3 SECONDS.

That's about how long you have to grab the attention of a Pinterest user scrolling idly through their feed. No pressure.

But grabbing their attention isn't enough. After all, anyone who isn't afraid to use neon and a cringe-worthy photo can draw attention to their pin - for all the wrong reasons. Please don't do that. The real challenge? Getting a Pinterest user to actually ENGAGE with your pin, by clicking on it, saving it, or - best of all - clicking through to your site.

Nail a formula of creating attention-grabbing, CONVERTING pins and you'll be well on your way to driving boatloads of Pinterest traffic to your travel blog.

Does any of this sound familiar?

✔️You see a lot of truly terrible Pins on your Front Page and are secretly terrified that your pins might look that bad to everyone else (oh god, do they?!)

✔️You've been using a prebuilt Pin template and you're sick of your Pins looking like everyone else's

✔️You've been using Pinterest for awhile, but you feel like your Pins could probably look better

✔️You're new to Pinterest and you're not really sure how to create a stunning, clickable Pin

✔️You've been doing all of the Right Things on Pinterest, but that promised truckload of Pinterest traffic is nowhere to be found - and you suspect your graphics might be part of the problem

✔️You just heard the word "typography" for the first time and you're not sure whether it's the study of typos or what

✔️Your To-Do list has included "learn how to make better pins in either Canva or Photoshop" for as long as you can remember

If you found yourself nodding along and going "yassss" while reading that list, this course is for you!

But why do I need to learn Pinterest specific design?

Here's the thing: Pinterest design isn't easy - it involves both the elements of good design and knowledge of Pinterest marketing and strategy.

If good Pin design was as simple as slapping some text on a nice picture, we'd all be rolling in traffic right now. But it's not - and it took me a while to figure that out.

Here's a fun fact about me: before I was a full time travel blogger, I worked in fashion. In fact, I actually have a degree in fashion design - I spent YEARS in a real life Project Runway, studying the elements of design and learning how to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to the exacting specifications of the fashion industry.

Since I'm now in the travel industry, that fashion design degree doesn't exactly seem to be doing me much good. But I'm actually applying my design skills to every single pin that I make, because the elements of design are universal - whether you're designing a graphic, a dress, or fancy packaging.

But while the elements of design are universal, Pinterest strategy isn't - it's pretty specific, actually. This course lives at the intersection of design & strategy.

Oh, and as for all that in-depth Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator practice? In this course, you'll be learning the basics of what you need to know to use Photoshop in order to create Pin templates - but you'll ALSO be learning how to make them in Canva, a totally free and user-friendly tool that's accessible and easy to learn even for the most design challenged! That way you can use either tool that suits you to make beautiful pins, and switch when/if you're ready.

But here's the good news: the effort it will take you to conquer Pinterest and learn to create clickable, traffic-driving Pins will be well worth it.

By now, I'm sure you've heard how powerful Pinterest can be for driving traffic to your travel blog. If you're not in the know, allow me to be the first to fill you in.

How Pinterest Actually Changed My Life, For Real

Using Pinterest, I was able to drive 20,000 sessions (and 35,000 page views) in a single month to my brand new travel blog - within 6 months of creating my blog. That initial traffic push opened SO MANY doors for me and paved the way for me to become a full time blogger. And it's a strategy I've replicated time and time again for my Pinterest Consultation clients.

Here's a traffic graph from the first 2 years of my blog, showing sessions from Pinterest & total sessions from July 2016 (when I started my blog) through July 2018. The blue graph up top is my Pinterest sessions, and the orange graph down below is my overall sessions.

As you can see, Pinterest is STILL driving me a healthy 25-30k sessions each month - a number I've been happy with for over a year. I no longer spend much of my time focusing on Pinterest, but I don't have to: even ONE Viral Pin can send steady traffic for well over a year. I no longer have to spend much of my time on Pinterest, because my old pins are doing all the work for me.

The traffic I built using Pinterest paved the way for me to start charging for Press Trips and FAM Trips before I'd even been blogging for a full year. It allowed me to monetize my blog with passive income strategies like ad revenue and affiliate income, which means I can take time off from work whenever I want and STILL earn money! Psst: more about how much I actually earn and how I monetize my traffic can be found here.

So I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that Pinterest changed my life.

No, seriously. Without it, I'd probably still be sitting behind a desk in an office somewhere DREAMING of getting paid to travel.

That's the power of Pinterest. I know that sounds like a cult. But it isn't a cult! Just a REALLY good way to drive steady, reliable traffic to your travel blog in a relatively short time.