Save a Bundle on Images for Pinterest and Sites

Published: Thu, 03/27/14

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How Much do You Spend on Images?
Get Access to TONS of Free Images for <$10

No matter what I'm working on for my online business images play an important role.  I need images for site headers, Pinterest boards, Facebook Ads, review posts, and for my ebooks.

It's fair to say that I spend a great deal of money on images. 

And as Pinterest plays an increasing role in traffic strategies these days (it's free, provides a traffic sources outside of Google, and can even bring traffic indirectly from Google when your boards themselves rank high) images are playing an increasing role in my traffic strategies.

So, it was impossible for me not to check out the latest WSO of the Day announcement from WarriorPlus when I saw that it had to do with getting a SECRET STASH of FREE GRAPHICS.

It was cheap enough and I thought if I didn't like what I saw I'd just swallow the $8 something as a lesson learned.

If you also saw that announcement and have been on the fence about getting it - get off the fence.  If you spend money on images or if you struggle to come up with great graphics you can use to create images for your posts that you can use on Pinterest - GO GET THIS ONE!

It's called Free Freaking Graphics and you can find it here:

https://warriorplus.com/w/a/z5q4n


It's a giant, massive list of places on the internet where you can get free graphics you can use in both personal and commercial projects:
  • Icons
  • Vectors
  • Images
  • Stock photos
  • Website backgrounds
  • Image backgrounds

There are even links to Victorian images if your site is so themed - or 80s images - or cartoon characters FOR FREE. 

I drooled a bit on the laptop that I just got back from the tech who had to replace my motherboard last week....I'm going to make up what it cost me for the motherboard by being able to significantly cut down on the money I spend on images.

I think I'm pretty good at digging up resources on the internet but I'm telling you this guy had stuff I'd never seen before.  I absolutely consider this one of the best image resource lists I've seen.

What's the first place I intend to use this new resource?  Well, let me tell you about a little project.... 

Tweaking PinFabulous

Those of you who have implemented my PinFabulous strategy probably know exactly what I mean.  The quality of your images can make or break the click through results from the pin to your post. 

As an example, I noticed that one of my PinFabulous pins gets repinned way more than any other pin.  The topic isn't extraordinary and there's nothing about the board itself that's different from my others.  The biggest difference is that the image I created for that board has a red background and is very colorful. 

Pinterest is, of course, a very visual site.  If you're images aren't up to snuff you're not going to get the traffic first to your board and then to your site and that's critical for this strategy. 

The image I created for the post and used as the image to pin the post to the board simply stands out better and is more visually appealing than some of my others. 

So, I've been testing out a new PinFabulous site with just a few tweaks to my strategy.  I'm concentrating the site on just ONE niche and using keywords only for that niche. 

My thinking is that if someone likes one board on my profile they'll more likely enjoy the other boards, too, because they're all about one topic.  I should get more repins and more followers.  Compare that to a profile that has boards about baby products and then about cooking products.  There may not be as much cross-over interest between the boards to make someone want to follow all the boards or share other pins from those boards.

However, I'm also being very particular about what I pin to my boards.  I'm taking more time to build the boards, adding boards for which I don't have posts at all but which I think will be of interest to my target audience (like informational posts might be to an Amazon review site) and as I pinned my first post to a board I looked at the image I'd created next to all these beautiful items I'd pinned and it just didn't fit. 

I'd become so attached to the boards I was building that I realized not just any text image would do for each board - they'd have to be special.  Custom designed to fit the board and get attention. 

Within just a few minutes going through the Free Freaking Graphics book I'd found a number of sites with free images that would be perfect for what I have in mind for my new Pinterest board.  Now, to find the time to make the images!

So, what's the board, what's the test and why did I tweak my approach?  I'll tell you.

Here's the new Pinterest profile: http://www.pinterest.com/pillowfluffus/

Here's the site tied to it:  http://www.pillowfluff.com

Here's what I'm doing differently from PinFabulous:
  • Used the Amazillionaire theme because the way it showcases the featured image of a post requires that I don't have to write ANY text at all for the posts - it's like a custom-formatted Amazon store
  • I'm using the PinFabulous keyword strategy but focusing only on pillow keywords
  • I put an Amazon widget in the sidebar instead of the coupon graphic
  • I'm putting more time and effort into the individual boards and plan on adding more than the number of pins outlined in PinFabulous

Here's what else I'm thinking and I bet there are some of you who would do a much better job of this idea because you have more natural artistic talent but because you can build secret boards on Pinterest (and now business accounts can have an unlimited number of secret boards instead of the previous limit of just a handful) I think you could lay out a board where the pins spelled out a message or where the pins flowed from one color to another or something visually "surprising" like that.  Imagine what kind of attention a board like that would get?  I haven't tried this yet - it's just an idea I'm throwing out there.

I have no results from this PinFabulous tweak approach yet because, as mentioned, I hesitated on the text images I wanted to add to the boards and have only now found this great source for free graphics.

However, maybe my thought process and test will give you some ideas for tests to improve traffic and results for whatever you might be working on.


A Few Other Items Headed Your Way
I've got a few other surprises headed your way over the next week.  I'm considering packaging up the review site coaching assignments as a separate product.  You wouldn't get my hand-holding or my personal critique of the reviews and informational posts you write but you'd at least have the step by step task list AND one student has put together a great set of tips and resources she used in building her site that I think you're going to love as a bonus. 

I've also got a list of things I wanted to share to help you with rankings and more sales that have just stockpiled over the past several months.  Some will be products I launch and some will be just informational emails to give you ideas like the PinFabulous tweak above.

So, you Amazon Associates, it's time to gear up because April 1st starts the countdown - six months to get ready for Halloween and Christmas.  Can you believe it?

Let's put that six months to good use!

Sincerely,

Erica Stone
erica@extremereviewer.com