Zazzlers: do you have one or more stores?

[S.]

I was starting to look into Zazzle and see if I can make some money on it with my fractals and other illustrations.

I was just wondering: do you have just one big store with categories or you set up different stores for each of your niche?
I can't decide which solution could be better from a customer point of view, but also from a product management point of view...

[madelaide]

I started with one single store. Later I created one just for the photography-based products (posters, postcards, magnets), one for business cards, one for my lovebirds (that would be in portuguese in Zazzle BR, but then I realized this is not a good idea) and one for using NASA photos.

Now, is it worth it? I can not say. Actually I haven't done anything new there maybe in a year. I suppose this is more interesting if you plan to market your store yourself, because I would imagine that a general buyer coming to Zazzle will simply do a search and browse results.

I have no idea if a specialized store has any benefits in search results. Google Analytics does not provide any useful information to me. Sometimes I sell a product from one store and GA doesn't even show a visit.

[Dantheman]

Does Zazzle make sense with Images? Or is it only usefull with Illustration?

[jm]

Zazzle works little bit like Fotolia for me. I still sell two years old designs over and over again but nothing that was created this year. I added one more shop but it didn't change anything.

[madelaide]

Does Zazzle make sense with Images? Or is it only usefull with Illustration?

I've sold posters, postcards and other stuff with travel photos, and used also some stock-images for cards (Xmas, for example) and business cards. In some products, such as t-shirts and stickers, I've had better results with illustrations.

[etienjones]

Does Zazzle make sense with Images? Or is it only usefull with Illustration?

My store is photo based only.  Sold a Tie yesterday, but mainly sell cards, posters, magnets and Phone Cases.

[donding]

I personally have separate stores. For me it's easier to keep track of things and from a customer point of view it's easier for them to find what they want if the stores are specialized. It takes awhile to start making sales because the products start at the bottom and have to work their way up. Once I made it to Pro status the sales picked up. The more you have to offer the more likely you'll have sales.

[S.]

Thanks to all

I've finally decided that I will create different stores for different niches. The first one is gonna be ready next week (apparently during weekend they are not processing products made with "quick create".

Now there are just a handful of test products: http://www.zazzle.com/artisticfractal

[donding]

Thanks to all

I've finally decided that I will create different stores for different niches. The first one is gonna be ready next week (apparently during weekend they are not processing products made with "quick create".

Now there are just a handful of test products: http://www.zazzle.com/artisticfractal

Love the ties. Good luck with your new store. I make more off Zazzle than I ever did microstock.

[stockastic]

Just my own reaction, but... I lost interest in Zazzle not because of the microscopic number of sales, but because the process of creating new products (and multiple stores) was so tedious and time-consuming.  They'd need to greatly streamline their site and process before I'd spend any more time.

[donding]

Just my own reaction, but... I lost interest in Zazzle not because of the microscopic number of sales, but because the process of creating new products (and multiple stores) was so tedious and time-consuming.  They'd need to greatly streamline their site and process before I'd spend any more time.

It can be tedious but once you get a lot on there then the income does keep coming. I haven't contributed anything for awhile and my income keeps going up. I usually use the ones I already have on there and just hit customize to create another item similar and it creates a new item, it doesn't edit the other one. It already has the keywords so it doesn't take much.

[luissantos84]

Just my own reaction, but... I lost interest in Zazzle not because of the microscopic number of sales, but because the process of creating new products (and multiple stores) was so tedious and time-consuming.  They'd need to greatly streamline their site and process before I'd spend any more time.

sorry but without work you aren�t going to have "success", you seem to complain about RF, RM and now Zazzle

[S.]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

[jm]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

Yes, it would be. But they add new products so often these days...

[stockastic]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

Yeah. Except for one tiny detail - keywords.  I have maybe 100 photos I'd like to sell as cards, bags, tees; but Zazzle doesn't read IPTC keywords.  No problem, I'll just pound them all in.  All. Over. Again.  Not.






 

[S.]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

Yeah. Except for one tiny detail - keywords.  I have maybe 100 photos I'd like to sell as cards, bags, tees; but Zazzle doesn't read IPTC keywords.  No problem, I'll just pound them all in.  All. Over. Again.  Not.

 

Not a problem for me... just a CTRL+C / CTRL+V from Lightroom and I've set the keywords for all the products I'm creating with the same image

[stockastic]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

Yeah. Except for one tiny detail - keywords.  I have maybe 100 photos I'd like to sell as cards, bags, tees; but Zazzle doesn't read IPTC keywords.  No problem, I'll just pound them all in.  All. Over. Again.  Not.

 

Not a problem for me... just a CTRL+C / CTRL+V from Lightroom and I've set the keywords for all the products I'm creating with the same image

True, I could greatly reduce the amount of work with just a cut-and-paste from a keyword editor.  Still a lot of unnecessar work, but far less.   Does Zazzle limit the number of keywords, or require commas or some other putzy stuff?

[stockastic]

Anyway I think that once you've created your template products, adding new ones is a pretty straight forward task...

Yeah. Except for one tiny detail - keywords.  I have maybe 100 photos I'd like to sell as cards, bags, tees; but Zazzle doesn't read IPTC keywords.  No problem, I'll just pound them all in.  All. Over. Again.  Not.

 

Not a problem for me... just a CTRL+C / CTRL+V from Lightroom and I've set the keywords for all the products I'm creating with the same image

True, I could greatly reduce the amount of work with just a cut-and-paste from a keyword editor.  Still a lot of unnecessar work, but far less.   Does Zazzle limit the number of keywords, or require commas or some other putzy stuff?  Do you have to choose "categories"?

[S.]

you can insert space separated keywords. the limit is 40, and the first 10 are somewhat more important than the others

I find more time consuming the keywording process on Alamy

[stockastic]

you can insert space separated keywords. the limit is 40, and the first 10 are somewhat more important than the others

I find more time consuming the keywording process on Alamy

Alamy at least reads the IPTC.   Probably not too many of my photos have over 40 keywords. 

What I want to do is upload 100 images and use some batch/bulk operation to turn them all into products.  I should probably look at the 'template' thing again - I think I did once, and decided it wasn't powerful enough - I still had to edit each new product individually to get it online.   

The only way Zazzle pays off is if you have a very large number of products, so creating products has to take a very small amount of time or it's a waste.

I'm still hoping something new comes along to knock out Zazzle, which hasn't been significan tly changed updated in years, and looks like a cluttered mess of 90s web.   

[S.]

check those 2 videos:

how to create tempalte products:

Zazzle - template how to

how to use the template to create multiple products at once:

Zazzle - quick create how to

Hope it helps

[stockastic]

Thanks stepunk, I'll watch the videos.

[stockastic]

I finally watched those videos - and sorry but they're not what I'm looking for. 

They are rather tedious and verbose walkthroughs ("and now I'm going to..") in minute detail.  I glazed over after a few minutes.  What I want first is the high-level explanation of what the "templates" and "quick create" functions actual do.   The Zazzle help text is vague and mainly tells you how easy it's going to be, and then immediately gets lost in the details.

Does anyone know of a clear explanation on line somewhere?

 

[madelaide]

Do a search in Zazzle forum, some members have put together useful information, including step-by-step procedures.

Personally I would stay away from quick create. It's fast to put a lot of products online fast, but the results are far from optimum. I prefer to have my own set of designs and only replace the images. It is more time-consuming, but the products look better, therefore more attractive.

[stockastic]

Do a search in Zazzle forum, some members have put together useful information, including step-by-step procedures.

Personally I would stay away from quick create. It's fast to put a lot of products online fast, but the results are far from optimum. I prefer to have my own set of designs and only replace the images. It is more time-consuming, but the products look better, therefore more attractive.

That's just the sort of information I wanted.  I'm very particular about image placement.  So maybe I won't even bother with 'quick create'.   When you say you have your own set of 'designs' are they actually some sort of Zazzle "template"?

[madelaide]

No, although templates may be something smarter than what I do - I just never tried it. I use a previous design, click on 'customize', change the image, adjust anything that it's needed, then save it as a new product, changing title/description/keywords accordingly.

[Silken Photography]

I'm only small fry really, and I'm might not have the most streamlined method, but so far the best I've found is:

• Make templates for everything you think you might sell.  I'm missing 100s of products, but realistically I think photos tend to sell best on paper products and electronics cases.  At least that's where they look best.
  
• Put your new image on your templates.  I'm also picky about image placement (you have to be really or lots of your stuff will look rubbish) but some images I find I barely have to tweak one or two products, others I may have to tweak 20 or more, but that tweaking doesn't take long and you'd have to do it if you didn't use QC regardless.
  
• Then onto the painful bit - title, keyworking etc.  This is the win for me with quick create, as this is only done once per image.
  

I do find zazzle buggy which is frustrating - eg if you missed ticking the ratings radio button it blanks all the fields when it reloads the page and doesn't give you a clear error message telling you what it's done (resulting in me wasting lots of time re-doing those products from scratch) - but as you get used to those you can create stuff pretty fast.

I created about 1000 products in the 2-3 weeks leading up to Christmas this way.  I don't know if that's heaps compared to everyone else but it felt like a lot to me and has already helped sales a little (well, a lot for me but again, I'm small fry!).  I'd love any suggestions where I've gone wrong or missed something though!