How One Blogger Used Pinterest Group Boards to Build a Blogging Empire.

Today’s post is adapted from a podcast I did with the LEGENDARY blogger Rosemarie Groner. Though this interview was recorded last year–her Pinterest tips (especially those related to Pinterest group boards) still VERY much apply! Enjoy 🙂

You know those people you hear about who built a six-figure A MONTH blog within a few short years?

That’s Rosemarie.

Did she have prior experience or a huge blogging team? Did she pour money into Facebook ads?

Nope.

She used Pinterest (and quite well, obviously).

4 key takeaways from my interview with Rosemarie from the Busy Budgeter Blog

Let’s dig in 🙂

1 – Pinterest group boards are STILL incredibly valuable, and here’s a strategy for getting on them

First, take note:

• In order to get on ONE really, really great group board that drives traffic, you’ll need to join…
• TEN group boards total. They’re not all winners, and to get accepted to TEN boards, you’ll need to apply to…
• FIFTY total group boards.

That’s how it works.

You apply to 50, get accepted to 10-30 (hopefully more like 30. DO follow-up once or twice after a week or so!), which might result in ONE really good board.

It stinks, but that’s how it works.

The above is a Pinterest group board spreadsheet tracker, which you can use to keep track of group boards you want to apply to, the board owner’s contact info, etc. You can make a copy of this exact tracker here. Totally free, no opt-in required.

Rosemarie kept highlighting the incredible value these group boards are for driving traffic…so it’s definitely worth staying a bit organized in your group board application process 🙂

1.5 – An outreach strategy for the group board application process

Here’s a straight-forward plan:

1. Identify other large pinners and bloggers in your niche (preferably those who you KNOW drive a lot of traffic via Pinterest.
2. Go to their Pinterest profiles, find their group boards, and open each group board in a new tab
3. Add the board details to your tracker!
4. Send the first outreach email, and note the date (so you know when to follow up later)
5. Follow-up if necessary 🙂

If you’d like to grab the outreach templates I’ve used (there’s also an email template for group boards that AREN’T open for new contributors), they’re in the free Pinterest course.

Grab those below.

2 – UPDATED Pin sizes [important]

As of March 2018, Pinterest has switched around how they display Pin sizes on the smart feed.

735x1150ish USED to be the go-to, but many bloggers preferred a taller image. Something like 735×1300 or so. Now those images are getting cut off.

This might change in the future, but many bloggers have switched to 600×1250 pixels.

Give that a try.

3 – Only recycle and automate your BEST POSTS to the BEST BOARDS

Rosemarie uses Tailwind. (that link gets your first month free).

Sadly, if you REALLY want to crush your Pinterest game, you need to be checking analytics every few weeks or so!

2 reasons:

1. Put more emphasis on well-performing boards, and stop underperforming boards.
2. Stop pinning content that doesn’t perform.

This is hopefully going to influence Pinterest algorithms in your favor, showing your pins and repins to more folks.

Yes, this takes time and that’s frustrating.

Yes, it’ll also make a HUGE difference once you’ve built up enough well-performing content to cycle through.

#traffic!

4 – Don’t expect the results promised you…if you don’t follow the instructions given.

We’re bloggers and entrepreneurs, and we like to learn how to do things:

• We read books on self-development…w/ instructions
• We take courses on affiliate marketing…w/ instructions
• We read super helpful blog posts…w/ instructions

Then what do we do?

Not follow the instructions.

Or we follow the instructions right up until it gets difficult or frustrating. Don’t lie. We’ve all been there.

If you truly want to get the results/success promised you by some online course, ebook, etc…you need to follow the instructions laid out for you.

Hint: we often quit following instructions when it becomes not fun. Use this to your advantage. When a particular course, method, strategy, becomes tedious, not-fun, and difficult…that’s a sign other people will likely quit there. But not you. Do the work laid out in front of you.

Only then can you complain when you don’t get the results you seek.

5 – Rosemarie’s blog income report you MUST check out.

Rosemarie no longer publishes her own income reports on BusyBudgeter.com.

Why? It doesn’t make sense for her audience anymore. Instead, she is publishing other people’s income reports in their place…and provides helpful feedback and advice.

And her feedback on these reports is absolutely incredible.

Click here to see the first in this new style of Blog Income Reports

Seriously, you need to check it out. It’s a super short read, and her feedback is gold.

6 – How to craft the perfect pitch email to influencers

First, I have a more-useful-than-the-internet guest post covering this topic…including walk-throughs, outreach templates, etc., on Eden Fried’s site. (It’ll be available mid-August, so sign up for her newsletter or join her FB community to be notified).

At some point, we need contact with influencers (aka. people in our niche with more success than us, reach, authority, etc).

• “hey Tim Ferriss! Will tweet my latest blog post?”
• “hey John Lee Dumas! Will you feature my travel blog on your podcast?”
• “hey Seth Godin! Will you sponsor my latest ebook?”

We’ve all been there. Some of us more than others.

Rosemarie is one of these influencers (she actually has an assistant to screen emails for her. I’m jealous), and she gave some great rules for cold-emailing these individuals.

1 – They don’t actually care about you.

I don’t mean they’re horrible, unfriendly people…they just don’t know you, and they have their own priorities! (We all do, I hope). Asking them for unsolicited favors that offer them nothing in return is…well, rude. You shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t respond to your email.

You need to ask yourself…

2 – What’s in it for them?

Whatever you’re pitching…if there’s nothing in it for them, you’re likely to be ignored or denied.

Here are some things online influencers tend to enjoy getting in return for helping you out:

• Exposure they might not otherwise have
• Site traffic and email subscribers (it’d have to be substantial)
• A good chance to promote a product/service/book launch
• The chance to help a hungry, hard-working, up-and-coming blogger (that’d be you).

Why should they respond to my email? What’s in it for them if they accept my pitch? Find this answer.

However, it doesn’t matter what you offer them if it violates the next rule…

3 – Do not waste their time

Top entrepreneurs, bloggers, rockstars, celebrities, etc. do not care about you buying them coffee. They don’t care about the $5.

They care about their time.

Each second they spend reading your email OR doing something for you is a second away from their business and lives.

Do not waste their time. In the pitch email, cut out unnecessary words (like “that”), then cut the email in half. Go straight to the point, and drop as many formalities as possible.

Also, what are you pitching them? Will it eat up a bunch of their time? If so, they’re not likely to accept your offer.

If I had emailed Neil Patel with “hey Neil! I’d love to write you a guest post on Quicksprout. Want me to send you a rough draft and we can keep emailing back and forth for 3 weeks perfecting it?”

**Delete**

4 – Prove you’re legit

If there’s anything you can express in a 10-second email to prove you are worthy of their time…express it.

They want to see you have work ethic, previous success, or at least some measure of legitimacy.

Me? I namedrop my former podcast guests, which seems to impress people (guess they don’t know how lazy I really am).

• Have a small business with 3 employees? Say that.
• Get more than 35k pageviews a month? Say that.
• Got a 15k email list? Say that.
• Don’t have a dadgum thing? Say you’re an absolute hustler, and are going to work your tail off to get them [XYZ]. Then follow-through.

You must build trust quickly when reaching out to influencers. They need to know you’re worthy of their time and energy!

Comment below if you enjoyed (or hated) the episode!

What was your biggest takeaway from Rosemarie?

Show Notes

• Busy Budgeter – Rosemarie’s site!
• Making Sense of Cents – Michelle’s blog ($250k a MONTH. Check out my podcast interview with her here)
• Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – Michelle’s course on…you guessed it…affiliate marketing!
• Tailwind – Pinterest automation tool that just about evvvveryone uses.
• Rosemarie’s new take on blog monthly income reports (her comments are GOLD)
• Rosemarie’s post on Pinterest traffic (pro! Psst. I’ve organized all the advice she and others have given me in a nice little email course. See below…)