This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase.
Did you know that you can use affiliate links on Pinterest? *Cue the happy dance*
In 2015, Pinterest had banned Pinterest affiliate marketing because of a flood of spammy pins. But, as they improved their platform and technology to combat those spammers we now are allowed to do affiliate marketing on Pinterest again!
Affiliate Marketing is one of my favorite ways to monetize a blog. If done right it can become very passive. Using affiliate marketing on Pinterest is amazing because you have a whole army of pinners (over 100 million!) that are there to spread your link.
Before I get too far let’s cover the basics:
Table of Contents
What is Pinterest affiliate marketing?
So you may be wondering, what is Pinterest affiliate marketing? Essentially, you share products you love and when someone makes a purchase through your link you earn a commission off of that sale.
For example, if you decided to purchase through one of my links, I would earn a small commission, but there is no additional cost to you. There even can be bonuses for using an affiliate link!
It really is a win-win. You get to solve your reader’s problems by sharing amazing products and in return, you can earn some money!
Another question I’m frequently asked about using affiliate links on Pinterest is…
How Do I Get Pinterest Affiliate Links?
The easiest way to get affiliate links for Pinterest affiliate marketing is to join what are called affiliate networks. These networks are big groups of individual affiliate programs. You join the network and then within that platform you are able to apply to dozens of affiliate programs.
Some of my favorite affiliate networks are:
Here is an example of one of my affiliate pins from ShareASale.
Can I use Amazon Affiliate Links On Pinterest?
This is a great question and there has been A LOT of contradictory information about using Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest. Some say that Amazon reps have said it is okay, some say that the reps say it is strictly forbidden.
Here’s what I say:
It is not worth it to risk your Amazon affiliate account. For my readers and students, I recommend not using Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest.
There are plenty of other great affiliate networks (ShareASale is my favorite) for Pinterest affiliate marketing.
Want some Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Ideas?
Here are a few suggestions from the most popular blogging niches for affiliate marketing products you can pin on Pinterest. There are many other products you can become an affiliate for, these are just a few to get you started!
For additional ideas ask yourself:
“What type of items would my ideal reader want to buy?”
Mommy Blogs – Create boards like little boy clothes and fill it with your favorite children’s styles, toddler snacks with all the foods your kiddos love and mom style with tasteful pieces from your favorite brands.
DIY + Crafts Blogs – Link your favorite tools, craft supplies, and inspiration for future projects.
Cooking Bloggers – Create boards + pins for your favorite kitchen tools, cookbooks, aprons and even appliances for your dream kitchen.
Frugal/ Coupon Bloggers – People love a good deal. Share pins about companies that save you money, cash back websites, daily deal sites, banking, online consignment stores, etc.
Fashion Bloggers – Fashion blogs are a goldmine for affiliate links! Link your favorite shirts, shorts, pants, shoes, sunglasses, hats etc.
Blogging About Blogging – Include pins for your favorite niche related courses, email providers, business tools, social media schedulers, blog hosting and website templates.
Related: How To Start A Blog In Ten Minutes Or Less!
There was a reason why Pinterest took down the affiliate link feature. You need to keep the following things in mind when you add these links so your posts won’t look like spam and you will maintain the integrity of your brand.
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Rules
1. Pinterest Affiliate Link Disclosures
The most important rule you need to remember when adding affiliate links is to mention that it is an affiliate link. In your pin descriptions, Pinterest urges you to always disclose that it is an affiliate link and affiliate networks require it. You can write this within your description or use #affiliate at the end of your description. This needs to be done in order to follow affiliate networks rules and abide by FTC regulations.
2. Update Your Existing Pins
Go through your boards and see which pins you can add an affiliate link to. Use affiliate links for products that you have used and loved. This will establish trust with your followers. To make sure you keep the quality and standards of your brand, keep this in mind before you get too focused on the cha-ching.
3. Create Boards Specifically for Affiliate Products
A few examples would be Tools and Resources or the Best Tools For Mompreneurs. This is a great alternative because your follower knows right off the bat that if they click on a pin link that they will be directed to where they can purchase the item.
4. Create Strong Descriptions.
Since your pin is going directly to a seller’s site and not your blog or review, make sure that the title and description of each pin is informative and straight to the point. You can use two to three sentences and always, always, always disclose. Remember that these titles and descriptions are what help Pinterest users find you when they do a search. The better your description is, the more sales you will get.
5. Don’t Go Overboard
I know you are seeing dollar signs, but don’t go crazy with pinning a million affiliate links. That will turn off your followers fast! Using affiliate links can be done tastefully!
You have to keep with the aesthetic of your brand. If you want to pin with an affiliate link, make sure your images are in the same style, look, and color. Having inconsistent boards and pins will easily make you lose followers and potential clients.
6. Create Multiple Pinnable Images.
The product you are promoting may come with a pinnable affiliate graphic, but don’t stop there. Consider creating your own affiliate graphic that coincides with your personal branding. This will set you apart from other pinners that are reusing the same pins over and over.
7. Use a Pinterest scheduler
Tools like Tailwind can trickle out your affiliate pins so you don’t look spammy. Nothing is worse than having 10 affiliate pins in a row show up in your newsfeed.
With a few clicks, you can schedule your affiliate links to be repinned multiple times.
On Tailwind try using their “Board Lists” feature to schedule your affiliate pins out to multiple boards at once! In four clicks I can add my affiliate pin to a list with 30+ boards on it. This is a major timesaver!
Related: How To Use Tailwind To Skyrocket Traffic To Your Blog
You also can use Tailwind’s SmartLoop feature to recycle your affiliate pins so they continue to go out over and over again.
With this feature, you can set up rules so your pins only go out once a month for example so you aren’t spamming your links!
For a full guide on how to use the Tailwind Smartloop check out this post.
8. Do not use short links on Pinterest.
That means Pretty Link, Bit.ly, etc. In Pinterest’s Acceptable Use Policy, this is explicitly forbidden.
Can you do Pinterest affiliate marketing without a blog?
Many affiliate networks will require that you have a blog before they will approve you for their platform. If you don’t have a blog yet and still want to try to make money on Pinterest that’s okay. You can start a simple blog and put up a few posts or even a “coming soon” page and some platforms will approve you.
There are some different strategies that you can try and you can see results faster if you do Pinterest affiliate marketing in conjunction with a blog, but it is not required.
The Best Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Course
I love Pinterest affiliate marketing so much that I even created a more detailed course all about how to do it effectively!
In the course, you will learn the exact strategies that I use to make affiliate sales on Pinterest every single day!
When you enroll in Pin to Profits: Affiliate Marketing you will learn:
- The fundamentals of affiliate marketing on Pinterest
- How to optimize your Pinterest account for affiliate marketing
- Branding strategies for Pinterest
- Implementing Pinterest affiliate marketing
- Pinterest affiliate tips for bloggers
Over 600 happy students have gone through Pin to Profits: Affiliate Marketing course and I would love to teach you too!
As a thank you for reading this post you can take $10 off the course when you use the coupon code PINMONEY at checkout! That makes the course less than $40!
That is a screaming deal for a course that teaches you how to make money on Pinterest 🙂
Have you tried using affiliate links on Pinterest? Comment below and let us know!
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56 thoughts on “How to Make Money on Pinterest With Affiliate Links”
This is really helpful and beneficial information for me. Thank you for sharing this.
This is very informative. I just started out blogging and using affiliate links.Pinterest is best to post these i think. Thanks McKinzie
What are some good sites to affiliate with (as far as to use Pinterest as the outlet for marketing)?
I really like some of the programs with ShareASale. The network has a TON of different programs. Based on your niche you can look to see if the affiliate program has any rules against it, but many will allow it!
Amazing article! Useful & to-the-point tips. I’m already excited to the idea of combining affiliate marketing+Pinterest. Thank you for the info!
McKinzie this is pure gold for how to make money on Pinterest with affiliates. I had no idea about the smart loop with Tailwind and also hadn’t considered doing anything other than blog posts on Tailwind. Thank you thank you
Do you have any resources on how to get started on pinterest? As a new person, how can I get followers? I believe that having many followers will make Pinterest affiliate marketing easier.
Yes! This post is specifically written for Pinterest beginners –> https://momsmakecents.com/pinterest-beginners/ check it out and let me know if you have any other questions about getting started with Pinterest!
I really like what you guys are up too. This kind of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the great works guys I’ve you guys to our blogroll.
This is, by far, the best explanation about affiliate marketing with Pinterest I’ve seen. Simple, and to the point! So much out there, and it makes your head spin. I’m just getting started- thanks for the post!
Hi Sabrina! Thanks so much for your comment. Pinterest affiliate marketing can be a little confusing, but it is a great way to really ramp up your affiliate sales 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Thank you McKinzie for such good value and information about using affiliate links on Pinterest. I have a question that no one seems to have a satisfactory answer to- Can we put affiliate links directly linking to Clickbank or Warrior Plus digital products? An answer would be very helpful. Thanks again.
Hey Nitin!
So glad this Pinterest affiliate marketing guide helped you 🙂 I am not an affiliate for Clickbank or Warrior Plus so I can’t confirm that. You would need to check in the terms for those programs to see what type of promotion is allowed. Usually, they will specify if social media promotion is allowed.
Best of luck as you get started using Pinterest affiliate links!
— McKinzie
Wow I never thought to do this as a part of my affiliate marketing strategy. My head is swimming with ideas thanks to this post. I can’t wait to get started!!! Thank you for sharing this.
Hi Keyona!
Isn’t it a cool concept? Pinterest is a great platform for affiliate marketing. Best of luck getting started!
Confused about approval, if the affiliate approves link from your website/blog, they are ok with sharing the link on Pinterest? Or should they know and approve your Pinterest also?
Most affiliate programs will have a place where you can add your traffic sources including your social media accounts. You would put your pinterest link there.
Thanks!
Hi McKinzie-
Thanks for the great article. I do not have a blog (yet), but would love to add some affiliate links to a few of my pins on Pinterest. I’m on Target’s affiliate page and they require a web address on their affiliate application. Is there a way to get around this?
Thanks!
What I would do is purchase your domain and set up a “coming soon” type page so that you have a URL to put there. Some have put their Pinterest profile URL on their applications, which works in some cases, but can also get you rejected from the program (but you can usually apply again later!).
When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!
Hi Mckinzie.
Thank you for this Pinterest affiliate guide. I’m also trying to do Pinterest affiliate using Viglink and Magiclink. So far I only get the 5-10 impression, 1 – 2 close up and no link click hmm
Hey Tatyana!
What type of products are you posting?
Health supplement. I did write a blog post about it too
Thanks for this informative post about Pinterest Marketing, this is one area that i have not tapped into as yet.
Hey!
Thanks so much! Pinterest Affiliate Marketing is definitely a great way to make money with Pinterest. Let me know if you have any questions about it 🙂
Great information McKinzie!! Can you tell me if we can post affiliate links in Pinterest ads?
Like as promoted pins? I have run them for promoted pins in the past. You will need to check with the terms of your affiliate program though 🙂
Well, I have never tried or even though of using Affiliate links on Pinterest. The way you showed is just brilliant. Thanks a lot Mckinzie
I liked this article but I’ve been searching on how to market an affiliate link on Pinterest with an image. In my blog, I can download the HTML file and an image pops up. But with Pinterest, they are looking for just a link. And most images are copyrighted. Do you have any suggestions?
Ultimately, I would recommend that you check with your affiliate coordinator with that program. Each program can have different terms for how you can use their images. But for example, one way you can do it is to pin the image from the main site then go into your pin and then edit URL and then paste in your affiliate link that goes to that product 🙂
Hi Mckinzie,
I just got accepted into the CPA network, CPA Lead, and I am excited to get your course to promote one of their email submit offers. I heard Pinterest has a great buyers market but I just want to begin with email submit offers because they convert easier than pay per sale offers and I can’t wait to get your course to use on my first campaign with CPA Lead.
Thanks for your good website and information !
This is a great post! Do you have any tips for how to get Pinterest to allow Share-A-Sale links? I tried to add some to my Tailwind queue and they wouldn’t publish with an error message saying that Pinterest viewed links from that site as spam. I tried both the long and short version of the share-a-sale link.
Hey Sara!
Hmmm… I have multiple links from ShareASale on my Pinterest account, but I believe that I pinned them manually. I didn’t have any issues when I did that way.
This is such a great post. It has so much helpful information for me. I am new to blogging and I have heard about affiliate marketing on pinterest but was not sure how it worked. This has explained everything. Thank you!
Hey!
I’m so glad this post was helpful to you 🙂 Pinterest affiliate marketing can be a great way to make more money with your blog. Congratulations on starting your new blog and best of luck with affiliate marketing!
McKinzie
What about product images and copyrights? I want to make pins for my favorite products but don’t know how to do that part.
Hey Megan!
You will have to check the term for your affiliate program. For example, with Amazon you are not allowed to take images from their site to create your own graphics, but other companies do allow you to use images to create graphics. You will have to check with them. Typically, if you email the affiliate programs manager they should be able to answer for you!
This was very informative. I have a question that I’m still confused about though-not sure if you can help? If we have a blog and our post has links in it- and the pin sends them to our own blog- is that ok? The affiliate links would not show in the description or anywhere on the pin info itself- only when they go to our actual full blog post.
Hey Stefanie!
Yes, that is totally okay. If your blog post has affiliate links you don’t need to say that in your pin description. You only would need that disclosure if the actual link you are linking to is an affiliate link. Does that make sense?
Hi good day to you,, just got see these blog of yours, you know , I been using pinterest for a couple of years now, but to be honest I did’nt know that i can earn here.. but im still hanging on how to do this.. I try tailwind but still confused, where I can start and how to do the affilliate matters ? I always watch youtube but no one tell how the exact detail to earn.. how will I know Im getting paid, is there a software to use on this? , Thank you in advace..
Hey there!
I have a whole Pinterest affiliate marketing course that goes much further in-depth that I think you would enjoy. The first step would be to apply for affiliate programs as I mentioned in the post. I also list some of my favorites here: https://momsmakecents.com/affiliate-programs-bloggers/
Very helpful post. Oops…Just realized that I was doing it completely wrong so I’m re-doing my some of my pin descriptions and boards to reflect #affiliate. Thank you!
Hey Anita!
So glad this post helped you. There definitely are a lot of people that misunderstand how to do Pinterest affiliate marketing. Best of luck in all of your adventures 🙂
McKinzie
I have a question on photos to use for the Pins. Can I use the photos from the products website? Where else should one go for the promotional photos used as Pinterest Pins? Can they be edited with a program like Canva before being pinned and linked with our affiliate URL?
Hey Kelly!
This is going to depend on the affiliate program. Some have certain rules about images. If you have questions about how images can be used for a specific program, I would reach out to the program manager for a concrete answer.
If you are not editing the image many programs will let you use the image as long as it is directly linking to the product page (with your affiliate link).
Great information! Thank you. I am having a problem though. When I click edit to add affiliate like to website box…theres no option for it. No where to put my affiliate link.
Thank you for this information! Helped a lot. Unfortunately when i go to edit the pin to add my affiliate link from zazzle, there is no website box to enter it in. Do you know why this could be?
Are you the original pinner of the pin? You can’t edit the link of someone elses pin.
Thank you very much for the clarification. I really need this.
Great article. I found it at the right time too. I am currently trying to figure out monetization for my own blog.
I’m a big fan of simple and direct instruction. Now I know where to start.
Thank you very much.
Justin
That Cool! I have used Pinterest to earn with Google Adsense and have had satisfactory results. In addition to generating sales as an affiliate. It is an excellent tool and you have done a great job. 🙂
Thanks for sharing <3
That is really a great idea! Why just pinning my own stuff, if I could pin affiliate links? Thank you for that idea!
Thanks, McKinzie for this wonderful information. I have been using Pinterest to generate traffic to my blog. There, on my blog, I can promote both my products and amazon affiliate links. I think it’s preferable to send people to your blog first rather than promoting your amazon affiliate link directly on Pinterest.