Help!!!!!!

[MarilynR]

I remember when we were first starting, there were designers complaining when someone promoted their product because they lost 15%. Right now, we just came off a month long case of the flu or COVID-19 and are not absorbing this issue well. We had a sale on 4/1 that wasn't 3rd party and we didn't lose anything. This is no option to block being promoted, but my sister and I could stop promoting our own products to avoid the cut out or we could double our royalty to 60% to cover the cut out. Then we would market to the haves out there in the MP.

I agree with those who talked about devaluing their work and I see that some have mentioned raising their royalty. We only have til 4/15 to decide. I will be sharing this with another designer who doesn't get to the forum as much any more,  So will somebody please give us some guidance.

[Malissa]

Not promoting your own products will not avoid the carve out.  There is really nothing you can do about it except hope the majority of your sales are referrer "none" or to try and promote the heck out of yourselves and  get those self referrals so you are the one that gets most of the cut.  And then all sales that are over 10% royalty are subject to an excess royalty fee that goes to Z for payment processing, etc.  There are FAQs provided by Z and various posts trying to answer questions.  Even though it will be time consuming, I recommend trying to go through them and weed out the relevant information.  I am not being sarcastic when I suggest you take notes and write down your questions and see if they are answered as you read through the threads. If they aren't you can submit questions through the link in the official question/announcement threads posted by Z.

[mylittleeden]

At the moment it is difficult to tell how much this will impact overall earnings. I am looking to see how things are going for the first month or so to gage this impact, in the meantime pushing out more products on to social media in the vein hope that may help generate a few none's. I do remember that you used to do a lot in the promotional marketing space, so my suggestion would be to increase this, particularly on your own products as I have had one self and I got 3 x more for the referral than for royalty. But of course we only have so much time, so I think overall it isn't great news for the creators (particularly if you want your main focus on creating in my case painting, it seems like I can rarely pick up my brush these days! still wading through creating covers and sorting out half filled collections) but it is the same now for most POD's.

Overall it could see an uptick in overall sales particularly if you increase you own marketing efforts, hopefully more traffic overall will come to Zazzle too, (more marketing experts will see more opportunities to cash in on our designs and also drive in more traffic) which will increase your chances of sales. It can be concerning seeing your royalities drop and I am considering upping my royalty amounts on certain items (my hand paintings) and digital sales as I am unhappy to be getting such a small amount for the copyright issues risk that will be on me associated with them. I would may sure you are get well first, (honey and lemon my go too 😉 ) having a good read through is the best step.

Oh and the other thing is we can now look at our crossover links, if you go to the Ambassador tab. I am experimenting with an instagram ad and that will be interesting to see if it has any affect, wasn't an easy way for me to do this before? The other good news for me is that I have 142,000 link overs! Some advantage to have been here for over 12 years now. Overall I don't mind paying for ads if it has some returns but it will have to at least gve me back what I have invested last time I did this on facebook over Christmas I got no referrals, hence I thought I would try instagram this time. I used to get a lot of referrals from pinterest but haven't got from there in almost 2 years despite pinning at least one product (when working) everyday! 

In summary try not to worry it will be what it will be. Revise your prices if you feel you deserve a certain price. If a customer is in love with your design they will still purchase it (within reason). Don't panic pivot if need be. Most importantly get well soon and keep smiling we have made it this far ! 😃 💕 Have a blessed day, take care 💖

[ElizabethR]

Thank you both. We think a 60% royalty is extreme. The secret behind our suddenly quitting promoting Zazzle. was one employee. Now, just as we are working on some new promoting ideas, we don't want to promote other's products because of the cut in their royalties. Maybe we could add their referral code. We will have to wait until next month to get into understanding all this. 

[Malissa]

I know you decided on a new royalty as you said in another reply, but I wanted to point out that there is a now a cap on royalties set at 50% instead of the old 99%.

[ElizabethR]

Thank you

[kashmier]

What happens on 4/15   -  a limited time to do what?  

[ElizabethR]

I think I read that Zazzle is allowing us the chance to change our royalties any day until 4/15.

[kashmier]

Do you know will we still be able to change it during the month before the 22nd as usual?

[ElizabethR]

The answer appears to be yes.

Here is the link.

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/royalty-rate-adjustments-update-until-april-15th/ba-p/1...

[ElizabethR]

We have decided to raise our royalty from 30% to 40%. That will make up for some of the loss, but only increase the price $10 for a $100 item. With the higher prices everywhere, we are hoping customers will like our designs well enough and won't notice.

In addition, we will be getting back to promoting to help people out and we will replace our referral code with theirs, so we don't rip off our fellow designers.

[Malissa]

I don't think anyone here (or at least not very many) think that other designers promoting are ripping them off.  As much as all the changes are causing upheaval, you (anyone) should think about your store/ambassadorship(?) in terms of what is best for you.  Why would you do all the hard work to promote and not get the money for yourself?  That is of course, just my opinion.  You will not get 35-50% referrals on other people's products.  It is the same 15%.  You only get that 35-50 off of your own products.  Any extra money coming out of our royalty for 3rd party fees goes to Z as a "marketing royalty fee", not to the referrer (unless it is "self"). 

[ElizabethR]

Thank you. I thought that if we referred someone they would lose 50%.

[Jadendreamer13]

During these unsettling and difficult economic times, your customers will definitely notice a $10.00 price increase. So try out your increased prices on only a few products and then see what effect, if any, that has on your customers’ buying habits. Then go from there.

[DesertSky]

Just want to clarify, Elizabeth said it would be a $10 increase on a $100 item. Most items on Zazzle are not $100, so the increase to a customer would be less than $10 in most cases. I agree that times are challenging for most people regarding money, but most people coming to Zazzle are coming here looking for customizable or somewhat unique items and are likely to pay more for them. We all have to do what we have to do to make our time and effort here worth it for us. If they feel that they need to raise their royalties to whatever percentage, I wouldn't discourage it. Many of us have raised our royalties, and though I can't speak for others, so far, my sales have stayed about the same. It's just my opinion, but I say to Elizabeth and Marilyn—do what you need to do, and as Malissa said, I encourage you to take the 15% if you promote other designers' items. It's not ripping anyone off, if you promote it, you deserve it. 

[Deseades]

I decided to increase my prices a bit, nothing crazy though, to at least offset some of my losses. The excess fee is nothing in comparison with 35% marketing fee. As of today almost all of my sales come from referrals (more than before April 1st) so I have been losing a lot of income...