A NEW Response from Pinterest when Challenged

[healthyambitionsteam]

This was posted in a Facebook group this morning.

I asked Pinterest about the slowing of impressions and visitors from their site over the last few months and the first reply I got was their normal canned response. I challenged the rep to not send a canned response but to either tell the truth or to say we dont know, there is a problem etc. and this was the next response which does not bode well for continued use of Pinterest as a traffic source.

"As Pinterest evolves our ecosystem to better serve Pinners and orient around Idea Pins, we'll be exploring and testing monetization models that leverage a creator's audience and engagement on Pinterest more so than off-platform traffic or engagement."

@PinterestGabby and the rest of the Pinterest Team....this is the first time I've heard of this kind of response from Pinterest. 

If Pinterest is serious about continuing to benefit FROM bloggers creating content for their platform, I do feel allowing us to monetize directly on the platform is an interesting concept, but I would LOVE to know more about this. 

For the past 18+ months, Pinterest has delivered the proverbial slap-in-the-face to content creators, providing guidance that has little to no effect on our ability to succeed on and off Pinterest. The constant preaching of "new pins" while it's obvious that old pins still rule the roost on Pinterest is just one example of misdirection from Pinterest. 

It would be awesome if Pinterest, as a company, would acknowledge the challenges bloggers/creators are facing today and offer real guidance, not just canned responses that don't produce real results.

Sorry for the soapbox, but we are tired of being ignored when bringing up the real issues we are facing.

[ideachicretail]

Cathy, I´m here to learn what creators are expecting from some of the new language from Pinterest. Coming from the place of a brand, and because we generate traffic converting to sales daily from Pinterest, I want to know how we can participate in monetizing creators/bloggers on the platform. ¨On platform because takes away a layer of friction for the consumer which is what I am guessing Pinterest is trying to accomplish. Currently I can´t figure out how a creator can earn on platform. I feel like I am missing something and reading your post gives insight from creator perspective. If I can help the Pinterest crew on this subject, let me know. David 

[chillnglow]

Their response basically says it all. 

I doubt whatever they're doing here would be of any benefit, if at all, to bloggers. 

Personally to me, the whole "monetizing on the platform" thing sounds like a load of bull. 

The primary reason most bloggers use Pinterest, is to eventually drive traffic to their sites. Our sites are where the main magic happens. Lead generation, product/affiliate sales, pageview-related ad revenue, and so on. 

Any so called "monetization models" they bring along will probably be in the form of us paying for ads, which is basically already happening. There's hardly any compensation they can offer us that beats getting traffic directly to our site. 

When it comes to engagement, we bloggers care about engagement more than anything.

When they brought out carousel pins, we were on board with it. Then they rolled out video pins, we were also still on board with it. And that was because we were still able to achieve our main goal for using the platform... which is to drive traffic.

Even when the whole story/idea pin thing came out, we were still on board with it, because our primary goal was still being achieved. 

Now, they've changed everything by intentionally killing the reach of regular pins to humiliating numbers, and putting idea pins, which can't be linked to, in the spotlight. 

I never for once bought the whole "ebbs and flows" story. I know ebbs and flows when i see one. 

Also, their whole strategy seems kinda contradictory to me, considering the fact that things like "claiming your website" or "enabling rich pins" are supposed to be seen as good things when having a business account. 

And then they turn around all of a sudden and start preaching "on-platform engagement", like we've not been doing that ever since. 

But hey, what do i know? I'm just a small fish in a really big pond. 

[allaboutbabyblog]

@healthyambitionsteam I saw that post on facebook as well and It completely makes sense.

The new affiliate links on idea pins idea still benefits them the most (it's actually pretty sneaky), idea pins in general are horrible for the users too (take a recipe - they want to click to get to the full instructions but can't - I would be hella frustrated) and then the whole no reach thing for normal pins.

It's gonna be a pay to play thing like facebook and instagram already are and that is really sad.

Unless you are ready and willing to pay for ads it's probably best to looks elsewhere to drive traffic.

The thing that frustrates me personally the most is the absolute no communication...just looking around here so many people have the same issue and nobody even cares to explain what might be happening or take it seriously either...

I feel horrible for everyone that pinterest was the main traffic source and they are losing income now because of everything that is going on on the back end.

[littleshinepage]

Since I only see IDEA PINS on my home page from random people I don't even follow. I just want to know from Pinterest, where do I see the pins from the people I follow or those who follow me ? Why follow someone when I never get to see their pins? Just like Instagram has a separate tab for reels, why not create a separate tab for just IDEA PINS and leave the home page to see the pins from the people i actually follow ??? @PinterestGabby 

[maejeanvintage]

I personally know someone who complained on Instagram that Pinterest Idea pins for recipes don't have any way for her to click through to get the full recipe. I'm sure she's not the only one. Pinterest will have to work something else out if they want to keep both creators and casual Pinterest users.

Idea pins have potential, but there are very few accounts who actually benefit from them.