I have to confess I am always behind in the greatest, newest internet trends. Luckily I have Amanda as a friend, because she insists I embrace new technology. Like Pinterest.
When I first started seeing these little red "Pin It" buttons on people's blogs, I just ignored them. But after Amanda twisted my arm (figuratively of course) and insisted I would love it, I decided to check it out. And she is right (of course), Pinterest is great!
Pinterest is perfect for bookmarking with a picture those sites/tutorials/inspiration pics/craft ideas/etc. that you want to go revisit when you have a free moment. If you are like me, you bookmark a great article or picture and later can't remember why you ever bookmarked www.iloveshoelaces/19981 and never visit it again. But Pinterest is brilliant because you can pin a link with a photo on a virtual bulletin board, and share it with others! Or visit other people's boards for inspiration.
See a great craft idea, just pin the picture to your Craft board and you can easily find it later. Read a great PSE editing tutorial, pin it to your PSE board. Plus, people can follow your boards and see what you love and repin it on their boards. Or even pin something they think you would love on your board (if you set it up that way).
You can see my boards in the image above. I just started, so expect to see them fill up! You can follow me at CoffeeShop. Also, check out Amanda's Pinterest site too!
I wanted to introduce newbies to Pinterest, but please remember I am a newbie myself, so please keep that in mind when you read this tutorial.
Go visit the Pinterest website. You have to request an invite to start using Pinterest. I was afraid of rejection, so I went through the second option and emailed Amanda and begged her to add me. If you have a friend who uses Pinterest they can invite you. This is a great way to see if your "friend" really cares about you. ;-)
Once you have an account just Login and then click on Account on the right side and you can start adding boards; like Photo Editing, Crafts, Design, Favorite Books, etc. You can also add new boards as you pin new links to your site.
Now how do you start pinning your favorite links? Easy! If the post already has a Pin It button, just click on it, select the board where you want to pin it, and if there is not a description, add one. Click on Pin It and it is instantly on your virtual bulletin board.
But what do you do if you don't see a Pin It Button? Easy!
Go visit Pinterest Goodies and add a little Pin It button on your browser menubar.
I read this great Editing Teenagers in PSE post at Amanda's site, and I decided to Pin It to my Photoshop board. So I clicked on the Pin It button on my menubar.
All of the pictures on that post/website will come up, so just click on the one that you want to pin. I clicked on the one with the before/after of the young man.
I added the pin to my Photoshop Board, and then added a brief description and clicked on Pin It. If you want to add a new board for this pin, just click on the little upside down triangle by the Board name and scroll down until you see "Add a new Board".
Bookmark Pinterest Goodies and scroll down to "Pin It" Button for Websites. Add the URL of the post you want pinned, and the URL of the image (if you don't know, just right click on the image in your post you want pinned and then select "copy image address" or something to that effect).
Finally, add a Description of the pin. Then copy the html code.
Go to your html post editor (Blogger in my screenshot) and then paste the code in your post. I paste it under the image I want my readers to pin.
Easy, right!
I hope this encourages you to check out Pinterest. It is a great way to organize your favorite links and share them with others. And thanks Amanda, you are the best!
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