Why Pinterest is Bad for Bloggers

Last week, I wrote an article about why Pinterest is so great. This week's article defines why Pinterest can, at times, be not so good for bloggers and handmade sellers.

My Mind is Going (And so is your day...watch as it flies away)

It is so incredibly easy to just pin things, and pin things...and pin things. All Day. Before you know it, you have used up all that precious time you set aside out of a busy day to craft...pinning things. I have this running joke with my mom and my sister that when one of gets on Pinterest, our motto becomes "Pin ALL the things!!" And this is totally true, if you're not careful, your crafting can just turn into pinning, where you don't actually make anything at all. You might as well be watching videos on YouTube (well, not actually, because at least you're looking at crafty things). 

Overexposure

All those pins of cute tutorials and DIYs that you're pinning? Millions of people are doing the same thing...with your photos, your tutorials, and you posts. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, if you're primary goal as a blogger is have as many people see and read and appreciate your work as possible, then it's great. If you're a seller of handmade good or patterns...this may not be best for your business. Instead of selling items, your images are being distributed to millions of DIYers who are seeing your handiwork and thinking, "Hey I could make that!"

Your Pins get Spread but Your Views Don't Go Up

Here's another problem: your pins and images are getting spread around and posted in people's "I want to do this someday" boards but you aren't getting the feedback. The reason: The link on the photo doesn't come back to your blog. It's been distorted in some internet-black hole kind of thing that caused the link to be broken or sent viewers to another website.

 Make Sure You're Getting Something out of Your Pins. 

That's the moral of this story. Do your best to pin your tutorials and projects with links to that particular project, not just to your blog homepage. Treat other's pins the same way. If you share them on your blog, link back to their original post, not just to Pinterest. That's how links get sucked into the internet black hole. 

To read my previous article on why Pinterest is so awesome, click here. Want to know what Pinterest is and how it works? Read below. 

Here's a quick run-down if you've never used Pinterest before:

Pinterest is basically a website full of photos which link back to websites. You can collect these photos into groups (called "Boards") by "pinning them. It's essentially an online bulletin board (you remember, the one you had in eighth grade that was so cool? Yeah, that one). You can also directly post or log in through facebook. You can choose to "follow" people, so that the Pins they collect show up on your news feed when you log in to Pinterest. You can also create "group" boards where multiple people can pin things to the board you share, and you can also create "Secret" boards which only you can see (great for planning birthday surprises!).