Newbie Question about New Commissions

[prentissbarr]

Hi there - not sure where to put this question best! I just made my first sale under the new program (and had reduced my seller commissions to 10% in alignment with the new suggestion), the sale is $77.84 but says it's referred by a third party (everything is third party whether from Zazzle or an ambassador unless a self-promoted link now right?), so it says the marketing royalty fee applies. That leaves my creator royalty for a $78 sale at only $4.67 total earnings (5.999%).

Does that seem correct? Also what should I be doing instead? Should I increase my seller commission over the 10%? It doesn't seem sustainable to make only 6% on sales?

Thank you for your suggestions and help!

[Sara_H]

@prentissbarr  Congrats on the sale!

It's up to you what you set your royalties at to make whatever you deem to be fair for your artwork. There are no rules as to what percentages you set your royalties at  - only suggestions.

Without knowing which product you sold, all referred sales now have a departmental MFR attached to it which will reduce your royalties by somewhere between 35 - 50% than they were before (there was a 20% carve out fee)

At the end of the day it's up to you whether staying on zazzle will be sustainable or not.

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/30810357489175-Ambassador-Referral-Commissions-Creator-Roy...

(edited to add a screenshot)

[prentissbarr]

Thank you Sara! Yes we'll see - I suppose if there's huge volume, it might work lol. But when I saw it, I laughed out loud actually. It was 56 paper party plates.

[kashmier]

I can't really tell you but I made a sale today for $254.52 and my commission is $5.94 with a fee set at 18.9% - this is depressing.  is 2.3%

[prentissbarr]

OMG I cannot believe that. (I mean of course I do!) but that is crazy. This seems like a mess.

[HoBiNi]

Why is there a fee set of 18,9 Percent. I get my 12 % royalty until now. Hobinishop

[prentissbarr]

I think they were saying that they set their seller standard commission to 18.9% - you can set it to whatever you want. Just a 5% penalty applies now if it's above 10%. But it still works out best sometimes depending on situation to get dinged with the 5% instead of dropping your royalty to only 10% to avoid it.

[tamirazdesigns]

That is Very Sad indeed!  Was bad enough over the years getting less payments for our designs on items sold when they started the carve out, 15% or higher royalty rate penalty, etc. deductions...and we got basically pennies for all our work!.  Now it's even worse with the latest changes and so confusing with different percentage amount tiers, per department.  Why?  So now we'll just get small peanuts looks like.  The less we get, the more they get.   We're not sales associates or reps just selling their items as is, say blank white items, and on some sliding scale tier level program.  We're designing and licensing our designs and hard work onto these tons of items with a unique broad range of designs.  Unless I'm missing something, and these changes will net us more income payments, per items than ever before here.  That would be great!

[Westerngirl2]

OMG....that is just worse than awful. What category was the product in? I can't imagine how such a meager royalty was calculated for a sale of that size. Frankly, no matter the calculation method, there is NO WAY that is fair or right.

Have you asked for an explanation? I am so sorry that happened to you. 😫

[Connie]

I wholeheartedly agree!

[tiffjamaica]

You should definitely reach out to zazzle about this one! I have a spreadsheet that I'm using to plug in numbers and no combination leads to you only getting 5.94 royalty on that sale. At minimum I'm getting 21.65 (assuming a third party referred sale, 50% marketing bracket, your royalty rate is 18.9, and the sale total was 254.52).  

[Jadendreamer13]

This is very discouraging.

[prentissbarr]

If anyone knows - I would love to know - if you do a cross-promotion link do you receive the referral fee on the total sale or just the specific product the link was to? Ex. if your ambassador link was to the pink version of the pillow and the customer clicks but buys that pillow in the purple variation - would the ambassador get the 15%? And do they receive a commission on all the items that customer buys at that time -- or just the one item they linked to?

It's seeming like it might be a safer bet just to keep using the ambassador referral links knowing you'll get the 15% and then your seller commission (minus the fees) - even if it's to one of our own products. Because they indicated that if the customer doesn't buy the exact variation you link to then you don't get anything above your seller commission for self-promotion links. 

It is what it is so not trying to complain but to understand what's best -- and I definitely want to try and see if I can make all this work -- but I'm wondering what is the smartest thing to do to make sure I'm not earning pennies.

[Malissa]

All of the links you put out whether for your own products or anyone else's fall under "ambassador links" umbrella as long as you are signed up for the program. The "cross-promotion link" is for promoting products from other sellers and it contains your RF number.  If you get a cross-promotion referral, then you should get the referral on all of the items that were purchased at that time by the customer.  

A "self-promotion link" is for promoting your own products to get the possible higher referral fee that is on a scale now depending on the department the product is in. You do not add a RF number and they are referred to as "clean" links. You only get this referral if the customer buys one of your products.  It does NOT have to be the specific product you linked to as long as it is still your own product.  I think you still get zero if someone ends up buying any other sellers product through a self-promotion (or "clean") link.

[tiffjamaica]

I've spent a LOT of time doing math this week... Here's how it works out: 

Sale 77.84 x 10% = 7.78 Royalty
Marketing Fee = 7.78 x 40% = 3.11
Royalty - MF = 7.78 - 3.11 = 4.67
This ends up being a 25% decrease (You would've earned 6.23 before the changes assuming 10% royalty)
Hope that helps understand the numbers! 

As for what to do... unless you make a lot of self referred sales, the only thing that makes sense is to raise your royalties.

[prentissbarr]

Thank you so much! That is very clear @tiffjamaica ❤️ Also do you happen to know if you use cross-promotion links does the person get credit/commissions on anything a customer buys from that after clicking the link OR only the specific product that was linked to? Or did that change too with the new program?

Thank you for your expertise!!!

[tiffjamaica]

As far as I understand (and this week has been confusing, so take my advice with a grain of salt) here's how it works: 

If you Cross Promote - that means you are adding your unique rf code to your link.  It will earn you 15% on any sale of any product the customer buys after clicking through your rf link. 

If you put out a "clean" link, meaning no added code, you can earn a self referral on YOUR products only. Other people's items will earn you nothing. This is how the Promoter Program was and many of us have seen the dreaded 0.00 "sales" show up in our earnings reports. So it does happen that sometimes people will come in on your clean link but buy another sellers items. 

SO, linking is a little like gambling. Do you want to bet big that your products stand out enough to the customer that they won't get distracted by all the shiny other products that are literally all over the product pages now? Or do you play it safe and hope to just get 15%?   Personally, I still choose self referrals because I just don't have time to dedicate to being an affiliate promoter. But it could make sense for some! 

Also note that self referrals are not calculated the same as they were in the Promoter Program anymore, so it will involve a little more math to figure out which type of referral link would be worth it... SIGH. 😞