Pinterest Observations

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Anyone care to make any observations about Pinterest as to how it relates to our writer-entrepreneur well-being? Useless? Potential? Rants? Whatever.
   
   update: xyz added because of dup flag caused by my Twitter inquiry. Not relevant here.

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   1. 98

      Peggy Wposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have yet to join Pinterest but am also curious as to how people think it is helping them on HP.  Is it true that we lose our copyrights on photos once posted on Pinterest...that they can be reused at will?  Too bad it is an all or nothing proposition.

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      1. 87

         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Simply title brand your image so it's useless to anyone but you, then you'll have an image that draws clicks, gets pinned and won't get stolen.

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            paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            A side note: WryLilt is Gold. Follow her.

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            1. 87

               WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Only when my wild accidental Frankensteinian Googleific experimentations work.

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         2. 84

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I totally agree with you, but it does come under HP's crazy watermark rule.
            
            To me, a watermark is an image (could be text) superimposed upon an image but faded out so although it is visible, it is not meant to detract from the photo.
            
            Adding text to an image could be your own copyright mark, or a message.
            
            For a while there, HP were unpublishing hubs that had images with text on them, calling them watermarks, even when they clearly weren't.
            
            Copyright text when it is your own photo, or made for PInterest images, should be exempt, but are they?

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            1. 86

               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Wry isn 't being penalized for it, but I still don't know why, because I've seen people hit for a "watermarked" image that had text in very similar places.
               
               Guessing here, but the text on Wry's photos is always relevant to the image, not a copyright statement or photographer's name, and it's strong and clear - so maybe that's the difference.

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               1. 84

                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeah I've started making 'made for pinterest' images on her suggestion, and there'll be murder on the forums if any of mine get unpublished for one of them! LOL

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               2. 87

                  WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  If you see the bottom of my MFP hub, I was in contact with the team about these images. They didn't say yes to them but they didn't say no either - just gave some general guidelines for when they are appropriate.

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                  1. 86

                     Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes I remember that - what confuses me is that they didn't explain why.

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                     1. 87

                        WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        I guess it's so that heaps of people don't create low quality, copyright infinging images they have to monitor? That's my best guess.

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                        1. 86

                           Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           What I mean is, around the time you started producing these images, a couple of people had just had their Hubs unpublished for putting captions directly on their images.  That's why I was worried when you published your forum post explaining your idea - I couldn't see the difference between your images and the recently unpubbed ones.
                           
                           So I was really surprised when you reported that you'd checked it out with HP and they'd given the OK, and I still can't work out why yours are OK but a caption isn't.  Or maybe your made-for-Pinterest idea has made them rethink their attitude towards captions?

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                           1. 60

                              paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Marisa Wright, this is just an experiment....

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                                 paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 Never mind...

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                           2. 87

                              WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              I'm not sure. But Paul (as you can see below and on other posts) certainly thinks Pinterest is a great traffic source. Long as it works (two hubs with over 20k pins now, plus various amounts on others) and I'm not being penalised, I'm happy!

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   2. 73

      livewithrichardposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      
      I haven't been actively using Pinterest until just a few days ago.  I do see the potential as it can and probably should be used evenly among the other top Social Networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google +) I'm pretty certain that the social mentions place some heavy weight on your content in Google's search algorithm.
      
      As I update my idle hubs, I'm using Wrylit's advice on MFP images... so far so good.  It also seems that once you start following users on Pinterest, others start following you back.  I'm going to try and make it part of my online routine to repin my follower's pins.  If you want to follow me---- http://pinterest.com/livewithrichard/

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2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years ago

   I'm very bullish on pinterest as a traffic source and as a way that appears to be sending a quality signal to google. 
   
   I was just looking at hubs that were getting pinterest traffic.  They appear to get quite a bit of google traffic as well.

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   1. 60

      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have been poking Pinterest with a stick quite regularly. I do get positive results.

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      1. 90

         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I haven't gotten a single view from Pinterest in spite of having pinned around a dozen pics.
         
         The problem is probably that I'm not active there - no followers and not following very many.

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            paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Anyone who does anything as to regards to me, I immediately follow them back. Not like twitter and who has the biggest...

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         2. 87

            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Are your boards categorised properly. Follow me or link me your account. I repin any hubber's MFPs I see.  And think I have 800 followers or so.

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               wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Categorised (thanks - I didn't realize you could do that) and followed.  Does that mean I'll see your pins?
               
               Completely ignorant about linking accounts, so didn't do that.

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                  WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Haha I meant give me the URL so I could follow you. Yes, you'll see my pins.

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                     wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     https://pinterest.com/dharmons/pins/

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                        paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Followed.

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                     2. 87

                        WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Followed. Can I suggest making your MFP images a little more interesting and creative? They just look like images with a boring font tagline added as an afterthought. Use some more colours, two or more fonts, make it noticeable.

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                        1. 90

                           wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           I'm working on that, Wry.  I downloaded Gimp just for that purpose, but am really ignorant of it's features or possibilities.  I've kept all the original pics, and one day may go back and re-do them after I've learned how to use the software.

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                           1. 87

                              WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Screw Gimp. Seriously takes ages to learn like Photoshop, when you can get awesome effects on Picmonkey.com and learn it in 10 minutes. That's where I do all mine. You can do effects, backgrounds, stickers, tons of different texts, crop, resize...

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                              1. 90

                                 wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 Will download in the morning and take a look.  Thanks!
                                 
                                 *edit*  Just looked - apparently you have to do it online.  That's OK, too.  And the fonts do look much better.

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                                 1. 87

                                    WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    Yep it's all in the browser, and extremely simple to use.

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   2. 98

      Peggy Wposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Is it true that our images on Pinterest go into the creative commons category and can be used by anyone from that point going forward?  I am still waiting for a "yes" or "no" answer.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I believe the big risk with Pinterest is that when an image is re-pinned, it can lose the attribution - so if you've used someone else's CC photo and attributed it properly, it can lose that attribution, which isn't fair on the photographer.
         
         Don't know if that's still true.

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      2. 87

         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         According to Pinterest ToS, you can only pin an image you legally own the rights to or have permission to pin. That means 75% of the pins on Pinterest probably break ToS.
         
         Pinterest also states they have the right to reuse images; however that is THEIR right, I've seen no mention of your photos becoming public property for all takers. However, as I'm sure you know, very few people check the copyright on photos online - so no matter where you place your image online, you pretty much run the risk of it being stolen, cropped, reused or claimed without attribution.
         
         This is why I create MFP images. They're pretty much useless to anyone who doesn't have an article with the exact same title.

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         1. 98

            Peggy Wposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hi WryLilt,
            
            Are you actually putting the letters MFP on each image or something like Pinterest Image...or something related to the hub title followed by the MFP?  Hub titles can sometimes be long.  What do you do in that case?

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3. 81

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   Please forgive me if I refer you to a hypothetical scenario. Since it does not concern an actual hub, I assume I can post the link to the discussion without fear of retribution:
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/103308#post2198536
   
   How would you view the value of the gutter press article, which is being pinned and liked because it tells people what they want to hear, over and above that of the article citing the true facts, which gets idled by your senseless algorithm because it does not collect many views?

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   1. 87

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Get a better made for pinterest image on the true article.

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4. 81

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   Well this is my profile.
   http://pinterest.com/dewines/
   
   I really don't know what I'm supposed to be doing there!

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   1. 77

      classicalgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Here's mine, although I'm not yet captioning my images (too much other stuff to do, I barely manage to get a couple of articles pinned each day). http://pinterest.com/classicalgeek2/ (worried about posting the link as being overly promotional).

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   2. 90

      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's really my biggest problem, too.  I don't know what I should be doing.  Pinning my hubs, yes.  Re-pinning everything in sight?  Following everyone (Wry doesn't)?

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      1. 87

         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I just pin my own hubs. And any MFP I see pop up in my feed. Or occasionally person stuff.
         
         But the main idea of MFPs is to turn your Google traffic into pinners of your work.

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      2. 73

         livewithrichardposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         
         I'm no expert on the matter but from what I can gather, you just name "boards" for things that interest you such as 'sweet deserts' or 'People I Admire' and when you find an image you like, pin it and don't really worry at this point who else can or will see it.  Repin images of those you follow, if they interest you just like you would "like" or "share" an article or hub that interests you. 
         
         Until yesterday, I was only following 3 people but then I just started browsing and following interesting Pinners? and all of a sudden I'm following over a hundred and I think at least 9 or 10 of them are following me back.

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            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            And make sure you categorise your boards.

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5. 91

   Krysantheposted 12 years ago

   First off...for anyone that posted their pinterest link I followed you.  Here's mine if you'd like to follow me:
   
   http://pinterest.com/krysanthe/
   
   Next, I will say that I've had GREAT success from pinterest.  It is my largest traffic source.  That being said, you cannot just go create an account and instantly start to see results.  You need many followers, excellent images, an interest in pinning a variety of things, and the ability to write about what interests other pinners.   
   
   I've seen quite a few great hubs on using pinterest to your advantage.  My advice would be to read them, and then pick and choose from the advice they offer to find out what works for you.

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6. 66

   Ladybird33posted 12 years ago

   I actually just started to use pinterest for my hubs.  I have been active on pinterest over the last year but never connected it to my hubs.  I just started yesterday and today so I hope it does help.  Love the site.  Thanks everyone for these little tidbits, they are wonderful.  My best!

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7. 70

   brakel2posted 12 years ago

   Can I change my category on Pinterest and explain process please?  Can I write on a free photo from Internet?  I have plain photos and no traffic. I need to do better.

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   1. 87

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You need to use photos which are available for alteration. I personally use Morguefile - you can do pretty much what you want with them without attribution.
      
      Go into your board, click on "Edit" at the top, then in the edit section you can choose a board category.

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