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January 15, 2019 by gina@theshabbycreekcottage.com

How to Use Lightroom Mobile Presets

Lightroom Mobile Presets – they’re a beautiful thing! I’ve shared before how to download, import and install them onto your phone, so now it’s time to teach you how to use them to make your phone photography editing a ~~snap~~ tap! First you need to make sure that you have Lightroom Mobile on your device (it’s free, ya know?) After that, you want to make sure you have a preset or two on your phone to use them.

How to Use Lightroom Mobile Presets

Now that you’ve got some Lightroom Mobile presets all ready to go – let me show you how to use them so you can get those photos picture perfect in about 3 seconds! (Thanks goes out to my friend Dawn for letting me hijack her phone to show you since mine already had 57 billion photos in LR – ha!)

First, open up your app and go to your library.

Next, click on the left hand side of the button in the bottom right corner so you can add photos to your album.

After that, choose the photo you’d like to edit with your preset and tap on it. Then it will open in the editing area of your Lightroom Mobile app.

Once you photo is loaded into the editing area, then use the bottom slider and go all the way to the right and you’ll see PRESETS. Choose that to open them.

Once you have the preset you want, then tap on it to add it to your photo.

Then click the checkmark at the bottom to save it and you’re done!

Of course, if it’s a little too bright or dark – you can still adjust the photo a tiny bit using the controls at the bottom of the app on the slider.

And that’s it! It’s so easy to put these presets to work so you can make the most of your photos. Want to see more dramatic before and afters?!? Here are a few of my own:

Want to snag these presets for free?!? Just fill out the form below and I’ll send them straight to your inbox!

January 15, 2019 by Gina Luker

How to Install Lightroom Mobile Presets (+ 6 Free Presets!)

Have you tried Lightroom Mobile Presets? I’ve gotta tell you – they are a game changer! They take away the agony of trying to get your photos from blah to BAM – in literally one tap. Setting them up takes about 60 seconds, but the time it will save you in the long run is so worth it. And I’m going to walk you through it step by step.

What are Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile Presets?

Presets are like shortcuts to turning your photos into expertly edited photos with one tap. It’s a set of “instructions” you use in the free Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile app to edit your photos. To use them, just choose your photo – hit the preset you want and you’re done. It’s so easy!

PLEASE NOTE: There are a LOT of photos in this post. Do not be intimidated – I’m showing every tiny step so you know exactly what to do and won’t get lost, k? Let’s get to it!

You’ll need these apps for this to work on an iPhone (

How to Download Lightroom Mobile Presets

Next, you need to download your presets (you can find my free ones at the bottom of this post). These are in Dropbox, so you may have to have that app, too. If you’re on an iPhone, you’ll need the “Unzip” app because almost all Lightroom Mobile Presets – including mine – come in a zip file. Click on the file name.

Next, click on the three dots “…” in the upper righthand corner to open a menu.

Once the menu is open – then select “EXPORT”

Then select the UNZIP app – you may have to scroll across a bit to find it, depending on how many apps are on your phone.

When it’s saved, then open up the Unzip app – and tap on the file name to unzip the file.

After it’s unzipped, you can click on the folder name to see the file.

Now your preset is ready to install into Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile.

How to Import Lightroom Mobile Presets

First, you’ll need to install Lightroom Mobile on your phone by downloading it from the App Store. Once you have it on your phone, you’ll need to “sign up” using either your Facebook or email address. Unlike desktop Lightroom, it’s completely free. Though if you do have Creative Cloud, it will sync them for you so once you have the presets on your mobile device it will then add them on your desktop version – sweet, huh?

Once you have the app downloaded and opened, you’ll need to make sure you are in your library. The default setting is “Photos” – so choose the arrow in the upper left hand corner to get to your library.

Now let’s create an album. Click on the “Create an Album” button.

Then name your Album and click “OK”.

Your album is there, but you’ll need to import your files – so click on it in the library.

It will say “This Album is Empty” – so let’s import the files now. Tap on the add icon on the left side of the button in the bottom right hand corner.

Then choose “From Files” from the drop down menu.

At the bottom, you’ll see “Recent” and “Browse” – choose BROWSE

Then you’ll see different locations – choose ON MY IPHONE

Then choose the Unzip App from your phone.

Then you will find the folder with the Lightroom Mobile Preset you’d like to import – so select it.

Inside that folder you’ll see the file – tap on it and it will import it into Lightroom Mobile. So now switch to that app.

Now your preset is IMPORTED – so let’s actually INSTALL it into your Lightroom Mobile App.

How to Install Lightroom Mobile Presets

Go into your album where you imported the file and tap on the file. It will open it into the editing area. Now Click on the three dots “…” in the upper right hand corner.

That will open a menu and you need to select “COPY SETTINGS”.

Then click OK so you now have all the settings of that preset on your clipboard.

Now scroll over a tiny bit on the bottom slider area and select PRESETS.

Tap on the three little dots “…” in the upper right hand corner.

This will open up to let you create a saved preset in your Lightroom Mobile settings. Select CREATE PRESET.

Name your preset (I use the name the creator gave it) and then click the checkmark in the upper right hand corner.

And your preset is now installed! It took you WAY longer to read this post than it will to actually do it yourself. Once you have it, then next time you get ready to edit photos, you just click on “Presets” – choose the one you want and BAM – you’re done!

Here’s a few examples of my Lightroom Mobile Presets:

It’s truly astonishing to think that you can get those kind of results in about 2 seconds once you have all of your Lightroom Mobile Presets all installed onto your phone.

Want my FREE Lightroom Mobile Presets?

These presets are perfect for dark interiors to bring them to life. I use these same presets for many of my Instagram photos and they make editing a snap… or rather – a tap! Just enter your email address below and I’ll send you my set of Airy Interiors Lightroom Mobile Presets for absolutely FREE. It’s a package of six different presets that will help you make an Insta-Star <3

October 1, 2018 by gina@theshabbycreekcottage.com

How to Grow Your Instagram Engagement Authentically

Ahhhh…. Instagram engagement. It’s the one metric people don’t talk about very much – however it means EVERYTHING. It literally means how much your audience values what you have to say, and it’s the only way to tell if they’re really listening.

Whether you have a huge audience or a tiny one… Instagram Engagement is a far better predictor of the number of people you’re actually influencing versus how many people have clicked on the “follow” button. So let’s chat about what it is – why you need it – and how to get more Instagram engagement.

Before we get started, I’m going to be 100% honest with you and tell you that you need to have a BUSINESS account on Instagram to see any of the information you’ll need to accurately figure out and improve your Instagram engagement. It’s free, only takes a couple of seconds in the settings of your account and then you’re good to go. Now… let’s get to the good stuff…

Great post on why Instagram engagement is SO important - and how to make yours better with simple, actionable tips that work every time.

What is “Instagram Engagement” – and how does Instagram engagement work?

Instagram engagement is the combination of how many people take action on a post you share on the platform. So likes, comments, saves and views all count as Instagram engagement. Some actions carry more weight than others. Since there are multiple ways you can post on your feed (not stories, IGTV or lives – we’ll get there in a second), let’s take a peek into the Instagram engagement actions:

On single photographs: saves are the strongest, followed by comments and and lastly likes.
When uploading multiple photos (to activate the “swipe across feature”): saves are strongest, followed by comments, swipes, and lastly likes.
For video content: saves are strongest, then comments, and finally views.

All of these actions add up to create your Instagram engagement. Any of them count, just as long as your followers are ENGAGING with your content.

Instagram engagement vs. likes

We all love it when we get that double tapped feeling, right? When someone gives you a like, it’s like your account gets a little hug. But beyond giving your photo a quick heart – if your people are highly engaged, then they’re leaving comments, interacting with you in the stories feature, even watching you when you go Live. There’s a lot of layers on how engaged they are.

But if you see the same people popping onto every photo with a quick comment or replying to your IG stories, those are the people who are truly the most invested in you and your feed. Those are your loyal “Super Fans” that will stick with you through any algorithm changes that might come your way. These are the people you want to cultivate and love on – and they’ll become fans for life.

How to grow your Instagram engagement - no matter what size your account is!

What is good Instagram Engagement?

This is such a commonly asked question – and with good reason. We all want to know what metrics we can use to see what’s “successful” on Instagram. And if you’re going to freak out over some number on the platform, please for the love of all things pretty, focus on your engagement ratio.

Simply put, it’s the amount of engagement you get on your account versus the amount of followers you have. So if you take the average follower amount for any given week, then divide it by the amount of engagement you received, then you can get a quick glance at how your performance was.

At the bare basic, you can look at the amount of followers you have, then the amount of interaction a post in your feed got, then do the quick math. If you have 1,000 followers and you got 100 likes on a photo, then that’s roughly 10% of your audience. If you got 65 likes, then you have 6.5% engagement on that photo.

Now… a lot of factors can go into that engagement ratio (and more on diving into analytics in a second), but it’s a super easy way to kind of do the math in your head to see if the photo performed well.

Most experts agree that 10% is the bench mark for a highly engaged account. Have higher than that? Then SWEET – you’re right on target! Have less than that? Don’t worry… I’ve got a few tips to help you out later in this post.

Instagram Engagement vs. followers

If you get nothing else out of this post, please take this away: The number of followers you have is just for vanity’s sake. The number of ENGAGERS you have is everything. If you’ve ever hosted a giveaway, I can guarantee you that you have followers who aren’t true fans. And even if you haven’t, then you have a crap ton of people who followed you in hopes that they would follow you back (please don’t play that game…. it doesn’t build a legit fanbase at ALL!)

A lower number of followers is actually a GOOD thing. It means you’re slowly building a steady stream of people who get you and love what you do. No crazy tactics involved. Just authentic growing at the right pace to keep your Instagram Engagement up and keeping the ratio high is soooooo much more important than trying to get numbers just to have a fancy “K” after your number.

Instagram Engagement vs. Facebook

So… now’s the time where we play the comparison game against it’s sister app, Facebook. Instagram is community driven, far more than Facebook ever has been. Where as Facebook makes it easy to leave the app with linking to other sites, Instagram wasn’t built that way. There’s a rumor that it’s coming, but honestly it’s always been about engagement from the get-go.

The main way to interact with people in the beginning was the ability to like or comment on another person’s posts. Then they added private messages, then stories, then IGTV, and I’m sure they’ll add more features as time goes on… but every one of them are built to keep you directly on IG. And the engagement rate has ALWAYS been better on IG.

Take for instance my Gina Luker Facebook page. It currently has 825 fans. It took me 3 years to get it to that point. Whenever I share a post, the most interaction it ever gets is 8-10 likes (unless I share it elsewhere.)

Then take a look at my Gina Luker Instagram. The account is less than a month old (at the time of writing this post), it has 650 fans – and averages 80+ likes on any given post. Some posts have well over 100 likes. Without even looking at the comments and saves, you can see that even with about 75% of the amount of FB followers I have, the Instagram engagement vs Facebook engagement ratios are MASSIVELY different. about 1% versus 10%. Even on my larger accounts (The Shabby Creek Cottage) the ratios are still about the same.

How to find Instagram Engagement rate on individual posts

Now that we’ve discussed what it is and why it’s important, let’s look at how to find Instagram Engagement rate for your account. First, let’s take a peek at posts. Remember you HAVE TO HAVE A BUSINESS ACCOUNT to be able to see insights. So at the bottom of each post you’ll see “VIEW INSIGHTS” – if you click on that you’ll get a popup with basic insights, then if you click on that you’ll see more in depth insights on that individual post.

For instance, with my 650 follower account, you’ll see that 419 people saw that post. It didn’t get me any new followers, but it did get 126 likes, 13 comments and 4 saves. So overall, if you add that up, it got 143 engagements, which basically works out to about 30% engagement rate. That’s HUGE! If my goal is 10% on each post, then I’ve tripled my goal.

How to grow your Instagram engagement - no matter what size your account is!

How to find Instagram Engagement Rate on account as a whole

Now, to see it on the full account, go into your account, up at the top you’ll see “### profile visits in the last 7 days,” and if you click on it, then it will take you to your account’s insights. Inside there, you’ll have info on in three separate tabs:

ACTIVITY: Which shows you profile visits, website clicks, emails, how many people saw your account (discovery), your reach and your impressions.
CONTENT: Your best posts from the last 7 days will be on the first page of it, then you can click to see all your posts in order of highest engagement from the last year. It also tells you the same on your stories that have been shown in the last 7 days.
AUDIENCE: On this tab, you can learn where people follow you in cities and countries, what their age range is, the gender, as well as what hours are the best for you on which days of the week (pretty cool, huh?) In another post we’ll cover what to do with all that info – but it’s good to keep track of.

So now let’s tackle the big question “Why is my Instagram engagement so low?”

Ok, my friend. This is the part where we get to have a little heart to heart. Instagram is possibly the most social platform of any social media. And there’s three big reasons why your Instagram Engagement is suffering.

You’re posting too much. I know… Experts say post 2-3 times a day. I call baloney. To me, once every 2-3 days works so much better. Because of the way the algorithm works, no one sees all your stuff. And if you’re posting too much, they’re definitely not seeing it all. You’ve gotta give your stuff room to breathe and grow and thrive. Time to get seen. Now stories… that’s a whole other discussion. And we’ll cover that in a separate post soon – but for this we’re focusing on your main home feed. So please don’t post too much.
You need to work on your quality. And it’s more than just the perfect photo. You need to bring value to your reader’s lives – and the best way to do this is with captions. Instagram is primarily a STORY TELLING PLATFORM. So tell your stories. Give depth. It’s not just all about memes and quick, witty captions. Go in depth. Not every time, but at least half the time. Have meaningful conversations with them. And they’ll engage with them so much more, because they’re getting to know you <3.
You aren’t engaging. Throughout this whole post we’ve been talking about INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT…. however are you engaging with your Insta-peeps? You need to like and reply to their comments, follow them and comment on their posts. Send them sweet little love notes in the direct messages. Give them a little story love when they leave sweet comments on your page. Engage with them. Show them you’re a real human with real interaction.

What are the best Instagram posts for engagement?

There’s a few of them, actually. But honestly, you’re going to have to test and tweak and see what works best for your audience.

Relatable memes (aka quote graphics)
Breathtaking photos – and yes, photos are important… but not as important as the caption.
Ask for their help. Maybe you need help choosing flooring… or need advice on where to eat in a new city… or maybe you need help figuring out which book to read next. Whatever it is, people love to give opinions and they love helping others. So it’s a win/win.

Remember: Engaged followers will share your stuff around the web if they love you – really love you. So you’ll grow organically with fans who love you as much as you love them. And at the end of the day, that’s the magic of Instagram engagement.

September 28, 2018 by Gina Luker

How to Start a Blog in 15 Minutes

About ten years ago I googled How to Start a Blog and it became the turning point in my life. Sound dramatic? Well the change it made in my life is nothing short of a blessing. Learning to start a blog was just the beginning, but once I learned how to make money blogging, our lives were changed. Our family went from barely being able to make ends meet to being able to support my entire family from blogging. Because we can run the blog from anywhere in the world, we can travel when we want, and have a flexible schedule that allows us to live the life of our dreams.

Why am I telling you this? Because anyone can do it. You can do it. Yes, YOU.

Although it took me over two years to make a good, full time income – today it’s easier than ever. With ad networks, affiliate programs, companies who want to sponsor blog posts…. the potential for earning six figures is completely realistic. Literally the only thing you need is a laptop and a wifi connection. Once your blog is set up, you’re off and running bravely into the direction of your dreams.

When I started my blog we could barely keep the lights on. We were so far in debt that we couldn’t breathe and were just barely scraping by. Today I’m a full time blogger, my husband no longer goes to a job he hates every day, we travel all over the country as much as we want, whenever we want, and have a life I could never have dreamed of. I’m not telling you this to brag about my “awesome life” – but to tell you that if you’re struggling, then I understand. Because I’ve been there. I’ve sooooo been there. But today our lives (and our children’s lives) have been changed forever because of the power of blogging.

No matter what you’re into – there are millions of others who are looking for the knowledge you have, right now! People who want to learn from someone who’s been through what they have – someone they can relate to – someone that can entertain them – someone they connect with.

And as a blogger…. that’s what you’re doing. You’re not a robot typing lines to just feed knowledge. As a blogger, we want to build communities of people who are passionate about the same things we are. We want to make an impact on someone’s life…. even in the tiniest of ways!

Before we get into how to start a blog on WordPress, let’s go through a few commonly asked questions first to see if blogging is right for you.

WHO SHOULD START A BLOG

This is a question a lot of people ask themselves. I started my lifestyle blog (The Shabby Creek Cottage) on a whim as a scrapbook of sorts to keep up with the changes of remodeling our childhood home. I had no idea that it would turn into a business – one that would change the course of our lives.

As humans, we typically have a lot to say about life. And also, you have unique knowledge & experiences & you’ve figured something out, somewhere that will help people on some level. So, in my opinion, anyone that wants to share their gifts with the world should have a blog. Maybe you’re an amazing singer… maybe you can rock a hoola hoop like nobody’s business. No matter what your gift is in life, you should be sharing it with the world.

Besides just sharing your gifts, you can monetize your blog in a million different ways that will help you to grow your income while growing your influence. Imagine you were doing what you LOVE doing every day anyway, but then getting paid for it?!? Wouldn’t that be a dream? Well that’s exactly how blogging works.

WHY YOU NEED TO START A BLOG

No matter what social media outlet you look at, you’ll always find people who have massive followings. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube…. the list could go on and on and on. And, unfortunately, many of them just don’t see the value in building their own blog because their audience is right there in front of them.

But what if that social media goes away? They stand to lose their entire audience in one fail swoop – and if they’ve built that following into a money-making platform, their goes their entire business. Don’t think it can happen? Then think again. It happened to MySpace several years ago, and even just a couple of years ago it happened to the highly-active Vine app. Periscope isn’t even as popular as it once was. While, yes, you do need social media, it shouldn’t be the core of your business. And yes, a blog that makes money IS a business.

Additionally, if you have any sort of social media following now…. you need somewhere to direct them so you’re not depending on an algorithm that may — or may not — show your posts to your audience. If you’re depending on another site to make you money, you have to realize that those sites are in it for themselves. So they have very little interest in your success. Your job is to position yourself in an area where YOU have all the control. And you can’t do that on any site you don’t own.

TIPS FOR STARTING A BLOG

There’s really only a couple of things you need to really consider: “Who are you trying to help with your blog?” and “How can you bring value to your readers?” While things like your URL are important, first you should deeply consider who you want to help in the world. If you want to help women who want to learn how to dress better and stress less, then you need to come up with 10-15 ideas for blog posts that will help them in their quest to do so.

Once you’ve figured out who you want to help and how, then you can start to build your brand around that information. So if you’re aiming for a 32 year old mom with two kids, think about what colors she’d like and would be drawn to. This will help you figure out things like branding and creating a logo. Also when you choose your URL, make sure you choose one that people will understand what the site is about with a glance. If your blog is called “The Classy Closet” then you know that the blog is about fashion, etc.

Even before you get started, know that overwhelm is a real struggle with a LOT of bloggers. There’s a million things to learn – and no one knows it all. But you need to figure out chunks at a time, starting where you can have the most control while making the most impact.

Start by learning to properly write a blog post (I’ve covered that in THIS POST). After you have that figured out, then you need to learn how to start an email list and use it for your blog. It’s the most consistent place to promote yourself, and other than your blog it is the only thing you have 100% control over.

And third, I highly suggest you learn how to make money blogging. Because blogging can be a reallllly lucrative career – and the faster you learn how to turn it into a business, the better off you’ll be.

*this post contains affiliate links*

NOW THAT YOU’VE DECIDED THAT YOU’RE READY… you have a big choice to make…

So when you start learning how to start a blog, you have to choose one of two paths…..

Blogspot OR WordPress

If you want to learn how to start a blog that will make money, then I always go with WordPress – hands down. Why?

There’s a lot more flexibility in WordPress, along with tons of options just not available on Blogspot.
Every highly successful blogger I know uses WordPress – and if you start on Blogspot (and want to actually grow your business) you’ll want to move eventually. – PS – even NASA uses a WordPress platform for their site. So if it’s good enough for NASA, it works for me.
Most brands who work with bloggers prefer WordPress blogs because they are so much more professional and it means you’re taking blogging seriously. Why not start off on the right path from the beginning?

How much will it cost to start a blog?

The investment is pretty minimal – you can run a blog with BlueHost for about $50 a year, complete with a domain name. So for less that it costs for two people to go out to dinner, you can start your own blogging business in less than 15 minutes. There are things you’ll need to purchase as you grow, but you can totally start they whole shebang for under $50.

Almost any business will cost money to get started – but a blog is one of the cheapest businesses you can start. Once upon a time you needed a fancy camera and all sorts of things to use to create content. These days, however, people have amazing cameras right in their pockets! Even though I have tons of great equipment, I take the vast majority of my photos these days with my iPhone – so there’s really no reason to buy a big, fancy camera until you just can’t work from your phone any more.

On top of that, all you really need is a laptop & wifi. Seriously, that’s it. And you probably already have the phone, laptop and Wifi. So you’re literally only $50 and 15 minutes from starting a business that you can run anywhere in the world and make six figures in less than a year of work if you do the right things to make it happen.

Ready to learn how to start a blog on WordPress?

Then let’s get started! We’re going to walk through it on BlueHost.

STEP ONE: Find a host. If you’re just starting out I recommend BlueHost. It’s easy to use and will walk you through the process step by step. And if you make a mistake, it’s ok. They offer 24/7 support that helps you out (I got in a jam myself, so I had to call and found them incredibly helpful!)

STEP TWO: Choose a plan. Bluehost starts at $3.95 a month, which is perfect for a beginner. It will set you up on a shared server, you get a free domain name and you get a free domain-served email address. (PS – that alone can be over $300 a year on other services.)

STEP THREE: Pick your domain name. You get a free domain name when you sign up with Bluehost, or if you’ve already purchased you can use a domain you already own. TIP – when choosing a name, think things through. If you’re doing a craft blog, try to have craft in the URL – same for recipes, DIY, sewing, etc. Your domain name is pretty important, so think it through. I wanted a landing page for my own name, which is why I went that direction.

STEP FOUR: Create an account on Bluehost. Not only will this create an account so you can purchase, but it will also be your info for your dashboard. Next, follow through with all the payment info (after you’ve read the fine print, of course!)

STEP FIVE: Submit your payment information (make sure you read the terms & policies!)

STEP SIX: Set up your account password. Be sure to jot it down where you can remember it!

STEP SEVEN: Log into your dashboard. After you get into your Bluehost Dashboard, you’ll be able to go in and add in WordPress. Look under the WEBSITE tab and click on INSTALL WORDPRESS.

STEP EIGHT: Install WordPress. You can let Bluehost do it for you (for a reasonable fee) or you can do it yourself. Let’s go with free.

STEP NINE: Choose the domain to install it to. Usually it pops up the correct one, but be sure to verify that it’s right. If not, select the correct one in the drop down box. You’ll set up your password, etc. Then check your email to check for details. Click CHECK DOMAIN, then it will give you the option to install. After you click that and it is finished, then you’re going to need to go over to your admin panel of your blog.

STEP TEN: Log into your WordPress dashboard. You can find it at YOURBLOGURL.com/wp-admin.

STEP ELEVEN: Choose your theme. You can choose a paid theme when you’re installing through Bluehost (there’s tons of great options!) or you can use a free theme. You can tweak things as much or as little as you’d like.

STEP TWELVE: Start your site! Once you’ve got your theme installed, you’re ready to start putting content onto your site.

STEP THIRTEEN: Start to set up your site. You’ll go through a series of questions to help guide you on where to go.

STEP FOURTEEN: Get ready to launch! This is the exciting part… because this is where your blog will actually become LIVE! So click on “launch”…

STEP FIFTEEN: Give your site a title (this blog would be GINA LUKER) and description (mine is “all about the business of blogging.”)

Then you’re ready to write! See – it’s really easy when you know how to start a blog. This whole process takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish. If you need more help, you can always log into your account on Bluehost & find helpful links + more.

By the way…. congratulations! You now own a piece of the internet and you’ve taken the biggest step towards creating the blogging biz of your dreams! It can be done – and has been done by hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of bloggers out there who are crushing it every day and making their dreams a reality.

Now that you know how to start a blog, let me show you how to make money blogging!

If you start a blog I’d love to see it! Just leave a note below in the comments so I can stop and say hello!

June 26, 2018 by gina@theshabbycreekcottage.com

How to Schedule a Month of Pinterest in Minutes

In case you haven’t heard the news: BoardBooster is closing up shop on June 27, 2018. (And I just heard the cries of thousands of bloggers who are frustrated with yet ANOTHER change in the blog world.) So I’m guessing you have lots of questions – because I did, too. I’ve got to admit that I made the move off of BoardBooster mere weeks ago, so I’ve been exactly where you are in very recent times, however I didn’t do it with the pressure of a looming deadline. But never fear, I’ve got your back.

Want to know how to harness the power of Pinterest? Don't fret because BoardBooster is closing shop, switch to the better scheduler: Tailwind! It's easy and you can learn how to schedule a month of pins in minutes. #tailwind #pinterestscheduler #pinteresttips #blogging #boardbooster

See, I was an avid user of Board Booster for years. I used it faithfully month after month, year after year, knowing that all of my pins were going out into the pin-iverse and it was smooth sailing.

But a few months ago I heard light rumblings about Pinterest not being happy with BoardBooster – however it didn’t seem important enough for me to bother switching. Fast forward to the beginning of June 2018 and those rumblings got much, MUCH louder.

Now let me say that I don’t freak out much about blogging. I’ve been at this gig for about 12 years now, and I can tell you that it takes a LOT to rattle me. Like a metric shit ton. But for some reason, all of the chatter I’d been hearing about the possibility of Pinterest suing BoardBooster hit me like a ton of bricks. I heard about it early one morning and by lunch time I had figured out how to pin easily on Tailwind, got it all set up and deleted my BoardBooster account. Like within 3 hours. It was a ton of work to figure out how to navigate, which is exactly why I’m going to walk you through it on a super detailed, real time video at the bottom of this post.

Before we get to that, though, let’s take a look at the results I’ve seen since making the switch just three weeks ago.

Tailwind v. BoardBooster

*all links to Tailwind are affiliate links*

Traffic: I can’t tell you that I’ve seen a MASSIVE difference in my traffic since switching to Tailwind, but I know that’s because it takes time to build momentum whenever you change your Pinterest strategy. You definitely won’t see traction overnight unless you’ve never ever used Pinterest then start all of a sudden. After 7 years of consistently using Pinterest to promote my blog, I know that it takes time for the changes to take effect. I’ve seen a tiny uptick – but not worth documenting on an epic proportion.

Monthly Viewers: There’s a relatively new metric on Pinterest that you can see on your profile called Monthly Viewers. Basically it’s an accumulation of all the pins all the people have seen across Pinterest that you’ve pinned. At one time my MVs was up to about 11 million – however it had dropped down to 9.2 million (that’s a drastic drop, my friends.) I’m happy to see, though, that after just a few weeks of using Tailwind, that the MVs is making a comeback and is now sitting at 9.6 million. Not quite where I was, but hey – it’s upward movement and I’m always glad to see that.

Follower Count: Depending on what Pinterest “expert” you talk to, some believe big in the power of your Pinterest followers and others not so much. I’m about 50/50 on the issue, because while I think it matters a lot, it’s not the end all, be all of Pinterest success. What I do think is that if you create an awesome account full of pins that people find via the search feature (because Pinterest is a search engine, after all,) then you kind of hit that magic sweet spot. In the month of May, I averaged gaining around 30 new followers a day, but since switching over to Tailwind I’ve seen an increase of over 100 followers a day. That’s a huge plus for me. In my mind, the more followers I have, then the more people are likely to stumble upon my content. I’m pretty convinced it even helps in searches (although that’s a complete guessing game!)

So now that I’ve told you why I’m all about the leap to Tailwind, let me show you how to make it SUPER easy to pin tons of content quickly. While it’s not quite as automatic as BoardBooster, it actually gives you more capability in being very precise and getting the most from your Pinterest scheduling.

Want to harness the power of group boards? Be sure to check out my post on Finding the Best Pinterest Group Boards.