I have products created on 10/1 that are still not showing in the MP.
I know we’ve experienced this before, but generally there is some discussion about it that makes one feel the situation is being looked at. I haven’t seen anything lately; is anyone else experiencing this?
Searching for one of them, I entered “ghost halloween tote bag”, and asked for newest. I got 17 pages of the now too common stuff on Zazzle that looks like the mass producers (similar to the mass tag spammers) that run names together to form individual store names. All created from 10/1 to 10/6. The few really unique bags that had actually design intent (like Zazzle USED to be) stuck out as individual, but those are few and far between.
It’s sad to see Zazzle, once full of creative and inspirational artists, turn into this. I wonder if this type of mass production is why it takes so long to get products into the MP at times. But more than that, it’s just sad to see what the MP is becoming.
My favorite “find” is the exact same design showing twice. The first put up by one “designer” on 10/4 at 8:13 p.m. The second put up by a completely different “store” on 10/4 at 8:18 p.m.
7 days is pretty much normal these days. It seems like we get an update and then we have to wait several more days for another. The last indexing update was a disappointment to me, because it left several days unindexed. I have just become resigned to this as the new normal. I am not even trying for any last minute holiday additions.
I am pretty much giving up on making t-shirts, tote bags, and any other product that these mass producers can just throw up a cartoon design they’ve purchased somewhere. The t-shirt MP is especially a mess. Designs from the established designer community that have been there awhile and gained MP popularity because of their uniqueness will be profitable, but any new design is completely buried under all this stuff that just started happening this year.
If you look at the two stores, it’s obvious it’s the same person. Now, some of us have multiple stores (me included) but there’s a rhyme and reason to them. Generally, designs are not repeated. There are just so many of these appearing now, and the sameness of the designs is standard. Most of us have figured out what is going on. I don’t know if it’s really “breaking the rules”, but what this group of mass producers is doing is certainly hurting the customer experience, I’m afraid. The similarity in store name/designer name format gives good indication that it’s the same group that has blatantly tag spammed recently. I don’t even know if it’s controllable on the Zazzle end, and of course, there’s always been some of this going on, but it’s rampant right now. It seems like it’s sure worthy of some brainstorming on how to remedy it. Just hoping to make the MP a better experience for customers AND legit designers.
Another interesting search is “Kids Halloween Candy Tin”, and then sort by newest. All store names with similar format, but different designers? Except for a few designs that really stand out.
I suppose I should just let it go; if Zazzle wants to let them do this, then there’s not much we can do about it, probably. Gonna go take a walk.
I reported a bunch of these mass spammers many months ago. Zazzle mod said no need to re-report, as all such reports are reviewed. When I see a post like this one, I check to see if any action has been taken on the products I reported.
No action has been taken on the offending mass spammer products I have reported.
Zazzle probably makes a lot of money off of those supposedly rule-breaking mass production shops. I don’t expect Zazzle to take any action whatsoever against these shops as they have had months to do so. I don’t think anyone should waste their time reporting these shops if these shops are not a bother to Zazzle.
Honestly these searches are heartbreaking. Just did a search for “christmas wrapping paper” and all 17 viewable pages of “newest” products yielded essentially nothing but repetitive generic designs on stickers originating from the same one or two cookie-cutter stores with jibberish names, with many designs unrelated to Christmas, and all published on 10/4. The designs I spent a lot of time, talent and energy on and uploaded on 10/2 and 10/4 are MIA and virtually invisible. Not sure what can be done to level the playing field, but the current system is broken. Between the slow indexing and other issues, it’s very hard to stay enthusiastic about the upcoming holiday selling season.
Searching by Newest gives “blah” results. But it’s not the default so never the first thing customers see. And if they are disappointed with what they see by choosing that, going back to Popularity is likely what they do rather than leaving the site altogether.
I suspect that sorting by Newest is done far more by designers looking to see if they are in the MP yet than by customers. So I hope it isn’t truly deterring people from making new products because I doubt it’s deterring customers because I doubt they see it much.
That’s a good point, KeegansCreation. I do searches by Newest to check on MP publishing, and also to find new creative designs to promote. So maybe it IS just the designers and promoters that have to wade through all the mess. It’s frustrating. Maybe I’ll use my “I’m gonna take a walk” post as the accepted solution.
I think the products ARE in the Marketplace, even if they aren’t showing up in the newest feed due to all the spam. This past week I got some likes on some of my new products 2 days after I posted them. So somebody found them somehow! (I hope she comes back and buys them, LOL!)
I think that may contribute to these indexing problems. It seems the market is flooded with similar design products. Not just a few, but hundreds, pages and pages … almost impossible to find any original design.
Hard to know who to agree with first — I have reported this several times because it is so sad to see because, you all say, it makes it so difficult for a new “real” design to be seen unless it can push through to the “popular” side of the fence. So I guess it is on us to shine the light outside to get noticed inside.
@Connie I wish that were the case but I don’t think so. I’ve had a few likes (besides my own) on products that hadn’t hit the mp yet but I attribute them to someone seeing them in my collection or from my pin on pinterest. (That is, if you do either of those things once you make your new product.)
Oh, I didn’t think about Pinterest! Those products aren’t showing any outbound clicks on the Pinterest analytics, but that never seems to be accurate anyway, so that must be where the likes are coming from. That’s virtually the only place I promote. I do have those products in a collection, too.
Thinking of myself as a customer I would never use the “sort by Newest” because the designs that pop up are almost all the “spamming” ones. I noticed this option is not even available on mobile (that is, on mobile browser or Zazzle app you don’t have the option to “sort by Newest”).
