I know nobody likes to hear negative things, BUT I think this needs to be said.
I don’t think I am alone in this feeling. It is becoming a full-time job keeping up with Zazzle’s changes and all the things they want us to do to create a product.
The new collections, they are so hard to understand, and Zazzle said they were putting out videos to help us understand but hasn’t. Nobody that I talk to gets the meaning behind the different choices like cross sell is obvious but then the rest of the choices sound pretty much the same.
2, All the different covers for everything is overwhelming. Multiple cover photos, cover videos, collection media photos, banners and cover photos. OMG seriously, it’s overwhelming, can anyone keep up? Then to tell us to do it then send us emails telling us we did it wrong and Zazzle will go in and just delete photos it doesn’t like. What a waste of time for us. What about us old-timers who have been with Zazzle for over a decade who have hundreds of collections already? We can’t be grandfathered in? We are going to be punished for sticking with Zazzle for so long?
Only cover photos on the first couple pages of Zazzle. So creators who have been on Zazzle for years helping YOU GUYS make money, are being punished now because they have created hundreds or thousands of products that now you expect them to go back and make photo covers for. While new creators who happened to join at the time and learn they had to do this will take forefront. So this means our popular products that we worked hard on and have been selling, will no longer be featured and won’t sell anymore.
The Chat box for creators at the top of the page. There should not be this. This is not most people’s full-time jobs and nobody leaves Zazzle on to see when they get a message 24 hours a day. There should be an “email” option, so it doesn’t appear that we are on live chat 24 hours a day to answer customer’s questions. Not to mention almost every question is about shipping and manufacturing, which is not our gig to begin with. Another time waster. And customers get mad when they don’t get an answer right away and just get sent from one place to another to ask questions.
I have a youtube channel where all I do is promote Zazzle and give tutorials. I have loved Zazzle for many many years, way over a decade but it’s becoming so consuming. I get hammered with so many questions every day because nobody understands anything Zazzle is doing and there are just so many steps to making a product, a collection, category and all of it. Just so overwhelming. So confusing and so time consuming, only to be constantly told we are doing it wrong.
I can go on, but honestly it doesn’t feel like anyone cares anymore.
This is the first time I have thought about just walking away from it all. I have loved creating on Zazzle for years, but it has just become so frustrating like you guys are constantly knocking down us creators in one way or the other, it’s become impossible to stay positive about it all.
Completely agree! I’m not as experienced; I’ve been here for “only” 6 years, but I feel exactly the same, on the verge of giving up. Days without sales after spending entire days creating covers, descriptions, and tags for my older designs – they don’t get noticed, no sales, no views. Entire days creating new designs, new covers, descriptions, tags… and those don’t get visibility either.
I burnt myself out and became quite unwell trying to keep up, so now I don’t.
I do micro niches, micro niche’s don’t need covers, collections, videos because there is no to low competition, so regardless of who else is doing what there is nothing to push you down in the marketplace.
But where does that leave the vast majority of our products, stores, collections, which as you rightly note are being pushed further to the back because they lack the required updates.
I do know we have said all this before and yet once more, a Friday bombshell, so we can all sweat without answers till Monday.
I totally agree, I have been trying to niche down too in new stores. But man, all the work on my other stores for years.. it’s just so disheartening.
I saw your answer in the collections thread and knew you were feeling similarly.
I too did not get an email so now I’m on eggshells. What does that mean because I do not have cover photos with collages of products, are all my cover photos going to be removed? It’s just frustrating. I guess I was never one to rely on Zazzle to get my products out there, I blog, make youtube channels, post on social media and lately have been niching down. So I’m hoping this will still keep me making sales.
@wheresthekarma I have not been on Zazzle nearly as long as you but long enough to have to have been dealing with all these new changes/fixes/requirements of the past few years. I could not have said this better!
Every time I did what Zazzle wanted us to do, my sales went down. Eventually, I stopped doing what they thought was a good idea and did my own thing. Just because Zazzle says to do something today doesn’t mean they will still want that in a year. Or a month. In other words: if it is causing you stress, don’t do it. It’s not worth it.
You can always take a “wait-and-see” approach to see how these changes pan out for others before taking the leap yourself. I’ve done this twice now, and both times it was a good business decision for me. Your mileage may vary.
Oh, I saw now it’s in the e-mail. But given the examples they showed I think it won’t take too much effort. I think I’ll create some templates and share them with you guys. Also, I believe the images they will remove are the collections’ covers, but not the single products’ covers - at least, that’s what I understood.
I feel you. I have been on here for many years too. It’s gotten very frustrating! Sales and views are in the toilet and seem to get worse the more effort I make!
An alternate perspective about cover photos… In my experience, my products with mockups don’t necessarily sell better than ones that don’t have a cover. Perhaps the reason you are seeing the first few pages filled with cover photos might not be because Zazzle really favors them but because the creators made cover photos for their best selling items.
Here’s what I have done since Zazzle first started this mockup thing. I check the views and sales and each time there is a view or sale I add that product to my mockup to-do list. It is a lot easier than just randomly adding mockups to ALL old products. Plus it seems like I sell (old) designs that I really don’t like myself and would never bother to add a mockup to it on my own.
Just my 2 cents about covers/mockups in case it helps someone feel less overwhelmed!
@shoshannahscrib I do the same thing deciding what mockup photos to create! I have a certain criteria for when a product gets a mockup: when it gets a sale, when it hits a certain number of views, or when it gets a like. Occasionally I’ll make ones for new products I really want to sell, time permitting lol. After months & months & months of this I think a big chunk of my regularly viewed/popular products now have covers & I’m sort of catching up. Does it work? Who knows? But I do see sales on things that had never sold that I had put a cover photo on not that long before…
I too have so much to deal with in RL I am considering closing it all, or at the very most only making one product a month max for quite a while to come. Too stressful, even when I have no intention of making videos at this point.
Hi! Yes I do exactly the same. Does it work? Indeed who knows. But it keeps me from feeling too overwhelmed adding mockups to 30K products hahaha. I like making mockups actually but I can see it being extremely annoying if you don’t know where to start with old products especially.
I do the same but with products that are sold and don’t have a cover. I was thinking of doing it with products that receive likes. Good idea to do it with the new views!
Yes, yes, yes…I totally agree with everything that’s been said! Zazzle is asking way too much of us and I’ve just started ignoring all the newest things they’ve been asking us to do. I’ve been on Zazzle for almost 15 years.
Thank you Shoshanna, it’s funny you say that, That is exactly what I have been doing lately. As I go through my sales I just add mockups to whatever just sold. It’s helpful to hear the experiences of others, so thank you for sharing.
But it keeps me from feeling too overwhelmed adding mockups to 30K products hahaha. I like making mockups actually but I can see it being extremely annoying if you don’t know where to start with old products especially. 