When I first started "getting serious" about setting up on Zazzle, I was trying to instruct family on how use links that would have my referral ID in them if they felt inclined to buy anything (from me or any other shop). Didn't go well so I told them, OK, if you want to buy anything from Z, email me the product first and I will send you back a link with my ID in it, LOL. Then it was 'what if I want to send someone else to your store....?' So OK, the logical solution was to make a website to filter people through so I did. I made a straight forward shopping site - no pretense of being a blog with helpful articles or such - that is easier to navigate then Zazzle and has my RF and a tracking code in every link. So whether I am talking to someone in real-life about my store or want to share something on social, I can just direct to my website, which is a short, easy URL (colscreations) and from there they'll pick up my RF ID.
My site basically mirrors my store organization on Zazzle where I use Categories for general product types and Collections for design themes so every product is in one Category and one Collection. My site is organized the same way, using same names for those Cats & Collections. Even with my small store (less than 500 products) it's hard to keep up with when Z isn't your full-time job, but it serves its purpose. Which for me was to have a convenient way to direct people to my stuff where they'd also pick up my RF Id on clicking through to Zazzle. Being randomly found on Google wasn't my motivation but if that happens (I can only confirm one definite sale that came that way) that's all good too. 🙂
@Fiorenzo wrote:
Also consider that if your customers use Zazzle's international links (with the flags) to change language/domain, in some cases, they are not redirected to the related product page on the local domain but on Zazzle's homepage, so you not only lose your referral share, but the customer isn't on your product nor on your store's page either.
Got some questions but wanted to comment on this little bit first. Took me a while to find the flags/links on the product page; finally spotted the drop-down menu to change domains at the very bottom of the product page. No wonder I never noticed the option before. Did a little testing once I found it, in two different browsers, signed-in and not-signed in, and the results were consistently the same:
If you start from any non-US domain, pick a product, scroll down, and choose a different domain, it always goes to the main zazzle.com.xx page for that domain instead of to the product you were on, even if the US domain is your choice.
If you start from the US domain (1), pick a product, scroll down, and choose a different domain (2), it always goes to that same product on the selected domain (2). But if from there (2) you then decide to choose another domain (3), then it always goes to the main zazzle.com page, even if you selected the US again as (3). Which meshes with the above since in going from (2) to (3) you are no longer starting on the US domain.
So you can either
A) share links to the US domain and if the customer chooses another they'll stay on your product (unless they switch to a third) but you'll lose the referral if they buy anything yours or not. So you might land a royalty from your product but no referrals on that or anything else they might buy since your RF doesn't carry over to any of the foreign domains they might switch to.
or
B) share links to a foreign domain so your RF sticks for that particular domain for anything they might buy, but if they switch domains, you lose any potential referrals same as above AND the customer is taken from your product to the main page so you might also lose the sale/potential royalty on that product you were trying to lead them to.
This is all way beyond the level of promoting I do, LOL, but I don't think I would ever use Option B unless I was in @Fiorenzo 's shoes where you KNOW your target would prefer, say, the German domain, with no reason to switch. That way odds are good at getting both a royalty on your product and referrals on everything they might buy in their visit since you know they won't be switching domains.
You find the domain link easily on the title bar (on desktops):
You are right in regard to the product page / home page landing after switching (from com to int. domain product page / from int. domain product age to different domain homepage). As so often you did even better testing than I. I switched first from com to local then directly to a different local and landed on the homepage.
As I wrote, if your audience is mostly US-based, best solution is to simply stick to the US domain, but if your customer base is 50/50 US and international, you will lose a lot of referral cash, if you just stick to the com domain. In this case, it would be much better if you could handle the correct redirect on your website. If the customer chooses to buy your product on the local domain, they won't instantly switch back to the com domain within Zazzle but stay on the chosen local domain. Consider also that an international customer will be confronted with extremely high international shipping prices on the com domain, so chances are high, you will lose the customer there (there was such a post here). Also consider that international customers will have to deal with customs fees and hassles when ordering from the com domain, and this is not a great experience and also expensive. Chances are high, that some customers won't buy again. It's always the best option to try to direct international shoppers to their local domain, if doable and the product is available there. Needs extra management, tho.
As I wrote, I also focus on the com site but give my visitors the option to switch to their local domain. I will also have notes about the pros and cons of using local domains, so people know what they have to expect and make the choice that fits their needs best. And while we are at the side notes, I will also have FAQs about shipping, including that the first shipping amount they see on checkout is the more expensive premium one. One thing I have learned on Z is to be creative - and I don't mean this in terms of designing.
This whole thing is senseless in today's times where you promote internationally. Technically it's a no-brainer to carry a referral id to a different local domain.
Huh! I don't have that icon.
I've been thinking it must be due to technical or legal reasons and after some Googling, I think it's sort of both. Referral links work by setting a cookie and cookies can't be cross-domain. Here are a few excerpts from different sites I was reading on:
A properly designed browser will not allow a website to access another website's cookies, as this would violate the cross-domain policy and be a major security issue.
A fundamental security rule in every browser is that only the website that has created a cookie can read it later on.
First party cookies are set with the same domain name that is in the location bar of the visitor’s browser. It is very important to understand that cookies can only be 'seen', and changed, by the domain that sets them. In fact, it is almost impossible for a website to set a cookie for a different website. This is due to the default security setting that most browsers have. Website A can not set a cookie on website B.
This goes back to the "Same Origin Policy" (which applies to more than just cookies) that seems to be the Golden Rule for browsers, to protect users. So that for example MaliciousSiteB.com can't access & read cookies from YourBankingSiteA.com. There are some complicated work-arounds to skirt the SOP standard that involve re-directs and iFrames and third-party cookies (but here again, most modern browsers don't accept 3rd party cookies by default) so it seems like it would require a major overhaul on Zazzle's part to try to implement cross-domain cookies and why would they do that when it wouldn't benefit them or the customer, just the relatively small pool of designers/affiliates who might score some additional referral credits that way?
