Hi everyone! I opened my Zazzle shop about three weeks ago, and I’m curious about other creators’ experiences.
How long did it take you to make your first sale, and what year was it? Did it happen with only a few products in your shop, or after you had built a larger collection?
I know every shop and every period on Zazzle is different, but I’d love to hear how it started for you.
Welcome!
I’ve included a breakdown of my earnings in my first year. I opened my account in November 2017 and made my first sale in February 2018, earning the grand total of $0.70.
I work all day, 7 days a week, but I only started making real money in 2020.
I can’t remember how many products I had in the beginning but it certainly wasn’t hundreds. Eight years later, my biggest store only has just over 1,1k public products and the others have anywhere from 200 to 500 each.
Zazzle definitely isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme and it’s not passive income, but I think it can be worth it if you’re willing to put in a lot of effort for very little reward in the beginning. I’ve seen a few sellers quit after only a few months. Most businesses don’t make any money for the first two years and I don’t think Zazzle is any different. That’s just my own experience.
I hope sales start rolling in for you soon. Best of luck with your store!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It means a lot to me and encourages me to stay patient and give it a lot more time. 
Wishing you many more years of success!
I became a Creator on Zazzle in July 2009 and made my first sale $2.09 (earnings) on August 21, 2009. With only five months left in that year, I earned a total of $56. At the time, I didn’t take Zazzle seriously was focused on other sources of residual income online. Looking back, I realize that if I had given my store more attention earlier, I’d probably be much further along today.
@Susang6 such a long time, wow, congratulation, you have beautiful collections
Hi @CaldraArt,
I started my Zazzle journey sometime around the end of June 2023, but honestly, I found Zazzle almost by accident and had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so I was basically doing everything wrong 
Then in November, a friend of mine who had opened her shop about a month before me reached out and we started talking about Zazzle. At one point she said something like, “What are you talking about? I’ve already made around $400 this month, and in October I made over $300.” And I was literally like… “Wait… whaaaat??” :))
That definitely gave me something to think about, so I started putting a bit more effort into Zazzle. But I was still doing everything pretty much blindly. I didn’t follow her strategy, I just kept going my own way and trying to figure things out myself.
She reached Bronze already in December, while I was only getting my very first sale around that time, for a whole $0.88. :)) Then came my second sale for $1.63, so my total earnings for 2023 were an impressive $2.51 :)))
@Oli_Fleurs Thank you for sharing how you started, and thanks to everyone who joins in! I feel I should share a little too, even though there isn’t much to say yet. I started at the end of August 2026, and no sales yet, of course. 
Wishing everyone good luck and great earnings!
Thanks! 
If I were you, I would focus on Christmas gifts now if that’s the kind of thing you have in your store. The planning guide is very useful.
@NHW Thank you, I’ll definitely look into it.
Before Zazzle ever entered my life, I was a freelance writer publishing on eHow and Associated Content. In those days, none of us relied on just one platform “don’t put your eggs in one basket” was basically the rule of online survival. So along with eHow and AC, I was also writing at Helium and keeping up with my blogs.
One day on the writers’ forum, someone mentioned a site called Zazzle. About twenty of us opened shops right then, just to see what it was all about. For me, Zazzle became the fun part of my day a place to unwind and create after hours of publishing online. It wasn’t a business yet, just a creative escape.
For a long time, my shop stayed in that “side project” category. Honestly, it’s only in the last three years that I decided to take it seriously. Looking back, I sometimes wish I had focused sooner. But once I committed, everything changed.
Now I absolutely love creating. I love writing descriptions, titles, and tags. I even love promoting which still surprises me. And because I finally leaned in, I now earn thousands yearly from my shop.
Zazzle is a slow build, but it does build. When you treat it like a real business,
@Susang6, what a wonderful journey! Congratulations on how well things are going for you. I absolutely love reading these inspiring stories and seeing the amazing community we are all creating here 
I completely agree with you that treating Zazzle like a real business can make a huge difference. For a long time, Zazzle was something I kept a little on the side too, without giving it my full commitment or having much of a strategy, so I can really relate to what you wrote. And yes, it really does build over time.
My own journey here has been relatively short, but it has changed so much for me and has been far more meaningful than I ever expected. I started from absolute zero, with no design or business experience at all. I didn’t even know what an SVG was, what a pixel was, or how to make a mockup. So having my designs later selected by Zazzle and featured in its marketing campaigns, as well as in a Zazzle guide, honestly blew my mind It is one of the biggest honors of this whole journey for me, and I’m enormously grateful to the entire Zazzle team for that.
I’m still learning every day. The more I learned from my own results and mistakes, and the more I began to understand both the creative and business sides, the more things started to come together.
Zazzle is truly an incredible platform. I also have so much admiration for the creators here. Seeing how many incredibly talented people are part of this community is constantly inspiring, and it feels like a real privilege to be part of it
