I’ve totally stopped using Tailwind since just before Christmas and things are up. When I was living in the UK and used to post to Pinterest every morning around 4am GMT, I had great results. Hopping all over the world it was difficult. I’m in Australia now and about 2am here is the best time for me, it seems, which is about 8, 9 pm UK time. You’ve just got to experiment until you find what’s best. And do it from hand pinning, not Tailwind. And yes, the smart scheduler was rubbish for me. I made my own, but Tailwind – nope. I won’t buy it again. Sorry, this post is very old.

Thank you so much for this amazing read! I’m a travel blogger too and struggle a lot with Tailwind’s Smart Schedule, cause I keep switching between an European and an American schedule trying to find the optimal times and none of them work. Did you create a fully custom schedule?

I’m not selling anything though Marc. I’m not sure what you mean by promote yourself from outside Pinterest. I’ve actually stopped using it entirely now. It’s time better spent elsewhere. And you’re right, those selling “secrets”, like a top chef selling recipes, never sell their real secrets, The same as I have some SEO secrets I never jump in to share when I see others hunding out dud advice. There’s plenty of that around and I’ve fallen victim to it a few times over the years. I’m off to Google smart pins, never heard of them.

I read your posts from 2017 and updates in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As a Pinterest user with an account in the top 1,000 in the world with up to 5 million monthly visitors (60 million a year) and several group boards in the top 100 in the world (5,000 repins a week), I can probably speak from experience.

In your 2019 post you said, “Every “Expert” thinks they know what works.”
For the short term, every expert can achieve a degree of success with a given methodology, but every expert I have seen has not been consistent in achieving long term results. Those that are most successful in almost all disciplines do not reveal their niche secrets. Pinterest is dynamic in that the algorithm changes and following shifts in your metrics is important. There are also accounts on Pinterest given special status that receive benefits regardless of what they do, like those that pin once a month and have 1 million followers.

Which brings me to the point that when you find something that works well for you and share it, through expanded use, it becomes much less effective.

Since the beginning, the objective for Pinterest has been to monetize. That means if your objective is to use Pinterest as a free resource to generate income, you are at odds with Pinterest. As you game the system, Pinterest finds ways to close those loops. A large majority of impressions in user feeds is given to paid users. I have no problem with this as without revenue, Pinterest would cease to exist; it is a business after all.

Here is a secret that will give you traffic, visibility and consistent growth. If you stop attempting to promote yourself from within Pinterest and Promote yourself on Pinterest from outside Pinterest, you will not have to rely on the Pinterest algorithm. Your mention of Tailwind groups, putting smart pins on your blogs are two great examples. Facebook groups are also an excellent way of driving buyers to your Pinterest account.

Last of all, as with all social media, develop relationships. Having 20,000 followers is irrelevant if you have never interacted with them. Strong Pinterest accounts develop clusters of interactive supporters. From experience, people are hungry for connections.

Keep in mind the 80/20 rule. Entertain and inform 80% of the time and sell 20% of the time. You will gain a large audience if people think that you are not engaging them to sell them.

I am not an “expert”, but my account has had 500,000 repins, and my pins get 10,000-60,000 impressions, 1,000 repins and often 100 comments.

I enjoy your posts. Thank you.

I have 22 K Pinterest followers and that currently translates to under 200 clicks to my site per day. The post above is around 6 years old and I need to re-read it and amend most likely. I get about 9,000 clicks per day from Google so you can see how Pinterest is just not worth my time. I’m all about SEO. Both Pinterest posts on this site need fixing and revising, sorry. There are 8-900 posts on this site, they all need regular updates. As new users of course it will grow. They want you hooked and will reward you with greater reach. A new pin, from me, currently gets a reach of about 60 people. When I was working on Pinterest every day back in January I got the initial reach up to about 1.5 K. But the amount of work required to do that wasn’t worthwhile. Pinterest is very much on a back burner for me right now.