general frustration thread

[TRW]

I don't know abt everyone else, but tbh, after 18 years on Zazzle, attaining Pro Silver, etc... I am at a point where the constant changes, not least the most recent royalty rate and affiliate changes, and the number and frequency of major glitches, has driven me to the verge of leaving the site permanently in the near future unless by some miracle things return to "normal" REALLY soon.
I have not made a NON-3rd party sale from any of my shops since the royalty rate changes. I absolutely cannot stay on a site that offers me pennies for a product they sell for large profit. I have jumped through so many hoops for Zazzle in the past decade! I never fully recovered from the search changes in 2012. I used to make a few hundred a month, over 1k during holidays. Now I struggle to make $100 in ANY month, and in fact have had a few months with no payout the past 1-2 years. 
I add new listings regularly, have no hidden designs to update, I delete all non-sellers older than 2 yrs as instructed, and have updated every listing on every product with views but no sales... and still coming up empty handed.
Now my understanding is that because I refuse to list at 10% royalty and accept earnings that wouldn't even support me in Mexico or India (and I have lived in both, so I would know), that my shops and designs are hidden from the MP?!?! 
What does it take, Zazzle? 
What can Zazzle do to make it worth my staying? (and I am NOT by far the only one pondering this).
Because if this does NOT change, I will have no choice but to look elsewhere. And I really do not want to have to do that after nearly two decades here!

[MOM]

@TRW  Oh my gosh, you are raising points here I was totally unaware of. Can this be true? 🤯

I‘m only around since mid November of 2023 but my spirit has also been crushed a bit on April first. I had no clue I‘m supposed to delete all unsold items after two years. And I have raised my royalties to 25%. On what date will those items be hidden in the market place?

I guess I better go and read the new fine print now!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Windy]

I am not familiar with the idea that we should delete unsold items after two years, so I'm wondering where this is being seen. As for the royalties, that's something any of us can easily check. I will look a little bit tomorrow, maybe.  It's pretty late on the East Coast.

[TRW]

the concept of deleting the non sellers with no views is because in the past Zazzle said that they want new "fresh" content that represents current design styles etc
if something has been in the mp for over a year with low view and zero sales, it is not likely to start selling ... you can go through all your listings that zazzle says need optimized and try that first, but after two years even with new seo ad it still hasnt sold...there is just no reason to keep it, Zazzle isn't going to show it in the mp (if you have a customer base of your own from a website or successful social media page who buy, you could still sell it there through Zazzle, but otherwise it is just dead weight so to speak) 

[jophb]

If you have promoted the item somewhere like Pinterest, you are potentially losing out on future sales though.  I had an item posted 5+ years ago, never sold once. Suddenly in March 2024, that item not only sold a big quantity, but also was a referral. I ended up making like $500 from that one sale.

[TRW]

yes, you must also delete all dead link pins on pinterest, which I understand "rewards" you for doing so by making your fresh posts more visible... but I am obviously not a marketer and do not understand how all these algorithms etc work so who knows I could be dead wrong

[LMGildersleeve]

Your products higher than 10% are found in the MP. I know mine and many others whose products are found in the MP with higher than 10% royalty.

"I delete all non-sellers older than 2 yrs as instructed"
Tammy, where did you hear about this two year deleting advice?

[Fizzy]

While I understand your frustrations (we all suffer, believe me!), I think we must come to terms with the fact that the PoD landscape has changed drastically since you started this journey. There are a gazillion more players in the game now (thanks to YouTube, etc.), and competition is fierce! Zazzle has to compete with Amazon and Etsy; not to mention Temu et al who flood the market with cheap products! To stay competitive, they have to make changes to their operational setup which is to the detriment of PoD creators. Add to that the current worldwide political turmoil, and in many countries, economic recessions, customers are a lot less willing to splurge on non-essential items. 

[TRW]

while I agree with some of your points, I have to say that somehow the gold platinum and diamond sellers do not seem to be taking much of a hit... so how do they continue to be seen in the mp? it seems to be that they are being chosen to show up much more than a designer who may have a similar product but not the sales history...
I also know that having the mp flooded with spam tags and products which zazzle claims it disallows is hurting legit designers like myself and many in the facebook groups I belong to.
also, why would Zazzle WANT designers to fail? they should be removing the crap content, tag spammers, design spammers and low quality stuff so that legit designers can be found and make money (benefits them as well as the designers) 

[Jadendreamer13]

According to what I’ve seen/heard in my Zazzle coaching course, even the gold, platinum, and diamond Zazzle designer’s sales have taken a hit. So, it’s a Zazzle- or market-wide decrease in sales.

It makes financial sense for Zazzle to feature its best-selling products and best-selling designers on the top of their feeds.

[TRW]

So how did those designers get there? if they too were hidden before they were best sellers? 
There has to be opportunity for everyone who creates quality material, not just for those who lucked into it in the early years. 

[DancingPelican]

I can honestly say, I would not have gotten to where I am on Zazzle today were it not for taking advantage of good coaching and training programs available to learn the proper essentials for being successful on Zazzle. These new changes with the Ambassador Program have affected my monthly income, but not to the point of despair. It just causes me to learn a new approach - namely, better self promotion.

[TRW]

I would love to do that, were it not for 2 things 
1) I am not making enough on Zazzle to pay for a Zazzle coaching program
2) every bit of advice I have EVER been given from a "pro" or high earner on Zazzle has NOT WORKED for me...in fact I can count 3 distinct times when they had the opposite effect, whether the person telling me that held that intention or not 

[DancingPelican]

I was simply responding to your question: "So how did those designers get there?". I will bow out now. I wish you the best of luck!

[CrazyMermaid]

Everyone starts at zero and we all earn our place in the marketplace. I really don't believe that Zazzle hides any Zazzler. it is just a very competitive market. I agree with DancingPelican. Training and coaching have also been a critical part of my success. You say no tips from "pro or high earner" ever helped. Well I have the same coach as Dancing Pelican and one of the things I was taught was never delete any product ever. I have had many first sales on items after several years. So that is one point of coaching that might have helped you. I am not aware of any Zazzle requirement that we delete items. 

[TRW]

that's really strange that you mention not deleting things when Zazzle has specifically told me to delete anything never viewed or never sold in order to keep listings "fresh" and in current styles for the market... sadly I do not save all correspondence once I have read it, but that instruction was clear and straightforward  

[Connie]

I'm not a top earner, but definitely the same coaching has helped me. Zazzle has never told us to delete unsold items, they just want us to optimize them.

[Goldie]

In my opinion, if Zazzle wanted to compete in this fierce market, it wouldn't add a 50% marketing fee to gross royalties, which would significantly increase its profits but have a major negative impact on the product price. Charging a marketing fee only when the product is sold through a direct link or paid advertising is the correct approach. Fast, profit-driven solutions are not the key in this complex, competitive market.

[Boki]

The situation is catastrophic, I haven't had any sales for days. So many links shared on Pinterest too, and no sales on either side. It is strange that there are no sales either from my stores or through sharing any links. They gave us opportunities, but I don't know why there is no realization of earnings? I keep hoping for that improvement. 🤔

[dbvisualarts]

wondering why I received less than half the normal royalty on a digital download.  I checked it was not showing as a reduction in any way.  They also ordered 20 paper announcements for 48.00 and I earned 2.15 cents total for those.  sigh.......... yes i have put my royalty back down to 10% after a month of no sales, but this is a cut from what i should have earned even at 10%.

[dbvisualarts]

I am not sure I was clear, that was a full month or more with no sales, not just no sales in a month.

[Connie]

The royalties for digital downloads are capped at 50% max (depending on department) for self-referrals, and I think third party referrals, too. Could that be why you are getting less than half your normal royalty?

[BevStuff]

The glitch 3 weeks ago with view listings as 1025 and 4 months ago on tons of creator's products had a bunch of other glitches along with that: one of them being products thrown into the hidden file that didn't show the red optimization markers, so you have no idea why they are there. That happened to me.. I found a older product in Hidden (a throw pillow) that I didn't know why it was in Hidden, but the dop down menu ,had no option to "Make public." So I finally clicked "Make Hidden" which was on the drop down, and at that point, a red optimization triangle and red type suddenly alerted me it was genuinely hidden for optimization reasons, but a glitch caused the red triangle and text NOT to show. So it's possible that has happened to you with products nearing the 2 year mark put in Hidden but are lacking red triangle indicator. I'd check the dropdown menu's in everything you've got in hidden and see if "make public" is listed; if not, click "make hidden" and see if the red optimization triangle shows up. If so, you can optimize and click make public again and it will go back into the market place. That might resolve the issue for you. If not, take a screen shot and report in technical forum for IT to look at because Zazzle really has no other policy for hiding products except optimization, except if a glitch has occurred. Hopefully you'll find that is what happened to you, too.  

[Boki]

I have had duplicate lighter products in my shop for days, which are more recent. Can the technical service correct it and delete the duplicates so that there is no further confusion? 🙄

[Connie]

I never saw anything from Zazzle recommending that we delete unsold products after two years. If they haven't been viewed in 15 months, Zazzle hides the products, and recommends that we "Optimize" them, with new titles and tags, cover photos, etc. But they never told us to delete them. I've had products that never sold in a decade, suddenly start getting sales when I optimized them. Of course, if the products have template errors or are otherwise unsellable, I do sometimes delete them.
I think that possibly deleting those older products might contribute to your lack of sales. They gain traction in the marketplace with longevity, and with never giving them the chance for that longevity, you are constantly having to start "from the bottom up".

[robmolily]

I also have never heard or been told to delete products that have not sold in a year.  They are hidden - we go in and optomize them if we decide they are worth bringing back to the market but either we missed something or Zazzle might be sending out emails to some and not others? I wonder if there was a thread - not all of us work on Zazzle consistently so we might not check the forum. All I know is for me it's DEAD everywhere - AI has ruined my coloring book sales, I have over 30 original paintings in my Etsy which used to sell immediately.  Thank GOD I don't have to live off my sales because this would be horrible. If Zazzle wants us to delete product as mentioned by some on this thread, why don't they just mass delete themselves? How do we even know if the stats are legitimate - I have been selling on here since 2006 or 2008 and always had pretty good sales until the last year or so. It's frustrating especially with the new pricing of royalties - going above 10%.