Aimless Tangents

This is my latest time sink.  I’m so very addicted. 

What is Pinterest? 

Well…bear with me and I’ll answer that.  I’m a Bookmarker.  By that I mean if I find something interesting on the web I’ll bookmark the page.  My bookmarks are sorta categorized but I have a metric freaking ton of them that I never seem to go back through and look at.  Overwhelming and highly inefficient. 

Pinterest is basically an online based bookmarker.  Rather than bookmarking a page though I’ll pin an image.  Pinning the image puts it on my boards (read: categories) that are organized how I want them.  The pink links back to the original website/blog post/wherever I found the interesting thing. 

From Pinterest itself:  Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things — wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

But what makes it any better than just bookmarking things the old way?

Visual representation.  I’m pinning an image rather than a website’s title or url.  Great for me to easily surf through and rediscover the inspiration.

How do you pin?

From Pinterest itself again:  The easiest way to pin an item is to use the Pin It bookmark. This is a special button that lets you grab an image from any website and add it to one of your pinboards. When you pin from a website, we automatically grab the source link so we can credit the original creator.

There is an iPhone app for Pinterest.  You can also upload images directly from your computer and pin them to your boards.  I just found the blog buttons for Pinterest and will be adding one shortly.

Right now Pinterest is invitation only.  You can go to the website and request an invite or you can drop me a line with your email address and let me know you want an invite, I’ve got plenty to go around.

You can also use the following address to see what images from your website have be pinned and are generating traffic for you.  Just change “nameofyoursitehere.com” to the actual .com name of your site.

http://pinterest.com/source/nameofyoursitehere.com

Come join me with my new addiction!

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