Pinterest lift the affiliate link ban so bloggers can monetize boards

On Thursday 12th May, Pinterest announced they’re lifting their ban on affiliate links:

We understand that businesses and bloggers need a sustainable way to keep making great content. That’s why we’ve decided to allow affiliate links on Pinterest.

Read the full press release here.

Up until a year ago, bloggers were able to use affiliate links on the Pinterest platform. The company banned them in February 2015. At the time, a lot of people were annoyed as they’d relied on the method to monetize their accounts. (If you spend hours curating beautiful boards and growing a following, it’s nice to earn a little compensation!)

At the time, Pinterest told Business Insider –

We are removing affiliate links to ensure we’re providing the best possible experience for Pinners. Recently, we observed affiliate links and redirects causing irrelevant Pins in feeds, broken links and other spammy behaviour. We believe this change will enable us to keep the high bar of relevancy and quality Pinners expect from Pinterest.

Thankfully, the company have now improved their spam detection system and have made the decision to allow the posting of affiliate links once again.

Yay, thank you @Pinterest for lifting the ban on #affiliate links! Click To Tweet

The changes will roll out to different networks gradually.

The company announced that they will be updating their acceptable use policy too. (I wonder if they’ll add a clause telling users they must write an appropriate disclosure if they wish to monetise their boards with affiliate links?)