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The Code For Blocking Pinterest … And 12 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use It

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There are a lot of photographers out there up in arms over Pinterest.

Pinterest allows people to create visual pin boards by finding things online and “pinning” them to a board on their Pinterest account. Because Pinterest is a visual social site, what attracts you to click on things is the photograph. Yet you can look through the images on Pinterest without having to go back to the site of origination to view who’s images they are. Which means there are many photographers upset by copyright infringement – can people really “move” your images around and share them in a variety of ways without crediting you, the photographer?

Dig Deeper: How To Boost Your Photography Business With Pinterest
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Like any good business, Pinterest heard what people where saying and decided to offer a solution. So if any photographers are out there and upset by the way Pinterest lets you use images, you can now stop people from pinning your photographs and images.

Head over to Pinterest and copy the code for disabling the pinning technique. Then when anyone online tries to pin from your site, they will see the message:

Sounds great, right? After all, you wouldn’t want people sharing your photographs all across the web for free, right?

We started our Pinterest account less than two months ago. In the past 30 days, almost 2 percent of all of our online traffic has come from Pinterest. Which means we’ve gained well over a thousand views to our VirtualPhotographyStudio site in a way that wasn’t available to us back in 2011. We would have missed those connections without focusing our efforts on connecting with people through Pinterest.

Reason #1 Gain traffic to your site

Why are you online in the first place? If its simply to have an online brochure to send people to, Pinterest might not matter. But if you are trying to attract new people whom you wouldn’t have met any other way, Pinterest is a great way to do so. Remember, Pinterest is heavily weighted towards women. If you are targeting women, Pinterest holds their attention.

Reason #2 You can share posing ideas

With Pinterest, you can build as many boards as you choose, and can label them in a way that makes sense to your followers. Why not create a posing board. Then your clients can find images they love and ask you to duplicate it with them.

Reason #3 You can share location ideas

Do you shoot all over town? Why not highlight the best locations with a pin board. Many clients have a hard time understanding the difference between locations. Showcase urban scenes and park settings. Let them find something that suits their lifestyle.

Reason #4 You can collaborate with a client

Is a client putting together an event they would like input on? Start a pin board just for them. You can change the setting to allow others to have access to a board. Then you can post ideas on it together. That way they can share ideas with you, and you can counter with your own ideas. Your client will be super excited by the day of the event.

Reason #5 You can learn your clients’ style

Instead of building a board yourself, turn to your clients and have them start a board.

Ask them to build boards to showcase their style. They can put together color ideas, location ideas, even different clothing choices.

Reason #6 You can increase your exposure

Photographers worry about other photographers stealing their ideas. Yes, you will have the photographers that linger and “stalk” without doing anything themselves. But the more you share, the more you will receive recognition for what you are doing. Who has a bigger business, someone with lots of exposure or someone who keeps their ideas to themselves?

Want even more? The Photographers Guide To Pinterest is now available in PDF and Kindle format. The perfect step by step guide to help you join Pinterest and use it to bring in traffic…and clients.

 

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clientexperience@todaysgrowthconsultant.com' About Virtual Photography

We're the co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com and have been writing on this blog since 2004. We started Virtual as a way to help photographers stretch beyond a part time income, and develop strategies to become a Five Figure Photographer or a Six Figure Photographer. Ultimately its all about lifestyle, and if your goal is to live as a photographer 24/7, we think you should have the knowledge and the tools to do so. Welcome!

  • Sherri Paxton

    I think Pinterest is a great untapped market for getting your images out there. Just make sure you have your logo on the images and there ya go, instant exposure.

  • Dennis

    I think you should take a very careful look at their TOS. You will find that by having your images pinned by yourself OR by someone else, pinterest can do whatever they like with it. Not on pal.
    GB
    D!

  • http://leehawkins.net Lee

    Great post!!! Do you have any suggestions about whether having logos or watermarks on your images is good? It seems that most photography shared on Pinterest and Tumblr isn’t logoed–so I’m pondering whether it is more often shared if it lacks a logo, or if no one cares about the logo much.

  • https://virtualphotographystudio.com Virtual Photography

    Lee
    I think you can go either way, but I would never make your logo/watermark very big. People know how to click around to find what they are looking for. If they want to find you, they will.
    Lori

  • http://solisdigitalmedia.com steve

    Like with all new social media sites (well, sort of new), we’re all going to do the “Don’ts” and don’t do the “Do’s” of interacting/posting, etc.. I’m a photographer. I don’t really care that my photos get “shared”. On the ones I do care about, I simply put my name on the bottom right with my website. This way, as it travels through the web, people see where it originated from. I don’t see what the big deal is.

    But for some of my celebrity shots, I put my watermark smack-dab in the middle. Just enough to see my copyright/name and website. In my graphs, people tend to “share” more of my celebrity shots because… well, they’re celebrities! Here’s a sample: http://pinterest.com/stevesolis/starstruck/

    Lastly, at an ad agency I worked for, one of our clients was specifically told NOT to use any of the images we licensed for them for certain campaigns on their website. They ignored our requests. The stock agency discovered a few months later that they were using their unlicensed images without permission and after the dust cleared, had to pay $50K settlement fee and an apology letter.

    So if people want to risk the chance that they MAY be sued for infringement, more power to them.