Can you post affiliate links on Pinterest without a blog?
Yes, you can post affiliate links on Pinterest, when you don’t have a blog or website. But there are big BUTs and the right and wrong ways of doing it.
One of those is how to make them not look spammy – repeated content with the sole purpose of sharing affiliate links will get your account suspended.
What you have to think about when you want to start posting affiliate links on Pinterest:
- Producing enough original content
- How not to make it look spammy or repetitive
- Some affiliate links can be blocked by Pinterest
- No URL shorteners or covering affiliate links
All this considered, I would go with the blog approach. Make a blog and post the affiliate links there within an article. You can’t get in trouble for oversharing your own website – if you add your site to your Pinterest business account, it is expected you will mostly share your website only. You literally can share your website only.
And with your own website you won’t get limited to Pinterest only, you will be able to get visitors from search engines and other social networks. More visitors = more clicks = more sales.
But if you still insist on making it without your own website or blog, let’s check what Pinterest offers.
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You would think the right way is just make an image and post it with a affiliate link in a regular pin. That is not how Pinterest want us to post them. Everytime there is new information about affiliate on Pinterest, they get very specific about how to post them and where.
Where to put affiliate links on Pinterest (suggested by Pinterest)
The only way Pinterest officially endorses for affiliates is Product tagging in Idea Pins.
It is possible to use the regular pins with affiliate links, but Pinterest doesn’t really mention this option anywhere, as they try to push the product tagging and idea pins.
No matter how you decide to post the link in the end, there are rules to follow.
Rules to follow when posting affiliate links on Pinterest
- disclose the use of affiliate
- use approved affiliate partners
- have original content
- toggle sponsored content (when you tag products in idea pins)
Read the full Affiliate guidelines on Pinterest.
The officially approved Affiliate programs by Pinterest
- Amazon Associates
- ShopStyle Collective
- LTK (rewardStyle, LIKEtoKNOW.it)
- Rakuten Advertising
There is no official list of Affiliates like they do with a list of partners, so I’ve gathered the list of them from mentions in articles and community forum posts like this one.
To find out if other Affiliate program will work or not, you can try posting a pin with a link from it. If it is blocked by Pinterest, it won’t let you post it.
To be sure, I would stick with the list of approved programs.
The “link in bio” method
I would also call it the “Instagram method” or the “Influecer way”. It is something I would categorize as in between of just posting affiliate links in pins and having your own site.
The idea is you would post original idea pins with valuable content and tell people to check your link in bio. The link in bio would lead to a page with affiliate links – for example made with linktree or Koji.
That way, you can avoid the repetitivness of posting affiliate links, and it won’t get you suspended for spam.
Can you post TikTok videos on Pinterest? (“I saw it on Youtube”)
Yes, if you are the one who made them. Then that is the smart thing to do – create short form videos and share them across all your socials (TikTok, Youtube Shorts, Pinterest Idea Pins, Instagram Reels…) to get the most reach.
“But ‘this youtuber’ said to download others’ tiktoks and upload them with my Clickbank affiliate link. Will that work?”
No, it won’t.
And this is what actually brought me to write this article in the first place.
I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears what is being suggested on Youtube and TikTok about affiliate links on Pinterest. I’ve seen a lot of “guides” where you’re supposed to download videos from Tiktok made by others, and upload them on Pinterest with your affiliate link.
And if you didn’t know, that is called stealing. Not only you steal the content, you also add an affiliate link which will also look spammy to Pinterest and will get your account blocked sooner or later. And in worst case scenario you could even get in legal trouble for using others’ content for your gain.
Why do youtubers make videos like this?
Well, money of course.
They don’t care this venture will only last few days for them before they get blocked on Pinterest. Or even that their commissions might not get approved and payed. They have their screenshots and videos to get you hooked and that’s all they need.
If you didn’t know, one of the best paid content on Youtube is the finance category – the videos about how to make money do make a lot from ads. Not only that, they also can make money from you joining the affiliate programs they recommend. After making the video, they don’t need to continue their Pinterest accounts.
Also note, they don’t usually answer the comments.
Does Pinterest allow affiliate links?
Yes, affiliate links are allowed on Pinterest. There are some affiliate programs blocked on Pinterest, it won’t let you post the link. Pinterest prefers you to post affiliate links of the approved partners (like Amazon Associates or Rakuten) via Product taggin in idea pins.
Does Pinterest ban affiliate marketing?
No, Pinterest doesn’t ban affiliate marketing. But posting affiliate links can get you in trouble if you post them in spammy way. Make sure you create original content around them and follow the community guidelines.
Why is Pinterest blocking your affiliate link?
Pinterest blocks certain affiliate programs that got misused by spammers on the network. If you can’t post a pin make sure you’re not using URL shorteners and that the affiliate program is approved by Pinterest.
This is great useful information. Thanks