Free (or Cheap) Resource Friday: Pinterest

Pinterest.

You either love it, or you simply don’t know yet.

It’s awesome.

Pinterest is:

 is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

It’s eye candy, it’s inspiration and it’s actually really quite a useful social bookmarking tool.

People are visual, we like to see before we believe.

On Pinterest, you see the food before you read the recipe

You look at the finished product before you set eyes on the tutorial.

Basically it’s  a sneak peek. And I love it.

How do you join Pinterest?

Well, you can ask for an invite here. But from what I’ve heard, you shouldn’t hold your breath. The best way to join Pinterest is to be invited by a current member. You will be “in” immediately.

(more on that later)

I’m on Pinterest…now what?

Now you pin!

Pinterest has a great FAQ on how to Pin (should you repin? what’s the difference between a repin and a pin. Wait…what’s a like?) and what to pin (might I suggest recipes? crafts? great money saving advice?) and where to pin (here are my boards. I love them).

Finally, even Pinterest has rules. Maybe not rules, but ettiquette. You can read all about Pinterest ettiquette here, but I have a few to add of my own as well:

• Pinterest is social bookmarking. This means it’s an aggregator for content that you want to organize and share with your friends all in one place.  This does not mean that it’s meant to be a one stop shop. Refrain from copying/pasting directions in the Pin caption itself. First off, it’s plagiarizing. Secondly, if the pin is that awesome, shouldn’t the website that created the pinworthy post/article/tutorial get some traffic from it? Give the pin some info so it will capture interest, but leave something to the imagination!
• Evergreen content only please. If you pin giveaways, coupons, sales, etc…you’ll only end up disappointing your fellow pinners when the deal is over.
• I’m not going to lie. I post all of my evergreen content on Pinterest. I post it one time, on one of my many boards (this one). My own content is less than probably 10% of my overall pinning. Give more than you take. That’s just being a good person in general though ;) .

I know I’m kind of a Pinterest Purist. ;)

My life has gotten infinitely better since joining Pinterest. My house is cleaner, my day is organized better, my walls are decorated, etc etc etc.

However, be careful not to get stuck in the Pinterest time warp. It’s true, I’ve been there. I’ve spent HOURS there. Make sure you set time limits and you know, on occasion actually MAKE something you’ve pinned ;) .

It’s inspiration. It’s my happy place. It’s Pinterest.

Join me!

Leave your email in the comments if you want to join. I’ll invite the first 20 commenters or so to Pinterest. From there, pass the love on and come back and invite anyone else that asks for an invite.