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. 

[plumb4me]

It is still not working Monday morning. I still see the blank white spots and there is no way to fix it. I still can not go back to one of the other images. I have a tiny little window that says sorry product image not available and on the product page, it still says upload cover photo.

[Fiorenzo]

Monday, past noon here in Italy, so it's past 3 AM in California. I don't think, they start working that early in the morning 😉 This already happened some months or so ago and it got solved in a day.

[Malissa]

Since we can't upload cover photos, it looks like today will be a good day to get all those cover photos on Pinterest peeps!

[Scott]

I would suggest discussing bugs in the Technical forum. That will leave this discussion free for other conversation to take place. I believe Cat has already started a new thread there for this issue.

[Scharke]

I've been looking and looking but I cannot find a way to download my invite designs in order to make mockup cover photos. I cannot find the option below. What am I missing???

[KeegansCreation]

It's in your screenshot.

1. Download Artwork= download what you see in the design tool. Use this option if you are using a commercial mockup (such as PlaceIt) where you upload your artwork to a blank product that looks the same as Zazzle's product.
2. Download Product Mockup=download what is seen on the product page. Use this option if you are going to bring that photo into a graphics program, isolate it, and put it on a new background.

[Scharke]

ok found it

[igiftcenter]

Just a thought: If you have products that are already selling really well why make a cover photo for it? I mean it's already successful right?   I plan to make cover photos for products that are great or have the potential to be great but have not yet gotten the exposure... maybe a design I created a while ago but forgot about but deserves promotion. Or a design that had lots of views but because of a design flaw on my part didn't get sales. Fix these up by redesigning or resubmitting and create a great cover photo that will get the attention it deservices.

What are your thoughts on this strategy?

[KeegansCreation]

That's a solid strategy. The front runners are doing fine on their own so concentrate on those products that need a boost.

I have taken on a thematic strategy which could work for anybody who makes holiday-specific designs. I am currently focusing on getting cover photos for my Saint Patrick's Day designs. Then I'll do Easter and Mother's Day. Then Graduation and Father's Day. Then 4th of July etc. 

[CarlaRolfe]

This is a really good question and I have a really good answer from personal, subjective experience so, take it for what it's worth 🙂 Your mileage may vary, and all that sort of thing. 

You have a product that is selling really well, and has been, for years. It does not have a cover photo, as it never needed one.  Zazzle then makes them optional, and then decides to boost the MP with those products that have one.  (Fair enough, I love the idea and think it's great business sense).

Another designer here has a similar design style as yours, similar product title, description and tags, and they have a custom cover photo. You take a peek into the MP and realize, your really well selling product is falling behind the similarly styled product created years after yours, but... it has a really beautifully done cover photo. 

Then you create your cover photo for "selling really well" product, and check the MP after a few days.  Now YOUR product is in the lead over the competition that came years later, but is taking full advantage of zazzle's new, strategic marketing ideas.  

THIS is why you create well done cover photos for products already selling really well. Because if you don't, they won't stay "selling really well" for long. 

[KeegansCreation]

That's a sobering point.

[igiftcenter]

Your see saw scenario of products moving around in the marketplace is interesting. Just for the sake of keeping an open mind think of this: I understand the theory behind products moving back and forth in placement in the marketplace but.....
I do not think just because someone else creates a cover photo that it guarantees sales are going to increase.  If the customer does not like the product it won't matter what cover photo you put out there the design still has to have customer appeal and demand.  Even if the products are of equal appeal I submit that most sales for my products do not come from the Zazzle marketplace.... they come from search engine search and find or Z advertising the design.  

IMO it is better to make cover photos for products that are not selling as well. Why? Giving an old design the facelift of a cover photo increases it's marketability IF the product has customer appeal and is demand worthy.   Why would I take my best seller and spend time mocking up graphics for them when they are already successful?  And last but not least: what does Zazzle gain by bumping a great selling product with another one simply by virtue of the other having a nice cover photo?  I think that is a marketing mistake pure and simple. 

End of story 🙂

[GabiwArt]

I can't understand why Zazzle wants to destroy the work of many designers of years.
It's just sad.
Yes, there are beautiful cover photos, but do people want the product or the decoration?
Today I saw that a product with a cover photo, which in my opinion is very bad, has come far to the front. Do I need to understand this?

[CreativeLeahG]

You know how  best sellers get copied? Then the copy gets made an editors pick and the original fall off the face of the earth .... that's a sad day. 

[klstock]

I know it all too well unfortunately

[klstock]

That sounds good except it is not working that way, at least in my case. I have ones that are bestsellers and were on the first page. They have had cover photos for months now - very good, eye-catching cover photos. But those have been bumped back in search results (last I checked) to pages 4 and 7. One of the editor's picks that now appears on the first page looks very similar to mine but mine was made a couple years earlier and has been one of my best sellers - and even though it has had a cover photo for months and is an original and continues to sell well mostly due to my own efforts, it has been bumped back in favor of the knock-off design. 

[CarlaRolfe]

I suspect we all might be seeing slightly different things happening the MP with our own products. I see many designers reporting what they're seeing and when I try and duplicate the results, it doesn't come out the same way for me.  I usually just avoid looking at the MP all together but all the changes lately caused me to peek in and see what was going on.  All I can say is what I've seen and how it affected my own sales & product visibility.  My fix for that is a cover photo, since either way, zazzle's own MP will be promoting those over products without one. 

[klstock]

"I suspect we all might be seeing slightly different things happening the MP with our own products..."

I suspect you might be right about that! 😁 You being a Diamond (awesome!), how are you going about cover photos? I imagine you have thousands of designs - are you doing covers for everything? 

[CarlaRolfe]

Covers for everything? Yes.  Eventually.  I don't have an art departement to take care of it for me so it might take a year or 12 but yeah, that's the plan.

[Cat]

Sorry... I couldn't help myself!

[CarlaRolfe]

😂Exactly! Too funny, thanks for the laugh. 

[klstock]

🤣😂

[klstock]

The 12 year plan... I think I could manage that! I can see me, 11 years, 11 months and 30 days from now, painstakingly finishing my last cover photo, with a bead of sweat trickling down my cheek - or maybe it is a tear of joy! And just then, I see a notification come in from Zazzle saying "Designers, we are doing away with cover photos ...." 

[BettyAndFreddy]

😂  😢 

I’m laughing at this, but also crying on the inside.   I’ve been doing this for years successfully with zero cover photos… and all of a sudden I feel like I’m being punished.

hugs to my fellow commiserates 

[Westerngirl2]

It does, indeed, feel like those of us who have followed the rules and worked hard at establishing a business here are being pushed down now. I'm diligently working at making cover photos, but I losing the "drive" that I enjoyed for years here. Not sure if that was Zazzle's intent, and I might be in the minority...but still, I feel very deflated. It might be the choice of all the Editor's Picks over bestsellers that is mostly discouraging me, but man, am I ever getting sick of trying to come up with even more cover photos.

[Barbara]

There's something I've been doing with a collection of birthday mugs (51 of them!) that might inspire folks to seek out ways to do one cover after another where each looks different, but they're actually the same. Here are two examples of the over twenty I've already made. Exact same setup, the only change in each being the wall in back and the shelf on which the mugs sit.

Birthday 1960 Calendar Gift
by colorwash

Birthday 1949 Calendar Gift
by colorwash

[Westerngirl2]

Nice! I've done a few mugs, but find that removing the background on the Z download is very time consuming. If I might ask, how are you doing that? I'm using photoshop, but find that the white background against the white mug makes for some really intricate detail work. Yours look great.

[Barbara]

The first thing I did was locate a mug of that style which had the highest contrast against the white background, and knowing it would be worth it because of the blasted number of mugs to be done, I spent a huge amount of time cutting out the view I wanted where the handle showed. I then turned it into a mask by making it pure white and setting it on a black background. Noticing the front view of the mug was exactly the same shape and position as the mug with the handle, I was able use the mask to cut out the front-view mug, get rid of the handle, and turn that view into a second mask. Now all I have to do is download the two views of a mug and apply the masks to them. Instant cutout.

From there, it was a matter of creating my own template for the setup, including the drop shadows and inside shadows. Replacement of wall and shelf are generally easy. I've collected a bunch of such stuff from Pixabay and added them to a fairly large collection I already have from years of... well, from years of collecting.

If you're not overly handy with masks, I'll bet anything there are lots of tutorials online. Masks have made my life SO much easier!

Colorwash's Home

[KeegansCreation]

Looks good! Masks that you can use over and over again are the key. 

[Westerngirl2]

Thanks! Have a bit of experience using masks, but not tons. Looks like I'm about to get lots more experience! Appreciate the tips.

[BettyAndFreddy]

I made a post a couple of days ago asking why I only have had two sales this month (which is atrociously low for me).   I was told that it is because of the cover photo thing.  Upon investigation, it seems that one would have to buy their own product, photograph it and then upload, product by product?   Someone please correct me if I’m mistaken.  

Anyway, I really don’t understand this and buying a bunch of my own products would put me me in the negative, profit-wise.   I am so confused and disheartened. 

[KeegansCreation]

You don't have to buy your product. 

Go to the product page of one of your products. Go to more options. Choose:

1. Download artwork- downloads the design as it is seen in the design tool so you can upload it to a commercial mockup such as on PlaceIt or Canva. or....
2. Download product mockup- this downloads a picture of the product as it is seen on the product page. You then isolate it in a graphics program and give it a fresh background. You can photograph a background yourself or get one off the internet (making sure that the one you choose allows this). I've gotten some off Pixabay. Make sure to scroll past the paid Shutterstock ones.

[Barbara]

All the covers I made just prior to the problems are now there. However, if one of the other views is chosen, the thumb for the cover disappears, becoming a blank space. The only way to choose it is to slide the cursor over to where it ought to be and click. I doubt a customer would think to do this to a blank, white space.

Colorwash's Home

[igiftcenter]

Moderators: can you please please have the design team fix the inability to download our artwork based on the view we are currently in.  If I am trying to download the front AND back business card art to assist me in creating a mockup it is only allowing the default view to be downloaded.  In other words right now it will not allow download of my artwork in the following situations / views

I'm referring to the action of clicking More Options / Download Artwork
We'd like to download our artwork as it appears in the various insitu images without the backgrounds
1. We can not download my artwork of a desk name plate in an angled view without the desk, it only allows front view image download
2. We can not download the back image of a business card
3. We can not download the back image of a tee shirt
I think you get the idea now 🙂

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this request and have a great day

[waterart]

I have my browser set to ask where to download and I just change the name of the file such as add a number to it and that way I can download the different product views

[Barbara]

I do exactly the same, my preference being "A" and "B" because I find them more easily on the keyboard.

Colorwash's Home

[Scott]

Sounds like you're experiencing the same issue as mentioned here? https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/can-t-download-artwork-for-the-back-of-paper-sheets...

If so, can you paste your response there so we can keep all the information in the same place?

[igiftcenter]

I did not realize or even think this could be a technical issue. I just thought it was not yet possible. Thank you for pointing it out for me.

[Caprice]

Can others confirm/deny whether newly created cover photos (made after recent fix) are gaining in MP position?  Cuz that's a lot of work if they aren't...

[Mariholly]

@Caprice La verdad no sabría decirte... No estoy seguro de cuantas carátulas tengo, más de 500 seguro, mis mejores productos la tienen y depende de la búsqueda están mejor o peor posicionados. Por ejemplo, si hago una búsqueda simple de quinceañera, tengo 12 productos en las primeras páginas, pero no son los más vendidos porque no son diseños tradicionales de quinceañera con muchas mariposas y vestidos de fiesta, tengo otro estilo, pero seguro venden. Si hago una búsqueda de tarjetas para guardar la fecha de la boda, no tengo ningún producto en las primeras 12 páginas y algunos de mis diseños son seleccionados por el editor y tienen una portada. Todos mis mejores diseños tienen carátula y en mi perfil casi todos mis últimos productos vendidos tendrán carátula, sí, por supuesto una venta sin carátula tendrá su carátula en cuanto pueda hacerlo, es mi política.

So, I firmly believe that in addition to the cover and editor's pick, many other factors influence the algorithm that will benefit some designers and harm others, like all algorithms.