What Makes a Good Hub for Pinterest.com - Pinterest Tips for Hubbers Seeking More Traffic

Combining two things you love in life is awesome! Rum and coke, chocolate and ice-cream, vacations and family - the list goes on!

So why not HubPages and Pinterest.com? I went to find out what makes a good hub that will succeed on Pinterest. The tips and tricks I learned will help you create a successful pin and extend your HubPages brand.

The three main factors that will determine success are:

1. Targeted to the female demographic.
2. Well written and authoritative article
3. Outstanding pictures that are "pinnable"

If you can succeed in those three areas, your hubs stand a very good chance at finding success on Pinterest. I looked for articles on HubPages that met those three criteria, listed them below, and pinned each on a special board. This article will discuss each of these criteria in detail and follow along on how these perform.

So far, Pinterest has been dominated by women. Look at the picture below and see the specific demographics.

Why is this important to you? If you write hubs on repairing the brakes on a 1965 Mustang, don't expect that your pin will attract a lot of female users and get repinned a lot. On the other hand, a pin with a fun hairstyle or cute sweaters or women-dominated crafts will stand a much better chance of succeeding.

Not sure what will get a lot of traction? Look at the "Popular" pins as shown to the right.

It goes without saying that a good article is important. Imagine the disappointment in clicking a picture with a champagne strawberry slushy only to find that the underlying article did not give the recipe!

Hubpages wrote an interesting article on what makes a stellar hub. They developed those guidelines using historical data. Here are the long term results of articles that met those challenging expectations. Needless to say, they have performed very well, on average.

I cannot stress enough the importance of pictures for your hubs and for Pinterest. Pinterest.com is a visual bookmarking site that relies on the power of a good picture to gain social momentum.

You've heard it in the HubPages help section - a good quality picture will make a world of difference for your hub. Not having a good picture is a deal-breaker for any chance of success on Pinterest!

Here are a few tips and tricks for including high quality pictures.

• Take them yourself - don't use pictures unless you have permission from the owner.
• Make them cute! Who wants to repin a low quality or blurry picture?
• The picture must be reflective of the linked article. Have it "tell the story" of the content of the article.
• It should target your audience. Will a quilter repin a poorly stitched block? Will a knitter pin socks that were stitched incorrectly? The picture should attract the people you target.

You'll hear it a lot, but the picture should be "pinnable." The best way to see that is to analyze other examples that have seen success. Click on the "popular" filter on the home page and see what pins have had the most engagement. Can you see what that photographer did to attract people?

I created a board on Pinterest and added the following hubs that I felt offered the best combination of good pictures and high quality and informative writing. On 11 February, I added the board called Cute Ideas from HubPages. Please feel free to follow it.

• Crocheted Earrings from MoiraCrochets
• Winter Ice Sun Catchers from Tracy Lynn Conway
• 1940's Clothing Trends from Dolores Monet
• Bridesmaid Hairstyles from Jane Grey
• 3D Paper Quilling by Lady Rain
• How to Knit a Sock by Mortaine
• Making Sock Puppets with Kids by K9Keystrokes
• Halloween Food Ideas by iBlue

The one thing I did incorrectly was to categorize the board to DIY and Crafts. Not all of the articles above would fit in the category, but most of them would.

I added text describing each that represented what the article was about and what searchers would want to find when searching. It is certainly subject to interpretation.

Let's see how they perform!

There are three options available to Pinterest users:

• Repinning - using this option allows the user to add the pin to one of her own boards and, as a result, is shared amongst all of her network. It can quickly add up to a fast a furious viral phenomenon!
• Liking - Just like Facebook, a user can give a vote of confidence by clicking on the Like button.
• Commenting - This is the least frequently used option, but is arguably the most powerful. A user adds their own commentary to a pin and it can foster additional conversations.

When you "LIKE" a pin, it will be noted in the "LIKE" section of your profile page. That's it.

On the other hand, when you "REPIN," a copy of the pin is saved onto any of your boards and you may edit the description.

Success on Pinterest does not happen overnight. It takes time, energy and a keen eye for desirable photos.

1. You may get a short term burst in traffic as people pin your pictures. You can see that by looking on the stats page of your hub.
2. You gain a back link which may help your rankings in the Search Engines (although, I doubt this one back link will make much of a difference).
3. You can see what succeeds and what does not. Watch the popular pins and analyze what they have in common. Where did your pins not perform as well as you expected? Modify the pictures and repin them! See if that helps.
4. Monitor trends. Search Pinterest for "mustache." This has been very, very popular recently. Can you take advantage of that for any articles? Your Etsy shop?
5. Increase traffic to your blog or hub by interacting with your followers. Done well, and these techniques will bring viewers back routinely. Hands down, frequent, returning visitors are better than one-time clicks. Build a community and people will eagerly await your next post.
6. Get ready for the long term benefits. People are starting to become more savvy in searching for pins. Put yourself in the mind of a searcher and make sure that the terms you would use are included in the description. Without good search terms, you will NOT find success.