Hey Gang!
Just wanted to shoot a quick video (quick for me that is, haha) on how to check on your recent pins you created are ranking, to see how well your pinning strategy is doing overall. I also talk about sorting your analytics by Outbound Clicks vs Impressions and why that is important too.
Enjoy!
https://www.loom.com/share/573311ed75e945dfbc50fdfc4c916c50
So, none of my top 50 ranking pins are seasonal, none, lol.
And let's say that 70% of them ranking best are : AI images. Bloody hell.
Why am I saying this? Well, I could now focus on AI images, but in the long run, I don't think it will benefit my brand as a whole. Not if I want to keep using Etsy to promote others as an affiliate. It is in their terms, that affiliates can't use AI to promote others.
My eternal problem with the niche, sigh. (can't use Etsy affiliates on my FB groups either, while this could be SOOO profitable darned)
That being said, it does look like the views are following the outbound clicks:
[attach]1174[/attach]And there are quite some videos popping up in the last 30 days, so the recent spike in traffic, I am sticking to my former post on using videos for my niche :-) (the videos are non seasonal as well)
(circled are videos)
[attach]1175[/attach]thanks for the info
Lizzy
[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="2002016"]
but in the long run, I don't think it will benefit my brand as a whole. Not if I want to keep using Etsy to promote others as an affiliate. It is in their terms, that affiliates can't use AI to promote others.
[/quote]
Okay, I just found their policy where they say this:
Affiliates are not permitted to use AI-generated images or create social profiles that rely on AI for engagement or interaction.
That is really, really vague as to what they mean about this. Like you can't use AI images at all in your business? Or just promoting them?
I personally would contact them and see if you can get clarification - if you are using AI images to get people to see your content/articles, BUT you don't have any AI images within your actually content/CTA to your etsy links, then it might be okay. But I would see if you can clarify that.
Also the second half of that sounds to me like you can't use AI to generate a bunch of fake engagement/interaction to help 'boost' your social profiles higher, or create fake testimonials. But again, you'd have to get clarification.
[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="2002016"]
(can't use Etsy affiliates on my FB groups either, while this could be SOOO profitable darned)
[/quote]
You can't link directly to Etsy on FB, BUT you can link to your site - so just create pages of listicles or "best Of' posts where you have your etsy affiliate links. Sure, it's one more step/click for your readers/audience, but even if you're only getting 10-20% of the people to convert that clicked through, that's 10-20% more sales.
[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="2002016"]
And there are quite some videos popping up in the last 30 days, so the recent spike in traffic, I am sticking to my former post on using videos for my niche 
(the videos are non seasonal as well)
[/quote]
yeah, definitely - if it's working for you then keep going for it.
Evergreen content still works well on Pinterest - I was just explaining that most of the time, Pinterest content is seasonal. But if you're doing well with evergreen, then keep it up!
@andy thanks as always!
Yeah, so... contacting Etsy, in my region (I'm under 'Germany', Etsy Europe,while living in Belgium, it's a mess hahahahaha!
You know, on one hand, I don't want to wake sleeping dogs, because that is how I got asked to remove affiliate links from my FB group (I was making good money with Etsy when I thought it was allowed :-( ), while I was asking lots of other questions that they didn't bother answering. And on the other hand, 9 out of 10 I don't even get an answer. Their customer service (at least the European part) sucks big time.
So, I'll just keep on using AI images, but not everything, and try to make such good images that nobody even notices. But I'm not risking them saying: 'hey, remove all those AI images from Pinterest now!'.
Also, the reason why I started to use AI images on socials like Pinterest in the first place was that we are not allowed to use pictures from Etsy store owners on socials, only on our website! So I only use someones pictures on Pinterest, when I manage to 'interview' them and explicitly ask them if they allow me to use their pictures on my site and socials. (just like eBay in fact, I need their permission first, which is so darn hard and time consuming)
Like for the use of AI for my printable store, I asked them way beforehand if it was allowed, never got an answer. So I just decided to set it up anyway in coöperation with Diane, and mention to customers that it is made with AI.
Their rules are very unclear in English indeed, but you should see them in Dutch hahahaha! I mean, even Amazon allows straight up affiliate links on Facebook, as long as you give them the links to the platforms you're using, it is ridiculous how rigid they are.
Their representative on WA used to be 'reachable', after 3 months lol, but she's been 'moved out of the office".
I'm at this point where I'm thinking: I'll just make money with ads and risk placing Etsys affiliate links back on my closed FB group instead of my public one. It's not like it's making me much anyway.
Anyway, I wouldn't advise anyone to use Etsy for affiliate marketing, the only good thing about them is their 30 days cookie tracking. Especially now when Google hit the small crafting niches,because it is so hard to promote them on socials. The only thing I still see working well for Etsy, are newsletters.
" You can't link directly to Etsy on FB, BUT you can link to your site - so just create pages of listicles or "best Of' posts where you have your etsy affiliate links. Sure, it's one more step/click for your readers/audience, but even if you're only getting 10-20% of the people to convert that clicked through, that's 10-20% more sales."
==> these would get lost in FB groups algorithms though, and I've tried 'pinning' Etsy's posts, people don't click through. And now I prefer pinning my actual Etsy store on my groups.
But thanks for thinking with me! (I can hear someone now saying 'you and your fucking niche' hahahahaha)
@ohnoo_not_her The problem about AI image is too that it is impossible to use them in some (most of mine for example) niches.
Try to let it set up a chessboard with pieces; I have not seen one correctly. I have found running but other than that it is rare.
Today I was in a great live lecture (= in the cinema where she explained and worked in front of us) from a photographer, Canon Ambassador, who is excellent in portraits. She uses AI as assistant but mainly to let things disappear from the photo. More and more man find out that AI is great as assistant but the knowledge of how and when to use it is vital.
About the links on FB and Amazon. I was hitting hard in the Google website attack, so hard that hard growing Amazon selll disappear in one night. Maybe because of that I am not allowed to add FB page or other pages even so I am always invited in their extra system, like flat fee etc. Never got explain and do not understand either how they think people can see things without photos!
I believe in Pintererst for my niche and very small positive signs have been coming there but today I saw that there is big rumours/signs that their have knock down some traffic in some countries (don´t know which) so something is going on there too!
Again and again, man see messages to forget the website if they have been attacked. I was watching right now youtube channel I don´t like much, Authority hacker. But he was talking about small groups, owner of smaller site, that was invited to Google to talk but the message was clear.
[attach]1176[/attach]
@noteboom Indeed, those creators that got invited by Google, it was about 20 of them, were all over Twitter talking about their experiences with the meeting at google.
Google basically said that those people were creating great content,but that they can't 'turn back' the Helpfull content update. Not in the next update, not in the second next update, probably never.
Also, now there is ChatGPT search ( can't see it yet in Belgium), and it will probably have a big impact on Google on top of it. I have been turning up with my site in ChatGPT for several questions when I do research for my blog, so that's pretty good that they now refer to my site, but I have no clue if it will last and not counting on AI referring to my site. The future is very unclear and big changes are ahead.
Google also said to NOT pay SEO's, that small niche sites don't need them. Oh my, now that the gaslighting is on them, they react heavily! ( there are SEO's charging 4000 or more per month, while nobody can tell what is going to happen with Google in the coming months or years. Lots of conmen are out there). Small niche site owners have spend over 20000 dollars on SEO's, doing everything by their book, while losing everything overnight.
Moral of the story, and Partha was right, don't just count on one traffic source, and that is what I'm doing right now and have done for quite some time.
Yeah, not sure about what is happening with Pinterest worldwide though: US seems fine so far. Plus, there is always a possibility of losing an account for some ridiculous reason. Just like Facebook or Youtube. It looks like I should also start expanding TikTok, ugh lol. ( people search a lot for reviews on tiktok apparently). My gosh!
And yes, AI isn't always great and you sure need to know what you're doing, it's not that easy. But then I see Facebook pages like this and I'm like "whatever, I'll just use it more, even though it is clearly AI, people get drawn to it!" https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564869612923
(look at those followers and likes and engagement in a short time, although she is using ads and it clearly is AI).
I have seen 'cake' pages on Facebook with over 100K followers, all AI and tons of engagement. Maybe Facebook ao will one day say: 'make it clear that something is created with AI", but in the meantime there's people banking with bad AI images, I'm sure. (not sure how though, I think with scams)
Anyway, difficult times!
Lizzy