🤣 It will take me Two years FT to optimize my Collections - Please Share Your Workflow Tips Here!

[GagCartoonist]

A ‘bit of work’ from our end was a comment I noted when the collections feature was announced.

The Collections feature that I LOVE by the way! Hence I am up for the challenge. 

I have just calculated how much of a ‘bit’ this task will take for me to do all that is required for 1300 collections.

It takes me 4hrs+ per collection (sometimes more) to create 10 media images, rewrite the tags (as they’re now defaulted to single words) optimize the descriptions, edit the email that goes to customers, reorder the products and add a banner, then promote across my various platforms. So yes a little bit longer due to adding in the marketing side of things.

As such I have calculated will take no less than TWO YEARS working 8hrs a day, 7 days a week to complete this ‘bit of work’.

Presently I’m only getting through 2 collections a day (over 8hrs plus) so not getting collections done daily at the moment. So at this rate we could be looking at ‘retirement’ before I get them all done!! :rofl:

I think I’ll have to just be happy optimizing a few!! 🤣 Where to start though?

• Best sellers
• Seasonal items 
• New Products

Seems like a good starting point.

I have created a Google spreadsheet to help me organize this workload and stay on top of it as I feel going through it all ‘systematically’ step by step is the best way given all the different steps we need to take. If anyone wants a copy of it I’ll see if I can create one for sharing. I’ve never shared a Google spreadsheet before but I assume it’s straightforward.

If anyone has more tips on how to manage this workflow, drop them here!

Zazzle Suggestions to aid with this ginormous task

*Please can we have the email message that goes to customers so we create ‘one’ email that is added by default to ALL our collections and we can ‘edit’ it if we need to for individual collections.

*Please can we have a generic ‘profile banner’ option that adds to all collections unless we choose to edit in a collection specific one.

* Please can you remove the thing that stops us from changing the store or adding products (in some cases this happens) to collections meaning we need to start over with a new collection.

Many thanks! 

[Barbara]

Even though I’m in a holding pattern because pretty much everything I design belongs in “Other,” I’ve been doing some thinking about this, wondering if it might not be good to alternate between bestsellers and those that need some love (don’t sell well). It would mean starting with a bestseller, switching to a non-seller, back to a bestseller, then a non-seller, and so on. Maybe in this way I could boost the bestsellers further, and at the same time, re-think and spruce up those that don’t sell.

One thing that has helped me enormously is creating my own templates where backgrounds can be easily exchanged and colors can be altered. Such templates aren’t quite plug-and-play, but they sure do speed up the process.

Um. Nothing else occurs to me other than that now would be the time to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas collections. For me, they’d be at the non-selling end. They need prettier outfits.

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[KeeganCreations]

My workflow:

• Only one cover image per collection since maximizing number of collections with images is I think more important than maximizing images per collection.
• seasonality- first priority is collections relevant right now and in near future (currently picnic, outdoor activity, back to school). Second priority is future in order of the event; Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas with Christmas specific collections and niche gift collections then New Years with party and also calendars and planners and exercise stuff (for New Year resolutions). Last priority is for events that just happened. So this timeline is more a circle than a line since things that are immediately relevant will move to last place once their time has passed, even if there are still outstanding collections. The new ability to filter the collections helps a lot.

[Cat_Ritchie]

Let’s see… my strategy is to breathe deeply and try not to stick an ice pick in my temple! Seriously, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll never get anywhere close to “done” with these tasks, so I’m just trying to focus on things that give me the biggest bang for my buck.

Honestly, collection covers haven’t risen to the top of my list yet. I did one just to see how it works, and I plan on using it as a template for other similar (wedding) collections, but when I’ll have time to deal with that I don’t know.

The new cross sell format has made it really easy to tell when a given collection is missing certain items though, so mostly I’ve been focused on filling in holes there - and it seems to be paying dividends since I’ve already made a number of matching sales on those items. 

After that, my next priority is product covers - especially for “entry products” as I call them - in other words, things that people are likely to search for independently. So I’m focusing on invitations and save the dates rather than rsvps & enclosure cards, since those are usually ordered in conjunction with something else - and trying to apply that principle across other products as well. I’m also focused on making covers for things that are downloadable since I tend to make more money on downloads as opposed to physical items. 

Truth is, I generally log in and check what’s been viewed recently and decide what I’m inspired to work on from there. My approach is decidedly scattershot (hence the collections with missing items) but I’m one of those people who feels overwhelmed by lists and spreadsheets rather than calmed by them, so I’m going with my strengths - or at least steering clear of my weaknesses!

Best of luck to everyone and stay away from those ice picks! 😁

[Barbara]

I like your idea of checking to see what’s been viewed recently. It never dawned on me to do so.

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[PAZP]

No ice picks in sight here. 🤣 I’m in the “scattershot” approach but a somewhat organized scattershot. Since birthdays were getting shown/displayed first I started there. I don’t have much wedding material so that’s not a priority right now. Good luck everyone. 

[Sara_H]

I’m one of those that made a spreadsheet of all my collections by stores (I have a few) and seeing as at the time, there were no filters - it sort of helped me buckle down with the task at hand.

I got rid of duplicates (i.e same products in collections just different titles for some reason ) and made sense of the rest

Now the filters are here - what a god send, I can search for those without an image and focus on those.

Like the others, I’m concentrating on the holidays and getting them in order.

Seeing as I’ve already made over 2500 cover promos (took me 5 months - didn’t purchase any mockups)- I’m utilizing those for collection covers and created a template in Affinity Publisher so I can just drop my images in the template, export then upload. I’m also filling up the 10 collection image slots with my promos (if I’ve got 10 for that collection)

I’ve less than 500 collections active and at last count have added cover images to 169  of them so nearly half way there. (started a fortnight ago) 🤣

I work a day on collections then a day making promos (no time to actually make any new products)

At least I’ve stopped having panic attacks about the enormity of it all and just get on with it.

Wishing you the best of luck @CreativeLeahG   - you’ve got this!

[GagCartoonist]

Thank you Sara.

Many of my collections already had cover photos which still show in the backend ‘list’ but not in the media image section, which I think means that all that work was a waste of time as it needs to be repeated.  I can’t find the old collection covers easily now to readd them (poor labeling on my part or I deleted them). We devote time to things and overnight they disappear. I hope these are the last major changes we see for a while. 

You’ve done amazing with your collections. Well done!

[GagCartoonist]

Thank you @Sara_H  @PAZP  @Barbara  @Cat  @KeegansCreation for sharing your workflow it really does help! 

[Sara_H]

@CreativeLeahG  I had some that show cover photos but are not in the media - it’s because originally the cover images were 1140 x 1140 and then Z upped that to min 1480 x 1480 so they got auto wiped methinks (but still show) also had some collections where the image size was borked so had to redo those.

I name my cover photos like ’ pink throw pillow’ so I can just search for pillow and all pillows show up. I did create a folder in my images just for promos/collection covers so it’s easier to search through

Onwards and upwards! :rofl:

[Barbara]

@CreativeLeahG  wrote:

Many of my collections already had cover photos which still show in the backend ‘list’ but not in the media image section, which I think means that all that work was a waste of time as it needs to be repeated.

That’s what happened to me. My covers were at the older recommended dimensions, and when Zazzle suddenly upped the size, almost all the covers I’d made turned to trash. Because they tend to change their mind, I’m not going to work super hard on all the covers; rather, mostly on the ones I personally care about a lot.

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[jadendreamer13]

Do you have/use Adobe Bridge? It creates graphic thumbnails of all your files—art, docs, jpgs, pngs, etc.—and it makes locating files so much easier.

[jadendreamer13]

I agree with you, Barbara. Only time will tell how well product cover photos and collection covers will work to sell more products. A review of what’s currently happening on Zazzle’s marketplace that I conducted today revealed many poorly done product covers that actually detract from the product—not enhance it—and the same place-it (or other) templates used repeatedly so that the cover photos no longer stand out from the competition. This is not a criticism, it’s just the result of Zazzle expecting designers to spend more time creating cover photos than they do creating products. I think these issues will resolve themselves in time as more designers focus on creating products for Zazzle to sell and leave marketing efforts in Zazzle’s hands. I am a design specialist, not a marketing specialist. Just my 0.2 cents.

[Barbara]

This may seem off-topic, but it isn’t: Many years ago, I tried to be an Avon Lady, and I sold practically nothing. My husband took the kit and catalog with him to work and he sold gobs of stuff.

Moral of the story: Some of us are good at selling, some of us aren’t, and I positively suck at it. I’m trying, but I suspect it’ll do no good.

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[Barbara_at_Array_Sto]

Firstly, I’d love to see your ‘Zazzle Suggestions list’ become a separate thread so moderators will pick up on it. 😃

I’m especially rooting for the default email to be added to all collections. I’ve already done mine individually but it was needlessly time-consuming and sure wouldn’t mind seeing that change in the future.

I started by updating the basics on all my collections: occasion/type, title and tags. (By the way, I found the catch-all ‘Home and Living’ category to be a preferable alternative to using ‘Other’). Many of my collections fall easily under this heading using ‘Cross-Sell’ when it’s for matching design and ‘Different Style’ when it’s for matching products.

Next I tackled the right side of the management screen…chose 10 products for search on all my collections, added an email message and made sure stores list was correct for each.

Then I began focusing in a little closer on individual collections. I started with my wedding collections since that’s one of my major focuses. I made sure all the products were fitting into the right slots, and edited departments where necessary. I already had decent cover photos for most of them but updated those that I thought could be better. Right now I’m making sure they each have one good cover image and not worrying about having 10 media images.

All my collections already had banners so I left most as is but have been busy updating collection cover images for those that didn’t yet have one. I started making product cover images about eight months ago and have been at it ever since with very little time spent on actual new designs. I’m hoping by the end of the year I’ll be more or less caught up … wishful thinking maybe?

[sm11]

You have to laugh. I figure I will get to do about 10% of them before the next big hoop comes along that we all have to jump through. So that’s a bonus 90% of them I won’t have to do at all lol

When I think about it, when I began here two decades ago (sheesh), categories were the big thing I was working on. Before I finished, departments came and they kind of made categories pointless for me, so I hid them. That was a big waste of time that I will never get back. Then collections came and I was working on those frantically before zRank came in. Then I was frantically trying to work on that. I got my store up to a 9 (or 8, can’t remember) before they advised us that we should delete/hide unsold products, which I did. My zRank dropped to 4 and then went up to five and it hasn’t moved since. Oh and there were all my referral websites I worked so hard on promoting others, before the EU took a big dump on those lol. I had peripheral neuropathy in my hands and arms and working was tough so I left it for a couple of years. Then one day Zazzle changed my tax to 30% out of the blue (the treaty between my country and the US is 5%) so I gave up and put all my royalties up to 70% to compensate the loss. I had them all organised prior to that with different products and images at different prices. So that was a huge thing I worked on. Then I get the big "oops we accidently changed your tax) email from Zazzle but I didn’t have the time or was even physically able to change them all back so I left them like that. Then I realised it didn’t make any difference. I was still earning the same amount (roughly) with the 70% doing absolutely nothing with my zRank of 5 and my products disappearing down the marketplace toilet. I must have some loyal customers and promoters somewhere (bless you all). And now I’m here, checking it out with working fingers and see the collection changes and they are asking us to fill in spaces with things they asked us to delete haha.

So I don’t stress about these things. I will do whatever I get to do if I feel like it because even as a silver approaching gold, they don’t feature my stuff anymore anyway. So I’ll do what I do for the pleasure of it which is how things were when I began in 2010. I loved Zazzling and making stock back then but with all the hoops that were thrown at us, I forgot what it was all about. I’m an artist, I’ve been creating since I was a toddler. I paint (not for Zazzle) and here I found a knack for graphic art during an illness. The first few years were fun then it was just stress on the platform, stress by people stealing my work… stress stress and nothing but stress. That break I took reminded me what it is to be an artist. So I’ll just mosey along at my own pace, ignoring all the designers jumping over each other, trying to get to the top spot because even if you get there, you don’t get to keep that spot for long. I have a whole bunch of stuff that haven’t even been put online because it’s just so much work. I can’t even keep up with the things already here. But I create anyway, because that’s what I love to do and I do it for me. If I put it online, some big AI tech will just use it to make some computer generated images and people on Amazon make more from my designs than I do. And stock and POD companies stopped caring about our IP years ago. Stock sites used to actually chase down IP infringements on our behalf because it was in their best interest back then. But chasing it myself took all my time.

So I don’t worry myself over any of it. It is what it is and we have no real control over anything

[Cat_Ritchie]

Eee Gads! Until I read this, I hadn’t even noticed all of those settings on the right hand side of the management screen. OY! BTW - what is the logic behind choosing 10 products that will use the collection cover instead of the product image? Like how is that better than seeing a cover for that particular product? Seems like it would just confuse the customer if they search for an invitation and get an image of a collection. I feel like I’m missing something…

[KeeganCreations]

I did do that but chose just one product. For a birthday party I chose that option for the invitation. So if they search for and find that invitation it will show them the collection cover which is that invitation + favor bag. Since it’s such a simple and uncluttered collection cover with only two products I hope that will make it obvious that their search did find the invitation but also this other thing. It’s an experiment.

[GagCartoonist]

Sounds like you’re doing a great job and as you know I’m a huge fan of your work!!   

Have you found that the cover images you already had for collections are not showing in ‘media images’  ie. nowhere to be found front or back end even though they still show in the dropdown list for collections. I ask because mine have all disappeared!

EDIT: I have done as you suggested and added the suggestion to a separate thread here: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ideas-suggestions/time-saving-suggestions-to-allow-creators-to-get-fully-onboard/idi-p/99732

[GagCartoonist]

As per @Baylee  suggestion, I have started a new thread for the ‘suggestions’ 

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ideas-suggestions/time-saving-suggestions-to-allow-creators-to-get-fully-onboard/idi-p/99732

Thank you @Baylee