Saturday, December 31, 2011

Welcome to Pinterest: Beginners Guide


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".

Success!!!!


But how do you add a Pin It button to your own post?


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!

Want all of my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one simple download AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

16 comments:

  1. I've been dying to check out Pinterest! I requested an invite weeks ago. Would you be willing to send one my way?

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  2. I would love to try it, but it will have to be after I finish up my consulting job this spring. Thanks for the great instructions!

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  3. I was wondering how you were adding that little pin in button to your blog post images - thanks so much for posting this!!

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  4. Sure Amber, what is your email address?

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  5. Oh yay! mambosarelle@gmail.com. Thank you.

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  6. Well i have had a pinterest account for about six months but didnt get it. this is an excellent tutorial on how to use it. Way better than pinterest itself has to offer. Thanks so much.

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  7. Hi,if you ever find a way to put a Pin it button on an iPad I would be grateful if you could share it.My husband and I spent hours trying to find an easy way to do it.There doesn't seem to be a provision for it at the moment,just lap & desktops.
    Karen

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  8. Love Pinterest. Just started but its a great way to put all the pictures I would normally have kept on my computer.

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  9. I found your website from Pinterest! I'm so glad too, thanks for all you do!

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  10. Thanks so much for explaining Pinterest better. I've been trying for weeks to get the button to work on my blog and it has been frustrating. Thanks!!!!!

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  11. I love Pinterest! But do I have to go through all those steps everytime I'd like a blog post to be pinable? Seems like there should be a way to just always have the "Pin" button at the bottom of each post just like the share to facebook button.

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  12. I love Pinterest! My daughter got me turned on to it and I am stoked about it! I always bookmarked things I saw that I wanted to remember but then I would forget where I put them. Pinterest gives me an opportunity to save them in one place but also to share and peruse other pinterest postings to get ideas and creative juice for my blogs and daily life. Thank you for your blog which I love so much! God Bless!

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  13. Do you realize what a monster you have created? I am a website junky to begin with, but now, the possibilities are endless. Thanks for your wonderful tutorial also, now if I ever do get an invite, I will know what to do.

    My email is 4kimmer4 at gmail.com, just in case you might want to invite me.

    Thanks many times over for all the wonderful information that you supply to us.

    Kimmer

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  14. Kimmer and ambersarelle, invite sent!!!

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  15. I found some code to insert the button into each post! I did it! www.leslielynnphotography.blogspot.com
    I found it here...
    http://www.kelseycreates.com/2011/05/add-pinterest-pin-button-to-you-blog.html

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  16. I love your blog and I love Pinterest. Recently I used your Color Palette template to "pick" colors that I love from a screen shot I took of some of my pins. You can see it here:
    http://thewrittenpicture.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/pinterest-swatches.html

    I love seeing all the color combinations as I'm pinning and also I keep finding that I gravitate toward pinning the same colors over and over.

    Anyway, I just thought you might get a kick out of it :)

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Rita