A Handy Pinterest Tool That Predicts Future Trends

Review of a Pinterest Tool That Predicts Future Trends

Most of us don't choose what to write about based on what is popular. However, there are specific exceptions. For example, if you have a Home Decor website (as I do), you may want to feature trending products or ideas that are projected to be the current year's rage.

I have to admit, I rarely approach selecting a funky home decor item to write about based upon its popularity. However, I also don't just select items willy-nilly either.

When I'm featuring a product on Funkthishouse.com, it's because:

1. It's different, funky, and something everyday decorators would not consider.
2. It's a home decor item loaded with color, design, and style.
3. It's a product that a select group of home decor junkies tends towards.
4. It's a creative item or idea that can be added to existing decor.
5. It's through the roof expensive! For the shock value alone.
6. It's through the basement inexpensive! Shock value savings.
7. It's bright, cheerful, and, most of the time, not a neutral color.
8. It's popular, but only for its originality.
9. It's a common item, with uncommon prints and designs.
10. It's bizarre but very cool.

However, there's a particular Pinterest Tool that I do use once in a while to see what future trends for the year will be. After all, who better than Pinterest to be able to compile shopping trends and data?

Pinterest Business - Pinterest Predicts

Have you ever taken a look at this part of Pinterest?

If not, here's the link to it.

It's interesting to read their stats on a projected year-over-year increase in trends.

When you're over there, you'll notice that the categories are broken down for you: Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Food, Home, Parenting, Well-Being, and more! You'll be able to see each category clearly.

What Information Are You Provided on Each Category?

Click the category you're interested in, and you'll see some easy-to-read information on the popular trend(s) for it. 

You'll be provided with a previous year versus current-year estimation of the global increase in stats/searches/interest items within that category. You'll see easy-to-read and understand percentages broken down by category for items/products/interests.

Since my niche for Funkthishouse is funky home decor, obviously, I had to check out the "Home" category. The projected popular item for 2021 is "Vibey Lights." 

Pinterest points out that Gen Zs (born in the late 1990s to early 2000s) are very much into mood lighting for their rooms. As soon as I read that, I thought, yep, bang on! I have a Gen Z'er in my house, and he's been into LED ambient lighting for several years now. His room features LED lights; behind his piano, behind the bed headboard, and behind his desk; it's lovely.

You can view a collection of vibey-mood lighting here. Most of the products featured at that link are popular LED strip lights.

My son recently purchased these 'vibey' LED strip lights. I highly recommend them. They went up easy, and so far, work perfectly. Oh, and they're not expensive!

Have You Used Pinterest Trends - Another Handy Tool

Pinterest Trends (trends.pinterest.com) gives a breakdown of the top weekly trends by country. You can search by item or category - whatever you want.

I use Pinterest Trends to find popular pins. I like to share a variety of pins, and of course, that includes popular pins. 

Go take a peek at both tools; they're a bit addictive!

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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How to Create Pinterest Images with Photoshop

Today I'm going to review how to create Pinterest images with my favorite photo editing software - Photoshop!  I create most of my Pinterest images with Photoshop, I have tried a few other places, but I always come back to Photoshop.

I've been asked quite a few times how I create my images for Pinterest which is why I thought I'd just show you.  Now I can't promise you that your images will take off in popularity on this social media platform, but I can promise you that the steps will be easy to understand.

I have been using Photoshop for a few years now, but the way I create the majority of my images are easy for beginners and experts alike to follow.

The first thing you have to do is open up your Photoshop and select a new file, I simply press Ctrl N to do this, but you could use the file menu and open it that way.

You will be greeted with a pop up box where you have to select your image details, it looks like this -

I only change two things on the default and that is the width and height as you can see on the image.  I have changed the image height a few times, but the majority of the time I just use the standard 738 x 1105.

The next step means finding the image you want to use for your pin so I've decided that I want to do a pin for my welcome to Lou16.com post (I can't believe I was missing a Pinterest image on that post until I wrote this!)

I'm going to use the image I have in my introduction as the main image for my Pinterest image as well so let's have a look at what we're going to do....

So the first thing I do is create a new file, then I open up the photo I want to use and drag it onto the new file.

1.  Here you can see that this image has a border that I created previously.  I'm going to use this color for the background so to do this I need to use the eyedropper tool to select the exact color.
2.  This is the eyedropper tool.  To use this you click on the tool and then click on the color that you want to select.
3.  After selecting the color I make sure to select the correct layer (in this case the blank one as I'm using this for background.
4.  The paint bucket tool will cover the layer with the selected color.

After doing all of these steps you'll be left with the next image.

3.  I'm going to do things backwards here and get you to look at number 3!  When I did the background color the teal was on top and the white was underneath, as I'm thinking of doing the text in white I switched them around.  Sometimes when you're using two colors you can just change between these two to save having to use the eyedropper tool again.

Back to our image..

Now I want to add some text to the image so I have to select the text box.

1.  This is the Text box and you have to click on this before adding any text.
2.  This is the text tool bar, you can change the color from here (it will default to the top square at number 3 unless you change it), you can also alter the font, the font size and whether you want to use a bold or italic or both.

As you can see I dragged the image down a little so that I could add text above and below it.  Above I just used regular and underneath I selected italics.  You can also highlight just one or two words and change their color or size in order to make an impact.

1.  There are different things you can select on the side including a border which I always use for my Pinterest images.  You select the border (or arrow as I have done on these images for you) and click apply - the color on top of the color box is what color the object will appear as.

I didn't want to use white as a border because the website background is white so I used the eyedropper tool to select another color from the photograph.

I always try to pull either the border, background or text (sometimes all of them) from the actual photo as you know it's going to go.

I always keep Photoshop open until I see the final image uploaded to the website.  In this case I uploaded the border from a light green in the foliage that really made it pop on Photoshop, but looked strange on the white background of the website.

I then changed the border to the blue of my t-shirt, but again on the white background of this site it just didn't look quite right.  The third and final one is what is pictured above and I've use the brown of my hair!

Now you don't always have to use a photo, sometimes I'll use a graphic from a site like Pixabay and use that.

This is a very basic way to create a Pinterest image using Photoshop, as you get used to using it you can get more and more creative with using several images merged together like this one from another post I created -

In this image I used an image of traffic which I reduced and played with to get it to fit onto the laptop screen.  The background is taken from the laptop color and you can see I changed the color and font size of the 21 in the image.

Start off simple and as you get used to using these tools you'll find yourself creating all kinds of images, try not to become too addicted to Photoshop as once you start down this rabbit hole you can lose all sense of time!

You might be interested in my other Photoshop tutorial (and there will probably be more to come!) -

How to Remove Blemishes From Photos Using Photoshop
Let's review how easy it is to use Photoshop to remove blemishes from photos, trust me it's really simple and well worth the time spent to restore old family photos.

Our contributors here on Review This also use other platforms to create their images for Pinterest so be sure to check out our tips for writers including -

• A Review of Picmonkey Photo Editing Site
• FotoJet Free Photo Editor Review

... and let's not forget our Pinterest tips -

• Reviewing Best Practices for Pinterest Success
• How to Embed Your Pinterest Board in Your Blog Post

Before leaving I'd like to tell you one of the things that really helped me with getting traffic from Pinterest (obviously the images help!) and that was using Tailwind, I highly recommend this scheduling tool for anyone who wants to harness the power of this visual social media platform.

If you've found this article helpful please share on your favorite social media platform.

Image by Lou of Lou's Designs

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Reviewing Best Practices for Pinterest Success

Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing social media sites on the web. Follow these best practices to get your business noticed and achieve Pinterest success.

Of all the social media channels on the web, Pinterest has become the popular marketing site for small business owners, artists, designers and home-based crafters.

It is estimated that Pinterest will reach 47.1 million users in 2015. That's more than 25% of all social media users. And, these numbers are expected to grow to a user base of 59.3 million by 2019.

If you haven't joined Pinterest, you may want to seriously consider joining the crowd. But, before you do, take some time to create a Pinterest plan. If you're already on Pinterest, it may be time to review your plan.

Here is our review of the best practices to bring success on Pinterest.

Niche Your Pinterest Account

As web marketers, we're always told to "Find your niche." A niche is a fancy way of saying, "Stay on topic." And another way of saying, "develop a theme." Your niche/topic/theme is your business, art, craft or hobby.

While setting up your Pinterest account, make sure that your profile description, board titles and board descriptions always follow your main theme. And, create boards that encompass all of the areas that follow that theme to niche down your boards.

TIP:  When you have pins that don't pertain to your niche but you want to add them to a board, create a secret board where only you can see those pins. Or, create a separate Pinterest account for your personal and fun sharing.

For example, if you sell crochet craft items, build Pinterest boards around the types of items you crochet and other items that support your craft. This could include boards for crochet baby gifts, crochet plush toys, crochet tips and tricks, and crochet yarns.

Think of your Pinterest account as a department store and your boards are the different departments within your store.

Create Descriptive Boards

Pinterest boards with descriptive titles are more likely to be noticed by other Pinterest users and by the search engines. Write board titles that accurately describe the types of pins found on the board. And, don't forget to add a short description that offers more information about the board.

This may seem like a lot of work but visitors to your Pinterest page will appreciate the added descriptions. Adding titles and descriptions can turn a boring Pinterest page into an interesting and informative place where people will gather to find useful pins.

Design Eye-Catching Images

Pinterest is a visual place and the best looking images get the most notice. If you don't have any graphic design skills, this may be the most challenging Pinterest best practice that you'll encounter. But, don't give up hope, there are many online tools that will help you create incredible Pinterest graphics.

When creating images for Pinterest, keep these tips in mind:

• Use clear photographs that accurately portray the pin.
• Make images large to make your pins stand out from the crowd.
• Add text to add more description.

Find Group Boards in Your Niche

There are two ways to grow your following. The first is to promote your Pinterest account and pin regularly. The other way, and an easier way, is to find group boards that match your niche and interests. When you add your pins to a group board, you reach every follower of every member of that group board. And, you may make some new friends in your niche that will help you in your cross-promotion efforts.

Post on a Regular Schedule

This is the most difficult part for many people. It's easy to get started and it's easy to pin for a while. But, as time goes on, life and work get in the way. Don't get caught in the trap of putting off your pinning until tomorrow. If you have to, set a schedule and pin by it. Even if you can only spend a few minutes a day, make a schedule and stick to it.

If you find it difficult to keep up your Pinterest enthusiasm, join a Pinterest networking group.

Join a Pinterest Networking Group

It's not always easy playing the social media game and finding a method that fits your marketing style. One of the best ways I've found to stay focused and find synergysm is to join a Pinterest networking group.

A new Pinterest network group that showed up just a few months ago and has achieved awesome success is Pinterest Party. Pinterest Party is not one of those "you share mine and I'll share yours" kind of groups. The group administrators have daily activities that help members stay active, keep their Pinterest page interesting and grow their exposure.

Posted by Coletta Teske

About This Contributor

Coletta Teske writes reviews on books, business management, writing, crafting, cooking, and gardening. She is also an avid recycler and shares her tips on recycling. She delights in upcycling an old object, recycling or transforming discarded items into a new treasure.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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