How to Make Money on Pinterest with Amazon

Pairing Pinterest with Amazon's affiliate program is a smart and effective way for creators, bloggers, and aspiring entrepreneurs to generate income. This guide walks you through exactly how to set it up, from getting your Amazon Associates account ready to creating Pins that people want to click and buy from. We'll cover picking the right products, following the rules so your account stays healthy, and building a content strategy that earns money for weeks, months, and even years to come.

What Makes Pinterest and Amazon a Perfect Match?

Before getting into the how-to, it helps to understand why this combination works so well. Unlike other social media platforms that are about what’s happening right now, Pinterest is future-focused. Users come to the platform to plan - their next home renovation, their upcoming vacation, their family's meals, or their new wardrobe. They are actively searching for inspiration and products to help them achieve these goals. They have their wallets out, or at least in mind.

This is where Amazon comes in. As the world’s largest online retailer, it sells nearly everything your audience could want. More importantly, people trust Amazon. When a user clicks a Pin that takes them to a familiar Amazon product page, there's very little friction. They already have an account, their payment info is saved, and they know the checkout process.

Your job is to bridge that gap. You’re not just a seller, you're a curator and a source of inspiration. You find the best products on Amazon and showcase them on Pinterest in a way that answers a pinner’s needs. That’s the foundation of a successful Pinterest and Amazon affiliate strategy.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Amazon Associates Account

First things first, you need to be an approved Amazon Associate. This is Amazon's official affiliate program. While the sign-up process is straightforward, there are a few requirements you need to meet.

To join, you need a "qualifying site," which means an established website, blog, YouTube channel, or another approved platform. You can't just create a new Pinterest account from scratch and use that as your sole qualifying property, Amazon needs to see that you have an active, content-rich online presence. A simple blog with even a handful of original, helpful articles in your niche is often enough to get started.

Here’s the basic process:

• Go to the Amazon Associates home page and click "Sign up."
• Fill out your account information, including your name, address, and payee information.
• Provide the URL of your website, blog, or YouTube channel. You'll also need to briefly describe what your site is about and the type of Amazon products you intend to promote.
• Once you submit your application, you get probationary approval. You then have 180 days to generate at least three qualifying sales. If you meet this requirement, your account will be fully approved. If not, your account will be closed, but you can always reapply once you've improved your site and traffic strategy.

After you’re approved, you’ll get access to the Associates Central dashboard, which is where you can create affiliate links and track your earnings.

Step 2: Understanding Amazon’s Rules for Pinterest

Many people get banned from the Amazon Associates program because they don't follow the rules, especially when it comes to social media. Following these guidelines isn’t optional, it's what will keep your income stream safe.

You MUST Disclose Your Affiliate Relationship

This is non-negotiable. Transparency is required by both Amazon and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). On Pinterest, this means adding a clear disclosure to your Pin description. This can be as simple as:

• #ad
• #commissionsearned
• #AmazonAssociate
• A simple sentence like, "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."

Put this disclosure right in the Pin description where it’s impossible to miss. Hiding it won’t cut it.

Don't Hide Your Links

Amazon wants the user to know they are clicking a link that will take them to Amazon.com. This means you should avoid using generic third-party link shorteners like bit.ly to mask your affiliate links. The good news is that Amazon provides its own link shortener (it looks like this: amzn.to/xxxxxxx), which is perfectly fine to use and helps keep your Pin descriptions clean.

Do Not Use Raw Amazon Product Images

This is one of the biggest mistakes beginners make. You cannot simply go to an Amazon product listing, save the product images, and then upload them to create your own Pin. This is a violation of their terms of service.

You have a few legitimate options:

1. Use your own photos. This is the best approach. If you’ve purchased the product, take your own high-quality lifestyle shots of it in use. This looks way more authentic and performs better anyway.
2. Create a custom graphic. Use a tool like Canva to design a Pin on a blank canvas, adding your own background and text. You can add a photo you took yourself or create a text-based "product roundup" Pin.
3. Use Amazon's SiteStripe tool. The SiteStripe toolbar, which appears at the top of Amazon.com when you're logged into your Associates account, has an "Image" option. This allows you to generate HTML for an image link that you can legally embed on your blog, but it’s not designed for uploading directly to Pinterest. For Pinterest, creating your own unique pin designs is always the winning strategy.

Step 3: Finding Profitable Products and Niches

Simply linking to random products won't work. The most successful Amazon affiliate marketers on Pinterest focus on a specific niche and curate products that genuinely serve that audience.

How to Choose a Niche

A good niche is one where you have some interest or expertise. It's much easier to create compelling content about stuff you actually care about. More importantly, it should be visually-driven. Niches that do extremely well on Pinterest include:

• Home Decor &, Organization
• Fashion &, Style
• DIY &, Crafts
• Parenting &, Baby Products
• Gardening &, Homesteading
• Kitchen Gadgets &, Recipes
• Camping &, Outdoor Gear
• Healthy Living &, Fitness

How to Find Products to Promote

Start by brainstorming products you personally use and love that fit your niche. Authentic recommendations are always the most powerful. Beyond that, use Amazon itself for research:

• Check Amazon Best Sellers: These are the most popular products site-wide or in specific categories. Promoting things that are already selling well is a great head start.
• Explore "Movers &, Shakers": This list shows products that have seen the biggest gains in sales rank over the last 24 hours. It's a goldmine for finding trending items.
• Look for Groupings: Don't just promote one product. Create Pins and ideas around product collections. For example, instead of just a Pin for one cool coffee maker, create a Pin for a "Cozy Coffee Corner Setup" that links to the coffee maker, your favorite mugs, a special syrup brand, and a nice storage container.

Step 4: Designing Pins That Drive Clicks and Sales

Your Pins need to do two things: capture attention in a fast-scrolling feed and persuade someone that your idea or product is worth checking out. Here’s how to do that.

Optimize Your Pinterest Profile First

Before you pin, make sure your house is in order. You should be using a Pinterest Business account (it's free and gives you access to analytics). Fill out your bio with keywords that describe your niche. Create well-named, relevant boards to organize your Pins (e.g., "Minimalist Living Room Ideas," "Meal Prep Tools," "Boho Chic Fashion").

Types of Pins for Amazon Affiliates

There are two main formats that work great for affiliate marketing:

• Standard Pins: These are static image Pins. They are perfect for "Get the Look" concepts, product collages (created by you), or high-quality photos of a single item in a lifestyle setting. This is where a lot of your direct-to-product affiliate links will go.
• Video Pins: Don’t underestimate video. A short reel of you unboxing a product, demonstrating a kitchen gadget, or showing off how you've styled an item in your home is incredibly engaging. Video Pins tend to get more views and can drive significant traffic.

Pin Design Best Practices

• Always use a vertical aspect ratio. The ideal size is 1000 x 1500 pixels (a 2:3 ratio). This takes up the most space on a mobile screen.
• Use top-notch visuals. Blurry, dark, or generic photos won't cut it. Your Pins need to look inspiring and high-quality.
• Add a text overlay. A clear, bold headline is often what stops the scroll. For example: "5 Amazon finds that make small kitchens feel bigger."
• Subtly brand your Pins. Add your logo or website URL at the bottom of your Pins. This builds brand recognition and helps prevent people from stealing your content.

Step 5: The Smart Way to Pin and Drive Traffic

Creating great Pins is half the battle. Now you need to make sure people can find them.

Write Keyword-Rich Descriptions

Remember, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Think about what your target audience would type into the search bar. Use the search bar itself on Pinterest to see what autofills. If you type "home office," it might suggest "home office ideas," "home office organization," or "home office decor." Add these relevant keywords naturally into your Pin descriptions.

A good description explains what the Pin is about, uses keywords, adds a call to action (like "Shop the look!"), and includes your all-important affiliate disclosure.

Pin a Mix of Content

Your Pinterest boards shouldn't just be a wall of Amazon products. A healthy and helpful account pins a mix of content:

• Your Pins with direct affiliate links.
• Pins that link to your own blog posts (which can also contain affiliate links).
• Pins from other creators that your audience would find valuable.

This approach makes your profile a genuinely useful resource, encouraging more people to follow you and engage with your content.

Stay Consistent

Success with Pinterest affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It's much better to pin 3-5 high-quality Pins every single day than to pin 50 times in one day and then go silent for a week. Consistency signals to the Pinterest algorithm that you’re an active, valuable creator. The more you pin, the wider your reach becomes, and the more evergreen traffic your old Pins will generate over time. This is where true passive income is built.

Final Thoughts

Combining the search and discovery power of Pinterest with the massive product catalog and trust of Amazon is a proven recipe for earning income online. It depends on providing genuine value, creating beautiful and helpful content, clearly disclosing your partnerships, and sticking with it over the long haul. Take your time to build a strong foundation, and you can create a reliable income stream that works for you around the clock.

Staying consistent with your pinning schedule is what separates successful accounts from the ones that fizzle out. We designed Postbase to make this part effortless. Our visual content calendar helps you plan your Pins weeks in advance, and with our reliable scheduling, you can be sure your content goes live at the right time, every time, helping you build that long-term passive income stream without the daily grind.