Pinterest is Changing How I Blog

NOTE: This Pinterest article was written in early 2012 when Pinterest was just starting to gain popularity. Information here is still relevant today.

Since writing a post with information about my Pinterest finds, I am learning even MORE things that I didn’t know. Thanks so much to all of your comments and discussions for helping me explore this topic even further.

Here are a few more things you might want to know and how Pinterest has changed the way I will blog.

1. Pinterest is so popular now that celebrities and big companies are flocking to it to try to get more traffic, new fans and customers.

Pinterest will become more commercialized and even more popular, therefore more reason to protect your images and ideas.

Like I said last week, the average person probably doesn’t realize the amount of traffic people are getting from Pinterest. In the creative community, the referral traffic is higher from Pinterest than any other social media platform as of now. If you’re lucky, you can get more hits to your website from ONE pin than an entire year of Google search traffic.

(Read my last post on this to see why some people might use your ideas and photos for commercial gain.)

2. There are all kinds of sites just like Pinterest and will likely be more in the future.  

Clipix, We Heart It and I’m sure several more that I haven’t heard about are other sites similar to Pinterest. I won’t link to these sites as I don’t want to advertise for them. (You can use Google to find them.)

If you have a blog, these points are more reasons why you need to put detailed information on your photos to protect them.

A logo or simple watermark just won’t due.

Make sure you have your URL, name, project description or the © symbol on your photos. Make sure your Terms of Use or Copyright info is in the sidebar of your blogs as well.

I just searched for my friend Cheryl’s cute Baby Shower Duck Punch on one of these sites. Cheryl owns Tidymom.net and has a VERY popular photo that is pinned all over Pinterest.

Look at where this source from We Heart It is going…  Pinterest!

Luckily for Cheryl, the pin from Pinterest goes back to her post.  She also has her logo on the image.

This is one of those great photos where you might not need a tutorial to know to add ducks to the punch. So although Cheryl’s cute photo is getting passed around and her logo is being seen by lots of people, she is probably missing out on tons of hits to her blog as well. So there are good and bad aspects to this.

If you care about your photos or creative ideas and recipes, you might want to search these other sites for your ideas and report any mis-use of your images. For example if they are claiming the image as their own, if they copy your recipe into the description or if they are not linking to the correct source.

I know this is NOT possible and sort of a crazy thing to even think about, which is why I’m really down on blogging right now.

I don’t have assistants, I can’t monitor the internet. What about my three years worth of photos on my blog right now? I can’t go through and add detailed copyright info on every photo.

It’s overwhelming.

There have always been bookmarking sites, but this Pinterest craze is causing a shift in the creative community right now more than ever before.

I have so many fun ideas that I’d love to share, but I’d also like to create products out of those designs eventually… so it’s leaving me unsure of where to go from here with my blog.

I’ve been copied many times before and get emails from readers often informing me of people selling my free printables on eBay, Etsy and local shops. I also hear about people re-creating designs I did and selling them in their Etsy shop.

I used to contact these people. It’s crazy when I have to call a bakery in the state of Washington or an Esty shop owner and tell them to please stop selling my cupcake toppers that they they got for FREE on my blog. You would think people would know better. I have copyright information all over the place.

I have since given up on worrying about those things because it happens so much and try to focus on my own business. But now with the huge money making traffic coming from Pinterest, similar sites popping up and people creating “Pinterest Inspired” websites… as a designer and blogger, it has me re-thinking everything.

Maybe I’m just burned out? Maybe this is actually GOOD for business? People are promoting creative ideas on Pinterest and other similar sites and maybe eventually they will come back to my blog and purchase my products or read my tutorials? Maybe this won’t lead to more copyright infringement or stealing of my designs and photos?

Anyway, I have many questions for myself. I am going to be thinking about where I go from here.

Pinterest is changing the way I blog.

Changes I will be making for future features and round-up posts:

1. I will encourage you to go to the original source to pin something.
2. I will either create a generic image for pinning or make a collage of small thumbnail photos. Hopefully, this will encourage readers to click the link and pin the original source.
3. I will read blogger’s terms of use and contact each source of the photo to get permission if they ask for that in their terms.

Contacting people for a round-up post is going to take time and many I would like to feature, won’t get displayed here. Plus, I have two blogs which means double the work!!

I get over 1.3 million page views per month to Living Locurto and people get a lot of exposure from being featured here. I used to take it for granted that you would want to be featured by me. Because of Pinterest, it’s not the case anymore. Since I can’t control what photo gets pinned from my blog, now people could get upset with me if someone pins my post with their photo. Really, I should have contacted people before and I am mad at myself for not doing that! ugh.

If you feature others on your blog, please think about this as well.

There are some other choices that I need to make. I will keep you informed on what I decide.

What are some changes you are making because of the popular Pinterest craze?

Originally published on February 13, 2012. Last Updated on January 21, 2014 by Amy Locurto

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