Pinterest Kills Off Affiliate Links Program, Leaves 'Power Pinners' in the Lurch The Pinterest gravy train is over for brands, bloggers and Pinfluencers.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Pinterest

Pinterest is almost four years old and it's big enough for its britches -- big enough to pull the plug on its affiliate links program, a money-making gravy train that more than a few brands, bloggers and Pinfluencers will sorely miss.

Last Thursday that revenue roll came to a grinding halt for them when Pinterest put the brakes on all affiliate links once and for all. The 70 million-member social scrapbooking site claims it killed off the program to clean up wonky, irrelevant links and pins, but it's clearly a play for the company to cash in on its market stronghold, something it's struggled to do for months via Promoted Pins.

Related: Pinterest Adds 'App Pins' So You Can Find Cool Apps and Instantly Download Them

"Now, we are removing all affiliate links because they are causing a poor user experience," a Pinterest spokesperson told Entrepreneur today. "Clickthrough rates should be faster and there will be less broken links. There will also be less irrelevant Pins in the home feed caused by following some group boards. This is not about monetization, this is 100% about the Pinner experience and ensuring relevant content on Pinterest."

Pinterest's affiliate links initiative ended on the same day it launched an iOS app "Install" button as part of its new partnership with Apple. Only hours later, also apparently with an eye toward turn pinning into buying, Re/code reported that Pinterest might soon debut an e-commerce "Buy" button, possibly with payments processor Stripe.

Related: Optimizing Your Brand Outreach on Pinterest (Infographic)

This isn't the first time Pinterest automatically nixed affiliate links, which enabled users to earn a slice of sales from items they pinned on their pages. The startup's been removing them for the past few years. Some exceptions remained, however, including the fashion-focused affiliate network RewardStyle and "Pinterest talent agency" HelloSociety.

Now that affiliate links are dead and gone, Pinterest users who made money off of them -- many of them popular fashion bloggers -- are kvetching on Twitter and vowing to ditch their Pinterest profiles. Perhaps they'll rebound over at competitor Keep, which quickly pounced on the opportunity, luring shafted Pinfluencers last Friday with a brand new affiliate program, just in time.

Related: 6 Reasons Not to Ignore Pinterest

The only other way for Pinterest users to make money off the pinning platform now is for brands to pay them to pin on their behalf. SimplyHired currently lists a handful of positions for paid pinners, but, watch out, Pinterest has also posted some jobs there and one is tellingly titled "Spam Specialist." The main function of the post is to "fight off bad guys and make sure Pinners have a positive, spam-free discovery experience on Pinterest."

Related: How to Leverage Google+ and Pinterest Search

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Buying / Investing in Business

Former Zillow Execs Target $1.3T Market

Co-ownership is creating big opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Side Hustle

She Quit Her Job at Trader Joe's After Starting a Side Hustle With $800 — Then She and Her Brother Grew the Business to $20 Million

Jaime Holm and Matt Hannula teamed up to build a business in an industry that "didn't exist" yet.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

Microsoft Is Laying Off Over 6,000 Employees, About 3% of Its Workforce. Here's Why.

The company said the cuts will affect all divisions and locations, with a focus on managers.

Business News

Klarna Is Hiring Customer Service Agents After AI Couldn't Cut It on Calls, According to the Company's CEO

Klarna released an AI chatbot and implemented an AI-induced hiring freeze last year.

Business News

Nissan Is Doubling Its Initial Layoff Announcement, Cutting 20,000 Jobs: 'A Wake-Up Call'

The automaker is dealing with slowing sales and a recent failed merger with Honda.