I still haven’t gotten a grasp on how the royalties work these days. I just made this sale on which it shows I earned a tad under 10%. How did this work, and if I cut my royalty in half, would I have done any better?
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Hot Red on Black Chili Pepper ... c colorwash zazzle_sticker 256-59795673-8875756 169-77354121-6920872 |
3rd Party | 9/25/2025 2:03:28 PM | 1 | $7.99 | 20.0%+ | $0.79 USD | $0.79 |
You’re going to need a visit from the forum’s human calculator. 
You’re right. LOL
Barbara, if you click on the little eye icon on the right side (on the Royalty History page) it will take you through the process of how they came up with your royalty amount.
Did I see the Bat Signal for an earnings breakdown? 😄 …
Here ya’ go … Your 20% vs if you had cut it in half to only 10% royalty:
So despite the ERF fee for a royalty above 10% and the greater MRF fee deducted, you still made twice the amount on this sale then if you had been at only 10%,
At your 20% royalty:
* you earned 10% of the total the customer paid
* the 3rdP earned 15% of the total the customer paid
* Zazzle earned 75% of the total the customer paid
At a 10% royalty instead:
* you would have earned 5.5% of the total the customer paid
* the 3rdP would have earned 15% of the total the customer paid
* Zazzle would have earned 79.5% of the total the customer paid
* my amounts are sometimes off by a penny from Zazzle’s due to rounding differences and I think this is also why there is sometimes a penny difference between the amount you see on the Royalty History vs the amount shown on the detailed eye report.
You may be being charged Zazzle’s new fees administration fee - a fee charged to cover the administration of fees. Although not yet confirmed, the fees administration fee may in fact need its own administration fee; a fees administration fee fee. I swear this is the truth <ahem>.
I think you should change your forum name to ColsCalculations.
LOL! That’s a good one! 😂
Forgot to note:
if Zazzle was also the 3rd party here then
At your 20% royalty:
* you earned 10% of the total the customer paid
* Zazzle earned 90% of the total the customer paid
At a 10% royalty instead:
* you would have earned 5.5% of the total the customer paid
* Zazzle would have earned 94.5% of the total the customer paid
The problem with looking at the info when clicking the eye icon is that it tells you what is and not what it might be when using a different percentage. The information seems only a tiny tad better than the initial royalty breakdown.. Thank goodness for ColsCreations!
Love that you’re including those percentages! Everyone should go read your other post here https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/visualizing-the-earnings-split-on-zazzle/td-p/219627 where you break down why keeping your rates low benefits Z and not the creator. Super helpful and understanding the math is so important to being a seller here!
Even before April 1 there were often “my royalty is X but looks like I only really made Y…” type comments. With the new payment scheme it’s even more common to see people talking about how much they really made instead of the % they set. I’m working an an updated version of my spreadsheet that includes the actual percents of total sale.
This is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!
FYI: Just released new updated version (free as always) of my spreadsheet calculator that now includes the percents in the breakdowns.
See update in orig thread here.
What is a “cross-over”? Is it the same as “cross-sell”? I’ve seen the latter referred to a number of times as per collections, but my understanding of it is dim to none. How do these things affect my sales, why do they affect sales, and what’s the reason for them, or is this only for people who, unlike me, do weddings and have lots of coordinating products in a collection?
The above are stupid questions, ones I’ve asked before, but I have an extremely difficult time understanding the lingo. I’m stuck in the good old days when prices and sales weren’t affected by which category or type of collection was assigned. It might, for all I know, depend on an impending meteor strike on earth.
I’ll download the new calculator once I’m on my own computer, not my husband’s like I am now. Maybe it’ll help if I fiddle with the numbers.
Regardless of my density, thank you, @ColsCreations , for putting a lot of thought and work into a tool you’ve worked hard on and are sharing freely with everyone.
@Barbara A Cross Over is when you promote your own products with your rf attached (like the old days)
So, Crossover = Cross-Promotion Link = Cross to the Dark Side. Got it, and thank you!
