For most bloggers, Pinterest is an absolute must. So I am here to give you a step-by-step guide on how to make pins. Pinterest is an amazing tool, that can direct thousands of views to your site if used correctly. It’s set up as a visual search engine, allowing you to grab your audience’s attention with a single image. This single image, in a sea of other pins, needs to be perfect. You only have a second, a spare glance, to capture your audience’s attention and entice them to click on your pin. Sounds stressful, right?
Not to worry! My pinning guide is here! This will teach everything from how to find your images and how to process them, to how to target your pins for your intended audience. Let’s learn how to make pins!
How to Make Pins
Free Photos: Pixabay
When making your own pins you should always strive to use your own pictures. What other way to show your viewers exactly what you can provide? For food blogs or décor blogs, providing your own photos is a must. But for lifestyle, blogging, and finance bloggers, things get a little more flexible.
Pixabay is my favorite stock photos website. You can get some beautiful, high quality photos from here, absolutely free. This place really has some gems in the rough, all you have to do is spend a few minutes taking a closer look at what this site has to offer. Here are some of the best photos I’ve found on Pixabay.
FREE Photos Processing: Canva
When making pins, vertical pins will perform better than horizontal ones. There’s actually a recommended photo size to make sure your pins do as well as possible. But wait! There are also other types of dimensions to remember.
Just kidding! I’m not here to bog you down with numbers and dimensions.
I’m here to tell you that Canva can actually remember all of these dimensions for you. My best friend actually introduced me to this site a couple of years ago when we were making flyers, and I soon discovered that this website worked perfectly for pins. It’s simple! You pick the template you want to use, in this case we choose the Pinterest template.
Then, we pick our favorite template. There’s tons of free templates to choose from. And if you don’t like the pre-made ones you see, you can make you own.
Last, we upload our stock photo, place it into the template, put in our title, play around with fonts and placements, and BOOM! Your beautiful pin is ready to be downloaded!
Tips about fonts
You’re going to hear me talk about fonts a lot in this post, and that’s because picking the right font can mean the difference between someone choosing your pin or moving on to another one. You want your photo to be readable even from far, long before someone has clicked on a close up of your pin. Here is some advice.
Avoid light colored fonts
Light colored fonts look beautiful and delicate close up, but when it’s in quick-view mode, whatever you write in a lighter font will be difficult to read.
Overlays
Sometimes you’re going to have photos that while beautiful, make it hard to read whatever words you put down on it. This is where overlays come on handy. You can have your photo, and you can have a title that pops and stands out! Canva provides overlays in all shapes and sizes. I love overlays so much, that I probably use them a little too much!
Use varying font types/styles
Canva gives you free access to tons of beautiful, varied fonts. Breaking up the words in your title by changing up the font is a great way to emphasize your keywords. Remember, use key words that your audience won’t be able to ignore! If you highlight these keywords with a different font, it will help them stand out and capture the attention of whoever comes across it. how to make pins
Like attracts like
Think about the types of readers you will attract to your blog
What would your readers be more attracted to? Minimalistic or bright, fresh pins that are eye catching?
A nice analogy is to think of your pins as fishing bait. You need to use the right bait to get the right fish. It works the same with readers. Think about what kind of pin will stop your intended reader in their tracks. Use bright colors, and more importantly, use the right words! Remember, an attractive pin will catch their eye, and your text is your elevator pitch. how to make pins
Branding
Branding is one of those things that comes down to details, but when it’s done right, it makes you look extremely professional and seasoned in the art of blogging. It gives you a sense of credibility, and it gives readers an idea of what you bring to the table. Making pins that look similar and cohesive will make your content stand out, and over time, your readers might even recognize your content!
Another thing to think about is watermarking your pins! I see a lot of people don’t do this, and I have to confess, even I have forgotten to do sometimes! But watermarking is INCREDIBLY important! If for any reason your pin loses the link that it attached to it, or is published by someone else without your consent, your watermark is the only thing that can tell readers where to find the original content! Also, it puts your blog’s name out there!
Good Titles
Time for the elevator pitch! Again, think about your target reader and make sure the words you use are irresistible to them. People are motivated by numbers, so use them when possible!
For example:
- If doing a financial post, talk about how much money can be made (or saved)!
- If talking about blog traffic, talk about exactly how much traffic or exposure you have achieved
- If talking about frugal things, tell people exactly how much something cost you.Add lots of keywords to your title and descriptions to give you the best exposure. And remember, always type a description for your pin. You’re wasting exposure when you don’t!
And that’s it for now! I personally had a blast writing this post and will probably get much more into depth, but I think this is a great starting point! I hope you guys enjoyed this guide on How to Make Pins.
