5 Ways I Grew My Pinterest Over 400% In 3 Months

When I started blogging, I had NO IDEA how to professionally manage social media - I simply used it for fun, so I thought I'd plug my blog into my channels and boom! Success. Right? No. Bloggers and small business owners depend on social media to get the word out about their posts and products. Done right, social media can be immensely helpful in boosting your site! But how do we do it? Well, here are 5 ways I grew my Pinterest account by over 400% in just 3 months.

I could kick myself for my first year of blogging! I *knew* Pinterest was a huge traffic driver for bloggers, but I thought, "Meh. I'm a wellness and lifestyle blogger. That doesn't mesh with Pinterest's platform, at least not consistently. I'll have a small presence on it, but I'm going to focus elsewhere." Face palm, Paige! Face palm. I spent an entire year ignoring one of, if not THE biggest traffic driver for bloggers and small business owners.

May of this year, I started to wisen up. Facebook was going algorithm cray cray, bloggers were making full time income off their Instragram feeds alone, and Twitter was so fast paced it was hard to keep up and keep content in front of followers! I made Pinterest my sole social media focus for the summer. By mid-September, I had grown my account by 420% and pushed it up to my top three referring sites to my blog. Here's how I did it:

5 Ways I Grew My Pinterest Over 400% In 3 Months

 

1) Convert your account to a business account. When you transfer your account or create a new one as a business account, you suddenly get access to TONS of anayltics! What pins are being repinned the most, which pins are getting clicks to your site, how many repins total your website is getting, when people are pinning from your site... And on and on. This information will help you to make better pins (see #5 below). Better pins results in more repins and more traffic to your site. Click here to convert your former account/create new business account.

Also a bonus? When you're a business account, you can promote your pins. You set your goal for the campaign, you set your daily budget, you set the length of the campaign, and boom - it pushes your content in front of more pinners for more repins, clicks to your site, and eyes on your content! Oh, and also also? You get access to pin it buttons, widgets and other gadgets to make pinning from your website super easy. Pinterest just hooks you up with all these codes for you to simply plug into your site. It's great!

2) Enable rich pins. When you do this, your website is automatically added to the bottom of the pin, and your pin is verified to have an actual website associated with it. Ever click an awesome image for the recipe/DIY/fashion source/etc and it was a dud pin? With rich pins, it shows other pinners you're legit. This will result in more repins and higher engagement on the pins you put out there. Your logo (whatever you use as your flavion on your blog) will also show where your website is listed so your branding on your pins is consistent. Want to enable rich pins? Here's the simple tutorial I used! It involves a bit of coding, but I promise it was really pretty easy. Allow a week or so for your pins to consistently show up as rich pins. The tutorial has both Blogger and self-hosted Wordpress instructions.

3) Don't put junk out there. Cool, so you've upgraded your account to a business account (which is free, FYI), and have rich pins enabled. What next? CONTENT. Real talk friends: bad content doesn't get repinned. It just doesn't. Here's the short list of specifics on what makes a good pin:

- Vertical image, preferably 750x1150pxls OR LONGER.  Do not pin horizontal shots from your site! They get lost in the shuffle of people's feed and look terrible. They're short and stubby. It's actually bad PR for your site to have these kinds of pins floating around out there.
- Naturally bright, clear shots. Don't use images with an obvious flash. Don't use dark images. Don't use semi-blurring shots. Don't use dark, grainy shots. I edit ALL my images in editing software by brightening them and upping the sharpness.
- Add text over the image. I've seen great vertical shots that were clear and bright but I had no friggin idea what the pin was about, so I moved on. Add text to your image with what the pinner will get when they click on the pin! Make the value of your pin obvious. Don't make it too big and have it ruin the image though. I'd also recommend you keep the colors and font consistent with the branding of your website.

 *Special note to fashion blogs/websites: you don't need to add text over your pins because the style is obvious. Instead, you should edit off your head. Yes, that sounds weird. But any shots where you're looking at the camera need your head/face gone. Zoom in on the outfit instead. People aren't pinning you because you're pretty or have white teeth, they want your outfit shown off as inspiration. Trust me. It's nothing personal to you or about you, it's about the outfit/style, which is why your face needs to get gone, asap.

All of these are beautiful fashion pins with tons of repins - none of them have a face

4) Participate and reciprocate. After you've gotten your content shored up, the biggest contributing factor in growing your Pinterest account is - shocker - actually USING Pinterest! Follow new accounts. Repin their pins. Pin images off of other bloggers sites and other websites. When I became more active in the Pinterest community, I saw explosive growth in my own account, both from repins and new followers. I admit, this took a while, kinda like it takes a semitruck a while to accelerate up to speed on the freeway. But I kept following new accounts and participating via repins. I "put good karma" out there in terms of showing others support, and it's now coming back to me! Keep putting good karma out there and it will eventually come back to you. If you want it to keep coming, keep participating and reciprocating others!

5) Show up! This is the magic potion for all social media channels: if you want to see results from it, you have to be active in it! If you think you can pin a few bloggers pins once a day and have your account explode, you're wrong. I get on Pinterest about 5-10 times a day and pin about 5-10 or so images at a time. I do a mix of direct-from-website pins, threads on Facebook, and repins from my own feed. With the new smart feed, you HAVE to pin from your own feed if you want your images to show in your followers' feed! Pinterest changed the game in early September, and this is now critical for your own success.

Showing up sounds time intensive, but really it can be done in a matter of a few minutes at a time. Waiting on an email from your colleague? Pin a few pins! Get stuck at some railroad tracks? Pin some pins from your app! At the doctor's office? Pin those pins while you wait! And just like that, you've shown up for Pinterest, and now Pinterest is cool working for you and your content too.

I've listed those 5 ways I grew my Pinterest in a semi-necessary order. You'll definitely want a business account and rich pins enabled first. Then you'll want to make sure your content is on point. Then you'll want to reciprocate others and show the heck up! I would also note that all of these things need to work TOGETHER to drive your Pinterest following and repins - you can't do just one or three of them and expect to see results. But if you do all of these 5 things, you too can grow your account in a relatively short amount of time!

DIY Photography Backdrop

Something that has become painfully clear over the last few weeks was that I really REALLY need to work on my photography skills if I'm going to become a more successful blogger. Photography for blog images, Pinterest pins and Instagram shots is just as, if not more important than, being a good writer! It's how we promote our posts and our brand. An easy way to improve photography is to invest in a backdrop. Seeing as those are hundreds of dollars (or more!) I decided to create my own DIY photography backdrop.

Let me tell you, I'm no DIYer. I'd much prefer to go out and purchase the item, already done and shiny and new! But the price tag - nay, sticker shock - of a backdrop from a photography store led me to get creative. If you're like me and not a DIY gal or guy, fear not! This was so, so easy, even you can do it.

What you'll need:
- Foam boards
- 1 yard of fabric per foam board (if using a 30x20 board; more fabric if using a larger one)
- pair of scissors
- normal sized stapler

First, I purchased three foam boards. I went with a 30x20in size, and wouldn't recommend going smaller, although larger is fine. Then I headed to a fabric store. I wanted to keep the boards fairly neutral so they don't dominate my shots, but with something interesting in the fabric to provide contrast for whatever I was filming. I went with two grey tweed-like boards and one white with a circular pattern.

Colors and patterns I chose for my DIY photography backdrop

I chose to do two grey boards so that if I'm photographing something that needs to be stood up (or a vertical shot), I can prop the other board up behind it and continue the backdrop color and feel. This way, the attention stays on the product or object, and not a messy counter top or other "noise" in the background!

Ok, back to DIYing business:

STEP ONE: staple one edge of fabric evenly over the foam board. I started with the long, horizontal side, and stapled about every 2-3 inches to securely fasten the fabric to the foam board.

DIY photography backdrop: Step One

STEP TWO: pull the fabric on the opposite side taught, but not so tight you create "pulling lines" in the fabric. You can turn the board over and look at the front as you pull to ensure you're not pulling too tightly. Then, staple the opposite side into the foam board. I like to pull the from middle first, then work my way out to the edges to ensure my pattern was even on my board.

DIY photography backdrop: Step Two

STEP THREE: Next, the shorter sides. I had too much fabric, so before I began to secure the fabric to the board, I cut it down to a more manageable length - exactly like you would do when you wrap a present!

DIY photography backdrop: Step Three

Once it's trimmed down, pull taught just like you did for the long sides, starting in the middle and working your way out to the corners for an even pull of the fabric. For the edges, fold them like you were wrapping a present, bending the corners in. Secure with staples.

DIY photography backdrop: Step Three

Repeat until all corners are secured, then follow up with staples every three inches or so to ensure the fabric is secured to the foam board. Repeat all these steps until you're done with all your boards.

Boom. Pretty easy, if you ask me! I'm pretty excited to get to using these. They're super easy to store on the side of my desk, or I could even lay them flat in my crafting closet. Next time I need to style a blog or Instagram photo, I'll just use one (or two) of these for a crisp, clean background. No more counter tops, carpet, or quickly clearing junk out of my shots! Have you tried a DIY photography backdrop to improve your photography?

To The Woman Who Publicly Shamed My Mothering Skills

You read that title right. This past weekend, I was publicly shamed by a woman for my "dangerous" mothering skills.

Allow me to explain:

Hubs had been gone the entire previous week. Whenever he's gone for more than a day or two, we have a bit of a "transition" period with Henry, as he's old enough to know daddy is gone and he does not like it. We had plans to go to the Rahr & Sons Brewery Oktoberfest/5k event. Hubs was going to run, and I was going to hang with H. Being seven months pregnant, I'm not running much! Well, that morning was the first time Henry had seen daddy in five days, and it was the dreaded "transition" time... Aka, toddler tantrum hell.

We got to the event and H was out of control. He didn't want to be in the stroller and he didn't want to be out of it; he didn't want daddy to carry him and he didn't want me to carry him and he certainly didn't want to be on the ground and heck no was he walking anywhere. He didn't want a bottle of water but man oh man, he didn't want you to take it away from him either! It was, without a doubt, the worst tantrum I've ever seen my normally calm and well behaved child throw.

I told hubs to just head off to the start line; sometimes Henry calms down when it's just him and me again. I thought returning him to that familiar situation might help. So hubs left. I let Henry SCREAM at my feet for several minutes (we were outside and a band was playing so we weren't disturbing anyone who wasn't immediately near us. And trust me, people walked away! Quickly, too.) Henry was not calming down, despite my best efforts. Then he started to crawl away, banging his head into the cement purposely as he went. Just a complete hot mess of a toddler.

"Ok!" I thought. "Ignoring is doing nothing - I need to take away all his stimulus until he's under control again. This child is completely out of it and will hurt himself!" So I grabbed him to pick him up, and he lunged this 30 pound body nearly out of my arms. I squeezed him into me, and gave him a whop on his butt to get his attention. Then I looked him in the eyes and said, "No sir. That is ENOUGH. You need to calm down and get yourself under control!" I strapped him into his stroller, tightening his shoulder harness so he couldn't squirm out. I pulled the over-sized sunscreen down and faced the stroller into a wall so he couldn't see anything - you know, taking away all stimulus. I handed him a bottle so that he could self-soothe himself calm.

It worked within 30 seconds. He stopped kicking and screaming and crying and drank some water while he chilled out.

I had just taken a my first breath of non-tantrum, peace-filled-air when a woman came about 10 feet away from me. "You know, that is NOT how you handle a baby. You are a DANGEROUS mother," she spat at me, practically shaking with rage. Then she turned on her heels and ran away. Literally, ran away.

My jaw dropped the nearly 6 feet to the ground. I was flabbergasted. I was aghast. Never am I rendered speechless, but this woman managed to take the wind right out of my sails. I could not believe that someone would watch me, then {poorly} deliver her unwanted, unwarranted opinion on my mothering skills!

Was this woman serious?! 

Here's what, friends and readers: Toddlers are HARD. Parenting a toddler is even more hard. But parents know their own children. I know that, most times, ignoring H's fits gets him to calm down the second he realizes I'm not paying attention to him. In this instance, he was so out of control, I knew he had to be corrected and then have some alone time to settle himself. I knew this, I did what I saw fit, and it worked almost immediately.

This woman doesn't know me. She doesn't know Henry. I'm guessing by her rude, judgmental comments that she doesn't have children. Why? Because no mother, IN HER RIGHT MIND, would say something so disgraceful to another mother who had just managed her tantrum toddler. Not a single mother would do that, regardless of whether or not that woman felt the mother handled the situation well. Heck, I see mom's all the time do things I would never do with Henry. You know what I do? I move on. Because I'm not her and that's not my child. She doesn't need my stares and she certainly doesn't need my judgment.

What this woman did didn't make the situation any better. In fact, she kicked another woman when she was down. I was clearly by myself with an out of control child, trying to manage him, a stroller, a diaper bag, an over-sized purse, a cup of coffee, and my husbands belongings all at 7 months pregnant in a huge crowd. And she felt like her opinion was so important, she had to come and belittle me not but a few moments after I had regained control of the situation.

I'm going to go out on a limb and give some advice to everyone, but especially to those who don't have children: if a parent is correcting a behavioral issue with their child, it is NOT OK FOR YOU TO COMMENT. Your opinion simply doesn't matter. There's attachment parenting and there's free-reign parenting, there's spanking, there's co-sleeping, there's women who breastfeed in public and there's women who breastfeed 6 year olds, and there's parents who don't believe in saying "no" to their children. Your opinion on all of this simply doesn't matter if it's not the relationship between you and your own child. Yes, it really is that simple.

To the woman who publicly shamed my mothering skills, congratulations. You completely ruined not only the event for me, you ruined my day. You could have sent some positive energy my way with a "hang in there mama!" But no, you decided to stick it to a pregnant mom while she was struggling. You felt the need to make her feel more embarrassed than she already did with her terribly behaved toddler. You not only thought you were important and self righteous enough to correct my parenting style, you had the gall to shame me. Well, shame on you! I saw you sitting at a table drinking a beer by yourself an hour after you yelled at me like I was your own child. I wasn't surprised you were alone. Who wants someone like you to be their friend? I also thought about confronting you. But I only needed my son to see one example of a poor excuse for a woman that day. There is something deeply wrong with those who thrive off making others feel less than, and I hope you get the therapy you need.