Here’s a kick-ass tool for writers.
Are you on Pinterest? It’s yet another powerhouse tool for the savvy writer. Some of the Pinterest/writer team up techniques below are obvious, like creating a Pinterest board for each of your characters. But I bet there are a few ideas on this infographic you haven’t thought of yet.
Maybe you did. In which case, clever you. And I’d love it if you shared more of your brilliance in the comments. We’re always looking for smart writers around here.
For the rest of us, did you know each of these ideas can make your story richer, deeper, more complex, or read by a wider audience?
Totally true.
Some of these tips may look familiar. That’s because I pulled the information from an earlier blog post on how to leverage Pinterest as a writer. That post had a crappy title, so I repackaged all that good-yet-ignored info into a better form (as promised). Presto infographic!
Give it a whirl!
Mandy,
Awesome post! I use Pinterest for character and story ideas, but this gives me so many more ideas. Thanks so much for sharing.
Apparently I didn’t know as much as I thought about Pinterest. I will be using this infographic (frequently) till I get this down. Great advice! Thanks for putting so much work into this. (Stopping by from SITS Girls Sharefest.)
I love hearing that, Jennifer. So good to know that information I share is helping make someone’s writing life a little bit easier. Thanks!
I use Pinterest for everything else, so it makes sense that I would use it for writing ideas. I do use it for blog post ideas. I’ll find a topic I want to cover and research similar posts to get a few ideas, then I put it all into my own words and add my own spin to it. I do have to say though that my writing posts don’t seem to get as much traffic as all the pretty pictures of crafts and foods that all the other bloggers seem to be posting. I do wish there was a way to get more attention for my writing efforts. #SITSSharefest
Thanks for stopping by from the SITSSharefest, Adrian. I like your approach to finding blog post ideas. I’ve used that one myself.
You mentioned that you wish you could get as much traffic for your writing posts that the DIY and craft bloggers are getting from Pinterest.
Since I’m new to blogging and have no clue about SEO yet (working on it), I focused most of my blog marketing efforts on Pinterest when I launched. So my biggest traffic referrer is currently Pinterest. Since my posts are all about writing and most of them have only one photo—the headline image—there are a few tricks I’ve had to learn that helped drive traffic.
I checked out your site, and here are a few ideas I have for you that might help you get more clicks.
#1: Make your headline images vertical (longer than they are wide). The ideal image size on Pinterest is 735×1102 pixels. Right now, your headline images are square. You’ve got the text overlaying the image, which is great. So try cropping for this pixel size and see where it gets you.
#2 Try some tried and true headline formats. Your posts are interesting and have good information. The headlines don’t do them justice. Here are a few proven headline templates to try: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/462041242995464096/
#3 Grab free, high-quality images for your headlines. Some of your headline images are fuzzy or not as crisp as they could be. You don’t have to learn great photography methods when you’re first starting out when so many good photographers give away their work for free. Here are a few places you can get them: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/21814379419656885/
#4 Ask for an invite to the Pinterest group board, Bloggers Anonymous, for more ideas to maximize your Pinterest traffic. We’d love to have you on board. This is where you can find us: http://www.pinterest.com/mandycorine/bloggers-anonymous/
#5 Use free software like Picmonkey and Piktochart to create your headline images. They make it easy to crop for that perfect 735×1102 pixel image size and have overlays and fonts you can play with for attention-getting images. This is where you can find them: http://www.picmonkey.com and http://piktochart.com
Maybe this is a good topic for a blog post. What do you think?
I’ve been thinking about starting an online workshop to share how I used Pinterest to get to 1k daily visitors in my first few months of blogging. I’ll email you to see what you think of this because I need to start gauging interest before I start planning it out.
Let me know if any of this works for you, okay?
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and for taking the time to comment.
I generally don’t comment on things but this time, I had to.
You have no idea how much this infographic has helped me to develop as a writer and I wanted to thank you for that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’m so delighted to hear that, Emmy. Nothing is more gratifying than to hear when the sweat I put into this website actually pays off and helps another writer. Squee!
Mandy you are awesome. I use your infographocs as my go to guide for developing my writing and everything! Forgive me. I love to laugh.
I’m sitting at my desk which is positioned by a large window and am cracking up laughing while responding.
My neighbors know I live alone and two of them just cast me the “she’s crazy” look which forced me to laugh even harder. But enough about them.
I enjoy writing again. I came to a point where I stopped leaping to write, rolling my eyes instead due to lack of direction. Yes, yes. I’ve web searched and searched. I have even gone to my peaceful places in hopes of ideas miraculously appearing in my used to be curly head. For months I came up with nothing.
So I’m on Pinterest and looking for ideas on how to dress, style my hair and even how to wear small amounts of make up for corn sakes. That’s when I saw it for the first time. I mean you, and a glimmer of hope. Then my computer crashed, so on and so forth. But I’m back!
Did you miss me? There’s that infamous laughter of mine. I know that’s why I’m single again. Okay stop. Seriously, I love your guides because they allow me to focus on being creative. Your guide allow my thoughts and words to flow. It’s like being on a riverboat in the jungle. You can either trust the guy navigating the boat and enjoy the scenery or not trust him and fearing you’ll be eaten by a mutant crocodile at any moment. I am a recovering Sci-fi channel addict. Don’t judge me. There’s that laughter again. Thanks for putting up with me.
Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
Hey, Carla. Aren’t you fun! Thanks for the kind words and I’m so glad the infographic and posts and all helped out. Isn’t Pinterest great? Good luck with your writing and I hope to see you around 😀
Thanks for this. I’ve only started using Pinterest this year, mostly for story prompts, and a bit of research. I’ll definitely be using it more now I’ve found this.