I rarely have products hidden because I make sure to view them before it happens. It’s a lot faster to go through the list of products that’ll be hidden in a month than it is to have to unhide each one. It also means there’s no gap where the product drops off sale. If the same product ends up there again, I’ll take a closer look at it.
As a warning, adblockers can cause issues with the views registering. So turn them off for the viewing session.
All sites like Zazzle have the same potential issue of the market getting flooded with trash. Some have dealt with that by charging the artists subscription fees. Some strictly limit who is seen in the search. Neither of those are good options if you’re a working class artist who can’t afford to spend any money on it and needs money to come back quickly. Having to view a product once a year isn’t so bad in comparison. (I say this after having to recently delete most of my designs on one site, because they changed to a subscription model, and being in the not worthy for search category on another.)
Wow, thank you for this explanation, I never knew that. I love learning just by taking the time to read the answers to other designer’s problems or questions
@Connie Just curious… do you happen to know what happens if you just make it public without viewing it? Like if it doesn’t “reset the clock” so to speak, does it just make it public for a shorter amount of time?
I generally try to view each hidden item and review the tags etc, but being swamped with all of the recent changes (covers, videos, collections, etc.) I just didn’t have time, so I resorted to just making some public without viewing them or anything. Just wondering if you (or anybody else) know what the consequences of that are!
@ColsCreations Agreed. And it’s totally worth it to give them another look. I’ve found products that had typos in the title or in critical keywords in the tags, and some that were made before I really understood how Zazzle tags worked, and some that were just done when I was really tired or something and I clearly didn’t put much effort into the keywords. Or where I’d accidentally stuck them in the wrong collection or forgot to promote them on Pinterest, or where the chosen color or style had been discontinued or was no longer relevant (like designs on phone cases that nobody uses anymore.) I’ve had numerous cases where I’ll update those sorts of things and a product that had been sitting there unviewed for years suddenly starts selling.
I haven’t had time to be that thorough on all of my hidden products recently, but it’s totally worth the effort. In general I figure it takes much less time to freshen up an underperforming product than it does to make something new!
when u have THOUSANDS of them, it takes way more time than it is worth. I feel this policy need to STOP. let US do this on our own IF WE CHOOSE TO. ZAZZLE is denying me possible sales and that is how i will always see it.
do YOU want to look at and “optimize” the thousands of products that zazzle has decided to make hidden? I am desperate for every single sale I can make that by hiding the majority of my products, that means it has ZERO chance of selling. THIS HURTS EVERYONE.
WOW! then either you have very few products for sale OR, you are working in here 24/7. Wanna “optimize” the THOUSDANDS of products that ZAZZLE has decided to hide of mine? I am open to giving anyone who asks the ability to “optiimize” all the products that are currently hidden in MY stores. If you all think this is such a great idea on ZAZZLE’s part, then come walk in MY SHOES and deal with the grief they have heaped on me.
Since we have no idea what a customer is looking for how can zazzle be sure that someone won’t want it? I have had products that I created more than a year ago SELL just recently. zazzle seems to think in algorithms and NOT about what appeals to a customer. SUPPOSE you were looking for something and u didn’t find it because someone made an arbitrary decision to take that option away from you. I have recently made sales in my bathroom decor store and I have not touched that store in well over a year. zazzle thinks they know what a customer is looking for and so I assume they are in EVERY CUSTOMER’S HEAD, KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE THINKING AND KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR. This “optimization” bull is WRONG. It should be up to US, the CREATORS of the products to choose what we do with OUR products. It’s the principle of the matter!!! I wonder how many sales I DIDN’T make because ZAZZLE made that product hidden and YOU SHOULD TOO.
so ZAZZLE knows what every customer is looking for ALL THE TIME? WRONG WRONG AND WRONG. IT SHOULD BE UP TO US DO MAKE THAT DECISION! Stop the Kool-aid!
What Zazzle is doing here (which I think is a good idea) is forcing people to review unviewed products every 15 months. Cat brought up an important point downthread; sometimes a product is unviewed because the product option we chose is out of stock or discontinued. The only way to find out about that is reviewing products individually. The fix is as easy as changing to a different product option.
don’t YOU want control over YOUR products? I could not disagree with you more. why is zazzle CONTROLLING what we have created? why not let THEM create the products? why are we even here? why is BIG BROTHER controlling YOUR stores? YOUR products? YOUR collections? IF they want that much control, then let THEM create the products. we are unnecessary.
I do have control unless I give up the control by not reviewing hidden products. To stay in control you have to stay engaged with your products. This is the same as anything else. To control a car you have to hold the steering wheel. To control a horse you have to hold the reins. To control your Zazzle products you have to review them from time to time.
@pichick712 , try to think more rationally, I know your frustration, but believe me there is good reason for you not to worry about these products being hidden. I just mentioned an example, the 80-20 rule, you don’t have to worry about the majority of your products, focus on those that are generating more sales, you can do so by going to your Earnings >> Royalty by Product. See what’s selling and try to figure out why it is selling: what’s the type of product? is it related to a specific occasion? are people buying it as a gift? how about the tags? And so on. There are videos on YouTube that can help you with this, a great channel, for example, is AutoPilot Passive Income, which has videos explaining things about Zazzle as well as other POD platforms.
Again, don’t worry about thousands of products needing optimization, after you analyze what is really driving your sales, you’ll see that just a few of those “needing optimization” are worth taking the time to review and make public again.
no, you really don’t. you have to REACT to zazzle’s “optimization/hiding” your products. instead of being in charge of your own stores, u have to react to THEM which means u do not have control unless you know ahead of time, what products they are going to hide on you.
we will just have to agree to disagree. ZAZZLE is controlling my content and it is MY content and I NEVER gave then control over MY products. THIS HURTS EVERYONE.
Well it’s their platform and they can, and do, run it as they wish. That being said though, I always try to keep my older, unsold, unseen and unloved designs alive and just recently sold one that’d been sitting for almost 14 years lol. It’s not a bad design but it was very niche and so it took this long to sell, but it did.
Since only the most popular products show up on page 1 of their marketplace and shoppers rarely venture further on in search results, designs that haven’t sold or been viewed in ages won’t be seen, so why hide them in the first place? It’s not like these are actual products taking up shelf space, right? So why not just mark them as needing optimization but keep them public?
It’s their platform and they can, and do, run it as they wish. That being said though, I always try to
keep my older, unsold, unseen and unloved designs alive and just recently sold one that’d been sitting for almost 14 years lol. It’s not a bad design but it was very niche and so it took this long to sell, but it did.
Since only the most popular products show up on page 1 of their marketplace and shoppers rarely venture further on in search results, designs that haven’t sold or been viewed in ages won’t be seen, so why hide them in the first place? It’s not like these are actual products taking up shelf space, right? So why not just mark them as needing optimization but keep them active?
Note: this is the second time I’m posting this since the first one vanished. If it disappears again I’ll take the hint.
I told you how I speed things up so that things don’t get to that point. You can wallow in the belief that none of the rest of us have Zazzle stores, money issues, or have to deal with this… or start listening to people when they’re trying to help you. It’s your choice, but if you’re not going to listen, don’t take it out on other artists here.
