… and they do make lots of money.
Pinterest went live in March of 2010. And the site took off right?
Nope.
But that’s not the interesting part of their story of success.
As most people with even a basic understanding of web companies may know, it can take many years to hit profitability.
Amazon, a company started in the late 90′s is just now becoming profitable. Groupon, ha. It may never make money.
So back to Pinterest.
Now that they are the second fastest growing site on the interwebs, how is it they are already making coin?
Affiliate marketing.
Huh?
Yeah, affiliate links. You see, all those cool pictures on Pinterest sometimes will have links at or near them pointing to a site where you can buy that item in the picture.
For example. Here is a book recommendation someone posted on their Pinterest board.
When you click on this book photo you will go to that persons Pin Board. From there you might see a link sending you to Amazon or somewhere you can buy the book. Nice and convienent, right?
So Pinterest is adding those links even if the uploader had already added a similar link. And if you click that link and buy that book, Pinterest gets a small commission.
So now imagine the millions of products listed on Pinterest…
Very, very pinteresting.
