10 Tips For A Perfect Pinterest Page

SuddenlyYou $35.00	PetitPlat $25.00	RainbowMittens $39.00	turtlemurtle $175.00
nacreart $19.95	AedrielOrigina... $36.00	LullabyMobiles $34.00	fieldofroses $45.00
Sweetbriers $9.00	ChirpAndBloom $32.00	hfcSupplies $2.50	wostudios $39.00
emmalamb $70.00	thelittlereddo... $18.00	SylviaInDaHous... $200.00	bigbrownhouse $175.00

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  All items are clickable!

You know that feeling you get when you're a Pinterest newbie and you come across one of those beautiful pages for the first time, with their diligently and carefully curated boards - rows and rows of loveliness that leave you in awe of their amazing good taste and talent for creative display...

Well guess what... you are that wonderful person now! or at least you will be if you follow these pointers :)

1 PIN PRETTY - Save your Pinterest page for truly beautiful images. If you see a life changing solution for 'how to clean right round the u-bend' (along with a graphic demo image!) bookmark it instead! (see top tip number 10 for more on this)

2 BE A PICKY PINNER - Is that cupcake/doorway/tattoo really all that amazing..? If it doesn't take you breath away, let it go (you can always 'like' instead if you can't decide!).

3 SIMPLE DESCRIPTIVE TITLES WORK BEST - Some people theme their board titles - 'Garden Love', 'Steam Punked Love', 'Crochet Love' etc and this works well. If you don't fancy that then just keep it simple - 'Spring Time' works better than 'Little Lambs and Daffodils I Heart This Time Of Year!'

4 SPECIALISE - Get specific with your board themes - the more vague you are the more disjointed the collection is likely to appear.

5 USE THE BOARD COVER FEATURE - Pinterest has introduced a great feature that allows you to pick an image from each of your boards to be the cover shot -  use it! (Hover over your board and you will be prompted to 'Edit Board Cover' - click and scroll through that boards images to find the perfect one. Alternatively, hover over an image and click 'Set Board Cover').

5 USE PINTEREST SEARCH - Use appropriate key words to find boards dedicated to the things you are interested in - then pin the best and leave the rest! (remember to select 'boards' rather than 'pins' or 'people' for your search - these options are fun to explore but rarely as fruitful!)

6 FOLLOW UP YOUR FINDS - If you find a great board, check out the other boards on the curator's page - chances are you'll find some more loveliness there too. Similarly, if you see a great image in your  homepage stream, have a look at the board that its being pinned to, and if its a re-pin, the board it came from.

7 CHECK OUT THE 'ALSO PINNED FROM' STREAM - This is available on the left of the page if you choose to 'see your pin' after pinning, and can also be found at the bottom right of the page that comes up when you click on a pin. Often a source of extra treasures!

8 SURF LIKE A PINNER - It sound obvious but when you come across a great image as you whizz around the internet remember to 'PIN IT'.

9 BOOKMARK GREAT PAGES - Don't rely on the image stream on your homepage to keep you up to date with the pages you're following - loads will go under the radar this way! Bookmark the really special ones then you can re-visit once in a while to check out their latest finds :)

10 CORAL YOUR 'INFO-PINS' - There are some great pins on Pinterest that are more of a valuable information source than a visual delight (the info-graphic at the top of this list for example!) and there is no reason why those who wish to have pretty pages should miss out on these. The key is to keep all your info-pins on one or two designated boards - these pins should still be reasonably easy on the eye though if you want to maintain the overall aesthetic appeal of your page!

My Page and Tip 11

I know what you all want to know now - what's my Pinterest page like...?! Is is a virtual stroll through a glorious gallery of delightful visual display? Not quite, although there is some lovely eye candy - you can check it out for yourself HERE. Suffice to say that i've worked out this little list of guidelines by breaking most of them first! My Pinterest page is not perfect perfect but that's part of its beauty.

Tip 11 - The true beauty of your Pinterest page is that its a reflection of your own unique and special qualities - its fun to titivate and decorate but you and your page are perfect just the way you are ♥

I will leave you with this lovely image to get you on your way to pinboard perfection :)

Vinal Wall Decal Quote by LaLeni on Etsy

Happy Pinning! And do let me know your thoughts on what makes the perfect Pinterest page in the comments! x

My Pin It Yourself Board for Artists And Crafters On Pinterest - All You Need To Know!

"Are you an artist/crafter with a special/favourite/new item you'd like others to see? Does your work seem to fit with the themes of my other boards? PIN IT HERE! ONE ITEM PER PERSON PLEASE but feel free to change it for another any time (just remember to remove the old pin!) You can email me at free.spiritdesigns@rocketmail.com about being added or removed from the list of pinners for the board - happy pinning!"

My First Pin On The Board

The Idea

I joined Pinterest in January (2012) and instantly loved it. I've always been greatly moved and inspired by beautiful images, and i also love a treasure hunt so it was a match made in heaven!

I soon noticed that some of the images i was collecting were pictures of the work of talented artists and craftspeople and i came up with the idea of creating a board on my page for artists and crafters to share an item of their work - something that they were particularly proud of and wanted to share with a wider audience (i made it one item so that everyone would have an equal opportunity to showcase their work). I would be a pinner on the board too and so also have the opportunity to begin sharing my makes with more people.

As an arty/crafty person i know that half the battle of selling your work is getting the right people to see it. I feel passionately about encouraging and supporting creative talent so i was pretty excited to be able to give myself and my fellow hand-makers an opportunity 'shine their light'.

The Ups...

Its been a couple of months now since i created the board and the response to it has been fantastic. Over 100 talented artists and craftspeople are now pinners and i've had some wonderful feedback from many of them thanking me for the opportunity to showcase their work which is really lovely. I am very grateful to each and every person who has pinned on the board - thank you all very much for sharing your wonderful creations!


Many of the more active pinners are also very complimentary of each others work and this has created a supportive and celebratory atmosphere on the board which i love.


Some are also getting a significant number of re-pins which is great to see. The highest by far is Rika Blue's wonderful wheel thrown ceramic basin which has been re-pinned over 200 times since she pinned it on the board a couple of weeks ago! ...and several others have 10-20 re-pins which is a very positive endorsement of the quality of their work.

Rika's Wonderful Basin! Watch this space for a feature on Rika's work on this blog coming soon...

I love seeing all the beautiful work that's on the board and its great fun checking it to see what new things have appeared! Here is a treasury on the theme of 'beautiful blues' from the etsy shops of some of the current board pinners (if you haven't been included this time don't worry - i intend to create more board treasuries on different themes in the future, and also features on the work of non etsy pinners!)

...The Downs

There have been some hiccups along the way too - a few people have misunderstood or not respected the 'one pin' rule, but this is hugely less of a problem now that i have contacted them personally, and also made a point of explaining this rule to new pinners myself rather than assuming that they'll read it in the board description... i live and learn! (you might notice that there are still some pins on the board from 'multiple pinners' - i am trying to rectify this but Pinterest are not being forthcoming about how i can delete them - any advice on this would be very gratefully received!)


Most people who are regular users of Pinterest will have encountered the odd technical quirk - pins disappearing or duplicating themselves and the like. My worst experience of this phenomenon so far has been when i woke up one day to find that every pinner apart from myself had been erased from the list of pinners on the 'pin it yourself artists/crafters' board! I spent the whole morning adding everyone who had a pin on the board at the time back on the list (most of which probably wondered why they had been 're-invited' to the board - well now you know!).

The Future - Your Input Please!

This is the part where i ask for your feedback, whether you're a pinner on the board, or someone thinking about becoming a pinner, your input will be much appreciated!


Pinterest is rolling out new features all the time, and one that has recently come in is the the ability to set a cover image for each of your boards. Having your item on the board cover of the pin it yourself artists/crafters board will be a significant advantage when it comes to getting your work seen as it will be the first image viewed by anyone browsing the pinterest page belonging to a board pinner. Since this feature has come in i have been selecting each new item pinned when i see it to spend some time on the board cover - nobody gets left out as if a few have stacked up i still give each some time as the cover shot. How do people feel about this? Would you prefer popular pins to be selected as the board cover therefore possibly attracting a greater number of people to view the rest of the board... let me know!


I am hoping to do some more features involving board pinners here on my blog - how do people feel about that idea? Would you like me to add a link to feature posts in the blog description and/or the comments under pins?


How do people feel about the idea of having a collection of boards that are more genre specific instead of just one board i.e. a jewellery board, a textiles board, a ceramics board etc...  my current thoughts on this are that its better to stick with one board that will provide a higher number of viewers than individual boards but i'm open to suggestions!

Did You Know I Have Other Group Boards on My Page?

I have a board for craft bloggers and craft blog fans to pin their favourite blogging tips and posts. I am a collaborator on Steph C's Best of British board, and i also have a 'love dogs' board. They are each a bit different to my 'pin it yourself artists/crafters' board - follow the links to check them out and let me know at the usual email if you want to join! (free.spiritdesigns@rocketmail.com)

I'm On Pinerly!

                                                           

I'm a big fan of Pinterest, the pin-board sharing site that's currently sparking a great deal of interest due to its rapid ascendancy in the social media world (click here for some statistics on the Pinterest phenomenon)

For me, facebooking and tweeting pales in comparison to the fun that's to be had pinning, browsing and discussing images on Pinterest so i was most intrigued to hear of a new site called 'Pinerly' which claimed to offer a whole new level of satisfaction and enjoyment from your Pinterest experience. Pinerly is not affiliated with Pinterest but its creators say they are big fans of the site.

Like Pinterest, Pinerly is 'invite only' - they are using a crafty marketing strategy to publicise the site by encouraging you to reduce the waiting time for your invite by getting friends to join up too through your personal link - when one person has joined through your link you get on the waiting list, when five have joined you get an 'early invite', and when ten have clicked through on your link you'll be eligible for some 'special privileges'.

Of course this induced in me the required impatience - within a couple of days the help of ten lovely people had resulted in Pinerly emailing me with assurances of my early invite and rewards, but they also explained that in order to make the required improvements to the site as it developed (it was then only a week old) i would still be in for a bit of a wait.

Two weeks passed and to be honest i all but forgot about Pinerly - until today when i finally got invite in to the site!

So here is a sneak peak of all that i've discovered so far for my fellow Pinterest fans (Ok, addicts :) )

There is a brief introduction:

Pinerly is a tool for Pinterest. We founded Pinerly to help fill the gaps we found when marketing ourselves on this terrific traffic driving platform.

With Pinerly you are able to graphically measurereal-time click throughs, likes and re-pins for "campaigns" created through Pinerly. These valuable metrics help you understand what works and doesn't and finally take control.

With time, Pinerly will continue to improve the depth of its metrics and automation tools. Our goal is to provide the most comprehensive analytics dashboard available on the web.

And these icons on the dashboard:

CAMPAIGN        PINALYTICS        SUGGESTED        FOLLOW

When you click on 'Campaign' you are given the choice to upload and image from your computer or to lift it off a web page (my website would not let Pinerly in so i took mine off etsy). You then put the URL you want the pin to link to in a box, and your pin description. You then click on a button to 'Pinerly it' (yes!) and the usual Pinterest box comes up where you choose a board for the pin.

The differences with the pin itself that i've noticed so far is that the link that sometimes appears at the bottom of a pin saying the site it came from now says 'Pinerly', and a click takes you to Pinerly's website. This is usually the only working link to your item apart from clicking on the image so this seemed like a bit of a loss, but on the other hand the web addresses that i put in my description are now working links (a recent Pinterest development).

Back on the Pinerly dashboard you can click on 'Pinalytics' to see the 'clicks', 'likes', 're-pins' and 'reach' of your pin within a couple of user friendly graphics.

The other functions are related to finding pins and pinners of interest. The 'Suggested' button takes you to a page of suggested pins where you can choose from these headings:

RandomStylishInspirationalCuteBeautifulTastyUseful

...and you can continue to click through the images that come up until you find one you like.

The 'Follow' button shows you pages of some 'interesting pinners' under these categories:

RandomCuisineTravelDesignPhotographyFashionDecoreGraphicsKidsEntertainmentDIYBeautyVarietyWeddingEducation

...I've only checked out a few but they are indeed interesting - some with hundreds of thousands of followers! (like this one belonging to Jessica Colaluca, creator of Designs Seeds)

So there you have it, a brief(ish) introduction to Pinerly! I have yet to see if it will improved my Pinterest experience - i suspect that the Pinalytics function will be a useful little gadget and i look forward to seeing what else the developers come up with as the site progresses...

Happy pinning all! (you can see my first Pinerly pin here btw :) )


UPDATE!!

Just received news from Pinerly of my 'special privileges'... and they're good!! :)

They are going to add me to their list of suggested pages to follow! Yes, little old me amongst the Pinterest hight fliers with their hundreds of thousands of followers! (i'd better give my boards a bit of a Spring clean... i suddenly feel like the Queen is coming for tea!)

I need to provide some details about myself, and a photo and also the category i want to be placed under... i'm thinking Decor right now as that seems the best fit for all the art and crafty stuff i have on there although its really hard to decide as i have lots of nature photographs which don't really fit with 'decor'... perhaps i should go for 'random'... any thoughts welcome!

They are also giving me an 'unlimited number of campaigns' instead of the 5 they normally limit people to during their 'private beta tests'... AND they say that as they roll out more features i will continue to get special perks along the way - how exciting!

Thanks Pinerly!