What's the hype with Pinterest?

Goddamn I'm so glad its not just me. This shit was so hyped, that when I realized I didn't get it I figured it was time for me to quit the Internets. Glad to know I don't get it for the same reason I don't get Twilight and True Blood.
 


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It's lame, but they've done an amazing job of making women want to spend money - on decor, on clothes, on new hairstyles, on DIY projects, on food...it's one giant WANT spree.

It doesn't seem to convert nearly as well as ThisNext and Kaboodle did in their heyday (before they redesigned the product pages and de-emphasized the links, cracked down more on promotion, etc.). I think that's because the older social shopping sites used to get a TON of search engine traffic from specific product searches that went to individual product pages, while Pinterest seems to get a lot more random browsing. It also seems to have a lot more non-tech-savvy users (like my grandma, who loves it) who may not be so quick to buy online.

I haven't done a TON with it, but I've played around with a few accounts and some themed boards that got a lot of traffic and a relatively small number of conversions (given the traffic coming through). Basically, I would just pick a random theme - geek boyfriends, colorful kitchens, boho bathrooms, bird-inspired decor, whatever - and then build a board that included lots of links to relevant datafeed blog posts containing affiliate links, or direct affiliate links where possible. I'd usually add in a few totally non-commercial things just to make it look "real". It worked well enough that I'm going to test outsourcing it, because it's definitely not worth my own time to do it, given the results so far.
 
Getting ridiculous clicks to a site in a a particular niche that caters to women.
Along with tumblr you could do serious damage on it if yer smart...
 
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I still don't see why the fuck people spend time on Twitter.

I'm only on Facebook because everyone I know is on there.

Pinterest is one of those things I'll think "do I want to waste my time figuring out how to monetize this shit or stick with what I know?"...

And then 2 years later I'll be all "I saw this coming, I could have banked so hard"...

I've wasted a few hours messing with it.

I can see it working for interior decorators, landscaping companies, graphic designers, photographers, anyone who relies on aesthetics to make money.

One of the biggest success stories I've heard is a lady who builds balloon arches and shit for weddings.

Anything visual can be money.

If you're a consultant setting this up to lead-gen for cake-decorators or high-end photographers it could be money.

There's money there.

I don't see myself jumping in. But there's definitely money to be made.

You only have time to focus on so many things. I'll keep an eye on Pinterest but I don't see it being game-changing for me. I can see it being HUGE for other people though.

It really boils down to "can I profit off of girls looking at pictures".

The obvious answer is "yes".

The real question is if it's worth the time to build it up and figure it out.