Ambassador Program: Hard Data on Its Impact on My Income

[Jolanda]

I decided to crunch some numbers, and here’s what the hard data says about how the new measures affect my income. I’d love to hear from other sellers—how do you see the Ambassador Program affecting your income? Feel free to share your own calculations in the comments!

[SocolikCardShop]

product i sold today, 3rd party, royalty $3.27.  same product, same price, also 3rd party, sold last month - royalty $5.81.  

[mylittleeden]

Was it digital by chance? I paint my own artwork so when I decided to sell digital products I wasn't keen, but the money was ok considering so I have been risking it. I thought I would get 90+% (that is around $6-7+ dollars normally) but just sold one 3rd party and only got $3.54? I am bummed as this is my own hand painted watercolor artwork. So now I am practically giving it away yet done all the hours of work. Not happy at all about that. I do understand it is work to get a sale but not more work than the time and years of practice to do my artwork. I hope this doesn't mean I am forced in to rethinking digital sales again now?
because that isn't good for the artist to lose that much! I didn't even get half the sale price now 😭  I do think the type of sale needs to be taken into account.

[SocolikCardShop]

no, it wasn't digital.  it was a jumbo greeting card.

[mylittleeden]

Oh was hoping it was just the digital side, the example above is going to be more than a 32% down in my income if all like this? Just at a time when here in Australia food and shelter has never been so expensive, I already pay double tax on my earnings too struggling with this ;( it seems to be the way as soon as I make some head way the rules change and bam back to struggling on again. I promote every product I make out on to pinterest, and some on other social platforms already and have done so for years. But I will be honest the last time I got a referral was a year ago! I  have done a few paid ads and again zilch for the money...  guess I am going to have to work more hours for even less to bridge some of the gap or go off do something else with my artwork. It isn't that always the way ;(

[SocolikCardShop]

new royalty schedule - 3rd party

4/2/2025 12:11:25 PM

1

$62.06

11.7%

$3.27 USD

$3.27

old royalty schedule - 3rd party

3/30/2025 7:19:52 AM

1

$62.06

11.7%

$5.81 USD

$5.81

[SocolikCardShop]

mea culpa - ignore this post

[Westerngirl2]

I feel for you. These huge 3rd party carve outs are affecting everything, whether it be digital or not. In fact, it's so bad it may just force me into going back to galleries again, where you pay for all the materials, the expensive framing, plus the time it takes to create something that will compete....then end up paying 50% or more to the gallery for commission on any sale. Then, of course, a carve out for the tax man.

Being a self employed artist has never been easy. Zazzle was an answer to keep producing at least a living wage for a number of years for me; I guess I should be grateful for that. But right now, my head is spinning with "what's the next move"?

It would drive me crazy except that I remember that God has always provided, and He will continue to do that. God bless you.

[Jolanda]

That 44% less than what is was, that is what I am seeing too

[MadjackGG]

Sold two clocks to someone in Aussie, 3rd party ref, presumably Zazzle.

My royalty rate is unchanged at 14.5%, total sale was $84 AUD, payout is $6.70 AUD, about 8% (and this is before the 5% tax on the monthly payout + PayPal fees).

It's difficult to compare to previous sales due to all the factors involved, but it seems payout is reduced in this case by at least 25%.  And Zazzle are recommending a royalty rate of 10%. Like, what? 

[MadjackGG]

Have knocked up my royalty rate to 24%. This is to mostly compensate for the 40%  referral fee, given the bulk of my sales are from 3rd party referrals. My store is zrank 8, so I expect that'll drop, possibly even to 6. Will see what happens, but a reduction to 10% base royalty + all the carve outs Zazzle charges is just not feasible.

[tnestico]

Hi, so I did raise my royalty rate and my store z rank dropped already. Now what does that mean to sales? Sorry I never really understood what the zrank is for. Thank you for your time.

[MadjackGG]

It's never been entirely clear, except that a higher rank may mean more marketing of your store by Zazzle. A minimum rank of four is apparently needed for Zazzle to consider your store for marketing.

[tnestico]

Thank you, now I understand better.

[DiamondWillow]

My Z8 store went immediately to Z7 after I changed the prices.  

[MadjackGG]

Same here.

[MadjackGG]

Just sold a coffee mug at my new royalty rate of 24% to a buyer in New Zealand. 
Third party referral (presumably Zazzle), $41.55NZD total sale price, $5.48NZD royalty.

I calculate this as an actual royalty rate of 13%, which presumably means I lost around 45% of the base royalty to fees. Wow.

(Also my store's zrank has dropped to seven, may drop further as not all products are at the new rate).

[MadjackGG]

Correction; glass beer mug.

[ColsCreations]

But look on the bright side - someone paid roughly $24 USD for a single beer mug, plus tax, plus shipping from Nevada to New Zealand! That's awesome. 👍

[Malissa]

I get what you are saying, but that side would be brighter if they were willing to pay that and we got a decent royalty amount for it.  I keep seeing we should just be thankful it isn't zero, but that is not a great attitude to have and leads to devaluing your worth.  That is how people get taken advantage of because there is always someone willing to devalue themselves, take whatever peanuts they can get, and take your place if you aren't willing to do it.  I'm not usually too salty about Z changes and can see the bright side, but this all has me very frustrated. 

[ColsCreations]

I get you and agree. I have been very surprised in seeing lately how many are out there at only 10% and even 5%. That's really de-valuing ones self. My comment was just from the economy side, that not everyone is pinching pennies, it's not all doom & gloom out there. 😉

[JLynnW]

True, I believe when everyone ,in general, is watching their budgets, they spend the extra on more meaningful things, like personalized gifts.

[Malissa]

Yes, the economy is a big part of the overall conversation around POD and being independent/small businesses so I do understand where you were coming from even though my comment made it seem like I missed the point.  I have known for a long time that 10% was the favored royalty and I tried it over Christmas to see if I could get more sells by being more competitive and I greatly regretted it.  Not to mention I don't think it made an overall difference in how much I sold or what I sold.  I certainly didn't sell more overall and had like 1 mug that sold over and over that made the bulk of my holiday sales.  It was crazy.

[mylittleeden]

I am already rank 6 so even more risky for me I have upped digital products as for me this is the worse one, the copyright issues I have had in the past always been a concern for me selling digitally to get $3.45 for that risk I am not happy with, I am considering removing the option completely but I still would like to offer them but can't do it at this level. Not worth the risks with it.

[mylittleeden]

Quite I think I saw a post saying we need to increase to 16.4? or something like that but that was just regarding the carve out over 10% royalty rate

[MadjackGG]

I think it was 23.7%. 

I've set mine to 24%, up from 14.5%. And this is to effectively stand still in terms of the money made on a sale as after fees, my actual royalty rate is typically 11 to 12%. I'm a little lucky in that being a New Zealand based Zazzler, I benefit from the a weak NZ dollar right now. 

But I look forwards to the new reports Zazzle has said are coming, in terms of greater insight as to where half a sale's royalties are going.

[MissPaperFarm]

I just found out about the Ambassador program yesterday! So, I haven't been able to say how it has affected my sales considering I have hardly been making many sales since 2023. One thing I have noticed is that my royalties on greeting cards are awful. I get pennies. I am pretty much just selling greeting cards for charity out of the goodness of my heart at this point. Although the 50% of sale through the Ambassador link sounds exciting. I will have to see how that goes. The only issue I ran into was; previous links that I have posted in various places online, are the affiliate ID link, not the ambassador link. Make sure to post your ambassador links because those are the only links that allow 50% of sale on your product. The old affiliate ID links only give 15% 😯

[Jolanda]

The ambassador link is essentialy the same as the self-referral link, it will not magically increase self-referrals as of now unfortunately, so this is not a 'new opportunity'. For me self-referrals make up only 1,5% of my total income (calculated over the past 10 years) and I promote my products daily (not worth the while if you look at the numbers).

[Malissa]

Exactly.  If you have not been good at marketing your products to this point, you won't magically start being good now.  Or your links won't magically start getting clicked, and the cookies sticking.  I have typed and erased a comment to the effect of yours in different places on the forums and in the end just cancel it.  It's just all so disappointing.  I do know there are people that are already reaping the rewards of this, but it will be a small minority of designers who are already excellent at self marketing. 

[Jolanda]

Well, designers who are good at getting self-referrals will also see a decrease in their income because, while self-referrals used to yield 47% for me (14,9% royalties = 12% net royalties + 35% referral), I noticed that today they only yield 25%—half of what they were before.

[Jolanda]

I forgot to add that I have set my royalties to 14,9% (and haven't changed this). Before 2025/04/01 this gave me net 12% royalties for third party sales and as of 2025/04/01 this gives me net 6,7% royalties for third party sales (and third party sales make up 68% of my total income)

[Deseades]

Most of my sales are in the 3rd party category, so I am losing half of my income. What´s the point?

[Barbara]

After seeing a lot of reports about the heavy reduction in earnings, I'm wondering if Zazzle doesn't know that obfuscation isn't a good road to travel. It leads to a loss in trust.

Colorwash's Home

[Westerngirl2]

Oh yeah...judging from the "Ambassadors" responses, they seem to be running quickly down that road.

It all makes me just wonder....why?

[LMGildersleeve]

They may make us unhappy but it makes them more money. I understand advertising and other costs are to blame however, even if the math were easier to figure out for creators it's still a wicked pinch.

Seriously, when you figure how much money we make selling via Zazzle and divide the time and expense, many creators are working for pennies an hour. And that was before April 1st.

I'm glad I was here early in Zazzle's quest for POD dominance. I can't imagine signing up for this now anew.

[mylittleeden]

I think coming in new it would be different if you have massive following and selling your own merch directly that would be ok still. I guess it is will become more about marketing than designing sadly.

[Jolanda]

I have improved the table for clarity. My royalties settings remain unchanged at 14.9%. The most notable change is the reduction in net royalties for third-party referrals (from 12% to 6.7%) and for self-referrals (from 50% to 25%). Presenting this as an opportunity for designers feels, at the very least, questionable.

[bedesign]

So far this month, I’ve only had sales from 3rd party referrals. I usually get none and self sales too, especially at the beginning of the month. Is anyone else seeing the same?

[epicdesigns]

I am keeping a close eye on this as well. I have received a few NONE this month, so it is not all 3rd party. I will be doing a better analysis at the 30 day mark.

[mylittleeden]

I think at this point that is all we can do give it a while carry as normal it is early days. It could be we overall end up with more sales? but when you are seeing your royalty slashed in half we need a lot more sales to fill the short fall.