Question about this Collaborate feature on zazzle.

[chuamishael]

What is this Collaborate?, if I invite my friends to design, and he/she is a z designer. if our design sold, do we both get commission?

[idraw]

@chuamishael 
(idraw Valued Contributor III)
I answered another post here 02-06-2023 06:11 AM —
your answer may be here—if the creator collaboration  is what you used—-
(there is a “live” button in the left column of your page that connects to creator collaboration)
<https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041558013-Zazzle-LIVE-FAQ>
In the article it says—
Once you have made your selection, you’ll be prompted with details of the service, price, etc.
At the end of the article it goes on to say—-
Have more questions?
Visit: https://www.zazzle.com/about/ask, from the “Select Topic” drop down menu choose: “Zazzle Live”, and then click on “Thanks, but I still need help” link to send a message to our customer service team 

[Cat]

Are you talking about the collaborate button inside the design tool? If so, it's for helping a customer with a design or something like that - or if a customer wants to invite a friend to help with their design. I believe it's how the LIVE designers assist customers with their designs as @idraw mentioned above, but it's also used any time you want to allow two people to be viewing and working on the design together.

In terms of splitting the royalty, as far as I know the answer is no. (LIVE designers do get paid, but I have no idea how that works, I only know it's not a royalty split.) The only time royalties are split is if the customer adds secondary content (like a background) to a template. In that case, the designer of the secondary content gets a tiny percentage of the royalty. The secondary content program was launched in 2019 (I think) and they originally had plans to include much more than backgrounds, but they sorta dropped the program when the pandemic hit so it's been in a state of stasis ever since. Anyhow, you can find the (extremely complicated) royalty splitting numbers here. Zazzle Royalty and Referral Percentages – Zazzle Help Center Suffice it to say, if someone adds a background, the background designer gets a very, very tiny amount of the royalty. 

[chuamishael]

Yeah that Collaborate button inside the tool "it says invite your friend, family, colaborate on design..."
And there is this interesting button called "Start Public Collaboration"... does this mean anyone can jump in to collaborate?

[Cat]

Interesting. I have no idea what a "public collaboration" is.

Honestly, I've only used this feature one time when helping a customer. It was helpful in the sense that there's a live chat that goes along with process - but for me it was difficult because I'm not great at saying "no" - so I ended up spending several hours doing custom design work on a product that I only received pennies for in royalties. 

So now if someone needs help with something my general take is to offer to create a new template for them that suits their needs - that way it can go into the marketplace and even if I don't make a lot on that sale, there's always the possibility that someone else might customize and buy it. If someone really needs help customizing, I'll have them send me a share link of their work so far, so I can tweak it and send them a share link back. It's easier for me to put limits on it that way.

[1234Shine]

@Cat ,

You said "I'll have them send me a share link of their work so far, so I can tweak it and send them a share link back."

How/Where does a customer attain this "share link" to send to the designer?  Would that be also the same link the designer sends back to the customer after tweaking it?  If not, how/where does the designer get the link to send back to the customer after editing the design? Thanks!

[Cat]

In the top left hand corner of the product preview image, there's a funny arrow icon which opens the share dialog.

From there, if you copy the link it will give you a link to the work in progress which you can edit. So the customer can send you a link with their customized version of your template, then you can edit it and send them back a share link after you've tweaked it. Infinitely easier than the collaborate feature IMHO.

[Mariholly]

Thanks!!

[1234Shine]

@Cat , Thank you!  As you know, there is a green "Share" tab on the upper right corner in the Z editing tool (next to the blue "Done" tab.)  Could you please also talk a bit more on exactly how it works , what it does after you or the customers "Share" that?

[Cat]

@1234Shine I'm afraid I'm not the right person to answer that question. All I know is that it brings up the collaboration tool, but I only tried it once and it was when the feature first came out - it looks like it may have changed since then... I think there's now a video chat component - basically like you can Facetime with the customer while you're working on their project? Maybe? I'm not sure.

All I remember about the one time I did use it was that the customer needed to initiate the session - and I think they needed your email address to invite you to join. Then there was a chat panel on the left and you had to do something to hand control of the design back and forth. I looked in the help section and found this article: Troubleshooting Audio / Video-Based Collaborations – Zazzle Help Center but it seems entirely focused on using the video feature - maybe they did away with the text chatting back and forth feature and replaced it with video? I'm not sure. If that's the case, then it's for SURE that I'll never use it because I hate those video chat things! What's the point of working from home if you can't sit there in your pajamas munching on a snack while you work! 😅

Hopefully there's somebody out there who's actually used the function who can chime in. Or maybe you could convince a friend to try it out with you and then report back to us!

[Mariholly]

I am also interested in those links. I once tried to collaborate with a client. I remember that it was useless because the client did not authorize me so that I could modify his design. I think I remember that they had to place themselves on my icon and select the option... Sometimes it's really difficult to explain how to do something, they don't have to know how to do these things.