What are Fresh Pins on Pinterest and how to make them

Pinterest wants to have all fresh Pins now, this news is all over the place. What are fresh Pins, why does Pinterest want them, and, most important, how to make a Pin “fresh”?

First things first: All of this is not really that new. I did an update of my Pinterest course months ago (in August 2019 ), where I wrote about the importance of fresh Pins. Luckily Tailwind and Pinterest did some real talk during a Webinar recently and also (which rarely happens) gave some concrete hints. 

The Pinterest Universe is buzzing right now, but many artists and other creatives are still very unsure about this whole thing, so I will try to shed some light on it.

What are fresh Pinterest Pins?

Fresh Pins are images (or videos) that Pinterest hasn’t seen before. Let this sink in. 

The last part is easy: a Pin is only considered fresh the very first time it has been saved. Any kind of repin is not fresh. Pinning (Saving) the same image the second time from the same URL is not. Scheduling an image that is already present on Pinterest with Tailwind or throwing it into a Tribe is not fresh too.

So what the heck does “image” in this context exactly stand for? Well, it is the whole Pin design. A Pin is either a JPG or a PNG image that you save to Pinterest, adding an excellent title and a proper description. On the Pin itself, there will often be an image too. A photo or a painting, maybe even multiple ones. There might be a text overlay and a logo.

Is your head buzzing already?

Don’t worry, here are some examples that will (hopefully) make it more clear.

Fresh Pin Examples

Let’s just say I’m an artist. Hey, I am one, what a lucky coincidence! So, as a photographer and digital artist, I have tons of images. Photos, Fractals, Mandalas, you name it. Lucky me. I will never run out of fresh images, will I?

Well… It might happen sooner than I’d like. Here is why.

I created a new Fractal and uploaded the image to Fine Art America (FAA). People can buy Prints and Home Decor Products like Throw Pillows, Duvet Covers, etc.

Right after uploading the Fractal to FAA, I will save it to Pinterest. The Pin will be considered fresh because Pinterest has not seen this image before. This is how the Pin looks:

Some years ago, it would have been fine to repin this Pin to dozens of boards, even within a short time frame. Please don’t do this now, your account may get suspended!

So how about pinning all the dozens of Print and Product variations? FAA will print my Fractal on Paper, Canvas, Metal, Acrylic and Wood. Don’t forget the Duvet Covers, Shower Curtains, Throw Pillows, etc.

Hmmmm… This is how the Pins of the different Print types will look:

There’s not too much difference! I am pretty sure that Pinterest will not consider these barely noticeable differences as a fresh pin.

How about the Products?

Of course, I can’t speak for Pinterest, so there’s some speculation, but I would say that the lifestyle image with the Weekender Tote Bag clearly is “fresh.” Look at the Duvet Cover image: only the upper part differs a little bit from the pictures of the various Prints. I would assume that’s not enough.

Complicated? Maybe, but let’s remember why Pinterest wants those fresh Pins!

Why does Pinterest want us to create fresh Pins?

It’s all about the user experience. Imagine you are scrolling through your Instagram feed. Do you want to see the exact same picture again and again? You would feel bored and go somewhere else, right? Same with Pinterest. It is a highly visual search and discovery engine based on images. Each and every one of those images leads to a website (at least if the Pin creator did it right). 

By the way, did you hear that, dear Instagram? Every image has a link. Imagine Pinterest only had one shabby link in the profile…

Anyway, new and fresh images are essential. Is it okay if five or ten different images will link to the same URL? Absolutely! Every pro blogger creates multiple (different) Pins that will lead to the exact same blog post. Good news: We, as artists, can do the same.

Oh my, I’m not able to create tons of fresh pins! Or can I?

Yes, you can. I will show you how.

Do you remember our lovely Fractal? I will use it as an example to show you how to create x fresh pins within a short time. Well, in the beginning, it will take a little longer, but practice makes perfect, as we all know. Let me show you some of the fresh pins first, how do you like them?

Fresh Pin Variations

Room Mockups

Selling art online is not easy. Your potential buyer needs to imagine how your photo or painting will look in their living room, bedroom or office. Why not help them a little bit? I’m sure you already have seen some Mockups (In Situ images), they look like this:

These pictures are called mockups because they are not real. Is that bad? I don’t think so. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have enough space and money to hang hundreds of different pictures on my walls just to snap a photo. So why not use an image of a beautiful room and put your wonderful art on one of the walls?

Sounds good, Matthias, but where do I find those room pictures? Well, congrats, you just opened a can of worms. I know that many people will tell you just to use Google to find some free pictures or mockup templates. I respectfully disagree. At least you have to be very cautious when doing so. Why is this?

Everybody is using free images because, well, they are free.

You might come into legal issues. Please double-check the source of the image (are they really free from all copyright?) and be sure to read the terms of service. Many mockup sites require you to credit them (or even link to them) when using their images! Trust me: you don’t want to have any links leading away from your art.

I use paid Photoshop templates for most of my room mockups. There are several sources for those.

Recommendation for Mockups: DesignCuts

I buy from DesignCuts most of the time. Every item in their deal packages is of excellent quality, and they offer outstanding support. Although they have many mockups for sale, I would advise waiting for their Bundles. DesignCuts releases a new one every few weeks, some of them contain mockups. Some weeks ago they offered “The Designer’s Essential Mockup Toolbox,” tons of high-quality mockups for only $29 (regular price would be $2277).

Be sure to check out their Freebies. They offer tons of free stuff like fonts, textures, patterns, stock photos and more. Some of their freebie packs even contain a tutorial video! Sign up for the newsletter to be sure you get all the valuable info about their new bundles and their weekly freebies. The best way to do so is to check out their free “Ever Expanding Bundle”. It contains more than 20 free downloadable products for Designers, Painters, Photographers, and other Creatives: https://www.designcuts.com/the-ever-expanding-bundle/?ref=matthiashauser (affiliate links)

Different Pin Designs with interesting text overlays are key to create as many fresh Pins as possible. But how to create them? I use Canva, DesignWizard and some other tools to design my Pins. I just created three different Pins for the same image:

Please note that even though they use the same Fractal image, they are different. Each of them should count as a fresh Pin. Mission accomplished.

Pinterest Video Pins

Next stop: Video Pins. They are powerful! Pinterest started relatively late with native videos, which may be one of the reasons why they currently get prominent placement in the search results. Another reason: people love to watch videos! They really do. Without further ado: here are the three videos I created:

Ha! I already know your next question… “What tool do you use to create your Video Pins?”. Glad you asked!

I started with mighty programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, switched to iOS Apps (for my iPad) like InShot and Enlight Videoleap, and tried numerous online video creators. The tool I liked the most is InVideo (affiliate link).

Your mileage may vary, but I looked for an easy to use and fast yet versatile Video Editor. If you want to read more about how to create Video Pins, what tools are available and why I choose InVideo, here is a recent blog post: How to make Pinterest Video Pins 

There are two other ways to succeed in our quest to create as many fresh Pins as possible (from a single piece of art).

Carousel Pins

Carousel Pins are a great way to “recycle” existing Pins. They are just a Pin with multiple images, people can swipe through all the cards. A Carousel can show a maximum of five images (cards).

The best way to understand the power of carousel pins is to see one, so here we go:

Did you notice what I did with this Pin? I used some of the images that I already created. By the way, this strategy is also well suited to create Video Pins (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426786502188639807/) and the last type of Pin that I wanted to introduce: Story Pins.

Story Pins

Story Pins can include multiple images, videos, and text. Sounds good, huh? Wait a moment before you jump in and create dozens of them! 

There are some problems with Story Pins, at least for now:

• They are a work in progress (see more below)
• They are not available for everyone (yet)
• At the moment, you need an iPhone or an Android Phone to create them (within the Pinterest App). We had been able to create them on desktop too, but Pinterest changed this recently.
• The most significant disadvantage (from my point of view): Story Pins can no longer contain links. Bummer.

Please decide for yourself if it makes sense to invest time in creating Story Pins right now. I did lots of them when I was part of the beta test team. They had a fantastic reach (impressions, repins) but not very much clicks. I don’t know why Pinterest decided to remove the possibility to create links with their new Story Pins, but this (the fact that only a few people used the links) might be one of the reasons.

Anyway, here is a Story Pin I created:

Example of an old Story Pin (with links):

What else do you have to look out for?

Final Tips for more Pinterest Traffic

Fresh Pins are one (important) thing, but there are other recommendations you should follow to get more impressions, repins and clicks.

It can still make sense to save a Pin into multiple boards, but please be sure to follow these guidelines when doing so:

• Only save them into relevant boards (no cats into a flower board) and never to more than 10 (relevant!) boards.
• Use an interval of several days between and Pin to the most relevant boards first
• 15 to 25 Pins per day are a good range, according to Tailwind. If you have less, pin less. Try to be consistent. Better to pin 5 things each day than 25 on one day and then nothing for the next 5 days. Important: do not pin more than 50 per day! And yes, this includes (re)pins from others, from Tribes, etc.

There you have it! You now know what exactly fresh Pins are and how to create them.

My Pinterest Online Course

I hope you enjoyed this post. It was intended to be a part of my paid Pinterest Course, but I decided to offer it for free.

If you liked my style of writing and if you want to get the most out of Pinterest, please feel free to register for the free trial of my course “How to sell more art with Pinterest”.

You will get personal support and step-by-step instructions on how to get more visitors, followers, repins, and traffic. The course already helped many Artists step up their Pinterest game and sell more art.

Questions? Feedback? Comment below!

Any questions left? Did you already create some fresh Pins? Leave me a comment below!