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. 

[idraw]

@klstock 

Your points about cover photo creation are excellent and well thought out. Extremely time consuming, I agree. Misleading in search, probably. Functioning as a free art dept for Z, yep. Having to purchase product mockups, extra cost for creators, doubtful that it would be recouped in sales of the product. Being reimbursed by Z for creating the mockups, doubtful at best.
I personally think having the dissonance of these "cover photos" will make the site look haphazard, as a customer I want to see the product, not other items around it so that I have to discern what the product actually is. (Less is more)
Having thousands of products, and having Zazzle lean toward creators doing cover photos, would drain my energy even more, taking away from whatever the time invested for the profit I would hope to make on the product. 
From a business standpoint (shop/business),personally it does not compute, doing extra/cover photos, in addition to keeping up with optimization, hidden products, new products, discontinued products,affiliate percentage taken out, Z affiliate links in their bulk customer emails,changing the volume bonus, reporting bugs, glitches, server errors, customer requests and complaints in chat, copyright infringement, and spam in the forums..The royalty we make does not begin to cover the time invested. So, investing and diverting my time for cover photos does not make sense financially, even if Z says they have the stats showing that it has great results (for them).
I am strongly expressing the hope that Z would concentrate on fixing the numerous existing problems, and put the brakes on adding more complications for the time being.
The shops who choose to put the effort in, you may or may not see results and may or may not be promoted by Z for doing them. All I can say is time is money, and time is an investment.
Other shops hold various points of view, I respect that, really don't want to start a debate about cover photos. Do them, or don't. I invest my time in what works for me, over many decades in business.
I am only expressing my own business viewpoint,just a mite frustrated.
Thanks,@Klstock, for starting this thread. Gave me the opportunity to agree with you and to express my thoughts.

[Jadendreamer13]

Cover photos are very time consuming, and in my opinion, are not worth the effort. I will not be creating them.

[idraw]

@Jadendreamer13  Totally agree with you, cover photos/mockups are not worth the investment time wise.

[Fizzy]

I second that! I only use cover photos when the provided in-situ is rubbish (i.e. duvet covers). If your design doesn't jive with your customers, even the coolest cover photo won't get you that sale 🙄. 

[Westerngirl2]

And look how long some of us have been BEGGING Zazzle to come up with in-situ views of duvet covers, and a few other products, too. Every other site that sells duvet covers kills us, I think, in sales, because the views of them here are horrible, while the creativity of our designers, I think, is second to none. And that product is something that is difficult for most of us to produce a realistic cover shot for. PLEASE, Zazzle?

[CreativeLeahG]

Same with blankets, I haven't seen a decent blanket mockup creator.

[SwissVillage]

Yes, Zazzle, please finally show off your beautiful Duvet covers, the only ones on a POD where you can have different designs on two sides with some decent insitus.  Until you do that natively, this is not going to be a marketplace people come to for Duvet covers.  I sell mine every other place and I don't believe I've ever sold a single one here.  I do have some cover photos on some of them, and will add more, but I think fundamentally you need to show you care about this product by giving it some good in situs!  

[VV]

I feel the same way right now. It's a hoop too far.

[waterart]

Zazzle is beginning to ask too much of us and I agree, having different cover photos of the same product in search results will make the marketplace look messy instead of unified as it should look.

[buxmontweb]

Most of my sales are from 3rd party referrals (most of which I assume from Zazzle links) and have dropped dramatically since the end of 2022, down from previous years in January. The only sales I made this January came through my own promoter links, and I wonder if Zazzle prioritizing items with designer made cover photos is part of the reason. I don't have the time or money to spend on mockup templates to be Zazzle's "free art department". Very disappointed here.

[Malissa]

I actually love cover photos.  I have seen a huge increase in sales and activity in my store since I have started using them. I had virtually no sales for the first 8 months of 2022 and then in November and December I had my best months ever on Zazzle with a slow trickle of an upturn starting over the summer months when I started using cover photos here and there.  And it was the items with covers that were getting the sales for the most part.  January has been better than average for me so I am happy with my progress.

I have a very niche store, so being able to showcase my art in a more relatable way through cover photos has allowed me to broaden that niche base I believe. 

The investment in mockups for them, I am considering as a promotional investment as well since I can share much better images on social media and Pinterest.  I have not invested a huge amount in them though because I am still a very small seller and just work hard to stretch the ones I have in different ways.

That being said, I totally agree they are very time consuming and that there is no way to get them on all products.  The products that you mention that already have good insitus are not the ones I believe many people will be making cover photos for, so I don't think there is much danger of getting pushed down in search results for those items.  The more competitive items with cover photos will be things like stationery and posters and such that are basically indistinguishable rectangles in the marketplace.  Also, I try to focus on the products that I think have the least chance of getting discontinued. 

I think most big retailer websites have a huge amount of varying images for products so I don't think they make the marketplace look cluttered or bad at all.  All just my opinion on how it looks and my experience with using them so far. 

[1234Shine]

@Malissa May I ask your store zRank if you don't mind me asking? Thanks!

[Malissa]

My zrank did go up one once my sales started increasing, but not just for adding cover photos.  I know if I can't maintain the sales as I add products, I will not maintain the zrank.  You only need a 4 to be in marketplace searches.

[Malissa]

As suspected, my sales have been down for about a week now and I lost a point on zrank even though I have been daily adding cover photos. 

[Barbara]

My sales have all but tanked, and I keep vacillating between the culprit being mayhem in the marketplace or customers saving their money to buy eggs.

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[Malissa]

Yep. Marketplace mayhem.   Eggs, meat, toilet paper prices rising...you name it.  On top of February being notoriously slow.  All of the above probably.

[Fiorenzo]

Fully agree. IMO, the results are more than worth the time and effort needed. I have an artistic approach, though, and I cover the pet/animal lover niche, which literally screams for custom mockups. I can understand that this may not suit the ones that tend to focus more on quantity and large shops. Matter of preferences.

IMHO, cover photos should not influence search results and marketplace rankings. Although, it has to be said that focusing only on sales isn't 100% fair, either, cuz new designers will have a hard time getting visibility. A mix of successful and random designs (and designers) would be the fairest bet. Even if this may lead to having some less appealing results on front pages. My two cents.

[Malissa]

(this wasn't meant to be just a direct reply to you Fiorenzo.  I meant it as a general reply- hit the wrong reply button!)

As far as the cover photos getting bumped up in the marketplace, I feel like this is the compensation for the hard work, monetary investment, and time it takes.  It may not seem like enough compensation to some, but for me, as a small seller, the increase in exposure is valuable.  I know this is a biased opinion based off the fact that I am a smaller store. My opinion may change over time, but for now I like it.

[CreativeLeahG]

I agree and don't at the same time

Having put years of work into making and marketing designs that sold well and as such ranked well due to hard work, to now be 'out of sight' is like a bomb dropping ... it is physically impossible to add the several thousand cover photos required to remedy the overnight dent in sales this can create. But I am trying! 18hr days .. I am trying. 

I am though 100% delighted you are seeing wonderful results Melissa because you totally deserve it as a very talented creative whose art I love immensely!  

[Westerngirl2]

I can see that the extra work involved should give a bit of an advantage.

But, heck, I'm still trying to figure out the MP visibility here, and I've been here since 2010. The latest hiccup for me is some very good selling products that seem to have totally disappeared in searches using their key words. I'm talking about views in the hundreds, and in one case, over 1,000, and sales in the dozens. There aren't enough products with the most important keywords to go past the number of pages that Z displays, but these products shouldn't be ranked that low, anyway, as they have been consistent sellers.But now, nothing. When I use those key words to search in my store back end, they show up. But in the MP? No sign of them. Sent a letter to Customer Service several weeks ago...silence. So yeah, sometimes putting the extra work in some of this stuff, when you can't figure out why the system doesn't work, just seems kinda fruitless. My sales overall have dropped dramatically over last February's. 😞

[Malissa]

I used to never be able to find my designs in the mp without very specific keywords- and sometimes not even then so I know your pain. 

[Westerngirl2]

Yes, it's very frustrating. And the store those missing MP products are in consistently ranks between an 8 and 9. Probably not for long, if this is occurring in a widespread manner. Hard to understand.

[CreativeLeahG]

Changes have been made, I noticed it too. 

[Malissa]

Thank you Leah!  I am very sorry you have seen a negative effect, though. 

[CreativeLeahG]

It will be swings and roundabouts, the ones with covers are doing well so hence 'I agree and don't agree' at the same time. I am not anti covers, I love them. I am just disappointed they and the editor's picks now take priority because for customers the filters are now redundant, they neither reflect the most popular (though I don't think those results were ever accurate) nor the lowest price (for wedding invitations, though this change took effect a while ago). And I think for affiliates and customers these filters do need to be accurate, or remove them? 

What I mainly objected to is the assumption more work goes into adding a cover and hence the top place is earned, when in fact years of hard work producing and marketing and sharing etc etc is considerably more difficult than the 5 mins it takes to create a cover photo.

When the market is filled with covers, the balance will be restored as aside from editors picks, then the most popular (with covers) will float to the top again. We need to enjoy the new cover photo gravy train while it lasts.

[klstock]

I agree with the first part of what you said and also that Malissa is a very talented artist and no doubt deserves (and has earned) a spot at the top of results (with or without a cover photo). 

[CreativeLeahG]

Melissa works super super hard for sure, and the cover photos definitely allow her work to be showcased to the max. I love cover photos don't get me wrong on that and I support all artists. My comment is a response to the 'hard work involved re making a cover photo'. That in itself doesn't equate to all the other hard work she or others have done via other means to ensure her work is seen and sold. I hope that provides clarity.

[klstock]

Yep, I got it the first time, hence why I said I agreed with you

[CreativeLeahG]

Sorry, I am autistic so don't aways 'get' things myself. It can cause many misunderstandings so I try to be as clear as I can x

[klstock]

No problem, I could have been clearer. My best friend has AS (he refers to himself as an "Aspie"). Anyway, I agree with you, there is a lot of hard work and time involved apart from and in addition to cover photos. 

[CreativeLeahG]

Yes I do too (Aspie) but some find that term offensive.

[Malissa]

@CreativeLeahG 

@klstock 

I appreciate you both being so nice. Thank you!  But….
I feel like I need set the record straight. I have maybe 1 - 5 designs (usually on the lower end) showing up in search results or maybe 1 or 2 on a landing page. I am in no way dominating any pages or even my niche for that matter. I still only make maybe $5 a day average. (Except nov and dec 2022) This is up from making pretty much zero for the first 8 months of last year. I am not raking in the dough from this change- merely getting a leg up in some exposure and a steady, if small, increase in sales. Of which I am extremely happy and in no way complaining about money. I just don’t want it to come off like I am all of the sudden making more money from the changes than I really am.  I am extremely grateful for any step forward I get no matter what I am doing and percentage wise the increases truly are huge both in money and traffic- and I want other small sellers to know that this change can help them get a little boost up too for the short time it will probably last. 

[klstock]

I didn't mean it in the context of the new cover photos or any of that...I just mean that I have always liked your stuff and appreciate your talent and originality. If I see you on the front page of results, I know you earned it and I am happy for you. 

[Malissa]

Thank you!  Your art is beautiful as well.  I envy those who can paint more classically/realistic instead of kind of cartoony like I paint!

[CreativeLeahG]

Melissa, your art deserves every bit of attention it gets and I sincerely hope you are able to increase those revenues! If you do anything wedding let me know! The themes that would suit your style would be day of wedding timeline, bridesmaid proposal, bridesmaid totes and mugs all of which I can add to my site with pleasure. The editors picks now for weddings (I just added the entire front page to my website) are looking very generic and uninspiring. We need some color!! 

[Malissa]

Thank you Leah.  You have been a great help to me at various times in the past (in that facebook group from a couple of years ago) and a great source of inspiration!  I might try some things like that in the near future for weddings.  I want to branch out and do more things for babies and kids this year as well.

[avgsuperheroine]

That's pretty normal though to have sales in November and December that are much more (I average 6x) than any other month of the year.

[Malissa]

For the 5 years I have been here, it was a first for me even if it is normal for you and others. 

[Barbara]

My plan is to do covers for those products that don't look good with Zazzle's in situ images, which happens to be a lot of them, so I'm picking only those products I think could use a little love. I've begun spending more time designing my own pins for Pinterest because it's easier and because the return might be greater.

I wonder, did Zazzle calculate how much time it might take a designer to create, say, ten thousand cover photos? I did. It could take a year of doing nothing but that for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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