You Suck At Zazzle.Com: The Book! - Zazzle Users Group

You Suck At Zazzle.Com: The Book!
A beginners guide to all things Zazzle.
Steven A Merkel
aka
Softproduct
Table of Contents
You Suck At Zazzle.Com: The Book! .......................................................................................................1
..................................................................................................................................................................2
About This Guide:......................................................................................................................................4
ALMOST EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT ZAZZLE, I LEARNED IN THE FORUMS..............5
HOW TO GET IGNORED (OR WORSE) ON THE ZAZZLE FORUMS. .............................................7
YOU HAVE A SHOP ON ZAZZLE! (NOW WHAT?).............................................................................8
Networking in it's many forms.................................................................................................................14
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEO...............................................................................................................16
A Dictionary of POD Terms.....................................................................................................................19
What's Your Percentage? ........................................................................................................................22
Technical Fouls........................................................................................................................................23
Don't Panic...............................................................................................................................................25
You Are One In A Million.. ....................................................................................................................27
Let's Talk Link Overs.............................................................................................................................29
Zazzle Myths..........................................................................................................................................30
Your Zazzle Diary....................................................................................................................................33
Zazzle Proof Recipes!..............................................................................................................................34
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About This Guide:
I am writing this book in order to help those who are just starting out a Zazzle.
Zazzle is a fantastic community of artists and designers from all over the world. Its a diverse and
culturally rich village where you can release your creative spirit, make friends and even make a little
money as well. There are always bumps in the road when one begins a new journey and I can tell you I
have tripped over most of them in my travels at Zazzle. I discovered very quickly however, that there is
a veritable army of helpful Zazzlers who make themselves available to help with nearly any problem
you are having with your shop, whether it be a technical difficulty, or a question about composition.
Without the assistance of these fellow artists, I would have long ago given up on Zazzle altogether.
What a horrible tragedy that would have been. I have been a part-time Zazzler for about Eighteen
months now and with very little effort, I have created a few shops that are now generating enough
revenue to pay my utility and cable bills on a regular basis.
Make no mistake, Zazzle is not for the get rich quick types. It is a legitimate, enjoyable, way to
potentially profit from your creative abilities over a certain course of time. The sort of designs I create
for my Zazzle shops are typically images that I would have created anyway. Now, instead of just taking
up space on my computer when I am finished with them, I share them with the world through Zazzle
and make a little bit of money for doing so. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Hopefully, as you go
through this guide, you will come to understand that a slow, deliberate and well planned route will have
you seeing returns on your efforts much sooner than if you just hurry through the process of setting up
your shop and give little thought to not only what you are offering to the public, but why you are
offering it in the first place.
Finally, there are thousands of shop keepers at Zazzle and each one has taken a unique path to
populate their store(s), drive traffic to their products and find a niche in the market they are trying to
compete in. This book is based on my personal experience and research towards fulfilling my personal
goals in the print on demand (POD) marketplace that is Zazzle. There is an ocean of information and
tools out there that can help you become a stronger shop keeper. I am simply sharing my thimble full to
get you headed in the right direction and hopefully get you just a little excited as well!
Let's get started, shall we?
ALMOST EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT ZAZZLE, I
LEARNED IN THE FORUMS.
The Forums at Zazzle are probably the fastest and friendliest way to get the information you need to
begin setting up a successful shop. On the forums you can find fellow shop keepers who are always
ready to assist a person in need. They are Pro sellers, programmers, web designers, professional artists
and photographers, printers, advertizing executives and musicians. If you ask a question on the forums
and don't get a slew of valid information almost instantly, you must have done one of two things: You
either asked a question that is impossible to answer, which with all the specialists out there is highly
unlikely, or you made the common mistake of asking your question in such a way that is considered
rude, or uninformed. Your post will be all but ignored if you do not understand a few written and
unwritten ground rules for posting on the forums.
MAKE SURE YOU ARE POSTING IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
Presently, there are Ten main areas of the forum for you to choose from:
•
Zazzle News
•
Feedback and Suggestions
•
NEW To Zazzle - Start Here
•
Create Products
•
Your Zazzle Store
•
Advanced Store Customization - Beta
•
Zazzle Tools
•
Ideas to promote your stuff
•
Show & Tell
•
International
•
Everything Else
Zazzle News is where you can get direct updates from the Zazzle Team. Site repairs, new product
information and anything else you need to know about what's going on at Zazzle can be found here.
Feedback and Suggestions is a place for shopkeepers to make suggestions directly to Zazzle
management. You can make requests for a new product line, or let Zazzle know that the business cards
you ordered look fantastic and arrived a day earlier than promised.
New To Zazzle is an area where you can ask questions about the very basics of getting started. There
are many threads at the top of this forum that you should read before posting any questions.
•
Welcome To Zazzle.
•
The Top Ten Mistakes Zazzlers Make V 2.0
•
Frequently Asked Questions
•
Payment Questions
Do not attempt to ask any questions in this area without reading those posts first. If you do, you may
end up getting the cold shoulder, or get nothing but replies containing links to the threads you decided
not to read. Alternately, you can just pop in and say “Hi, I'm new!” You may be surprised at the
amount of happy well-wishers reply to that one. Zazzlers are generally good people, especially those
who regularly haunt the forums.
The Create Products area is a place to share questions and tips about creating products.
Questions and answers in regard to uploading issues, image sizes and editing product designs can be
found on this forum.
Your Zazzle Store is a good forum to post information on how to improve traffic, learn about referrals
and get information regarding the monetary aspects of your shop(s).
Advanced Customization-Beta. This is a forum that sprang to life when Zazzle rolled out the new
store controls which allow shop keepers to edit the CSS and XHTML on the back end of their
individual stores. You will find all sorts of coding and design tips and tricks for those who have decided
to take more control of how their shop looks and functions.
Zazzle Tools. This forum is all about sharing information about the many different interfaces Zazzle
has made available for the upload, distribution and propagation of images in-shop and off-site.
API, ZBAR, and STOREBUILDER are common discussion issues here.
Ideas To Promote Your Stuff. Here you will find people offering you free advertizing on their
Squidoo lenses and blogs, or websites. Take advantage. This can be a powerful way to get your
products seen all over the Internet.
Show and Tell: This is just what it sounds like. Show off your recent designs, or your very first sale
here. It's kind of a free-for-all of look what I did!
The International forums are just that. Zazzlers from different countries can discuss topics in their
native languages, or simply connect with others from their own little corner of the world.
Everything Else: This is my favorite. If it doesn't fit anywhere else, it probably belongs here. It used
to be a place where you could start a thread on almost anything you can imagine, but the rules have
changed slightly and topics are pretty much limited to Zazzle related only. (This is more of a guideline
than a rule, but really “out there” topics like I used to like to start are often deleted by the moderators
now.”)
You should visit the forums the very second you have set up an account and logged in. Snoop around
and get a feel for how they function and what the hot topics of the day are. Look around for avatars
that have the Pro Seller badge on them. These people make a minimum of $100.00 monthly from their
shops and are more than happy to share tips and tricks with a new shop keeper. Just make sure to
maintain a little forum etiquette when you are posting.
HOW TO GET IGNORED (OR WORSE) ON THE ZAZZLE FORUMS.
There are a few mistakes that you can make when communicating on the forums at Zazzle.
This is far from a complete list, but it represents my pet-peeves pretty well. These are some of the
things you should avoid doing when asking or answering questions on the forums.
1. Read the entire thread before responding with a question, or a statement. I can't count the
amount of times a person seems to have just jumped to the bottom of a thread and asked a
question, or made a statement that had been covered many times over already in the very same
thread.
2. NO YELLING! Writing entirely in capital letters will not get you noticed. It will get you
ignored.
3. No L33t sP3aK! Do not write like a child and expect any useful responses. This forum is
shared by people from all over the world, who may have a hard enough time reading and
writing proper English. They don't need any additional challenges.
4. Don't ask the same question in multiple threads. Many people will post a question, then post
it again in another area, in the hopes of getting a faster response. What's your hurry? This
particular behavior seems to really tick off a lot of forum regulars. Just don't do it.
5. Make sure you have honestly made an attempt to research your problem before you
present it to the forum. A lot of how-to questions have already been answered and placed in
the Zazzle FAQ's, or are sitting right there on another forum thread for all to see.
6. Say thank you! If information was helpful or not, many posters will get upset if you don't
bother to “cap” your post with a “Thanks for trying.”, or a “Thanks for the help!” They may
post a very nasty note on your thread for that and many of them will blacklist you and never
offer their help again. They are shop keepers too and do not need to be wasting valuable time
answering questions for people who appear ungrateful for the help.
7. Keep a cool head. There are many active topics on the forums that are potentially volatile.
Most of the posters take the mature route, and agree to disagree, or at least present their side of
a particular debate without getting foolish, or immature. I have many Zazzle friends that have
vastly different ideas about how the POD market and the world, for that matter, should work.
We all choose to take the high road and keep it civil. That way, when we are not in a heated
debate over this thing, or that, we are still available to one another to help each other out when
help is needed. Zazzle is very much a family and will keep you as a welcome member of that
family as long as you don't start getting aggressive and petty.
The forums are an indispensable source for information that you never want to take for granted, or
abuse. Smart shop keepers are on the forums at least once a day to keep track of the rapid changes that
occur on a nearly daily basis. Just as the forums should be the first place you visit when you first start
out a Zazzle, they should also be the first place you go when you log into your shop every day. Now
that you have a handle on the forums, we can get on with figuring out what your shop is going to be
about.
YOU HAVE A SHOP ON ZAZZLE! (NOW WHAT?)
You have read all the rules, learned how to use all the selling tools, and have all the initial
technical stuff out of the way. You are ready to begin populating your store with your images, and
get to some serious selling, right? Not even close. Every successful business needs a plan. You
need to consider a set of rules that you will apply to your e-commerce store. This set of rules
should be something that you sit down and really think about. Then write them down and stick to
them. I will show the parameters I have set for my own store(s).
The Rules.
1. I am going to treat my e-commerce shop like a real brick and mortar business. I will
spend as much time as my schedule allows working to improve it in every way possible. This
store is a business that I intend build into a truly profitable venture.
2. This is a long term commitment. I understand that I may not see regular sales for months,
or years. I will not allow this to frustrate my efforts. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
3. I will provide quality products on my shop. I will not allow myself to upload images that I
do not honestly believe are my best work. The slow growth of a quality shop is better than the
explosive growth of a mediocre shop.
4. I will not compare my shop to any other shop. My products and my personality are
unique. I will invent my own style, and avoid going along with fleeting trends, that are
doomed to fail in the long term.
5. I will research every avenue at my disposal in regards to advertising my products and
creating a positive presence for my store. I will use any tools freely available to me to drive
traffic to my shop. I will allocate time specifically for these endeavors, in order to generate
interest in my shop over the long term.
6. I will not infringe on copyrights. I will not steal images, or intellectual property. I will not
attempt to generate sales through deception or fraud.
7. I will maintain a friendly and positive demeanor in all aspects of my on line
communication with customers, and fellow shop keepers.
8. I will follow the terms of service and ignore those who don't . I will not make it my
business to police other shop keepers.
9. I am going to have fun!
Those are my rules, now go create some guidelines for yourself!
Time To Check Your Business Supplies.
You are now ready to jump into the e-commerce pool, but is your equipment?
You do not need to be an Internet guru, or a computer geek to open an on line shop, but there are
some very basic things you should be aware of before you start building your shop, and begin
publishing images for sale. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin. If you fail to
take some of these basics into consideration, you may find yourself wasting an incredible amount
of time and expenditure.
Let's begin with the cornerstone of your business; your Internet connection. Is your connection
speed going to allow you to upload images at a pace that you are comfortable with? This is really
a personal issue. I know very successful shop keepers that have ancient PCs with terrible
connections. They simply limp along, willing to wait 15 minutes or more to upload a single image
to their shop. That would personally drive me insane, but hey, if it works for them..It's not a race
after all.
Secondly, and even more important is storage. Do you have the room in your machine to handle
all the images you are going to be producing over the immediate and not-so immediate future?
Whether you produce the images yourself, or take advantage of the many clip-art suppliers on the
Web, you will eventually be dealing with hundreds, and eventually thousands of images that need
to be stored somewhere. Sure, once you upload an image to the Zazzle servers, you could simply
delete it and save space on your machine, but that's simply insane in my opinion.
Images you create can be recycled and reused in a million different ways, not to mention that
most of the images you create are precious works of art that you would never want to lose!
I personally keep all of my images (and any other pertinent files) on a removable hard drive. This
way, my machine can have a complete meltdown, and I won't suffer any major file loss for it. I
also back up all my image files once a month, minimizing any further chance of major losses.
Something you really need to do is keep your monitor calibrated. This is important in so many
ways, I could write a book on that alone! If what you are seeing on your monitor is not accurate,
your products and your shop are going to look completely different than they should to a visitor
who has an accurately calibrated monitor. I have worked in the photographic industry, and I know
that 99% of people out there do not have calibrated monitors. They used to come into the store all
the time and tell me that what they ordered on line does not look at all like what they received. I
explained to them that the monitors I used at work are high-end, regularly calibrated monitors,
and I could not help that theirs wasn't. I would show them the files I have on my monitor, and
compare them directly with the hard copy of the images they ordered. Most of the time they
matched exactly.
You will not be able to do this in the e-store environment, but at least you will have the peace of
mind knowing that what you see is what the product is actually going to look like. I use
Spyder2Express from datacolor.com at home, and since I have ordered many of my own
products, I know it's doing a good job. What I see on my monitor is an excellent representation of
the products I have actually received. It's simple, relatively inexpensive, and it is a quality control
must- have. I can not begin to tell you how many shops I have visited that are completely
unreadable due to this issue. The shop keeper clearly has a completely bizarre monitor set-up, and
their store looks great to them, but not their visitors. Then they wonder why they are not making
any sales, or when they do, they have a high rate of returns. Don't be that guy! (Or Gal).
On a final, physiological note: For real control over your final product, your lighting conditions
should be kept as consistent as possible, your monitor should be active for one hour before you
calibrate it, or use it for image editing, and you should be out of direct sunlight for a minimum of
45 minutes before editing images.
Protect your machine.
I live alone. You may not be so lucky. ( Insert laughter here.) If your machine is shared with
anyone, you need to set up user accounts and password protect your assets. I don't care if it's your
husband, your wife, your kids, a room mate, or an Eight Hundred pound gorilla that shares your
machine. If you want to protect your precious images, and keep your e-store in one piece, there is
no reason to take any chances. I regularly do CPU troubleshooting as a side job in real life, and a
huge percentage of my clients have lost or damaged data that they were not personally responsible
for. Without strict security protocols in place, a member of your family can do untold damage to
your files, your machine, or even your website. This can be intentional, or a complete accident.
I once had a client who lost an entire website, because she went upstairs to make some tea, and
left her administration panel for her site open. In the meantime, her cat began walking across the
keyboard. The rest of the story is academic. If you live with others, you have to have these
protocols in place. My personal recommendation on this issue is the same that I give to my
clients. If you are going to work on line, you simply need your own system. PERIOD. If you are
working in cyberspace, your machine is quite literally your office. Would you let your kids, or
anyone else for that matter, have complete run of your office at work for even a minute? Of
course not! Why give those same people access to your virtual office?
I hear thunder..I kid you not. As I write this, a storm is brewing. I am going to save and shut
down. It's the safe thing to do.
I'm back! That was a short but fantastic lightning storm. I love a good light show, with booming
thunder, but my computer doesn't. As long as we are talking about protecting your on line assets,
you may wish to consider taking a few precautions against electrical interruptions.
I use an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) on my CPU and all my peripheral equipment. My
particular model also serves as a surge and spike protector. Power fluctuations in any direction, or
amount, can cause untold damage, including data loss. A quality UPS will make sure you are
getting consistent, quality power to your machine, and will give you power long enough to save
your work and shut your system down in case of a power loss in your area. I recommend a UPS
that also has a throughput for your cable, or DSL line. These are just as susceptible to power
problems as your electrical system. As a further precaution, once I have shut down my system
during an event like a storm, or blackout, I physically disconnect the equipment from the wall.
Safer is better. As well, I do not jump right back to work after the power returns. After a blackout,
there can be all sorts of fluctuations in power while the grid normalizes and I would rather be safe
than sorry.
Let's touch on another common mistake I have seen over and over again. Equipment placement:
If you have your machine positioned like 90% of the computers I have worked on, it is either on
your desk, or directly under it, or to the side, completely exposed. Call me paranoid, but these are
not very safe places for one of the most important and expensive devices in your home, or office.
Keeping your machine directly on your workspace is very convenient, but anything that happens
to the desk, may happen to the machine. There are all sorts of desks and work spaces out there, so
ask yourself the following questions about your particular set-up: If you tripped, and ran into your
desk, could that put your computer at risk? Is it in a position to fall if the workspace were moved,
or shaken? Is it possible for anyone who is at the workspace to place an object of any kind on top
of the computer? (Coffee cups, jars filled with glitter, an open bottle of white glue, a large
electromagnet)? Is your machine on the floor of a room where flooding could occur? Is it in a
place where a pet can knock it over when they are chasing a ball, or trying to hide themselves
quickly? Is your system in a position where a child, or pet could access the pretty power button,
the magical DVD drives, or the enchanting array of wires and cables attached to your tower?
Your tower should be placed in such a way that it is not subject to damage from floods, spills,
kids, pets, dust, hair, heat, cold, moisture, or the bogey man. There are many ways to do this.
Check out your situation. Assess the potential for disaster and see if you can take steps to reduce
the risk of data loss on your system. You are using your CPU as a way to generate money for
yourself now. You don't leave your money all over the floor do you?
In this picture you can see I have only my mouse and keyboard on my workspace. My monitor
actually floats on a hinged monitor bracket, so it is not affected by anything that happens on the desk.
My computer is in the converted stereo rack that the monitor is attached to, as is the UPS, modem and
printer. It would be very difficult to damage any of the equipment hidden in there.
PATCHOULI.
If I have a “Kryptonite”, Its name is Patchouli. The smell of it makes me dizzy and causes me to
perspire. A minute or so of exposure to this otherwise harmless plant extract can literally bring me to
my knees. A few years back, when I was living in Atlanta, there was a store I came across in the Little
Five Points area, that had some of the coolest clothes and t-shirts I had ever seen. All the shirts were
silk screened by local artists and there were more than a few shirts I really wanted to buy.
Unfortunately, the day I discovered the store, I did not have a lot of cash. I decided to come back a few
days later with a full wallet, prepared to do some heavy browsing around and buy a few items. When I
walked into the shop, I was hit with a cloud of Patchouli incense. I tried to tough it out, but my body
was having none of it. I was on the verge of passing out when I made it to the exit. I sat on the curb to
gather my strength and grabbed a taxi home. My shopping spree was over. Every time I returned to the
area I would visit the shop but that Patchouli smell was always there to meet me. No cool shirts for me.
No sales for the local artists I wanted to support. It was a lose-lose situation.
Your Zazzle shop may inadvertently contain similar road blocks for potential customers. There is no
way to make every visitor comfortable with every aspect of your shop, but with a little common sense
and some research, you can create a shop that will inspire a visitor to have a look around, instead of
running for the exit.
Make it clear what your shop is all about.
In a short, concise, paragraph of easily readable text, explain exactly what your shop sells, where
things can be found and any other immediately pertinent information that your visitor needs to feel
informed and comfortable. Studies show that you have between Nine and Twelve seconds to impress a
visitor one way or another. You want them to stay, not bounce. Your pages should load quickly and not
contain a lot of resource eating code, like video presentations, music players, or dozens of animated
banners with links to other sites.
Give your visitors what they expect.
Your shop and product keywords should be as dead accurate as possible. If a person finds your shop
through a search engine using the words Santa, greeting cards, holiday, and they end up on your shop
which is selling adult humor coffee mugs, there is little doubt that they are going to leave your shop
immediately. On the Zazzle forums you will often read references about this. Its called Tag Spamming.
Tag Spamming is the act of purposely using popular search terms in your store and product tags to lure
visitors, even if those tags have nothing to do with your products. You may draw a lot of visitors by
using this method, but you will not make many sales. Give the people what they want. Know exactly
what sort of demographic you are going to be serving. Know what they are looking for and create
products that will be attractive to that sector. Tag your products accurately and you will see the sales
begin to roll in. Tagging is a bit of an art form unto itself and you should do some research on it before
you tag your store and your products. Visit some pro seller sites and see what sort of tags they are using
to promote their products. Use online keyword tools like Googles Keyword Tool, or any of the many
optimization tools that are freely available out there.
Your visitors are not all Internet gurus. According to a recent study, there are approximately
1,356,829,591 people who have done shopping online. Not every one of them understands Java, image
links, CSS, or XHTML. In fact, most of them don't have a clue. Try to design your shop in a way that is
easy to understand and navigate. Using funky color combinations and flashy graphics may look cool to
you, but the color blind woman in Toledo, Ohio with a dial-up connection and a ten year old computer
won't appreciate the “cool factor”. She just wants to buy a nice t-shirt for her Grand daughter. I
regularly have friends and family members that I know have little knowledge of computers check out
my shops. They give me insight into what they find useful, or what they find distracting, or confusing
about my shops. Being user friendly to as many people as possible is important to the heath of your
Zazzle shop.
Shop Killing Things To Avoid:
Music players. I don't want to hear your favorite music. Don't force it on me.
Long load times. You have ten seconds to impress me. Use it well.
Links to other websites. I want to shop. I don't want to read your blog.*
Special Effects. Floating backgrounds, flashing links, bizarre color combinations, sound effects, etc;,..
I do not want to work to find what I was looking for. Make it easy for me to find that mug I am looking
for.
Opinion and Editorializing. Unless your shop is specifically skewed to a particular movement, or cult,
it does you no good to bother me with your beliefs, or politics. Let your products speak to me.
There are dozens of other little pet peeves you should do your best to avoid. This was just a sample to
get your head in the right place. Look at your shop through the eyes of someone else. It may help you
open a shop that will get bookmarked often and by many. Keep the Patchouli to yourself.
* It is smart to have a couple (hundred) blogs and lenses that point to your stores but you don't need to
put links to your blogs and lenses on your shop. The idea is to keep visitors IN your shop, not running
around the Inter webs looking at recipes for beer and cheese soup that you only posted to attract
attention to your beer and cheese related designs on Zazzle in the first place. The idea is to get people
“out there” to come to your shop, not to get your Zazzle shop visitors to go back “out there”. This is
real fishing, not catch-and -release.
Networking in it's many forms.
SOCIAL NETWORKING BEFORE THE BLOG.
Prior to blogging, tweets, twitters and Squidoo, social networking meant good old fashioned foot
work. If you had a product to sell, or a shop to promote, you would talk it up with your friends and
acquaintances. You would put up fliers, hand out business cards and put your business links in the
signature of your e-mails. Now is no time to be abandoning this ages old method of driving sales to
your shop. As I have been watching my shops slowly gain traction on Zazzle, I have made sure not to
ignore some simple and time proven methods of promoting my shops in the real world.
When I first started at Zazzle, you will remember that I created a set of rules that I would follow in
order to make my new business as successful as possible from the beginning. One of those rules was to
treat my e-commerce business as if it were a brick and mortar store in the real world. One way I did
that was to take the profits from my Zazzle sales and put them right back into the shop itself. This way,
I could increase the potential for future sales without spending any “real” cash. The first thing I did was
buy a set of business cards from Zazzle that promoted my Zazzle business on one side and promoted
my computer repair business on the other. I carry these on me at all times and the $15.00 USD I spent
getting them has been returned many, many, times over already. My computer repair business has
increased and my Zazzle stores get more visits than ever. My cards also serve as a physical example of
the quality of the business cards on Zazzle. I also wear my own t-shirt designs to birthday parties and
other events where friends and family might ask “Where did you get that shirt?” I make gifts for my
niece and nephews through my Zazzle shops and never spend a dime that wasn't generated from my
Zazzle sales. This takes time and patience of course, but once you have that money coming in, I
recommend you recycle it right back into your new business. It really does make a world of difference
in visits and purchases over time. Sure, you still want to make a habit of using Twitter, blogging and
the power of Squidoo but don't forget that people in the real world should be given exposure to your
very real products too!
If you want to use a little bit of your own time and money you can always take out ads in your local
newspapers, put up some fliers at your local merchants, maybe create some pamphlets about your store
and place them in high-traffic areas. How about sending your kids to school with new binders that have
their school colors, or club affiliation(s) printed on them? Donate a product or two to a church function,
or a local clubs auction night. The possibilities are endless. Use that creative imagination of yours and
think of unique ways to promote the heck out of your Zazzle shop. Cyberspace needs the real world to
exist. If you are not taking advantage of the world around you, you are wasting untold resources that
could literally make or break your foray into the POD market. Have fun with it!
Help Others Help You.
Lending a hand is good business.
When you are online, you must actively promote yourself without looking like you are promoting
yourself. It's easier than it sounds. If you wish to one day become a pro seller on Zazzle, you need to
act like one first.
What do successful sellers do a lot of on and off Zazzle? Many promote others freely without any
expectation of referral fees. They help people on the forums with topics they happen to be well versed
in. They lend support and links to helpful sites that can get a new shop keeper the exact information
that they need. They give away resources like clip art they have created for free. They walk
inexperienced shop keepers through certain difficult processes step-by-step until that person knows
exactly how to do a particular task. They create blogs and lenses that contain information that people
are actually interested in. This can be basic car mechanics, or recipes for the ultimate Texas Chili.
What do they get in exchange? They get followers. It is no surprise that these very same shop keepers
end up with hundreds, even thousands of links to their blogs, shops and lenses. When you take the time
to lend your expertise on a particular subject, there is a good chance you will slowly create a following.
Followers may post and share your shop and blog links with a whole community of people that you
otherwise have no direct access to. You may suddenly become the go-to person for hundreds of people,
just because you post an article or two on the Inter webs. It beats the heck out of just going to the
forums and posting a link that reads: MY SITE ROXXOR! CHECK IT OUT AND TELL ME WHAT
YOU THINK! That's like pulling up to a person who is trying to change a tire in the pouring rain and
saying; “Hey, what do you think of my new rims?” “Cool, right?” If your blogs and lenses have no real
content and just keep repeating the VISIT MY SHOP AND LOOK AT MY STUFF mantra, they are
going to fail and will do your shop no good. A thousand links to your Zazzle shop on a worthless
website that nobody visits, are not doing you any good. Its a given that you know something that others
don't about one subject, or another. Use that as leverage to garner a following that will come to your
lenses and blogs for specific information. They will tell two friends and so on..and so on. Soon enough,
your World War Two Aviation blog will have lots of followers, who would just love to have a P-51 tshirt, or poster that you just happen to have in your Zazzle shop.
I created the You Suck At Zazzle videos in order to inform and entertain fellow shop keepers. As it
turns out, people are sending links to their friends and family, just because they think the videos are
funny. A few shop keepers have posted the videos to their own blogs and websites as well. My video
links are also included on the Zazzle Contributor Toolbar. Its no juggernaut, but my shop is getting
exposure it would otherwise have never received and all I did was spend a few minutes uploading a
goofy tutorial to You Tube. I did not create the videos specifically for promotional purposes but they
certainly aren't doing any harm. My intention was to inform and entertain. The visits I get to my shops
through You Tube are incidental. I'll take incidental visits over no visits any day!
Now get out there and help somebody! Helping others on the Inter webs is a great way to help
yourself.
Note: The Zazzle Contributor Toolbar is easily one of the most important tools in any shop keepers
arsenal. Don't even question this one. Go get it now.
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEO.
An acronym you may have come across during your own research into the POD market, is SEO. This
stands for Search Engine Optimization. If there is one thing that most pro sellers have in common, its
the fact that they are well versed in SEO and how to use it to their full advantage.
By Wikipedia's definition; SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web
site from search engines via "natural" or unpaid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed
to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a
site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may
target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific
vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
If that definition is doing you no help whatsoever, do not panic. There are many people out there
struggling with understanding how SEO works and what they can do to improve their shops visibility,
without knowing much about the technical aspects. Again, this is just a small sample of what you can
do right from the start, to get you headed in the right direction.
If you are using the Advanced Customization-Beta to build your store and have access to the XHTML
and CSS, you are already in a better position to improve your shops visibility. The information you add
inside your title tags should be short and descriptive of exactly what your shop is all about.
<title> Softproduct unique gifts and custom greeting cards<title>
Meta tags belong in the head of your web pages. These should be descriptive on a per-page basis, so
each web page should have a unique set of Meta tags that are specific to exactly what is on that page.
<meta name="description" content="Original, quality gifts and custom business cards for professionals
at
low
prices.">
<meta name="keywords" content="business cards, office, store, shop, unique, discount">
Meta tags are presently ignored by Google, but having a few descriptive terms in there isn't going to
do you any harm.
Heading tags are given more attention by search engines than the other text on your pages. Using
them properly will help you in the long run.
<h1>BusinessCards</h1>
<h2>FloralDesigns</h2>
<p>..these floral design business cards....</p>
<h2>Butterfly Business Cards.</h2>
<p>... information about these unique butterfly business card designs.., etc etc...</p>
Any text on you pages is important too. Be as accurate and descriptive as possible. Use keywords
whenever possible, without making the copy look redundant, or just plain weird. Use keywords that
you would use yourself if you were searching for the exact product(s) featured on your page.
“Colorful Butterflies float above a spring garden of red and yellow flowers against a soft blue sky.
Customizable text can be changed to create a unique and professional business card for a floral
shop, or garden supply store.”
My tags would be something along these lines:
butterflies, flora, flowers, red, yellow, blue, clouds, “blue sky”, flying, insects, garden, unique,
customizable, professional, softproduct, “angry squirrel”.
I posted this same image on the forums and asked other shop keepers to tag it the way they normally
would. I got some interesting and enlightening results!
BedazzledByZazzle tagged this image thus:
butterflies, butterfly, flying, insect, fancy, floral, pretty, flowers, spring, summer, garden, gardening,
feminine, outdoors, outside, decorative, bright, cheerful, nature, natural, florist, nursery, plant, scenic,
scenery, beautiful, landscape, landscaping, yard, lawn, colorful
Littlewingdesign used these tags:
butterfly butterflies nature meadow garden flowers flora gardening cheerful colorful bright
Krispyskingdom went with these tags:
butterfly butterflies bugs insects nature outside outdoors sky clouds flowers plants fly red blue yellow
green
DizzyDebbie did this:
butterfly butterflies insects colorful pretty business business+cards calling+cards gardens flowers
floral flora
SweetRascal used these:
florist, nature, landscaping, nursery, "personal calling card", spring, butterfly, flowers, floral,
gardening, "lawn service", "mommy card", "natural beauty", "Eco friendly", colorful, friendly, sky, red,
blue, yellow
Beachwalker went with these:
butterfly butterflies "butterfly business card" nature "nature business cards" flowers meadows
"butterfly meadow" outdoors "butterfly illustration" summer wildflowers "wildflower garden"
Did I mention that most of these shop keepers are pro sellers?
You may have noticed the use of “quotation marks” and the + symbol in some of the tags. When you
want to create a search-able phrase in your tags like “Blue butterfly” you would place quotation marks
around the two words. Similarly, using the + symbol between the two words has the same effect.
(Blue+butterfly).
Another thing to consider is using the European English versions of words like “colour” as well. The
internet is not restricted to U.S. residents only. The occasional misspelled word can be useful too.
People are always misspelling words during searches. Selling a business card? Try using busness card,
busines card, and vusiness card. You may end up with a vistor that your competition failed to reel in!
Make sure not to over do it! Search engines are always on guard for spam. If you go overboard with
too many keywords, or repeat words too often, they may be construed as spam and will not be properly
indexed. The same rules apply when you are tagging your images. Be specific, honest and descriptive.
In every one of my image tags on every one of my stores, I am always sure to add two entries that are
exclusive to me. In my case; Angry Squirrel and Softproduct. These “special” tags create a cohesive
bond with every other product I have created throughout my stores, so when someone does check out
any one of my products, there is a greater chance that the Zazzle search engine will recommend more
of my own products for that person to look at. Since those two words are on nearly every product tag I
have ever written, if a person simply types softproduct, or angry squirrel into a Google search, I am
right up front. This is good for someone who may remember the name of my main store, or the Angry
Squirrel logo, but has forgotten where they found it. So use your store name in there and maybe the
name of a particular product, or line of products that you would like to start showing strong during
relevant searches. Over time, search engines will build on that persistent tagging and you will see
those terms bringing people directly to your Zazzle store.
As you grow more comfortable with the complex art of SEO, you can put to use more technical tools
like Google Base and the Merchant Center.
I will spare any details on this, so as not to have you running for the hills. You have just started out
and you don't want to make the mistake of taking on too much, too soon. This has been the downfall of
many a shop keeper in the past. The forums are constantly buzzing with the frustrated rants of
overwhelmed shop keepers that have jumped in way too deep and way too soon. Take it slow and
steady. You are not going to have a super-mega shop from the get go and you should focus on the
basics before moving up to the tools that the big dogs use.
A Dictionary of POD Terms.
Angry Squirrel: An animal you will see often on the forums. Just don't tick him off and you will be
spared.
Aspect Ratio : The ratio of the width of an image to its height (x:y). For example, the aspect ratio of an
image 640 x 480 pixels is 4:3.
Avatar: The image you upload to Zazzle to represent you in the forums.
Calibration : The process of setting a device to known color conditions. Calibration must be
performed externally for devices whose color characteristics change frequently. For example,
calibration must be performed on monitors because phosphors lose brightness over time, and on
printers because digital printing devices can change output when colorant or paper stock is changed.
Calibration is not required for most input devices (e.g., scanners and cameras) since these devices are
generally self-calibrating.
Canvas Size : The full editable area of an image.
Clipboard : An area of memory used to temporarily store selection pixels. The Clipboard is accessed
via the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands.
CMYK : (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) The four-ink colors used in process printing. Cyan,
magenta, and yellow are the three subtractive primaries. CMYK colors are simulated on a computer
monitor using additive red, green, and blue light. To color separate an image from Photo Shop, convert
it to CMYK Color mode.
Color Correction : The adjustment of color in an image to match original artwork or a photograph.
Color correction is usually done in CMYK Color mode in preparation for process printing.
Compression : The process by which some of an image's data is either stored in patterns or eliminated
in order to reduce the images file size.
Contrast : The range of colors in an image. Increasing the contrast of a color palette makes different
colors easier to distinguish, while reducing the contrast makes them appear washed out.
CP: Cafe Press. Also referred to as "that other place" on the forums. See also Titanic.
Crop : A tool used to trim away part of an image.
Download: Receiving files from another computer into yours.
DPI : (Dots per inch) A unit that is used to measure the resolution of a printer or image setter. Dpi is
sometimes used to describe the input resolution of a scanner, but "ppi" is the more accurate term.
Exif: Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used by digital
cameras. The specification uses the existing JPEG, TIFF Rev. 6.0, and RIFF WAV file formats, with the
addition of specific meta data tags.
Flooding: Adding a single image to every possible variant of every product available on Zazzle, thus
"creating" hundreds of products that are for all intents and purposes, identical.
GIF : Graphic Interchange Format. This file format is commonly used on the internet.
Guide Files: See templates.
Image Spamming: When a shop keeper uses robots, poor judgment, or both, to flood the marketplace
with products that are of such low quality, they could never possibly be sold.
JPEG : Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. Commonly used to indicate a pixel-based
graphic file format, JPEG is actually a compression method used mostly for continuous tone images.
JPG : An image format commonly used on the internet. It does not support layers, transparency or
alpha channel data.
Layer : A level of an image that can be edited independently from the rest of the image.
Markup: The percentage you have set on a product as a commission on sales. 10% is the minimum
and is the default percentage at Zazzle.
Mask : An area that can be isolated from changes applied to the rest of the image.
MP: Market Place. A reference to the Zazzle home page.
Opacity : The density of a layer or color.
Pixels : (Basic image elements) The individual dots that are used to display an image on a computer
monitor. Image size and resolution are defined in terms of number of pixels.
PNG : Portable Network Graphics. A web based format that supports one alpha channel and
transparency. This is the preferred file type for use on Zazzle for images that contain transparency.
PPI : (Pixels per inch) The unit that is used to measure the resolution of a bit mapped image.
Pro Seller: A person who is making a minimum of 100 dollars a month as a Zazzle shop keeper.
Resolution : This indicates the number of pixels per image.
SK: (Zazzle) Shop keeper. The humans that are uploading images to the thousands of Zazzle shops.
Spazzle: A term coined by the fabulous softproduct in reference to image spamming at Zazzle.
Can also be used as a term in regard to spam on the Zazzle forums.
Template: 1. A Zazzle Template is a product which contains images and/or text placeholders that are
easily personalized by the buyer.
2. Zazzle Guide Files are also templates that Zazzle provides to shop keepers that define the proper
dimensions for images on different products.
QC: 1.(Quick Create Interface) Using this tool, You can create up to 100 products at a time from your
own templates or Zazzle default templates. Using a single design, you can create multiple products
using a simple 3-step wizard.
2. Quality Control. A group of people at Zazzle who decide whether products are suitable for printing
and shipping.
UA: (Zazzle) Zazzle User Agreement An agreement between you and Zazzle that specifies your rights
and the terms of your "contract" as a shop keeper.
UI: User Interface. Also GUI: Graphical User Interface. A general term for any interactive software
tool that allows communication between a human and a server.(Computer) The Quick create tool is an
interface, as is your browser.
Upload: Sending files to another computer from yours.
VB : Volume Bonus. (Zazzle) 1. This is a bonus based on sales of public products incorporating your
Design(s) which are not subject to payment of a referral program fee to someone else; OR
2. A sale of a product for which you earned a referral fee.
The Bonus will be calculated as percentage of Base Sales as follows:
1. 7% of Base Sales for Base Sales in the applicable month from $100 to $999.99; plus
2. 12% of Base Sales for Base Sales in the applicable month from $1000 to $4999.99; plus
3. 17% of Base Sales for Base Sales in the applicable month $5,000 and over.
Vector Graphic : The earliest computer graphics displays were drawn on so-called vector displays,
because the electron beam which produced the image was under software control. Vector graphics are
sometimes referred to as line-drawing graphics.
Watermark : Information embedded in an image that is invisible to the human eye. Can be used for
copyrighting images.
What's Your Percentage?
Once you begin uploading your images and presenting products to the world at large, you will need to
make some choices in regard to cost. Specifically, what is your time worth to you on a percentage
basis? The Zazzle shop default percentage per-product is 10%. When I first started at Zazzle I kept all
my products at the 10% mark, thinking that I would make more sales if my product prices were as low
as possible. I had not done a lot of research about this, nor had I bothered to ask any shop keepers out
there what they set their percentages on a per-product basis. Eventually, I did pose the question on the
forums in regard to business cards and I was shocked to learn that 20% was the bare minimum that
most people were collecting on their business cards. Some of the pro sellers were going even higher
for designs that they put a particularly large amount of time into. One particular respondent to my
question wrote ; “If you are taking less than 20% commission, you are ripping yourself off.”
This was some of the best advice I had ever received. I changed my store default to 20% and I swear
that sales suddenly increased. There is a psychology to this seemingly illogical sales increase. People
often equate higher price with higher quality. This is understandable with posters and prints that may
have been produced by professional artists and may be limited editions, but business cards? Why would
someone pay more for one design, when a similar one is available for less money? You need to
understand that most Zazzle shoppers have absolutely no clue how these cards are produced and they
have no interest in finding out. Many of them would rather pay more and incorrectly assume that they
will receive a higher quality product. There is a certain subconscious distrust people have for a product
that is being sold for a price that is perceived as too inexpensive to be true. This is something to keep in
mind when you are deciding where to set your own mark-ups.
You can set your shop-wide default percentages through this link.
Changing this setting will change all your product percentages, past and future. So, if you have
existing products that are set at say, 30% and then you change your store-wide settings to 20%, you will
need to go to those products and change them individually back to 30% . This is a good reason to make
sure you have your store-wide percentages set from the very beginning.
Changing the percentage on a per-product basis is done in the edit interface of your public products
area. http://www.zazzle.com/my/products/public
Technical Fouls.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. - Unknown.
I have read the forum rants of countless Zazzle shop keepers that are utterly beside themselves
because a product of theirs was pulled from the market, or denied publication altogether. A large
percentage of these complaints are based on ignorance of the Zazzle User Agreement and the law in
general.
As you continue your Zazzle odyssey, you may find yourself in a situation where Zazzle has pulled a
product of yours, or has refused to publish it. If this image is indeed yours, is seemingly inoffensive
and adheres to all of the Zazzle policies that you are aware of, there are still a few reasons it may have
been pulled. Some of these reasons are completely legitimate, others..well..not so much. This article
may help you decide whether you should panic, leave it alone, or formally request a review by Zazzle.
A common complaint is that Zazzle has published a particular design on all of your products, but has
shot down the same design on U.S. postage stamps, or Keds sneakers. The simple answer here is that
postage and sneakers are reviewed by the U.S.P.S. And Keds respectively. They both have an entirely
different set of guidelines for what is and what is not acceptable. Zazzle is not involved in this process
and should not be held accountable for your postage, or sneaker designs being rejected. This is a
postcard I designed and sell regularly on Zazzle. When I first uploaded the image and tried to make a
matching stamp, the U.S.P.S. Would not allow it. Apparently, this image makes a political statement
and is therefore not allowed on U.S. Postage. No big deal. Postcard, yes. Postage, no.
I have also had Postage rejected due to it's title, or tags. One stamp for instance, was titled: Angry
Squirrel Militia. Rejected! (Can you guess which word in that title bothered the U.S.P.S.?) I changed
the title and the stamp was approved. Keep that in mind. When Zazzle and/or it's associates are making
decisions about your products, they are taking more than just the image into consideration.
Now let's talk about how incredibly subjective this rejection system can be. I had designed a series of
“YAIL” products months ago. I had buttons, t-shirts, hats, stamps, etc;,.. I was very careful about the
design. This was a spoof on the Yale University logo, so I did some careful research before I wasted
any time on designing the image. The Yale font is owned by the University, so I knew I could not use it.
I used a similar font that is perfectly allowed for use in commercial work instead. When compared sideby-side, they look actually look nothing alike.
Secondly, I could not easily track down information about whether Yale owned the rights to the color
that is referred to as “Yale Blue”, so again, I used a different color entirely. Still blue, but not “Yale
Blue”. Finally, all my products simply read: “Yail”. Yail is a nonsense word. No problems there.
I sold several buttons and t-shirts over a few months and I thought I was in the clear as far as Zazzle
was concerned. One day, I received an e mail that one of my “Yail” products had been pulled. It was
the very button that had been selling all this time! What???? Now I could have argued with Zazzle, but
the fact is, I knew I was walking a fine legal line when I created that product, so I decided to pull the
whole line. Why? As I have already pointed out, this is a subjective area. Sure, I could have argued,
won my point, reloaded all my products and still have been rejected later on down the line. That was a
potential waste of time and resources that I wanted to avoid. I also do not want products in my shop
that could potentially get pulled during an attempted purchase either. What kind of weird message
would that send to a customer? “Sorry, the product you just tried to order is against our policies. The
person who runs this shop must be an idiot, or something.” - Sincerely, The Zazzle Quality Control
Team. That kind of customer experience could hurt my business, no?
Do not get me wrong, there are times to argue your side and go toe-to toe with the “powers that be”
in order to defend your rights as an artist and designer. I just chose to let it slide in my particular case
because I honestly thought it would be to my advantage to move on and avoid using any designs that
could ever possibly be considered infringement in any way. Make sure you are absolutely positive that
your design is unimpeachable before you start freaking out in the forums about your particular case.
On a final note: There are some not-so-rare cases of Zazzle “Prowlers” that report shop keepers
designs for no apparent reason whatsoever. It seems that the present Zazzle policy is to err on the side
of safety and immediately pull those products without further investigation. It is in these instances that
you need to contact Zazzle and let them know that this is your work and it was pulled in error. Sadly,
when your work is pulled, it is deleted from the servers and you will have to redo whatever it was from
scratch. Hopefully, Zazzle will eventually implement a system that will merely place products that are
under scrutiny “on hold” until a shop keeper has had a chance to plead their case. Let's keep our fingers
crossed on that one. In the interim, you may either want to completely avoid using images that are
riding a fine legal line, or do a huge amount of homework and prepare to be spending a lot of time
contacting Zazzle and reloading designs over and over again.
Read the Zazzle user agreement carefully. There are also regulations involving nudity, violence, drug
references, and all sorts of other stuff that Zazzle does not allow. Stay educated and avoid all the
hassles you will be reading about every single day on the forums.
Don't Panic.
Top reasons new shop keepers freak out, but don't have to.
This is a list of the most common pleas for help that I have witnessed on the Zazzle forums in the past
year and a half. These seemingly “terrifying events” can all be simply explained in Ninety percent of
all cases. In rare instances, there may be a more sinister explanation, but more commonly there is no
reason to fret.
Help! My products aren't showing on my shop!
This is possibly the most redundant of all complaints from new shop keepers. On a good day, one can
find dozens of threads on the forums with this exact title. Most of the time, the post is from a person
who is brand new to Zazzle and had not read the instructions on the page that pops up immediately
after they have published a product.
“Congratulations
You’ve added your product to the marketplace. If you don’t see it immediately, there’s no need to
worry. It will take a few hours for the product to show up in search results. In the meantime, don’t
forget to share & promote it!”
It takes time for the Zazzle servers to place newly created products. It can take minutes, or hours,
depending on a dozen or so factors. If you have just loaded a postage, or Keds shoe design, it can take a
very long time. These designs go through an extra screening process by the Postal service and Keds
respectively and may take over a day to get approved. There may be maintenance going on at Zazzle
which can effect upload times, or maybe it's just a busy day and the servers are a little jammed. Don't
run off to the forums in a panic if your designs are not immediately showing on your shop. Keep in
mind that your products may be visible in your public products area for quite some time before they
show on your shop as well. Take a breath. Go make some tea. Update your blogs. Your products are
more than likely going to show up eventually.
Help! My products aren't moving!
The Zazzle user interface now allows a shop keeper to move published products from one folder, or
sub-folder, to another. Many a shop keeper has panicked when it appears that the move is not taking
place. Valid glitches can and do occur once in a while, but the overwhelming likelihood is you just need
to wait a little longer for the changes to happen. See the previous paragraph for details.
Help! I just saw someone else s products in my shop!
This is a common occurrence and is nothing to worry about. Just refresh your browser and all should
go back to normal. I have had it happen a few times myself. I have never heard of this glitch causing
any more damage than a fleeting panic attack. It is a known Zazzle issue and it will not harm your
shop. Similar weirdness includes seeing other peoples profiles, and having another shops entire
entrance page in place of yours. Relax, refresh, and move on.
Help! My products have disappeared!
This is probably a short term problem that isn't actually removing your items, but it is not loading the
preview images on your shop. There have been some hardware outages at Zazzle in the past that did
terminally affect the preview images on certain items in certain shops. It's best to check the forums in
this instance and see if management has made any statements about “bugs” and what you should, or
should not do at that point.
Some products may have been removed because they violate Zazzle policy. You should receive an
email about the removal if this is the case.
Sometimes this is a browser issue. Try using a different browser to check on your shop. I keep three
browsers to randomly spot-check my sites. Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome. Sometimes
being a shop keeper at Zazzle involves a little detective work and some troubleshooting.
No sales notification!??
“I see in my earnings area that I have made a sale, but I have not received an email about it. Does
this mean the sale was canceled?”
No. The notification thing is a long standing issue. There can be a major lag with the email
notifications. I have read of some instances where there was none at all. Just make a habit of checking
on your sales through your management console. Sure, the happy emails are nice to get, but you may
have made three sales over the last two days that you haven't heard about yet.
My product was purchased, then canceled!!
Presently, there is no feedback available to a shop keeper as to why a particular order was canceled,
but in many situations the customer may have simply screwed something up during customization, or
the purchasing process. Don't panic! There is a good chance that they intend to reorder, or they have
done so already and it simply has not registered on your earnings statement yet.
These are just a few of the most common complaints. As you can see, most of the time there is no real
reason to panic. The Zazzle team is pretty good at staying on top of any potential problems and there
have been very few instances that I know of where a shop was completely destroyed by a bug in the
code. Try to stay calm and check out the forum posts to see if what is happening to your shop is
happening to others as well. If the issue doesn't resolve itself in a few minutes, or you are sure that
something serious has happened, give Zazzle support a call. Above all.. Don't panic!
You Are One In A Million..
...which means there are about Seven-Thousand people out there that are exactly like you!
A common mistake that up and coming shop keepers make is rethinking their own products and
aesthetics. This often happens after the Shop keeper has been in the game for a while and has grown
more expert with their creation tools and processes. This can lead to a shop keeper deleting products
that they believe are no longer viable, or are below the standards they are now operating under. I have
done it myself, and thanks to an unbelievable circumstance of timing, I have a great story, and an even
bigger regret. Several months ago, I was going through my shop and it occurred to me that some of my
early designs (which had never sold) were a bit “primitive” in comparison to my more recent work. I
took it upon myself to delete about twenty items that I felt just didn't belong in my shop anymore.
The very next day, I got one fantastic email. I had sold multiple copies of two different products from
my store! Yay! I clicked on the link to go to one of the products I had sold. It was not available. The
link no longer went anywhere. The two products I had sold were among the Twenty I had deleted the
night before. The customer had purchased them just hours before I ran through my store and committed
sales suicide.
The 51 cards I had sold were no longer available on Zazzle, and I no longer had the image I used on
my hard drive. My shop information and logo were on the back of that card. That's 51 people out in the
world that may have purchased that very same design, but no longer have access to it. Idiot!
Regardless of what you may think about some of your older designs, do not get rid of them. There are
at least Seven-Thousand people out there that are looking for a product just like it. Don't let them
down!
On a scarier note, once you delete an item, you are basically erasing all tracks to it. Even if you create
an identical product and put it back on your shop, a previous buyer can no longer find it using a
bookmark, or the product ID. This can be especially devastating with products like business cards that
people are possibly going to order over and over again. What will they do if they go back to reorder
your product and they get a screen that reads: product no longer available? Will they search your shop
for it's identical twin? Probably not. They were just told in plain English that the product no longer
exists. Don't let this happen to you. You are not paying to keep your images and products in your
Zazzle shop, there is no reason to do any “Spring cleaning” ever!
If you need a little more proof that people will buy anything, here is another true story that happened a
couple of months back when I began populating my still tiny Buttonpusher shop.
I had just named and customized my shop, and was interested to see how a basic photograph would
translate to a button. I went through some random photos that I normally use as textures, or tile able
backgrounds on my 3D projects. I grabbed an image of some popcorn I had taken during one of my
“texture hunts” a few weeks earlier. A texture hunt by the way, is when I grab my camera and stroll
around town taking pictures of brick walls, cement sidewalks, grass, tree bark, etc;,.
I loaded the picture to my Zazzle images and what I got was this;
Ta-da! One of the most ridiculous products I have ever created. I had no intention of keeping it. I was
just using it temporarily to see how I would present my buttons on the shop. I played with square
buttons, round buttons, different sizes and such. I tweaked my shop settings a bit more, and then
decided to take a break and hit the forums for a while. I forgot all about the stupid button until five days
later, when I got a sales e mail from Zazzle. One stupid button, sitting in an otherwise empty shop, had
just been purchased. Wow. Admittedly, my new shops link was displayed on the entrance pages of my
bigger, established shops, but I was still flabbergasted! That was not only the fastest I had seen a
product go out the door, it was a product that I was absolutely positive would never sell in a Gagillion
years.
It goes to show that there is a person out there for each and every product you create. This is a
simple fact as far as I'm concerned, and I have a popcorn button in Arizona to prove it.
Let's Talk Link Overs.
No, link overs are not what's left after you finish a meal of sausages. (Sorry, I had to go there..)
Link overs are among the more confusing concepts to people who are brand new to the POD and SEO
thing. The main reason for the confusion is that when a person starts asking questions about link overs
on the forums, the questions are often answered by people who are so expert in the area, that the
answer is too technical to comprehend. Luckily, I am no expert. This particular explanation may be
riddled with technical holes, but it will answer the basics for the beginner.
Why are link overs important, and where do they come from?
Link overs that you can see in your link over history , are nothing more than an accounting of how
many times a link, or links that you created were clicked through. These link overs can be tracked by
Zazzle because links you create should contain your Zazzle Associate I.D., which is also referred to as
an RFID (referral I.D.) So, if you have a link on your Squidoo lens to your store, and it gets clicked on
four times that day, you will see four link overs in your history. If you have a link to somebody else s
store, and it is clicked on four times that day, another four link overs will be credited to you. (Eight
total). You can use these numbers to get a general idea of how successful your outside links are at
attracting a click-through. This information can be combined with your personal diary and other tools
to give you some relatively useful information about how successful your SEO campaigns are going.
Furthermore, if somebody does visit your shop through one of your links and they like what they see,
they may create a link of their own (or copy your original) and share it with their community of friends.
And someone in that community may follow that link, and do the same..every link you put out there
has the potential to be copied and pasted into all sorts of blogs, websites, e mails and lenses that you
don't even know exist! It's a viral thing.
I am now going to take my own advice and start getting more proactive about my own outside links. It
is one of the basics of SEO that I have really been letting slide, and that is just plain stupid. In fact, I
will start here.
My stores: Softproduct Inc., Softproductcards., Buttonpusher.,Central Bark,.PulpFaction,.
These links were created using Rob Greenleaf''s Referral Link Builder. Which automatically adds
your Zazzle Associate I.D. To your links. This tool comes standard with the Zazzle Contributor Toolbar
as well.
Zazzle Myths
Here are some myths that have propagated throughout Zazzle, and other POD sites, that may hinder
the way you think and do business if you choose to buy into them. When you test them with simple
logic, they all have a tendency to fall apart completely. I see them repeatedly on forums and websites
out there as statements of absolute fact, that a seemingly large portion of the community believes either
partially, or completely.
“Shop keepers do not buy other shop keepers products.”
Really? This statement is likely originally attributable to a shop keeper that designs text only products.
Sure, if I see a t-shirt with a funny quote, or saying that is not backed-up with an image, it would be
easy for me to duplicate it myself and save some cash. What this belief does not take into account, is
the fact that there are products out there that could simply never be replicated. I have some 3D images
that I created using Bryce on some of my products. If someone wanted to make their very own version
of it, all they would have to do is purchase a copy of Bryce 3D, spend a year or two becoming expert
with it and then figure out what materials, lights and settings I used to render the final product. Just
because a person runs a shop, does not mean that they might not find someone else s work irresistible.
What about some of the stunning photography you can find on Zazzle, the amazing watercolors? I have
purchased other artists work. Why believe that not one of the thousands of people on Zazzle would ever
purchase another persons work? It's just silly.
Most commonly, this myth is regurgitated on the forums as an anecdotal warning about “comment
spamming” from new shop keepers. Newbies often ask on the forums if joining other peoples fan clubs
and leaving messages of praise to others will lead to more sales, since it is common for a shop keeper
to visit the shop of someone who has become a fan of theirs and return the compliment. In my opinion,
running around shop to shop, favoriting shops, and joining fan clubs blindly is a waste of time you
could be using to improve your own shop. I reserve my favorites section for shop keepers whose work I
genuinely love and would eventually like to go back and purchase from. I have joined few fan clubs in
comparison to your average shop keeper as well, since I usually only become a fan of a shop keeper
who not only has a fantastic shop, but has impressed me with their willingness to help others, or has
given me valuable insight that has improved my Zazzle experience overall. Shop keepers do visit other
shops, and yes, Virginia, they do buy other peoples products.
“You need hundreds, even thousands of products before you will see a lot of sales coming in.”
Wrong! There are too many examples of this not being true to list. I know pro sellers whose shops can
best be described as boutiques. Conversely, there are so-called “shops” on Zazzle that are loaded with
Hundreds of Thousands of reprehensible products that will never, ever, be purchased. Sure, you need
to regularly update and populate your shop in order to keep customers coming in and coming back, and
yes, having more products means more tags and text. More tags and text means better visibility during
Internet searches, but it's the quality of your products and the time you take to point them out to the
world that will be the deciding factors in your bottom line. You are going to have to grow your shop at
your pace. Don't sweat the numbers. That can only lead to frustration. Remember, It's a marathon, not a
sprint. There is no finish line.
“There are Thousands of shops and more than a Billion products on Zazzle. I can't compete with
that!”
Did you not just read the last paragraph? Your Zazzle shop has an advantage that no other shop on
Zazzle has: You are in charge. Your shop will be as unique as you are, as creative as you are, and will
eventually generate the amount of money you want it to. I have every reason to believe this is true.
Since I opened my first shop, my sales have increased each and every month without fail. Every little
extra thing I have done to promote my shop(s) and improve my product line(s) has eventually
generated more visits and more sales. This book is not writing itself and I have not had much time in
the last month to pay the close attention to my shop(s) that I like to. I will still see the biggest payday I
have yet had on the 15th of this Month. Here is a holiday stamp I created. I sold two sets of them today
and made nine dollars while I sat here typing.
Would you like to know how many holiday themed stamps I have on my store? Just that one. There
are 93,800 other holiday postage stamp designs available on Zazzle. I win. Don't worry about
competing. Take care of your store and it will take care of you.
“With all the image flooding in the Marketplace, my products are never going to get seen, or sold.”
Have you not been taking advantage of your tagging knowledge, Squidoo lenses, blogs, and social
networking skills? Most of your visits are not coming from the Marketplace if you are doing your part
to sell your self and your shop on the inter webs, not even close! If you are relying on the Zazzle
entrance page to market your products, you have some serious re-thinking to do. The image flooding on
the Zazzle Marketplace is indeed ugly, frustrating and a horrible customer experience, but it should not
be affecting a savvy shop keeper like yourself. It's not up to the supermarket to sell that box of laundry
detergent in aisle six. It's the responsibility of the detergent manufacturer to let the public know that the
product is indeed there, and is of better quality than the competitions.
“Today's Best Awards are chosen at random by monkeys hammering on keyboards.”
This is actually true. However, there is no correlation between getting a TBA and an increase in sales.
I have gotten two TBA's from Zazzle, and neither product has ever sold a single unit. This is just
another example as to why you need to be in charge of promoting your shop on Zazzle. If you wait for
Zazzle to do it for you, you will be waiting a very long time for that first commission check to arrive.
While we are on the subject of checks, if you are already making some coin from your new shop, but
don't want to wait for your first payday, you might consider the Paypal option. If you use Paypal, you
can go into your account at Zazzle and transfer money whenever you feel like it. It is also a faster way
to receive your money. Checks can take many days longer to hit your mailbox than you might expect. If
you use the Paypal option, your money is there for you on the very day Zazzle releases your
commission(s).
When I received my first check, I took a picture and shared this image on the forums. It was a very
exciting day!
Your Zazzle Diary.
I keep a pretty strict accounting of all my Zazzle related activities. This includes what products I
created today, what links I may have shared with Twitter, Face book and other social networking sites.
I record my sales and the previous days traffic report from Google Analytics. I started this habit when I
thought I saw a pattern between some of my SEO efforts and sales develop. Now that I have been
keeping a diary, I can dismiss that pattern, but I can also see that certain things that I do online appear
to have a direct affect on visitors and sales. Here is a rundown of exactly what I try to keep track of on
a daily basis.
•
Products sold. (how many/which ones.)
•
Product links shared today. What lens, Blog, or other social networking site they were placed
on.
•
Total visits yesterday according to Google Analytics.
•
Blog and Squidoo updates.
•
Products uploaded today.
•
Time spent on new product creation off line.
•
Total time spent creating and uploading today.
•
Replies made on forums and to whom.
•
Business cards given out in real life and to whom.
Zazzle Proof Recipes!
Created by Shopkeepers, for Shopkeepers.
It happens every day all over the world. Some poor shopkeeper is pouring over the details of their
Google Analytics information, or making some minor changes to a nearly complete business card
design, when the smoke alarm goes off. Running into the smoke filled kitchen, they find a flaming
brick of charcoal that once was a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich with bacon and tomato. The nearest
fire retardant is the pot of tomato soup that has been boiling over for five minutes now. Dinner is
served...all over your stove top.
Zazzle hypnosis can incinerate meals, and damage cookware in minutes. Don't become a victim to this
senseless tragedy. Try some of these recipes that are specifically designed with the Zazzle shopkeeper
in mind. They all have limited preparation time, and most of them are nearly burn-proof. These recipes
have been collected from fellow Zazzlers on the Zazzle Users Group Forum, with more being added
every day.
A variation on Reflekshins Oven Kalua Pork recipe.
Beef Recipes.
“Yes, I eat cow. I am not proud”
-Nirvana.
Zazzlin' Quick Skirt Steak
-by Reflekshins.
Get a 1/2 lb. to 1 lb. slab of skirt steak. (it's tender)
Marinate with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh chopped up parsley.
let it sit for 5 minutes.
let skillet get hot on medium heat with a little olive oil
Place steak on skillet.
Cook for about 3 minutes on each side.
good to go.
While you're cooking the meat, put some frozen vegetables (a whole bag, your choice) into a glass
microwave dish (with cover) along with a 1/4 cup of water.
Microwave for 7 minutes (stir once at 3 1/2 minute mark). Season with a little Mrs. Dash and smart
balance butter.
At the same time, you can get two pieces of bread and spread a little smart balance on each with a
little bit of garlic salt. Put it in your toaster oven and use the “light” setting.
Presto! Steak, veggies and garlic bread.
*Merlot optional.
Poultry Recipes.
Microwave Roast Chicken
-by Tjustleft
Instead of exact amounts some ingredients will be on a per person basis to make things easier.
Chicken will not have crispy skin like oven roasted unless you have a fancier microwave than I do :)
Ingredients:
1-Per Person Chicken (Leg quarter or Breast) Washed (With or without skin)
2-Per Person Carrots quartered.
1/2-Per Person Potatoes quartered.
1/2 to 1 whole medium sized Onion quartered.
2 Stalks-Per Person Celery quartered.
1/2 Tsp Garlic Salt.
1/2 Tsp Black or White Pepper.
1/3 Cup Water.
Cooking Instructions:
Place chopped veggies in bottom of microwave safe (Preferably Glass) dish
Add Water
Sprinkle half of salt and pepper over veggies
Add Chicken and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper
Cover and microwave on high for 20-30 minutes until Chicken is 165-170 degrees.
Fish Recipes.
Fast Fish Feast
-by Guiltypleasures
1 package of fresh or frozen(thawed ) lemon peppered fish fillets. (your preference in fish)
About 4 thin pieces in a package will be enough for 1 or 2 people.
1 container of prepared coleslaw from deli at market
1 package of rolls.
Butter or margerine for rolls.
Preheat oven for about 5 minutes, then put fish on baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking
spray, place in oven and cook for 20 minutes.
Put on plate, add some coleslaw and a roll with butter or marg and a cold beer to wash it all down
with.
Flame Proof Fish
We have a special way of preparing sashimi in Hawaii - and it's very good.
-by Reflekshins.
1 pound of raw, sashimi-grade fish. (generously serves two)
Tuna, Salmon, or Ahi (or your favorite combination thereof)
Put the fish in the freezer for 30 minutes for easier cutting.
Cut fish into cubes. (about 3/4 " thick)
Add the following to fish in a bowl:
2 teaspoons of sesame oil.
1 teaspoons of red pepper flakes.
2 teaspoons of soy sauce.
1 teaspoon of Hawaiian salt (should be Hawaiian* salt or Himalayan* salt)
1 packet of ogo (seaweed) place ogo into water, remove from water and cut into 1/2" pieces (ogo is
optional, but I think it makes the dish).
1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar
Chopped green onion (scallions) - add to your preference.
Stir it up and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Bring your eat on and some accessories. (beer, sake, chopsticks)
*These are coarse salts.
Pork Recipes.
OVEN KALUA PORK
-by Reflekshins.
I made a version of this in a crock pot, and it is fantastic! (And so easy!)
-Author.
3 LBS Pork Butt
2 cups water
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/4 cup Hawaiian salt (coarse sea salt)
Place pork, fat side up, in a roasting pan.
Combine water and liquid smoke, pour over meat.
Sprinkle with salt.
Cover and roast in electric oven at 400 degrees for 3 hours or until tender.
Remove from pan and shred.
I like it with poi and steamed rice, but shredded kalua pork makes a mean sandwich -- all you need is
a roll, a pickle on the side, some chips and your favorite beer.*
*Authors note: In my opinion, beer is not optional with this recipe.