! I just started the Tailwind free trial a day or two ago and it’s already far better than what I was using before so I’m almost definitely going to switch…especially now that I have this info! Thanks for the tip!

  • Emily

    Damn, girl! This is crazy good information, thank you!! My blog is going through a total transformation right now, and I KNOW Pinterest is worth its wait in gold, so I’m looking forward to focusing more time making it pin’able. Also, I follow most of those peeps on different platforms, but never thought to do so on Pinterest. Done and done.
    Cheers,
    Emily recently posted…The Houseless Experiment: Weekly Round Up 3.0My Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      That’s great Kirk! I think it’ll be worth your time 🙂 Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

  • Evelyn

    Last night a Leah saved my life <3
    Thank you so much for this incredibly helpful article. The next Pina Colada is on me, if we are to meet somewhere along our globetrotter's road.
    Cheers from Berlin, Evelyn

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Evelyn, that’s so great to hear! Glad you found the post so helpful…and I’ll happily take you up on that pina colada whenever our paths cross 🙂 Cheers!

  • Edna

    I still remember when this thing came out when I was in college — one of the founders is from my hometown, which is how I found out about it — and I used to just use it to kill time my senior year! Crazy how it’s become such a huge thing now. Also, talk about feeling like I missed the boat…I shoulda been pinning away all these years!
    Edna recently posted…The Greatest Hits: The 5 best things I ate in LondonMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      I used to use Pinterest all the time myself. And luckily, despite being on it almost every waking minute of the day, I do still enjoy it and find lots of interesting and useful stuff on it. You haven’t missed the boat…no time like the present! 🙂

  • Melanie Fontaine

    Wow, this is one heck of an helpful post! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! 🙂 I’ve been wanting to get more into Pinterest, but never really knew how to work the platform for my blog – your post has given me so much useful insight that I’m sure I’m going to use in the future, so thank you! 🙂
    Melanie Fontaine recently posted…The Magnificent Duomo of FlorenceMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You are so welcome, Melanie! Hope it proves helpful, would love to hear how it goes!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      That’s great Patti! I hope it goes well for you 🙂 Cheers!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re so welcome Natasha! Happy to help 🙂 Good luck!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks so much, Amy! Glad you enjoyed 🙂

  • Tiffany

    Just discovered your blog and so glad I did! You went above and beyond with all of the great tips you’ve offered on utilizing Pinterest to gain traffic. I see so many people saying Pinterest is the way to go, and now I feel confident that I’m ready to dedicate more time to pinning and take it to the next level.
    Tiffany recently posted…Tips for Turning Your Business Trip into a Personal VacationMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Aw thanks, Tiffany! That’s great news! I hope Pinterest turns out to be worth the time investment, it sure has been for me 🙂 Good luck!

  • Kristin @ Camels & Chocolate

    Super helpful! I was at Pinterest’s NYC headquarters a few weeks ago and would you believe that food accounts for 79 percent of all Pins??? Travel wasn’t even in the top five categories!
    Kristin @ Camels & Chocolate recently posted…My Reading List: Part XIIIMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Haha I DO believe that! Food bloggers have it MADE on Pinterest!

  • Amarens

    Thank you so much! When I started out blogging I was using Pinterest a lot, now I just use if for myself, but your post inspired me to get back and start using it again. It´s quite funny, I actually found your blog through Pinterest and I purchased my sites theme because I liked your website so much 🙂 So thank you!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Ohh how funny! It all comes full circle 🙂 Your site is beautiful, I must say! Haha 😉 Best of luck with Pinterest!

  • Lisa

    Wow, Leah, this was super helpful! I am setting up my own travel blog and was wondering whether to use Pinterest or not, but you just convinced me to get on the platform from the get-go. Thank you so much for this post!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Wonderful! So happy to help, Lisa. Good luck and happy pinning!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Woohoo! That’s great news, Rossi! Best of luck to you 🙂

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks a lot, Marc! Glad you enjoyed 🙂

  • Tom

    Hi Leah,

    This is really useful, and has got me back to Pinterest to spend time trying to grow my audience there.

    I just added the Pinterest rich pin tags to some of my pages – specific hotel pages that I want as Rich Places. The sample code from Pinterest references Foursquare, and if this isn’t changed, then it will look like Foursquare is the source of the pin. I changed it to my site on my pages, and they post correctly as from my site.

    Take a look at your Place pages to make sure Foursquare isn’t mentioned anywhere in the “og” tags

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Tom! Really happy to hear this was a motivating post for you! And thanks for the heads up about Place pins and og tags, really useful tip!

  • Tom

    I have one question about who to follow – should I follow people, or just their boards that are relevant to travel?

    For travel bloggers, I’d just follow the blogger to get everything, but for people with diverse boards, does it make sense to only follow the 1 or 2 boards that make sense for me, or do I follow the person and get to see all their stuff?

    Thanks

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Tom! I think that all comes down to your personal preference! If you don’t mind a mix of pins coming into your home feed, just follow the person’s profile. If you see there are some boards you’d rather not see pins from, cherry pick just the boards that interest you. If the person pins primarily travel content, I’ll usually just follow all boards. Hope that’s helpful!
      Leah Davis recently posted…Month in Review: October 2015My Profile

  • Daniela Frendo @ Grumpy Camel

    Thank you so much for this! After reading this guide I’ve decided to start taking Pinterest seriously – I’m sure it will take a while to start seeing the results, but it’s definitely worth a shot.

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re so welcome Daniela! Glad I could help, and I think you’ll find Pinterest well worth the time investment! Good luck!

  • Octavine Swanson

    My son and I just started a vegan travel blog so I am looking for all I can read about the best ways to promote it. Your post on Pinterest was very enlightening. I hope to employ many of the techniques you discuss. I also really enjoy your blog and plan to read many more posts. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it all!
    Octavine Swanson recently posted…Vegan Travelers: Eat Seasonally & Save MoneyMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hi Octavine, so happy to hear you found the post useful! Very glad you stumbled upon my blog 🙂 I wish you the best of luck with your new blogging endeavors! Happy pinning!

  • Howard @ Backroad Planet

    Finally a comprehensive, yet understandable, overview of how to up our Pinterest game! Easy enough even for us guys to understand. Your article inspired me to give more attention to to boards. Got my rich pins approval today, too! Thanks, Leah!
    Howard @ Backroad Planet recently posted…Portugal in Panorama: An Annotated Photo GalleryMy Profile

  • Juliane

    This is so helpful! Thank you for writing it! I’ve been meaning to get into Pinterest and just didn’t know where to start – this was the kick I needed 🙂
    Juliane recently posted…5 Things You Have to do in RioMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re very welcome! Glad I could help, and good luck!

  • Kerri

    Leah, awesome post. Thanks for taking so much time to write such a detailed article. I’ve been trying to improve my pinterest presence bit by bit, and sucking up whatever info I can but it’s been a bit hit and miss. Your explanation and assistance in particular with the rich pin process is really valued. Love your website layout too.

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Really glad the post was so helpful, Kerri! And thank you for the lovely compliments!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks Marko! Best of luck! 🙂

  • Serendipity Tess

    This has been soooo incredibly useful! Thank you so much Mochilera! 😉 I have just realised that none of my Pins were Rich Pins and it took me 1 minute to get verified *Duuuurrrr*. Haha! Thank you thank you thank you!
    Serendipity Tess recently posted…The most Beautiful Restaurants in VietnamMy Profile

  • Wandering Carol

    Really helpful post, Leah. I’ve recently become a lot more interested (obsessed) with Pinterest and am pinning every day, and this post is great motivation to keep on. One thing I’m wondering … I went to a Pinterest talk by another travel blogger who recommended putting the link to the post in both the website box and the description box, so I’ve been adding my link to both places. Would you recommend putting it in the descriptions or not? Thanks!
    Wandering Carol recently posted…One day in Washington DCMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hi Carol! Interesting you bring this up, because I see bloggers doing it all the time and I wondered if there was someone out there encouraging them to do it! I personally think a link in the description just looks sloppy more than anything else. Pinterest users know how to get to your website without an extra link hanging around “just in case.” And if the bloggers doing this are hoping for errant clicks here and there, well those are only going to cause a higher bounce rate if people don’t mean to go to your site and then immediately leave. I don’t put links in my descriptions and I would never tell anyone else to…I even delete them from other bloggers’ descriptions when repinning! Just my two cents, of course 🙂

  • Jurga - Full Suitcase

    Hi Leah, just found your article on Pinterest 😉 What a great read! I’m new to blogging, to Facebook, to Pinterest, to Instagram, etc… and there is so much to be learned, so thanks for sharing. It’s good to know I’m doing some things right, but OMG there is so much I didn’t know. Like the fact that there are groups on Pinterest, to name just one. A very useful article!
    Do you happen to have some advice on how to find the audience and get more likes and followers on Facebook too? The biggest challenge is that I’m blogging in English while most of my friends/family are non-English speakers, so even if I get some likes and shares, they don’t reach the right audience…
    Jurga – Full Suitcase recently posted…All You Need to Know Before Going on Safari in AfricaMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Jurga! I’m so glad you’ve found the Pinterest article useful. As for Facebook, I’m still figuring out how to grow and audience there as well but a few things that have proven effective for me are boosting ads to a targeted audience (often just for $1-2 at a time, to get your posts and page on more eyes and grab new likes) and increasing my posting frequency. I used to post once a day, IF that, but now it’s more like 2-3 per day, with a mixture of photos (only one at a time, not a group of photos) and links to my own and others’ articles. Hope that helps! Good luck!

  • askme queryblog

    Goodness, Leah, this was super useful! I am setting up my own particular travel blog and was pondering whether to utilize Pinterest or not, but rather you simply persuaded me to get on the stage from the get-go. Much obliged to you such a great amount for this post!
    askme queryblog recently posted…How to Promote Your Pins Using Pinterest’s Advertising ToolsMy Profile

    • Leah Davis (author)

      So happy to hear that! Best of luck!

  • Leah Shoup

    Can I just say THANK YOU for writing this. I’ve somehow been quick to figure out instagram but slow to figure out blogging. I really think that taking advantage of Pinterest will help a lot. I’ve just started creating images using Canva for my posts and now I just have to follow the rest of your steps!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Awesome to hear! Pinterest really is a game changer, almost everyone I know gets the majority of their traffic (definitely the majority of social traffic, anyway) from Pinterest. Good luck!

  • Bella WW

    I was looking for so long for an article to teach me how to master Pinterest and I can say that I finally found it! Thank you!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Woohoo! So happy it was useful for you Bella! Good luck, happy pinning!

  • Jub

    Hey Leah,

    Thanks for this! A couple of follow up questions if you don’t mind.

    1. Let’s say I make a pin for my blog and put it under my ‘best of Jubs blog board’.

    How often should I be repinning that? Do I repin it to my boards at all (this would make it a duplicate?) or am I pinning it somewhere else (group boards?)?

    2. The 80/20 rule makes sense to pin others content. Do you pin new content every single time….or do you have say 100 pins you like to pin and cycle through them every few days (I assume to other group boards?)?
    —-
    Side thought: Would be fun to see a video of you doing your Pinterest-ing in action!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey Jub! Glad the post was helpful.

      To answer your questions, I think repinning your best stuff is always useful, especially if you have a wide variety of boards to add it to. I add a new pin to every one of my boards that is relevant (if it’s a pin about travel tips for Paris, for example, I could add it to The Sweetest Way Blog, Travel Planning, Europe, Paris, Travel Inspiration, and so on) as well as every group board I’m a part of that’s relevant. Don’t do this all at once, of course–space them out with at least day or two in between. You can add them to large group boards more than once (just make sure a longer period has passed between each one) because when there are a lot of contributors, those pins cycle through quickly.

      As for other people’s content, I might on occasion pin the same thing more than once, but usually I’m searching for content I’ve never pinned before. I think that keeps things more interesting for my followers AND myself, and my guess is that Pinterest might find it suspicious/spammy to only share a handful of URLs when there are millions upon millions of pins circulating to choose from! 🙂 Just my two cents, hope that’s helpful!

      Also, love the Pinterest video idea! Could be a great resource to add here, will keep that in mind for sure 🙂

      • Jub

        Hey Leah,
        Awesome, makes lots of sense now! 🙂 Cheers

  • Taiss

    Wow! This is , honestly, really great info and love the details! How often should you re-pin your own articles in the board for your blog?

  • Birthe (from Wandering the World)

    Loved this post! We’ve been blogging for over a year now and recently started putting more time in Pinterest. Pinning never seems like working to me, but it was (actually still is) a bit of a struggle to find a good design that’s clear and nice to use on our own pins. I love your design! Thanks for sharing these great tips!
    Birthe (from Wandering the World) recently posted…Yellow-Eyed Penguins at Curio BayMy Profile

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  • Anne

    Read your post once and pinning just so I can come back to it. Great stuff! I’m also following you on Pinterest as Trip Memos and now on Twitter and Instagram too.
    Thanks again for all the tips! Already doing some of these but there’s always room for improvement!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Awesome to hear, Anne! I’ll find you on Pinterest and follow along as well. Definitely agree that there’s always more to learn! I’m still learning a lot myself 🙂

  • Allison Wong

    I’d neglected Pinterest for the longest time and only started focusing on it in the last couple of weeks. Still a long way to go but glad I’d read your article and will try to implement more strategies to grow my Pinterest account. Thank you!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Glad you’re finally on the Pinterest train, Allison! I hope it becomes a good source of traffic for you, let me know how it goes! Happy pinning!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Pinterest is definitely a great source of lasting traffic! Good luck Marta!

  • Robert

    What an amazing article. You’ve definitely put a great deal of time and effort into this. I’ve just started focusing on Pinterest for 2017 as I am getting a very good click through rate to my blog. Your tips will certainly help a great deal and I will start using Vertical pins from now on. Thanks so much, Robert

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks so much, Robert! Really glad you got some useful tips out of it. Best of luck to you!

  • holly

    Thanks for this! I’m just starting out and finding everything a bit confusing so this is a big help!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Glad you found it useful, Holly! Best of luck! 🙂

  • Nick Papadatos

    Brilliant article Leah! My partner and I have just launched our travel and freelancing blog (literally launched today) but before launching, we wanted to get a headstart on Pinterest. We bookmarked this post and followed all of your awesome tips in order to give our Pinterest presence a headstart. Thanks so much! I’m sure our boards wouldn’t be looking as good if it wasn’t for this – plus we got approved for rich pins too 🙂

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey that’s awesome news, Nick! So glad the post has been valuable to you. Best of luck in your blogging and pinning endeavors 🙂

  • Divya: Gone With A Whim

    I have been blogging for two years with close to no traffic. I had no idea Pinterest was this powerful and I’m slowly discovering the joys! Thanks for highlighting the must-dos 🙂 Thank you Leah, I’m indebted.

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re so welcome, Divya! I hope it goes well for you!

  • Nancy Doyle

    My strategy about winning on Pinterest is rather simple. I let PinPinterest com manage my account…
    If you’ve been living under a rock and have managed to not hear about this awesome tool, you’re missing out a lot on Pinterest marketing 😛
    PinPinterest has helped me get from almost non-mentionable followers and zero traffic to more than 55k followers on my Pinterest and my travel blog TrvelMagma has become a traffic-magnet 😀
    Auto Like, Comment, Pin, Repin, Follow and Unfollow..it has all the features one wants in a full-fledged tool and even more… It has Pin Scheduler that lets me schedule as many pins as I want and has a Speed Control setting that makes sure my account is always ban-safe by running at a human-like speed. The thing I like the most about PinPinterest is its intelligent content-detection algorithm, that runs in the background and detects relevant content for my account and pins only such images.

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Cool, I have never heard of this program, thanks for sharing Nancy!

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  • John McBride

    Hi Leah, Thanks for posting all this brilliant advice!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      You’re very welcome, John! Glad you found it useful 🙂

  • Vidya | AWritersSafari

    Thanks Leah. I reached this post from Michelle’s blog. Thank you for putting this post together. I absolutely love Pinterest. I am still working out a strategy that will work best for my blog. So, browsing around for Pinning advice. Great post!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Glad you enjoyed it! Best of luck Vidya!

  • CC

    Hey Leah, Thanks for sharing your knowledge for free! You mentioned Facebook always changing the algorithms, do you notice that happening with Pinterest? I see your article was written in 2015 and I was wondering if any of the things you discussed have changed and if you have kept this post updated?

    I just started my blog in April and am trying to learn all the ins and outs of Facebook and Pinterest, which I also prefer over Twitter (haven’t touched Instagram), because it’s such a negative place and it seems like it’s more just a place for people to send out their thoughts instead of looking at it for anything useful. Pinterest is actually people looking at/for things.

    One of my big obstacles has been coming up with creative pins about the same posts over and over since I only have so many posts right now and not all of them are pin worthy, so that makes my pin options fewer. I’m using Adobe Photoshop to make them, since that’s what I know and understand. I know things will all get better with time, and more posts, but considering I only made $7.64 in August through my affiliate links, and I have ten cats and dogs, I have got to get more traffic. lol I requested to join a few boards and never heard back from the board owners, so I need to go back and try to find more who will let me onto their boards, but I keep putting it off. Do you ever just send a 2nd or more request to those that don’t respond?

    Sorry for the rambling….I’ve been up 24 hours working on about 100 things. lol Thanks again for all the good free information. It’s greatly appreciated. 🙂

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Hey CC! Yes, Pinterest’s algorithms are constantly changing too! So I have actually updated this post once or twice in an attempt to keep up with the changes. But at the end of the day, there’s no substitution for your own experience using the platform. I’m always learning new things, trying new strategies, and tweaking existing ones because it takes work to stay on top of an ever-changing platform like this. Just keep experimenting with your pin design and the wording you use. Something is bound to stand out as your top performer, and then you can keep refining that design. As for joining group boards, it’s definitely worth a shot to follow up with someone if they haven’t gotten back to you. Try to come from a place of giving and see if you can offer them anything of value in return for accepting you to their group board 🙂 Good luck!

  • Queenie

    This is a great post, Leah! Thank you for sharing your knowledge in such a detailed and concise manner. I had no idea the power of Pinterest in travel blogging. I just started my own blog and will try some of your tips as well. Thank you so much! 🙂

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks so much, Queenie! I hope it helps, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

  • Anna

    Thank you Leah so much! I only fairly recently started blogging and soooo many things to learn. Therefore, I’m very happy that I stumbled across your site. I like your writing style and I’m grateful for all the tips you are giving out to us, newbies. Keep up the good work!

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Thanks so much, Anna! So glad you have found this to be useful. Best of luck to you in your new blogging endeavor!

  • James

    When looking at a group board how can you see the number of repins this doesn’t just appear for me am i doing something wrong ?

  • Rebecca

    Absolute GOLD!! I am just getting into Pinterest and starting to organise / prepared my boards and this post was an amazing resource. Thanks so much for sharing all your expertise.

    • Leah Davis (author)

      Awesome!! Love to hear that Rebecca. Hit me up if you have any questions along the way! Happy to help 🙂

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