Affiliate Commissions: Must I provide a link to a specific product? I want to link to a Collection.

[BothHands]

Hi, all.

I want to provide an affililiate link from my own website (or from a social media post) to one of my Collections comprised of several products based on a single graphic design.  I have four simple questions; simple if you already know the answers, ha:

Q1. If I link to the Collection, and the visitor buys a product from that collection, will I receive a direct Affiliate Commission on the product purchased?

Q2. If not, will I receive a "15% commission" on any product the visitor buys from the Collection?

Q3. If the visitor, who arrives by my affiliate link, buys from another of my Collections, do I recieve a commission on that purchase?

Q4. If the visitor, who arrives by my affiliate link, buys ANYTHING at Zazzle.com in the course of that visit, do I receive a commission?

Apparently, the Zazzle affiliate link cookie remains in effect for 45 days, but we delete cookies from our browsers, and if "my" visitor returns to Zazzle via some other affiliate link, my cookie gets replaced by the new cookie.  Beyond that, the cookie exists only on the original device used (laptop, phone, etc), so "affiliate commissions" is somewhat precarious, but worth attempting.  That's my understanding, so far.  I could be wrong.  =]

Thanks,
Tom

[PacifierCity]

When someone comes into any part of Zazzle on an affiliate link you earn the 15% on the sale.  There are a few things you don't earn on like gift cards... but 98% of what is sold here will earn you a referral of 15%.  That being said, the cookie that is set in a customers browser does last for 30 or 45 days, but after 7 days it can be over ridden by anothers cookie.  Why does this matter?

Let's say a shopper receives an email from Zazzle and the shopper clicks on one of the links.  Zazzle sets a cookie that can not be over ridden for 7 days.  4 days later the same shopper stumbles on your referral link at pinterest, comes to Z and buys something.  Z gets the referral because their cookie is still attached to the browser and 7 days have not passed.  Hope that makes sense.  The same would be true for you too... say a shopper comes to Z through your referral link on P, looks around, adds something to their cart but does not buy it.  Z sends them an email about it 2 days later.  The customer comes back and buys, you earn the referral because 7 days have not passed.

Building referral links can be fun because they do not need to land on a product page.  They can land on a collection, as you desire... but they can land on a search results page both in the marketplace or inside your store.  You can build a link to land inside someone else's store too.  You can even build links to a set of your own selected products, all your or all someone else's or a mix.  I can't remember the name of this link right now.  It is one I really like building too...lol.

Hope this is helpful

PC

Edit:  They are called curated links.  A search in Z help should pull up a how to page.

One thing to keep in mind about building referral links is the ? or & "markers(?)"/designations...  idk what you would refer to them as.  But if the url contains a ? somewhere in it before you add your rfid, you change the ? you would normally use to a & sign.  Otherwise the link won't work properly.

[BothHands]

@PacifierCity  Wow.  That's a fine article you wrote!  Thank you.  I'm sure others who read it appreciate it as much as I do (and I think when you're not selling/advising here, you're probably a teacher). 

I had limited communication with Z Help this morning, and was wishing for a little 'rounding out' of that information.  Your remarks are exactly that.  "The first 7 days lock" is an important factor, one I have not seen mentioned before.  Thanks for cluing me/us in.  Your explanation is very clear, and I think that 7-day Lock will probably be more helpful to me than harmful (or will balance out pretty evenly). 

I have a lot to learn about these referral links, and will study "curated links" after I get a handle on the basic concept.  Thank you for discussing "& versus ?" in constructing Associate Links.  The following instructions appear on the Associates tab of my (and everyone's) Account page:

"You can replace AnyStoreName with any of your own stores. Be sure to add "?rf" before your ID (unless the address already contains a "?", then add "&rf" instead)."

Q1: The instructions say, "unless the address already contains a '?'"  Your remarks say, "if the url contains a ? somewhere in it" which expands upon the instructions.  So it sounds like a '?' can exist at the end of an existing URL ( asldkfj? ) or within a URL ( asl?dkfj ).   
Is it your understanding that a '?' appearing anywhere in the existing URL requires the use &rf instead of ?rf ?  

Man, writing that question wore me out...  =D 

Q2. Based on your instructive remarks, is the following an accurate statement? 
No matter where my Associate link points to specifically—be it my own or some other seller's Product, Collection, Category or Store—as long as my link points to a selling section within Zazzle.com, I will earn a 15% associate/referral commission on whatever the referred visitor purchases.  That is, unless a pre-existing referral link to that product—still in its first 7 days—exists on the visitor's hardware device, or if the specific product s/he purchases does not pay the standard 15% Associate commission.

I hope that statement's accurate, because I actually understand it and can apply it.  

Thanks for your patience.

[CreativeLeahG]

Fantastic contribution, would you mind adding this response to the affiliate guide, tips thread here please? tips-and-tricks/how-to-become-an-affiliate-marketer-for-zazzle 

[PacifierCity]

Q1 - It is rare that a url will end in a ?, from my experience, but often times if you promote a url from a marketplace search, the url will have a ? somewhere in it.  Same with links from your store.  When you see a ? in the url instead of using ?rfid you change the ? to &rfid.  *Understanding that "rfid" refers to the 18 digit numerical string found on your associates page.

Q2 - You could link to the homepage of Z with your rfid attached and still earn on the customers purchase assuming the cookie gods are with you.  In theory you could link to the user policy and if the customer found their way into the marketplace and purchased, you would still earn.  So I don't believe your link has to lead to a "selling page."

Food for thought - Learn to use tracking codes.  &tc=whateveryouwant after your ?rfid / &rfid.  When you use a tracking code and earn a referral, the tracking code will show up on your referral earnings page.  Then you know where the link came from.  So in the &tc=whateveryouwant --- you would make it read something like &tc=PinterestSocksBoard  and when a customer bought after clicking that link, in your referral earnings page you would see tc=PinterestSocksBoard...

Happy to help.

PC

[J32Design]

Pacifier City has already answered your question perfectly, but I thought I will mention this just fyi

If you go to a collection it will have a share button. If you click on that a few icons will pop up for Facebook, Twitter etc.
Click on the "link" icon and simply copy and paste the link to your collection. Your referral ID should be included already and you can just add your tracking code to it.

[PacifierCity]

Another note - a lot of people like to use a date in tracking codes ie. 020322, or whatever format you use.

I know that pins I pinned over a year ago are generating referral income because of the date added.  It's a nice thing in my opinion.  But when I create a link on a blog or website, I am less likely to include the date.  I don't find it as useful... but you might.

ie. &tc=PinterestSockBoard020322

Cheers,

PC

[CreativeLeahG]

In tips and tricks I have started a thread specifically for guidance on all things affiliate and for people to ask questions, please feel free to pop any future queries there. It will be a great resource if we can keep this info in one space. Thank you in advance 🙂 tips-and-tricks/how-to-become-an-affiliate-marketer 

[PacifierCity]

And I will mention one last thing... though this should probably be a goal to achieve as opposed to something that you should jump on right away... unless you have a following...

Zazzle has another program called the Promoter Program.  This program is designed for designers (creators) that are really good at driving sales of their own products.  In this program you use only clean links from places that you claim (I believe).  I am not in this program.  The advantage is that you earn a 35% referral/commission.  But, you only receive it on your own products.  If someone came to Z on one of your Promoter links (for lack of a better term) and buys someones else product, you earn 0. 

It is generally a good idea to start in the Associate Program (affiliate program) and then graduate to the Promoter Program.  This does require one to go back and turn their Associate links into clean Promoter links to capitalize on joining the new program.  While in the Promoter Program you can still build associate links, but they must be built by hand and the link tool that J32Designs will no longer have your associate (rfid) id included, hence having to build links by hand.  But the links you build will still earn you 15% on any purchase on Z... with the few exceptions like gift cards.  Using tracking codes can help you know when/if you are ready to make the switch.  In your earning page there is a referred column.  When the majority of your referral sales are coming through as "self", then you will want to consider joining the Promoter Program.  If you find that the tracking codes found on your referral earning page are coming from your website, but that they are purchasing someone else's products, then you do not want to join the Promoter Program.  You may need to work on your designs...lol.  But I wanted to mention this because you may have a FB page with 10 million followers for all I know and it might make sense to know about or join the Promoter Program sooner rather than later...

Hope all that makes sense too...lol.

PC

[Windy]

Super good info. Bookmarked!

[Artsiren]

Here's some "fake" examples, because of mentions of the "?" and the "&" in Associate Referral links.

They're called URL parameters (or query strings). If there's a "?" it will be the FIRST one, directly after your Store Name, or directly after the .html of the link - I don't think Zazzle uses the html for single products, collections, etc. There will be a description of your product followed by a number.

If you are ONLY using ONE URL parameter, then add it to your product/collection link starting with the "?"

If you are adding more than one (eg your Referral ID AND a Tracking Code) then the first parameter starts with the "?" and the second (and all others if using many - though probably not on Zazzle) each have the "&" separating them.

For example:

A "bare" link with no parameters

zazzle.com/my_random_product_with_the_number_PRODUCTTYPE-123456789

A link with a Referral ID:

zazzle.com/my_random_product_with_the_number_PRODUCTTYPE-123456789?rf=012345678910111213

A link with Referral ID AND Tracking Code:

zazzle.com/my_random_product_with_the_number_PRODUCTTYPE-123456789?rf=012345678910111213&tc=pinterest-campaign-feb2022

OR the same thing with parameters reversed (but "?" must still be first):

zazzle.com/my_random_product_with_the_number_PRODUCTTYPE-123456789?tc=pinterest-campaign-feb2022&rf=012345678910111213

[PacifierCity]

To add to the above:

An example of a link that was created by searching for karate cards in one of my stores:

 zazzle.com/store/pacifier_city_cards/products?qs=karate&dp=252152090091274555&st=DateCreated

As that link already contains a ?, when adding the rfid, you would use the & parameter... ie  &rf=000000000000000000 and the link would be:

zazzle.com/store/pacifier_city_cards/products? qs=karate&dp=252152090091274555&st=DateCreated&rf=000000000000000000

adding a tracking code still uses an & parameter ie. &tc=SampleForumLink020422 with the link being:

zazzle.com/store/pacifier_city_cards/products? qs=karate&dp=252152090091274555&st=DateCreated&rf=000000000000000000&tc=SampleForumLink020422

*note the 18 0's would be your 18 digit rfid found on your associates page. I also had to break the links as the forum did not seem to like them.  So I removed the https//:www. portion on the front of the urls.

If you build links to marketplace searches, you will find a ? in those url's as well.

PC

.....................................

[SeanaDG]

Hi! Do you mind if I hijack this older thread with a question direct to you, PC? I just set up a Pinterest board and pasted in my Zazzle store url with associate link. But when I save, the associate part disappears. I noticed on your Pinterest board, you were able to maintain the associate part of the url. Any tips for me? I am stumped. Thank you!

[Lensman]

Late to the party, but did you ever get this resolved?

[SeanaDG1]

If you mean the pasting in with associate's ID, I did not.

[Lensman]

Okay, thanks. I will have to give it a try myself when I'm ready and see what happens. 

[PacifierCity]

So I missed this ages ago... 

P has changed a lot since I created my Pacifier City account.  Not being able to add a link that generates a cookie in ones profile may be one of those changes.  I have not made a new account in awhile, so I can't really advise or provide a work around.  Although it looks like others are trying to figure one out...  Wish I had a better answer for you...

PC

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[BothHands]

This thread has turned into a tremendous source of information!  It took on a life of it's own, so I just stepped aside and "let greatness happen."  =D  Now that it's Saturday morning, I will pore over every word in every post.  I'm grateful to you all, and I'm sure many other readers feel the same.

Member CreativeDesign mentioned a compilation on this topic in a Tips-and-Tricks forum.  If a Moderator/Administrator chooses to move this thread to such a forum, PUH-LEEZE make the new location known to me and others who are subscribed to this helpful collection of informative posts.  I'm sure I'll refer to it in the future.

I had no idea such helpful, knowledgeable people are involved in Zazzle.  There is truly a sense of commnunity here, and for that reason and others, I'm glad I decided to invest in Zazzle.

For what it's worth, I'm working my way through the links on the Z Help SELLING page.  

[BothHands]

A suggestion for new users, like me.

I stumbled upon a GREAT Zazzle learning resource: The Designer Associate Handbook.

It's a downloadable .PDF manual that's 71 pages of explanations of Associate Links and how to use them.  I'm on page 10 and so far it's telling me exactly what I want to know.  If the other 61 pages are as helpful, I should be a millionaire by Thursday!  =D

I appreciate all the help from my newfound Zazzle friends, and present this link in the name of paying it forward.  
Make it a great day.

[Areeba1019]

Hi! I’m new here so I’m struggling with generating an affliate product link. I can generate a store link just find but I don’t think my product link is working 

https://www.zazzle.com/harry_potter_ron_hermione_in_common_room_hanging_tapestry-256250094118474305?rf=238191091678581662

Here’s what it looks like. Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong?

[SpiralGiftsPlus]

See how everything up to the ?rf is underlined? That is because that is what is being seen as the link, so your associates ID isn’t included when the user clicks. 
Why it happens or how to fix is the hard part. 

Try to remove the link (eg by highlighting and clicking link button), remove any spaces, then highlight the entire url (address) and copy.

Hope this helps someone. This has happened to me and is frustrating!