← Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
The Big Change for Creators {One Creators Review}
00:48:46
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- [00:00]
A
Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of the Simple Pen podcast. If you are listening in your podcast app, hello. If you are watching on YouTube, hello as well. Today, I'm going to be tackling or talking or interviewing, whatever you want, whatever word you want to use. Sharing the story of a creator and her experience over this last year because there has been just so many changes. It's been a wild ride with the changes to Google algorithm changes, people seeing less traffic to their website. And so I want to bring Tamiko here today to talk about her story. Because I got to hear it in person and I thought, I feel like more people need to hear this because we talk about these hard stories. It creates this environment of, okay, I'm not alone. This isn't just me. And I think that's really big in this online space to feel like it's not just you. So before we dive into that and I introduce you to her, I want to talk about that difference in Pinterest being different than Instagram, Pinterest being different than TikTok and all the rest. And if you are ready to use it to market your business on Pinterest and you are confused, we are here to help you. So as always, you can book a discovery call with our team so that we can take all of Pinterest off your plate or just part of it. You can go to simplepenn media.com services down below in the description or in your podcast app. And, and also if you're interested in consults with us, we have those too. So you can book those easily on our website.
- [01:37]
B
You're listening to the Simple Pen podcast, Pinterest, for business advice that goes down smooth and easy. Here's your host, Kate All.
- [01:52]
A
Tamiko. Hello, and welcome to the Simple Pin podcast.
- [01:56]
B
Hello, hello, hello. I'm so excited to be here. Oh, my gosh, y'all. I was so fanning out when I first met Kate. Jesus Christ. You know, you see people that you listen to them all the time. Her podcast is, like, always playing in my car. She didn't know that. I was like, oh, my God. But yes, I could be here.
- [02:17]
A
I loved it. So we had a chance to meet at TBEX in Puerto Rico, which was so cool. And I was speaking and you help with the TBEX team and all of that. And the thing that struck me was just when you share your story of your year and looking for new sources for ways to build up your traffic. So before we dive into that, I want to ask you, like, also in this change, we've seen the name of blogger into creator. How, like, what word would you use now to that feels most like you? I am this. In this online space, I say I still use blogger.
- [02:55]
B
And it may be because I am 50s. And so that is. And I think. I think now people are using the word influencer, but sometimes influencer seems like it has a negative connotation to it. And so I go between creator and blogger. And I use blogger more so than influencer or creator because my money is my blog. I write. That is where I make the most of my income. It's from my. From my website and from my blog. So I use blogger more than I use influencer or anything else, because that's where I spend the majority of my time is on my website.
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A
Okay, so when you got started, that was probably the only word that people used too, was blogger. Creator wasn't even around.
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B
Creator wasn't even around when I got started. We were all bloggers. Yes.
- [03:52]
A
Yeah. So tell me about the starting. Like, what made you start a blog in the first place?
- [03:57]
B
So my husband and I had gone to the Amalfi Coast. We were always traveling. And when I got, you know, people were always sharing you, sharing your images and your travels on Facebook. And when I got back, somebody said, oh, you should think about being a blogger. You're always, like, sharing your photos. And I didn't even know what a blogger was. So I went and started doing research. And I was like, hey, I think I can do this. And then about a year into it, I was in my 40s. Then I was like, you know, I think that I can take this into a career, and this could be another stream of income that when my husband and I do retire in 10, 15 years, we will have something else outside of retirement. And so then I start thinking about it as a business. What do I need to do? What do I need to learn? What? How do I market this? How do I grow a following? How do I learn SEO? I start thinking about all of those things, and, you know, here we are 10 years later. You know, I am, you know, the conference director for tbac. I am the vice president for the Black Travel Alliance. I teach SEO, have my own blog, Passports and Grub. And it's just sort of grown. I've been a pillar for, you know, elevating black content creators and helping brands see value in us. So it's just started out as, you know, this one thing, and now it's evolved into all of these other things.
- [05:29]
A
Oh, it's so cool how it does Evolve. Like, you started with this blog, you thought, okay, well, I'm just going to share my travels. So when did you actually see that monetization was possible? And when did you first get monetized on your website?
- [05:44]
B
So, of course, like everyone else, I was doing it just to be doing something in the beginning. And then about three years into the blog, I heard about mediavine. And that's something that's not discussed within the black community, especially back then. There aren't. There still aren't a lot of black creators in mediavine, but back then there were really like, very minimal. And I heard about mediavine and I was like, okay, Jesus, I just need to make enough money to cover my monthly expenses. I'm not even trying to make any money. I just want to cover the cost of what it takes for me to run my website. So that was like the first then. So I start, okay, well, how can I get into media buying? You need to know SEO. So I started delving into all things SEO. How, you know, how do you rank on Google? I don't want to ask my friends and family to share my website because they don't give a damn. They don't care. They could less that I wrote an article on whomever. And so then it became, how do you rank on Google? How do I get the attention? How do I create content that is a pain point? That is answering the user's pain point. But then make it shareable and make it relatable and make people feel like they could see themselves at the destination that I'm writing about. So I started delving deep into SEO and understanding SEO and what that meant. And it took me about a year. From the time I said I need to do this, it took about maybe a year and three months for me to get into Mediavine. Oh, okay, back then you had to have 50. No, you had to have 25,000 page views then to get into Mediavine. So I went from probably about a hundred page views from my mom and grandmama and my husband and my daughter.
- [07:45]
A
Yep.
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B
To 25,000 page views, which got me into Mediavine. And from there up until last year, when the September Core Update hit, I was ranging about 250, 300,000 sessions per month up until the September Core Update, the great crash. You know, I even at AT T backs last year, before the September Core Update, I was talking and which is what I was telling you is that I was like, man, I really need to diversify my traffic. I'm. It was. It's easy for me Because I thought I understood SEO. And I'm using the word thought because Google has now said, what? We're no longer doing that. And so I. But I never took it seriously because I had so much traffic coming from Google, I didn't find it urgent to. Even though I said I need to use Pinterest, I need to diversify my traffic, it was just so easy with Google because that was what I knew, right?
- [08:51]
A
Yeah. And it's what a lot of people knew, right?
- [08:53]
B
Yes.
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A
It was a formula.
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B
It was a formula. It was. It was. It worked. Until it didn't.
- [08:59]
A
Okay, so I want to go back a little bit to how you heard about mediavine. And you said there are not a lot of black creators that are on the ad networks. So I'm curious, is that as a result of not knowing about it or is there another ad network that they are on? Tell me a little bit behind that too, because I think you, when I hear your story, I hear that there. But I also see you as a trailblazer to bust through some walls, to say, this is what we want for our community and we, you know, we want to lean into this. So how can you educate people that it's even an option? So I'm curious, is it just because people don't know it's an option? They don't know about it. It's not talked about. Tell me a little bit more.
- [09:43]
B
Know about it. It's not talked about. And a lot of black creators focus only on Instagram. And so they are putting all of their eggs in one basket. And they think having a social media account is equivalent to having a website, and it's not. No matter how many times we say or how many times I say, Instagram could be gone in a heartbeat. TikTok could be gone in a heartbeat. Where. What are you going to do with your people once Instagram goes down or you're kicked off of Instagram or something happens? What are you going to do? Where are your people going to find you? They want. Because they're going to be on to the next person. The next thing. We have this thing called instant gratification. And once it's not gratifying us anymore, we move. We are so fickle. We move on so quickly. So it is that we focus a lot on social media and it takes a lot of work. It's not. People think having a website is easy and then once they get into it, they were like, nope, I just want to post and be done. But you have to think about your theme you have to think about your back end, you have to think about WordPress, you have to think about your plugins, you have to think about all of these things that go into having a website. Are your pictures, are your word space, you know, are they large enough, you know, do you have enough spacing in between your paragraphs? Because, you know, a lot of people, they write what seems like on a website. It seems like it's, you know, it's one or two sentences, but you look at it on your cell phone and it's like a whole big paragraph and people aren't reading that. So you have to really understand, you know, mobile, you have to understand how people read, you have to understand how people think. You have to be able to get their attention. And it's not Instagram ification, because it takes three to six months for Google to rank. If. If it's not a topic that Google has said you are an authority in, it takes three to six months. And people don't like to wait. They want to, they want that dopamine right this very moment. They want to say, oh, I posted something and I got this many likes right now. And having a website doesn't give you that. It doesn't give you that instant gratification.
- [12:03]
A
So then what is your. When you're met with that and you're across from somebody who's like, I love my instagratification, what do you say to them? Like, what is the thing that, you know, they need to hear that bumps them over the edge to say, okay, I am willing to pick up the tools that I need. I know this is going to be a long game and I care about it. What do you feel like works to have that kind of aha moment?
- [12:27]
B
I share with them one of my girlfriends, her name is Rachel. She had about 300, 300,000 Instagram followers. And in a day, someone hacked her website, her Instagram, and it was gone. She's been in travel and leisure. She's been in like all of the. Every magazine you can ever think of. Rachel has been in them. She's like one of the OG travel bloggers, influencers, creators. And within a second, her wet. Her Instagram was hacked. And they were trying to. At first they were like, give us $50,000 to get your Instagram back. And then it went down to 25. Then it ended up with around 500 and she was done. She moved on. And she's not even creating content anymore because brands look for, they look for that. And she didn't have anything else outside of the Instagram. So you're going to rely on somebody else for your livelihood, for how you make money. That is who you're. You're not going to rely on you. You're going to rely on somebody else that doesn't care about you the way you care about you, the way you care about your brand, the way you care. You're going to rely on Instagram, who does not care about your brand or the money that you bring in. So you're going to let somebody else be in control of your destiny. That makes a whole lot of sense. Okay, how's that working for you?
- [13:57]
A
Yeah, that's a great question. It's true. And you know, actually. Okay, so as you're talking and we have all these other platforms, it feels as though the confident ground of Google in your website has now been shaken in an in a way similar to that. Right? You still own it, right? Like nobody can hack it.
- [14:17]
B
Take it.
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A
Well, they could hack it, but they can't take it from you. You own it. But the shakiness of that feels so uncertain. So let's talk about for you, 2023 hits. You're still making money from Media Vinegar. Kind of walk me through this full year and what that's looked like for you.
- [14:40]
C
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- [15:23]
B
So August of 2023, my ad revenue was like $12,000 for the month. September came. My ad revenue was September is when it hit. But I got paid September 1st. It was still around about $14,000. So somewhere there, October comes and it's still pretty decent. Then November hit because then that goes back to when the September dates, when the, when the core update hit. So November's check, I went from $13,000 to maybe like about seven in November, which was half. Then December came, it went from seven to like three, like 3200. So I had planned on quitting my job. People. January 27th was the date that I was going to give my notice to quit my day job yet talked about it. I'm making enough money. This is the time I'm ready to step out on my own. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. So then January come. It went down to like $1,000 in January. Like, we can't quit our job. God, hang on it. So then February comes and it went to like five. And so from February to now, I have been hovering between 350 to $500 a month. So we just, we just had an August update. They just released today at. The August update is now complete. I did not see. And was. So I have, I've seen a little bit of growth, but I did go in and I. So Google had said that all of the long content that we all had been creating, the super long content, using the keywords, first paragraph, H1, H2, you know the bottom. Using those keywords which ultimately, when I go back, if I am honest with myself, you go back and you look at that content that was ranking. It was keyword stuffing. If we are honest, it was keyword stuffing. And even though keyword stuffing was out, when you look at the content, it still was keyword stuffing.
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A
Okay.
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B
Even because if you have the keyword in the first sentence, then you have it in the third sentence, then you have it in your H1, then you have it in your h2. You're throwing it in bits and pieces of each different paragraph so that Google will know this is what this article is about. Ultimately, it's keyword stuffing. And the articles were fluff because Google said we want long form content. That's what Google told us. We want long form content. So everybody went and made long form content, including myself. I wasn't writing anything under 3,000 words.
- [18:45]
A
Yes, because that was the standard. That's what you heard. It is long, long, long, long, long, long.
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B
I wasn't writing anything under 3,000 words. And so I've gone back, removed all of the fluff, removed the keyword stuffing. It's moved a little bit, but not enough. And I am hoping, I am, I am, I'm. I'm still hopeful. And so I think the difference between because these core updates, they happen. I didn't get hit by the one, the two years before or the other ones. And so for me, it is what happens to the, to those people that don't give up. So the people that stay in, even though I've gotten hit with 95% of my traffic, what does that look like for the people that say I'm in it, even though this is a hard time right now, even though I've gone from making $14,000 a month to $500 a month, do I throw in the towel and say I'm not going to do this anymore, or do I put my head down and figure out what is actually going to work? Do I find another source of traffic? Which now I'm all in with Pinterest now, because I don't have a choice. Yep, I had a choice before, but I really don't have a choice now. So for me, it is okay. Is Pinterest going to be the same as Google? It's seasonality? Am I creating pins right now for the fall, which is what I'm doing, taking what I know that is applicable to Google and now applying that to Pinterest, updating all of my fall content, making sure that from now until October that all of my fall content is there, and then working on my winter and spring content now so that it could be out there. So I'm taking the same premise that I had with Google and now I'm applying it to Pinterest, which I should have been doing anyway, which is tough.
- [20:55]
A
Like, I'll say, when something is good, it's good, right? And what we've seen in the online space, even with 2017, 18, 19, it was like the wild, wild west. You can like make all this money. You can grow. And then we had 2020 and being travel, I would imagine you got hit some with, you know, a decrease in 20, 20, 21. But now it's coming kind of roaring back into where we're at now. But I think that as I'm listening to you, what I hear and what I know I have done as well, is when things are easy, there's really no pressure to be able to try something new. There's no motivator. There's nothing that's like, you know, I'm making 14 grand a month. Why do I need Pinterest? You know, literally what I was.
- [21:41]
B
And I didn't say that, but I. But I did say I wasn't in a rush. I didn't say I don't need. And I will say, because I've tried Pinterest before and I've always gotten traffic from Pinterest, but not enough to motivate me to do something different. So whereas I was getting, you know, all of these sessions and page views from Google, it may have been, you know, maybe 2 or 3,000amonth from Pinterest, which, when you're thinking about 2, 300 to 3,000 isn't like a whole lot. It was a small percentage, maybe 1% of the traffic that I was getting from Pinterest. So it wasn't enough to make me say, oh, you know, I'm going to focus on Pinterest even 20% of the time. Right.
- [22:35]
A
Were you falling into the Instagram trap too as well? Like, did you use Instagram to drive traffic to or to drive awareness?
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B
No, I never used Instagram to drive traffic to my blog. That's never been a strategy of mine because I just. And I still don't think. And I could be very wrong, I just don't think Instagram is a good traffic driver to websites that are trapped. Now if you're trying to buy something, if you see. And I really, to be honest, I only use Instagram because I know that's what brands want from travel creators. They want those, they want those reels. I myself never buy really anything. I see stuff that I will save for destination that I may want to go to later. But I've never once went and booked a trip or purchased something that I saw on Instagram. I may be in the minority of that, but I just don't think that is a good use of my time to try to get traffic from Instagram to my blog. I could be very wrong on that premise though.
- [23:43]
A
No, I mean, I agree with you. Just a user of Instagram, I couldn't tell you what hardly anybody's website looked like because I never leave.
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B
I never leave.
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A
Yeah. And whereas if I use Pinterest, I'm leaving all the time.
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B
All the time.
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A
How it works. And so it makes sense to do that now I have to ask, did you grow your email list too as well? Was that something you were working on?
- [24:04]
B
Yes. So my email list is. And I have two different websites. So I have Tamiko Harvey, which is my SEO, and then I have Passports and Grub, which is my travel website. They both have around about maybe 4,000 email subscribers. And I. And then. So I am now really honing in on my email list and driving traffic that way as well. But I am really, really trying to be all hands on with Pinterest and figuring out what that looks like. My saves are. I get about maybe 4,000 clicks a month from Pinterest now.
- [24:48]
A
Okay.
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B
I have on my vision board back here. That's back there. I would love to have 50,000 clicks by the end of the year is what I have on my vision board. I write that down in my journal Every morning my journal has, have. What am I grateful for? And what would make today great? I put in there every day. What would make today great would be 50,000, 50,000 clicks from Pinterest and 150,000 sessions from Google. I literally write that down every single day.
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A
Yeah, well, and that helps us focus on what, how we're spending our time, right?
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B
Yes.
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A
When that's there, you know, okay, I'm going to lean into doing this image in Canva and maybe I'm tired, but I know I'm going to lean into it because I know that that's my goal. And. Okay, so I want to jump to going forward in a second, but I want to go back just in a minute. In the midst of kind of watching your numbers go down, did you have a community to draw on to, to kind of ask questions to I guess make you feel a little bit less alone? Like it's not just you that is experiencing it. Was that a part of this? There's this a two part question. I'm going to kind of drag it on a little bit, but was that a part of it? And as you referenced earlier that there's not as many black creators in this community, how, how did that kind of play out for you as well as you're kind of trying to figure out what in the world is happening?
- [26:15]
B
So I, so TBEX is. I am, for those that don't know, I am the TBEX conference director. We are a travel conference for travel creators, brands and destinations. We host a conference in North America, Asia and Europe annually. And so for me, that T is my community that, you know, we're in the groups, we're talking, we're trying to figure it out. Even yesterday or day before yesterday, I posted in the group, if we bring somebody else in that talks about SEO, what is it that you all want to hear? And so I rely heavily on my T community and I and so that is the community that I rely on for SEO and not to. And really, truth be told, even when I woke up that morning, I didn't even know that the core update was happening. I knew that something. There was some rumblings, but I didn't know it had started. I was laying in bed. First thing I do every morning after I do, my gratitude is I pick up my phone and I look at my Google Analytics and I use Key search as the tool and I look at Key search to see where my rankings are. And I woke up, wrote down my affirmations, picked up my phone, looked at Key search and everything Was like a hundred. Like, I wasn't ranking for anything.
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A
Wow.
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B
And I was like, oh, this must be some kind of a mistake, right?
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A
A glitch.
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B
Keysearch. Must be having a glitch this morning.
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A
Exactly.
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B
And I didn't panic or anything. I was like, oh, keysearch. Must be having a glitch. There's no way. I'm not ranking or anything. Then I get online and every. The whole world, the whole community is having a complete meltdown. And, you know, I am a. Even through all of it, I still don't have a negative. I still believe that I'm going to come out on the other side, have my vision board here. When I'm sitting at my desk. I have a smaller vision board here that says, you know, I'm going to have this. I believe it. Grow your business. You know, I am abundant, I'm successful. Gratitude, I have it, I'm looking at it there. Have one behind me on my phone. And so even though I am still not through it, I am really believing that I'm going to come out on the other. There's not another option. Yes, there's literally, there's not another option. And I know many people don't believe that in our community. And when I even say that, people are like, yeah, it's been a year now, it has been a year. But I am believing, I am still believing that it's not an option. And a whole year has gone by and I've written the same thing down every morning in my journal, that I'm going to have 50,000 clicks from Pinterest and that at a minimum, 150,000 sessions from Google. It hasn't happened yet. I'm still working towards it. I still believe that it. That's the only thing that I have, is me and my belief that it's going to turn around.
- [29:31]
A
And to affirm that, I would say even before this, a year ago, there was the same amount of people and now there's even more people online and there's opportunity for new innovation and new creativity to get in front of those people. It's not like, you know, you can see all your traffic has gone down. It's not like those people went away. It's. They, they're still there. It's how do we get in front of people in new ways and be creative with our marketing, get investigative, get curious, get, you know, to the heart of, okay, what do people want from you on your blog? What do they want to see you write about? And that fe that is Harder. Which is why earlier, you know, five years ago, it was, we didn't have these wrestling out of things, having to figure out where did people go? I mean, I think that's the biggest question right now. And even when I think about Google, I think my. My search results are terrible now. Like, I don't even like what I get. I get Reddit and then I get a couple other things. They're really old. They don't make sense. So in general, their product is not good anymore. And that's. That's frustrating. And so you wonder, okay, what other search engines are people using? What other options? Using Pinterest. So with that goal that you have, what are your top three focuses? To find your way back to this audience and get back in front of new people, more people. What is that? What are those top three for you?
- [31:01]
B
So for me, it is I. Even with me teaching SEO, I really talk a lot about content pillars. And I have to think, well, maybe the content pillars that I have been focusing on, maybe I need new content pillars. I write a lot about safety. And so for me now it is okay, you need fresh content. You need fresh new content pillars. So that is something that I'm working on now. And I am going to start utilizing Facebook. People don't really utilize Facebook the way that. Because we think. I think people think Facebook is just for old people now.
- [31:41]
A
Right.
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B
And so. And again, I am in that.
- [31:45]
A
I'm a Gen Xer too. I'm with you. Yeah.
- [31:48]
B
For me, it is finding new content pillars, making sure that those content pillars are filled. And so for people that don't know what a content pillar is, your main subject is going to be your overall pillar. So if I write something about, I'll use safety, because that's what I write about. So, you know, is Mexico safe? That is going to be my overall pillar. And then come around and you'll say, well, is Cancun safe? Is Mexico City safe? Is Tulum safe? All of these different cities write content around and they all uplift your main content pillar, which is the overall safety of Mexico. So I am thinking about what other content pillars can I write about and how do I show Google or other search engines? Because right now I am. Google is like number five on. I'm getting more from Bing right now that I am from Google. So my strategy now is creating new content pillars, utilizing Facebook, utilizing Pinterest. And I'm also going back to LinkedIn.
- [33:11]
A
Oh, yes. LinkedIn has been a big discovery for me this last year, and I find that Especially working with brands or working with other companies, I can get closer and get more connected with them and have authentic conversations that happen over time as opposed to something that, like a cold email pitch or something like that. So I love that. So Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and then going back to those content pillars. Okay, I love all of this for you and I am going to, I'm going to ask you a question and then you can, you can ask me is what is your biggest question about Pinterest going into this next year? Like, if you look at it and you're thinking like, either how do I set my expectations or how do I do xyz, I guess in how can I help Answer one question for you as you're leaning into really making this a big part of getting that 50,000 sessions.
- [34:09]
B
You know, I think my. So I think I even said this to you on social media. So my saves are like plus 190%. So my saves are so. And. But my clicks are down. They were down minus 9.9% this morning. It was minus 3.2, which means that I am making some. So I don't know if in the fall that number will change because I am creating the fall content right now. And But I don't know is if my pins don't have the right call, how do you make sure that your pins don't just create saves, but they create a call to action to get people to click now versus later? Or is that I. That is what I am currently struggling with, is how do I go from saves to clicks right now?
- [35:19]
A
Okay, that. Okay, this is good. So I'll back up a little bit and I'll say saves are the number one indicator that Pinterest, as the algorithm looks for, it's the most important one. So the fact that you're telling me you're getting a lot of saves and it is increasing, what this tells me is that there's future traffic coming because the person that is engaging with your content is planning a trip six to nine months in advance. So you're getting all these saves, right? Like you're looking into fall, winter, spring, and you're planning out as you invest in it over this next year, you'll see those numbers continue to rise because you have those saves that are out there. And when somebody saves something, Pinterest shows that to more people, it increases reach. Now, if we want the fact that you have that is good. So it says your baseline is great. Now if we want to have calls to action that are more immediate, then we are going to lean into things that are saying get this, not get this guide, but let's say somebody's planning a trip to Portugal for October. You can use words like get this before you go on your trip in October or something along those lines, playing on those words. Or make sure you have this last minute packing list. Somebody is always going to click on a last minute packing list. Or don't forget these safety tips. If you are a solo traveler, make sure don't forget last minute. So you're using things that tell them, I'll click on those. Because even I'm taking my daughter to Austria next week and I'm consuming every single thing that I can about travel hacks. Things that I can get. Don't forget this on your carry on. Don't get to the airport. Like, watch this before you leave for the airport. I am like 100%. I'm like, okay, what do I need with the bags? Like the clear bags in Europe, I think especially international travel has a lot of things that people aren't aware of, especially as Americans. Like we know our TSA well, we know how these things go. So really getting into, I would say sitting for 20 minutes and just brainstorming, what are those things that people need to know in the last two to three weeks of traveling? And think about what thing they're searching. You already know all of that. You dialed in. You know SEO. So what are they searching in that last minute? Use those phrases. What is their panic moment? Not that you want to plan that, but like that's how you serve people, right? That's how they go, oh, yes, I'm going to click now. So that might not be a save, but it's definitely going to get a click. And we, if we have both in the system, then you are optimizing for both. It's kind of like you're rising both boats to where then you have both. Somebody last minute is going to be looking in December and February, but somebody who's planning six months in advance to to say, like, is Mexico safe? That might be their first search.
- [38:12]
B
Right?
- [38:12]
A
Because they are thinking of this place to go.
- [38:15]
B
I have another question. Is it necessary to clean your board?
- [38:20]
A
Yes and no. So I would say always in the beginning. So if you are, have you been around for 10 years and let's say you set up your Pinterest account eight years ago when you were like, okay, I guess I should get it, and you haven't really done a whole lot with it and you said it earlier about the content pillars and where you're going to focus. Does your Pinterest account reflect those content pillars and where you're going to go if not? And there are boards that say, maybe you were involved in a community group a long time ago, or you were a Facebook share thread and you just had this junk board where you didn't really actually put any of your content. Go ahead and move that to secret because it's maybe not even relevant to you anymore. Freshen it up a little bit. Spend an hour or two just going, okay, are people still searching? Are they searching the word? Is Mexico safe? Or maybe there's other things where you can go into trends. That trends tool is fantastic. And then you can grab those keywords and you can update. Because as you know, even with Google, the words that people use it use, they change, right? Or they might add new words into the mix. So searching on Pinterest, dusting it off a little bit, getting it updated, and then do it again in a year or something like that. And I think that's helpful for somebody who has an established account who hasn't actually done that. I do that about once a year on mine. I'll go in and search. Maybe people are searching something different with Pinterest marketing especially. You know, we talked about this in the beginning, that term blogger versus creator. I was probably using blogger a lot in the beginning because that's who I was working with. But now I use need to use the term creator. So I would say like two foundational pieces for you to do would be that first piece of go through and update your boards based on your content pillars. And then number two, brainstorm your calls to action and then just start using them on every single one over the next three months and then go back to your analytics and see what works. And here's another thing. I don't check analytics outside of once a month because then I see you get the full view. I would never do it once a day or even once a week because they're just too fluctuating.
- [40:31]
B
Okay, yeah, okay.
- [40:33]
A
Once a month, top of the month, we run reports for our clients that first week of the month so we can see everything that happened. But I think that's the beauty of Pinterest is getting creative with your images. Like, you can play around so much with your calls to action. You can have the same piece of content, but then you can play it up as last minute or long term, which I think is kind of fun for us to be able to do.
- [40:59]
B
Okay, I'm definitely going to do that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna create a list of call to actions and so when I. So do you use AI to like I would use AI, I would use Chat GPT or Claude to create a list of potential call to actions to use on Pinterest. Is that something that is doable or no?
- [41:28]
A
Yeah, I think always I think of AI as it's shortening my brainstorm time and then I'm going to take it and I'm going to use that as inspiration and turn them into my own always. Like I think honestly I forget and we were talking about age earlier. I think that's because I'm in my late 40s. I just, I. It's hard for us to like do new things. Right. And whereas my kids are using AI to like plan their trip to down the street. I don't know, like it's, it's just different for us. But definitely I think you should do that for sure. And then take those things too. Especially if they have keywords in them and cross compare them with trends just to see. I find that Chat GPT, especially with like anything around Pinterest is not updated. Gemini isn't even updated either. They still use the word promoted pins, which is further evidence of these updates on Google being garbage. Right. So there's that. Yeah, I think those things, at least I hope for you and this is maybe my like, you know how we'll wrap this up is that I think Pinterest is such a great tool that is a supplement to Google, to email and to YouTube. And I love these tools because they do drive traffic and they do create a deeper connection. And to what you said earlier about the insta gratification, like that is you're not getting that with these. It is head down, it is hard, it is boring, it is like, ugh, this is taking forever. But you know the long term payoff and that's what you're looking for. You're like, I'm not interested in any of this. And so I hope that for you this year I really like, I see with all these things that you're doing, the questions that you're asking, it's more than possible for that to happen. And so I'm cheering you on all the way.
- [43:15]
B
I'm cheering me on too. I believe that is going to happen. I am just making sure that I am doing and I think too a lot of times creators have to realize they have to do the work. So you know, it doesn't matter what I have on my vision boards, what I'M looking at if I'm not actually doing and putting the work in. Pinterest isn't going to update itself. Google isn't going to update itself. And I think that we have to be realistic that we get in, we get out what we put in. And for me this is what I am really focusing on and I want to use myself as a case study. That's, that is what I am doing. I'm using myself as a case study for how I lost my traffic and it took xy. These are the things that I did in order to turn my traffic around. So you know, I'm looking at this as a challenge. I'm looking at it as a case study and very well. When we get to the top of the year I'm going to send you a text and I'm going to be like guess what girl?
- [44:20]
A
Yes. And I am going to be like I knew it. That's what I'll say. I knew it was going to happen. It's so good. I am so excited for you. So I want to say one thing too about I know you work for T and you mentioned the community. I just want to affirm what you see said about having this community there of people who are so supportive and encouraging and for me being at the event with you, I saw that like I saw everybody, you know, asking those questions and figuring out diversification and kind of really being investigative and collaborative. Like I mean, you know, I've gushed enough but I mean it was great. So I will say anybody listening if you need a travel conference, go to TBX. Hands down 10 out of 10 go, go, go.
- [45:05]
B
So I'll say that and you should come because I am going to be begging her to come back to Quebec City next year. So I am about to start sending out emails, you know, our community and even just attest to you out when you got finished with your session, you stood outside of the room. I don't know, it seems like it was another 20, 30 minutes. People were so in tuned and want because they want, they, they want real life takeaways and that is something that we really want to focus on at TBEX is bringing in speakers that can give our community actionable takeaways that they can say okay, I'm going to work on this and you know and, and I will see a change within the next three to six months. And so yes I, we, we so appreciated you for coming and sharing your knowledge with our community.
- [46:00]
A
Yeah, it was fantastic. And not I felt that with every speaker too there's not this like jockeying for attention or lead person or I want to be seen as important. And I loved too how many black creators were there too. It was so encouraging to see the diversity at the event and just getting to hear about how they're starting their business and growing their business and I mean that's makes us all better, right? When we have this just diverse community and diverse experiences to where we can share. Right. Just like you've shared today. Okay, this is what I did and this is what I'm experiencing and this is what I'm going to do going forward. My hope is that someone listening will say this is my story too. And now I'm encouraged to go forward. Now I'm encouraged.
- [46:45]
B
You know, I find too many times people don't want to say they're struggling because that's not the, you know. No, in this land of Instagram and social media, you know, everybody has to be in a million dollar home and driving a G wagon and their checking account is, you know, nobody is struggling anymore under for anything. And that's just not realistic. That is just not real life. And the one thing that I try to do is be transparent because somebody else is struggling as well. And if we're all transparent, parent people don't think that they're alone in this and they won't quit because they know that, okay, it's not just me, it's the entire community. We're all trying to figure this thing out.
- [47:27]
A
Yeah, 100%. And that's what makes us all better, is we go, okay, I'm not alone. Now we can run the race together and now we can all succeed. So where can people go to follow along, connect with you? I know, I see you on threads too every once in a while, which is so fun. But where can they go to connect with you?
- [47:45]
B
So my travel website is Passports and Grub g r u b dot com. My SEO consulting is Tamiko harvey dot com and follow me on Instagram@tamiko.harvey and you'll see all of my travels. I'm headed to Alaska, I'm headed to San Diego. I just got back from a campaign in Madison, Wisconsin so I'm all over the place.
- [48:14]
A
Yeah. Yara, that's amazing. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your story with us and everybody. Go connect with her, follow along, see what she's doing and be encouraged today that the race is not done. We are still running the race and we're still going to do great things. So Tamiko, thank you so much.
- [48:31]
B
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it so much. It.