When people talk about making money on Pinterest, it can sound as though Pinterest simply pays you for posting attractive pictures. That’s not really how it works.
Pinterest can be useful because it can send people somewhere else — to a product, an affiliate offer, your website, your online shop, your YouTube channel or even a service you’re selling.
You can create a Pinterest Business account for free, create Pins using free design tools, use Pinterest’s own scheduler and test whether Pinterest works for you before paying for premium software.
How Does Making Money on Pinterest Actually Work?
Think of Pinterest less as a place that pays you for posting and more as a discovery and traffic platform. Someone searches Pinterest for an idea, discovers your Pin, clicks it, and that click can take them somewhere you can potentially earn money.
Examples: Pinterest Pin → MoneySavvyUK article → affiliate recommendation → purchase → commission; Pinterest Pin → Etsy listing → purchase → shop revenue; Pinterest Pin → Pinterest-management service → enquiry → paying client.
1. Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
Affiliate marketing means recommending a product or service using a trackable link. If someone makes a qualifying purchase or completes another specified action, you may receive a commission.
Pinterest affiliate marketing should not be treated as “find product → copy affiliate link → spam Pinterest”. A better approach is to make Pins that genuinely help someone discover something relevant to what they are searching for.
Do I need a blog?
Not necessarily. Some affiliate programmes and circumstances allow Pinterest to be used as the promotional channel itself. However, the individual affiliate programme’s terms matter too. Pinterest allowing affiliate content does not automatically mean every merchant or network allows Pinterest traffic in every form.
For the detailed rules and workflow, see our Pinterest Affiliate Marketing UK guide.
UK disclosure rules matter
Affiliate content is advertising. Make the commercial nature obvious upfront rather than hiding the disclosure.
2. Send Pinterest Traffic to Your Blog
Instead of trying to earn directly from every Pin, Pinterest can send people to a useful article which may later earn through legitimate affiliate links, display advertising, products or other methods. The advantage is that you are building an asset you control.
Our Pinterest SEO UK guide explains how to research search intent and optimise Pins for discovery and outbound clicks.
3. Sell Your Own Digital Products
Pinterest is naturally visual, which makes digital products another possible route. Examples include printable budget planners, savings trackers, checklists, templates, spreadsheets, planners and digital organisers.
The Pin does not make the money itself. It helps someone discover the product. Creating something does not automatically create demand, so research what people are actually searching for before spending days making a product nobody wants.
4. Use Pinterest to Promote an Etsy Shop
If you already sell something on Etsy, Pinterest can become another discovery channel. Create Pins around individual products, collections, use cases or ideas that naturally lead to the relevant listing.
Search intent should influence what you create. “Printable budget planner” tells you much more than simply thinking “I sell printables”. If Etsy is new to you, start with our How to Sell on Etsy UK guide and our Etsy SEO UK guide.
5. Use Pinterest to Grow YouTube
Pinterest does not have to lead directly to a product. A Pin can introduce somebody to useful content elsewhere: Pinterest → YouTube video → viewer/subscriber → later monetisation.
One piece of research can potentially become a blog article, Pinterest Pins, YouTube content and social posts rather than requiring completely different research for every platform.
6. Offer Pinterest Services
Instead of waiting for your own Pinterest traffic to generate income, you could learn Pinterest well enough to offer Pinterest-related services to businesses: creating Pins, researching Pinterest keywords, organising boards, scheduling content, monitoring analytics and repurposing existing content.
This is usually called working as a Pinterest virtual assistant or Pinterest manager. See our Pinterest Virtual Assistant UK guide.
What If I Have £0 to Start?
This question changed the direction of my research. Again and again, Pinterest tutorials recommended paid tools, so I kept asking: what if somebody genuinely doesn’t have money for those tools?
- Pinterest Business account — start with the free platform tools and analytics.
- Pinterest native scheduling — useful for testing before paying for a separate scheduler.
- Free design tools — Canva Free or another free design tool can be enough for basic Pins.
- Free images and fonts where licensing permits — premium subscriptions are not required simply to test the idea.
The practical approach is to prove that you need a paid tool before paying for it.
Can You Make Money on Pinterest Without a Blog?
Potentially, yes. A traditional blog is only one possible destination. Depending on the rules of the service or programme, Pinterest could send visitors to an online shop, Etsy listing, digital product, YouTube content, affiliate destination or your own service.
No blog does not mean no destination. Your Pin still needs somewhere useful and legitimate to send the person who clicks it.
How Long Does It Take to Make Money on Pinterest?
There is no honest universal answer. Results can depend on what you are selling, search demand, competition, Pin quality, click-through rate, conversion rate, seasonality, value per conversion and consistency.
Measure progress before measuring income: impressions, saves, outbound clicks, destination behaviour and conversions.
A Simple Beginner Pinterest Plan
- Choose one clear topic rather than Pinning randomly.
- Create a Pinterest Business account.
- Research what people actually search for on Pinterest.
- Choose one monetisation route to test.
- Create several useful vertical Pins around genuine search intentions.
- Write clear Pin titles and descriptions.
- Link each Pin to a genuinely relevant destination.
- Clearly disclose advertising or affiliate content where required.
- Use free/native tools before paying for software.
- Review impressions, saves and especially outbound clicks.
- Keep what works and change what does not.
Don’t Forget UK Tax
Making money online does not make the income invisible for tax purposes. Check the current HMRC rules for your circumstances, including the trading allowance and any reporting obligations. Our Side Hustle Tax UK guide explains the £1,000 trading allowance.
Is Making Money on Pinterest Worth Trying?
Pinterest interests me because you can test it relatively cheaply. You do not have to start with paid scheduling, premium design software, paid advertising and an expensive course.
Start small. Learn what people search for. Create useful Pins. Measure whether anybody clicks. Then decide whether Pinterest deserves more of your time or money.
Disclosure: This article is for general information and shares my research and experience. It is not financial or tax advice. Where affiliate links are used, they should be clearly identified as advertising. Always check current platform and affiliate-programme terms.