Why are the top designers silent?

[OakAndPine]

Just wondering why the top designers in Zazzle are silent on the changes since April 1st? Is it not affecting them? As per my understanding if you are making a few dollars on Zazzle you are loosing less, but if you are a top earner, your losses are greater. Right? If I previously made $50 on Zazzle, I will be making around $ 25 now , with all the changes and fees levied on us. But if I were making $1000 per month on Zazzle, I will be now making only around $500 or less. Isn't that a significant loss?

[Anne]

Just guessing here, but maybe the top designers are also the ones who get self-referrals and thus profit immensely from this change. Plus Zazzle is promoting their products (not or to a lesser extend, those of regular folks)?

[klstock]

Do you mean others referring them instead of self referrals? (We can all refer our own products to get a self referral). 

[OakAndPine]

That is highly possible. Wish some of the top tier designers could give us an insight on how/if the new changes are affecting them also..

[Caprice]

Bingo.

[LMGildersleeve]

Or, because you can't see the higher tier forums, you may not be seeing their discussions. Or, they could be in direct communication with Z via email. Or, they are busy trying to figure out how to deal with this new situation. Or, or, or... you get my drift.

[klstock]

They are free to comment here or in a tier where their comments could be seen, just like the rest of us. 

[Jadendreamer13]

Some top designers do post here. I’ve seen a number of posts and responses by Pro Diamond and Pro Platinum sellers. 🙂

[klstock]

Yes, I have seen a couple but I also wonder why more haven't weighed in if it is also negatively affecting them too?

[CarlaRolfe]

While I certainly cannot speak for all top tier designers here, I can say that many simply choose to avoid the public forums - for a wide variety of personal and professional reasons. 

[klstock]

I avoid it for months at a time. But when something is negatively affecting my earnings as this is, I think public comments are necessary. 

[SORS]

It’s hard not to feel disheartened when you’ve poured your heart and soul into building something — countless hours, sacrifices, hopes for the future — and then see it shaken by changes completely out of your control. It’s not just about lower profits; it’s about feeling like years of dedication and effort have been disregarded.

After 10 years of steady, faithful work on Zazzle, I finally achieved Platinum Seller status. It wasn’t luck. It was years of consistent effort, strategy, and heart — building slowly but surely, fueled by a passion for what I create. Reaching that level was a true milestone for me, a sign that the years of perseverance had paid off. But now, with these recent changes, even with sales still coming in, the reward for that hard work has been cut drastically. It’s painful to realize that the fruits of so much labor are being diminished right before our eyes.

But here’s what I know: our work still matters. It is not wasted. Even if the numbers don’t show it right now, the love and care we pour into our shops, into our creations, into serving others — those things have a value that can’t be measured by spreadsheets.

For me personally, my shop has always been an apostolate — a way to share the beauty of the Catholic faith with others. I continue to trust in the Lord, give thanks for every single sale, and offer these new trials up for the greater Glory of God. And I will not stop.

To everyone feeling weary right now: don’t lose heart. We are builders. We are creators. We are sowing seeds that will bear fruit, even if we don’t see it yet. Your work is seen. Your perseverance is seen. Keep showing up. Keep creating. Keep trusting.

I don’t know if these changes will ever be reversed — realistically, they probably won’t. But even so, I believe the work we’ve done, and the work we continue to do, is still valuable. It’s worth building something beautiful, even when the road gets harder.

Together, we can weather this storm — and come out stronger than before.

For the Greater Glory of God.

[Mariholly]

I admire your faith and your positive way of dealing with it. I’m simply devastated and can’t see beyond it. As you very well said, this is not the work of a day. I don’t know a single Zazzler who isn’t a hardworking little ant full of hopes for the future, someone who has poured their life into creating, sharing, and promoting, only to now face these new and unfair conditions.

[klstock]

Those were very nice words of encouragement. Thanks for taking the time to write them

[Westerngirl2]

I don't know about some of the things brought up in this thread...a private board for elite sellers, or such. I would guess these changes are also not largely helpful to them, either, but I have no way of knowing what they are thinking.

What I HAVE been thinking about is the very obvious silence from Zazzle. It's a month now. Those who could give us some insight have chosen to remain silent. That speaks very loudly in itself.

As others have mentioned, virtually every sale now is a 3rd party sale. That did not happen before. It's cut my profits in half, and left me feeling like my investment is only going to profit someone else. I don't know who. And I don't like this impulse to speculate about it.

It's sad. I just don't know.

I just don't know what to think anymore.

[CapriWedding]

I completely agree with you. Very sad everything. Great bitterness to force and direct anyway to a situation with no way out. I too have no idea how present. But I see that Zazzle evidently does not care that there is great discontent, expressed and declared. I would never have expected such a thing. You could not have written more meaningful words :
And I don't like this impulse to speculate about it.

[CapriWedding]

Those who could give us some insight have chosen to remain silent. That speaks very loudly in itself.

These words of yours are very true. I would never have expected this here either, because such a situation has objectively damaged everyone. No one excluded. That is why I would have expected a powerful voice coming from this community. Is it really a guiding policy to set up a programme that goes to halve, because the results speak for themselves no matter what, the profits of those who work? But shouldn't a company give more incentive to those who invest in their work with respect to the company itself, investing in their work perseverance to reach subjective goals and thus also pushing the company's profit? I see exactly the same thing as you: the profit is not even halved, it is even less. It doesn't seem to me from what I read that there is a shared happiness.
This has left me very perplexed, and with great sadness I admit that I would never have expected that a company reading everything it sees here would not have realised, all these days to date, how much bitterness it has created among the people who work and have invested in their work. On the contrary, I see an endless indifference, and even I admit a total disaffection towards all those who, if you like, have contributed to making the company earn, with their work, their creative ideas, their belief in it. Instead, I have always thought about what generally happens: companies incentivise those who work for them, they don't cut or reduce their earnings, no, if anything, they make those who work for them more and more satisfied. Unless they are collapsed by recessionary policies, and I don't see this as being the case.

[klstock]

Now Zazzle is censoring and deleting comments that dare to suggest some might be profiting at the expense of others. 

[CapriWedding]

Yes. I realised it just now. Very serious. 

[Scott]

The original source of the comment said it was being taken out of context, so we removed that discussion. Continuing to share information that is being twisted beyond its original intent is not something that we really want to see happen here. And, if you were not aware that the original source clarified the context of their comments in the other thread, then you are now.

The world is an ever-changing place, and the comments that we've all made in the past may not be totally relevant today. Taking the current situation into account when you're forming an opinion or strategy is part of what makes us all human. For instance, someone providing investment advice may have different guidance in 2018 vs 2020 vs 2023 vs 2025. So, sometimes we need to remember that guidance is partly an artifact of that period of time.

Having said all of that, I hope that my comments will be taken in a general context. I'm only mostly familiar with the recent conversations that have happened, but I wanted to hop in and help clear things up. I'm not here to take sides, and I don't have any favorites. My hope here is that we can all continue forward in a constructive manner and use the forums as a place to exchange ideas and suggestions and game plans for the future.

[CapriWedding]

I think as many people here Scott, regardless of all, have expressed great sadness and dissatisfaction.
Your hope of being able to move forward constructively is commendable, as I think it is indeed a welcome and objectively pursued opinion of everyone who works and has worked here. But there is a big problem. Because it seems that this hope right now for so many, including myself, who have believed in investing in our work, we have been subjected to a change that has unfortunately upset the numbers of an earning and that regardless of everything, it is the meaning for each of us of so much dedication, perseverance and willingness to work in an extremely constructive way. I am sure that when you can and will, in a moment of your spare time, devote yourself to understanding how many comments have been made in the midst of sadness and bitterness by so many people who believed they could invest in their work right here where we are now, I think you will understand that unfortunately there is no one who is currently the guarantor of shared happiness. There is no happiness Scott. Being well is the most important thing can be to work well.
That's why I hope you can dwell on these bitter and sad comments reported by all of us who have expressed the basic view of a real defeat. Defeat of what? Of no longer being able to believe and no longer considering an investment on which one had relied and which concerned one's work here as an adhesion towards not only the subjective but clearly also the objective growth of the company. This is obvious. Implicit.
So let me say to you Scott that it is very sad to see, read and then consider and take note that there is a lot of bitterness and sadness, I emphasise again, towards a programme that has cut no matter how it takes place, how it operates and how it evolves, the earnings of all those who believed in the growth of their work here.
For truly in good faith I can only write that I am sure that each company desires the satisfaction of those who work with and for it.
And the comments that are written here in this community you can see are not comments of happiness, of joy to see that if anything a programme has been designed to fortify everyone's earnings, there is no satisfaction, there is no happiness and there is no joy.
And that is very very sad.

[klstock]

Thanks, as I stated in the comment that was deleted, I was NOT the source – I quoted it verbatim. Other than the small part that was quoted, the rest of the comments that were also deleted had nothing to do with that person. I made it clear to that person, in the other thread they had taken down, that I was NOT the source. Please have them discontinue falsely attributing it to me. 

Many of us have been exchanging ideas, suggestions and questions for the last month but have received no response from Zazzle unfortunately. 

[Anne]

That would be a little too late now. It's already in Google's algorithms. For some mysterious reason the threads in the forum DO show up in search, contrary to our products.
Censoring and deleting comments about problems is always a bad strategy. It shows guilt (whether real or not). Killing the whistleblower has been proven not only ineffective in history, but also counterproductive.
It also creates a sense of "them vs us".
I am wondering who is driving this (the new TOS). Zazzle management, or is it hostile shareholders?
What is needed is a policy of inclusion. Designers are not the only ones involved. We also have all those working in the production and supply lines, Zazzle staff members, distributors and a whole bunch of others (including Alex's cat of course). Are the producers also facing unjust contracts? We don't hear of them here in the forum, but they most likely also are going through rough times.
As we are moving further into the Age of Aquarius all that is dark is brought to the surface to be healed and removed. The only way forward is in the light. Underscoring @SORS comment.

[Caprice]

I believe Z is still a private company; i.e., no shareholders.