Confused on Ambassador Referral Commissions and Referral links

[Whoopsidoodle]

Can anyone explain this to me in a clearer way? Do I need to NOT use the Ambassador ID if I want to earn more? I am quite confused! Thanks for any help!

Ambassadors: Ambassadors can earn Referral Commissions through two types of Referral links:

• Cross-Promotion Links: Ambassadors earn a Referral Commission of fifteen percent (15%) of Net Referral Sales on sales of any Creator’s Product, via Cross-Promotion Links that include their Ambassador ID. 
• Self-Promotion Links: Ambassadors can generate Earnings (Royalty + Referral Commission) of thirty-five to fifty percent (35-50%) (varies by Product department) for sales of their own Products, via Self-Promotion Links.

[saintmarishop]

If you use your RF Id you earn 15% regardless of what the customer buys.  If you want to earn 35-50%, you have to share your own products without the RF Id.  If you share your product without the RF Id and the customer buys something else instead, you get nothing.

[Whoopsidoodle]

Thank you for your time and consideration. Is the RF Id the Ambassador ID?

[saintmarishop]

RF Id is your Ambassador Id.  It shows up when you click share on somebody else's product and no longer shows up when you click share on your own product.  For example:

https://www.zazzle.com/producttitlehere_thank_you_card-256031422249080951?rf=238947100042090001 

The end of the link is what I mean.

Always have the RF at the end if you share other's products.  It's your choice if you want to add it when sharing your own.  I previously explained what will happen when you do or don't.

[Whoopsidoodle]

Also - "If you want to earn 35-50%, you have to share your own products without the RF Id" - how do I use it and not use it? Sorry if I am being dense, but it seems others are confused as well. Thanks!

[JerryLambert]

I don't get it either. How will Zazzle know if I shared a link or not? When I get code from the share button on my own products, there is no kind of referral code attached. It is just the product page URL. Same with FB and X links. How do they know I shared my own product? 

[tiffjamaica]

Page 5 of the Ambassador FAQ: (I still don't fully understand how it all works...)

Q: If Self-Promotion Links have no Referral code, how does Zazzle identify and credit these Referrals accurately?

A: When you enroll in the Ambassador Program, we automatically associate your Ambassador ID with all direct visits to your Products, Stores, Collections, Member Profile, and API pages. Zazzle automatically credits these Referrals to the correct Creator without needing URL parameters.

[TabbyG]

right, so, if someone else made a clean link to my product, I'd get a self referral for that, then. Important for people to stay in the ambassador program if they are likely to ever share.

[JerryLambert]

I wonder where 'None' sales come from now. I had one yesterday. It doesn't appear that I got anything more than my royalty. 

[Zorinda]

If someone comes to the Zazzle site to shop and they’ve managed to escape the cookie minefield getting here, that would be a “none” if I’m not mistaken.

[JerryLambert]

A: When you enroll in the Ambassador Program, we automatically associate your Ambassador ID with all direct visits to your Products, Stores, Collections, Member Profile, and API pages. Zazzle automatically credits these Referrals to the correct Creator without needing URL parameters.

This is what I am reading

A: Magic

Fill in the blanks Zazzle

Zazzle automatically credits these Referrals to the correct Creator without needing URL parameters by using _______ and ________

[CarlaRolfe]

I can only guess here but I'm assuming zazzle has some analytical program that drills down exactly where every visitor came from. Good analytics programs drill it down quite impressively. If that customer clicked through a link on my blog, pinterest, twitter or FB or anywhere else I've posted links, the analytics know that & I get the referral.  I'm not 100% sure it works like that but I've been in the PP2 since it started and I know it does work, just never really cared how. 

Alternatively? It's just magic. 😏

[JerryLambert]

Oh so, the PP2 always worked that way? I always used my RFID when sharing products. I like to promote other designers stuff. I've shared a lot of your stuff, for example. I didn't want to join the PP2 because of that. Or maybe that was the PP1.1 beta, lol. Either way, I didn't have to enroll in the new program. I just noticed that the share links do include our RFID when sharing other peoples stuff. So, that's cool. 

I stopped promoting here awhile back because of the whole link hijacking thing. Perhaps this new way will fix that problem since they are hijacked by default now. I'm trying to look at it that way. In my mind the referral program was broken. This new program is such a great leap that it needs to be not only functional and effective, but also good for designers. That's the optimist in me. You know what the pessimist is thinking.  

I remember when the major advantage that Zazzle had over the other platforms was their community and referral program. Zazzle was very grassroots at one time. I am trying to look at this as a reboot. This will either encourage more promoting or discourage it, depending on the immediate effects of it. 

[CarlaRolfe]

Before the promoter program, if you shared a link with your RFID you got the 15% on yours and anyone else's product.  With the PP, links had to be clean (just a direct link to the product, no RFID) and only to your own products to earn the 35%. 

You could still share clean links to your own products, and ref links to other people's products (with the RFID) and get the best of both worlds.  I stink at promotion so I never bothered with other people's and just focused on my own. 

The way they've changed it up, it does look like the affiliate program with RFID links will be a cleaner set-up than it's been since those leaks all over product pages just mean more chances to make that 15% affiliate sale.   

[Deseades]

I don´t get it at all. Most of my sales are from other referrals and yet, I lose almost half of my royalties, even though there should be 15% off... Is there something I am missing? Well, I am sure there is;)

[Whoopsidoodle]

It's confusing.

[Mistica]

Still confused too.
So if you promote your own products such as on Pinterest, Facebook or Blog etc, Are you better off or not?
If I just let it sit in the marketplace, do I get what I used to get? My gross royalty was 22.2% but what I got was less because my gross royalty (before penalty). So it came out to about $17 rather than 22.2%
Must I choose one or the other? Like...don't bother promoting if I leave it on the marketplace...or Promote like crazy but marketplace gives you very very little? It seems that I need to do something now...like sign up for one method or the other? Yes...so confused.