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Grow Your Blog On Pinterest - Part Three


Read Part 1 & 2 HERE and HERE 

Pinterest has practically exploded the in the past few months, everyone is talking about it, blogging about it and using it. It's the next best thing to fried cheese!
In the previous two parts of our series we covered some of the basics of Pinterest, such as how to pin, what to pin, with a little dash of self-promotion thrown in. Now we want to discuss some possible controversies and ins & outs.


The Privacy Issue
Indeed, privacy is a big deal. Once you load an image onto your blog or onto Facebook you've pretty much launched it into outerspace for millions of people to view. When you PIN an image you are actually sending that image to Pinterest's servers. So even if you delete your image in the future, Pinterest still has your image to do with what they like. Think about what you pin if it is questionable, such as images of your children or where you live.

The Ownership Issue
Recently, I've noticed a big surge of images that don't link back to their original source. That can be frustrating for those of us who like to find out more about an image or read the tutorial that is supposed to accompany it - and can be even more frustrating for the owner of that image. Can you imagine having a photo you took go viral on Pinterest and not link back to your site? You would not get the traffic for one thing (and we all want traffic), but you also wouldn't receive the credit you deserve!


Solutions
At the moment Pinterest is completely PUBLIC. Which means anyone, anywhere can look at your pins. If you don't care about this then it's not a problem. If it concerns you, then you might want to consider other image sharing sites with higher privacy options (listed below). Just remember to only pin what you are comfortable with sharing! 

Pinterest Etiquette Stopping problems before they start: some bloggers have mentioned that they find their photos on other sites and it only says Inspired by Pinterest and the link goes to Pinterest and then their site.  Make sure and find out where the pin came from and leave proper credit (avoid laziness in that department...it only takes a few clicks!)

Regarding ownership, this is a reminder to watermark (see below) your personal images with your website or blog's name - so anyone viewing that image can see the source. You could also add a copyright symbol.

Think about it before you PIN it. Go to the source. If you are getting ready to pin something, do the right thing and make sure you pin it from its original source. If you can get to its origin then don't pin it.


Did you know you can LIKE an image on Pinterest instead of PINNING it?
If an image has already been pinned but you're not sure where it came from and you just want to save it for your own use, you can click the LIKE button (next to Pin It). That way you won't be pinning something without the source attached.
Did you know there are other sites just like Pinterest? Some of these sites are perfect for those of us who would prefer a higher degree of privacy or security, but still enjoy great style and organization.
A few of these sites include:
all clips default to private
for the manly pinner

offers completely private boards
and finally a new favorite of mine is:

no invitation necessary, privacy available, color indexing (cool!), and exportable to an Excel spreadsheet!


Watermarking Options
There are hundreds - just a few here:

A) Downloads
This option is just $20, looks simple and you can watermark multiple images at once!

If you have Photoshop:

DOWNLOAD THE RUSSELL BROWN WATERMARK PANEL FOR PHOTOSHOP CS5

Thanks to
 Watermark Your Images in Photoshop CS5: FREE & EASY

Jodi Friedman, MCP Actions


B) Online - no download necessary



LOVE!  I tried this and loved it. Simple. Easy to use. Upload almost any size photo/image. You can drag the text or image watermark wherever you like on the photo and fade in and out. FREE!

 LIKE! Also easy to use. Has a few more features, but you can only upload images under 500KB. Has a batch uploading feature too (have not tried yet). More font options.


C) From Your Phone

Watermark Me - Cost $1.99 on iTunes
Turns your image into a watermark


iWatermark - Download FREE or .99 for Android


Photomarkr - Cost $2.99 on iTunes
Photomarkr


PINTEREST IS GROWING!

From Yahoo! News:
According to a recent study conducted by Sharaholic, Pinterest drove more referral traffic to sites in January than Google+, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and MySpace all combined. In addition, it’s threatening to unseat Twitter, Google news, Google images, Gmail and Stumble Upon in the coming months to slide into the number two spot behind Facebook. Since July 2011, referral traffic from Pinterest has grown from 0.17 percent to 3.6 percent in January 2012. While Facebook holds the top spot at over 25 percent of all referral traffic, the rate of growth from Pinterest is astounding for a social network that’s so young.

It's only going to get bigger...right? Some of us find it much more entertaining than Facebook!

A Little Bit of Controversy

If you post a pin to Pinterest, and it links to an e-commerce site that happens to have an affiliate program, Pinterest modifies the link to add their own affiliate tracking code, which is really smart and how do they make money otherwise?
If someone clicks through the image from Pinterest and makes a purchase, Pinterest gets paid. They don’t have any disclosure of this link modification issue on their site. What do you think about this undisclosed information? The point is that we've come to expect honesty and frankness from Pinterest haven't we? If they'd just mentioned it somewhere in the small print that they would modify user submitted pins, then it would be no big deal.

"I did another test in which I modified the URL of my original pin with an affiliate link. I was pleased to discover that the affiliate link I had placed was not overwritten by SkimLinks when I clicked on the pin and was transferred to the merchant site." - Joel Garcia

Read more about the Pinterest, Skimlinks, and affiliate codes HERE and HERE.

We'd love to keep discussing the Pinterest bandwagon...what are your thoughts, concerns, and hopes for Pinterest and pinning? Share these in the comments below.

 Coming next time in our Growing Your Blog on Pinterest Series:

- Life in the "Board" Room
- More Pinterest buttons

Read Part 1 & 2 HERE and HERE

15 comments:

  1. Pinterest is awesome, especially if you write posts on your blog that non-Bloggers would love to read.
    I create a pinboard for each birthday party I am planning, and then add my own pinned posts to the board once the party is completed; parties are quite a big focus of my blog (and my family) so its a great way to get my creations out there for others to find and use.
    LOVE Pinterest - its so DIFFERENT from Facebook, and I don't really see it as a social networking site; more of a great place to find and share great stuff.
    x

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  2. Thanks for mentioning about watermarks. I want to start doing that with my photos, but I don't know how. I have the full PHotoshop program, but have never learned how to do this. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)

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    1. We do have a tutorial for that...check in our sidebar under the Sweet Spot.

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  3. @Sarah - thanks. I'll check it out tomorrow ;) :) Extra love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)

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  4. another great post about Pinterest! Thanks again for all of the information.

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  5. I think this is very helpful post. I just read this one and remaining will be read soon. Thanks for this one.
    Actual Exams

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  6. Hi Sarah,

    I'm a new Pinterest addict (as well as a blogger).

    I like your reminder to check the links to photos. What I've found is although photos on a site are not watermarked, either in the sidebar or in their terms and conditions, it states their content and/or images cannot be shared.

    Just yesterday I had a conversation with an artist/photographer who clearly states on her sites that her images are copyrighted and cannot be shared, however dozens of them are on Pinterest. (I had emailed her to find out if she allowed pinning of her images since I had seen so many of them on Pinterest.) She has now added the Pinterest snippet of code which stops pinning of her images.

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  7. Thank you for this! I love Pinterest, am discovering its ins and outs, just blogged about how some sites want to opt-out. It seems to me that it all comes down to basic good manners - ask permission before using! And if someone says no, respect that. But it doesn't always work that way and the watermarking is a good option.

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  8. My first visit to your blog and love it already.

    I have an interest in Pinterest. The site is a visual feast and I like it better than Tumblr. In college we discuss the old timers like Yahoo and how they were paid using clickthrough ads. I'm not surprised at Pinterest means to make money. It's how they offer free services to the users.

    Off now to visit other blog posts.

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  9. Found your site through Pinterest! I'll be coming back often. Fairly new blogger, need all the help I can get. Thank you for the information!

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  10. This blog is highly informative, crisp and clear. Here everything has been described in a systematic manner so that reader could get maximum information and learn many things. This is one of the best blogs I have read.

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  11. There are much more powerful and easy to use software for Watermarking Images.Mass Watermark can process 100s of images with few clicks and within minutes.There are other options like Batch Resizing,Optimizing(Sharpen,Smoothen,Blur etc) and even direct upload of the watermarked images to picasa/Flickr web albums.It greatly simplifies the workflow for Bloggers.Check it out http://www.masswatermark.com

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  12. You can check about LoveIt. I used Pinterest for all of two hours before I realized it couldn't batch upload, and then I switched over to LoveIt. LoveIt is so beautiful and elegant (like Pinterest), but it's just *better*.

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  13. Thanks for the post! I would love to hear more on how to make personal "buttons" for your blog

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Comments are how we stay connected as bloggers. Let us know how you feel and we'll return the favor...stay calm and blog on!!! And guess what? You'll never find Word Verification on our blog...it gets kind of annoying when you can't read what WV wants you to verify right?

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