With social blogging a past invention, one could say that Pinterest's first few months were destined for failure. Digg, Stumbleupon and Del.icio.us were past projects that involved sharing websites and pictures for the world to see, so, what was going to make Pinterest so much better than previous lackluster efforts?
Simple: Monetization.
The previously listed social bookmarking websites may be ones of interest for sharing articles, websites full of pictures and even keywords yet they lacked real engagement from their participants. Companies like Best Edge SEO are capitalizing on Pinterest in alarming numbers because of it's social value.
Pinterest has changed this by heading back to the basics in marketing: simplicity creates publicity. There is nothing to get ecstatic over about the design of Pinterest; in fact, it would appear like the website platform - script aside - took about an hour to create. However, 4 years from the launch of the beta site, Pinterest now shares company with social media giants you'd think would have dominated them.
And finally decided to monetize.
Revenue Facts - 2 Years Prior
If the amount of time Pinterest retains its viewership isn't enough, we've compiled more data that will make you wonder why it took so long for a concept such as Pinterest to become developed. First, we'll throw down some facts on how Pinterest has grown in membership and unique visits over the last two years. Hold your applause until the end, please.
- Pinterest became the fastest website to hit 10 million unique visits. That means faster than Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook. In January, the total current unique hits count was roughly 11.59 million.
- The company currently employs 16 workers at this time, an amazing number considering the visitor volumes.
- In order to offset expenses and turn a profit, Pinterest will alter affiliate links to capture payments that would have normally gone to an affiliate marketer.
- The company currently has a net worth of $200 million, although they're reporting no significant revenue.
- 20% of users who have connected Facebook profiles to their Pinterest account comprise the daily visitor tally of Pinterest.
- Pinterest has three times the ability to retain readership and engagement than Twitter.
- The Midwest comprises the largest concentrated area of Pinterest users with many coming from Mississippi and Kentucky.
- Whereas most United States visitors are sharing their crafts, hobbies, paintings and houses, United Kingdom visitors are more geared towards sharing pictures for website optimization purposes.
- In just 6 months, daily visitors went from spending 14 minutes on site all the way up to 98 minutes, an increase of 700%.
- Was named the top startup company for 2011 by website technology site Tech Crunch.
- For a website that simply shares photographic items, the numbers are tremendous and continue to push the website rankings to new levels. Current U.S ranking puts them 16th in Alexa, still trailing the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook yet remaining firmly ahead of Tumblr.
Financial Growth - Today
Pinterest currently does have an estimated worth of over $2 billion dollars, yet doesn't seem to have much oomph as of yet to turn a profit. Though you'll not find paid advertising slots on their website as of yet, their general means of keeping above water was the aforementioned affiliate link 'snatching'. Although many challenge the legality of this maneuver, they've yet to get taxed for doing it. Social bloggers can enjoy the future of Pinterest as it appears to be in great hands.
Now the CEO Ben Silbermann has finally caved and decided to monetize his investor-backed innovation, perhaps hungry advertisers will jump aboard and push Pinterest towards IPO one day...we're not holding our breath, however, since it appears that Silbermann innovates on his watch, not ours.
Templates Sprouting Up
Great Pinterest Wordpress themes are popping up like candy, allowing people to add the appeal of Pinterest to their site. We found Dhetemplate.com has Pinfinity (featured image above), an extremely responsive theme that makes websites easier to navigate, share and build truly readable content off.
Who knows where, when or how Pinterest will continually make money and grow. All bloggers know is that getting traffic, links and responsive themes isn't going to change anytime soon.