After optimizing old designs, delete old version?

[Shar-Ken]

I am never sure whether, after doing an optimization of an older design, to then delete the old version.  What is your advice or experience ?  Thank you.

[Jadendreamer13]

If it has only a few views and no sales, I delete the old version.

[Shar-Ken]

Thanks Jadendreamer13 for taking time to share with me your way of handling the situation.  I have been designing since 2009 and have hundreds of older designs.  Many have lots of views but no recent sales and they have now been around a long time--thus the optimizing and updating the designs.  But that left me with the question about what to do with the originals.  I think getting rid of the "clutter" would be a good thing.  Sounds like maybe you would agree?  Thanks  again!

[jophb]

If they have views and ever sold, I would not delete. She was saying if they do NOT have views or sales she would delete them. But it sounds like yours do.  Or if you ever shared on Pinterest where a link is still active.  I had a 5+ year item that had never sold... can't even tell you where on Pinterest I pinned it... but 5 years after posting, that item sold with a referral that made me almost $700 in one sale (and that was with the 15% old school way).

[Shar-Ken]

Jophb, sadly most of these designs had many views but very few had any sales. ( I mistakenly used to think it was best to lock everything and not allow any customization.  WRONG! ). Things got better once I learned not to lock everything.  I. understand not deleting anything that has had a sale but not so much if they have had lots of views and no sales.    I wonder how zazzle feels about designers having duplicates (or nearly duplicates) of designs ?  Anyway, I always appreciate someone who is willing to share their thoughts --thank you!

[Jadendreamer13]

So, when a product has a lot of views but no sales, that often indicates a problem with one of my customizable text fields (like maybe I forgot to make it a template). In that case, I correct the issue, optimize the product, and send it back out for another try.

The products I delete typically have only 1-2 views and no sales. I create a new product to replace the deleted product at the same time.

[Shar-Ken]

Jadendreamer13,  On many of these older designs, I am doing minor changes to them (beyond just allowing them to be templates) so then when I am done I get the page with the choice to "sell it" and I do that.  I assume because I made some changes, it is now a "new" design and I have to "sell it "again. This is where I end up with more copies of a design in the marketplace.  This is when I am not sure what to do--whether to delete the original that had lots of views and no sales and just go with the new version only or keep both the old and the new in the marketplace.  I am probably not explaining this well.  My apologies!  And thanks again.

[Windy · Accepted solution]

I call that a "remake". When I remake a design, I do delete the original one just as soon as I post the new one for sale. I don't have too many with lots of views and no sales. It's more likely to have nearly zero views and no sales!

However,  I did come across one today with 956 views and only four sales. Naturally,  I don't consider this my best product. I made a nice cover for it, but I should probably make a similar design,  which would use the same merchandising. There is something about that card which makes people want to take a closer look, and if I could figure it out, I could probably get some more sales on that concept. 

[Shar-Ken]

Thanks so much for sharing, Windy.  I think I also lean toward deleting ones that have lots of views but no sales.  These seem to be telling me that I need to do the optimizing (re-make, actually) and. then delete the originals.  So many views on some of these designs could be because they have been around so long (I started here in 2009).  Zazzle and I have improved over those many years. We now have many more design tools available to us.  And the passage of time and practice have helped me as a designer. (along with all my fellow zazzlers who so generously share their know-how when we don't know what we are doing. It is one thing to have dozens of views or more over a short period of time (and more recent)  as opposed to  a design that has been around collecting views for many years and few of them recent.   Anyway, I think I will sort of use that as my guide.

Thanks again, Windy, for your thoughts.

[Jadendreamer13]

I used to keep the old design in case I needed to prove that I was the original creator (if someone came along and copied my design), but that hasn’t been an issue for me, so unless the design was complicated and it took me hours to create it, I delete the old version. It makes my shop easier to manage without storing duplicate products. Of course, I always keep copies of my original artwork created in Illustrator or Photoshop.