Boost Your Blog Pageviews with Pinterest Now!

Today I delve into the world of Pinterest marketing. I’m Jillian Leslie, the host of The Blogger Genius Podcast and co-founder of MiloTreeCart, and today I’m excited to share the insights from my recent conversation with Kayla Watkins, a Pinterest marketing expert who specializes in helping bloggers amplify their organic traffic and monetize their content.

The Ever-Evolving World of Pinterest

In the digital age, staying ahead of the curve is crucial, and for niche bloggers, the recent Google updates have been a game-changer. As someone who’s passionate about helping fellow bloggers diversify their income streams, I’ve seen many turn to selling digital products as a viable option. In fact, I offer a free 20-minute digital product strategy call to help develop a digital product strategy and share best practices for monetization success.

During my chat with Kayla, we explore the current trends in Pinterest marketing and how to make the most of this visual platform. Kayla’s expertise in crafting effective Pinterest strategies to increase pageviews is invaluable, especially for bloggers in the food, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories.

Show Notes:

• MiloTreeCart
• Book a FREE 20-minute strategy call with me
• MiloTreeCart Affiliate Program
• Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create?
• Kayla Watkins
• MiloTree Pop-Up App
• Join My Blogger Genius Email List
• Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
• All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes
• Tailwind
• Canva

Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast:

• iTunes
• YouTube
• Spotify

The Art of Pinterest Optimization

Pinterest is more than just a collection of beautiful images; it’s a search engine marketing tool that requires a keen understanding of keyword research, content optimization, and pinning strategy. Kayla emphasizes the importance of finding the right keywords so you can create fresh pins to pin to your relevant boards, and updating existing blog content to stay relevant and maximize engagement.

She also shares her approach to content scheduling and distribution, recommending tools like Tailwind to schedule pins and Canva for designing eye-catching Pinterest pins. Kayla’s advice on pin design, Pinterest boards, pin titles and descriptions is clear: keep them concise, informative, and keyword-rich to resonate with Pinterest users.

The Long Game: Building Sustainable Traffic from Pinterest

One of the most striking points Kayla makes is the long-term nature of Pinterest traffic. Unlike the instant gratification of platforms like Instagram, Pinterest rewards patience and persistence. It’s about trial and error, refining strategies over time, and understanding that significant results may take months to materialize.

Kayla also touched on the future of Pinterest, predicting a continued focus on e-commerce. She encourages businesses to align their strategies with user behavior on the platform and to consider Pinterest ads to amplify viral content and evergreen posts.

Leveraging Pinterest for Long-Term Stability

Pinterest stands out as a social media platform that drives traffic to blogs or websites, offering a level of stability and control that’s hard to find elsewhere. Kayla contrasted this with the fleeting nature of success on other social media platforms, highlighting Pinterest’s role as a reliable partner in a business’s long-term strategy as long as you understand the Pinterest algorithm.

Repurposing Blog Content for Maximum Impact and Pageviews

During our conversation, Kayla shares a personal success story about repurposing her Instagram content on Threads, the new social media platform by Instagram. By translating her most saved Instagram posts to fit the Threads format, she’s seen a significant increase in engagement and email subscribers. This strategy has proven to be a game-changer, allowing her to insert her expertise into relevant conversations and grow her community.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

My biggest takeaway from this enlightening discussion is the importance of a comprehensive Pinterest marketing strategy. It’s essential to have a defined blog niche, solve problems for your audience, and incorporate relevant keywords into your content. Remember, Pinterest is a marathon, not a sprint, and it rewards those who are consistent and strategic in their content creation.

If you’re looking to diversify your income and drive traffic to your blog, consider leveraging tools like MiloTreeCart to sell digital products and create sales pages with ease. It’s an excellent way to start monetizing your content and expanding your revenue streams.

I hope you’ve found this blog post informative and inspiring. If you’re enjoying the insights shared here, please consider leaving a rating on iTunes. Your feedback helps me continue to bring you valuable content and expert guests. I look forward to connecting with you again soon.

• Master Google Updates: Essential Survival Guide for Niche Bloggers! with Steve Wiideman
• Unleashing the Power of Pinterest with AI with Missy Lund
• Cutting-Edge Social Media Tactics for 2024 with Lauren Litt

MiloTreeCart, the Easiest Way to Sell Digital Products

I also want to introduce you to the MiloTreeCart, a tool designed for non-techies to sell digital products easily. It comes with features like fill-in-the-blank sales pages, check-out pages, a sales dashboard, upsells, and customer support. MiloTreeCart is currently available for a lifetime deal of $349 or three easy installments of $116.33.

Translation: #327: Boost Your Blog Pageviews with Pinterest Now!

Jillian Leslie (00:00:00) – Hi, I’m Jillian, welcome to a brand new episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast. This has been a very interesting time. Google has been rolling out updates and many bloggers, niche bloggers who monetize via ads and affiliates have gotten hit. I’ve been on calls this week with many of you and one blogger said, Jillian, you have been right. It is time that we have multiple income streams and I’m now ready to sell digital products. If this is you, get on a free 20 minute call with me where I will help you come up with your digital product strategy and share best practices on how others are finding success. To book your call, just go to milotree.com, our homepage. Scroll down and you’ll see a link to my calendar. And please remember, the one constant in building online businesses is change. So book your free call now! I’m excited to show you a whole new way to monetize.

Announcer (00:01:06) – Welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast, brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie (00:01:13) – Welcome back to the show. I have an excellent episode for you today. I am interviewing Kayla Watkins. She is a Pinterest expert for bloggers. She is all about how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to our blogs. In this world now where we are all thinking about diversifying our traffic sources, this episode couldn’t be more timely. And what’s great about Kayla is she shares everything how she thinks about keywords on Pinterest, how she thinks about niches which she calls little boxes, how she helps bloggers with their content so everything is connected. I believe you are going to want to open your notes app and take notes during this episode. I think it is a great way to to fine tune your own Pinterest strategy, or to get motivated to get back into Pinterest. Also, Kayla has been posting on the Instagram app threads and getting lots of traction. She shares about it, especially towards the end of the episode. So stay for that. And I personally have been posting more on threads because of Kayla. So without further delay, here is my interview with Kayla Watkins.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:38) – Kayla. Welcome to the Blogger Genius podcast.

Kayla Watkins (00:02:42) – Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Jillian Leslie (00:02:45) – It’s so nice. Okay, so I saw you on Instagram and I saw that you are a Pinterest marketer. You were sharing a lot of smart stuff and I said, hey, do you want to come on my podcast to talk about Pinterest? So, so thank you. And and the thing that, I really want to explore with you are what you’re seeing in terms of trends, because I’m seeing trends too. And I want to like, see if we’re on the same page.

Kayla Watkins (00:03:19) – Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s been a lot of talk about Pinterest lately, which is beautiful for me because I think it went quiet for a while. But it’s back and I’m actually on threads. I’m not sure if you’re on threads. but I’ve seen that’s where I’ve just seen so much chatter about Pinterest and so much engagement. And I’m excited to see, you know, what people are talking about and what they’re thinking about and how they’re kind of repositioning Pinterest and their full blogging strategy, which is exciting.

Jillian Leslie (00:03:45) – I just went live with a post literally two seconds before we got on this call, because yesterday I was on Facebook looking at some blogging Facebook groups, and all I kept hearing was bloggers freaking out and they were freaking out because what has worked for blogging now is a little thrown up in the air. So what? What I was sharing with you before we pressed record was, I feel like if you’re an old school blogger like we are, and we again for our site Catch My Party, which is our first site, we get a ton of traffic from Pinterest, right? And and then though it felt like bloggers could just kind of start pinning and get automatic traffic. And when that started to change, they leaned into SEO on Google because all of a sudden you could go, hey, I could learn keyword research. I could rank for low competition keywords and drive a bunch of traffic to my site. Now that Google is transforming because of AI, because of third party cookies going away, because of, just like search in general and a bunch of Google updates, I feel like bloggers are starting to say, hey, stuff that was working with Google isn’t working anymore.

Jillian Leslie (00:05:07) – And I’m watching people say, we need to lean back into Pinterest because Pinterest is driving traffic. So would you. That was a lot. But would you tell me what you’re seeing on your end and how it’s working on Pinterest today?

Kayla Watkins (00:05:24) – Sure. I think that you’re totally right. I have been doing Pinterest marketing since I think 2018. So those early sort of years of I’ve been on Pinterest forever. I was actually a blogger before I started Pinterest marketing. I was a lifestyle and wedding blogger, and I was getting tons of traffic to my site from Pinterest because I had been using it, you know, for fun and because I love the platform. And then I saw it was working for my business and I was meeting all these bloggers and they’re like, well, we’re not using Pinterest. You know, we’re only on Instagram. We’re only on, you know, focusing on that. And so we’re not getting a lot of traffic to our blog in general. they weren’t even focusing on SEO at the point at that point.

Kayla Watkins (00:06:03) – so when I started getting into it, it was very easy to get traffic. It was it was a different strategy, though, in some ways, because it was like 30 pins a day, or it was a lot more pinning that you needed to do. so it was a different way of getting it, but the traffic would come faster in a little bit easier and a little less, you know, search engine keyword based. And it does now. but I think what you said is right. I think SEO is so important, and it’s never going to be something that I’m going to be like, you have to choose as SEO or Pinterest. To me, it’s about diversifying between the two. SEO is always going to be so important for for blogs and for traffic. But I think what provides stability is having an alternate source of blog traffic. that is in the same sort of level as SEO, which I’ve seen Pinterest to be for my blogger clients. so either Pinterest is right above Google or Google’s right above Pinterest, but either way, those are usually their top two traffic drivers.

Kayla Watkins (00:06:58) – So it gives them like stability. it gives them a peace of mind that they know that if Google is going to change, they have Pinterest, or Pinterest is going to change. They have Google. And the people that I know that have been around since those early days of Pinterest have seen that continued traffic source. And again, it’s not going to be at the same level it once was back in the day, but it’s still up there with Google, and it’s still like giving that sort of, diversifying your your traffic in a way that makes you feel comfortable and feel like you’re still going to get that traffic no matter what. so that’s what I’ve been seeing as far as, like how it’s still it’s still comparable to, to Google in my opinion. It’s not it’s not 100%. It’s not as easy. I feel like every social media platform is going in the direction of ads and brands and all of those things, so it makes it a little harder for the organic creator on Pinterest, but definitely not impossible and definitely still worthwhile to provide you that sort of stability.

Kayla Watkins (00:07:52) – Monthly traffic that you can count on and, diversify your traffic sources.

Jillian Leslie (00:07:58) – So you do full on Pinterest marketing for brands, for bloggers. Who’s your ideal client?

Kayla Watkins (00:08:06) – Strictly bloggers, really. I’ve worked with all sorts of companies, but we really niche down to bloggers. We do food, fashion, beauty, lifestyle is really at home. so really the main categories on Pinterest, we’re focusing on getting traffic to their blog so that they can monetize their blog through ads so that they can monetize their blogs or digital products so that they can get subscribers to their email list. Really helping them in our whole thing is repurposing content, which is the other reason I love Pinterest is because it’s about repurposing, not creating from scratch. so our whole thing is repurposing their content to get them more traffic and more money from Pinterest.

Jillian Leslie (00:08:44) – So somebody comes to you and they say, hey, I want I haven’t really been on Pinterest in a serious way. I want to diversify my traffic sources. I want to work with you.

Jillian Leslie (00:09:00) – And let’s assume they’ve set up their account. It’s, you know, they’ve that I don’t know, they’ve done the basics right. Let’s say they are a fashion blogger. And maybe they would start with how many boards would you say?

Kayla Watkins (00:09:17) – About ten.

Jillian Leslie (00:09:18) – Okay. They’ve got their ten boards. And let’s say they do, like, give me a niche within fashion.

Kayla Watkins (00:09:28) – so like, petite fashion bloggers is a good one.

Jillian Leslie (00:09:31) – Okay. And so they’ve got like, maybe their seasonal boards and maybe they love target or something like that, and they’ve got their target board and maybe they’ve got their, formal board for petites, those kinds of things. So they’ve started with these boards and they’ve got blog posts on their site. And you look at this and, and maybe they’ve got five pins within each board to start. And you look at this and you say, okay, here is let’s talk about your overall strategy. What do you do to start them off.

Kayla Watkins (00:10:11) – To start them off. I think really one of the things that people are lacking is that Pinterest still is a search engine.

Kayla Watkins (00:10:17) – It is still keyword based. It is still very much about figuring out what how people are searching for the content you create, and how Pinterest is categorizing the content you create. So it kind of goes hand in hand. You want to make sure that you’re using the right words that Pinterest is using, and that your users or ideal readers or ideal, you know, new people to your blog are using. So the first thing I do when I look at a profile like that for a petite fashion blogger is I’m going to do keyword research. So to me that is using us. I’m going to have a spreadsheet set up on the side, and I’m going to go through their whole menu on their blog. You know, what are those main topics that their content pillars that they’re creating content about on a regular basis? And how are people putting that in the search bar on Pinterest? How is Pinterest categorizing that content that comes up that’s similar to what they’re creating? I’m going to look at like bloggers that create similar content, other petite fashion bloggers.

Kayla Watkins (00:11:08) – I’m going to search petite fashion, see what comes up on that Dropbox, just like Google does, where it has the list of keywords that come up, and Pinterest also has bubbles underneath that. So it has all these phrases of the way people are searching for petite fashion and what they want to know.

Jillian Leslie (00:11:21) – Your search tool that you are using is Pinterest itself.

Kayla Watkins (00:11:26) – Oh, yeah. Yep. Exactly. Google I think has similarities, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same user. Pinterest I think is just a little bit more niched, into those big, you know, buckets that Pinterest is famous for DIY food, fashion, beauty. So they’re a little more niche. So they might have different terms than the average Google user might, you know. So they might be a little bit more specific, a little more niche. So I’m going to see what are people searching for about petite fashion. Are they searching for. They’re probably searching petite fashion outfits. They’re searching in petite fashion fall fashion denim all of these things.

Kayla Watkins (00:12:00) – And I’m going to start dumping those into a spreadsheet so that I have some keywords to go back to when I’m creating pins, pin titles, pin descriptions. And these are like kind of those broad keyword keywords that that, blogger is going to use in almost every piece of content because they just relate to what they’re creating. so I’m going to start there. And, and that’s how I’m going to when I take that, I’m going to take that whole spreadsheet. I went through all of those. I went through all those board topics, especially if those actually relate to their content they’re creating. I find often bloggers or even just anyone using Pinterest, they’re creating boards that they’re not really necessarily creating content about. They just like it. Maybe it was like a personal board that they were saving. You know, they still have their wedding board from ten years ago, you know? So that’s where I’m kind of doing a little cleanup and making sure that profile is a business profile that matches your actual blog and the content you’re actually creating, because you don’t want a bunch of boards that you’re not even pinning content to, or.

Jillian Leslie (00:12:55) – Other people’s content to that isn’t really your content. Would you agree with that?

Kayla Watkins (00:13:01) – And I agree with that. I think in the beginning, sometimes it’s okay to use other people’s content to give Pinterest an idea of what content you’re going to be pinning in these boards. So if they’ve already categorized content correctly in the petite fashion industry, putting those on your boards to begin with is fine, because then it’s just telling Pinterest, okay, you’re going to see more of this when I start pinning. So it gives Pinterest just again, you’re just telling Pinterest, this is who I am. This is what I’m creating content about. This is who you should connect me with. And so making sure that’s clear from your board titles, from the content in your board. But once you do that to sort of set up your profile, you can just do your content from then on, and there’s no need to spend time on other people’s content.

Jillian Leslie (00:13:38) – So you’ve got this blogger doing petite fashion, and maybe they have. Two blog posts on denim.

Jillian Leslie (00:13:46) – I like that idea. And you look at those blog posts and you say, okay, we’re going to repurpose this content to be found on Pinterest. What does that mean to you? So you’ve got two denim like do you? First of all, go back to that blogger and go, you know what? Like denim big, you might want to be leaning into being more focused on petite denim because you’re seeing this show up. like, will you communicate that back to the blogger saying, hey, here’s an opportunity I’m seeing for you, or will you kind of leave that to the blogger and then go work with what they have?

Kayla Watkins (00:14:27) – So at the beginning I’m working with what they have. I’m saying, okay, here’s the content they’re creating. Let’s try all this. Let’s use the keywords. I can see that people are searching heavily for denim. Let me try the different ways that they’re searching to title the pen to title, add in the description, and then in 3 to 6 months when we’re reevaluating what’s performed, and even at the end of the month, I like to report back to my clients, like, okay, here’s the top content for you.

Kayla Watkins (00:14:50) – And to me, top content means outbound clicks. That would be my number one metric. And that just means basically traffic from there clicking from Pinterest to your site. And that is always my goal for clients, is to kind of grow that number over time. so I will go back at the end of the month and I’ll say, okay, hey, you’re two denim blog posts are at the top of your most outbound click pins. that’s what I’m seeing. Maybe you want to create new content about it. Maybe you want to make sure that post is updated. Make sure those affiliate links are perfectly working so that when you get all that traffic, you’re not losing out on an opportunity to sell or an opportunity to, you know, get an email subscriber, maybe there’s a freebie you want to create there because obviously people are coming to you as a source for denim. so there’s definitely a lot of I think that’s another way I love to use Pinterest is content creation, sourcing and content creation, ideas.

Kayla Watkins (00:15:39) – I think it’s a great place to go for ideas because you’re literally seeing what your niche is searching for and what content they want on the topics you typically create about, and then you can just create content to fill in those voids and to to reach those same people on Pinterest. So yeah, it’s definitely a place to go for that as well for, for saying, okay, hey, I’m doing really well because at some point Pinterest is going to say this person creates great content about petite fashion denim. And I know that because they’re getting a lot of sales and a lot of outbound clicks, and those pins are doing really well. So the next time you put out content about, denim and the petite fashion niche, it’s going to do well on Pinterest again, because Pinterest already knows you’re an authority for that subject. You’re already ranking in the past. So yeah, it only helps to keep doubling down on the things that, you’re ranking well for on Pinterest. Right?

Jillian Leslie (00:16:26) – And because I’m such a believer in niching down, you might become the petite denim blogger.

Jillian Leslie (00:16:33) – Like, not that you can’t and people get freaked out and go, oh my God, so you’re saying I can’t do bathing suits for petite? So it’s like, no, no, no, you can but know that you’re like owning this space. And if you are owning this space, own it even more.

Kayla Watkins (00:16:51) – Yes, 100% agree with that. I’m a huge niche fan. I think it works really well on Pinterest because Pinterest wants it, puts you into a little box. And so if you tell at the little box you want to go into, it’s going to serve you right to the people that are searching for your content. So if you’re saying, I write about denim for petite women, it’s going to send you those people that are looking for denim. It’s not going to it’s it likes to put you into the niche because then it knows who to send you to. And I think that’s really important. And I think a lot of people go too broad. and sometimes I work with bloggers that are lifestyle bloggers and they are broad to begin with, and I’ll just sort of niche them down on Pinterest as well.

Kayla Watkins (00:17:27) – So like, you might have a bunch of content on your blog, but you perform better for the specific niche on Pinterest. It’s okay to niche down on Pinterest to be very specific. so like, I think petite fashion is one you might not, in every single post say, hey, this is a petite fashion post, but you are a petite woman that writes about fashion. So niching down to petite fashion is only going to serve you well on Pinterest and help you reach really your target audience that likes both the fashion and the style and the aesthetic that you’re you’re sharing and also knows cares about how close fit on their their body, which is the same type as yours. So it’s really a great way to, I think, find your ideal person, ideal reader and, you know, email subscriber and all those things.

Jillian Leslie (00:18:10) – So now you’ve got these two blog posts on denim and you say, okay, you haven’t. Hey blogger, you haven’t been exploiting these posts on Pinterest. I’m excited to do that for you.

Jillian Leslie (00:18:24) – What would you do?

Kayla Watkins (00:18:27) – So for that, I think that what Pinterest loves is what they call fresh pins. And fresh pins to them is either a new Pinterest, so it’s never been on Pinterest before. so that one blog post, the first time it’s ever gone up is fresh. The other thing that’s a fresh pin is the same URL that’s already been on Pinterest, but a new image for that URL. So a new graphic is a great way to do that. A new photo. If they decide to update the photography for that blog post. Those are all fresh pins to Pinterest as well, so those are your best chances for getting reach on Pinterest. Are those those fresh pins? So it’s and there’s unlimited.

Jillian Leslie (00:19:04) – So is it a new URL or is which which is more valuable to Pinterest a new or an updated image to an older URL?

Kayla Watkins (00:19:17) – First is a new URL that’s always going to be their top priority. Second would be a new image for you. New URL. I’m sorry. Second would be a new image for a URL that’s already been on Pinterest.

Kayla Watkins (00:19:28) – Okay, so definitely the new or new URL is the most important. They love new content coming onto the platform. That’s important for them. So it’s always going to be important to be updating your blog, to have new blog posts, to be kind of consistent with your blog writing, to do well on Pinterest, but when that’s what they also love to, either evergreen or seasonal posts. If you just create new graphics for those evergreen and seasonal posts, there’s a point at which those can come back around and get the same, you know, traffic and drive that a new, fresh, a totally fresh new URL pin would do. Okay. That makes sense.

Jillian Leslie (00:20:05) – Pinterest I feel like got very complicated. So in the in the early days it was super, super easy. Put up an image with some text overlay telling what this pin is about. Writing your description not to be cute, but to be helpful with keywords also in your Pin title. And boom, let it sit there, let it kind of collect juice or momentum and you could be driving traffic.

Jillian Leslie (00:20:33) – Then Pinterest came out with videos. Then Pinterest came out with idea pins and changed the names and did all these things. When you are working with this petite blogger and you just want clicks. Where do you start? Where do you focus? Where is your where are you going to get your biggest bang for your buck?

Kayla Watkins (00:20:55) – The biggest bang for your buck, luckily, and with it provides me a lot of comfort comfort because it stayed the same. Is your static pins, your graphics and your photos are still going to get the biggest bang for your buck if you do not have time to add in videos. If you do not have time to add in product tagging, idea pins are no longer. But if you don’t have time for those things, then I would stick to graphics and I would stick to photos. They are the least time consuming to do. They are the most likely to get outbound clicks. I find that often graphics get more outbound clicks. What I mean by graphics is those photos with text overlay, ie those get more clicks than photos.

Kayla Watkins (00:21:32) – Photos often get saves. They’ll kind of save them to be in their little scrapbook board, but often the the graphics get more clicks because then they’re like, okay, I need more information from this post. So I have to go to this post to get the rest of the information. So if you’re a petite fashion blogger and you’re saying six, denim outfit ideas for petite women, you’re going to post a photo of one of those outfits, the text overlay that says that. And they’re going to want the other five outfits. So they’re going to click through to get the other five outfits and to get more information for your blog. So it kind of entices them to to leave Pinterest and to go further to your site and get more information. Interesting.

Jillian Leslie (00:22:05) – By the way, I notice how you didn’t say put the six images six outfits on in that you know, as a collage, but to say, hey, here’s one. If you like this, you got to click to get the others.

Kayla Watkins (00:22:19) – Totally.

Kayla Watkins (00:22:19) – I think that’s a great strategy for, for getting outbound clicks, which is what you want. You want them off of Pinterest and onto your site. I like to use the combo, so I’ll use for that that denim post. I will use all the photos that are vertical of just the outfits. Those will go up individually and I will use those on text overlay graphics as well. I find that the photos will get a lot of saves, which is a metric that Pinterest really cares about. It tells Pinterest that this is a valuable piece of information you know benefits Pinterest because it stays on the platform. So they like that metric. so I’ll play into that game too and get the saves, but then I’ll also have plenty of graphics that are going out that entice you to follow through and go through the post onto your blog. And then you, as always, like every, social media platform you’re watching, how these pins perform. What does best for you specifically? Are you doing well for outbound clicks with photos? Are you doing well for outbound clicks on graphics, and what can you create more of? so that you continue to grow that traffic from Pinterest to your blog?

Jillian Leslie (00:23:20) – Okay, so I’ve got these two posts and I want to get traffic to these two posts.

Jillian Leslie (00:23:26) – What are you doing? Like are you creating? So and let’s say each post has six images in it. What is your schedule? What? How often are you posting from these posts? How many of these graphics are you creating? Like what is like when you look at this and you say, okay, we need a strategy here, what is that strategy?

Kayla Watkins (00:23:52) – So I’m really looking at the whole sort of not just these two posts. I’m looking at their whole sort of content strategy and goals. Right. So for this blogger, obviously the goal is traffic and focusing on those two, let’s say they’re evergreen posts. Maybe they’re not even recent that do really, really well for them. Those are always going to be part of the strategy. But typically I look okay. What’s the new content that’s come out in the last week? I, I we paint for clients weekly. Right. So we’ll look in the last week. What content have they created on their blog. And we’re going to start by making text overlay graphics for that those new blog posts.

Kayla Watkins (00:24:25) – Because again those are the like number one fresh pins. That number one new URLs to Pinterest. So they’re going to do the best. So we’re going to add those in first.

Jillian Leslie (00:24:33) – To how many, how many, how many. I got a new post. It’s petites for summer.

Kayla Watkins (00:24:40) – Okay. Perfect. So I would do I typically do 4 or 5 graphics. So I’m going to plug those images into 4 or 5 different text overlay graphics. I have those in Canva already. They are already created. They are already templates on Canva. So I can just plug in those new images, plug in the new title and text overlay, download those from Canva, and then I’ll also have let’s say that that also comes with six, photos, right? Six vertical photos of the actual outfits themselves, the summer outfits. So I’m going to include those. So let’s say that’s 11 I think that’s 11 pins, right? For this one blog post that you’re you’re already have for this one new blog post. So if that’s the only new blog post, I’m going to take those 11 pins and I’m going to put them into my personal tool of choice, which is tailwind for scheduling out your content.

Kayla Watkins (00:25:25) – So I’m going to put those into the drafts of tailwind. And then I’m going to say, what else do we want to share this week. Because we can’t just share the same URL every day or multiple times a day. Those need to be spaced out. You need at least one day, I would say minimum between the same URL. So we still have to fill in the blanks. and, and I think my, my usual recommendation, Pinterest says 5 to 10 pins a day is best practices. But for me, unless you’re outsourcing it, I would say about three a day would be a good place to start. If it’s not possible, go down to two a day, just as long as you’re consistent. Obviously that is the most important thing. I think three a day is the best place to start if it’s at all possible for your time and your, you know, whatever else you have going on with your business. so I would plug those in and then I would say, okay, we’ve got the new stuff in the, in the drafts.

Kayla Watkins (00:26:13) – What is seasonal or relevant or trending right now on Pinterest that we’ve already created content about in the blog, on our blog in the past. So if I see that, let’s see, we’re in summer. So like, they have a vacation outfit roundup that’s going to be trending right now. People are already searching in March for, summer travel outfit ideas. So I’m going to pull that post and I’m going to create some new graphics from it. I probably have already pinned the photos, so I’m not going to pin the photos again, but I’m going to create new graphics for that old blog post, and I’ll have five more graphics for that post and throw them into the drafts as well. And the last thing I’ll go to is evergreen content that I know is performing well. So that’s where those denim denim posts are coming in. I’m going to create new graphics for those, and I’m going to also add those to my drafts. and so that’s a great way to sort of decide, you know, what content I’m going to be pinning this week.

Kayla Watkins (00:27:03) – And then I’m making sure the beautiful thing about Pinterest is that it’s not just this piece of content that goes out once. So it’s not just this, this summer graphic, you know, the one of five graphics that goes out to one board. That graphic can go out to multiple boards. I would say like three is a good, you know, place to start that are relevant. So that would go to the summer outfits board, that would go to the general petite fashion board that would go to the, the dresses board or like whatever it fits into for your board strategy. It has three different boards that can go to. That’s telling. Pinterest. This is a this is the pin about summer. This is a pin about fashion. This is a pin about dresses. So it’s just further telling. Pinterest, you know, this is the kind of content I’m creating. That’s why those boards are so important. It’s telling Pinterest something. It’s telling the algorithm something.

Jillian Leslie (00:27:52) – I want to take a short break to say that if you are looking to create your first digital product, I personally recommend you start with an e-book and I have everything you need to create this.

Jillian Leslie (00:28:06) – I have 13 ChatGPT AI prompts to use to create an e-book in under three hours. To grab this freebie, go to military.com slash e-book prompts. That’s military e-commerce book EB0 okay. Prompts, prompts. Snag it today. What are you waiting for? And now back to the show. Now, isn’t it though? The first board you pin it to needs to be the most relevant or the most that that’s going to give you the most juice?

Kayla Watkins (00:28:51) – Right. Totally. Because that’s the first time Pinterest has ever seen that. And they’re like, what is this piece of content? So you want that to be the most relevant description of it? for that summer one, I’d probably just say that Summer petite fashion board is the most relevant, just that general summer board. so that would be the way that I would go about it is that each pin gets to go to three. So Pinterest or Tailwind has something called interval pinning, which basically allows you to put those spaces in between those pins so that you’re not spamming.

Kayla Watkins (00:29:19) – so I would have, you know, start with those new pieces of content and, and put it to three boards and then space it out. maybe like 10 or 7, 7 to 10 days in between them, because then you have that one graphic for that board. Then you have graphic two that’s going to go out in a couple days. Then you have graphic three that’s going to go out in a couple days. So it allows you to like totally spaced out your content so it doesn’t look like this one graphic. So this one post is going out every other day. Instead you have one graphic going out to one post two days later, another graphic going on to the same post two days later. So it gives you a little bit more space and less spam. but still the same amount of chances to really tell Pinterest what this piece of content is. It also allows that first piece of content to get some juice, as you called it, or really, you know, rank and categorize that piece of content in the search engine and get going before the next pin starts sending out in two days.

Jillian Leslie (00:30:12) – When you are creating those first graphics, which again is an image with text overlay, it could be a collage, it could be just one image. Are you thinking about the use case and creating different use cases for that content? For example, with the summer petite post, you’ve got what to wear in summer if you are petite. But it could also be what to wear on vacation in summer for petite or what? What are the new shapes for petite fashion? Or, I don’t know, running out of ideas? That idea of saying this because I’m thinking about somebody on Pinterest searching and not everybody is going to be searching summer petite fashions. They might have a different use case. Cruz Fashions, who knows? And so it could fit into a different bucket. And that you are doing that thinking for Pinterest users rather than six different ways or five different ways of saying summer petite fashion trends.

Kayla Watkins (00:31:36) – Yeah, I think that’s a great point. I think definitely is worth doing. I think where people get tripped up as if they’re doing it themselves, it feels like too much to do.

Kayla Watkins (00:31:44) – I think when you outsource, that’s kind of what we do. But I do think the good way to go about it is it goes back to that keyword research. Right? We have that spreadsheet that has all of these like summer petite fashion boards so we can or keywords so we can see right there what are people searching and how are they phrasing it. We have that. We also if this piece of content is a little bit more specific, and we haven’t done the keyword research for this specific post, let’s say it’s summer petite summer dresses. So it’s a little bit more specific. So we don’t have we haven’t done the full research for that. We just have petite summer keywords. Then I go back to the search bar. What are people ask me about petite summer dresses? How are they phrasing it? What are their top searches? And that’s where I’m going to pull those pin titles. and text overlay for those graphics from, I just go back to the search bar and use those, and then I make sure both the broad and the niche topics and keywords that I found from my spreadsheet that I already had, and the search bar from that specific blog post are in my Pin title and description.

Kayla Watkins (00:32:39) – So even if your text has, just sort of the overall broad topic, it’s I’m making sure that in those pin titles and your Pin descriptions, you’re adding all those other keywords that people are going to be searching for. That’s going to tell Pinterest, this is specifically about summer dresses for the cruises. If you’re if you’re going on a cruise and you’re looking for the perfect petite summer dress, you know, this post has ten, petite fashion ideas for your summer travel, you know, vacation. So like that, that’s where it’s going to be, where all your keywords are going to be found. In addition to, that text overlay, I feel like making sure the description has those is a faster way to go about it. If you’re doing your own Pinterest account, and in the text overlay in the graphic can be a little bit more general or broad or, you know, and that can be copied and paste to the multiple graphics is one way to do it. Because the other thing is, if you see that you’re ranking for a specific term, it’s gone for 3 to 6 months.

Kayla Watkins (00:33:35) – You see that you’re coming up for this. You see that people are saving it to their cruise board. You see that you can read those analytics and say, okay, now it’s time to reschedule that pin. And now it’s going to be a fresh pin with a new title, because I see they’re using it for cruises. Ten petite cruise dress ideas, you know, etc. so that’s how you can kind of reuse it and recycle that information that you got from analytics that you already know you’re ranking for. Let’s try again with those specific keywords.

Jillian Leslie (00:34:03) – Are you going back to the blogger and saying, hey, I’m seeing this ranking for cruises, put cruises in the blog post.

Kayla Watkins (00:34:12) – Typically we do more of the changes on the Pinterest side and they leave it the same if. But we do go back to them and say, this is what we’re finding and here’s why we’re using this, because they’re going to want to know why we’re using it in this context. So definitely. And sometimes I’ll be like, that’s a good reason to write a specifically cruise post.

Kayla Watkins (00:34:29) – Maybe not rename your blog title if you’re already using it in different ways, but here’s an additional cruise outfit idea post that you can add and then link within that original one that’s getting all the traffic, so it allows them to surf the site longer, to create more affiliate links, to get to create more content that’s relevant. And then that second post about cruise outfits, that could be repurposing some of the content already in the original post goes out on Pinterest again with a fresh URL and a new pin, so it gives it a lot of opportunities to to grow that one post.

Jillian Leslie (00:34:58) – I like how it’s all connecting, how there’s a holistic strategy behind all of this. So what would you say your quick tips are on pin titles, pin descriptions, and hashtags which I know like they have certain hashtags from what I understand or categories. What? What is your advice?

Kayla Watkins (00:35:22) – Okay. I’m going to start with hashtags because that’s kind of low hanging fruit. I’m not a hashtag fan on Pinterest. I think you get mixed reviews.

Kayla Watkins (00:35:29) – It was once a thing, then it wasn’t a thing for sure. And now people are kind of coming back with hashtags. I don’t think they’re relevant. It’s not user friendly. No one searches with hashtags, they search with words. So until that becomes something that people use to search, I don’t think it’s worth it. so I would just leave hashtags out of your to do list just to save yourself the time and trouble. but I think for the other thing for pin titles and descriptions, really the shortest way to go about it, in my opinion, is to go to that search bar and say, okay, I wrote this blog post is titled this what is Pinterest saying about the same exact topic? So I titled it this. How is Pinterest saying it? I mean, I would even recommend you go to Pinterest before you made the blog post title to see to see how to name your blog posts. That would really be like the ideal situation for me. and I think perform best for you because you’re seeing exactly how people are phrasing it.

Kayla Watkins (00:36:20) – So even today I was working with a content creator and she has a blog post called Coffee Chocolate Cake. But in Pinterest it’s chocolate. Coffee cake is like the most is well, it’s more highly searched than than the other route. So I’m renaming it on my end to, a. Chocolate coffee cake. Even if that’s not her blog post title, that’s what her graphics are going to say. That’s what the pin title and pin description is going to say. and so I think that’s a great place to start, really, when you’re naming your blog post that way, it’s a very easy transition. So you already named your blog post correctly, and the Pin title can easily be named that same thing. so for pin titles, I like to do the title of the blog post, but making sure it’s phrased the Pinterest way. So in this case, like I would change it to chocolate coffee cake. And then I also like to do the bloggers, the blog name. So I would do, you know.

Kayla Watkins (00:37:14) – You, Kayla Watkins LLC or the Blogger Genius, whatever the blog name is next to it. and that’s kind of all I have in the pinned title. Short and sweet. Sometimes I add a couple additional keywords. like so easy dessert recipe, let’s say. Might be in that one. and then the description I really again go back to that search bar. What did I see when people were searching for coffee cake? They want to know that it’s moist. They want to know that it’s homemade. They want to know, what kind of frosting? So buttercream frosting. So these are the keywords that I’m including into this description. I’m saying, you know, this, looking for an easy dessert idea for your next party? This chocolate coffee cake recipe is moist and is made with, coffee buttercream icing, you know, get the full dessert recipe on the blog. So, like, I’m really taking all those keywords and just naturally putting it into the description I’m wearing less about connecting to the user, who kind of rarely reads that.

Kayla Watkins (00:38:09) – I’m worrying more about connecting to the search engine that is scouring that piece of information for words to use. But I’m not making it like keyword, comma, keyword, comma, keyword. That’s not recommended.

Jillian Leslie (00:38:19) – So filling out as many characters as you can, are these short? Are they as long as you can make them?

Kayla Watkins (00:38:26) – I would say about 3 to 4 sentences is plenty. I would not make it as long as possible. but I also, you know, it’s not two sentences or just a real quick blurb. It is a little bit more. I usually do two sentences that are about the specific blog post. So, you know, this is about coffee cake. It’s it’s moist. It’s made with, chocolate, it’s made from scratch, etc., etc. those two sentences describe the specific blog post and then I’ll say like follow for more easy dessert recipes and cake, homemade or cake from scratch recipes, that kind of thing. So it’s a little broader and that I pull from that big spreadsheet that I already dumped.

Kayla Watkins (00:39:00) – And I know that they’re creating all their content about. So I’m making sure it fits into all of these keywords that I’m, that I’m writing and including, but I’m including some broader ones and some more super specific for that piece of content that you created.

Jillian Leslie (00:39:12) – And I asked you in the questions I sent over how you’re incorporating AI. And it was interesting because you said, I have all these systems set up that I don’t really need AI right now.

Kayla Watkins (00:39:24) – Yeah, I think, I think for me and for my team, really, we have been doing it for so long that these kind of come to me and they flow a little easier, and I rely really heavily on the search bar, and I rely really heavily on the trends section of Pinterest to see what people are actually searching for that week. so I use less I it’s not I, I totally think there’s ways to go about it. Tailwind, for example, has a Ghost Rider feature, so they will write your pin title and pin description for you.

Kayla Watkins (00:39:52) – I think that’s a great place to start because they allow you to plug in keywords in there. So if you’ve done your research, you can’t you can’t skip the research section or part of that. But if you’ve done your research and you say, okay, I see, like, you know, from scratch buttercream, you know, those are the keywords that this particular post is, is being searched for most frequently. Then I’m going to put those into the tail one ghostwriter. It’ll create something and I’m going to just edit it from there. so I think there’s a ways to go about that for pin title and description that you can just edit it. And I think that works great too. I think as long as you’re going back to it, I found the tailwinds is a little bit glitchy. It’s a little bit, you know, less natural. It sounds a little bit more forced, but there’s all you do is edit that. So it’ll give you that base and you can edit that and sort of make it sound more natural and correct to you.

Kayla Watkins (00:40:40) – and then, but I just say don’t skip the keyword research. You can’t, you can’t skip that part. so making sure you’re doing that and making sure it’s on Pinterest is where you’re doing that research as well. We’ll provide you the best results.

Jillian Leslie (00:40:51) – It sounds like then the tools you are using are Pinterest and Tailwind. Anything else?

Kayla Watkins (00:40:57) – Canva. Canva is where I’m creating all those templates that I’m that I’m saving and and creating from. I think those are my top. The other one that we use is Airtable. So because like I said, you can pull, content from the past or evergreen content that does. Well, I like to track. Okay, what have I already put as a pinned title and pinned description? Because then the second go around, it’s a lot easier to just edit those and create, pin titles and descriptions that are a little different from the original. Try new keywords. and I like to see what graphics I already created and what keywords I created. So Airtable is a database for collecting all that information and saying, okay, hey, here’s what I’ve already pinned.

Kayla Watkins (00:41:34) – Here’s when I already pinned it.

Jillian Leslie (00:41:36) – You’re putting the pins actually in Airtable so you can see the previous pins.

Kayla Watkins (00:41:41) – Totally. I’m doing I’m doing the pin title. I’m doing I’m sorry, the blog post title. I’m doing the link to the blog post. I’m doing the photos that came from the blog post originally, then the graphics, and then the pin title and description I’ve already used, and then finally what month I pinned. I last pinned that post in so that I know. Okay, here’s a time to recirculate these pins that are evergreen that are still relevant and did well. Let’s try it again. Let’s see those graphics. What can I tweak in the words and the text overlay to make it a fresh pin? and then how can I tweak the title and description to try new keywords and to try ranking for things that might be more seasonally relevant, let’s say, in 2024, than it was in 2023 when I last posted it to Pinterest is there. And so Airtable is a great way to store that.

Jillian Leslie (00:42:24) – That sounds. Yes. Is there any have you tried this where you’ve taken, say, an old pin that you made a year ago and actually just repainted? Or do you think Pinterest is like, no, no, no, we know we’ve seen this before. It’s not worth it. It used to be typically it was all about just repin.

Kayla Watkins (00:42:42) – Repin I know. Yeah. No, typically because they’re so focused on the fresh pins that that they know that that’s already been up there and it’s already done what it’s going to do. So getting it out there in a fresh way helps it like, you know, okay, let’s recap guys. This gives it another shot. so no, I don’t typically do that. I think that maybe the caveat and the exception would be occasionally I throw out a new the same like let’s say outfit photo, the actual photo, the photography again. likely though I’ll try to like, crop it differently or make it a little bit different than I did the first time around, just so that it still remains fresh and gives like a full chance.

Kayla Watkins (00:43:18) – But the good thing is those pins that you already posted, maybe you’re not repainting them. They’re still doing the work for you. They’re still getting ranked. They’re still getting your traffic. I think a lot of us have, you know, sort of viral pins that are just at the top of those, those your Pinterest analytics, and they live there forever. I think that’s very common for a lot of people. almost like all of my clients have that, just these viral pins from, you know, maybe years ago, maybe just last year, but they kind of live on forever. And to me, the goal is, okay, let’s keep those living on. Let’s become experts in those those sort of categories if it’s still possible. But then let’s also add in new content and try to build that evergreen base so that when these viral like peaks happen, you still have a higher and higher base of traffic, which builds the sort of stability you can count on from Pinterest, from Pinterest traffic. So that’s that’s always my goal is like, can we build those evergreen posts that are not viral up higher and higher so that when you go back down from a viral pin, like let’s say it’s fall petite fashion or petite fashion, that’s only going to be, you know, do well for so long in the year.

Kayla Watkins (00:44:19) – And you wanted to come back down to where those denim fashion posts for petite fashion are still high enough, to where you’re still getting enough blog traffic that you need for your goals and the things that you’re trying to achieve.

Jillian Leslie (00:44:29) – One thing that I hear is I tried Pinterest and it didn’t work for me. How long do I need to be added? To really get reward, to see the results, you said you should be pinning 5 to 10. In like an optimal world, you should be pinning 5 to 10 pins a day and then you’re like, well, to start, maybe it’s three pins a day. Even three pins a day is a lot. So I’m going to be at this and at this and at this. And I find one of the things that my audience struggles with is I’ve got a limited amount of time. So how long do you recommend I stick in there with faith to have this payoff for me?

Kayla Watkins (00:45:16) – Sure. I think that is the most frustrating thing about Pinterest. I think it aligns with Google in that way where it’s super time consuming, but the payoff is, like I said, endless, and the chances of being found on Pinterest is endless.

Kayla Watkins (00:45:31) – It’s not. There’s no time limit. There’s no lifespan of a pinch of a pin the way that there is on Pinterest, where you got 24 hours. If it doesn’t get the engagement, you’re like, Instagram.

Jillian Leslie (00:45:39) – Instagram.

Kayla Watkins (00:45:40) – Sorry. Yes, Instagram has, I think, a 48 hour lifespan. So if you’re not getting anything in the 48 hours, it’s pretty much done for. Pinterest does not work like that. So I’m going to preface that to give Pinterest a little love, that you get this traffic for years to come. You might not even rank for a post that, that you created this year until the next season, the next season of it. So if you wrote an Easter post this year, you didn’t get any love. Next year, in January or February, you might get love on that same Easter pin. So it really is about sticking to it. I say my minimum even to like change anything in your strategy is three months. If you’re doing it yourself. I would say even six months is a great place to check and say, okay, hey, this is working for me.

Kayla Watkins (00:46:20) – This is not. And often, like most platforms and things that you start, it’s about trial and error. So the first go around you might find that okay, hey these graphics were not working. But I see this one graphic that actually is getting outbound clicks. How can I make more similar graphics from this three months down the road I see okay, this one graphic is doing well, the rest of them not getting any traffic. Okay, how can I make more of this style graphic to increase my chances of being found the next go around? So for three more months I’m going to try more of that top pin style. I’m going to try that for my next round of blog posts. So it’s really about trial and error. It’s really about sticking in it. I mean really 6 to 9 months if you’re doing it yourself and if you’re only doing like three pins a day is where I would say is one you’ll know and you’ll just know by. I think the important thing also to, to realize is, is blog traffic important to you? What are your goals with it? Because I think a lot of people lose focus on why they’re trying to get traffic to their blog and what it can actually do for them, and what creating, you know, this additional source of traffic actually does for them.

Kayla Watkins (00:47:21) – So make sure it’s hitting those goals as well. Like make sure you have a way to convert on those pages that are getting traffic from Pinterest. Make sure you have, you know, the things that you need. The main tools that both you and I like to preach, like email lists and things like that. Make sure you have those opportunities for that traffic, because otherwise it’s just traffic and you’re not doing anything with it. And it’s not really helpful in general. So you’re going to quit Pinterest because there’s no point and you’re not seeing any results really, anywhere else in your business.

Jillian Leslie (00:47:50) – As we wrap up. When you think about Pinterest, my hunch is you’re reading a lot about Pinterest, Pinterest trends, what they’re thinking about their own business. Because I know that over the years Pinterest has tried a bunch of stuff and they, for example, tried to be an e-commerce platform. They’ve tried to compete with Instagram and TikTok and all of this. Where do you see them changing, staying the same, doubling down.

Jillian Leslie (00:48:20) – What trends are you seeing?

Kayla Watkins (00:48:23) – So I think they are always going to focus, or they are always going to have the mindset of e-commerce, because e-commerce is going to spend the most money on advertising. E-commerce is going to, you know, be the ones keeping people on the platform for longer. They’re going to be giving those those big numbers. But I think it’s important to focus on not just where Pinterest is headed, but more what are the users still using the platform for? And I think the platform has remained very much the same. And the way that the actual users of Pinterest are using the platform, despite what changes they’ve tried to make. like the Pinterest TV or the idea pins or the things like that. Despite that, you’re still seeing the users go to it as a visual search engine. They are still going to plan to inspire to they do go to purchase as well. It’s just a little bit longer of a, sort of feed because they’re looking for value. And then once they find the value, they’re like, okay, you told me how to renovate my shower.

Kayla Watkins (00:49:18) – Now I want to buy the tile that you used. So it’s a little bit longer of a pipeline, but it’s still going for the same thing. They’re going to plan their weddings, they’re going to plan their meals. They’re going to plan their outfits. they’re going to get information and education. They’re going for a value content. And that’s where the bloggers can always step in, because they’re the ones creating the value content. And that’s always going to connect well to that user. So I think the users are still using it the same way. They’re going to go to Pinterest to find something that what they’re looking for. So they’re looking specifically, how am I wearing these barrel jeans that everybody’s posting about. Right. So they’re saying, you know how to wear barrel jeans. And then there’s a creator that’s creating content about specifically that. Here’s ten ways to wear barrel jeans or here’s, you know, ten affordable barrel jeans. So I think it’s always going to be a place where no matter where Pinterest tries to go, I always try to ground my clients.

Kayla Watkins (00:50:06) – And what are the users still using the platform for? Because it ultimately, Pinterest will have to come back to that because they want to keep the users on the platform, and that’s what you’ve seen them do. You know, they’ve played with things, but ultimately they came back to their sort of roots. and so I think that that’s really useful. And I also think, you know, what can you use it for as a business is also important. So if if you’re using Pinterest and you’re just saying, okay, let me try these different things, let me try Pinterest TV, let me try an idea pins. But they’re not getting you like, you know, idea pins didn’t link to your blog. So if they’re not getting you what you want, ultimately, then again, they’re not worth it for you to invest in, because you’re not going to make money from it or grow your community from it or anything sort of valuable for for your business. did I answer that or did I?

Jillian Leslie (00:50:50) – Totally.

Jillian Leslie (00:50:50) – Is there a place for Pinterest ads?

Kayla Watkins (00:50:54) – I think there is. I am like an organic sort of focus with my with my bloggers. But I think there is they’re pretty affordable. They are pretty easy to do, I think for Pinterest ads, likely, again, you’re going to see them boost your sort of viral peaks and then they’ll come back down to your evergreen content. So I think that’s kind of a great way to maybe boost things quickly. I think if you have a digital product or something small that you sell, that’s a great way to boost things. I think Pinterest users also, they don’t know you, right? They’re coming. They you’re not an influencer to them. It’s not an influencer space. It’s more they’re coming for the valuable content you create. So you want to make sure you’re focused on that and not focused on you know who you are and trying to sell your own personal self. That’s different. It’s a different platform. It’s not for that. It’s like, what? What can I teach you? What can I help you with? And then you’re you’re creating with them.

Kayla Watkins (00:51:48) – So I want to so I would always make sure whatever you’re promoting or creating an ad behind is serving the people versus like serving, you know, creating brand awareness for you. but I do think there’s places for ads as long as, again, you are getting wherever you’re getting this traffic to, you have a great way to monetize it. So you have some ROI on it. So if you’re monetizing, if you’re putting some ad money behind a digital product or post that heavily, describe the digital product or points you in the direction of the funnel of the digital product, then I think that’s a great way to to spend money on the platform or if it’s a really heavy affiliate post, let’s say your creator and this one has a lot of great affiliate links. That’s a great post to promote on Pinterest. so I think that’s where like the ad money should be spent, if you do spend ad money is on, you know, the valuable content that you’re maybe already seeing to Pinterest is loving there. Like go back to the denim idea.

Kayla Watkins (00:52:36) – They already think you’re a denim person, so putting additional ad money behind that is going to make that you know, your your your bang for your buck. Go even further. and then making sure on your site you have a way to capture that, maybe you’ve set up a freebie there, maybe you have a digital product there making sure those all correlate. So I think it’s really just that full funnel picture, that it’s it’s very easy, not very easy, but easy to grow organically. And that’s important. And you always have to have that. But if you want to boost it a little bit here and there, or if you have a goal that you’re trying to meet, ads are always a great way to to reach that as well.

Jillian Leslie (00:53:09) – Kayla, I feel like you have been such a wealth of knowledge and I, I think what’s so interesting is it’s about the basics and it’s about connecting the pieces. So it’s not just Pinterest, it’s okay. What are you doing with Pinterest? Thinking through the entire strategy, going back to the blog posts, updating the blog posts to make sure they’re optimized.

Jillian Leslie (00:53:32) – Make sure this is converting. If you send traffic to a page and nothing’s happening on that page because you’ve offered a freebie, but nobody really wants the freebie when they get there because it’s hard to sign up for who knows? Or it’s not working. You’ve got to be thinking about all of these different pieces. But I think you’ve been so good at kind of taking a step back from Pinterest and talk about how Pinterest is a piece to accelerate your entire business.

Kayla Watkins (00:54:03) – Yes, I think that’s totally it. Right. And I try to preach this as much as possible, because I think when Pinterest takes so long to grow, when, you know, there’s so many other platforms that people are getting immediate burst of income from, like, let’s say, Instagram or TikTok, right? You’re going to get a big brand deal. They’re going to pay you a lot for a video or a or an Instagram post. But what that doesn’t create is sort of stability and traffic to a site that you own, where you have future control, where you can, you know, gain those email subscribers, where you can, switch what you’re doing, where you can direct them, redirect them as your business changes.

Kayla Watkins (00:54:40) – I love that Pinterest points them back to your platform. And that’s why I’m always like harping on that, because there’s so many abilities, there’s so many opportunities to convert on your platform that are so valuable and and in the longevity of your brand and your business and keep people coming back. so it’s a great way to meet new people that go straight to your platform and that connects into your world for good. And I think that’s really important. And I think it under sort of underutilized, you know, way to focus on your blog. and so that’s why I really love it is how it fits into that big long term strategy. And it gives you stability in your business. but I think often like the, you know, the influencer sort of world, forgets about because they, they get those big spurts of cash from the, the brand deals. But how can we also create stability on the things that we own, the things that we sell, the community that we’re creating? how can you gain sort of ownership over that so that you don’t have to freak out if TikTok gets banned or if Instagram crashes, or, you know, you have this sort of stability and things to to fall back on that you own and that you can control.

Kayla Watkins (00:55:42) – And I love that Pinterest points you there. It’s not a platform you own, but it points you to a platform you own, and therefore you can convert and connect them into the world that you own.

Jillian Leslie (00:55:50) – I always say that Pinterest is really good boyfriend who you might if you’re smart, marry and Instagram and TikTok are kind of like fun. But they’re never going to commit.

Kayla Watkins (00:56:06) – Yeah, that’s very true. So true. And yeah, I was just I was just talking about this on threads too, with someone. It’s like. And you never know really what Instagram wants that you’re trying to like please them. Anyways, it’s very different. I’ve gone with that analogy too before. Sort of. I like that a lot. Yeah.

Jillian Leslie (00:56:21) – So just very briefly before we wrap up, what are you doing on threads and what are you finding useful?

Kayla Watkins (00:56:28) – Okay, so threads is like, I don’t I don’t know how I stumbled into it. Obviously I started when, when they when they launched I got on there.

Kayla Watkins (00:56:37) – Then I just dropped off and, and then I came back recently and I just started all I’ve been doing is legitimately copying, pasting. I go to my Instagram analytics and I see what is the most saved Instagrams from the last two years, copying and pasting the text and translating in a way that, you know, makes sense for a small text on threads and sharing that. And I’ve gotten so much traction on just reusing content that I’ve already used on Instagram. I even like put up a people were asking for help, so I sent out my freebie link and that was downloaded very quickly. and then I sent out my newsletter link the other day. I have 52 subscribers in the last two weeks that I’ve joined my email list from threads I have.

Jillian Leslie (00:57:18) – So you’re you’re undoing it. You’re not resharing Instagram posts. You are literally taking the content in your post where you’ve written stuff and repurposing that on threads.

Kayla Watkins (00:57:33) – Exactly. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. And and then the other thing is they have such a great search tool.

Kayla Watkins (00:57:38) – So if you see anybody talking about Pinterest or blogging, in my case, I’ll step in and give my sort of $0.02. I’ve also found that polls work well there. So people, you know, are engaging with these polls that I’m creating about, you know, how they’re using Pinterest or what they’re seeing. so both of those, both engaging with people that are talking about Pinterest, I’m going right in and inserting my sort of opinion and value on that conversation. I’m allowing people to ask me questions, which they’re very engaging in comparison to what I receive on Instagram, which is, you know, mostly crickets. and I have way less followers on threads. I have, you know, about a 1500 right now on threads, but I had 802 weeks ago. Right. So it’s just growing at such a crazy pace, I know. And and it’s giving me I like that it’s giving me email subscribers. That is my most important metric that it’s giving me. So I can see that because I made a separate link and Flotus finally, and at least 52 people have come from threads to my email list, which I love.

Kayla Watkins (00:58:33) – so I’ve been really using it for for those things. I kind of, you know, I’ll, I’ll tweet out my email list. I have a, a trans PDF that goes out every week on my email list, that comes straight from Pinterest and the top things that are trending in different niches. So I kind of, tease that out on threads and say, here’s where you could get it. and that’s how it sort of got me all the subscribers. And I’m going to continue doing that and playing with it and seeing how it goes. But it’s been a fun tool that I can do. I like because it’s, you know, not as time consuming. I can do it when I’m with my three kids and just like sitting there, it’s just a little bit easier to navigate than having to create all the carousels and the videos that I need to do for Instagram, which is the other place I market pretty heavily.

Jillian Leslie (00:59:11) – Wow. Okay, Kayla, people want to reach out to you, learn about what you do, ask you a question, where should they go?

Kayla Watkins (00:59:20) – Sure, I’d love that.

Kayla Watkins (00:59:21) – my website is Kayla watkins.com, and then you can also find me at Pinterest for bloggers, which is the easiest thing to remember on Instagram or threads. And I would love to to chat with you guys there.

Jillian Leslie (00:59:32) – Well, I have just learned so much. I thought this was so helpful. And again, you you’ve kind of connected the dots and that is always what I’m talking about, is stepping back and making sure all the pieces connect to each other. So I just have to say thank you so much for coming on the show.

Kayla Watkins (00:59:52) – Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun.

Jillian Leslie (00:59:54) – I hope you guys like this episode for me. My biggest takeaway is that if you are approaching a platform like Pinterest, you need a strategy that is all encompassing. What I mean by that is you need to be in a very defined niche. Your content needs to represent that niche, solve problems for your audience, and your content needs to show the keywords that people are actually using to search for it.

Jillian Leslie (01:00:27) – And those keywords need to be in your blog posts, in your pins, in your descriptions. It’s like everything has to work together. I do think there is something very logical about Pinterest, which makes it feel different than Instagram, where it’s all about the dopamine hits and seeing how much you engage. It’s almost like going to Vegas, whereas I feel like Pinterest is slow and steady, but pays off in the long term as we all continue to look for new ways not only to drive traffic, but to diversify our income. Definitely think about MiloTreeCart as the easiest way you can start selling digital products. In fact, remember I said start with an e-book? Well, you need a place to sell it. You need a place to deliver it, and you need a free sales page created with AI in two minutes. Also, with MiloTreeCart, you could set up unlimited memberships, subscriptions, coaching, workshops, mini courses. It’s all there. Go to Milotree.com sign up. It’s a one time lifetime deal of 349.

Jillian Leslie (01:01:39) – We even have a three month payment plan and most people earn back that 349 after they have launched their first product. And there’s no risk because I offer a 30 day, no questions asked money back guarantee. And right now, until the end of April, I will give you a free one hour coaching call to make sure you are set up for success again, go to Milotree.com. If you have any questions, email me. I love hearing from you! If you’re liking this show, please rate it on iTunes because then I can continue to get great guests and I will see you here again next week.