{"id":13322,"date":"2015-02-15T15:08:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T23:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/?p=13322"},"modified":"2022-11-30T14:54:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T22:54:35","slug":"pinterest-bans-affiliate-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/pinterest-bans-affiliate-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinterest Banned Affiliate Links"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update<\/strong>: After Pinterest banned affiliate links, they had a change of heart. Learn about Affiliate Links on Pinterest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Know the Rules<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Thousands of bloggers, perhaps tens of thousands, are raving mad because a major source of affiliate revenue, Pinterest, banned affiliate links on their platform. <\/p>\n

\"pinterest<\/p>\n

In an email to its ‘Power Pinners' late last week, Pinterest<\/a> stated all affiliate links, as well as all redirects and trackers, would be removed from the site.<\/p>\n

Particularly hard hit are affiliates with links from two popular affiliate networks, RewardStyle and Hello Society, which are being specifically targeted.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal<\/a> on Friday, a Pinterest spokesperson stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We observed affiliate links and redirects causing irrelevant Pins in feeds, broken links and other spammy behavior.<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The spokesperson also said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have noticed their Pinner behavior going downhill<\/em>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this has caused slower delivery of Pins and less relevant Pins in people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home feeds<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

According to Pinterest, no pins will be deleted. The past Pins will still show up and be clickable, but the tracking links will be stripped.<\/p>\n

So, those who were using tracking links from bitly.com<\/a> just for tracking will have their links stripped.<\/p>\n

Why am I NOT surprised Pinterest banned affiliate links?<\/h2>\n

Ask yourself WHY as a Super affiliate marketer of 17+ years (15 years full-time) experience<\/strong> – did I NOT devote time working Pinterest, or add a section to my coaching programs about ‘how to monetize Pinterest<\/strong>‘?<\/p>\n

Because the writing was always<\/em> on the wall.<\/h3>\n

I've only come across one blogger who was smart enough to mention the ‘additional step' affiliate bloggers need to do now in light of this turn of events at Pinterest — that they'll have to link back to their own sites — and they actually lamented that fact.<\/p>\n

Ah, pity, they\u00c2\u00a0(affiliate bloggers) are\u00c2\u00a0SO HARD done by<\/strong>. However, that's exactly<\/em> what they should have been doing to make a secure full-time income as affiliate marketers – basic online business stuff that I've been teaching since 2003.<\/p>\n

For those of you who remember what happened to affiliate marketers who played the “Google Cash<\/a>” game – direct linking to merchants from Google Adwords (and Google was PAID for those links) – Pinterest was bound to follow suit sooner or later.<\/p>\n

Pinterest has disallowed Amazon affiliate links for years, yet some affiliate blogger \/ marketers put their heart, soul, and all of their effort into monetizing Pinterest through direct linking to their merchants, despite the obvious sign of impending doom.<\/p>\n

Do I feel for them?<\/p>\n

Sure.<\/p>\n

I'm sorry that they were fooled into buying into some shyster's ‘How to Make Money on Pinterest<\/strong>‘ B.S. program and wasted all that time and effort, rather than learning basic affiliate marketing business principles which, at very least, include:<\/p>\n