Pinterest Ninja is an online course that teaches bloggers how to start using Pinterest to get blog traffic. I purchased this course at the end of December 2017, when I was desperately trying to bring traffic to my blog.
If you are not using Pinterest for business yet, I encourage you to look into it. I started using Pinterest because of this course, and I was shocked and amazed at how quickly it works for free, organic blog traffic.
This post was originally published on March 20, 2018 and has been updated to be current with new information. This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure is here.
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Pinterest? Really??
I always thought that Pinterest was kind of annoying. Whenever I did a Google search on my android or pc, Pinterest feeds would pop up.
And I never made the connection between Google search and Pinterest results.
Duh! I did not see the value of Pinterest…yet.
I watched countless webinars on increasing traffic, and they all talked about leveraging Pinterest, and I listened to them and looked at my Pinterest account and said whaaaa?? How can this be?
I had no clue what people were talking about. How can a scrapbooking and recipe site help me??
I wanted traffic so I was willing to give Pinterest a try
One thing I did notice is that courses that teach about leveraging Pinterest are pricey. Most of the ones that I saw were in the $197 range, or even much, much higher. I saw one for $497! Ugh.
To say I hesitated to spend the money on something I was not too sure of is an understatement.
I have zero problems with investing in my blog, and 200 bucks is not a lot of money for education. If it produces results.
However, I was still pretty skeptical that Pinterest would be worth it. I mean, it’s just another social media site right?
Enter Pinterest Ninja
Pinterest Ninja creator: Megan Johnson
Cost: $69 course only
Megan is also now offering a Pinterest Profile Audit as a package deal with the course. This comes in handy after you go through the course and have started making branded pins.
$89 for course and a Pinterest Profile Audit (Bundle #1). Included in the audit is:
- A personalized video going over your Pinterest profile, analytics and pins.
- Tips on what you can do to make them even better.
- How to read your own analytics to figure out the best plan of action for pin conversion.
- A PDF covering everything discussed in the video.
The turn around time for this is 1-3 business days.
*There is also a money back guarantee*
My Review Rating: 5/5. Worth the cost with excellent Return on Investment
Who is this course for?
Anyone who knows little to nothing about Pinterest, or those who need to improve their skills using Pinterest.
Also anyone who wants a ton of free traffic. Just sayin.
Megan, the creator of Pinterest Ninja, says that she spent over $500 on Pinterest courses
This is totally believable even if you don’t spend $497 for a Pinterest course.
Since I purchased this course, I have received other Pinterest course in bundles, like the Genius Bloggers Toolkit, and I have worked my way through several of them.
(Be sure to check out the bundle calendar to see when the next bloggers toolkit will be available if you want a ton of blogging resources for a tiny price).
My verdict? I am glad that I took Pinterest Ninja first. I got that $497 Pinterest course in a bundle and it is nowhere near as in depth as the Ninja course. Seriously.
How Long Will It Take To Complete?
The course is laid out in a logical manner, with each step leading into the next. First you set up your website, then set up your Pinterest for Business account, then you sort out your website and social media branding, etc.
The instructions are easy to understand and Megan clearly explains any jargon associated with Pinterest. I had no issues following the instructions and successfully completing the steps.
By the time you reach the end of the 13+ chapters, you should be seeing an increase in traffic and engagement at your blog, even if you are not using Pinterest daily yet. More about this below.
Depending on how much of the course you implement (there is help with branding your website, learning to create pins and graphics, joining groups), you can complete the course in a few days or a few weeks.
Because some of the concepts were new to me, I kept stopping the course to work through them. Then I would jump back into the course and move onward. It took me about six weeks to complete everything, but I think my website benefited from taking the time to do things right.
Is Pinterest Ninja Worth $69?
At the time I purchased the ebook/course it was one quarter the price of any other Pinterest course that I looked at.
I decided to pay that much smaller amount of money to see if there is any value to learning about Pinterest. #frugal
Pinterest Ninja exceeded my expectations! What I got was an e-book of roughly 120 pages, with 13 chapters and the bonus chapter with freebies and discounts!
There is a huge amount of value here.
As well there are links to tons more training, including videos, downloadable custom pin board covers, and the free workshop “Let Pinterest Grow Your Email List”. It is like Christmas morning…it just keeps on giving.
As well, you get lifetime free updates.
The course has been updated five times since my purchase, because of changes with Pinterest (Pinterest recently became a publicly traded company).
Related Post: How to use Pinterest for Business
Here is just a taste of what you get In Pinterest Ninja
- Setting up Pinterest for business or converting your personal account; learning how to use pins and pin boards.
- Video tutorials on confirming your website with Pinterest, enabling rich pins, and starting group boards, searching for trending keywords and much more!
- Branding your business, finding free stock images, creating pins with the new smart feed layout in mind (this information is gold!!), and how you convert re-pins into website clicks, and more!
- Understanding Pinterest SEO and how the Pinterest Algorithm works (aka “working the Pinterest system”).
- Social Media and how to use Facebook groups to promote your website; 100+ Facebook group boards you can join; 385 Pinterest group boards that you can join, sorted by niche (this is also gold!!)
- Ways to monetize your blog, 85 affiliates organized by blogging niche, how to promote affiliates without writing blog posts, and more!
- How to create your own profitable courses with Teachable!! This is actually pretty cool information.
As well, there are some freebies included from other bloggers, like some free stock photos and discounts to other programs. Nice!
If you want to see the entire list of goodies, click here
Even just setting up my business account upped my stats (they were quite sad at this point).
I do recommend creating a new business account IF your niche does not align with your personal account. It is just easier than moving your personal stuff to “secret boards”, and makes it easier to share relevant pins later.
Name your business account the same as your website (recommended).
Then keep your personal account in your name. If you want to sell your website later, buyers are happy to have an established Pinterest account to go with it.
I started following Megan’s directions, and then I got to Chapter Three “All about branding”, and I stopped. I kind of thought that I already had a “brand”, but Megan quickly showed me how to do it the right way.
Related Post: Branding With Canva (a free program for graphic design)
I could actually “pin” point (ha! see what I did there?) an increase of traffic after I did all of this, and it continued to climb in bits daily.
I had to stop again when I got to Chapter Eight “Using Pinterest to grow your email list”. So I took a basic email marketing course. Busy winter!
Related Post: How To Use MailerLite – A great free email service provider with tons of helpful tools for bloggers
Megan gives you all of the information that you will need to create pins that convert (this is KEY), as well as all the tips, tricks, and strategies that you will need to start improving your traffic stats right away.
My Results
Here is a screen shot from Jan 3rd/18 right after I started reading Megan’s book. I had done nothing at this point but go to Pinterest and change my account to a business account (hence the up arrows lol).
At this point I had only a couple of affiliate marketing friends on my Pinterest profile (Avg. daily viewers):
And here is a screen shot from March 20th, so basically 3 weeks later. I had my email newsletter set up, and I had updated most of my pins.
As well, I had joined some Pinterest group boards (thanks to that list of 385 that Megan gives you):
Check it out! You can see that my stats are vastly improved in the 3 weeks since I merged all of Megan’s teachings together! Honestly, it is exhilarating watching my traffic stats increase daily! (yes, I do check daily lol)
This immediately translated into website traffic.
None of my pins or blog posts had any decent calls-to-action, but I did get traffic.
When the scheduling tool Boardbooster was shut down and I had to learn how to use the Tailwind tool and I lost some pinning traction. I admit to letting my Pinterest languish in 2019, so I was stuck at 48K monthly viewers for longer than I wanted.
Now, I have 116K monthly viewers and almost 2K followers. I have upped my Pinterest game a lot since September 2019, when I really put myself into daily Pinterest.
Now, imagine what YOUR traffic will look like in a couple of months!
I could see the value of the program immediately, and I am sure that you see it as well.
Getting traffic from Pinterest is just the start of the sales funnel. I have had several pins go viral and bring me a ton of traffic overnight.
Traffic on Pinterest is converting to sales for me directly because of the steps that I have taken from implementing Pinterest Ninja.
In Pinterest, your pins last forever!
One of the very best reasons to use Pinterest is that your pins can be “rediscovered” at any time! A really old pin that is buried at the bottom of your Pinterest feed can suddenly go viral and bring you new traffic!
All it takes is for someone to go through your pin boards, pinning your content. They find a pin that you pinned last year, pin it into their board and it will be placed at the top. Boom, that pin is suddenly popular again.
You will NOT get results like that from Twitter or Facebook.
Tweets have a “shelf life” of about 15 minutes, and a post on Facebook lasts about 30 minutes before it disappears down the feed.
How to Climb the Feed
Pinterest will promote you more based on how often you are online using it. Pinning daily rewards you by moving your pins up the feed because clearly you like Pinterest and go there often.
Moving up the feed means that more people see your pins on their feed as they are scrolling and that gives your pin an opportunity to go viral, which can lead to blog followers as well.
Keep in mind that Pinterest has 250 million users, and any of them can re-pin your pins.
Yes, 250 MILLION. That is a lot of people who can find your pins and re-pin or save them.
A lot of high profile companies are starting to see the potential of Pinterest to drive traffic, and you should as well.
Companies like: Urban Barn, Home Depot, Aldo Shoes, Wayfair, Toyota, Estee Lauder, Bird’s Eye, Etsy and tons more.
Pinning once a day will help your analytics but not as much as pinning several times a day.
You do not have to use a pinning tool for this, especially in the beginning when you are learning a lot of new “Pinterest skills” or if you do not have many pins set up.
Either on your desktop, tab, or mobile, scroll through your feed and re-pin a pin or two to each of your boards to keep the Pinterest algorithm working for you.
Related Post: Pinterest Strategies
Conclusion
Well, I can go on and on about this course, but I recommend you at least check out the Pinterest Ninja sales page and think about how the most economical and competitive Pinterest course that I have found can help you bring more traffic to your site.
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-Irma 🙂
