MicrostockGroup
Other ways of making money => Print on Demand Forum => Topic started by: borg on July 22, 2013, 06:44
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Last month I earned almost 200$, but this month zero sales till now!
New site? Or something else?
Your experience?
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9 sales this month but comparing to an average month I am way down
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I was seeing small sales on a daily basis. Since the site change and royalty change, i think i have had one sale. >:(
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I am down too. I think multiple factors contribute to the lower sales this month. It is summer, in the past I always had lower sale in the summer. If you kept you royalty rate over 15% your are not pickup anymore by the large affiliates sellers, and you are drooped in rank at the searches in the marketplace. There also have been quite a few problems with the change on the layout, including downtime of the website. I also heard that the individual store places last there Google ranking.
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I am down 1/4 of normal. I noticed my business card best sellers used to be on the first page on google images by keywords, now are missing from the same search.
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I am down too. I think multiple factors contribute to the lower sales this month. It is summer, in the past I always had lower sale in the summer. If you kept you royalty rate over 15% your are not pickup anymore by the large affiliates sellers, and you are drooped in rank at the searches in the marketplace. There also have been quite a few problems with the change on the layout, including downtime of the website. I also heard that the individual store places last there Google ranking.
I dropped mine from 15% to 14.99% to avoid that but didnt seem to matter. I think its that hideous website that is repelling buyers. I know i dont like looking at it.
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I think its that hideous website that is repelling buyers. I know i dont like looking at it.
+1
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I had a horrible time making one new product. Its like the owners of istock have taken over :) It wasn't broken, so they decided to break it. If Zazzle had a serious competitor, they would be getting all their business now. Its a shame none of the microstock sites has had a serious attempt at selling products. Most stock images aren't appropriate but the big sites must have at least a million images that could sell on prints, mugs, calenders etc.
I might try selling some products direct. Does anyone use Ebay or Amazon? Perhaps I'll just try the local boot sale one day.
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I upped my royalties to 50%, Zazzle can suck my ... when I reach pay out, I am done with them.
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If Zazzle had a serious competitor, they would be getting all their business now.
Very true. Zazzle is such a PITA that many contributors try it for a while and soon give up.
FAA has told their contributors they'll soon be introducing iPhone cases (I don't get it, but apparently this is a big market) and I'm pretty sure that's just the start.
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Earlier or later there will be another POD that will get a breakthrough. Many contributor are angry at Zazzle right now. Some have started to create product on Cafepress again.
I had a some sale on Zazzle the last few days, but referrals are down too. And the change with the Volume Bonus is just the hammer. That is where I am loosing the most in the moment.
I am giving Redbubble some more attention now. Had a few sales in the last couple of month.
Continue uploading to FAA, but so fare only very few sales.
New places that I am trying are: society6, CowCow, 500px, 3droses
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If in several months won't be better, I give up, permanently!
I am finish with uploading of anything on every other new agency too! Especially like Zazzle...
iStock, Zazzle, etc. What, or which greedy agency is next?
I am sick of spending my time and effort if that can be destroyed in a single day...
Conclusion is here: THAT IS THEIR BUSINESS AND WE ARE WORKING FOR THEM! BUT WE ARE NOT PARTNERS! THEIR PARTNER IS GREED!
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No sales since mid month for me. I haven't tried creating new products since the design change and have no desire to. Some of my products are in the 10-14.99% range but business cards, post cards and posters are still over 25%. I can only compromise so far.
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I am surprised none of the stock houses bought zazzle or came up with their own concept. It seems like a natural next step. One that contributors and customers would love, especially if they give the customer the option to customize greeting cards,mugs etc...with their own text.
A well organized print store and then make a deal with amazon for even further distribution.
Should have happened years ago...
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I am surprised none of the stock houses bought zazzle or came up with their own concept. It seems like a natural next step. One that contributors and customers would love, especially if they give the customer the option to customize greeting cards,mugs etc...with their own text.
A well organized print store and then make a deal with amazon for even further distribution.
Should have happened years ago...
late 2009 DT tried selling prints and failed
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Zazzle is dead. It's over.
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Zazzle is dead. It's over.
just like microstock, god we are dramatic ;D
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Zazzle is dead. It's over.
just like microstock, god we are dramatic ;D
Microstock is dead almost 10 years! ;)
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Zazzle is dead. It's over.
just like microstock, god we are dramatic ;D
Microstock is dead almost 10 years! ;)
now the thing is photo booth services ;D
wonder about the price of the machine 8)
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Sales are way down for me too. It went from 1200 to 1000 to 800.....this month it looks like I will be lucky to get 500. It has been slowly declining since the 15% deal and now the 5% deal. I refuse to give my work away. That's why I dropped most microstock agencies...just got so tired of all the BS. I made a lot in the Volume Bonus's also and now that is gone, there really isn't any incentive to make sales. I quit creating and uploading. Maybe they will come back, but I really believe they have really hurt the trust of their contributors this time and it'll take a lot to get it back. Gotta be careful what you say in the forum's or your get banned, so there are probably more unhappy contributors than you actually see in the forums......kinda reminds me of istock!! Are you sure they didn't buy Zazzle??? :o
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My sales are still consistent, and I'm seeing the ramp-up for the buying season is in effect now. ;D
I have no complaints at all, I kept my royalties in the 20-30% range, still getting plenty of 3rd party sales, and love the new layout. It's larger and cleaner.
We started earlier this year at Cafe Press, as well, and we're seeing more and more sales there, too, but Zazzle is still our main earner.
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My sales have also stopped since the first week of July.
I had a good month in Jule, I felt very good about Zazzle then.
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What is your royalty percentage?
If you have rapid fall in sales in July do you have royalties set above 15%?
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Today is 40 days without any sale!
1st July was fatal to me...
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I've never sold a lot there but I did sell one card this week, so perhaps their buyer is back :)
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What is your royalty percentage?
If you have rapid fall in sales in July do you have royalties set above 15%?
30%, this month only 2 sales (same buyer)
I believe I will lower it a bit, perhaps 20% once they increased pricing a few times and I haven't changed my default royaty, will see
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I don't know what it will mean to buyer if you make changes in several percentages...
If you make change to your royalty rate from 30% to 20%, that would mean only difference of 10%, but only on their base price...
So if something costs 20$, with your royalty of 30% buyers pays 26$, and after your change to 20% buyer will pay 24$....
Difference is just 2 dollars!!! My experience told me that buyers don't care for 2$, if they like some product...
Zazzle told that after 1st July, they won' promote stores with +15% royalties, but that decision was even before but on 25%...
Whole the time my royalties are on 30% so they didn't promote my works even before famous new site...
So, I don't know what to think...
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It's a giant mess actually. I just want to get to $50 and get out of there. All of mine are set to 20%. No way am I going to change it. It's like a commission cut where those that have more than 15% won't get noticed and if you set it all to 15%, unless you're a pro seller and whatnot, still not likely to get seen in the millions of products on the site.
For me it's a no win situation :-\
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My sales have somewhat returned in August. Initially I set some products at 14.9%, but the recent uploads are all at 20-25%. It does not seem to affect sales.
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It's a giant mess actually. I just want to get to $50 and get out of there. All of mine are set to 20%. No way am I going to change it. It's like a commission cut where those that have more than 15% won't get noticed and if you set it all to 15%, unless you're a pro seller and whatnot, still not likely to get seen in the millions of products on the site.
For me it's a no win situation :-\
I am a pro seller and this is "lose-lose situation" as it seems...
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all these PoD sites are clueless, they're facing increasing costs to keep buyers shopping there, they expect YOU to bring buyers actually ... it's a joke.
sales falling down ? probably they've been downgraded by Google and they've no money for advertising, see fly by night companies like FAA in particular.
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I won't do FAA since in order to get any exposure over there you have to pay for their yearly plan. Makes me wonder why they even have the free model at all.
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I won't do FAA since in order to get any exposure over there you have to pay for their yearly plan. Makes me wonder why they even have the free model at all.
You pay 30 dollar to get unlimited upload and access to all their marketing tools. I made 1500 dollar and paid 60.
Anyone who is using 30 dollar as an excuse to not upload to FAA needs to review their business decision making process.
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Very low for me too. A postcard or a magnet here and there, eventually a business card.
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One sale since July 15, a big drop compared to previous months.
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I may be lucky. I just started to re-upload in recent months, the previous port only had a handful of images. I almost stopped uploading since they announced no promotion if our cut is over 14.9%.
July was slow, just one order, but it contained 10 sets, the money wasn't too bad. Have had 5 orders in August. Didn't think it was a big deal.
I am not on FB, Twitter or any social media sites and have never made any promotional efforts to family and friends.
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Royalties between 22-35%, started selling daily middle of last month, sales are steady for me.
My products show (with that royalty) in the first few pages of search results for products. I have half marketplace sales and half 3rd party referred sales. Real happy with the results so far.
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How do you know when you become a pro seller?
I have earned well over $100. Some of my earnings are from third parties which do not count and others may have not been cleared yet, but I am not keeping track of the details.
Do they actually send you a message to tell you that you have reached the status of pro seller so you can enter the pro seller forums?
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How do you know when you become a pro seller?
I have earned well over $100. Some of my earnings are from third parties which do not count and others may have not been cleared yet, but I am not keeping track of the details.
Do they actually send you a message to tell you that you have reached the status of pro seller so you can enter the pro seller forums?
I believe you get an e-mail as I recall. To count towards your $100, it has to be from the US store, so no foreign sales count. 3rd party sales DO count. There is a delay because all the earnings have to be cleared, then they don't get to it until the month afterwards. I remember that I was well over $100 for long enough that I sent a message to support to ask about it. Got a non-answer from support, but did get the pro-seller notice not long afterwards. Dunno if that was coincidence or not.
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How do you know when you become a pro seller?
I have earned well over $100. Some of my earnings are from third parties which do not count and others may have not been cleared yet, but I am not keeping track of the details.
Do they actually send you a message to tell you that you have reached the status of pro seller so you can enter the pro seller forums?
I believe you get an e-mail as I recall. To count towards your $100, it has to be from the US store, so no foreign sales count. 3rd party sales DO count. There is a delay because all the earnings have to be cleared, then they don't get to it until the month afterwards. I remember that I was well over $100 for long enough that I sent a message to support to ask about it. Got a non-answer from support, but did get the pro-seller notice not long afterwards. Dunno if that was coincidence or not.
Thanks for the reply! My cleared sales are over $100, but there may well be some foreign sales. It's not a big deal, just curious.
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Well, I am on the fence about closing my store now.
I raised my royalties to 50% and had two big sales since.
One for 18 euro net and one for 35 euro net. So thats 50 euro in two sales. I am now over 100 euro once the payments clear. I might just let the store sit there and just not bother with Zazzle.
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I'll raise too, to 50%!
P.S.
To become pro seller you need to pass 1000$ of payouts... Then you will receive an email about it...
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I'll raise too, to 50%!
P.S.
To become pro seller you need to pass 1000$ of payouts... Then you will receive an email about it...
Not true. "Qualifying is easy and based on lifetime earnings - Basic ProSellers only need to earn $100 to participate!" Look at this page: http://www.zazzle.com/mk/sell/proseller (http://www.zazzle.com/mk/sell/proseller)
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Hello. I have a store on Zazzle (for how much longer I don’t know), but I don’t have anything positive to say about Zazzle. They don’t care about the shopowners at all, and I say that based on how they treat and approach the shopowners: With disrespect. If one is a "Syrupy Sally" and eats the rear end of the company and the rear end of the moderator (ematson...his name is Eric) on the forum (who shouldn’t be the moderator of anything with his lack of communication skills), things are fine. Zazzle likes people who eat their rear end. Even though I have thousands of individually created products in my store, I’ve sold very little, or at least that’s all that they’ve told me that I’ve sold. Some shopowners have wondered whether they are making sales but are not being told about the sale so the company can keep all the money, like some affiliate marketing firms do to stiff the affiliates. As I said, Eric, one of the moderators of the forum, is an anus and does not have people skills. As others have said here, Zazzle made major changes at the beginning of June and many people’s sales tanked. But in Zazzle’s mind they know best and can do no wrong. They are one of the most incompetent companies I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with. Just their (new) website alone has turned some shopowners away from making any more products because the website is terrible since they changed it. The "Syrupy Sally’s" (that's what I call them) are about all that are left on the Zazzle forum and they troll in favor of Zazzle calling the new site, “fresh and clean” and saying, “I have no complaints.” The new website jumps uncontrollable up and down when you’re trying to work on something, you can’t find things, it has double scrolls on the right side (one scroll right next to another scroll), invisible fonts, invisible boxes one is supposed to check (even though you can’t see the box), and formatting tools are in one place one day and in another place the next. It’s Java-heavy and it’s a mess. The product quality seems to be going downhill and there are a lot more complaints about quality, especially in shirts and mugs. I’ve spent years working on my store and something happened recently which completely turned me off from the company so I want no more to do with them. It disgusts me the thousands of hours my partner and I spent working on our store only to have it just sit and when I complain about lack of sales and about the site, I’m reprimanded by this Eric. They only want cheerleading and pro-Zazzle words on their forum. They don’t want to hear the reality. So I don’t recommend that anyone buy anything from Zazzle or starting a store there. It’s only going to get worse and it’s been going down hill all year. I won’t be surprised if the company is sold, taken over or goes out of business. When and if that happens, they deserve it.
Now about this Eric that I mentioned. He deserves a paragraph all about him:
He talks down to the shopowners as if he’s talking to children. He urges shopowners who don’t cheerlead for Zazzle to watch their words and be careful what they say. I thought we were all adults but Eric seems to think otherwise and feels his role as a moderator means he must be bullying and parental. I’ve been on many internet forums as an observer and/or as a participant and Eric is one of the most offensive and abrasive moderators I’ve experienced and observed. Other moderators I’ve observed on forums expressed themselves as equals to the other members on the forum, instead of being above them. However, the role of moderator seems to be a power trip for Eric unfortunately. He needs to be in a different job at Zazzle. He does not possess the social skills for moderating a forum. His style is more closely that of an internet troll than a diplomatic moderator with people and communication skills.
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It seems Eric goes by the name of Lobo on Istop. Or maybe its his evil brother.
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I once posted some critical comments on their forum, and in response they immediately locked me out and deleted my entire forum account, including old posts. I guess they needed to make room for this new jerk "Eric".
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I'm not seeing any sales with the 1,000+ products I made back in July. So it's just going to sit there until I reach payout which will probably be in about 10 years.
I don't post on their forums unless I need to. It's so squished it makes it very hard to read.
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anyone else getting zazzle emails saying products have been approved for sale? these are for products that have been live for 6 months or more???
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Yes , if they are phone cases, they are trying to update old cases to new phones
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Zazzle = Fizzle
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My sale are back but less than usual before new site... I hope that will reach old level...
Another thing what is problem to me on Zazzle is tax... They are taxing all sales not just US based...
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My sale are back but less than usual before new site... I hope that will reach old level...
Another thing what is problem to me on Zazzle is tax... They are taxing all sales not just US based...
Is it because of the discounts? I sold a few postcards this month, which are deeply discounted.
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Like the micros, the PODs are now addicted to discounts. Same thing ruined J.C. Penney - eventually, no one buys anything unless it's "on sale".
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Zazzle Was GREAT For The Longest Time....
They Changed Volume Bonus,
And Went To Standard Shops For I-Phones & Tablets...
They DESTROYED A GREAT SITE...
No More HTML, Or Custom Shops..
I Had Over 4 Years Of Linking All Over The Web To My Shops
Which Took me WEEKS & MONTHS To Design....
In One SWOOP They KILLED IT...
I Haven't Seen A Volume Bonus In 6 Months...
I Would EASILY Earn Between 200.00 To 500.00 Per Month,
Now I'm Lucky If I Hit 100.00......
I Heard The Same Stories About CAFE PRESS When
I First Started Making Online Products With Zazzle...
SAD That Zazzle Has Become The Same Way...
Totally Disappointed,
And I Feel Taken Advantage Of...
I Spent YEARS At Zazzle...
Creating, And Diving Traffic To Their Site Through My Shops...
They Are Consumed With Their OWN GREED,
And Have CRAPPED On Everyone That Helped Make Them Rich...
BELOW ARE EXAMPLES OF HOW DEDICATED I WAS...
http://www.zazzle.com/calroofer (http://www.zazzle.com/calroofer)*
http://www.zazzle.com/odinwar (http://www.zazzle.com/odinwar)*
http://www.zazzle.com/phoneshack (http://www.zazzle.com/phoneshack)*
http://www.zazzle.com/aliluli (http://www.zazzle.com/aliluli)*
http://www.zazzle.com/slumberover (http://www.zazzle.com/slumberover)*
http://www.zazzle.com/rosekissed (http://www.zazzle.com/rosekissed)*
http://www.zazzle.com/heavymetalhitman (http://www.zazzle.com/heavymetalhitman)*
You Can Earn 15% On EVERY PRODUCT You Refer!
Make The Time You Spend Online PAY!
Share A Few Product Links Here & There
On Your Facebook, Blog, Or Other Social Media Sites!
Click The LINK LEARN And Then Open A ZAZZLE Account!
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I'm subscribed to receive marketing to Zazzle, Café Press, Wordans, Spreadshirt and a few others. I never actually noticed how much the first two mark up their products. When I was looking into this I was focussing mainly on t-shirts, but their gallery wraps and posters are higher than my pricing at my prolab. Spreadshirts prices are really more in line with getting a screenprinted t-shirt done locally.
I've noticed that Wordans sends an email about twice a month, Spreadshirt once a month and Café/Zazzle sometimes 5 times a week. I'm surprized anyone stays subscribed to both of them - but I think I stay for the entertainment value. If Café Press puts out 20%off Iphone cases, Zazzle puts the same email out the same day. They rarely ever tell you what is actually on sale. It's "Up to 40% on almost everything in the store" but you have to go through making a product and putting it in your cart to see if it is discounted.... then just the white one will be discounted, but the pink one will still be full price.
I also know that Café Press for one doesn't even make all of their own products, so there is a third party between you and them - or between your buyer and you and them. For example http://www.rpiprint.com/ (http://www.rpiprint.com/) do their greeting cards. When I left Rocketlife I looked into RPI to replace them as a partner, and the were very proud of their relationship with Café Press. (They likely print their posters also if they are doing cards, it is usually the same type of press).
Wordans is a Canadian company, and from what I understand is they farm all of the orders out to local private businesses who do work for them. Their prices are not very competitive and you hear stories about terrible products and others about fabulous products - how does Wordans quality control so many independent contractors?
Spreadshirt on the other hand seems to be a one-business show. Their prices are not jacked up crazy. They actually screen print OR digital print. I ordered t-shirts a couple years ago and received a personal phone call about the artwork. If I had to trust any of these sites - Spreadshirt would be on the top of my list.
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Last month I earned almost 200$, but this month zero sales till now!
New site? Or something else?
Your experience?
They made a comeback to $200 a month for you now?
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I had some sales in October, November and December... December was the best month since I started selling products online.
The sales stopped a few days before Christmas.
This January I had 2 sales (the same product sold twice).
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Nov/Dec $200 each month, Jan back to $100. Losing the bonus scheme was a big letdown but compared to cafepress they are very generous since you can set your own percentage. I set mine at 14.5% after a lot of trialing.
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I put a lot of time and effort into zazzle, and was making bank for a while, but lately it's all died. Doesn't exactly motivate me to continue... hard enough to keep 5 pots heated at the same time with only 4 burners, in this business.
My Zazzle earnings are down at least 50-70% if that is comforting to any of you. Whatever they did to screw up their google product base, or website or whatever... I hope they fix it soon. I'm not lowering my commissions there either, because people just buy what they see and like regardless of the prices. It's a retail trap, and women with credit cards on sites like zazzle are dangerous ;P LOL
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I'm not lowering my commissions there either, because people just buy what they see and like regardless of the prices. It's a retail trap, and women with credit cards on sites like zazzle are dangerous ;P LOL
You might be on to something, Todd, you might be on to something...