I love Pinterest. And I’m willing to bet $100 that you love Pinterest, too. What I don’t love about Pinterest is the fact that it can making finding original sources a total nightmare. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a dress or DIY project that you completely love—-only to find the supplied link is incorrect, invalid or completely unhelpful.
There are a few things about Pinterest that are frustrating from a Blogger’s perspective. So I’m going to try to pinpoint (see what I did there) a few of them. These are just a few of my Pin-peeves (couldn’t help it), if you have one of your own feel free to add to this via the comments section…
1. Find the original source. A lot of bloggers (myself included) borrow content from other places. Etiquette says that we site these sources. This means that if I show you an amazing image of a sunset it will probably say “I found this photo at Mary’s Blog” with a link to Mary’s blog. If you want to pin the sunset photo—please go to Mary’s blog and pin it, instead of pinning it from my blog. That way, Mary gets the credit (and the traffic) and not me. Which is how it should work. Give credit where credit is due and this often only takes a few extra seconds.
2. Find the Specific URL. Do not pin from a blog’s homepage. Blogging from a homepage is deadly, and will be annoying not only to other Pinners but also to you if you ever try to go back and find that pin again. If you come to my homepage and pin an oufit, the link it will connect it to is simply “www.lifes-a-journal.com”. If you go back to that pin a month (or even just a week) later, that pin will be buried on page 5 of my homepage (deeper than the average person is willing to dig). If I had a dollar for every email I’ve gotten saying “I saw this outfit from your blog on Pinterest but can’t find the source” I would have like…at least $5. And $5 is too much, Pins should link directly to their specific URL, which means clicking on the posts title so that the urls shows up as “www.lifes-a-journal.com/date/this-posts-title”. This rule applies to almost any blogger/blog. Be a pal to all of us and try your best to get the direct URL. Without the proper links connected to the Pin, Pinterest loses all meaning.
3. Oh my god TUMBLR. Am I the only person that is completely fed up with Pins from Tumblr? It seems to make finding any original source a total nightmare. Writing about it just gave me a headache. It’s disheartening as a blogger to see your work pinned through Tumblr, because it often means that the credit for your work is now lost in the vast abyss of the interweb. Sigh.
