Pinterest Monetization Part I - DIY

I am sure this is something that is on everyone's radar these days and it got me thinking that there is SO much Pinterest can do due to the variation/diversity of pins. It's going to take a lot of data science and API development but what Pinterest can do with what they currently have is incomparable to other apps just based on the user base and the product.

Here is an example of a way to monetize off of DIY (do it yourself projects) posts. Generally when someone pins a DIY post or is looking at a pin they are thinking of ideas or have a need for the item. In this case the pin displays a beautifully designed way to decorate a staircase. 

This is a simple DIY project which basically consists of just going out and buying the items required. If white Moroccan lanterns did not exist it could also consist of buying lanterns and painting the lanterns white. So this seems like a simple example of monetization and there are two possible routes of getting the required data:

1. Extract data from the link the pin came from & add ads to the left with the products required
2. Extract items from the pin/picture & ad ads to the left with the products required

From what I have heard extracting items from a photo is incredibly hard although this would be ideal since this would most likely be the more accurate option. The problem with the first option is the link may have other products/photos which would make it difficult to extract the correct products to display ads for.

Then there are a lot of other things to consider:

• Should ads be this specific or should they just point to a store?
• Should there just be one ad per product or multiple ads?
• Should review stars be included (I personally included stars in the above example because when I see good ratings I have a tendency to click through and potentially buy)
• What's the best place to place the ads?
• On the page
• Through a link that the user would need to click
• As you hover over the item should the ad pop up

...hopefully this got you thinking more about how pins can be monetized upon. More examples to come in Part II.