Catalog Choice operates a deceptively simple service: if you get too much junk mail (the physical kind — not spam), you can go online to the Catalog Choice website and opt out. That move between the offline and online requires some special consideration. The site was acquired by TrustedID in 2012. Scott Mitic, the CEO of TrustedID, sees the addition as a valuable part of the company’s identity protection and privacy services.

“Catalog Choice…was founded by environmental visionaries with a vision of reducing paper waste by giving consumers control over what goes into their mailboxes. The company first launched in 2007 and quickly became the leading mail preference service in the country, allowing consumers to opt out of unwanted advertising mail through a free online portal. It became evident Catalog Choice was not only a benefit to the environment, but also a valuable tool for citizens to protect their privacy and identity. Since its inception, Catalog Choice has processed over 26 million opt-outs for more than 8,000 marketing companies, ensuring the privacy and preference of millions of consumers,” says Mitic.

The question of how to market a service such as Catalog Choice is minimalistic — at least in terms of more traditional approaches. “Catalog Choice’s growth to date has occurred with virtually no marketing,” notes Mitic. “Media coverage, word of mouth, and search traffic have driven growth. Roughly 38 percent of users hear about us through PR; 18 percent of users find us through search; and 23 percent hear about us from a family member or friend.”

Word of mouth is particularly valuable for a service that has to be trustworthy, especially since most people consider junk mail a fact of life — something to be resolved with a larger recycling bin. Mitic points out that Catalog Choice does it exactly what it promises: “The service delivers. When we ask our users how much of their unwanted advertising mail stopped after using Catalog Choice, the most common response is 90 percent. Our customers are passionate about protecting their privacy and controlling who has access to their information and Catalog Choice delivers the ability for them to do that. This leads to users, including reporters and partners, to tell others about it. Referrals are one of the best ways to build trust.”

Even though the problem that Catalog Choice solves is essentially offline, it’s reasonable to expect users to go online these days. As Mitic points out, “I am not sure whether there is a primarily offline audience today. The internet is such an integral part of our lives but if we needed to put a larger concentration on reaching through offline vehicles, national print opportunities and broadcast media through public relations efforts and local radio would be great ways to get reach offline. For any company looking to acquire users on a budget, finding and partnering with companies that already have access to target customers is a strong opportunity to build your business.”

My company, Greatist, is the fastest growing health-and-wellness site on the Web. We wouldn't have that label without these tricks for using Pinterest.

Greatist, the website and company I founded, has been the fastest-growing health and wellness site on the Web since November of 2011--and that's thanks in no small part to our presence on Pinterest.

The super-popular pinboard site continues to be our No. 1 traffic referrer (to the tune of a whopping 30 to 40 percent of our total traffic). With more than three million unique visitors per month, we're working to build a trusted brand in our space--and we couldn't have gotten where we are today without Pinterest.

But, as many brands have already discovered, it's not just about sharing photos and waiting. Through much trial and error, we at Greatist have identified 10 Pinterest strategies that yield the best results:

1. Use Pinterest yourself.

Brands on Pinterest are no different from regular users--everything works exactly the same. Getting a sense for how people really use it is key--as with any social platform, familiarity is uber-important before wading into the dangerous waters of self-promotion. Reading articles (like this one) isn't enough!

2. Get great visuals.

Visuals are key because, well, there needs to be something worth pinning (and re-pinning and re-pinning) in the first place. When we decided to go all-in on Pinterest, step one was to go on a "find every awesome contributing photographer and illustrator possible" spree. We wanted not just good visuals, but the best--and now almost all of our content has original photography or illustrations (see our healthy recipes for example). Plus, each article has what we call a "header image" of some sort, one purposefully Pinterest-worthy and unique.

3. Follow small brands.

We'll get to the big brands in a second, but it's the small ones that will collectively move the needle for you. Brands see who is re-pinning, commenting, and liking their pins. So do those things--and they'll pay them back in dividends.

4. Befriend power users.

You don't need celebrities to succeed in social media. You need to re-think how you define "celebrity." On Pinterest, it's owners of Pinterest boards with over 10,000 followers. Making friends with them is easier than you'd think--most have their Twitter handles, blogs and other links readily accessible in their profile. Reach out to them, be friendly, and start cross-promoting.

5. Cozy up to big brands by showing off your content.

Most big, well-known brands suck at Pinterest. They may have a solid following, but they're still trying to figure it out. You can help them. If you're consistently sharing awesome visuals that lead to high-quality content on a topic that's relevant to their audience, they'll re-pin your stuff over and over again. Every major brand in the space has shared Greatist's stuff--because it's good and because, well, they need good stuff to share! Make it easy for them (then grab some of their audience members who are still just figuring out this Pinterest thing, too).

6. Put the article title in the description first.

The toughest challenge on Pinterest is getting a user to click on the pin instead of simply sharing it. It's easy to get frustrated when a lot of sharing is happening, but nobody is clicking through. The question to ask, then, is: "Did they know to click in the first place?" Make sure the description of your pin is crystal clear--and mentions what it's leading to.

7. Put the article title on the image.

Early on in our Pinterest experiments, we came up with a surefire way to make sure the pin descriptions didn't get overlooked: literally add the title into the "header image." (For example: 30 other satisfying 100-calorie snacks.) I'm pretty sure we were among the first on Pinterest to start doing this. Sure, it's difficult to do in a way that's visually appealing, but the truth is, it works. Almost all of our top traffic-driving pieces of content on Pinterest fall into this category.

8. Organize your pinboards.

Believe it or not, users may not want to follow every topic or category you cover (celebrity news and horse grooming, really?). Let them pick and choose. Don't have too many of them, either--if a user has to scroll to see more boards, they likely won't. Focus on well-curated boards with defined categories.

9. Name your pinboards wisely.

Don't over-complicate your pinboard names with clever names (e.g. "Happy Hollandaise!"). We made this mistake early--and the good news is it's easy to fix. Pinterest users make a split-second decision to follow or not follow...and then never return. That said, I wouldn't recommend going too generic either (e.g. "Food"). Somewhere in the middle is probably best, like "Snack Smart."

10. Optimize your pin's size.

Pinterest automatically resizes images into its pinboard grid, and rectangular images get it the worst. We've found that, for the most part, the longer the visual, the more re-pins--and it's probably because vertical pins are more prominent in the feed.

Derek Flanzraich is the founder and CEO of Greatist, a health and fitness media startup on a mission to make better choices easier for everyone. He loves theme parks, theme bars, and helping people. Follow him @thederek.

Forget cramming to learn your new industry inside and out. When you're starting up, ignorance makes you more creative, unique, and effective.

Maybe ignorance really is bliss. I talk with entrepreneurs all the time who started their businesses without a real understanding of what they were getting into. It sounds crazy, but I actually think it may have been their single greatest asset.

Here's why it pays to know as little as possible.

You're willing to take bigger risks, with bigger rewards.

A little knowledge can make you cautious--and hold you back. So often we're told that something isn't possible, that we won't be successful or that our venture won't work because others have failed. That's daunting. When you go into something new without lots of knowledge about who was there before, you aren't held back by the way it was approached before--by the standard way of doing things. That opens you up to greater possibilities.

When I first started User Insight, many in the research space told me that you "couldn't sell fixed price research and there was no way to turn it into a process"--that it was too risky to approach research that way. But I did it anyway. I turned research into a repeatable process, enabling my company to bid business on a fixed price basis anywhere in the world.

You bring fresh eyes.

If you have no experience in a space, you create new approaches to a problem that others might not have considered. You may bring something from another industry or experience to your current situation that is more appropriate.

I listened a group of entrepreneurs speak at a panel discussion the other night--one of them shared the experience of bringing a product to market. She recalled the moment when she was on the verge of signing off on the purchase of several hundred thousand dollars worth of molds for a bottle to hold the product.

First, she decided to bring everyone involved in the product's manufacturing process into one room and have them talk her through it, from inception to delivery in the consumer's hands. During this meeting, where she openly admitted to being the least knowledgeable person in the room, they identified several breakpoints in the process that would require major modifications to the molds she was ordering. This half-day meeting saved her start-up hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes.

The amazing thing--these industry experts, each with about 25 years of experience, said it was the first such meeting they had ever attended that took such a holistic look at the process for a product. All because she was ignorant.

You ask stupid questions.

Entrepreneurs who are new to a space ask questions to try to understand it. By having this outsider view, they can see gaps and opportunities others "on the inside" don't see. As newbies, they have permission to ask questions like "why do you do it that way?" and, "have you ever thought of doing it this way?"

If you have a staff, encourage them to ask the stupid questions when they first start with your company. If the person answering the question can't provide a solid answer with a specific reason, something might be broken: It might be a process or procedure to reconsider. Those so-called stupid questions may end up lending you the unique opportunity to be creative and solve a problem in a new and market-changing way.