How long to get a new badge? Finally got to Silver over Christmas

[SunnyDays]

I finally got to the ProSilver over the holiday season, but haven't heard a peep from Zazzle about getting a new badge for my stores. Do any of you know how long that takes or even if they do that anymore? It's been so long since I made bronze that I don't remember how that went. Anyway, a pretty new badge might cheer me up a bit since sales are so slow. Has anyone recently hit Silver (or Bronze) and received a badge/acknowledgment from Zazzle? Thanks.

[CrazyMermaid]

Did you get an official email from Zazzle telling you that you had reached Silver. Having the badge flip happens autuomatically once you reach $25,000 in US Sales for Silver. I didn't have to do anything. 

[SunnyDays]

I did not get the email. I went silver in January.

[CrazyMermaid]

How did you calculate the $25,000 in US dollars you need for Silver?

[WHS_Designs]

I track all my earnings manually on a spreadsheet and use the SUM function to add up all the USD-based earnings.

[Cat]

@WHS_Designs I've written a database in MS Access to do some of this, but it's not a simple calculation because of the extraneous text data interspersed with the numbers. So I have a bunch of queries to sort out the data, and in general, my conclusion is that it's not worth the hassle.

Curious to know which data you're downloading (summary history, royalty history, referral history) and which fields you're using where you can get that info with just a simple SUM function.

[WHS_Designs]

@Cat my method is decidedly low tech compared to yours. 🙂

I download the Royalty History report (and Referral History report, when I am lucky enough to get referrals) and manually create entries for the data (thank goodness I have a second display).

I highlight earnings entries made on the USD domain in yellow (for easy visibility) and do ongoing monthly, year-to-date, and lifetime summations. That gets linked to another set of spreadsheets that feature bar charts and more data I can have fun with to see which months and years I did well in, number of sales, USD to total currency sales & percentages, etc.

I don't update the currencies every day -- that would be a nightmare -- just a couple of times in the month or when the CAD dollar is massively up or down.

Back when I was working in the computing industry, I would use a hideously long VLOOKUP function in Excel to tie the CSV reports (which were winnowed down to just the data columns I wanted, also using queries -- don't think it was MS Access, that was, ironically, too advanced for us to use at that time 🙂 ) to the earnings, but that was ages ago. I'd probably have to go back to school to learn how to do that again! 😉 

[Cat]

@WHS_Designs Oy! That sounds like even more work than my Access queries! I used to be able to do them in my sleep, but these days I fear it takes more mental energy than I feel like putting into it!

Well anyhow, thanks for the info, I thought maybe there was a simpler way to do it, but it doesn't sound like it. Seems like a year or two back they were asking us for input on how we'd like the reports to work, but then nothing ever came of it. I'm sure the project is floating around on someone's back burner somewhere, but it sure would be nice to be able to get better info without having to go through so many gymnastics. Oh well... maybe someday! 😀

[WHS_Designs]

someday, indeed! 🙂

Excel can be fun to use (when it behaves) ... and I DO need to play the cheerleader to myself with milestones and achievements of my own creation (because it's a long, LONG slog to Gold status for me). 🙂 

[CrazyMermaid]

I just take the USD earnings in the Payment Summary we get every month. There is no way I am going to keep track of all the pennies and foreign currency adjustments.

[WHS_Designs]

clearly, I'm a glutton for punishment. 😉 

[DancingPelican]

The History Report that Zazzle posts each month under your earnings section shows exactly how much earnings of your monthly earnings are in US dollars. You find that in the "description" section on the History Report. It shows all the currencies for your sales each month, and you can see the USD earnings at the bottom of those currencies (currencies are in alphabetical order). In tracking my monthly earnings, I keep a spreadsheet with 12 columns for each year, one for each month of the year. I enter my earnings each month (total earnings). Then I keep a 2nd part of the spreadsheet with 12 columns, that only tracks US dollar earnings. In that one, I enter the USD amount each month that I take from the History Report from Zazzle. I keep a running sum all year to view my year-to-date totals in both total earnings and USD earnings.  So easy!

[DancingPelican]

It's the History report under the "Payments" section.

[CrazyMermaid]

That is just what I do. It takes no time at all. 

[Cat]

@DancingPelican OMG - thank you! You mean the payments history report - the green one? I honestly never look at that one, and I didn't realize that the microscopic text actually contained the amounts we got in different currencies - I thought it was just the exchange rate. Doh!

Well anyhow, here's the link just in case anyone else is as ignorant as I am: https://www.zazzle.com/my/earnings/payments

I'm going to go play with numbers now (after setting my screen magnification to 200% so I can actually read that stuff!)

[DancingPelican]

Yes Cat, that's it! It's quick and easy to grab that USD amount each month and drop it into your record keeping. I just zoom in my view enough to be able to read the small print!

[SunnyDays]

I didn't realize this. Thank you.

[chessie]

oh wow thanks for this info . I have been waiting for a while for my silver badge as according to my earnings I am well and truly over the 25000 but have just realised not all in USD sales! But it is fun to see what other countries are buying my designs . 

[klsantillo]

Does US referral monies also go towards your silver status, or just product sales?? 

[DancingPelican]

My understanding is that the badge status (be it silver or whatever level achieved) is based on earnings in US dollars. Our earnings history tracks that and it does not split it out between royalty and referral earnings, it simply shows the total earnings. This would seem to indicate that our badge level is based on the total earnings in U.S. Dollars  (combined royalty,referral, and any volume bonus you may have earned). Zazzle, please correct me if I am wrong.

[ACR]

Thank you very much for this explanation!

[DancingPelican]

You are very welcome!

[Cat · Accepted solution]

If you haven't gotten the email yet then you haven't gone silver yet. As @CrazyMermaid said, only cleared US sales count toward the badges. So you need $25K in cleared US sales - and the reporting system doesn't provide an easy way to sort that out. If half of your sales are from overseas, then you might be only half way there even if you've got over $25K in total sales. It's kind of a crazy system, IMHO, but it is what it is.

[CrazyMermaid]

Are you sure you made the $25,000 in US dollars? How do you know you went to Silver?

[CrazyMermaid]

I honestly just track how much money goes in my checking account. I didn't realize I had gone Gold until a few people saw the badge and sent nice messages! My badges  flip way over the minimum amount because of all the foreign sales. I more am fascinated by all the different currencies. I love seeing how much I sold to Japan and other faraway places!

[plumb4me]

I went Silver in January 2023, I received an email I went Silver and the Pro Silver Badge appeared on my shop. I have always used the green payment summary report, to track my US sales.

[SunnyDays]

That's what I've looked at, too. Should be Silver. I guess I could ask zazzle.

[plumb4me]

You can email Zazzle and they will be able to tell you,