Blogging

How I Managed to Gain 4.8k Pinterest Followers With Little Effort

*Updated in 2022*

I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about Pinterest eh? It’s a powerful visual search engine that can help grow your traffic and email list.

How I Managed to Gain 4.8k Pinterest Followers With Little Effort (With a New Blog)

Well, when I started this new blog, I knew one of the quickest ways to bring traffic to my blog was to start pinning.

But, I had no idea that I would get so many followers too. Every month since starting to grow this blog I’ve been steadily gaining on average 500-800 new subscribers each month.

>>If you’re interested in starting your own blog, check out my easy step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog in 10 minutes!<<

And what’s even more cray-cray is that I really didn’t do anything to get those followers.

Wha-what?

Okay.

I don’t mean I didn’t do ANYTHING, but what I did didn’t take much effort. I’m a busy mompreneur here.

I don’t have time to grow my social media followers. Heck, I don’t have time to cut my hair! Ouch! That hurt saying that.

If I can find a way to supercharge my productivity and use my time better, I’ll do it.

And I know there are other mamas and bloggers out there that just don’t have the time to spend hours trying to grow their Pinterest followers.

In my short time using a Pinterest strategy, I’ve analyzed six things that I know have helped me generate followers.

But, before I get into that, let me show you how I got form point A to point B.

My Pinterest Follower Progression

When I decided to grow this new blog I decided to blog about my growth too. This included my Pinterest marketing progression.

When I started I only had around 600 followers.

pinterest_followers

My Pinterest profile was for my other blog about freelance writing. I decided that instead of signing up to a new Pinterest account, I’ll just share my current one.

My profile wasn’t used much since I started freelance writing. I had a couple of boards about freelance writing and the rest were hobby type boards. So it was like a fresh start.

Within two months of actively being on Pinterest, I had over 1k followers. And by my third month, I almost gained another 1k followers.

And you want to know something?

I wasn’t following many people. In fact, I stopped following people – unless they were my blogger friend – and I still gained more followers.

Six months later, I had 4.8k followers.

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I did all of this and didn’t spend much time doing it.

Update: As of February 2022, I have 58k followers from following this strategy!

 

If you’re struggling to gain Pinterest followers or playing the, “if you follow me, I’ll follow you” game and unfollow those that don’t follow you, here are the six things I did to help me grow my followers.

1. Join Pinterest Groups

In light of all the new Pinterest updates that’s been going around, are group boards still worth it?

Yes and no.

For brand new bloggers group boards are the way to go.

What’s great about them is that your pins can reach thousands or millions more pinners than they could if they were on your own boards. And this helps establish your profile if you’re a new pinner.

I belong to over 60 group boards and when I first started promoting my new blog, I used them frequently. From mom groups to growing your blog groups to social media groups and to freelance groups, if it’s related to being a mom blogger I’m in it.

In 2022, I started a new niche site.

For this niche site I’m NOT using group boards and let me tell you – it’s taking longer to grow my followers!

But, that’s okay. There are other ways to grow my Pinterest followers (that I list here).

2. Start Using Tailwind

Tailwind is truly my BFF. Without her, I’d be a wreck. Seriously 🙂

But please understand, these are my personal results.

Tailwind also publishes the Typical Results of Tailwind for Pinterest Members every year, so you can see exactly what the average growth rate looks like for their members.

Tailwind is a Pinterest automation schedule – say that 3x fast.

It lets you schedule any pin you want – from a blog post, on Pinterest or within Tailwind – to any Pinterest board you have.

It even lets you know the optimal time to schedule your pins and you know what that means? All the hard stuff is taken care of.

With Tailwind, each time your pin is sent out, it’s when your audience is on Pinterest. One thing I like about Tailwind is their board lists.

Like I mentioned, I have over 60 boards and before I knew about board lists, whenever I scheduled my pins, I had to manually put each board in for the queue. Can I say time waster?

Well, the board list is a template.

So you make a list of all the relevant boards you want your pins to go to.

Since I have two blogs, I have my Elna Cain blog list for freelancers and working from home and I have my Twins Mommy list for blogging, making money, and moms (some boards overlap).

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I could also make a list for social media posts or just for twins or for blogging tips.

It’s up to you how you categorize your lists.

Once you make a template, when it’s time to schedule your pins – I schedule mine on Pinterest – I just have to click one time to schedule hundreds of times.

If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is mamas!

board-list

If you’re interested in using Tailwind, you can schedule up to 100 pins absolutely free! There’s no time limit either! Just click on the image below to get started!

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Check out my YouTube video on how I use Tailwind to schedule my pins!

3. Have a Compelling Headline

I’ve been hearing from other bloggers that they’re active on Pinterest or they are scheduling their pins but they have a small conversion rate, i.e. no one is clicking through.

Now, why should you be concerned about click-through rates when all you want is more Pinterest followers?

Because no one’s going to follow you if you have poor content. While it’s also a great idea to have a visually appealing blog design, that’s not going to help you grow your social media followers.

Your content will.

And one of the first things a pinner is going to read is your headline. You have about two seconds for them to decide if that pin is worthy of their time.

I found that one of the best headlines to use on Pinterest are personal ones. Using “I” or “my” seem to generate more repins and click-throughs for me.

Your headline should also show a benefit for reading your post. Will your pin help them blog better? Earn more money? Save them time? Have the best chocolate chip cookies ever?

If you can show a benefit for the reader in your headline, they are more likely to click through to your post.

And if you have an engaging introduction that hooks them, they’ll remember your content and not only subscribe to your list, but also follow you on Pinterest.

A lot of my subscribers found me via Pinterest!

4. Create Awesome Images

I L-O-V-E looking at images. Don’t we all?

They’re so pretty and I’m always wanting to know what font you all are using!!

I love fonts, stock photos, and colors and Pinterest is a goldmine for awesome images. I’m not the BEST at images, but I try.

Here are some tips I picked up from blogging:

Optimal Pin Size

I use 600x900px for most of my pins and alternate pins. There’s a lot of talk on social media about what size your pin image should be.  While many have different sizes, they all agree that your pin image must be longer than it is wide.

A taller version I use is 600x1260px.

Easy to Read Font

Your font must be large enough to read.

I use two fonts on my images. A sans-serif font called Futura, which is included on Mac computers, but you can grab this paid font and others with a subscription to Typekit (for Windows too).

I also use Madina that I got at Creative Market. If you’re bootstrapping it all, you can definitely use Google fonts – they’re totally free.

Beautiful Images

It goes without saying that a picture is worth a thousand words…and repins!

There are a ton of places to grab free images that are beautiful!

I made a blog post on it here, but here are some more places:

5. Have an Optimized Bio

One of the first things I did with my profile was make sure my bio had keywords in my niche and told people what I do and where to find me..

When pinners go to my profile they know exactly who I am – I help moms and writers create a business and where to find me.

You can also state who you are – freelance writer, blogger, Pinterest manager etc. in your bio.

Make your bio value driven so that people have a reason to follow you.

Little Effort Overall

As you can see, I didn’t try to grow my followers on Pinterest. Tailwind helped me schedule my pins out to more people, which helped me gain more followers.

And what about now? After two years of using Pinterest and Tailwind?

I have over 48k followers and it grows every day.

The only effort for me is writing my blog posts and creating my images.

That’s it.

Want Help Planning Your Pinterest Pinning Strategy?

Don’t forget to grab my FREE Pin Promote Planner! You get a weekly planner, monthly planner and yearly planner! This is what helped me triple my traffic, list and followers in only three months of starting Twins Mommy!

Let me know in the comments what you plan on doing first to help you grow your Pinterest followers!

Leave a Reply

275 Comments

Hi, very helpful! Follow me on Pinterest!Reply to Megan
This was really helpful! Thank you for explaining this so well and in a quick way! Just starting to really focus on my blog so this really helps!Reply to Maria
Thank you for this.Please how can I join boards on PinterestReply to Margie
Hi Maria, You’re welcome! Get excited to grow your Pinterest followers!Reply to Elna
Great post, thanks for the amazing tips! I’m new to Pinterest and I was wondering if you have any advice on how to find group boards to post on, especially if I have very few followers?Reply to Jules
Hi Jules, You can use Pinterest and use keywords and then filter to boards and then from there you can find groups!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna! I’ve been following you for a while now and love your advice. I’ve been struggling and only growing super slowly (3 new followers per week) for a long time now. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong! I think my pinks look great, I have multiple personal and group boards, and am using tailwind. I schedule about 25-30 pins per day ahead of time (most of which are mine with about 1/4 being other content). I must be missing something. Could you give me some insight?Reply to Amber
Hi Amber, I don’t know how new your Pin profile is but this can be a factor. Give it at least 30 days or longer. As well, make sure you have a lot of personal Pin boards too – start with at least 25 personal boards in your blog’s niche. Create an SEO description for each board. Then start creating new fresh pins daily!Reply to Elna
Hey. Thank you for the tips, I have also watched your Tailwind video. I am just confused about something. Do you only schedule your own pins? And how often do you repin and reschedule your own pins ? I am still new to all this and it is still confusing for me. 🙂Reply to Nermiine
Hi! Yes, I normally schedule my own pins mostly. But I do save other people’s pins when I do manual pinning or pin from Tailwind tribes. I have no set schedule of how often I reschedule my pins!Reply to Elna
This is great advice! My monthly viewers have increased a lot since I got serious about pinning in January, but my followers aren’t really increasing. I’m still working on getting content on my blog.Reply to Nik
Hi Nik, That’s awesome! Pinterest is such a great platform for bloggers! Have fun pinning!Reply to Elna
How many pins do you think I should be pinning each day? I’ve heard around 30, but saw that you had many more slots per day!Reply to Robin
Hi Robin, It changes over time. Right now it’s around 30 actually!Reply to Elna
I’ve only used Pinterest to pin post and pictures that aren’t mine, so this concept of pinning my own material is super new to me. I am creating images to go with my blog post but my blog is brand new so I don’t have much content. Should I make images that are related to my niche but not directly tied to a blog post? If I pin mostly work that is not my own will it still help get attention to my blog?Reply to Asia
Hi Asia, Ideally you want to create pins for YOUR blog content, not other pieces of content!Reply to Elna
Elna, thank you very much for sharing all these awesome tips to help me grow my followers. I always have a doubt about the importance of the number of followers on Pinterest… I know that the “monthly viewers” are a good indicator that Pinterest is showing your content to a high number of users but what is really important is the number of people who are actually clicking on your pins and visiting your blog (conversion). But… can you advise about how important is to increase the number of followers on Pinterest? It really makes a difference? Thank you very much. VanessaReply to Vanessa
Hi Vanessa, Your followers are the gate to your content. I tell you more in my traffic course Ready Set Blog for Traffic, but essentially it’s your followers that dictate how successful your pins are. So having the right followers and a lot of them can push your pins out faster.Reply to Elna
Thank you for the quick reply!Reply to Vanessa
Followers are quality traffic , they are most likely to clicks on your post. if you are selling product then they are most likely to buy it.Reply to Surendra
What great technical ideas! Pinterest still confuses me, but you have definitely made it easier to understand. Thank you so much for the tips!Reply to Tiarra
Hi Tiarra! That’s great to hear. Yes trying to find ways to grow your followers on Pinterest can be a challenge. I hope these tactics work for you!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, Thanks for sharing your experience! Sounds easy, but i now it’s not so simple to get even least 10 followers! Cheers! MarinetteReply to Marinette
Great advice Elna! i’m trying to grow my Pinterest following now and these tips, especially having a better title!Reply to Teya
Elna, this is such an incredible post. I’ve found it so, so helpful as a new blogger starting out and trying to gain traffic. Your tips are detailed and thoughtful. I’ll definitely be reading more! PS: You have twins and are doing all this. You’re like superwoman!Reply to Ryan
Hi Ryan! You’re welcome! So glad you want to start Pinterest marketing for your blog. It really is a great way to gain blog traffic. Try using these tips to grow your authority and followers on Pinterest!Reply to Elna
Hello Elna, How are you and your family doing, I hope all is well. My name is Larry Ward Sr. I was searching through Pinterest for boards to follow. I came across your blogging post, I’m interested in being a blogger. I don’t have any experience how can I learn how to write good blogs. This is something I have been wanting to do for a very long time. Any advice you have to get me started on my journey would be appreciated. I love the details and sources that you provide. Thank you for all your help sincerely Larry Ward Sr.Reply to Larry
Hi Larry! Thanks so much for following me! Feel free to read the posts on this blog and sign up to my list. I do provide great tips for new bloggers!Reply to Elna
This was a great read with useful tips. II had to create a new Pinterest board for great blogs just because of this blog. Thank you.Reply to Nina
I found your blog while searching for techniques to grow my Pinterest followers and really, you have a detailed content. I’ll make sure I follow the tips and hopefully get something great. ThanksReply to Adewale
Great info and thank you for being so down-to-earth about your growth strategies. But oh geeze, how’d you take the plunge with a consistent pin theme? I scroll through those Canva templates and just can’t decide on one! It’s been weeks.Reply to Tiffany
Hey Tiffany! Ha! Yeah creating pins is fun for me! I just think of some new things and play around with it on my pins!Reply to Elna
hi Elna, I was already an ardent follower of your freelancing blog and now you have got me hooked onto this one too. Great work as usual and some really awesome tips for new bloggers like me. thanks a ton.Reply to Callie
Hey Callie! Aww thanks so much for following both my blogs! 🙂Reply to Elna
Hello Elna! Thank you so much for this post! I apologize if this has already been asked! My personal Pinterest account has been active for years and covers a multitude of things that I have liked over the years. Do you suggest I continue to use that account or should I create a separate account to be based around my blog?Reply to Katie
Hi Katie, I would use the personal account and switch to a business account. Having an aged Pinterest profile has some Pin juice to it so use it!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, this was great info. I’m just starting out using Pinterest for a new blog. I’ve taken a few Pinterest courses that cover the Pinterest side of things, but one thing that I’m a bit confused about is the best placement of the Pinterest image inside my blog post. Some blogs have a featured image at the top with a Pinterest image at the bottom, some just have a huge Pinterest image at the top…so I’m uncertain what is the best thing to do!Reply to Mary
Hey Mary! Thanks so much! As for your Pin image, it’s really personal preference. If you want to tailor your blog for pinners, having your pin graphic as the feature image would work! For one blog I place the pin image in the middle of the blog post and for another I have one on top and one at the bottom! So, it really is personal preference!Reply to Elna
Elna I see the benefit of Pinterest big time; just following a few boards popping up in my main stream connects me to rocking bloggers. I also see passive traffic flowing to your blog – and more followers – as top Pin worthy boards get top billing. Well done.Reply to Ryan
Thanks so much Elna, I have been blogging for a year and still struggle with Pinterest, your video helped me enormously. Just one question that’s bothering me… I have joined lots of groups that say ‘no more than three pins a day, no replicas’ etc. how do you schedule pins to boards in this situation? Thanks so much 🙂Reply to Liz
Hi Liz! Thanks so much! So glad you found tips for your Pinterest followers and Pinterest marketing strategy. As for those types of group boards, I wouldn’t worry too much. As a group owner of three group boards, I don’t police them too much so I would suspect many of bloggers do the same! Just make sure to hit shuffle if you schedule your pins that way with Tailwind!Reply to Elna
I just came across your blog, and I can’t wait to try this method! I will totally give you an update on how it goes. Thank you for this advice!Reply to Michele
Hey Michele! So awesome! I can’t wait to hear your success on Pinterest marketing and gaining more Pinterest followers!Reply to Elna
Elna, I followed your advice and my blog went from 12 daily viewers to 281 in one day!!! 99% of my traffic came from Pinterest. I’m so excited. I followed these steps and yes it is just that simple. I’m excited about the next step.Reply to Shatoria
Hi Shatoria! Congrats mama! Pinterest is every changing but just be consistent and publish fresh content using TW and you will grow your follower count and impressions! I just passed 20k followers on Pinterest!Reply to Elna
Hey Elna! This is a great article! I’m very new to blogging and the post s very encouraging! Thank you!Reply to Jenna
Hey Jenna! You’re welcome! So glad you found tips to grow your Pinterest followers!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, this is Leah from a Natural Endeavor.com! This post is very well done, and has some helpful advice that I applied to my own Pinterest site. Thank you!Reply to Leah
Hey Leah! That’s great to hear you are focussing your promotional efforts on Pinterest! It really is the best place to build your traffic!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, thanks for providing such great information on your website. I have signed up for your Pinterest group list. Just started my Pinterest account http://www.pinterest.com/givinggiftsguide/ about a month ago and I am now at over 20,000 Monthly Views. My question is what are Monthly Views and are they as important to have as followers? ThanksReply to Barb
Hey Barb! Looking good! As for monthly views it’s how many people see your pins on Pinterest!Reply to Elna
Hi, Love your post. I have been blogging for almost 2 years now and I am getting discourage because my traffic is an average of 30 views per day. I tried everything I can think of but it is not working. I am just starting to focus on pinterest. Hopefully it will get better. By the way, I would like to subscribe to your email list and get the Pin Promoter Planner but I have no idea on how to do it. I can’t seem to find the link. Hopefully you will be able to add me to your list. I just decided that I would need to focus on one social media for a while and I have chosen Pinterest becuase I heard so many things about getting many viewers thru this platform.Reply to Huayyu
Thanks for enrolling! Check spam folder if you can’t find the email with the link to the Pin Promote Planner! One thing to consider is to have a self-hosted blog. Google seems to be good to self hosted blogs as well as social media!Reply to Elna
When I stopped following people and just focused on pinning my follower rate increased significantly. I get anywhere from 1 to 10 new followers a day when before I was lucky to get a few a week. After the death of BB I focused on manually pinning so I could better learn Pinterest. We are going on vacation soon and I think I might need to join TW for fear that the traffic I took so long to build will die. I also hope that it will give me the boost I need to finally hit 25k sessions and join Mediavine. Thanks for the tips! I’ll be implementing them as well 🙂Reply to Monica
Hey Monica! There are so many Pinterest strategies and it all comes down to what works for you! Good luck using TW!Reply to Elna
Great info. Since I never used Pinterest before, as a newbie blogger it looks like a foreign language to me. However, your blog posts has been helping me, I’m sure I’ll get better. Thank you for sharing!Reply to Sheereen
Hi Sheereen, That’s great to hear! Pinterest is really great for bloggers in general!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna! Just bought your Ready Set Blog course and I am loving it! You mentioned in this post that your pin sizes are 600 x 900px with a tall pin at 600 x 1260px. You mention some other sizes in the course. Which is the most current sizes? Thanks!Reply to Jenn
Hey Jenn, Yeah, back in the day my pin sizes were larger but since Pinterest changed the sizes, my new size is 600×900 and 600×1260. I will be updating the traffic course this summer and fall!Reply to Elna
Lately I am stumbling on a lot of courses that talk about Pinterest as a great way to get free traffic, and I your article has filled in a lot of blanks on how to do it well and successfully. I am definitely going to start right now and follow some people and join groups. Thanks for sharing thisReply to Xihla
Hey! Thanks so much! Glad you found some tips to help you grow your Pinterest followers and traffic! Good luck!Reply to Elna
Great tips Elna, I was expecting something totally different. Thanks for sharing.Reply to Alvern
Hey Alvern, You’re welcome! Glad to surprise you about Pinterest followers!Reply to Elna
This information is awesome! I so appreciate you sharing all of this with us! I am still trying to build up my social media and I need to remember to keep joining group boards!Reply to Brooke
Hi Brooke! Thanks so much! Yes, growing your social media followers on Pinterest can be a challenge. For my other profiles it’s taking time to get to my first 1k followers! But, just keep being consistent!Reply to Elna
Awesome tips! I’ve used Pinterest personally forever, but am just “learning the ropes” when it comes to growing my business account. I can’t wait to start implementing these ideas, especially Tailwind. Thank you!!Reply to Julie
Hi Julie! Yes, Pinterest is a great tool to market your new blog! Glad you enjoyed this post! Good luck with growing your blog traffic with Pinterest!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna! These Pinterest tips are awesome. I’m also using Tailwind and I can say that it’s a pretty cool Pinterest pins scheduler, such a great help for me too.Reply to Dustin
Hey Dustin! Love your blog and writing style 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and thanks so much. Tailwind for Pinterest marketing is awesome! It has totally helped grow ALL my blogs 🙂Reply to Elna
Awesome post! I can’t stop reading your posts Elna, all of them are so great and helpful. I started blogging in March 2018 and using all your tips I gained so many readers and followers. Now it’s time to kick off Pinterest 🙂Reply to Gabi
Hey Gabi! Thanks so much!!! Congrats on your blog and yay! Kick Pinterest for you!!!Reply to Elna
I was using Boardbooster but have recently tried Tailwind and I prefer it. Both are great but Tailwind I find easier to use. I have to admit that I always went for Google search results but I am fast seeing that Pinterest is a much better strategy for building traffic. Great post! ValeriaReply to Valeria
I’m still trying to figure out Pinterest and this is super helpful! Thanks!Reply to Phoebe
Hi Phoebe! You’re welcome! Glad this helped!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, Great information. I am planning to start a blog …and for that grabbing the information as much as I can . This post is very useful and encouraging for new bloggers like me. Thank you!Reply to Snehal
That’s great to know! Good luck on starting your blog and getting on Pinterest!Reply to Elna
Thanks Elna for some great tips! This gives me hope. ☺Reply to HomewithSara
You’re welcome! You can do it. Just be consistent on Pinterest and Tailwind really has helped me. I put my new blog Smart Mom Ideas, on the Tailwind automation and my followers grow daily!Reply to Elna
This was so helpful! As a new blogger I’m trying to learn as much as I can. Thank you so much for thisReply to Vanessa
Hi Vanessa, You’re welcome! So happy you found some tips to help you increase your Pinterest followers!Reply to Elna
Amazing post! I follow your advice and try to increase more traffic! Hope it will work for me! Thanks.Reply to Simona
Hi Simona Good luck! I know you can do this!Reply to Elna
This question might seem confusing but I’m confused about repinning your own pins. Do you mean that you repin your original post pin or do you create new pins and post those over and over again? Thanks!Reply to Gabby
Hi Gabby! When you publish your post, you pin that post to Pinterest. Usually people pin that first pin from their blog to their own board. Then you go to THAT board and pin THAT pin. You don’t make a new pin or go back to your blog and pin it again. You want to establish repins, or shares, on that ONE pin. So repin that ONE pin over and over again and others will repin that pin for you!Reply to Elna
Thank you so much for these tips!! I just started a Pinterest page for my blog (https://happilyunboxing.wordpress.com/) and have only been able to get three followers (after spending hours trying to figure out how to get more! I am looking forward to implementing your tips into my Pinterest strategy. If anyone wants to do a follow for follow I would love to help your Pinterest page grow as well!! @HappilyUnboxing 🙂Reply to Kj
Hi! So glad you have tips to help you grow your Pinterest followers! It is a challenge but it takes time for sure! Good luck!Reply to Elna