There’s been lots of coverage of Pinterest’s use of affiliate links on user’s pins, with reaction veering from outrage to shoulder shrugs. But regular users can also use affiliate links, to earn commission on products they recommend.
Affiliate links work like this: You sign up for a service such as Amazon.com Associates or Skimlinks, which is reportedly what Pinterest is using. When you include a link to the product you’ve mention, you use an affiliate link and if somebody buys as a result, you get a small commission.
As Forbes says in their article “Move in now to cash in on your own pins“:
Any user can go in today and make their own affiliate move on Pinterest,” Keath says. “If you want to go in and find awesome products and get that kick-back, by all means go ahead.” For the time being, then, disgruntled Pinterest users can look to turn their own profit with an Amazon affiliate partnership and some minor link-changing of their own.
Advocates say it’s a great way to earn a little from your carefully considered recommendations. Detractors say it can turn good-old natural content into a big sell.
We say, if people love your great taste and want to buy it for themselves, it makes sense you might get a little commission on that, especially since it doesn’t add to the overall cost. Recommendations via social networks are becoming more important and influential, whether they are about what to read, how to dress or what to buy.
Do you use affiliate links or are you considering us? Do you buy things recommended by other bloggers or people on your social networks like Pinterest? Tell us about your experience.
Follow BritMums on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/britmums and pin to our boards!
You can also follow BritMums co-founder Jennifer at www.pinterest.com/jphowze, Michelle at www.pinterest.com/michelloui and Karin on www.pinterest.com/karinjoyce.
I’m intrigued by this. I have to admit that I have pinned a couple of amazon affiliate links after the brainwave to try it (I hadn’t about using affiliate links on Pinterest before then!)… and thought I’d test it out!
I have earned anything at all from them, but they have been clicked… so I guess you have to really think about your pins if you want to earn from them.
I haven’t affiliate linked since, and probably won’t… I’m more interested in the recipes and craft ideas to really think about anything else!
But… the big question is… do you, and should you, disclose these affiliate links, and if so, then how?
Which just goes to show you show proof read before you hit the submit button!
What it should have said was that I hadn’t *heard* about affiliate linking on Pinterest… and that I *haven’t* earns from the couple of affiliate links I’ve pinned!!
Hope that makes sense now!
I’m not sure if i missed something in this post but you failed to mention how to earn money from your pinterest pins.
Q. If they’re using their own affilaite – skim links – and i add a skimlink, which overrides the other?
Claire, good question. The coverage I’ve seen doesn’t answer this – it would be one for the affiliate link provider. I assume that as a user if you add an affiliate link that would override anything Pinterest might have in place, but that’s just an educated guess.
And as Rebecca says here, affiliate links may not lead to an avalanche of cash. That said, we do have friends who say they make a nice little sum from their affiliate links. If you’re willing to spend the time and energy investigating, it might make sense for you.
I think it would be the other way round…. the hosting site would have it installed so would convert all links to their skim links.
I already use Skimlinks on a couple of my blogs, so will ask the support guys…
Let us know what you find out.
I also don’t understand – does this mean that mean just pinning things I like can earn me money? And if so how do I go about it?
Hi Pinkoddy, you sign up for an affiliate link programme like Amazon Associates or Skimlink or the like. Then you get special links that can be traced back to your account, so that when people buy from your links, you get the credit. The different affiliate link programmes have guides on how to use them.
This may help you: http://bad-fiction.com/2012/02/pinterest-money-making-stuff/