50. Let’s Pay Less: Do I Need to Pay for a Pinterest Course?

[00:00:00] Stephanie: Pinterest is one of the best sources of organic traffic for your website, but it can also be intimidating when the best practices seem to shift all the time. Does this mean that you need to invest in a Pinterest course? Let's chat about whether or not this is the best use of your business budget.

[00:00:30] Welcome back to the podcast. It has been such a fun month talking about Pinterest. I hope you now feel more prepared to pin for the back to school rush. If you're still on the fence about your strategy, you might be wondering if a course is the next best move for your business. Since it's the last day of the month, we're due for another installment of the Let's Pay Less series.

[00:00:54] I thought this would be a good time to talk about whether or not a Pinterest course is the best option for you. As with all the episodes in this series, I won't be giving you my opinion one way or the other. Instead, we'll discuss some pros and cons so that you can make the best decision for your business and your budget.

[00:01:13] In full disclosure, I wanna let you know that I do have a Pinterest module within my course called Bring Your Own Traffic. I will talk about it later in the episode, but just know that this episode isn't intended to be a pitch for my course because I know that it is not the best fit for everyone. So let's dive into some things to consider about Pinterest courses to help you decide if it's the best next step for you.

[00:01:40] First, let's talk about what Pinterest courses typically include. Now, I have taken quite a few pinning courses over the years before I finally refined my current strategy to what I teach in my course, so I'm pretty well versed in what Pinterest courses generally promise in their outcomes. First, a good Pinterest course will teach you more about how Pinterest works, and so this could include details about the algorithm, how to create a pin, and just other best practices on the platform.

[00:02:13] Depending on the course, there are usually some tips and tricks to help you get more traffic from Pinterest with less effort. Each course creator has their own experience to draw from, so these tips can vary, but ultimately there are some tips about, you know, simplifying your workflow, saving time on pin creation, things like that.

[00:02:37] And then finally, and this is what most people are looking for with a Pinterest course, is that most course creators include a step-by-step strategy that will help people see more results from Pinterest. Hearing this list, you likely heard some things that you can learn for free somewhere else on the internet, and this is 100% true.

[00:03:01] There are so many places where you can learn about Pinterest for absolutely no cost, and you could easily put together a strategy for yourself with these resources. First, pinterest is a wealth of information and provides a ton of free resources for people who want to learn more about the best practices of Pinterest.

[00:03:24] So what better place to learn than from the platform itself? I'm going to include links in the show notes for the Pinterest Creator Academy and then just the Pinterest Academy. The first one is geared towards content creators, and the other is geared towards people who want to advertise on Pinterest.

[00:03:43] And even if you don't fit in either of those categories, both are full of helpful information, especially if you're brand new to Pinterest. In addition to Pinterest, we have free content available on blogs, YouTube, and even podcasts like this one. And these sources cover a lot of just foundational strategies for Pinterest.

[00:04:07] And the great thing is that it's easy to use a search bar to locate specific information that you're looking for. And then the third place to learn about Pinterest for free is your own account. Trial and error is one of the best ways to learn about Pinterest. You can read all about best practices and how Pinterest should work, but until you see it with your own eyes, it really is all just theory.

[00:04:34] Once you have a handle on the most important best practices, it's time to roll up your sleeves and give it a try. You can always adjust your strategy as you learn. Relying mostly on free content is a good idea if you're a beginner and you're looking to just learn the basics of Pinterest. If that sounds like you though, I would suggest sticking with, or at least starting with the free information that comes from Pinterest because there is a lot of outdated information out there, on blogs and on YouTube

[00:05:08] and so just keep that in mind if you are starting from scratch with learning about Pinterest. And sticking with free content is also a good idea if you're comfortable with experimenting and learning as you go. But there might come a point when you want to invest in a Pinterest course, and so let's chat about when that might be.

[00:05:31] There are times when a Pinterest course could make more sense for your business than learning through mostly free resources. First a course can give you a cohesive step-by-step roadmap for using Pinterest in your business, and this can save you so much time when you are putting together a strategy because you don't have to piece it together from various sources and hope that everything is up to date.

[00:05:58] A course could also be helpful if you could use the accountability of putting some dollar bills on the line. I don't know about you, but when I make the decision to spend some of my business budget on a course, it really pushes me to actually take action. If something is free, I'm much more likely to let it sit unused.

[00:06:20] And then finally paying for a course could make sense if you are ready to go beyond the basics of using Pinterest. When you're putting money on the line, it's important that you're looking for the right things in a paid course. The first thing to consider is whether or not the information is up to date.

[00:06:39] Can you tell when the last time was that that course was updated? If you can't reach out to the course creator and ask, because that is a vital piece of information, especially when it comes to Pinterest. The next thing to keep in mind is whether the course is relevant to your business. As a teacherpreneur, your business is different than a professional blogger.

[00:07:03] It's important that the course you choose can be easily applied to your situation. You don't wanna have to sort through a bunch of fluff that doesn't apply to your business in order to find the information that will actually be a needle mover for your business. And then the third thing to keep in mind is that it's important that the person who created the course is currently getting results from the strategy they teach.

[00:07:31] It's absolutely critical that a Pinterest course creator has experience with the Pinterest of today. Honestly, anyone could get results from Pinterest back in the glory days. There was a simple formula, and when you did it, you succeeded. And if that is the course creator's only experience with Pinterest, so let's say they got started in 2015,

[00:07:58] they made a whole bunch of cash, had a whole bunch of success back then, and haven't done anything with it since. They created a course because now they're a Pinterest expert. Pinterest now is so much different than that Pinterest, and so you wanna make sure that the course creator has experience with the Pinterest of today and that they see a result from something that's more than just their legacy pins from 2015.

[00:08:26] Because if that is their only experience with pinning, I would highly suggest that you try a different course. We have chatted about the common themes in Pinterest courses, we've talked about the information you can probably find on the internet for free, and we've also talked about when it might make sense to pay for a course. But now,

[00:08:47] it's time for you to decide if that's the best move for your business. Only you know if there's a knowledge gap standing in the way of you and an effective pinning strategy. And only you know if you have the bandwidth to take and then implement a course right now. But I hope that wherever you're at this episode has given you just a little bit of food for thought as you make that decision now or in the future.

[00:09:16] As I mentioned at the beginning of the course, I do teach pinning within my course called Bring Your Own Traffic. My strategy is what I call pragmatic pinning. This strategy is designed specifically for teacher business owners, and it's meant for people who are familiar with the basics of Pinterest and they're ready to create a realistic pinning schedule.

[00:09:39] This course is different because it's designed to go hand in hand with the blogging and SEO modules of this same course, treating it as one cohesive workflow will make your pinning efforts much more effective. If you'd like to learn more about pragmatic pinning, you can find a free introduction at stephanieroyer.podia.com.

[00:10:03] That's  stephanieroyer.podia.com., and you'll also find the link in the show notes.