Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lesley Warren, who blogs at Chaotically Creative and sells her Pinterest inspired product at Fix A Bra.

About a year and a half ago I had never heard of blogging, then I found Pinterest. Pinterest was love at first sight for me. The endless amount of images were candy to my eyes. Even more exciting for me were the blogs that I was introduced to. The concept of learning and sharing through other sites was exciting and endlessly fun for me. After my discovery I decided  I needed a way to keep track of all my projects so I thought a blog would be a great place to start doing that. One thing lead to another and the blog Chaotically Creative grew. And boy, did it grow quickly. How you ask? Well because of Pinterest of course.

We had several great features by other big bloggers which sent our blog traffic and legitimized our writing. However, the number one reason why we have had such a highly trafficked blog so quickly was due to our referrals from Pinterest. Several of our most popular pins went “viral” like the one that inspired our product, the Fix A Bra.

Our post Underwire Bra Repair in 10 Seconds or Less was such a simple idea. One day I noticed an annoying situation, one I had felt many times before in the middle of my chest. I realized yet again my underwire was protruding through my bra. For several reasons, one including the fact that I have anxiety when shopping, prevented me from going out to buy another bra. So I tried a quick fix. I patched the area with moleskin adhesive foot pads.

I told my Mom how well it worked and she convinced me to write about it. Although I thought it would be crazy to put pictures of my bra online I took the risk and did it.  We had many reactions to this post, and here are just a few of them:

People Love the Pin

Readers from around the world have written us and commented on our blog about how much they love our “ moleskin bra fix.” They have called us geniuses, said things like “why didn’t I think of that?” and the ever popular “I wish I would have known about this 30 bras ago!”

People Think the Pin is the Worst Pin Ever

I realize when something gets a lot of positive attention it is usually followed by some negative attention as well. But hey, “all press is good press,” right.  Our Pin was featured in an article titled, When Pinterest Goes Wrong: The Best Of The Worst Pins

The irony of that feature was the fact that the author’s followers were not impressed that my pin was featured on that list and jumped to “its defense” and mine as well.

We’ve also had a person de-face the pin and re-pin it to Pinterest with a comment stating “if you’re bra is breaking you’re wearing the wrong size.” Along came comments on our blog ranging from readers accusing women of ruining their bras due to being lazy non-hand washers and more. To this date the debate continues.

People Re-write the Pin

After writing our posts I have seen it featured on many sites, re-written and re-photographed on numerous blogs. Recently the writers on WIKI-How have now taken our blog post and re-written it as well with mention of our product as well as giving us full credit.

People Re-PIN the PIN

So are you dying to know how many times this little post has been re-pinned? Before I let you in on that number I want to explain that this is not the only pin that we have had that has been pinned thousands of times. We’ve also been able to get a lot of re-pins without a lot of followers. We only have a little over 3,000 followers. The images to Underwire Bra Repair in 10 Seconds or Less have been re-pinned over 325,581 times. Now that’s a big number I know, but keep in mind that the post was written on July 5, 2012.

People Come See The PIN

It feels so awesome that so many people re-pin our images but does any of that matter if they don’t even come to our site? I guess it really wouldn’t. But they do. Mom and I started blogging February 14, 2012. Since then 1,188,252 unique visitors have come to our site. 707,579 have come directly from Pinterest, our number 1 source of referrals. The underwire bra post has had 1,266,831 unique page views since the day it was written.

What did we do with this information?

It took 3 days to realize we had a really good pin. Even more we realized we had written about something that no one else had ever written about. After one week I decided that if so many women were having these issues with their underwires then this was a problem that needed to be solved with more than just a DIY fix. I immediately searched the internet to insure that I was not impeding on someone else’s patent or rights. When I saw that there was no one out there with my exact product idea I started contacting manufacturers and our product the Fix A Bra was in the works. That’s two weeks after we wrote the post and analyzed the data gained from Pinterest.

What Makes An Amazing Pin

Write With Something New and Original…. 

Mom’s post Washing Windows Like A Pro has pinned 56,000 times and has been viewed over 188,000 times. What was so original about this post you ask? Well although some people knew the secrets the Pro window washers were using no one had ever written about it to our knowledge or much less had ever pinned it. It’s easy. If you write about something that no one has ever seen before then people will come and read about it. New and ORIGINAL content is key.

Write About Something Relatable….

Readers want to read about things that relate to their lives. Either something that they can do, something that relates to them directly, or something that solves problems and solves them easily. The more relatable the better. The easier the better. The shorter the better. Get my point? My 3 most successful pins have 3 things in common; short, easy and relatable to the masses.

Let Go of the Fear

When I presented my Bra Fix to my Mom I did not intend on showing it to anyone else. I was very determined to keep our blog free of anything but home decor and decorating. I also didn’t know how readers would feel about seeing images of a bra on our “family” friendly sight. Was this going to take our blog a whole new direction?

I mention in the Underwire Bra Post that I didn’t want to go shopping with my kids and that’s what spurred the DIY fix. However part of the reason I did not want to go shopping was because of the anxiety I deal with on a daily basis. I decide to come clean and write a post about coping with anxiety. This was something I had always wanted to share but feared doing so. That post has been Pinned 13,000. Thank goodness I let go of the fear and wrote this post.

Great Pictures 

Without a doubt an amazing pin needs great pictures. I truly feel that if we wouldn’t have taken the extra time and thought to take great pictures and create captions on those pictures they would not have pinned as well.

The Story Continues….

At this point I feel my story is still writing itself and I can’t wait to see what more happens with my “Pin” and my “Product”.  Just a few weeks ago I was at the park talking to some other Moms I had just met. We were all telling each other about our businesses. Ironically, as I spoke about how I developed my product from my pin, one mom began to laugh. I asked her what was so funny. She said, “I am wearing your bra fix right now as we speak.”  She then went on to explain that she actually had an underwire breakthrough and used the Pinterest search feature to find a fix.

As you can see there is no doubt that Pinterest has made my blog what it is today. It has been the main source for analyzing what my readers want and how they want that information delivered. I’m excited to see what else I can Pin and how followers will respond to that content in the future.

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My passion has always been to create and design. I must confess that if you let me in your home I will be rearranging your furniture…. in my head of course. I always look for ways to make Chaotic spaces feel more calm and organized. With a background in Early Childhood Development and Self Taught DIY and Design, finding ways to calm everyday chaos is what I do.

Chaotically Creative is exactly what we are! Our life is like yours, full of chaos and we attempt to do whatever we can to make it a little bit more calm through DIY, Decor, and Design.

Online store Bourbon & Boots worked with Pinterest marketing firm HelloSociety who paid tastemakers in their network to pin from the retailers site. The campaign cost around $95,000 for 2 campaigns. Tastemakers are pinners with 200,000 to 10 million followers. They selected those who fit the merchant’s profile and sent them to the site to pin products they liked.

Bourbon & Boots had a goal to increase their email list. Pins drove people to a page with an invitation to sign up for their email list. In what we find most interesting, they rewarded pinners for results, not just to pin. Tastemakers got paid a certain dollar amount per e-mail address they get for the retailer. The campaign generated positive ROI for the retailer.

Results:

• In 6 days they got 30,000 e-mail addresses.
• Site traffic from Pinterest increased 10-fold when these campaigns were running.
• Revenue from Pinterest went up 305% during the first campaign and 1,300% in the next campaign, compared to the days just prior running them.
• Revenue from Pinterest usually represents 10% of total sales for the retailer.
• The campaigns got a better ROI for them than paid search campaigns or targeted ads on Facebook.
• Shoppers who come to the site directly from Pinterest are 20% more valuable, “because they tend to spend more and buy more frequently.”

Note how the site itself is very visual and each product has buttons to pin. One of the more popular necklaces on the site got over 149k pins!

“Bourbon & Boots launched in Feb. 2012 and brought in around $500,000 in total sales last year.” In 2013 it has already hit $900,000. They have over 8,200 followers on Pinterest.

Had success with positive ROI on your Pinterest marketing campaign? We’d love to hear your story – please contact us or comment below.

When he first started pinning his profile was featured on the “Suggested People to Follow” when someone signed up for a new account (Pinterest no longer does this). We asked him to reveal how he built such a strong following, who has over 4 million followers on Pinterest.

How did you get started on Pinterest? 

I got started on Pinterest something like 2 years ago. I can’t exactly remember how I found it, but I believe I saw an ad for it, or something like that. I just created an account because it looked like fun!

Do you have a background in men’s fashion?

I don’t have any “formal background” in men’s fashion. That is to say that I have never been to school for fashion design or anything fashion related. I have worked in retail though. I guess that counts for something, right? I believe that everything is influenced by fashion, and fashion is influenced by everything. Music, film, even literature has influence in the fashion world! I have just always been a fan of culture, and fashion is culture!

Why did you choose Pinterest (being a man, when there weren’t many men on the site)?

To be honest I had no idea that Pinterest was considered a women’s site. I still don’t see it as one! Sorry girls! I just knew that it had huge potential, and I wanted to be part of it!

What came first, your blog or your Pinterest page?

I’d been blogging long before Pinterest although I was not using the Tumblr I use today. I was on Blogspot. It was called: Desert Island All Time Top 5. The name was taken from a line I stole from “High Fidelity,” a book I love by Nick Hornby. It’s a great book! I highly recommend it!

Where do you find inspiration for your boards?

I am inspired by everything around me; songs I hear, people I meet, books I read etc! I have some kind of ADD, and being that the world is full of amazing beautiful things it can be a little hard to process. So anyone out there that struggles with this too, will know what I mean! For me, Pinterest makes sense. It is an easy way for me to take all of my interests from all over the blogosphere and organize them in my own way that makes sense to my crazy brain!

Any tips on how people should lay out their boards visually?

I look at Pinterest as if it were a magazine. I organize it by subject matter, putting the things I find most interesting at the top and go down from there. I make sure that each board has the best picture as the cover of the board and that as the boards flow across the page that the pictures don’t clash one with another. Flow is important if your presenting it to a large audience or business.

Do you have any tips for naming your boards?

Naming your boards is a personal preference. I have been complimented on many occasions on my board names. Like in anything, just be creative!

What was your approach to getting over 4 million followers?

It’s hard to say one thing that helped me to get the number of followers that I have. Pinterest has changed so much since I first started. I have put some work in to make it happen. If I were to advise anyone in how to get followers I would say go look at blogs! Find what interests you and pin those things! Try to re-pin less and pin more from blogs! Pin a lot of content and frequently! There are others out there that like what you like, you just have to pin and they will find you!

What kind of opportunities have opened up for you because of Pinterest?

I would have to say that my life has changed quite a bit because of Pinterest! I have received many job offers and have done things I could only have dreamed of. I feel very blessed! I am currently working on a project with a men’s fashion line called Bonobos. Their shirts are amazing!

Do you have a strategy for when/how often you pin?

To be honest, I don’t really have a strategy for my own personal Pinterest. If I were to suggest a strategy, it would just be to pin often and pin lots! It also helps to try and focus the majority of your efforts on just a few boards.

What are the most important things a business should do to be successful on Pinterest?

If a business wants to be successful on Pinterest, here are a few suggestions:

1. Don’t find an intern and call it good! Hire someone to do your social media! I work with a company called Storylark that contracts with companies to do exactly that.
2. When you hire someone or choose someone, make sure they have an artistic eye, preferably a background in design.
3. Finally, have fun! Pinterest Shouldn’t be a drag. Allow yourself to enjoy what you are doing.

Thank you for your insight Joseph!

If you have any questions for Joseph, please them in the comments below.

This week we’ll track pins from some of these influencers with PinAlerts to see which gets the most pins from their website – we’ll update this post with the information soon.

Last Tuesday I spoke at Connective Circle. I had an amazing time presenting to 80+ bloggers about how to effectively do Pinterest market. I actually wished we had recorded it, because the dialogue and questions of those attending, I felt, were better then the actual presentation!

However, there were several requests for my presentation, so I have posted it below. For those who didn’t attend the presentation you may need some clarification on this presentation. Mainly because I am the type of presenter who usually just shows an image and then builds a story around the image through my words. To overcome this issue you are  welcome to leave comments below and I will provide further clarification.

Here is the link on Prezi if you are unable to see the below flash display. ~Paul

• PIO #1: This was worded incorrectly on the last infographic. Uploading actually hurts your chances of going viral. Pinning from the web is what we meant.
• PIO #2: This doesn’t matter since Pinterest changes your image name when added to Pinterest. What does matter is the img title, since that is what is pulled as the pin description when someone pins from the web.
• PIO #7: We should talk about how Pinterest does not allow advertisements (even though people do get away with it — the for sale Cadillac pin I share in my presentations).
• PIO Bonus Tip #1: You can also pin Vimeo now.
• PIO Bonus Tip #2: This has changed you can pin as small as 85×85
• Pinterest Referall Traffic section could be updated.

Even though some of the changes didn’t make it into the update I still endorse Matt’s new design. Below is a small portion of the infographic, and for your viewing pleasure here’s the link t0 the full PIO infographic! Thanks agian Matt!