Is Zazzle taking our referrals by overriding our cookies

[OakAndPine]

I have been promoting other designer's products on Pinterest via pins and boards for years, but have not received a single cross referral sale till date. Am I just marketing another's product for free? Is it possible that in some way Zazzle is able to convert my referral sale and themselves become the third party? Am I wasting my time ? Am I being a fool by advertising and marketing for Zazzle and being cheated of all referrals, even though the customer may have come through my Pinterest link? How is it possible that all my marketing efforts never bring me a cross referral? I am confused on what to do. Any advice is appreciated.

[Mariholly]

If you haven’t read this post, you might find it interesting:

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/corrupted-quot-cookies-quot/m-p/197376

[OakAndPine]

What a lot of confusion going on. Feeling cheated! No response from Zazzle even after so many days!!

[OakAndPine]

Can you imagine the amount of money that Zazzle would have to pay out if all referrals links were working correctly? So instead, the plan is to half the designer's royalties and keep the majority of referral sales with them by attributing it as 3rd party. They are making so much more money now. Really sorry to speculate, but there is no clarity from Zazzle. No response and we  designers are loosing our hard earned money daily 😞

[Mariholly]

ALL my few sales in May, EVERY SINGLE ONE, is from third-party referrals!

[OakAndPine]

Mine are few and far between and all are 3rd party after April 1st, except for 2 sales

[Mariholly]

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but it feels like everything is about to blow up at any moment. Many designers or creators, or whatever they want to call us, are angry—really angry, in fact. You can even sense a bit of distrust when, at the beginning of the month, our royalty amounts took a while to show up. Not to mention all the unanswered comments and posts. I don't know...

[igiftcenter]

Please don't take this the wrong way but....
there is no way to know how much / more money Z is or is not making under any circumstances. Nobody knows a business the way the company itself knows their business. It could be that expenses / costs have increased in such a dramatic way that the company is making less than it used to make all things being equal. 

I'm not suggesting what you are saying is right or wrong and I'm not criticizing your post in any way. But I learned a long time ago: it's nothing but guesswork to assume how much a company is making or not making from the "outside looking in'.   After over 14 years on this platform I can only tell you that the people that run this company have been very compassionate and generous in a variety of ways.

I wish you future success 

[LMGildersleeve]

I think  you have to analyze and do what is best for your business / hobby and time spent. If you are not getting referrals via Pinterest there are two ways to look at this.

Firstly, are your promotion efforts worth changing up? Should you spend the time creating manual pins vs. the Share button on Z? Do you do the research of what is trending on Pinterest, or just pin willy nilly whatever floats your boat?

The second question you have to ask yourself, if you are not willing to put the extra time to up your Pinterest game, is it worth it to continue?

If you feel you've exhausted any extra efforts to promoting on Pinterest and it's not giving you $, it's up to YOU to decide whether to continue that avenue of promoting in the future. If it gives you anxiety to continue to do this kind of affiliate marketing you may just want the piece of mind and not doing it any longer.

There is no easy answer.

[OakAndPine]

Most of pins are manual pins. After April 1st was promoting more in the hopes of getting a few referral sales for myself, what with our royalties  halved, but nothing so far

[LMGildersleeve]

The one big lesson I have learned about pins are that the returns are slow in coming. Something pinned today may take months even years to generate money. Pinterest is a slow return on time investment. That's how it's always worked for me in any case.

The royalty question... that will be anyone's guess. 🙄

[Sea-Change]

I have wondered at time about the manual pins that I've created as well, some with videos. Some have had 100+ Saves, with 1,000+ clicks and 1K+ impressions. While I don't think Impressions have much meaning, I'm inferring that a Save suggests at least the potential for intent. For example, I would speculate/wish that 100+ saves per pin across 1000+ of my most active pins might result in a few more customers with actionable cookies buying products.

While customers have so many competing options for purchase, and cookies are complicated, I have hoped for more referrals than the handful I've earned over the past few years. What's weird is that some referrals have come in the same week, and they were much more frequent a few years ago. It's been enough each time to make me hope everything is functional again or pinning might be worth my time, but then it's radio silence for months afterward.

I don't know what is happening under the hood, beyond the potential for corrupted or competing cookies  (or maybe some A-B testing at times?}, but I will continue to evaluate if grinding away at promotion is worth it. I also realize these are not usual economic times, but I want to ensure I'm making the best time investment at all times.

[YesItsRoy]

I do a TON of saves for inspiration -- crafting, recipes, watercolor -- and never click the link in the pin.  I'm an electronic hoarder that way. 😁

If you go to your Pinterest on mobile, look at your Profile, and top left (on Android; could be different on iThings), click the little bar chart.  That will get you to your stats.  Look at ALL PINS, then on the TOP PINS page, change the drop-down to OUTBOUND CLICKS.  That will give you a better idea of how many clicks per save you're getting. 

^This assumes you have a Business Pinterest account.

[Sea-Change]

Thanks, yes, I track those statistics. I look at saves, oubound clicks, and all the stats available via a Business Pinterest account. I also review the lifetime history of pins on their individual stats pages.

[tsikona]

In April I made self referrals, mostly digital downloads. In May sales have gone down. I am hopeful this slowdown is temporary.

[Heather]

Hi @OakAndPine - Referred Sales are tracked based on how the Customer arrives at Zazzle—whether through your Self-Promotion Links, a Zazzle advertisement, or other sources. Referrals are tracked using cookies and other technologies lasting 45 days. If someone purchases within 45 days after clicking your Link (and has not clicked another Referral Link since then), you earn the Referral Commission. With the launch of the Ambassador Program, we've extended the referral window to two weeks, meaning you'll receive credit for any qualifying sales that happen within 14 days of someone clicking your Referral Link. This is a meaningful improvement: the majority of Zazzle shoppers make a purchase within this extended timeframe, so your efforts are protected for longer. After two weeks, if a customer clicks another referral link, that new link becomes the active referral, and commission credit will be reassigned accordingly.

[OakAndPine]

Thanks Heather for your response. I have been a proud and happy Zazzle since 2007. But the new Ambassador terms have hit us very badly. Hope there will be changes soon to protect the interest of the designers.

[OakAndPine]

Majority of sales are 3rd party sales. That means that people are able to do cross referral sales successfully right? But I have never ever received a cross referral sale myself inspite of promoting other designs on Zazzle. I wonder what I am doing wrong and what the other 3rd party referrals are doing right....some guidance would be appreciated.

[Lea]

Hi @Heather - are you able to give us insight as to whether this is also the case with Rakuten? If a customer clicks our link to enter the site but then opts to do the Rakuten cash back (I know a lot of people - myself included - who use that browser plug in), does that override our referral and then become 3rd party?

[ColsCreations]

I tested the Rakuten extension myself, if you search the forum you can find my post w/ screenshots. (On mobile at moment, too hard to search myself).

If the user already has a Z cookie set, Rakuten is not able to override it, the same 14 day protection is still in effect.

But if they arrive at Zazzle as NONE somehow and then click the Rakuten extensiom, then yeah, I'm pretty certain it would become 3rd Party w/ Rakuten as referrer.

[Lea]

Thanks, @ColsCreations - I'll look for that! I remember I had asked about Rakuten awhile back - probably when I first noticed it on here - but wasn't sure if anything would've changed with the new terms and if that could be the 3rd party we're seeing more of.

[YesItsRoy]

---

But if they arrive at Zazzle as NONE somehow and then click the Rakuten extensiom, then yeah, I'm pretty certain it would become 3rd Party w/ Rakuten as referrer.

---

The reason I refuse to post Clean Links.  I'm not buying what they're selling any more. 😉