Following on from Cristina Lehman’s earlier blog thoughts on Pinterest, Just Media, Inc’s Media Consultant, Georgina Cole, has decided to ‘out’ herself as a Pinterest addict. Here Georgina shares her thoughts on the application and ponders where it will head next.

Hi, my name is Georgina and I’m a Pinterest addict. I’ve been an active ‘Pinner’ for a few months now and find the site extremely useful in sucking up my free time. While I haven’t found the site to be life changing, it’s certainly a cool and different way to spend 15 minutes of my day. I’m a big Facebook fan too, so I like the social networking aspect of Pinterest. I’m able to follow like-minded ‘Pinners’ which makes the Pinterest content more relevant. Following members definitely creates a more community-oriented atmosphere and ultimately a more rewarding site experience.

I’ve often wondered how Pinterest plans on monetizing the site. Right now, the site is completely ad-free and that’s great. No intrusive banners in the middle of my page or boards and no membership fee. That seemed a little too good to be true and of course, it was!

The ‘NYTimes Bits’ blog has just revealed that Pinterest IS making money, only it’s on the down-low. Pinterest has been adding an affiliate tracking code to ‘pins’ that link to an e-commerce site and then takes a cut of the transaction if a purchase is made. OK, so what’s the big deal with that? Well, for a start, they’re not disclosing this information on their site.

So is this the new revenue-generating model for social sites? If Pinterest is getting a cut from my purchase, then shouldn’t I get a little something as well? What about the person that originally ‘pinned’/referred the product? Will users be less likely to purchase something through Pinterest now that they know there’s a kickback involved?

So back to Pinterest keeping this on the down-low; that’s a bit more complicated. Pinterest could have disclosed this info in their T&Cs and very few would have cared. Who reads the fine print anyway? Is this a huge breach of privacy or simply an oversight? It’ll be interesting to see what the fallout is (or not) from their membership base. Personally (and professionally), I think the tracking code is a great idea and I’m betting other sites are figuring out how to do it right now.

I applaud Pinterest for doing something more inventive than just incorporating display advertising on the site. They’ve created a great user experience and decided to go the less intrusive moneymaking route. For now.