I am doing some testing before I go all in on an old unfinished zazzle based affiliate site.
How long will a product on your own site show up on “last viewed” after clicked on your own site?
I just want to be sure that such an intense investment in time will be worth it.
Also…for those of you who have zazzle theme websites…have you noticed any decrease in sales originating from your own site ?
@Mistica Interesting question. I have no clue how to code the first part of your post - it never occurred to me that this would be a great feature on a website but thinking about it now I can definitely see it. I have to give this some thought.
I started my site at https://sanfrancisco.zone last November so it’s less than a year old. My sales have steadily increased (slowly, really slowly) and I have made 12 referrals. I know, that’s not very impressive. But I hope to learn more and to improve my skills for down the road.
Hi again,
no coding needed. I just clicked on a zazzle product which brings the viewer to zazzle.
I would guess (hopefully)…that the click that happened on my site and brought the customer to the specific item … would show in the “last viewed” products on the zazzle creator back end where all your products are listed.
I am guessing that if someone clicks on product on my site…it would be “cookied” and show as a view. I only clicked a few days ago but have no clue how often zazzle updates the “viewed” option we have.
It’s good to know that one can truly earn $ by creating a website.
@Mistica Oh, now I understand what you are asking. I believe (I could be wrong but that’s what I believe is the case) that Zazzle does not count your own clicks. I think Zazzle can “see” if it’s you either via cookie or stored ISP table for each designer. I believe that because my own clicks on my own items have never been counted by Zazzle and I click each item first when I have created it (to check if all looks fine) and than of course again once I link from my site to the item I just had created. I check each link I create because if you do something a thousand times you get sloppy and I sometimes catch my self not working carefully (hence messing up).
By the way: linking from your website to Zazzle brings you directly to your products item. Linking from Social Media to your item brings you automatically to a “landing page” where one more click is required to reach your product on Zazzle. Therefore (in my opinion) a link from your website is more effective than a link from social media because there is less of a chance that the visitor will see an item from a different designer hence you won’t earn the counted visit nor will you make a sale BUT YOU WILL MAKE A REFERRAL if the visitor purchases something (unless they have a cookie stored from a previous visit).
Because of this I post on social media almost daily but never link to my designs on Zazzle - I always link to my own site. It’s the same for visitors because they have to click through either on your site or the landing page but there is less distraction coming from your site than the landing page and it strengthens the brand of the website owner (in my case it’s “San Francisco Zone”).
I hope Zazzle doesn’t include links coming from websites to go to the landing pages instead of going directly to the product pages anytime soon.
And the data refreshes daily (meaning it’s not a real time event, it lags generally one day behind but sometimes even a couple of days).
Thanks for the explanation.
Gosh…I sure hope if I invest a good chunk of life on a website a product ref link should continue to go to the specific item on Zazzle.
My concern was that if someone clicks from my own site…it should reflect in the “last viewed” stats..and..of course if it is purchased, produce a referral $ reward.
So far I don’t see my test item showing up yet as a recently viewed item..
@MOM
This is an interesting strategy “…I post on social media almost daily but never link to my designs on Zazzle - I always link to my own site. It’s the same for visitors because they have to click through either on your site or the landing page but there is less distraction coming from your site than the landing page and it strengthens the brand of the website owner…”
One of my goals for next year is to FINALLY get my proverbial ca-ca together and create a decent store for my Zazzle products on my regular website.
Have either of you looked into using the Zazzle API? I haven’t looked at it in YEARS, so it might not function the way I remember it - or maybe I never understood it in the first place! But I thought it was supposed to allow customers to edit and purchase your products directly from your site without having to click through to Zazzle itself. Zazzle API - Learn how to Integrate with the Zazzle API
@Cat Thanks for bringing that up. It’s one of my goals for next year (my second year with Zazzle starts November 11th) to do exactly that - if I can wrap my brain around it that is. I already have downloaded the PDF to study it but haven’t done so yet. Again it’s on my to do lists, smile. I might fail (I wouldn’t be surprised) but I will certainly give it a shut. 
@Mistica Unless you are in the special promoter affiliate program (2.0 or something like that?) it definitely works. I made a referral just five days ago. I have seen him on my own website (with my tracking program) and he moved on to Zazzle and bought one of my business card designs. He actually came back about two hours later and bought more business cards which means I have gotten two referrals from him on the very same day. And he was a repeated customer too which made me really happy - he had bought business cards months ago from me.
Now I heard that this might not work with that special affiliate program (I was picking that up from some YouTubers) but I’m positive that someone enrolled in that program can and will clarify this here (hopefully).
Hi Cat, I was too chicken to want to go that far..API and all. It might be easy…but it feels like tons of additional work. Of course, I could be wrong. I keep delaying the completion of the site. Of course, I keep changing my mind about the structure.
Sooner or later I will have to drop that whole perfectionist thing. I think “sooner” is here. Just get it done!
Well, don’t feel too bad. I first started thinking about integrating Zazzle stuff with my website back in 2017! 
By the way: linking from your website to Zazzle brings you directly to your products item.
Not always though. Whether one gets the landing page or not depends on the type of link you’ve used. For regular links, with or without an RF attached, you’ll get the landing page if it’s your first visit to the Zazzle domain. After that, you’ll not encounter the landing page again until/unless you clear your cookies.
If you’ve used the short PID format link or an API format link, no landing page even if it’s your first visit.
Information on the “Landing Page” (interim ‘View Product Details’ page) & Referral / Affiliate Links
@ColsCreations Wow Col - that knowledge is pure gold! I didn’t realize - thank you so much!! I think there is nothing Col doesn’t know related to Zazzle - I have learned so much from her and she’s always willing to share her gold nuggets.
@ColsCreations OK, clue me in. How do I get the short PID format link?
Regular link:
https://www.zazzle.com/atomic_tie_dye_psychedelic_rainbow_colors_poker_cards-256360957888436130
Short-form link:
https://www.zazzle.com/256360957888436130
It’s just zazzle.com/product ID number
Thank Col for clarifying that.
I am wondering why…so far..still waiting…the items I clicked on my site do no show on “last viewed”. It is my way of testing to see if anyone who clicks on my product from my future site will indeed be shown in the “last viewed” list at zazzle.
I had someone else click for me yesterday…and nothing yet. I clicked about 3-4 days ago and no sign of the test item being viewed.
Well Cat… I have a whole bunch of never completed sites (other stuff). They are now outdated before they ever saw the light of day.
Thank You! That was too obvious! 😂
What do you mean that you clicked on it from your site? Do you mean that you placed a link on your site to the product and then clicked on it? If that takes you to the “landing page” and you didn’t click through to the actual product page, it might not register it as a view. I think that views only record how many times the product page has been accessed, not how many times a link has been clicked on (if that makes sense.) And I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t matter who accesses them. I check my recent views every day and when I’ve had a product open for one reason or another it does record it.
Right now I have an outstanding issue with views from our own clicks HERE. In a nutshell our own views (even outside of Zazzle to product pages) do not record as a view. So @Mistica this may be the answer to why your views from your website are not recorded on your stats for “last viewed”.
Just a thought.
Hmmm… I’m not sure it’s that clear cut. I have a product that I created last night. I’m sure it hasn’t made it into the marketplace yet, but when I order my products by “last viewed” it’s there, and it’s recording one view - which I’m sure is me looking at it after I created it. Also, I had several other products open yesterday for optimizing, and they’re all showing that they were recently viewed. But that doesn’t seem to be how it’s working for either of you, so I’m not sure what’s going on!