Pinterest Affiliate Program: How to Apply + Best Alternatives

You've searched for the Pinterest affiliate program, found a dozen pages telling you how to "apply," and still can't find the form. That's because there isn't one, and the pages that imply otherwise are selling something. Let me be honest about what to expect: the good news is that what you actually want, to earn commissions from pins, is allowed and documented by Pinterest itself; it's just not a Pinterest programme.

Pinterest does not run an affiliate programme. Its own creator guide says "Pinterest isn't part of the affiliate agreements": you join an outside network, generate your unique product link, and use it as a pin's destination. Pinterest names Rakuten, LTK, ShopStyle, and Amazon Associates US as the programmes it works with, and any other network's links are allowed too, subject to disclosure and its commercial content rules. The "Pinterest programme" that does exist, the Verified Merchant Program, is a blue-check badge for shops with a catalogue, not a commission scheme, and Pinterest's only pay-for-posting scheme, Creator Rewards, ended in November 2022. Below: the four things people mean by the phrase, how to get into each, which networks fit Pinterest, and the rules that keep an affiliate account alive.

Disclosure: we make Pinners Haven, Pinterest publishing software. This isn't financial or legal advice; read every programme's current terms yourself. We're not affiliated with Pinterest.

Is there a Pinterest affiliate programme?

No. Pinterest's own guide to affiliate links (updated June 2025) gives three steps: join an affiliate programme, create a pin, and add the affiliate link as the destination with a title and description that match the product page. The key line is that Pinterest "isn't part of affiliate agreements." Your commission, cookie window, payment threshold, and rules all come from the network or merchant, never from Pinterest.

What Pinterest does provide is permission and a few conditions: the link "should go directly to a shop's product detail page," "some shortener services are not currently supported," and you must follow Pinterest's, the programme's, and the FTC's rules on disclosure and commercial content.

So when a page says "how to apply for the Pinterest affiliate program," translate it to "how to join an affiliate network and use its links on Pinterest." That's what the rest of this article does.

The four things people mean by "Pinterest affiliate program"

Most searchers mean the first. Let's start there.

1. How to "apply": joining the networks that work on Pinterest

You apply to networks and merchants, each with its own bar. Checked August 2026; every one of these changes its terms, so read the current agreement before you publish a single pin.

Three practical notes on "applying":

1. A website helps even when it isn't required. Amazon and Impact accept social profiles; Rakuten, CJ, and many brands prefer a site. A single owned page counts. Make money with Pinterest without a blog covers the no-site route honestly.

2. Apply to the programme, then to the merchant. On Awin, Impact, CJ, and Rakuten you're approved by the network first and by each advertiser second. Budget a week or two.

3. Pick by product fit, not headline rate. A 4% commission on something your audience actually buys beats 30% on something they don't. The full selection logic, and the path from pin to commission, is in Pinterest affiliate marketing: a step-by-step guide.

The rules that keep an affiliate account alive on Pinterest

This is where "program" searchers get hurt, because the networks approve you and then Pinterest's spam systems decide whether you stay. Pinterest's commercial content guidelines ask for original content, disclosed commercial intent, authentic account use, and no repetitive high-volume posting or traffic manipulation. In practice:

• Disclose on every pin. The FTC wants disclosures with the endorsement, in plain language. "Affiliate link" or "I may earn a commission" in the description. When the pin links straight to the merchant, the description is the endorsement.

• Link to the product page, not a redirect maze. Pinterest says direct to the product detail page, and some shorteners aren't supported. Networks' own tracking links are fine; opaque chains aren't.

• Add something the merchant's page doesn't. A comparison, a use, a result, a caveat. A pin that's the merchant's image plus the merchant's claim is the thinnest content on the platform, and it's what the originality rules target.

• Watch the volume. Thirty near-identical affiliate pins in an hour is the pattern that trips enforcement. Pinterest's guidance asks for original content on a sustainable cadence; how often to pin has the arithmetic.

• Two rulebooks, always. Pinterest's and the programme's. Amazon's forbids prices in images; some brands forbid direct social links; LTK has its own content norms. The stricter rule wins.

You might be thinking, "everyone posts affiliate pins like a machine gun and seems fine." Until they aren't. Pinterest account flagged as spam is the page people read afterwards; the rules above are the page to read first.

2. The Verified Merchant Program: the Pinterest programme that does exist

If you sell rather than refer, there is a Pinterest programme with an application-like bar, and it's worth knowing what it is and isn't. Pinterest's Verified Merchant Program "helps people on Pinterest discover and buy from vetted brands." Merchants who qualify get a blue checkmark on their profile and pins and eligibility for merchant-detail features.

What it asks, per Pinterest's page (availability varies by country):

• A Pinterest account created at least three months ago, with a profile picture and completed About section

• A website created at least nine months ago, claimed by the account, that meets Pinterest's merchant guidelines

• A catalogue with at least 75% of products ingested successfully

• Conversion data flowing: page visits, add-to-cart, and checkout events, at least one of each every seven days within the last 30 days, with currency and product IDs

It is not an affiliate or commission programme. You earn nothing from Pinterest for having the badge; you earn from your own sales, and the badge is a trust signal. Third-party guides quote different thresholds (13-month sites, 50% catalogue); Pinterest's own page is the one that counts, so check it on the day. Pinterest for ecommerce covers the catalogue setup that gets you there.

3. Paid partnerships: the other way pins pay

Brands can pay you to feature them, and Pinterest provides a paid-partnership tool to tag the brand when you create a pin from a business profile. There's no application; brands approach creators with reach, or you pitch them. It needs an audience first, which is why it's the last thing on a new account's list. Published rate cards are third-party estimates; can you actually make money on Pinterest? grades them.

4. Affiliate programmes for Pinterest tools

The other thing the phrase catches: software vendors in the Pinterest space (schedulers, design tools, keyword tools) run their own affiliate programmes, typically 20–30% recurring, and bloggers who write about Pinterest promote them. Apply on each vendor's site; treat them like any other programme: product fit first, disclose always. We're not listing vendors here because rates and terms move monthly and we're an interested party in that market.

Where the work actually is

Every door above, once you're through it, lands in the same place: you need a steady supply of original pins, each aimed at a real search, each pointing at the right product page, each disclosed. Affiliate accounts need that discipline more than any other kind, because Pinterest's originality and volume rules are enforced hardest where the links are commercial.

That's the layer Pinners Haven handles. From a product URL or topic it writes a keyword-led title and three to five distinct descriptions per pin (your disclosure line included, once you set it), designs an original image on a human-designed template, and publishes on a paced, account-safe cadence through Pinterest's official OAuth, with you approving each pin. It won't get you into LTK or pick products your audience buys; that's yours. It keeps the pin supply original and the cadence human, which is what keeps an affiliate account out of the spam queue.

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Join the network, follow Pinterest's rules, then do the work

The "Pinterest affiliate programme" is really four things, and only one of them is what most people want: permission to earn from other companies' programmes by pinning well. You've got the list of networks, the rules Pinterest itself sets, and the one programme that actually has a Pinterest badge attached. The rest is original pins, disclosed, at a pace the account can carry.

If that last part is the bottleneck, Pinners Haven keeps the pin supply original and the cadence safe while you pick the programmes and the products.

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