Am I doing it right? Affiliate marketing and running my own store.

[Carthage_Kitten]

Hi all

I am very new to Zazzle as well as Print on Demand and Affiliate marketing as a whole. I recently quit my job, moved abroad and am working at this full time. Jumping in the deep end so to speak. I really need to make this work.
Talking of the deep end, I decided to set a budget of £100 for promoting a single product on Pinterest from Zazzle. It is not my own product, but I really liked it, it is trending and is perfect for valentines day. I didn't want to pay for advertising for any of my own products yet as I don't know which of them are likely to sell as my store has only been open a couple of weeks. I thought it would be better to start with something I assume is already selling.

Can others please check out my store and what I have written above, then advise?
https://www.zazzle.com/store/carthage_kitten

Thank you

[Sara_H]

@Carthage_Kitten Welcome to Zazzle! Personally I wouldn't spend £100 on pinterest ads on someone else's product if you're very new to Affiliate marketing and Zazzle. That money could have gone to something far more useful.

It can take months to get your first sale (it did for me) and you really need to fill your store with a range of products. 

There are loads of helpful threads for newbies. Have a search round each of the forums and take in as much information as you can.

I would fill your store with more products at different price points. Make them customizable (i.e templates/add a name etc)

It just takes time

[CreativeLeahG]

I can't see any of your products with template fields the customer can edit? This is primarily why people shop on Zazzle - for items they can personalize. So first things first I'd add some template fields and consider WHO your target customer is. What is your unique selling point? What need, problem, desire, interest are you fulfilling?

[Carthage_Kitten]

Funny enough, I just created one today. It didn't come out looking as good as it did on Canva/Gimp, but it's a start. 

[chefcateringbiz]

First, about the products in your store: links-to-common-answers  Also, cats are a very saturated market at Zazzle, so you'll have to really buckle down on your marketing efforts. Yoga, meditation or new age isn't as saturated and may be the way to your targets. Also, along with templates for some or all of the text, you could offer more color options, particularly for the wall art, which people have to match with their current decor or taste. For example, looks like you could turn most of the cats and background images to svg, then the customer can change the colors of the image elements along with the background colors. Or, you could just recolor them yourself, upload and offer them as a group product with different color options.

Next, advertising: Rule of thumb, you shouldn't spend money on advertising until you have a stable, multi-tiered marketing plan, exhausting every free outlet possible and you're getting results. Beginners do marketing, successful people do advertising.