A "solution" I can live with . . . Share your strategies to face the changes

[Amanda23]

I just wrote a reply to another creator who was talking about facing the many changes to our rates and Zazzle's terms, and in it, I shared a little about my strategy for revamping my royalties (which is still very much a work in progress). 

I love sharing and thinking through challenges together, so I thought I'd share what I wrote. I'm hoping many of you will reply with your plan for attacking the "how do I proceed" question as we face these changes. 

I don't think my solution is a great one by any means, but I know seeing other people's plans and logic helps me A LOT, so I'm hoping maybe this thread can be a resource of sorts? 

My basic strategy: 
With @ColsCreations calculator Excel sheet resource the other day, I revamped some of my royalty rates. I need to do a lot more.  

I decided to work backward, and I only worried about royalty earnings because referrals are unreliable.

For each product type, I decided what I thought I would be comfortable making for a royalty (eg. at least a dollar for one product, two dollars for another, etc). I did this while also remembering that one sale will not come anywhere NEAR the amount of time I invested in creating that design.

I also took a look at how much a customer would pay for the item. ( I presumed a 15% off sale even though the new low Zazzle seems to be offering is 10. So sometimes I will make more, but sometimes I'll make less.) 

Keep in mind, I'm not a huge seller and we don't rely on this as our survival, so I can "play" perhaps a bit more freely than others. I'm "new-ish" and have under 1,000 items in my main store. 

We no longer need to be tied to the 14.9%, and the "penalty" fee is the same no matter if we make our royalty rate 10.1%, 14.9%, or 39%. You can go up to 50% max. I definitely raised some of mine much higher than I would have thought to before...

Please share your strategies. I'd love to hear how we can make this work (with what we may be able to control)!

Also, I'm contemplating moving to sharing cross-promotion links all the time except for in my personal Facebook group, which largely comprises family and friends who purchase from me largely because I'm me. 😄 Does anyone else think you might do this? The big reason I'm contemplating is to 1. cast a wider net for potential earnings and 2. combat the appearance of 60+ other items being featured when shoppers click on my product link. 

[Connie]

I definitely won't use cross-promotion links for my own products. I'd rather lose a few 15% sales, then lose the 50% Marketing Fees from my own sales!

I don't have time right now to check all the product types, and set my royalties accordingly. I raised my default royalty a bit, but it doesn't nearly compensate for what I'm losing with the excessive fees.

[Joel]

I feel we lack a lot of parameters to make informed decisions. Truly it feels like a toss of a coin either way. How long until the next big move that will change everything again because it's all quite dull.

[Amanda23]

Wow. I think it’s pretty telling that only two people replied here. 

@Joel and @Connie , thank you for chiming in. 😊 I wish you both the best as we try to forge ahead.

Amanda (CtrlZ Digital Designs)

[JLynnW]

Very telling, indeed! There's too many factors and too much confusion, for me to have a strategy worth sharing. It is a definite fact that everyone will take a hit. Here on Z and in the "real world", Z is trying to minimize theirs and we all are trying to minimize ours.