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5 Secrets to Creating Viral Images on Pinterest

Penned by Maureen Wilson

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Maureen Wilson, owner of MadeByMarzipan.com.

I’ve discovered a trick that’s tripled my website traffic and doubled my ad revenue in a single month. Nope, I’m not pitching an infomercial. I’m pitching infographics. Or rather, “Pinfographics” (information made into a graphic and optimized for Pinterest).

You’re familiar with infographics, appealing graphic designs that are created to share information. “Pinfographics” follow many of the same design principles, but are created with a different intent: to direct traffic to the host site, thereby increasing revenue through ad clicks and sales.

Here are some key tips to keep in mind when creating and posting Pinfographics:

 

 

1) Make Your Pinfographic Tall

Pinterest is all about real estate. The biggest and boldest images draw the most attention– and the most repins. On a page full of squat boxes, you want a skyscraper!  Make your Pinfographic long enough to take up most of the screen, but not so long that users have to scroll to see the entire pin.

 

2) Make Your Pinfographic Easy to Read

Source: nsmbl.nl via Kenzie on Pinterest

Have you ever tried to drive by a billboard and not read it? While your eyes may skim over an unappealing photograph, your brain instinctively reads and processes simple text.  Select a large, easy-to-read font, and make sure the message is clear and concise, like on this DIY Wrap Skirt pin.

 

3) Brand your Pinfographic

Source: bing.com via Diana on Pinterest

You made it, claim it! Put your logo or brand name on every Pinfographic. This will familiarize pinners with your brand.  As they consistently see quality posts from you, they will begin to trust your content. Branding your graphic also ensures that pinners can find you. Occasionally pinners will come across your photo on a search engine, and pin it directly from there. Too bad, no backlink!  That’s exactly what happened with this swimsuit graphic, posted from Bing. Luckily, the brand name is clearly visible, so it’s still possible for users to find the product.

 

4) Make Them Want More (and click to get it)

You’ve seen the “Pin Tips:” Hull a strawberry with a straw, how to wind your earphone cord.  But have you ever clicked on one of these tips to visit the original site? There’s really no point: they’ve already given you all the information you need. Draw them in with your pinfographic, but make them visit your site for details.

This post, for example, gives you the basics: pallets + cushions = couch. But you can see from the comments that it leaves people wanting more information: is it attached to the wall or just stacked? Where can they find pallets like this? Is there a tutorial for the cushions? Leave pinners wanting more, and they’ll come to your site to find it.

 

5) Case Study: Do Pinfographics Really Work?

Before:
Here’s an example from my own website: the original pin for this tutorial was just a photograph. At a glance, it’s unclear what the subject of the pin is.  The chair? The baby? Something the baby is wearing?

 

After:
When I changed this to a Pinfographic format, it hit Pinterest’s “Popular” page and received thousands of pins & repins.

 

I now add a Pinfographic to every project post I write, and it’s proven very successful.  So try making a Pinfographic for your site! It’s the best free advertising you’ll f

Maureen Wilson is the creator and owner of MadeByMarzipan.com, a sewing and crafting tutorial site.

*Title Pinfographic created by Viral Blog.

What about other graphics? Mashable has a list of the top 15 graphics on Pinterest we think you’ll like.

  • http://pinnablebusiness.com Janet

    Bravo Maureen! Thank you for the insightful tips. Now to tweet and pin this!
    -Janet
    @Newspapergrl

  • http://www.seo.com Greg Shuey

    This is a really awesome concept as infographics have never really worked well for us on Pinterest. I love the concept and will be testing it out soon!

    Thx so much!

    • http://pinnablebusiness.com Paul

      Greg- Let us know if you want to guest blog about your results. Best of luck!

  • https://facebook.com/NormFlowers2 Norm Flowers

    Have been a Pinterest addict since before it was popular :-) Naturally my first reaction to this was to hit my “Pin It” on my browser only to get my pet peeve notice “Sorry can’t find image large enough to pin.” This is a major mistake people make when creating content on websites, blogs etc. Hopefully this very article will help many remember and correct that when making their Pinographics for their other locations. I would pin a lot of stuff from others except “no pinable pics” so I pass on by and pin my own or someone elses pinable tips etc. Pinterest.com/NormFlowers

  • https://pinterest.com/mathaeus/ Mateusz ★

    Infographics are really in vogue on Pinterest. Whenever I browse piners profiles I usually find boards dedicated to them. I’d say 60% of people have them. It creates many chances to get repined when posting a good infographic, but on the other hand the competition is large. And it will probably grow even larger when business will seriously start using Pinterest.

  • http://stagingandredesign.com Melissa Marro

    This was great! Thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree completely on the point of not putting all of the information in the infographic or people won’t find the point in coming to visit you. You need a good balance there.

  • Ivo Madaleno

    What tool or software do you use to make the pinfographics?

  • http://www.madebymarzipan.com Maureen

    Good question, Ivo. The Pinfographic templates are made in Adobe Illustrator. But then I use Photoshop to edit the content within the graphic… simply because I’m more familiar with Photoshop and can do it there faster.

  • http://www.saferforyourhome.com Jim Jenks

    Our target demographic is pinning more and more everyday, and we have yet to utilize it. These are great tips. Love #5. A good blogger can use his own examples and not just those of others. Good work.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Nicole Nicole

    I’m going to play devil’s advocate here and admit that I don’t care for info graphics on Pinterest. I find them obtrusive and annoying because of their size.

  • http://pinterest.com/barbrosenzweig/ Barbara

    If I do not know how to use Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, is there another way of creating this? I have Picasa and ZoomBrowser (from my Canon camera).

  • http://pinnablebusiness.com Paul

    @Barbara: I recommend using PicMonkey.com. Great tool and will make things a lot easier for you.

  • http://www.petchatnyc.com marilyn

    Hi. What is the size (pixels or inches ) of tall pins and what is best size for smaller pictures. thanks

  • http://www.petchatnyc.com marilyn

    Is there anywhere to get free pinterest pic templates.

  • http://twitter.com/PaulWilson Paul Wilson

    @google-5a1ecfe246a768a2ee63a57efbfe891b:disqus the images recently broke. I will see what we can do to fix them. Thanks for pointing them out.