Zazzle - some questions about getting started

[Painter]

I am trying to get started at Zazzle, I have read their information and I have googled in search for tips, but I also want to ask some questions at this great forum:

1) Is it better to have one or a few stores or many?
2) What is the best, to have separate stores for t-shirts, mugs etc, or separate stores for flowers, pets, hearts etc? Or only one for your brand?
3) About store names, do you use your name or your brand, or descripive names?
4) If you make up a new brand name for Zazzle, what if it is used by someone else outside Zazzle, could that be some kind of infringement?
5) Any other good advice to a beginner there?
6) Which other POD sites do you recommend?

I am a hobbyist selling pictures for fun. But I have realized it is so much more fun to sell prints for several dollars than subs for almost nothing. I have got several sales on FAA and one at Crated this year. Also got one image sold at Image Brief. That is fun. Subs are not that fun, except at SS and Canva where they at least show up almost every day.

[objowl]

1 2 and 3 if you have a distinctive brand I would stick to that, if you have another brand or niches open another store.
4 Don't do it, just in case there is a problem. Be a shame to spend time to establish a brand only to have it removed.
5 Zazzle is not what it was and you can make more referring products than making them. Not my idea of fun.  I was making more two years ago with a tenth of the products I have now.
6 Society6, but with all POD sites unless you have a top brand you need to spend time promoting, sharing, pinning, tweeting and blogging, again not my idea of fun.

A full list of products
http://forum.zazzle.com/create/handy_list_of_links_to_new_products_apr_21_2014_2

Have fun 

[Painter]

I do not have a brand really, but if you want to sell anything at Zazzle, you need to name your store(s), which kind of becomes a brand (or?). And almost everything is already a brand somewhere in the world. I really do not want to use an existing brand, the problem is, to be sure you do not, you need to protect your new store name for the whole world first...to be sure it isn�t used outside Zazzle.

A username at a site is one thing, a name at a store at Zazzle is more a brand, and at Canva you also need to have a brand. And legally it is more difficult with a brand, because someone else may already use it, somewhere in the world. I guess it is OK to use your own name, but if you do not want to use your name, you will need to protect your brand first (which is not that cheap), or you might make an infringment on someone elses brand.

[Painter]

Objowl, thanks for your answer. I think the fun with FAA etc was making more money than on microstock with less effort...and I hardly do any promoting myself.

How much do you earn on Zazzle compared with FAA? And other POD sites? It would be great with a poll for POD earnings too, even if this is a microstock forum...

[objowl]

Objowl, thanks for your answer. I think the fun with FAA etc was making more money than on microstock with less effort...and I hardly do any promoting myself.

How much do you earn on Zazzle compared with FAA? And other POD sites? It would be great with a poll for POD earnings too, even if this is a microstock forum...

As an Objowl I've never had to worry about brands, but if you have concerns use a different one on every site so that any problems are limited to one site only.

I can't think of any POD site that is less effort than the best microstock sites. Zazzle upload one image and set it on each and every product, Society6 upload a different size of image for different products.  Redbubble have improved recently with one image on all products, but I don't sell much there.  None of them read IPTC data except FAA and I sell little there.  I refuse to pay their $30 fee, I think the only sale this year was a license for $5 though I did sell a few prints on the run up to Christmas last year.  I had a good run on The Kase, but they dropped commission from 10% to 5% in April and I ended up making the same money for twice as many product sales, they are on my cull list.

Shutterstock is my best earner, but this time of year Society6 will push them close.  My images are not typical, so would not be any kind of gauge as to sales.   If you do have the right images on the right product and are willing to promote them then Zazzle and Society6 can be good earners, but fun they are not.

I

[cascoly]

I do not have a brand really, but if you want to sell anything at Zazzle, you need to name your store(s), which kind of becomes a brand (or?). And almost everything is already a brand somewhere in the world. I really do not want to use an existing brand, the problem is, to be sure you do not, you need to protect your new store name for the whole world first...to be sure it isn�t used outside Zazzle.

A username at a site is one thing, a name at a store at Zazzle is more a brand, and at Canva you also need to have a brand. And legally it is more difficult with a brand, because someone else may already use it, somewhere in the world. I guess it is OK to use your own name, but if you do not want to use your name, you will need to protect your brand first (which is not that cheap), or you might make an infringment on someone elses brand.

unless you are well known already, few people will find you by brand - most will find you by searching or browsing by tags to your images themselves   

[Painter]

I do not have a brand really, but if you want to sell anything at Zazzle, you need to name your store(s), which kind of becomes a brand (or?). And almost everything is already a brand somewhere in the world. I really do not want to use an existing brand, the problem is, to be sure you do not, you need to protect your new store name for the whole world first...to be sure it isn�t used outside Zazzle.

A username at a site is one thing, a name at a store at Zazzle is more a brand, and at Canva you also need to have a brand. And legally it is more difficult with a brand, because someone else may already use it, somewhere in the world. I guess it is OK to use your own name, but if you do not want to use your name, you will need to protect your brand first (which is not that cheap), or you might make an infringment on someone elses brand.

unless you are well known already, few people will find you by brand - most will find you by searching or browsing by tags to your images themselves

Yes I know, I do not intend/want to have a brand. But I wonder if whatever name taken as a store name may be seen as a brand, and therefore also might cause infringement if someone else uses the same name as a brand somewhere in the world. It is a legal issue. I can imagine a lot of good store names, but most are already used at Zazzle, and if not, they are a brand somewhere else if you google. I read somewhere on the web that it is important to choose a good name on your store at Zazzle, because it becomes kind of a brand if you do sell there, and therefore not easy to change later.

[cascoly]

there's lots of useless information on the web...  'branding' is popular, esp'ly from people who want to help you create a 'brand'...

again unless you're going to do lots of promotion your zazzle name really doesn't matter since basically no one's going to be searching by your name  - concentrate on description and tags so people can find you

[Painter]

again unless you're going to do lots of promotion your zazzle name really doesn't matter since basically no one's going to be searching by your name  - concentrate on description and tags so people can find you

Of course the description and tags are the most important, I just wondered if the name of the shop also was important for the search. Does anyone know?

[fieldsphotos]

again unless you're going to do lots of promotion your zazzle name really doesn't matter since basically no one's going to be searching by your name  - concentrate on description and tags so people can find you

Of course the description and tags are the most important, I just wondered if the name of the shop also was important for the search. Does anyone know?

I think it depends on how you are getting your traffic.   For me, my "store" name could be something entirely random as far as I can tell.   I get most of my traffic from the Zazzle marketplace or affiliates who are referring my individual products.   I think folks who set out to market their store themselves via blogs, etc do get a benefit from having themed and organized stores, though.   

As far as ease of use, Zazzle is a huge pain to keep up with.  They are releasing several new products every week and you have to manually go in and add your images to the new products.  There aren't very good tools to do that since they don't read IPTC, and setting up your own quick templates becomes very difficult with the flood of new products.   HOWEVER, they are my 2nd best earner, just behind Shutterstock, so it can be worth it to mess with them. 

Someone needs to create the equivalent of DeepMeta for them to help all the rest of us out.   I would pay $$ for something like that. 

[Painter]

Thanks. I now have my store, and I have added some products with some of my images and designs that I think might sell. I realize it requires lots of work to create products there, so you have to pick the most suitable of your work. I realize Zazzle will be a pain to keep up with. Why can't customers just search for one image and for one product and then combine them themselves? Would be so much easier.

When I was new at FAA, it took 2 weeks to get my first sale. It was so easy to get started there. I wonder if I will sell anything at Zazzle.

[fieldsphotos]

Zazzle can be slow starting, I think it took me a month or so before getting a first sale.   You stuff has to build up rank in their search.  They also rank you by how active you are (creating products often) etc.   Once you get built up though, it seems to pick up speed.  I am closing in on the Bronze proseller level now with over $1300 in cleared sales.   

I do terrible at FAA (maybe 2 sales?) so maybe you will do even better at Zazzle.  It is hard to say.   

One tip:   If you are putting your images on postcards, etc, take the time to put a little message or something using the Zazzle tools.   I had one St John USVI shot that was literally the exact same shot and location as pages of other Postcards.   I added "St. John, USVI" to mine with the Zazzle text tool, and it shot to the top of the rankings. 

[Painter]

Zazzle can be slow starting, I think it took me a month or so before getting a first sale.   You stuff has to build up rank in their search.  They also rank you by how active you are (creating products often) etc.   Once you get built up though, it seems to pick up speed.  I am closing in on the Bronze proseller level now with over $1300 in cleared sales.   

I do terrible at FAA (maybe 2 sales?) so maybe you will do even better at Zazzle.  It is hard to say.   

One tip:   If you are putting your images on postcards, etc, take the time to put a little message or something using the Zazzle tools.   I had one St John USVI shot that was literally the exact same shot and location as pages of other Postcards.   I added "St. John, USVI" to mine with the Zazzle text tool, and it shot to the top of the rankings.

Thanks for all this information. I think Zazzle is very different from FAA, it seems to be more important with texts, and it is a mess with all the different products.

I wonder, do Zazzle mainly sell in the US (as FAA seem to do), or do they sell a lot in other parts of the world also? I live in Europe and I am not sure there is that much meaning of making postcards from here.

[objowl]

Zazzle can be slow starting, I think it took me a month or so before getting a first sale.   You stuff has to build up rank in their search.  They also rank you by how active you are (creating products often) etc.   Once you get built up though, it seems to pick up speed.  I am closing in on the Bronze proseller level now with over $1300 in cleared sales.   

I do terrible at FAA (maybe 2 sales?) so maybe you will do even better at Zazzle.  It is hard to say.   

One tip:   If you are putting your images on postcards, etc, take the time to put a little message or something using the Zazzle tools.   I had one St John USVI shot that was literally the exact same shot and location as pages of other Postcards.   I added "St. John, USVI" to mine with the Zazzle text tool, and it shot to the top of the rankings.

Thanks for all this information. I think Zazzle is very different from FAA, it seems to be more important with texts, and it is a mess with all the different products.

I wonder, do Zazzle mainly sell in the US (as FAA seem to do), or do they sell a lot in other parts of the world also? I live in Europe and I am not sure there is that much meaning of making postcards from here.

14 out of my last 50 sales went to European buyers. I guess that with European subjects that figure would rise.
If you sign in to zazzle .com there are more products that are not available in Europe.

[fieldsphotos]

I wonder, do Zazzle mainly sell in the US (as FAA seem to do), or do they sell a lot in other parts of the world also? I live in Europe and I am not sure there is that much meaning of making postcards from here.

I also have some amount of European buyers, although not as many as objowl.    I would say that if your European images are of tourist destinations or subjects, then I would imagine folks in the US would be buying them as well as Europeans.  I have a Guatemalan themed image that does make most of its sales in the US.

     

[Painter]

I wonder, do Zazzle mainly sell in the US (as FAA seem to do), or do they sell a lot in other parts of the world also? I live in Europe and I am not sure there is that much meaning of making postcards from here.

I also have some amount of European buyers, although not as many as objowl.    I would say that if your European images are of tourist destinations or subjects, then I would imagine folks in the US would be buying them as well as Europeans.  I have a Guatemalan themed image that does make most of its sales in the US.

     

I do have some editorials that probably could sell as postcards (city images), but can you sell editorials as postcards? I asked a lawyer in my country about sellling editorials at FAA, and he said something that it would be OK if the prints were for personal use but not if they are displayed in a lobby of a company etc. Which you cannot control at FAA, so I do not upload editorial tourist images there. What are the rules for postcards?

[madelaide]

I can not say I have been very successfull at Zazzle, but I can't complain. I have been making more there than in the micros.
In my experience, business cards offer the best results, because once you sell, clients make new orders months later. Not all, not even most of them, but many.
When I started, I had one store for everything, ordinary photos, "fine art" photos, illustrations.  Then I decided to make a special store for my fine art (that is, mostly landscapes and landmarks), because I think it can be more appealing to a buyer and I wanted to market this stuff that I like more. I also created a store for designs using my lovebirds - focused on children's apparel and stuff. Whether this is a good strategy or not, I can not say.
One thing I hate about Zazzle is that they insist on charging royalty taxes on items sold outside USA, which represent most of my sales. Given that Brazil doesn't have a tax agreement with USA, I am charged 30% in all my income, despite the IRS rule regarding royalties - a huge loss.

[Painter]

Now I have got my first sales on Zazzle, about 10 days after I started to upload, but did not earn much (my first sale on FAA was more fun...). I also started to upload to Redbubble about the same time, but no sales there yet. Have had very few views on Zazzle, but two sales, and I have had more than 2000 views on RB but no sales. I wonder what counts as a view? Appearantly not the same on all sites.

[fieldsphotos]

Now I have got my first sales on Zazzle, about 10 days after I started to upload, but did not earn much (my first sale on FAA was more fun...). I also started to upload to Redbubble about the same time, but no sales there yet. Have had very few views on Zazzle, but two sales, and I have had more than 2000 views on RB but no sales. I wonder what counts as a view? Appearantly not the same on all sites.

Nice- that's pretty quick for first sales on Zazzle.   Yes, the amounts are not as nice as FAA, you have to treat it more like a micro - most of the sales are small, but you do get larger payouts periodically.   Business cards pay the best, since folks often order in bulk.   Although I did sell over 1000 postcards once, which netted me a nice royalty.  I hear the folks that do invitations do really well because people buy matching stuff - so, the invitation, matching envelopes, stamps, thank you cards, etc. will all be bought at once.

[juras1077]

I have some questions about Zazzle. I'm seling on micro sites like ss bs istock - is it ok with them to sell on Zazzle ? And i'm from Europe- w8ben tax form - who pay taxes from clients Usa and Eu- they pay and i only take the clear rest like micro or i have to pay vat eu and usa taxes?

[increasingdifficulty]

It's ok to sell, but I think you would experience about 1% of the sales from the micro stock sites... Unless you're doing very mug friendly work.

[juras1077]

1% ? is it so bad ? Maybe someone from micro is selling on Zazzle and what is Your opinion ?

[Pauws99]

Its very slow for me I do it a) because I'm an optimist b) It gives me a bit of variety. For me its at the level of a very poorly performing site.

[juras1077]

I don't want to spend few weeks loading and doing zazzle products - and then i will earn 5$ is there someone who earn more ?

[increasingdifficulty]

is there someone who earn more ?

Sure, but from what I hear Zazzle is close to a full-time activity for them. Constantly updating items, making new ones, promoting etc. etc. etc...

Clean illustrations will probably do better than photographs.