Hello, all.
I’m attempting to understand the logic: if the idea is to reward creators for advertising their creations, why am I being charged a marketing fee? I do the work, but I’m charged a fee? But if no one does the work (“none”), there is no fee?
I will submit a question via the form as well.
I do not understand why there’s a marketing fee when I market my own products. I already pay for quite a few tools for this purpose, and I know some people pay for ads.
From what I have read, the Marketing Royalty Fee doesn’t apply when you drive the traffic.
From the FAQ:
“When Zazzle’s marketing efforts generate a sale, the Marketing Royalty Fee is deducted from your Gross Royalty.”
“the Marketing Royalty Fee is deducted from your Gross Royalty whenever a sale results from Zazzle’s own marketing efforts or a fellow Ambassador’s Referral”
Trying to find the link for where I downloaded it from, but the newly issued .PDF for “Ambassador Program FAQs” includes some example calculations on self-promotion links and it clearly says that, same as before, the carve-out (now known as Marketing Royalty Fee) will be applied to ALL referred sales, even self-promotion links.
You would think that… this is why I’m confused!
please see Sara H’s screenshot below.
Has it ever been explained WHY there is a fee in this situation?
@Amanda23 It’s the new T&Cs. And Zazzle can create whatever T&C’s they like without having to explain why
and do you see where the excessive royalty fee is taken out twice… am i reading that wrong?
@tiffjamaica Yes 
it’s taken out twice (hopefully a mistake else that’s a joke)
This is a big hit for self-promoters. Before the change, you got the 35% promoter share on the sales price PLUS your royalty earnings minus the 20% caveat. Now you only get the so-called “Self-Promotion Earnings Goal” of 35 to 50%, depending on the department.
For this Zazzle example you showed, before the changes you got:
35% of the sales price of $100: $35
NET LOSS SELF-PROMOTER SALE NOW-THEN: $44.60 Then - $35 Now = $9.60 LOSS
Edit: In Departments with 40% flat rate (home decor etc), the loss is $4.60, in departments with 50% rate (invitations), you have a net gain of $5.40 instead.
@ColsCreations @JerryLambert Your input is appreciated on this special matter.
P.S. I’m working on a spread sheet and things look not that great for self-promoters with this new all-included 35-50%. The losses are consistent, especially at higher royalty rates. Will post my conclusions separately when I’ve checked all out.
Edit: Didn’t include the extra-fee for simplicity purposes.
Agreed. I have been in the Promoter 2.0 program basically since joining, and the LARGE majority of my earnings have been from my referrals.
Combined with showing so many other products both above and below my own when I link people to Zazzle, it is quite the punch in the gut.
I agree. And in the Creator FAQ they say, "For Self-Promotion Links, this fee is effectively offset by the higher Referral Commission calculation…" That’s only true if you’re reducing your earnings to 5%. They’re spinning it like you’ll make so much more money because your self-referrals will be larger, but we all know most sales are 3rd party, which will now be hit by lowered royalties and the marketing fee.
PS - also working on a spread sheet and you are correct that it’s bad for self promoters and very bad for third party sales. Seems like we should be hoping for NONE referrals from here on out…
@James
Hello!
I was hoping we could get some clarification. There seem to be some discrepancies in various places regarding the MRF when you self refer. I am going to try to synthesize these in the screenshots here:
From the calculator where we set our royalty percentage:
From the FAQ, @JerryLambert included the quoted text here:
This also seems to say that a fee ISN’T assessed when we self refer.However, as @Sara_H shows below in her screenshot with the sample math, the MRF _ IS _ deducted if we self refer.
This is pretty confusing. I was hoping you could clarify if this is deducted or not, and maybe pass along to the team that the language in some spots might be old/inaccurate?
Thank you so much,
Amanda
I edited my original post, forgot a few things. As self-promoter you get a net gain compared to earlier if you have a royalty rate lower than 19% AND only in departments with 50% marketing share, basically invitations solely. In the largest tier of 40% you make always a loss on all royalty rates higher than the standard 5%. If you have higher royalties and have mixed/crossover sales, even as a self promoter it may be wise to stick with the 15% affiliate referral now since you have less reserve on your 35% promo sales to cover the third-party 0% sales. It’s a mess.
Same here. When my self-promos stick, the 35% referral earnings are way higher than the royalties. Most of my sales are third-party referrals, though, but that’s because I didn’t really promote myself. Need to change my strategy and annoy my followers more with ads rather than hoping for marketplace sales. Nonetheless, these changes are a loss also for self-promoters, unless you have low royalty % and promote basically solely cards and invitations that give you 50%.
The Ambassador Program explanation also states that these 35-50% self-promoter numbers INCLUDE your royalty:
The Ambassador program text states otherwise. Which doesn’t matter anyway, since the royalties are included in your 35-50% self-promoter share and not paid separately (see my other post).
I’m glad you’all are bringing this up. I can’t make their math work. I feel very mislead.
So trying to figure out these new math calculations make my head want to implode, but I did check out some of my 3rd party sales from today and yesterday. Doing my quick math, at a 14.9% royalty, yesterday I netted around 11.9%. Today, at my 14.9% royalty, I’m netting around 7.9% – 8% tops. Most of my sales are 3rd party. I’ve put so much time and effort into my store. I love what I do but perhaps it’s time to reassess this source of income? So over being thought of as disposable.
Sending a hug. It’s a stressful and sad time.
With @ColsCreations calculator Excel sheet resource the other day, I revamped some of my royalty rates. I need to do a lot more.
I decided to work backward, and I only worried about royalty because referrals are hit or miss. For each product type, I decided what I thought I would be comfortable making for a royalty (eg. at least a dollar for one, two dollars for another, etc). I did this while also remembering that one sale will not come anywhere NEAR the amount of time I invested in creating that design. While doing this, I also took a look at how much a customer would pay for the item ( I presumed 15% even though the new low Zazzle seems to be offering is 10. So sometimes I will make more, but sometimes I’ll make less.)
Keep in mind, I’m not a huge seller and we don’t rely on this as our survival, so I can “play” perhaps a bit more freely than others. I’m not sure this will help you, but I thought I’d share.
We no longer need to be tied to the 14.9%, and the “penalty” fee is the same no matter if we make it 10.1%, 14.9%, or 39%. You can go up to 50% max. I definitely raised some of mine much higher than I would have thought to before…
Amanda
