For the past month , I have got only 3rd party referral sales, all of them. Not a single, self or none. Losing about 60 % of my royalties as I am charged an excess royalty free as well as a marketing fee. Feeling dejected and wondering big I should delete all my products and close shop.
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I did get a “none” sale in October and several referral fees. But I do feel your pain.
I don’t think an excess royalty fee should be charged in addition to the marketing fee. It’s double dipping - and it’s not cool.
I would prefer to see a nominal sign-up fee for new shops (like Etsy does — $15.00), so Zazzle can use that fee to cover their marketing costs instead of gouging designers with every sale.
That required new shop fee would also cut down on Zazzle spam shops.
It no longer feels like Zazzle values their designers.
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97% of my sales are now 3rd party. It’s virtually impossible to get anything else. Zazzle sends out daily emails to customers so if a customer clicks on one of those links Zazzle gets credit for any purchase over the following two weeks. Even if that customers finds our external link 10 days after clicking a Zazzle link and ends up making the purchase. Technically that last click is what prompted the actual sale, but we won’t get the referral credit for it.
I don’t blame you for wanting to close. It’s definitely a discussion that is happening with many designers right now. You aren’t alone.
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The 14-day cookie is way too long. Why is the new Ambassador program affiliate friendly, but not designer friendly?
When is Zazzle going to address this issue? Why has Zazzle remained quiet? Why won’t they have a dialog with designers?
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Because it’s not an “issue”, it’s by design. To me, the dialog by Heather here says it all.
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ambassador-program/30-40-pay-cut/m-p/205507/highlight/true#M1854
I’m actually surprised by all the complaints over the change to 14-days. Before, people thought it wasn’t long enough, that the designer/affiliate should have a longer window for their “cookie” not to be overridden. And now we do. But that applies to all referrers even when it’s Z.
I am not by any means a champion of the new system, just saying, it’s how they intended it to work and I don’t believe any amount of voicing discontent over it is going to cause Z to roll-back to a time when they were making less because we were making more. It’s just not how businesses operate in the real world.
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It’s not an issue for Zazzle, but it’s obviously an issue for designers. If designers accept this treatment and don’t voice their discontent, then nothing will change.
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Don’t assume all designers are unhappy. Since Zazzle has implemented the 14-day window, I have seen a dramatic increase in self-referrals. Every designer has the ability to act as an affiliate and promote their products to get a referral.
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Here is an excellent response to Heather’s comments in that link: (sorry, I don’t know how to link to this response):
The Ambassador Program was designed with the goal of supporting Creators who actively drive traffic and sales
If this was true, you wouldn’t try to hijack our self referrals in every imaginabe (and non-imaginable) way. Most obviously the landing page, but there are several others, like None sales turning to 3rd party in a breeze. Pretty sure Zazzle is the “3rd” party in the vast majority of cases, although there’s no third in this equation, just your business and mine. I have yet to see anyone excluding Zazzle to benefit from these “new opportunities”. That’s not the purpose.
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I’m not assuming all designers are unhappy — I am unhappy as a designer. And based on the feedback on this forum, many designers feel the same way.
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Yes, I agree that a start-up fee for new shops is a great idea, to cut down on spam shops.
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Same here, not only that my sales have descreased drastically im gonna say by at least 98% but yet Im still making products and sharing links just as much, its very discouraging..
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“It no longer feels like Zazzle values their designers.”
I think many feel that way. Whether it is recognized by them or not, it is a very real realization by many designers.
I wonder what Zazzle will be like in a few years? I can envision even more and more pages of spam A.I. generated t-shirt, mug, etc. designs that will completely discourage customers who want a fresh, original, well crafted design. And probably more spam tags that clutter up the MP, too. But as long as entities that realize they can just throw a line in the water with cheap A.I. generated images and maybe get lucky once in awhile, all the while tag spamming just to get looks…it will be, at least interesting to see what fish they can pull in, I guess. If they don’t have to pay a fee for a new shop, they can have dozens.
I suppose wedding designers may do better, but, wow…there’s a ton of competition across other platforms for that. Good on you if you can stay in that fray and do well.
In the meantime, I wonder how long some of us will hang in here. I have always loved Zazzle…but…
I’ve been marketing like crazy in the last 30 days, but, out of my last 125 sales, only 6 were not third party. And yes, I’ve raised my prices, but still calculate to be earning overall less than 10%. And spent hours over a three day period working with a customer on a unique design, followed everything I knew to get a referral, and the products she bought still came through as 3rd party. Yes, I’ve read everything about why that can happen…but it really doesn’t seem fair at all. It’s just discouraging. I tend not to say much anymore, because I don’t feel it helps at all…but sometimes it’s just overwhelming.
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I realize that this is a very old post… but I did not want to create a new one and I didn’t want to spend the time finding a newer one. I’m just here to say I agree fully. First they wanted us to create our own product mockups in order to get “top search ranking”. Well, I simply didn’t have the time for that and POOF… almost overnight, my sales dropped by almost half. They never came back. Then, they changed the rules about max royalty rates. “Nothing over 10% or you will be charged the excess fee”. Well, I was already making less, so I left mine the same. A good portion are between 10 and 14.9%. Then came the final blow… The sudden, almost overnight, change to our sales changing to maybe 30-40% 3rd party, to 99% 3rd party referred quite literally, ovenight. I make less than 5% now, on average for my designs now, while those 3rd party referrals (cough cough, ZAZZLE) are making 45-50%!! It has forced me to other platforms and as of today, I am putting in work to HIDE a large portion of my products. Eventually, once I migrate them all to my other platforms, I will shut it down. I’m done allowing them to profit off of me while I receive next to NOTHING.
I am not expecting this post to be a major statement, but it makes me feel good to say it out loud. I’ve been on this platform since 2012. 14 years!! I am fully disgusted by the way they have decided to treat the designers that have grown their brand and I’m done.
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I’ve been here since 2013 and am very disheartened/discouraged by how things are now. I haven’t seen one ‘none’ referrer since the April 1st changes last year although I did manage to somehow get one self referral. The very few sales I make anymore are 3rd party. There are lots of posts asking that Z show us which ones are Z referrals but I don’t suppose that will ever even be addressed. It’s not an unreasonable request so I can’t imagine why there hasn’t at least been an explanation…
Well before the April 1st changes, I believe Z asked that we do more to promote. Then came the request that we do mockups. It was around the time of those requests I noticed my sales seemed to slow as well as my views. Then came the designer nightmare of April 1st and sales and views tanked. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between linkovers and actual views - huge difference.
Z was always my first choice to design for. Now, I can list something and while it will sell elsewhere I seldom get any views on it here. I’d expand on that further but can’t access any sales history other than the current quarter for the information I need.
For awhile I tried to jump through the hoops as best as I could but things have just gotten worse and worse. And now we have this new design tool that I absolutely detest. I haven’t quit designing here but it’s not my main focus since I feel invisible and expendable.
The way things look now, any money I do make will take forever to meet the payment threshold to be paid without losing still more money. Wish Z would at least cut the payment threshold from $50 to $25 but that’s just wishful thinking.
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For Royalty Reports, to view more than the Current Quarter:
Under Royal History > Under Time Period at top row - Select All Time.
They changed this a year or so ago to show Current Quarter, and I find it extremely annoying that it does NOT stay on All Time anymore, the way it always did before. Why is it like be hidden now since that change?
Can the Zazzle team please change back the default for this view to be All Time?
Thanks
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Okay, I feel really stupid now, (and pretty blah at the same time. ) I knew my sales were pathetic but now I see just HOW pathetic. I had tried all but ‘all time’ - was focused on current year where there were only a few sales showing - well I see now that’s because you can’t be shown what isn’t there to see 
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Well, I’m sorry to hear you are experiencing a lot of the same after all of your years of work but you are not alone. I had honestly forgotten about the $50 payment threshold because I haven’t had sales this low since I STARTED in 2012. Last month I came dangerously close to not making the minimum. I’ve already hidden a lot of my products because I don’t want them making any more money off of me, if I’m making next to none. They are not being transparent about where these 3rd party referrals come from and I’m tired of jumping through their hoops, just to be shoved to the side. We can’t even see where our own link-overs are coming from. I have been marketing the heck out of my products in hopes that maybe I can AT LEAST get a chunk of the referral commissions, but while I know some designers have had luck with it, I have not. I’m starting to think my links are only pulling in customers that somehow end up another 3rd party referral. Again, no data to know what is really going on. As of two days ago, our royalty history is broken AGAIN. It’s always something. Product views not updating, royalty history not updating… it goes on for weeks before it gets fixed… I wonder how many other designers have left as a result of this “business model”. Best of luck to you. I try to remind myself that good things are always around the corner. We just can’t see them yet. 
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