The popular pinboard, however, remains appealing to merchants as it has been shown time and again to drive website traffic, and in some cases even conversions.
Website Magazine has seen an influx of tools and resources designed for merchants to optimize use and improve understanding since the rise of Pinterest began. The latest comes from PinnableBusiness.com, which just announced the release of PinAlerts, a free Web service that tracks pins being added to Pinterest from any website or blog.
Users of the service are notified by email about the pin along with a description of it when new items are posted. Users can also control the frequency of those emails, choosing alerts in real time, or opting for daily or weekly aggregate reports.
Here's a screenshot of what the email reports look like.