Where do linkovers actually come from?

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I’ve been watching linkovers and it appears a lot of them might be coming from the Show Me forum. When my linkovers zoom up, it’s often on a day when I’ve posted to that forum. If it’s true that it’s one of the sources, doesn’t it mean those linkovers aren’t a very reliable method of gauging activity? It could easily be other designers looking at our products, perhaps out of curiosity or maybe to see how we did a particular thing. I’ve done this, and I assume I’m not unique.

Have any of you suspected the same source?

Colorwash's Home

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@Barbara   I do not watch my linkovers (in fact I even forgot where I would find that link) but I personally try to post to the Show Me boards because Google picks up those postings - often within a day or two as well so it’s not only designers looking at those designs, hopefully potential customers too. :crossed_fingers:t4:

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I had no idea Google looks at Show Me, but then I haven’t used Google in a number of years. So, you don’t look at linkovers and I don’t look at Google. Quite the pair are we.

Colorwash's Home

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This is something I’ve kinda wondered about for a long time too. Like you, I’ve noticed a jump in linkovers and the occasional sale happening shortly after posting in ‘Show Me’. I didn’t realize the connection with Google either, so this discussion has confirmed those suspicions and answered the question as to why it happens. Thanks for clearing up one of life’s little mysteries!

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I haven’t posted to the Show Me forums in many years, and my daily linkovers have been in the four-digit range for several months now. unfortunately, my sales haven’t responded with the same vigor.

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@WHS_Designs  

You’re no help at all! LOL

Colorwash's Home

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sorry for being the killjoy! :rofl::joy:

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The show me pages are public and are listed in the google search.  This is why I think it’s important to share your products a couple times a week.  Also customers are members and they can shop the show me boards.  Now I am 95% certain that when we share to the show me that we will not  have to pay a 3rd party fee if someone sees our product there and buys.  The reason being we shared not Zazzle.  (we advertised)   (Can you confirm if this is true? 

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Good morning,  I like your posts, your recommendation helps,  I put some on the show me board, an 2 days later I have more than 700 linkovers instead of 100/200. If I understood you right,  if sales coming from show me and indexed via Google,  you haven’t a 3rd party sale anymore or at least you will get your full commission and not only the half because of zazzle. Do you get referrals over the show me links, too, even if you post orher content? Because with normal direct posting on Pinterest it is not working for me,  not for my own products and others.  

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Can you tell me how you have figured that out? I searched a couple of my posts from the Show Me page and it only showed the Show Me subject heading as the opening to the search and not my particular product. Thanks for any guidance you can provide Susan. 

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That’s been my experience, too. While Show Me posts do sometimes turn up in Google search results, they link to the opening post, not the one with your product in it. 

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That makes total sense since clicking on someone’s post brings up the product in the person’s store, at which point, the URL changes. Scrolling to and viewing someone’s post doesn’t change the URL, which remains the address for the entire thread. There was a time when it seems there were many more affiliates. It was more lucrative, and they would wander through the Show Me forum looking for new things to refer. I’ve no idea if any customers shop in the forum, but I doubt it’s a likely route for them.

Colorwash's Home Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link

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@PAZP  @ColsCreations    Col, your response made me halt and think. And then I just had to test it out. I took a random listing of mine and searched on Google for “Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco Travel Postcard”. You are my hero (and you know it) but I disagree now after my little test, lol. I clicked on the Google search result link at Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco Travel Postcard - Google Search and that brought me straight to my posted design (after Nadja, the person who initiated the thread on the Zazzle forum) at Re: What is your last created product? - Page 442 - Zazzle.

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So interesting. I clicked on the links in my response just now to make sure they were correct and now my listing has moved down a bit but it’s still at https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/what-is-your-last-created-product/m-p/215526 and all postings on that page show August of 2025 besides the last one now (07-31-2025 09:33 PM) - coincidentally by me too.

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Interesting. I’m on Safari and clicked the link in your post. It shows me the lead post for “What was your last created product?” then a post by another creator from 8/16/25. If I use “Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco Travel Postcard”, with or without parentheses, the Show Me Forum link doesn’t show up at all. 

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@PAZP    Just tried it on Safari using my iPhone. 

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And the link on Google brought me again to https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/what-is-your-last-created-product/m-p/215526 and where I showed up right after Nadja again. Maybe it depends on the ISP? I wouldn’t know. I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area. I will try the link on the Zazzle forum I‘m going to post with this response and see if my position will have changed like it did earlier tonight.

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@PAZP    Very odd. Following my link on the Zazzle forum (the one I just posted a minute ago) the order has again changed (like before on the desktop) but my posting is still on the same page - just further down.

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Ok, It seems I can’t attach more than one photo on mobile. Anyway, I have to think about this to figure it out. Tomorrow is an other day, smile.

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Last night I searched Google for atomic tie dye wall clock as it was specific enough keywords not to yield a zillion results and it’s a product I know I’d shared to Show Me before. The Show Me thread was not in the results. 

When I added added zazzle as a keyword - atomic tie dye wall clock zazzle - then it came up on the first page:

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Clicking the link takes me to the top of the original post / Page 1 and my post with my clock in it is not on Page 3 as the blurb says, it’s a ways down on Page 1.

The main Show Me thread:

Show Your Wall Clocks Here

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213

Perma-link for my response inside it:

Re: Show Your Wall Clocks Here

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8775/highlight/true#M3385

Link as copied from Google results:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360/highlight/true&ved=2ahUKEwiirtejzY2QAxWbmmoFHaJEOz0QFnoECDIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1awLdVU3HwaE1nE-FxxU53

 “Clean Link” option as copied from Google results:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360/highlight/true

 Don’t have time right now to compare the numbers in the links or try more searches. Will try yours later. Also need to try one where the target product post is NOT on Page 1. 

*Searching Google via Firefox browser, Windows laptop. 

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Posting this mostly for me, LOL, as this happens to be a handy place to make notes w/ links as I try to sort out URLs. 

#1) Main Show Me thread “Show Your Wall Clocks Here”
This is the URL you get if if navigate directly to the thread via the forum.
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213

#2) Permalink to same thread:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213/highlight/true#M32

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213/highlight/true#M32

Both of these links open to the top/first/original thread-starter post of page 1.

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#3) Alternate link to same thread:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8775

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8775

#4) Alternate link to same thread:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360

Both of these links also open to the top/first/original thread-starter post of page 1, same as first two links. But the breadcrumb (top of the screenshots) shown for these two starts with Re:

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Permalink to my reply within the thread:
 https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8775/highlight/true#M3385

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8775/highlight/true#M3385

The 8775 is the same as in #3. (This is how I found link #3 works, by just backing out the highlight/true ending of the URL from this Permalink.) This link opens directly to my specific post within the thread. 

Link to my reply from Google results:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360/highlight/true

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/8360/highlight/true

The 8360 is the same as in #4. (This is how I found link #4 works, by just backing out the highlight/true ending of the URL from this link.) Like the first four links, this one also opens to the top/first/original thread-starter post of page 1. Because look, there is no #Mnumber included after the highlight/true at the end of URL identifying which reply on the page to open to.

Link to my reply from Zazzle Forum search results:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213#M32

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/show-me/show-your-wall-clocks-here/m-p/213#M32

This is the link I get if I go to the Show Me forum and search the forum for atomic tie-dye and chose the wall clock thread from suggested results. This one also opens to the top/first/original thread-starter post of page 1. This has the same m-p/213 and #M32 as links #1 & #2, but again, look at the URL - it’s missing the /highlight/true part in it.

I have no idea why there are three different m-p/xxx numbers for going to the orig top thread starter post, but I can see that for going straight to a specific reply within a thread the URL needs highlight/true/#Mxxx in it in the right format. And both Google and Zazzle’s own forum search are getting it wrong so everything except the real Permalink open to the thread starter post instead of the specific reply you want.

I’ve only tried this using Firefox on a Windows computer. Maybe other browsers interpret the links differently. Now that I have the various URL numbers recorded to refer to, maybe I’ll try from a different browser tomorrow to see if any lead to the specific reply instead of just the main top thread starter post for me.

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