Cover Photos Questions/Comments

[klstock]

I just read the announcement where Zazzle says they will be prioritizing products with cover photos. If so, then doing a search by "popular" would not be accurate, it would be arbitrary and misleading. I used to have several beach and tropical invitations that would be on the first and second pages of results because they have sold well. Now I have to dig a few pages in to find them (and they have cover photos!). If you do a search for "tropical wedding invitations" or "beach wedding invitations" and look at the results that show up on the first page, about half of them have zero to do with "beach" or "tropical".... 

The cover photos are extremely time consuming. If a person wants to do them on items of their choosing, and has time for it, great. I try to do as many as possible, but if you are doing a collection that has 20 - 30 items in it, there is no way I have time to do cover photos for every single product, and some don't need it. Some look good as they are with the focus on the product and artwork.

There is cost and time involved - is there an increased cut for the designers who are now functioning as a free art department? Yes in some cases, it may generate more sales - and yes the designer would profit from sales - but if the designer is the one incurring the fees (canva pro for example, or some are purchasing product mockups) and the designer is the one taking the time to make these cover photos - which takes time away from making OTHER stuff - then a bigger chunk of the profit should go to the designer. 

[Barbara]

We used to have the ability to grab our products with a transparent background, but I mentioned some time ago my thoughts on why we can't now do so: Zazzle probably disabled this because thieves could do it as easily as we could. But don't thieves manage to steal our stuff anyway?

In the meantime, if you know how to use masks in an image editor, you can go through the pain of cutting out a product, then turn the cutout into a mask, and from then on, you can use the mask to make quick work of it. Heck, I bet the thieves use this trick too. LOL

Colorwash's Home

[Cat]

True about the masks - I think they're called paths in GIMP. Anyhow, that's what I'm doing, but it would save time if I didn't have to go through the cutout process for each and every product.

[Barbara]

@Cat: I went through the pain of cutting out two different mugs and two different views of those mugs, then turned them into masks. I thought everything would be clear sailing with mugs for the rest of time, but no, it wasn't. After using the masks just a few times, I was so painfully bored that I got up to put laundry in the washer, which turned out to be more fun than masking mugs.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

😂

[Cat]

Woah! When it's more fun to do the laundry, you know you're in trouble! 😅

Seriously though, I fear I'm taking a somewhat haphazard approach to this whole project - well, actually I sorta take a haphazard approach to life in general because I too am easily bored. I'm starting to see the wisdom in trying to make all of the mockups look different - not so much from the marketing/customer experience perspective, but more to try to keep myself from wanting to stick an icepick through my temple! 

[CreativeLeahG]

@Scott Please can Zazzle make cover photos available for download, as an affiliate, I'd love to add these to my site.

[CrazyMermaid]

It's late and maybe I am not at my sharpest. My first thought is that I don't want others to download my cover photos. Most of mine are original and not clip art. I can see others photoshopping their own products into my cover photos. Have I got this wrong?

[CreativeLeahG]

We can use Zazzle's photos as affiliates it is in the terms, it' just means screenshotting them. It would be easier to download. Which of course those you want to deter could also do.

[CrazyMermaid]

Thanks for reminding people in a public forum how easy it is to pilfer cover photos. 

[klstock]

You asked the question in a public forum, and she kindly gave you the answer.

[CrazyMermaid]

There is a big difference between saying IF it can be done and saying HOW it can be done. 

[klstock]

The point I thought she was making was that if someone has nefarious intentions, they will accomplish it one way or the other. She didn't tell anyone anything they didn't already know. 

[CreativeLeahG]

I wonder how many users who are competent enough in Photoshop to remove your products to use the background are unfamiliar with screenshots. The same risks that exist have always existed. We are ALL subject to those same risks. A tiny logo in the corner could help protect you but Zazzle seems against that and this is something we can 'suggest' they reconsider.

[GabiwArt]

In my opinion, Zazzle will look very confusing for customers, like a store without a system.

[CarlaRolfe]

I think the MP looks better than ever. The folks putting in the work to create unique cover photos are doing a phenomenal job.  To me, it now truly reflects the individual, unique design styles of so many different artists, because it's not jammed up with the same exact product pics, whether basic or insitu provided by zazzle. 

[Caprice]

Sorry if it's been answered - but I can't find it... Do we know why "Sorry - Product Image Not Available" appears in the MP?  Is it a timing thing? 

[Malissa]

Yes, it just sometimes takes a day or 2 to index and sometimes only a few hours. 

[Caprice]

Thanks Malissa! 

[Caprice]

Sorta weird tho', right?  Why not just leave the old photo up until the new one overwrites it?  Instead of an interim PICTURE NOT AVAILABLE?  🤔

[Malissa]

It is.  And it is also very random when it happens.  But there are a lot of photos being uploaded constantly and the system is probably a bit sluggish trying to keep up.🤔

[ThankYouAlways]

There could be problems if downloading cover photos is allowed on Zazzle, due to usage rights (license terms) for designers who use mockups that do not allow digital downloads. 

[Cat]

Anybody know how long it takes for covers to be visible on the back end? For most of them it shows up on the back end within a few hours, but I've got some that I made nearly a week ago and the cover doesn't display in the back end. Will it eventually show up? It's just a pain because it makes it hard to tell at a glance which products have covers and which don't - so I have to click through to tell for sure.

[Malissa]

There is some bug with them in the back end where sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. I noticed it most with shirts, but it seems like there are more that don't always show up show up.  I reported it here

[Cat]

Thanks Malissa! At least that means that I'm not just going totally crazy. This is definitive proof that I'm sane, isn't it? 😁

[Malissa]

Absolutely!😂

[KeegansCreation]

Shirts! So I'm not losing it. Since the announcement of priority for cover photos I've been making them like mad. All of them stuck, and generally on the same day. But one men's shirt just wouldn't. I gave it 48 hours, made sure I had edited to show that photo and nothing. I deleted it and reuploaded it. Still nothing. Now I've gone back to PlaceIt and made a fresh one from a different pose of that model and I'll give it 48 hours more. Then I'll give up and revisit the shirt in a month or so. Meanwhile the tapestries, clocks, mugs, wine bottle labels etc. have all gone without problems. It's a shirt bug, dagnabbit!

[Cat]

Not exclusively shirts. Happening to me on invitations, paper sheets, save the dates...

[KeegansCreation]

😓

[whimsywhim]

Replacing cover photos is not working this morning.  I tried to replace two, and it doesn't go anywhere.

[Caprice]

Ugh.  Kinda stinks bc it won't likely be fixed on a weekend...which is when many of us work on Z stuff.  😞

[KeegansCreation]

Aaaaargh. I'm just archiving them in Images until this gets fixed. I guess making 10,000 (or more?) people feel that they needed to upload cover photos this very minute has overloaded their servers.

[Marcia]

I was making cover photos all day yesterday & I screwed up the last one & didn't like what I posted. I redid it but now I can't remove the old cover photo & replace it with the new one. On the product page there's the old cover photo square + an even an extra blank space/square where perhaps the new one is supposed to be. Thought I'd be able to fix it this morning but I still can't.

Moderators, if you could please look into this that would be great: Product ID#256610918780588960

Thanks!

[Sara_H]

@Marcia There is a problem with cover photos it seems today but try changing it to a different size  or card stock- save - then change it back to your original - that process worked for me sometimes. Though I found if I change cover photo from the one I updated - it sticks with the old one in the back end until the indexer catches up (48hrs ish)

[Marcia]

@Sara_H thanks – it was worth a try, but still can't get rid of the old cover photo. Grrr...hopefully it'll get fixed after the weekend.

[Sara_H]

@Marcia Yup - cover upload is borked for the time being. 

[plumb4me]

This is happening with alot of creators, the cover photo image is a blank white square and it says to upload a new cover photo, but that doesn't work either. Link to the reported post, https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/trouble-uploading-cover-photos/m-p/65080

[wheresthekarma]

I notice that a lot of my products  that I made a cover photo are saying, "Image Unavailable" and it's been a couple days now. Is that a sign something is wrong or is it just taking a long time for that image to change and show up per Zazzle approving it or whatever is happening?

[plumb4me]

No it doesn't have to be approved, it's a problem on Zazzle's end and no one at Zazzle will checking on the problem until at least Monday, when they come to work.

[Barbara]

Luckily, I didn't create too many mockups yesterday, so I just now finished switching all the products back to in-house mockups. Maybe they'll show up before the current problem is fixed. I mean, why would a customer buy something sight unseen?

Colorwash's Home

[Barbara]

It's the next day, and it appears editing the "invisible" products was a useless exercise. They're all still invisible.

Colorwash's Home