Comparison royalty (income) before and after the change of the system

[Bailamor]

A small overview of the actual income of various products compared before and after the introduction of the new system.
I haven't done the exact math, but on average it's 40% less now. In other words, IF sales stay the same, I get 40% less per month. That's really a lot (for all the work I put in).

I'm just leaving it open for discussion and more tips...

And did I understand correctly that all self-made promotion links from last year (that have the rf code) are now disadvantageous (i didn't read all discussions, and i also don't expect you to repeat everything :))?

[Barbara]

What I wonder is, if a person sold an item at 14.9% at a specific price now and then sold precisely the same item at the same price now but at 10%, what would the difference be?. Just the bottom line that might give all of us clear insight to the difference. ColsCreations has done and shown a lot of the calculations, but I got halfway through and my brain fizzled out.

I'm still waiting to sell something--anything--in April. I flatlined as of April 1, and now I'm wondering if more than just our royalties has changed.

Colorwash's Home

[tiffjamaica]

Let's use the first example in the original question to compare... 

A mug sold at 14.9% for a sale $19.55 = 2.33 royalty before. 
Now (assuming it's the 40% home & living bracket?) the same exact sale would earn 1.60. 
That's a 31% decrease. 

For those that like seeing the math:

19.55x.149 =2.91 Royalty
19.55x.05= .15 ER fee
19.55 x .40= 1.17 MF fee
2.91 - (.15+1.17) = 1.60

[Bailamor]

Yes, but it seems to me that they have (permanently?) lowered the actual prices of the products overall (see $10 vs $19,  I see it on other products as well regardless of the sales being offered), resulting in even less actual income for us.

I just wanted to offer some real data here because you can still change the royalty rates for a few days and it might help others...

I don't make much here every month, but the fact that it's now 30% less still makes a difference.

So far I've only increased the royalty rate on some postcards and such. I'll think again about what the best strategy is (lower royalties don't make sense, but if you raise them too much you're not competitive with others who sell for less)...

[Barbara]

I think it was last month that I noticed the lower prices, and I think it was on mugs, which though it led to lower earnings for us, it might also lead to more customers for mugs. I can't say at this point, given that my sales have tanked and so I've no data at all.

I just now brought up the blanks, checked mugs, and for sure, the price is lower. I think I remember something along the lines of their being $15, but now their base price for an 11 oz. mug is $11.50. That's $4.50 we won't earn royalties on. It seems they're trying to be more competitive, which is a good thing, but where the heck did all the customers go?!

And thank you, @tiffjamaica, for your bare-bones analysis. It's precisely what I needed.

Colorwash's Home

[tiffjamaica]

You're welcome 🙂 I've been doing more math in the last week than I have for a decade! haha

[tiffjamaica]

Yes, 30% absolutely makes a huge difference. I've raised my royalties to compensate for things I sell the most (including paper goods, digital downloads, stamps, business cards just to name a few) and since doing so am still making sales. I wish I could tell you the rate to raise to, but I calculated mine based on what I was making pre-changes vs. now. 

[Mariholly]

I'm not sure there are many creators who can lower their royalties; the numbers simply show it's not viable. Even if you don't rely on Z financially, you can't earn such a tiny amount—it's absurd to dedicate your whole day to earn mere cents. I suppose more expensive products can be sustained with a 10% royalty, but I think most can't. Personally, I'm making changes in small batches, and it's possible that some products will be sold before their royalties have been updated, which means a loss of money—well, I'll accept that. The best-selling ones have already been changed, and I want to be consistent with the rest by deciding based on the type of product.

[Barbara]

When I first arrived here in 1014, I started at 12% and quickly realized this was too little, in particular since I'd previously been earning commissions of 20% on my handmade pottery. So I raised it to 14.9%. I didn't sell less and definitely earned more. Every year, Zazzle would ask everyone to lower their rates for the holiday season, and one year I thought being contrary was a far better idea, so I raised my rate to 20% instead of lowering it. My popular products remained popular. I'm still at 20%, but at this point, and assuming I continue here (now in question), I'll raise it further.

I'm not happy.

Colorwash's Home

[Mariholly]

Exactly, I agree with you—I’m not going to lower the royalties. No, I’ve actually raised them and will continue to do so progressively. I’m not sure if it’ll be before or after the 15th, but they will go up, and I believe most creators will make the same decision. We’ve all experimented with lowering them at some point, and it didn’t lead to more sales. I never lowered my royalties during the holiday season.

I hope you don’t leave—hang in there!!

💪💪💪

[Barbara]

My current holding pattern involves having gone back to the more hands-on crafts that have always made me happiest, which includes learning new things along the way. My current little obsession is bookbinding with the parallel craft of creating Kindle Paperwhite covers. When the possibility of making money is subtracted, the joy returns, and I end up with far more journals and Kindle covers than any person should have.

Colorwash's Home

[Boki]

And how were your sales in March, February,... It's been 10 days and no sales, has this happened to you before, waiting that many days for a sale?

[Barbara]

The last time it happened to me was when I was new here. I've had a few slumps in sales, but never were they this long.

Colorwash's Home

[Boki]

It seems too long to me too, and I see they're improving: "Earnings reports", maybe it's related to that,... ?

[CLC]

#BARBARA Do you have your account linked to google analytics and do you follow your products in the google shopping feed? If so take a look at the numbers on google analytics, mine shown no paid advertising and advertising used to be the highest number. My views have dropped in third. Do you see any of your products in google shopping ads? In the two years I have been here, I had my best month in March, I felt like I was gaining good momentum. I had several products that were shown all day in the google shopping feed and were selling on a daily basis. It now looks like all my products have been removed from google shopping and only higher ranked sellers, silver and above products are being advertised. My designs that used to show in the google shopping feed are now being shown on the product page above the advertised product of other sellers. There used to be hundreds of Zazzle sellers shown in the shopping ads, now there is only a handful....without advertising it will be near impossible for products to sell. Can any lower bronze or below seller find any of their products in the google shopping feed?

[Anne]

@CLC  Thanks for bringing that up. I don't follow what Google is or isn't doing, but since the Zazzle views have been restored, I noticed a significant drop. So your insights might explain that.
I never look at Google shopping, so I don't know the difference, but just did a search. I set my VPN to the US, type in desk mats (or deskmats, does not make a difference) and see all sorts of websites represented, but NONE Zazzle.
Search for bridal shower invitations: shows Hallmark, Minted, Etsy, but NO Zazzle.
So you might be onto something.

[Barbara]

No, I haven't looked because I never go near Google. That said, I've noticed some delightful ads for Etsy on YouTube, which seems to be where all the eyes are these days because it now outshines anything regular TV can do. I suppose their ads might be expensive because of the surge upward of YT, and perhaps this is holding back Zazzle from making use of it. If they could find a way to do it, they really should.

Colorwash's Home

[klstock]

The Marketing Fee carve out they are now taking from designers should cover a few YT ads

[Zainab_Baloch]

Looks like we’re on the same boat with the April sales drop. Whatever you mentioned about Google shopping ads if that’s true it’s really disheartening.
If only high-tier sellers are getting visibility now, how are smaller or newer designers supposed to grow? Zazzle has always been a place where creativity and hard work could lead to success over time. I just hope this change is temporary otherwise it would be really hard to continue.

[CLC]

For me, April 8-10 there were hardly any shopping ads showing for ANY seller, just a handful of shops with ads showing and my google analytics report showed the same. As of today I am starting to see the shopping ads come back which is great, hoping it was just some sort of reset or something.

[Westerngirl2]

The change, especially the increase in "marketing fees" is definitely hitting us hard. And the interesting thing is that now almost ALL of my sales are 3rd party. There were always more than I thought credible, but now almost every sale is 3rd party. For the first 9 days of April, I had 33 sales. All but 1 was 3rd party. For comparison, for the first 9 days in March, I had 32 sales. Eleven of those were 3rd party, 19 were None, and 2 of those were self-referred.

The marketing fees are killing me. I've raised prices on some products, which will probably eventually affect their visibility. But.....you can still find tons of tag spammers spamming their products which seem to get visibility.

Not a happy camper.

[tiffjamaica]

Yes. Something has changed and shame on them for not telling us what.  I'm so irritated with it. Since April 1, 78 sales and 4 were non-referred and 0 self referrals. That's not normal for me at all. First 10 days last month I had roughly the same amount of sales and 27 non or self referrals. 

[klstock]

Wondering if there is any correlation here with what Cols is talking about in this Corrupted "Cookies" 

[Marcia]

Pre new t&c, I was about 35% none & 65% third party, with the VERY occasional self referral. Since the change, out of about every 10-15 sales, maybe 1 sale will be none with the rest third party. 🤔