A few positives are giving me good vibes!

[Baylee]

I'm feeling like there might be light at the end of the tunnel....hmmmm or is that a train?? But seriously, I've noticed a few things lately that give cause for hope. 

Firstly, I see that our product pages FINALLY have a link to our complete collections!!! I'm so happy about this that I may just do a little happy dance. Clicking on the collection title takes you to the full version. Not sure when this update happened but I just noticed it yesterday.

Secondly, with the new Ambassador program now in full swing, for the first time since I joined Zazzle, I've actually received a few referrals. I've been promoting on Pinterest, Instagram, Twit (X), FB, etc. for years and usually only had one or two referrals a year. This month I've had FIVE. Might not seem like much to some promoters but to me it's cause for celebration. It seems like the recent changes have had a definite impact.

Thirdly, I drastically raised my default royalty rate on Mar.28.... more than two weeks ago now. I've been waiting for a downturn in sales from doing that but so far I haven't noticed any real impact on my sales volume.... and I'm still getting a decent payout. Another happy dance!

And last but not least, after putting so many hours into Pinterest over the years, with diminishing returns, there is finally an alternative that shows promise. Benable is giving me hope. Time will tell if it is as good as it appears but at least I don't feel like I'm bashing my head against the wall anymore.

Hope this shines a little light on your day too!

[Cat]

Great to hear! Can I ask what "drastically raised my default royalty" means? I haven't changed mine yet. I was waiting to see how things panned out and so far, income is plunging. I'm currently at 8% and contemplating doubling it. 

[Baylee]

I went up to 23.7%. I think you are definitely selling yourself short at 8%...you deserve much more! Customers are willing to pay for quality products. (not sure mine are quality...lol, but I hope so!)    I agree with this approach (quote from a business consultant) : In general, customers often associate higher price points with higher quality, assuming that a more expensive product is of better quality than a cheaper one. This relationship can influence customers' purchasing decisions and their perception of the value they receive from a product.

[Cat]

Ha! In my family we call that "the antique desk principle" based on a story my dad used to tell. He had a friend who was trying to sell an antique desk. He put an ad in the paper and got no calls. He decided to change the price - Dad assumed he was gonna lower it but instead he raised it. Still got no calls. So he raised the price again. After about 3-4 weeks of that he'd tripled the price, at which point he got 10 calls and sold the desk!

My concern is less about how much people are willing to pay and more about getting seen in the marketplace. I had some of my products set for higher priced options (nicer paper, fancy cuts, etc.) and they didn't sell very well. I changed them to cheaper paper with standard cuts and they started selling. So I dunno. I guess I'll give it some more time and see what happens. 

I'm encouraged to hear that your sales haven't fallen off though!

[Baylee]

Love that story:) I'm curious if your concern about being seen relates to people sorting by price or do you mean it will gain visibility in the MP ranking because it sells sooner at the cheaper price? 

I look at Zazzle products kind of being 'wants' rather than 'needs' in most cases. I'll bargain hunt like crazy for my 'needs' but when it comes to 'wants' I'll often splurge on impulse. So it's all 'cheap refrigerators' and 'expensive geegaws' in my house..lol.

[Cat]

Not sure I have enough info to answer the question about the pricing. I just know that when I set things to the cheapest options in terms of paper, cut, etc. I sell a lot more of them.

[LoraSeverson]

---

@Cat wrote:

"My concern is less about how much people are willing to pay and more about getting seen in the marketplace."  

Exactly my thoughts. It's already hard to be seen on the first couple pages. I am afraid raising my rates will make it even harder.

[mgdesigns]

@Baylee  thanks for giving us hope! I love Zazzle and I trust they are doing the best for all of us but lately everything seems off and things take extra long to fix like the Pinterest or the backend issue that directly affects our work. Hopefully it's just temporary and we start seeing improvements that benefits all of us.

I have the same concern as Cat. I always had my royalty at 10% in all my shops. I tested higher prices on some shops and never had a sale until I put it back to 10%. If only we could all agree to raise it and make a new normal standard price in the marketplace that would help 😄 Zazzle is already expensive and I'm scared to raise it and lose sales or being promoted by Zazzle. I guess I'll have to check the prices I see in the first page results and decide then.
 

[Baylee]

Glad I could spread a little cheer:) @mgdesigns 

I agree that some things have taken a long time to fix here but I have faith too that Zazzle is always trying to improve and moving in the right direction. On that note, something has definitely improved as far as our referral links are concerned. After years of drought I made another self-referral this morning! I haven't changed my methods of promoting, so it has to be something that's been fixed behind the scenes. There was no tracking code on this particular referral so that kind of leaves me guessing. I do use tracking codes on the majority of my pins.

I've always concentrated more on making my designs competitive, more so than price. My early designs were pretty terrible .. lol!  My default royalty was 14.9% before the change, and that doesn't seem to have been a drawback because my sales are pretty decent. 

I had the same idea as you about checking results on the first page of searches to see if price had any bearing on popular ranking. I sell quite a few business cards so I did a little research on them first. Out of almost a million designs to choose from, I did at one point have a card on the first page (it's now slid back to page 5 after selling some 2 thousand times). My price wasn't cheaper than anyone else, but the design thankfully was obviously something people liked. With my prices now raised to 23.7%, I checked to see where that price would fall in the general lineup. On the first page, prices ranged from $24.45 to $33.90 for standard cards. My price works out to $28.85 so it lands nicely somewhere in the mid-range of prices. So, I still think designers are doing themselves a disservice by underpricing. If your designs are appealing enough and you promote them so they're seen, then I believe they'll sell.

[mgdesigns]

Thanks for all the info!! Would you mind letting me know how you track your Pins please?

[Windy]

I like this good news!

[Mariholly]

Congratulations on your sales and your optimism!

This month I'll have one of my lowest payouts, excluding the first ones. Almost no sales, mostly from third parties. Interestingly, I'm selling products designed years ago that had never sold before and, also interestingly, after years without referrals or self-referrals, I had several at the beginning of the month. I've raised many of my royalties to 23.7, and even some to 35. It seems that's not what discourages sales. Something's going on inside Z, beyond the global economic situation.

[Anne]

"Something's going on inside Z, beyond the global economic situation"
@Mariholly Has to be. It's just beyond strange that there would be a total collapse of sales exactly starting on April's fool day. (And I haven't been able to change royalties because they just don't stick.)

[Cat]

Well, based on this discussion, I dipped my toes in the water and raised my royalty to 9.5%. I'm still getting sales today - hard to make a judgement based on a few hours, but it didn't make things come to a crashing halt overnight, so that's good! I was sorta afraid that raising my royalty would cause my store to lose its zRank of 9, but so far it hasn't. I figure at that rate I'm still way below most folks, but at least I'm getting a bit more compensation for my efforts. I suppose I can always continue to play with it as we settle into this new system. Thanks for the encouragement!

[Baylee]

You have some beautiful designs @Cat that deserve every bit as much as others that are selling at twice the price, so personally I think you are headed in the right direction! Onward and upward .... lol.

[Anne]

@Cat  I'm not sure if raising your rates will lower your Zrank. I have one store which was selling reasonably well and had a Zrank 7. Then April hit. For some unknown reason and against all odds, I suddenly made two self-referrals (who would have thought, after a year of none?) Immediately my rank shot up to 9. I had a higher royalty rate before that (above 14.9) and did not change anything in the royalties. Two weeks steady rank 9. However: almost no visibility in the market place (worse than before April) and next to no sales. That's my rank 9. My March rank 7 did about ten times better! I'm expecting it to crash as there are no new self-referrals AND no sales.
I'm wondering if self-referrals are the only thing that matters?
AND: what was occurring BEFORE April that blocked the registration of self-referrals? (at least that's the impression I'm getting here)

[Connie]

@CatYou should definitely raise your royalties more!

[Cat]

Thinkin' about it. Baby steps...

[sanainvi]

I am soo happy for you 😊 

But i don't know why things are not going good for me . I have had a lot of sales last month (probably the best month so far) , but i don't know what happened this month , my sales dropped drastically . I am soo tensed about it , its been a whole month now i have only 2 sales till now . I don't know what to do.😔 

[CrazyMermaid]

I agree that something good is happening with self referrals. Like you I have been promoting my products and had not had a referral in years! All of a sudden, I am getting a few almost every day. I have never been in the promoter 2.0 program. Often just link to my store without a referral code, because I have been happy over the years just to get sales. I have no idea why I am getting them now. 

[Connie]

I agree about the collection links- I noticed that several weeks ago, and it is so GREAT to be able to finally get our wish!
Some people seem to be getting an increase in self-referrals, and others like myself are getting less. It has something to do with them "resetting" their cookies or whatever they did in the back end to be "more accurate," but while it helps some people, it hurts others.
That's good that raising your royalty hasn't hurt your sales. The more people that do it, the more I feel like I won't price myself out of the market if I raise mine!

[dbvisualarts]

I decided to try dropping my royalties to 10%, just as a test they were previously at 14.9% and I have only had 1 sale since then.  in fact I have only had two sales this month ( besides my own order of my product) I had a sale on the 4th at 14.9%, dropped my royalty and did not have another until the 17th, that was at 10%.  crickets otherwise. 
I am not a huge seller but that is a long stretch even for me.   
I guess I am going back up next month.  it certainly did not boost my sales in the least.

[Cat]

Well that's interesting information for sure. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Mariholly]

I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with royalties. I think it's something deeper. It would be good to know how the top sellers are doing and by what percentage their sales went up or down—not the income, but the number of sales. For example, I used to have regular sales of around 300 total units per month in 2023, and that has dropped to barely 50–60 this month. And what about visits? Has anyone checked their overall traffic?

[osea]

I find the new program good. I find good the way to pay higher creators for the self promotion, as everything start from designers. However, third party Referrers/Ambassadors are still wellcome to sell my products.