I have only been blogging for three and a half months now and I must say it has been far from easy. But I can also say it’s been 100% worth it. Things were moving pretty slow up until these past couple of weeks. A normal day would bring about 300-500 pageviews (broke 1k twice). It seemed like nothing I did made much of a difference. But I finally figured out how to get my pageviews to skyrocket and grew my Pinterest following from 2k to 5.5k all in just 2 weeks! Here are my pageviews from the past 2 weeks.
I am not sure where exactly you are on your blogging journey, so if you have done tons and tons of research already bear with me while I touch base real quick on a couple of things newbies need to know. I promise I have some great info worth your while too ?
Related: How To Start A Blog With Unlimited Money Making Potential
Set your foundation
Get your blog in shape
Your website has to be beautiful and easy to navigate. Simple as that. I’m assuming you are reading this because you eventually want to be making some money from your blog. Well to do that you have to treat it like a business because that’s just what it is. You can’t just get a free website and start writing blog posts and expect to get very far. All the free themes I have seen are very ugly and basic. Do your research and invest in the tools you will need to be successful. You can check out my blogging recommendations to see all the products and services that work great for me here.
Invest in training
You have two options as a blogger. Go the cheapest way possible and learn everything yourself which will take lots of time (could even be a year or two). Or you can invest in good training and books to learn from other bloggers that had to take the time to learn what it takes to be a big-time blogger. I have purchased two courses and multiple books. You can learn more about both courses here (they are offered in a bundle).
*My blogging recommendations also include all the books that I have read.
I have been very blessed and haven’t wasted any money so far. Everything has been so helpful and has helped me learn a lot of what I know (plus lots of trial and error).
Write great and consistent content
I see so many bloggers just writing stories about their own lives and I’ll be completely honest with you, most people could care less. Now after you’re a big time blogger, people won’t be able to get enough of you. But for now, focus on writing content that will help solve people’s problems. Writing consistently is important for your returning readers. They will quit coming back if you never update your content. At least one blog post a week, but 2-3 would be best (I’m still working on this btw).
Promotion
Link parties and Facebook groups are nice and can help you get some lifelong readers. I try to post as often as I can in these groups. But 90% of my traffic comes from Pinterest. So I put most of my focus in growing my Pinterest account. Here is a great FREE Pinterest Power course offered by Summer that it so amazing! I highly suggest you take it to learn exactly how to get your Pinterest account perfected.
Join as many group boards as possible! I’m a part of 30 boards that I pin to regularly, but I am still am trying to join more. Usually, the board will have instructions on how to join the group. I like to go for better boards with at least 10k followers, but the more the better. I joined a group with 500k followers when I had only 500 followers, so be brave when asking. But if you don’t get accepted wait until you have a few thousand followers before you ask again. I credit pretty much all of my blogging success to group boards. They are that important!
Now to the good stuff
Pin scheduler
I pin ALOT! Like 80-100 pins a day (I recommend at least 50). So I use a pin scheduler to help me out. I started my new schedule two months ago and saw a major jump in my followers and traffic.
For my group boards, I use Boardbooster. You can sign up for Boardbooster’s free trial here and get your first 100 pins free. I only use this scheduler for my own content. Sync all the group boards that you are a part of to your scheduler. Now there will be a “secret” Pinterest board for each of these groups that will show up at the bottom of your Pinterest account. Schedule as much as you can within reason to each group. Follow the rules and only post relevant posts to each board (don’t post recipes to money-saving boards for example). Here’s an example of one of my group boards. Just copy your pins to the group “secret” boards that you want it to pull from.
All bloggers do different things. For instance, most bloggers follow the 80/20 rule (promoting your own content 20% of the time). I agree with this on everything besides Pinterest. I promote my stuff about 50% of the time. It has worked great for me so far.
All pins should be scattered throughout the day. The best times I’ve noticed are 2-4pm and 8-11pm weekdays and pretty much all day on weekends. You can do everything manually, but it’s very hard to be on all day and to keep track of when/where you pinned your pins! (I tried this and it was so time consuming writing it all down).
Viraltag and Tailwind are both very good schedulers for scheduling other content other than your own. I’ve used both and they are great. Tailwind is cheaper, but Viraltag seems to work better for me. Viraltag offers a free 14-day trial where you can pin as much as you want and Tailwind offers a free trial up to 100 pins.
You have to go viral
Everything I mentioned above will get you to this phase. You have to go viral if you want to grow fast. If you look back at my stats for the past two weeks you can see the pattern. It spiked to 30k pageviews a day when I went viral and dropped a bit then goes up to about 18k/day on the weekends. These waves are important. I am still getting most of my traffic from that post that went viral. The repins on that pin skyrocketed as well. So this means Pinterest is showing this pin a lot even on days I don’t repin it. I have repinned that same posts every Saturday to all the group boards that I can (so like 20 all at once).
So how did I go viral? I picked an amazing picture that people can’t help but click on and a great title. Then added it to the boards. That’s seriously it. Obviously, a bit of it was luck. Someone big probably picked it up and it just took off. The more you do everything above, the closer you will get to finding that post that will go viral.
My best piece of advice. Change your pictures and see what does better. I had actually promoted the pin that went viral with another picture first. The day I changed it I went viral. Crazy things can happen. Just keep experimenting with times and images, but weekends are prime time on Pinterest.
Don’t go too crazy with changing your images either. Building your repins up is very important. Bloggers with big followings are more likely to repin your pins with higher repins. I know I personally don’t repin something with less than 100 repins (unless it’s a rich pin because the blogger is more likely to keep promoting that pin). Low repins on a board actually hurt your entire board FYI.
Don’t be afraid to promote your good posts more often. I have posts that I never promote now because they only get a few views and repins. This is why having quite a few posts is best. More to choose from to promote and figure out what your readers like.
Stick with it
There have been so many times that I just wanted to quit because I was moving at a snail’s pace. But I’m glad I didn’t. You can do this. Don’t let failure be an option. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
Now that I am at this point, things are easier than they were. Just give it time. It’s like a rocket taking off. It takes so much energy just to get off the ground, but once it builds momentum it gets easier and just keeps getting faster. It’s like that with anything we want in life, though. Just keep posting, promoting, and learning.
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Great article. Thanks for the helpful tips. I never thought of changing the picture to improve a pin.
Hello, Julia. Glad you liked it and found some useful information ?
As a new blogger myself, this is super helpful! I may not be trying to monetize my blog as of yet, but these tips are invaluable to help grow it’s reach regardless! Thank you so much for sharing.
Hey, Juliet. Happy I could help and good luck to you!
So um, I can’t stand you. 230k+ in two weeks. Yeah can’t stand you. Buuuuuut at the same time I wanna be just like you :p That’s seriously amazing and I am so inspired by your success. I have been lagging so seriously on pinterest and I really gotta step it up. Thanks so much for outlining this. Will be implementing it this week!! Ok I can stand you now :]
Danielle | http://www.FollowMyGut.com <3
Haha!!! I was like ugh…so rude when I first started reading your comment ? ? ? I was hoping this article would be helpful. I was starting to feel like Pinterest wasn’t as good as the big bloggers were saying before I had that pin take off. It’s a game changer, though. Glad you liked it and can stand me now ? I’m hungry from looking at the food on your blog lol! I’ll have to try some of these places out when I visit California one of these days. Best wishes!
Hahaha I tend to start off my comments in a snarky way and turning it completely if I really love what the person writes. This is really cool and I’ve bookmarked it to use later. And thanks for YOUR sweet words, hope you can visit sometime soon =]
Would you say that part of going viral is also about luck? Of course having a good pic in important, but I feel like there’s lots of good pics out there and not all of them go viral. Just curious because I’m also new to the game.
I’d say luck plays a part, but I think that most pics (headline included) don’t make a person want to repin and/or click right then. Many people just repin for later and don’t end up reading the post. But at the same time, I really think it all depends on timing and an influencer picking up the pin. Which they are (usually) more likely to if it’s already got high repins.
Thanks for sharing about that free Pinterest class. I was growing last summer then a miscarriage, getting pregnant again right away, a high risk pregnancy, colic-y newborn……let’s just say, my numbers have dropped drastically since my real life got insane. Even though I was doing all the things I used to do, it just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I know upping my Pinterest game will help. Hopefully that course will give me the kick in the pants I need. (visiting from This Is How We Roll)
Sorry to hear about that. Must have been a very hard time for you. I can’t even imagine. It’s great that you back to blogging. I hope you like the course as much as I did ? Thanks for stopping by!
I’ll need to look into group boards. Other bloggers mentioned they didn’t use them. I’m new but determined. Thanks for the helpful post.
Hey, Dawn. Group boards are a must for getting your posts out there, especially when your following is small. You get way more eyes on your pins that way. I don’t know what I would have done without them, seriously. I don’t want to think about that lol. Glad you liked it and best of luck!
Thanks for posting this article it really opened my eyes. I have heard this over and over to use a pintrest scheduler from other bloggers but your words seem to resonate with me. It hit me like a ton of bricks that if I don’t change my promotion methods I’m never going to get anywhere. I will try board booster since it’s free I will calculate my results and perhaps will decide to go with taliwind. If it works for me and I finally get somewhere with my blog I will comment back here to thank you over and over again. Anyway I’m rambling thanks for the information.
Hey, Brittany. I’m glad I worded it in a way that worked for you ? Pinterest schedulers are a must. I’ve tried to do it manually (which I do on top of the schedulers) but it simply isn’t enough if you want to get things moving. It’s so easy to get stuck in the blogging world and not get ahead. Scary thought when you really want to be successful. I look forward to you future comment! Best wishes on your blogging journey.
Hi there!
really amazing, this number is huge for me and every newbie out there. i really wish to get this number on my blog. i am also active on pinterest and hoping to get some awesome traffic soon.
Thanks for writing this post
Regards
Erine
Hey, Erine! It’s certainly not an impossible number to hit. Don’t give up! You never know what will happen on Pinterest, seriously lol. A post could go viral at any moment, but even other posts that don’t go viral can easily help boost your traffic significantly ? Good luck to you!
i completely agree with you !
One Post can definitely go Viral . it can be the 7th post or 100th, one should never give up.
Thanks for motivating me
much love !
Have a nice day
Hello, Erine! That is so true! You never know when a post will go viral. ? Glad I could help and it was nice hearing from you!
Excellent post and wonderful blog, this sort of interesting posts I really like, keep it up…
Thanks for the encouragement. What resonated with me is the fact that it can be discouraging at the beginning for a lot of new bloggers. If we don’t give up, we will succeed. Thanks for the reminder. Blessings!