🤣 It will take me Two years FT to optimize my Collections - Please Share Your Workflow Tips Here!

[CreativeLeahG]

A 'bit of work' from our end was a comment I noted when the collections feature was announced.🤣

The Collections feature that I LOVE by the way! Hence I am up for the challenge. 

I have just calculated how much of a 'bit' this task will take for me to do all that is required for 1300 collections.

It takes me 4hrs+ per collection (sometimes more) to create 10 media images, rewrite the tags (as they're now defaulted to single words) optimize the descriptions, edit the email that goes to customers, reorder the products and add a banner, then promote across my various platforms. So yes a little bit longer due to adding in the marketing side of things.

As such I have calculated will take no less than TWO YEARS working 8hrs a day, 7 days a week to complete this 'bit of work'.

Presently I'm only getting through 2 collections a day (over 8hrs plus) so not getting collections done daily at the moment. So at this rate we could be looking at 'retirement' before I get them all done!! 🤣😭

I think I'll have to just be happy optimizing a few!! 🤣 Where to start though?

• Best sellers
• Seasonal items 
• New Products

Seems like a good starting point.

I have created a Google spreadsheet to help me organize this workload and stay on top of it as I feel going through it all 'systematically' step by step is the best way given all the different steps we need to take. If anyone wants a copy of it I'll see if I can create one for sharing. I've never shared a Google spreadsheet before but I assume it's straightforward.

If anyone has more tips on how to manage this workflow, drop them here!

💃

Zazzle Suggestions to aid with this ginormous task

*Please can we have the email message that goes to customers so we create 'one' email that is added by default to ALL our collections and we can 'edit' it if we need to for individual collections.

*Please can we have a generic 'profile banner' option that adds to all collections unless we choose to edit in a collection specific one.

* Please can you remove the thing that stops us from changing the store or adding products (in some cases this happens) to collections meaning we need to start over with a new collection.

Many thanks! 

[CreativeLeahG]

It's still here: https://www.zazzle.com/collections

[KeegansCreation]

Wow! Thanks! 😊 I wasn't misremembering. But I swear I scoured the MP and couldn't find it anywhere. Anyway, I hope they make it less obscure.

[CreativeLeahG]

I think they will, they said they would? I might wait until it's all rolled out properly before doing any more work on collections. 

[CreativeLeahG]

There's also this https://www.zazzle.com/store/zazzle_collections whereby Zazzle has their own editors pick collections. Can see here what sort of themes they are after?

[Wildart]

I can see nothing at all as farasproducts go, no collections, no products ...nothing, just an empty site.

[ColsCreations]

I responded to KeegansCreations before clicking over to page 2 of replies and seeing this. Sorry, I didn't see you had already provided the link for searching by Collection. 😳

[TShirtfort]

Wow so much lazy add your own image here stuff and one of them has no products inside and just says test. I try not to judge but come on. 

[ColsCreations]

You can still search Collections but it's like a Zazzle "Easter egg" now, it's not obvious and odds are most people wouldn't even stumble on it by accident. I think that a long time ago, if you clicked into the Z search box without entering anything you got a list of suggested things to focus your search on like Stores or Makers or Products ... I think Collections used to be in that list. I remember searching for my own collections before to see if they'd come up, just like test searching your products, and then one day not being able to do it anymore. But then at some point I stumbled on to this page  which I have no idea how I got there and bookmarked it. That's the only reason I could find it today. So if you go to
https://www.zazzle.com/collections  ("Trending Collections")
you can use the search box at top of that page to search for any Collection by keywords.

The second "easter egg" is this -
If you click into the Zazzle search box (from any page) you get this

If you choose "Creators" you get this page: https://www.zazzle.com/creators
Scroll down and surprise! You get links to the top Wedding, Baby Shower, and Birthday Party Collections.

CONGRATS! to all you who made it onto those pages 😀

I'm not trying to take away from that, just trying to say that these pages have no direct way to get there that I have ever found and my thinking is that with this major overhaul of Collections, Z will be adding direct routes to such. I am guessing that sometime in the near future there will be an obvious and heavily featured way to browse/search Collections instead of individual products and that's where/why Collection covers showcasing multiple products will  be really important to have.

[CreativeLeahG]

The top ranking collections re those lists are the ones with best sellers in them, or as is the case with Zazzles own collections 'editors picks' and 'best sellers'. I know this from years ago because I was the first to create a 'best seller' collection for affiliating purposes and it shot straight to number 1 rank in collections. I don't have it anymore but soon after others followed with best seller collections. 

[ColsCreations]

@CreativeLeahG 

The "Trending" collection page with the search box, yes, those are all that type (best selling products from various designers) but not the other three. The weddings, birthday and baby shower ones are all legit themed collections of products from & by the designer. And they're notably the type of cross-sell/event suite being focused on now so I suspect that as this new system evolves we'll be finding more of these types of collections of Collections being promoted by Zazzle.

[CreativeLeahG]

Cool, I shall check them out!

EDIT: I had a look, I think these were there before re the creators page. I always hope customers don't find their way to that page because the marketplace becomes redundant 😞 

[ColsCreations]

Something I noticed looking at those wedding, birthday and baby shower collections - 

You have to click a product within to view and then see what kind of "pod" is under it for the rest of products in that collection. Some have the old style "other products from this Collection" scroll. I suspect these are Collections the designers haven't updated yet to the new standards. Then there are ones that look like this, like what I have been seeing posted in screenshots

 And then there are ones that look like this

These must be ones where they updated the collection but didn't add a new cover yet? I personally like this display without the confusing multi-item cover WAY better plus without the cover you have twice as many product options on display.

I know Z is testing different approaches and we all may be seeing different things at different times but I would think I would be seeing the same thing during the same browser session and since I'm not I can only guess it's because of the state the collection is in. I could totally be wrong but if this is the way they are going to display for now if there's no cover image then I feel no pressure to make any as I would much preview mine have this view.

[Cat]

Well, I am completely confused at this point about what this "feature" is supposed to do. But as far as I can tell, whatever it does, it's not active yet - which may be why we're all so confused. The other thing I know (at least I think I know) is that when you add a cover to a collection, it automatically selects the first 10 products in that collection to be checked for this feature. Since I don't understand, and I'm not sure I think it's a good idea (at least I don't like the idea of replacing the product image with the collection image if that's what it does) I unchecked them all for the moment, and then got a nonsensical warning message about these products appearing in other collections (which none of them do - at least not in MY other collections.) So... who knows! I guess I'll just wait and see on this. 

[Barbara]

I'm going back to my pause-and-wait mode because I don't dare do anything more. We're confused by too many vital aspects of this and shouldn't have to rely on one another. We need Zazzle to explain precisely what they're going for, how and why we should do this or that, and even what happens if we do none of it. Beyond that, how about a few examples of different types of collections and how they'd look and function, following them through from beginning to end? Not just events, but collections that focus on specific products or designs or styles?

We're currently fumbling in the dark.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

Zazzle have their own curated collections Barbara, so I think these are a good road map of what they're looking for regarding ours https://www.zazzle.com/store/zazzle_collections

[Barbara]

Leah, they look no different from any I've created other than in theme, and they were all "last updated" in October (no year given).

Still on hold 🙂

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

I'm wondering if these are collections curated by other sellers that they have now put under the 'zazzle store' as per my suggestion on another thread?

[CreativeLeahG]

I hear you! I am also on 'pause' now re collections. I want to see how it rolls out.

[Cat]

You mean that's how it works on items that you've selected to display the collection cover in the marketplace rather than the regular product image?

[Barbara]

If it's how you believe it works, it means we take care in what we do and how we do it. If it's a matching suite of products such as for a wedding, it might be all right, but for anything that's one design on various products or a mixed bag around a theme? Nope.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

We can't as far as I am aware 'choose' a collection cover to replace the main regular cover for a single product. I don't think the collection image will be the first image for single products. I think it will remain in 2nd place.

[CreativeLeahG]

I don't know 🙂 I 'm speculating

[CreativeLeahG]

I'm lost now! lol

I think products will continue to display the cover we added (single product cover) as the 'main ' image.

[Connie]

I totally agree!

[CreativeLeahG]

Sounds like you're doing a great job and as you know I'm a huge fan of your work!!   

Have you found that the cover images you already had for collections are not showing in 'media images'  ie. nowhere to be found front or back end even though they still show in the dropdown list for collections. I ask because mine have all disappeared!

EDIT: I have done as you suggested and added the suggestion to a separate thread here: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ideas-suggestions/time-saving-suggestions-to-allow-creators-to-get-f...

[Baylee]

Thanks Leah 😊 You are amazing....I don't know how you find the time to write so much informative content. It would that me years to write as much as you've put out in just the last couple of days.😋 And thanks for starting that separate thread, I'm sure it will help the mods (and us in the long run!) 

Sorry to hear about your disappearing images, and no, I haven't experienced any missing cover images, mine all showed up in the media section with no probs.

[Connie]

You had a huge jump start on the rest of us by already having collection covers! Which are gorgeous by the way- I'm SO jealous because I can't find any mockups that are anywhere near as good! And it would take me years to do them from scratch!

I didn't realize you could use Cross-sell for the Home & Living category! I've been putting those into Similar Style, even though they said that was supposed to be for similar products.

[sm]

You have to laugh. I figure I will get to do about 10% of them before the next big hoop comes along that we all have to jump through. So that's a bonus 90% of them I won't have to do at all lol

When I think about it, when I began here two decades ago (sheesh), categories were the big thing I was working on. Before I finished, departments came and they kind of made categories pointless for me, so I hid them. That was a big waste of time that I will never get back. Then collections came and I was working on those frantically before zRank came in. Then I was frantically trying to work on that. I got my store up to a 9 (or 8, can't remember) before they advised us that we should delete/hide unsold products, which I did. My zRank dropped to 4 and then went up to five and it hasn't moved since. Oh and there were all my referral websites I worked so hard on promoting others, before the EU took a big dump on those lol. I had peripheral neuropathy in my hands and arms and working was tough so I left it for a couple of years. Then one day Zazzle changed my tax to 30% out of the blue (the treaty between my country and the US is 5%) so I gave up and put all my royalties up to 70% to compensate the loss. I had them all organised prior to that with different products and images at different prices. So that was a huge thing I worked on. Then I get the big "oops we accidently changed your tax) email from Zazzle but I didn't have the time or was even physically able to change them all back so I left them like that. Then I realised it didn't make any difference. I was still earning the same amount (roughly) with the 70% doing absolutely nothing with my zRank of 5 and my products disappearing down the marketplace toilet. I must have some loyal customers and promoters somewhere (bless you all). And now I'm here, checking it out with working fingers and see the collection changes and they are asking us to fill in spaces with things they asked us to delete haha.

So I don't stress about these things. I will do whatever I get to do if I feel like it because even as a silver approaching gold, they don't feature my stuff anymore anyway. So I'll do what I do for the pleasure of it which is how things were when I began in 2010. I loved Zazzling and making stock back then but with all the hoops that were thrown at us, I forgot what it was all about. I'm an artist, I've been creating since I was a toddler. I paint (not for Zazzle) and here I found a knack for graphic art during an illness. The first few years were fun then it was just stress on the platform, stress by people stealing my work.... stress stress and nothing but stress. That break I took reminded me what it is to be an artist. So I'll just mosey along at my own pace, ignoring all the designers jumping over each other, trying to get to the top spot because even if you get there, you don't get to keep that spot for long. I have a whole bunch of stuff that haven't even been put online because it's just so much work. I can't even keep up with the things already here. But I create anyway, because that's what I love to do and I do it for me. If I put it online, some big AI tech will just use it to make some computer generated images and people on Amazon make more from my designs than I do. And stock and POD companies stopped caring about our IP years ago. Stock sites used to actually chase down IP infringements on our behalf because it was in their best interest back then. But chasing it myself took all my time.

So I don't worry myself over any of it. It is what it is and we have no real control over anything 🙂

[CreativeLeahG]

As per @Baylee suggestion, I have started a new thread for the 'suggestions' 

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ideas-suggestions/time-saving-suggestions-to-allow-creators-to-get-f...

Thank you @Baylee 

[Barbara]

@sm  and @CreativeLeahG 

Between the two of you, you pointed out something absolutely vital: We're all people with real lives, not just pretty pictures, not just words on the screen, and many of us have difficulties in our lives we're dealing with as best we can. A few years ago, one of the members divulged she was doing all her work while in bed, something I went through a while ago. And many of us are elderly--I just turned 78--without the other struggles going away, and often increasing. My husband is now severely disabled and my work has doubled. The Golden Years are a myth.

So yes, we need to relax, need to do what's appropriate for us and our situations. The big change Zazzle wants in collections is a true burden and can cause burnout if we're not careful, which none of us needs.

We should do only what we can while continuing to be kind to one another.

Colorwash's Home

[Scott]

I love the idea of sharing workflow tips. This could be immensely helpful to others. But I did have to remove quite a few posts from the discussion that simply were off-topic. If you'd like to chit chat then I'd suggest using Zazzle Chat or a social media platform. Let's keep this discussion focused on workflow tips. Thanks in advance.

[Wildart]

I have just been optimising my collections just in one area, media (banner images) .In collections overview,I selected the ones without images (that is either banner or images,or both.)took me all morning becuase if the image size restriction, had to look in three different areas on PC, becuase most of the images I store on zazz are too small. Took me about 2.5 hours just to add images,and a few banners which were not present. I am going to work on collections like I do everything else,take a block of time, select one thing to do(create,optimise,make covers,collections etc) and work only on that. Keeps me sane! I am SOOOO glad I have not a huge collection  of collections lol. From now one, any new collections will have banners and images first. I do wish there was an easy way to used our product images for collection  images without having to download them, but that would be a nice to have, not imperative.

As for the different banners, I see where zazz is going with this, If I select the public profile view, and go into collections, then into one of these, the banner shows up there, and it's nice to have the variety. It also spells out the theme.

[Ibrahim-Abdalla]

yes I agree with you 👌

[Alisha_Aycha]

Well, i think i will go sleep for now

[almawad]

All   this collection  issue  makes  me   upset  and  I  feel like  not  caring  at all . 

But   then  comes  another  issue . How  I remove  my old  featured  collection ? 

And  how  can   I add  new  one  ? I    can not   figure it out .

Help me ,please .

[DancingPelican]

In your store backend, from your store menu bar, select "settings", then on the left you will see under "Store Information" your "advanced settings". Click on that. You then see the Visible Sections in your store which include Featured Collections. Select "Change Collection". A list of your collections will appear and you choose the collection you wish to feature. Once you make your selection, click OK at the bottom of the screen.

[almawad]

I do not  have   this  " Visible Sections in your store which include Featured Collections " This is only   what  I see  under the visible  section .

[ColsCreations]

That's the section for your Member profile. It's in the settings for each store.

[almawad]

Ok  - Thank  you !

[cutencomfy]

I put some work into fixing all my collections back when this was first rolled out but was a bit confused and overwhelmed so I stalled a bit to let zazzle work out the kinks. 

In the meantime I moved and had a baby, which obviously further drew away my attention. So among all the chaos of life, I have tried to slowly update collections and covers as I work… but what has now brought be back to collections and covers is the horrible drop in sales, and I feel like I am scrambling to get these optimized because I want (actually I need) to “supercharge” my sales.

So… I’m looking for results… 1. Does adding a collection cover really give you an additional slot in the marketplace? Does this bring sales? I have not been focusing on these but maybe I should be.

2. Are products without covers slowly being pushed out? Is it “mandatory” to create a cover? … how does this play out with being found by google? Do they care or is it just for Zazzle’s mp?

Will zazzle introduce paid placements? Right now editors picks are getting free promotion in the marketplace with us having no understanding of why they were chosen and who chose them. I don’t like the idea of paying for placement but at least we’d have a fighting chance to be ranked.

I am putting in countless hours of work with just the “hopes” of getting sales. I’m giving this a chance, because it was advertised as a way to “supercharge” sales, but at this point I need some proof or some solid evidence that any of this is worth the time and effort.