The Best Pinterest Courses & Tools for Bloggers & Small Business Owners
(Beginner to Pro)
Affiliate Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links where we earn a commission if you sign up through them. However this in no way affects our recommendation. We actually all use the products, services, and courses we recommend.
You’ve been searching for the best Pinterest courses and tools to help you grow your business. You’ve seen Pin Practical, Pinning Perfect, Pin To Profits, Pinterest VA and many more. It’s all making your head spin! How do you know which Pinterest courses and tools you need for the exact step you’re on in your business – without reading long sales pages, testimonials and bonus info?
We’ve been working with Pinterest for years now and have checked out all the top products for our personal and business use. We put together this resource to make it quicker and easier for you to find the right Pinterest courses and tools. Each section includes a brief description, what topics are covered, who the course or tool is for, who it’s not for, and why. We know you’ll find it helpful!
To get started with finding the right Pinterest help, choose a button below:
For Bloggers and Small Business Owners Who Are Relatively New to Using Pinterest for Driving Traffic and Marketing Their Business
This free primer is for beginners wanting to get started on using Pinterest for marketing purposes. It includes useful information to help you build a solid Pinterest foundation.
Author
McKinzie Bean. Pinterest strategist, blogger at Moms Make Cents. McKinzie excels in analytics and teaches how to build successful online blogs and businesses based on metrics.
Pinterest Primer is free and covers:
- How to create an optimized profile
- Strategies for creating pins that go viral
- How to minimize your time spent on Pinterest for maximum effect
- Pinterest truths and myths
- Common Pinterest mistakes marketers make
This course is a good fit if…
You are new to Pinterest marketing. You’re looking for foundational steps to get started on the platform and set your business up for success.
This course is not a good fit if...
You already have an optimized Pinterest profile, have a branded pin strategy in place and have learned how to leverage your time on the platform by scheduling and batching work.
This course teaches you how to create an optimal foundation for your business Pinterest account. You’ll master the fundamentals of Pinterest and be ready to level up your marketing on the platform once you complete it.
Author
McKinzie Bean. Pinterest strategist, blogger at Moms Make Cents. McKinzie excels in analytics and teaches how to build successful online blogs and businesses based on metrics.
Pin to Profits Foundations includes 20+ video tutorials, lessons, and worksheets, spreadsheets and examples covering:
- Profile Development
- Rich Pins
- Account Optimization
- Viral Pin Creation
- Traffic Strategies
This course is a good fit if…
You’ve completed a basic or primer Pinterest course or are self taught on the high level workings of the Pinterest platform.
This course is not a good fit if...
You are totally new to marketing on Pinterest (as in have never used the platform even for personal use) – OR – you are somewhat experienced in marketing your business on Pinterest. If you are new, you may want to consider McKinzie’s free Pinterest Primer. If you are experienced, you may want to take a look at her more advanced Pinterest course.
This is an accelerated 9-day Pinterest challenge to help you boost your Pinterest strategy in less than 2 weeks.
Author
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing (she’s amazing with numbers, metrics and using them to market your business better). Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
Pin Practical Accelerate leads you through the exact steps you need to take to build your brand on Pinterest and covers:
- 23-pages of no nonsense, practical advice
- 3 video tutorials
- 2 supplemental spreadsheets
- Daily emails to keep you on track
- Lifetime updates
This course is a good fit if…
You do well with participating in challenges where you need to complete steps that build upon each other for 9 days in a row.
This course is not a good fit if...
You’re not sure if you will have a block of time to work on the Challenge for 9 days in a row.
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For Experienced Bloggers and Small Business Owners Who Want to Increase Traffic to Their Website or Blog
Using Pinterest
The name of this course might sound a little “hypey” but it’s actually one of the best, most comprehensive, frequently updated (important!) courses out there.
Authors
Alex Nerney & Lauren McManus, Co-Founders, Create and Go, a collection of courses to help beginning bloggers become successful.
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche covers:
- Setting up your Pinterest Profile properly
- Automating Blog Traffic with Pin Scheduling
- Designing Your Own Customized Pins
- Collaborating on Group Boards
- Tracking Progress and Analytics
- Using Pinterest For email Collection
This course is a good fit if…
You have a website or blog and plan to use Pinterest to drive traffic to it. Just to be clear, building traffic on Pinterest does not happen overnight. But once you master the strategies in the course and start building momentum, traffic can really snowball.
This course is not a good fit if...
You don’t have an established website or blog yet and / or you don’t have at least a high level understanding of Pinterest and how to use it to market your business. You don’t have time to implement strategies taught in a comprehensive Pinterest course.
Note: Alex and Lauren have created several other courses to help bloggers and small business owners. You can check those out here.
Alex and Lauren also run a super helpful, well-monitored private Facebook page to support their 18,000+ students. Students of their other courses (i.e., Build and Launch Your Blog) also spend time in this group which has an energetic, entrepreneurial vibe, so it’s a great place to get answers on all things blogging, online business building, Pinterest and more.
A 9-module online course created for bloggers and small business owners.
Authors
Anna Luther, owner of My Life and Kids, influencer and social media consultant
Melissa Culbertson, Blog Clarity and Assistant Manager of Digital Brand Engagement at Burt’s Bees
Pinning Perfect covers:
- Laying the Foundation for Pinterest Success
- Creating Pin Descriptions that Drive Traffic
- Creating Click Worthy Images for Pinterest
- Using Boards to Grow Your Traffic
- Making Your Blog Pinterest-Friendly
- Hacking Your Way to Pinnable Content
- Putting It All Together
- Scheduling and Leveraging Your Pins
- Pinterest, Tailwind and Google Analytics
This course is a good fit for…
- All levels of bloggers who want more traffic
- Shop owners who also have blogs (Etsy, TpT, etc.)
- Pinterest Virtual assistants and Pinterest Managers
- Business owners who aren’t sure if Pinterest works for their niche (it does!)
- Those who understand that Pinterest takes time but it’s worth the wait
This course is not a good fit for...
- Hobby bloggers and hobby site owners
- Business owners wanting to learn about Promoted Pins (ads)
- Anyone who thinks Pinterest provides instant results
Note: this course is updated every 6 months. Any Pinterest related course you choose needs to be updated at least this often as Pinterest is constantly changing.
Comprehensive course that teaches how to drive Pinterest traffic to your website or blog using researched keywords, and what to do with your customers once they arrive.
Authors
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing (she’s amazing with numbers, metrics and using them to market your business better). Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
Pin Practical Masterclass covers:
- The fact that Pinterest is a visual search engine not a social media platform
- Keywords are the key to success (SEO)
- Pinterest’s strong domain authority with Google and what it means for your business
- Using a scheduling tool for Pinterest marketing
- Whether group boards still matter
- How many times to pin per day
- How to find relevant keywords
The frequently updated Pinning Practical Masterclass currently has 6 comprehensive modules. You’ll learn everything from the basics to using Pinterest to grow your email list.
Modules included in the course:
- Pinterest for Beginners
- Growth With Keywords
- Creating Friendly Images
- Pinning Strategy and Automation
- Pinterest Analytics
- From Pinterest to Your Email List
This course is a good fit if…
You’re a blogger, small business owner, ecommerce shop owner, digital product developer, social media manager, Pinterest virtual assistant or Pinterest manager.
And you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and put Pinterest to work for your business or the company you work with.
This course is not a good fit if…
You don’t have time to dig in and do the work, implement the strategies, test things, measure results and pivot as needed. Pinterest marketing is a long term approach that requires diligence and patience.
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For Bloggers and Small Business Owners Who Want to Increase Productivity with Pinterest-friendly Tools and Apps
The Tailwind app saves you time by scheduling pins to Pinterest, pinning at the best times for engagement, growing faster with Tribes, and getting actionable analytics (in addition to those you get from Pinterest).
Tailwind includes:
- Smart calendar (knows optimal times to pin for your audience)
- Content discovery via recommendations
- Multi-board pinning
- Bulk uploading
- Tribe communities
- Drafts area to work in
- Drag & Drop calendar
- Browser Extension for easy scheduling from any blog or website
- Mobile scheduling
- Smart Loops (advanced growth tools)
- Analytics (above and beyond the analytics that Pinterest provides)
Tailwind is one of only 3 scheduling partners approved by Pinterest. If you do choose a scheduling platform, be absolutely sure that it’s Pinterest approved!
This app is a good fit if…
You are a blogger or small business owner and you’re ready to leverage your Pinterest marketing efforts. If you outsource, your Pinterest VA can further leverage time by managing Tailwind for you.
This app is not a good fit if...
You pin manually and are satisfied with your results.
This course is designed to teach you how to use the Tailwind app, which is a Pinterest approved scheduling tool to help speed up your pinning and maximize your presence on Pinterest.
Pin to Profits Tailwind includes six key elements:
- How to use the dashboard to determine how your Pinterest strategy is working
- How to use Tailwind Tribes to drive traffic to your blog or website
- How to use Tailwind to easily find shareable content
- How to effectively set up your pinning schedule
- How to create Board Lists to save you time
- How to use Tailwind analytics to improve your strategy
Modules included in the course:
- How to use the weekly summary
- How to use Tailwind Tribes
- How to use Content Discover
- How to use Tailwind’s Smartloop
- How to use the Publishing and Scheduling tools
- How to use Tailwind Analytics
This course is a good fit if…
You are a blogger or online business owner and want an immediate understanding of how to use Tailwind.
This course is not a good fit if...
You haven’t yet learned the fundamentals of Pinterest like creating high-quality graphics, proper keywording, installing rich pins, etc..
Efficient dashboard that pulls all your Pinterest metrics into one easy to read and understandable place within Google Analytics.
Developer
Kristi Hill of kristihill.com, a blog learning platform for new bloggers and online business owners
Pinterest Dashboard makes it easy to:
- Analyze Pinterest clicks
- See what pins are performing their best
- Review which posts people seem most interested in
- Determine what type of content your Pinterest audience likes best
You can also see how promoted pins are doing (if you are using them).
This dashboard is a good fit for…
Bloggers, small business owners, PVAs, Pinterest managers and anyone else who wants to be able to quickly read and understand how strategies you’re implementing are performing on Pinterest.
This dashboard is not a good fit for...
Those looking for in-depth Pinterest metrics within Google Analytics.
The Pinterest Insights & Stats course for those who need some help understanding and optimizing their traffic from Pinterest. In other words, the course makes it easier to understand Pinterest traffic so you can leverage it.
Author
Kristi Hill of kristihill.com, a popular blog that teaches new bloggers and online business owners how to grow their blog
This course covers:
- The basics for setting filters and goals
- What pins are sending you traffic
- Which of your posts are doing the best on Pinterest
- What you should do with the traffic you’re getting
- How to track and monitor pins, pageviews, and growth
This course is a good fit for…
You need help understanding and optimizing your traffic from Pinterest.
This course is not a good fit for...
You need help with your overall Pinterest Marketing. Please see other courses listed on this page for other kinds of Pinterest help.
This course used to be called Pin Practical Affiliate Masterclass and is all about affiliate marketing and Pinterest. It teaches you how to leverage the free traffic you’re already getting from Pinterest to make money on affiliate products and services you recommend.
Author
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing (she’s amazing with numbers, metrics and using them to market your business better). Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
Pin Practical Influence covers:
- How to earn passive income by using affiliate links on Pinterest
- How to profit from big affiliate promotions (like the launch of a course) using Pinterest
- How to use affiliate links on Pinterest with promoted pins (ads)
- Affiliate marketing strategies specifically for Pinterest
- Real examples of successful affiliate funnels
This course is a good fit if…
You have at least some familiarity and experience with affiliate marketing. You actively use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog or website. You want to increase income by combining affiliate marketing strategies and Pinterest marketing strategies to add extra income streams in your online business.
This course is not a good fit if...
You have no experience with affiliate marketing, Pinterest marketing or both.
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For Bloggers, Small Business Owners, Pinterest Marketers, Pinterest Virtual Assistants, Pinterest Managers and VAs Who Want to Learn How to Implement Pinterest Promoted Pins (ads) Effectively
This free Challenge is packed with incredible value. Its primary goal is to help you develop a solid Pinterest strategy for using Promoted Pins (ads).
Authors
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing. Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
The Pin Practical Ads 3 Day Challenge covers how to:
- find the right keywords to target for your ad campaign
- leverage exact phrase and broad match keywords to optimize results
- create pins that convert
- develop a solid strategy and ad funnel
- target the right audienc
This Challenge is a good fit if…
You’re comfortable using Pinterest for marketing purposes and understand the difference between organic marketing and advertising on Pinterest. You do well with challenges where you need to complete steps that build upon each other for 3 days straight.
This Challenge is not a good fit if...
You’re not sure if you will have a block of time to work on the Challenge for 3 days in a row. You’re new to Pinterest and have little to no experience using it for marketing and traffic generation.
The Primer is step by step “101” strategy for getting started with Promoted Pins (Pinterest ads).
Authors
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing. Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
Pin Practical Promotions Primer covers:
- 40+ pages of step-by-step actionable advice
- Video tutorials
- Supplemental spreadsheets and worksheets
- Lifetime updates
- Voucher toward the Advanced Pin Practical Promotions Course
This course is a good fit if…
You have some knowledge of organic Pinterest marketing and are just getting started with Promoted Pins (advertising). You are looking for up-to-date, straightforward Promoted Pin strategies.
This course is not a good fit if...
You are looking to learn how to market organically on Pinterest (not advertise). For this type of learning please see some of the courses [in this section].
Note: This course is up to date with respect to Pinterest’s IPO, new analytics and metrics for advertisers.
This course is the most comprehensive Pinterest ads education currently available. You’ll learn how to strategize, implement, analyze and refine promoted pin campaigns at a cost much less than other popular social media platforms and that earn you a profit.
Authors
Monica Froese is a professional blogger and Pinterest marketing expert with an advanced degree in finance and marketing. Monica also blogs at Redefining Mom, helping moms thrive in both motherhood and business. Her impressive marketing and advertising experience includes working with big brands like Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.
Pin Practical Promotions covers:
- run effective promoted pin campaigns based on specific goals for your business.
- find the right keywords for your campaign to explode your results
- create click-worthy Pinterest images that convert
- lay out a reliable strategy with proven funnels
- make sure you are targeting the right audience with your campaign
This Challenge is a good fit if…
You have a solid understanding of how Pinterest works for bloggers and / or small business owners. You’re ready to dive in and learn how to do advertising on Pinterest. Or you’ve been using Promoted Pins (ads) but have yet to see a strong ROI.
This Challenge is not a good fit if...
You are new to using Pinterest for business and / or are new to advertising on search engines. This is a “next level” Pinterest advertising course for bloggers, small business owners, digital marketers and product sellers who are looking for intermediate to advanced Pinterest advertising strategies.
Note: This course is only open for enrollment a few times a year. It’s free to get on the waiting list. In the meantime, we recommend the Pin Practical Promotions Primer.
This course is what we’d consider a beginner-to-intermediate course on using Promoted Pins. It does require some familiarity in using Pinterest for marketing a business. It consists of 6 modules that teach how to use Promoted Pins (ads) to drive more traffic, leads and sales to your website and online business.
Authors
McKinzie Bean, Pinterest strategist, blogger at Moms Make Cents. McKinzie excels in analytics and teaches how to build successful online blogs and businesses based on metrics.
Pin to Profits Promoted Pins covers:
- Keywords, types of campaigns and ways to use them
- Budgets, cost per click, bidding
- Audiences, custom audiences, using your email list, similar audiences
- How to create your ad, Pinterest rules and guidelines, split testing ads
- Analytics, conversion pixel, event codes, tracking email optins, interpreting results
- Advanced applications, list building campaign and funnel, affiliate marketing campaign, retargeting
This Challenge is a good fit if…
You’re relatively new to Promoted Pins and are looking for an in depth course that walks you step-by-step through the process of learning how to determine the best keywords for reaching your audience, through building a campaign funnel.
This Challenge is not a good fit if...
You already have experience using Promoted Pins, creating campaigns and funnels and retargeting – OR – you are interested in learning the free organic side of Pinterest marketing.
Note: This course is up to date with respect to Pinterest’s IPO, new analytics and metrics for advertisers.
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For Bloggers, Small Business Owners, Pinterest Marketers, Pinterest Virtual Assistants, Pinterest Managers and VAs Who Want to Learn How to Make Beautiful Pins Using Canva
This course teaches how to design eye-catching Pinterest pins that generate re-pins, clicks, traffic and income.
Author
Kristin Rappaport – Bogger at Applecart Lane Creative and amazing Graphic Designer who teaches bloggers and online business owners the graphic design skills they need to look professional and stand out online.
Pins Made Pretty shows you how to:
- determine your ideal Pinterest pin style
- create a mood board using Canva
- choose your colors, fonts and decide on imagery
- create your own set of templates
- maximize the effectiveness of your newly designed Pinterest pins
The course also includes:
- step-by-step design process that will make the pin design process easy!
- before and after pin transformations
- common pin design mistakes to avoid
- pin design techniques
- fail-proof pin layouts
- 100+ inspiring pins
- advanced Pinterest pin design techniques
This course is a good fit if…
You are a beginner to intermediate level pin designer. You want to take your pins to the next level and get them converting more for your business (or Pinterest accounts you manage). You enjoy pin design but struggle in some areas of the pin design process.
This course is not a good fit if...
You don’t enjoy designing pins and / or don’t have the patience to learn how (you can always hire us!).
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For Bloggers and Small Business Owners Who Want to Earn or Increase Affiliate Marketing Income on Their Website or Blog
This course teaches how to leverage your affiliate marketing experience and make affiliate sales directly on Pinterest. Skip the usual steps of writing tons of blog posts to build an audience and instead target the already targeted market right on the platform.
Author
McKinzie Bean, Pinterest strategist, blogger at Moms Make Cents. McKinzie excels in analytics and teaches how to build successful online blogs and businesses based on metrics.
Pin to Profits Affiliate Marketing is a step-by-step course that walks you through the process of increasing clicks and commissions through affiliate marketing directly on Pinterest. The course covers:
- The fundamentals of affiliate marketing on Pinterest
- Optimizing your Pinterest account
- Branding for Pinterest
- Implementing Pinterest affiliate marketing
- Pin affiliate tips for bloggers
This course is a good fit if…
You have affiliate marketing as well as Pinterest marketing experience and want to learn how to leverage both to increase your affiliate income.
This course is not a good fit if...
You are new to affiliate marketing or Pinterest marketing and are hoping to make money fast. This is an intermediate course and takes time to implement, test, keyword, SEO, and tag before any profits start to come in.
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For Bloggers and Small Business Owners Looking to Learn What Opt-ins to Create that Will Help Build Their Email List
This course teaches what we all know we need to do… build a list. If list building seems elusive to you take a look at what’s covered and see if it resonates with you.
Author
McKinzie Bean, Pinterest strategist, blogger at Moms Make Cents. McKinzie excels in analytics and teaches how to build successful online blogs and businesses based on metrics.
Pin to Profits Affiliate Marketing shows you how to create lucrative op-tins, set up high converting landing pages and turn your audience into customers. The course covers:
- How to come up with and create lead magnets and optins
- What the elements of a successful landing page are and how to create one
- An introduction to sales funnels and how to use them to increase conversions
- Advanced strategies including creating a profitable email course
- Bonus that includes templates for creating optins
This course is a good fit if…
You do not have an opt-in in place to encourage people to signup to your email list. You need step by step guidance to come up with a lead magnet, develop it, implement it and then learn how to increase conversions.
This course is not a good fit if...
You already have a lead magnet in place and understand how to drive traffic to it to increase email signups. You are looking for intermediate to advanced strategies for leveling up your opt-ins and increasing conversions.
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Whether you’re a blogger or small business owner, new to Pinterest or an old pro when it comes to pinning, we hope you’ll find this resource for the best courses and tools helpful! Be sure to bookmark it!
Know of another Pinterest course, tool or resource we need to add to the list? Let us know by shooting us an email via our contact form below!
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