Industry guru Dave Taylor offers tech support on technical and business topics, including iPhone, iPod, Microsoft Windows, Sony PSP, cellphones, online advertising, CSS, Web design, business, Unix, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, and shell script programming.     


Pin a favorite photo on Pinterest from another site?

I'm just getting started on the fun site Pinterest and am wondering if you can advise me on the best way to add a photo of my own, rather than just "liking" other photos people have added to the site?


Dave's Answer:

I'm a relative newbie to Pinterest too, so your n00b secret is safe with me. Well, with me and the people who read this blog now, right? :-)

Pinterest is fun because it's simple. Everyone who participates can "pin" images onto a thematic or topical "board" then others can "like" the images or even leave comments. Follow enough people and it's quite a fascinating blend of what multiple people are finding interesting enough to pin, in a very visually oriented fashion. So to some extent, I suppose it's like Digg and related, but way less geeky and way more fashionable and styling...

As with everything I do, I've been experimenting with Pinterest to see how it works and while I find the interface pleasantly uncluttered, I have to say that I cannot seem to get image uploading to work. I've tried multiple times and it invariably ends up with a broken image link on my board. Disappointing.

So for this, I'm going to kill the proverbial two birds with the same stone: I've uploaded an image to Flickr, and am going to "pin" the image to my Random board on Pinterest. If you found an image on another site that you wanted to pin, the process would basically be identical.

To get started, log in to your Pinterest account and locate the top navigational bar:

pinterest link to photo 1

Click on... wait for it... wait for it... "Add +" and a window pops up:

pinterest link to photo 2

To include a photo that's elsewhere on the Web already (as we'll have with the photo we uploaded to Flickr) click on "Add a Pin". If you want to try your luck at uploading your own photographs or images, click on "Upload a Pin". Want to create a new thematic or topical board? Click on ... you guessed it... "Create a Board".

I'll click on "Add a Pin", then, in a different browser window, pop over to Flickr and grab the URL of my image in its largest size by command-clicking (PC users should right click) on "Download the Large size of this photo" and choosing "Copy Image URL..." from the context menu:

pinterest link to photo 3

Now that the URL's loaded into the copy and paste buffer, switch back to the Pinterest page and copy it into the appropriate field on the "Add a Pin" window:

pinterest link to photo 4

A click on "Find Images" and you'll see a lot more, including a thumbnail of the image in question:

pinterest link to photo 5

Pick which Board you want -- I'll choose "Random" -- and add a description of some sort. Done? Click on "Pin It" and it's now part of the Pinterest image stream:

pinterest link to photo 6

Nice and easy.

As to uploading your own images? Lots of people tell me that they have no problems with it, but so far I haven't been able to make it work for my Pinterest account. Perhaps I'm using bad image formats or a browser that's not 100% compatible? I'll keep digging...


More Useful Pinterest Help Articles:
✔   Quickly Create a New Pinterest Board?
My company wants to start using Pinterest to help market our products and I've been tasked with creating a set of Pinboards for...
✔   Convert a public Pinterest board into a private or secret board?
Is it possible to convert a public Pinterest board into one that's a private Pinterest board instead? Actually, I think Pinterest calls them...
✔   How can I link a Pinterest image to a specific Web page URL?
The images that I use in my blog posts don't always work well as one picture adverts and so when I post a...
✔   How do I rotate images on Pinterest?
I like posting photos onto Pinterest and sharing them with my friends, but sometimes they come out sideways! How do I rotate them...
✔   Can I get Pinterest analytic data?
I saw a mommy blogger post some data about her Pinterest account on her blog, stuff that indicated repins and likes by date,...

Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
    Enter your name: and your email addr:  





Categorized: Pinterest Help   (Article 10181, Written by )
Tagged: digg, flickr, photo sharing, pinterest, social networks, yahoo flickr
Previous: How do I buy an app from the iPhone App Store?
Next: Add a Contact to my iPhone Address Book?




Reader Comments To Date: 3

Mary said, on December 21, 2011 10:45 AM:

The Pinterest uploader no longer looks like this...there is no way to add a link. That I know of.

Dave Taylor said, on December 22, 2011 12:05 AM:

That's odd, Mary, as it's still what I see when I try to Pin something from another site. Are you on a new browser or something?

Karen said, on February 7, 2013 8:42 AM:

New to Pinterest, your way of pinning much easier that theirs. Thanks
Hope you know all other stuff, will be checking you out again

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.






Check This Out Too...

 
Look for Answers
Need Help? Ask Dave Taylor!


Follow Me on Pinterest

Find Me on Google+
ADT on G+
© 2002 - 2013 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. My lawyer says "Thanks".
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.