How to Make Passive Income on Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform that is praised for its ability to generate long-term traffic through the use of strategically crafted pins that go viral – these pins find their target audience by utilizing SEO and attractive pin design. While bloggers benefit from the additional traffic on their sites, both business owners and bloggers can take the opportunity to make passive income on Pinterest.

How do you make passive income using Pinterest? First, you’ll need to identify the different methods of earning passive income that you already utilize in your business. Figure out your offers, what you feel suits your audience, and even areas where you’re willing to adventure (such as sponsored posts and affiliate marketing). All of these are great ways of earning passive income on Pinterest. Another of my favorite methods of earning passive income on Pinterest is through the creation of digital products.

To get started, let’s cover the best methods I’ve found as a Pinterest marketer and strategist for earning passive income through Pinterest:

How to Get Paid Using Pinterest

Although you could directly get paid using Pinterest by participating in their creator fund, the Pinterest creator fund was shut down at the end of 2022.

Their creator reward program allowed creators to earn money by creating Idea pins around monthly prompts. Luckily, this was not the first method of earning passive income on Pinterest. Creators and business owners utilizing Pinterest for their online marketing have been earning extra income for years through the platform.

The most reliable way of earning passive income on Pinterest is by creating a digital product and selling it by advertising on the platform. Digital products require very little upkeep – if any – after they’re created, making them the perfect opportunity to earn passive income.

Next, you’ll find that affiliate marketing and sponsorships are great ways for bloggers – and businesses – to earn extra income each month.

We’ll break it down a bit further below…

05 Ways to Earn Passive Income on Pinterest

There’s no reason to “guess” how you can start earning passive income on Pinterest. Instead, we’ll go ahead and share some of our favorite methods. Of course, you should choose a method that fits your audience and your brand.

Here are our top five ways of earning passive income on Pinterest:

#1. Affiliate Marketing

Did you know that you can market your affiliate links on Pinterest? Of course, only if the program itself allows it (check your terms and conditions). And, with more features launching on Pinterest, affiliate marketing is becoming an even smarter method of earning additional income through Pinterest.

Unlike selling a product or digital product on Pinterest, affiliate marketing involves simply creating a regular pin or idea pin and using your affiliate link instead of your website URL. If you’re wanting to go above and beyond you can create landing pages sharing additional information about the program you’re promoting to boost conversions.

Anytime you use an affiliate link ensure that you’re obviously marking it as an affiliate link and, if required, adding an affiliate disclaimer on your pin or in your pin description. Idea pins will naturally add it for you after adding the information in during pin creation. A great example is when you’re adding Amazon affiliate links to idea pins.

#2. Digital Products

While digital products don’t need to be your only method of earning passive income on Pinterest, they are the most popular thanks to their effectiveness. Digital products are the most lucrative way of earning passive income on Pinterest, but can sometimes take longer due to the price point or niched audience. k

Every online marketer will stress the importance of building an email list – I’m no different. You don’t own your socials, but you do own your email list!

Email lists are also amazing at generating leads and sales for your affiliates, digital products, courses, and more. It’s only natural that marketing your lead magnet on Pinterest help increase your passive income.

In fact, I even include marketing your lead magnet in my 30-Day Pinterest Content Kit!

#3. Digital ‘Mini’ Products

I know I mentioned that we wouldn’t be relying on digital products for passive income – but were not, they’re just one piece of the passive income puzzle!

Either way, we’re looking only at ‘Mini’ products or small offers. The digital products that require no thinking for the buy – typically, these are items that are less than $27.

#4. Website Ads

If you’re running your blog and only offering a few products, but your main goal is to really monetize passively, website ads might be just what you need. Quality ads require lots of traffic and I highly suggest using a premium company such as Mediavine rather than something like Adsense.

What does this have to do with Pinterest? Well, Pinterest is known for consistently driving high amounts of traffic to your website when used right! More traffic = more money! It also means you’ll qualify for premium companies more quickly and earn more!

#5. Sponsorships

This is one that kind of goes hand in hand with website ads – it focuses on the brand awareness that a pin can bring along with the traffic to your website. Sponsorships on Pinterest are one of the simpler ways of earning passive income for bloggers, although this can be utilized by business owners. When pitching or receiving sponsorships, you can add pins at an additional cost.

Your Pinterest account performance will greatly impact the amount you can charge per pin or per set of pins. You can even raise the price on your current sponsorship packages by including pins on a well-performing Pinterest account.

You can easily track your Pinterest account performance by making sure you’re signed up for a Pinterest Business account instead of being a regular Pinterest user. You’ll be able to track your followers along with how many Pinterest users are clicking through your pins to your website – which is perfect pitching information for sponsorships.

How to Get Started on Pinterest

The first step of getting started on Pinterest is to set up a Pinterest Business Account. Whether you’re a blogger or business owner, a Pinterest business account allows you to look at the inner workings of what your audience is interested in. Plus, you’ll get to have access to Pinterest Trends, a handy tool for Pinterest SEO.

Pinterest marketing is just one more step to building your online presence – and a long-term one as well. Like other search engines – and yes, Pinterest is a search engine – you can utilize SEO to rank for certain search queries and build your online community. Once you’ve established a strong Pinterest strategy, growth and maintenance are simple!

Not sure if you want to DIY your Pinterest marketing? Connect with The Comma Mama Co. and save your spot for 1:1 Done for You Pinterest Strategy & Marketing today.