How to get views

[Puntoonz]

I thought I would get a sale or two when I saw my products got 6 views the first day. A week has passed and there have been ZERO views since. This doesn’t even seem possible. I use to fairly popular tags. What am I missing?

[Sara_H]

@PuntoonzIf you are viewing them yourself, that gives you view so it could be counting your own.

Are your promoting them? Have you added them to pinterest? Shared them on your social?

It looks like you're a new store (only 3 products on your store front)

You need to fill up your store so to get a better chance at getting sales, create giftable products that can be personalized (zazzle's big on personalization) , make collections, add name/photo templates and promote, promote, and promote.

You'll learn views are irrelevant - it's sales that count

tldr: Promote, promote, promote and the sales will come.

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/219145288-Creating-a-Product-Template

[Puntoonz]

I guess I just don’t understand this whole program. I have 3 products, but Zazzle says below them, hey, try this design on one of these other products. So if someone picks something other than the 3 products I have, what do I get out of it? All very convoluted. Seems like I should just be selling the design.

Also, it can’t be my views it’s counting, I check all the time from various devices, and the numbers never change. That said, it is apparent that someone with the design ideas I have will never get found, which means there won’t be any sales. I put the store out there before I really knew anything. I’m just the idea man, and I hire an artist, but my stuff is too niche to ever be found on Zazzle. Or anywhere for that matter. Oh well, it was just a thought.

[Jadendreamer13]

Giving up too soon won’t yield positive results. Your cartoon is cute, funny, and original, but you chose the wrong product. People don’t want to think of poop when they’re eating and drinking. Try a t-shirt instead. And make more products—lots of them. Learn how to create proper titles and tags, how to write good product descriptions, how to create enticing cover photos, and how to market your products. If you want to make sales, learn how to start, run, and grow a business.

[Puntoonz]

Thanks for your response. I appreciate the information. You may be right, though I don’t think a frat boy would care if his coffee cup had this on it or if the guy across the table was wearing a t-shirt with it during dinner. Honestly, I don’t even know how I would get these noticed. I certainly know it would take quite some time. These types of cartoons no doubt have a limited audience. However, I believe my ideas are quite unique. I was hoping one good design would get some sales and I could go to the artist to draw more, because he isn’t cheap. I’m not looking to get rich, I’m just looking to start things rolling so I can pay for my next cartoon.

And when you say ‘make more products’, do you mean designs? Would I have to sit there and put a design on hundreds of products and publish them to my store? I’m not really making the ‘product’, like a mug or a shirt. I thought that’s what Zazzle did, provide the product and sellers come up with unique design ideas. It all seems quite overwhelming, especially your last two sentences. Also, I did try a t-shirt but when I enlarged the cartoon I got an error message that it exceeded dimensions, or something like that. I guess the image wasn’t large enough in its original format.

[ColsCreations]

If you search Zazzle for 'coffee mugs' there are well over 2 million results. Think about that ...
What is special about your design that will get it noticed? ...

... OK, whatever you thought of, use that in your tags.
Your tags right now are really minimal, not enough to get you seen among the hundreds of thousands of results for "funny" or "cat"

Also, it can’t be my views it’s counting, I check all the time from various devices, and the numbers never change.

If you browse through the Technical forum you will see many threads about views not updating. It happens from time to time so you can't count on Zazzle's statistics to accurately reflect interest in your item.  Even so, the oldest of your three products is barely a week old. Unless you are heavily promoting off-site, it's going to take way longer than a week to get noticed in a heavily saturated market like mugs. As others have said, this is not a get-rich-quick deal. There is no guarantee that if you build it they will come.

As to your last two sentences, Zazzle does provide the products. But it's up to you as the Designer/Creator to create a design for them and publish as such. 

[Barbara]

You essentially have one product, not three, because you've the same design on three different styles of mugs, which customers can choose can choose on their own. If the image is on a plain white mug, they have the option to choose a different style.

As @Sara_H said, you need more designs, a lot more. Also, the average first sale for a designer occurs at around three months, and that's after creating different designs and after promoting. Zazzle is not at all a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes days, weeks, months.

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[Puntoonz]

Well, I guess I was hoping for a home run so I could afford to pay for more designs (home run as in like 50 bucks). I can only draw stick figures and provide the idea, I have to give it to a cartoonist to finish. I wanted to try and start a little business with little to no capital. It was a dream, but I realize there are thousands of stores here, most making little to no money. I thought my ideas would rise to the top, but I can’t afford to fund ‘a lot more’ designs as you say, or advertise. I have dozens of them sketched out. It’s a shame because I think I could make a lot of people laugh based on the responses I’ve gotten just from explaining a joke, not even showing them a drawing.

[Cat]

Just for a little bit of perspective: I posted my first designs (a half a dozen or so) in 2017 and didn't make any sales for over a year. (Honestly, I sorta forgot about it - and those initial sales were really just a lucky fluke.) I didn't start putting consistent effort into it until 2019 (consistent meaning a minimum of 20-30 hours per week posting at least a dozen new designs every day while marketing my products extensively across a variety of different platforms), but it still took many, many months from that point to get my total earnings to $50.

I've had a few "home runs" but they are few and far between - and I've got over 17,000 products in the marketplace. I don't know if it still works this way or not, but I think it used to be that your store had to have a ranking of 4 or higher before your products would even be visible in Zazzle's marketplace. So yeah, I think it's a tad bit optimistic to think that you could have that sort of success right out of the gate.

If there's anything I've learned here it's that having a great design is only about 5-10% of the equation. The real work involves marketing your products - both inside and outside of Zazzle's platform. (Inside meaning good keywords, descriptions, cover images, etc - Outside meaning posting them on social media, your own website, or even through offline things like pitching them to your friends.) 

I don't mean to burst your bubble or anything, but I think that's the cold hard reality.

[Puntoonz]

Appreciate the reply. Bubble burst 😪. Gonna have to survive on my fixed income till the end I guess.

[Cat]

I'm not saying you should give up! You can absolutely make money on Zazzle. It's just that it takes a lot of work to be successful - just like anything else. Maybe learn how to draw or paint - there are tons of free resources online. Or explore AI to generate the art you need? But as @ColsCreations said, it's a competitive business and success doesn't come overnight.

[Puntoonz]

Thanks, but I’m elderly and not able to become an artist at this point. Was hoping my ideas would help me earn a little bit to leave my kids. I have a cartoonist that will do the designs, but it’s not cheap. Seems like if great designs is 5% of it as you say, this is relatively pointless anyway. I don’t have the time or the energy for the 95% at this point of my life. The design idea is my only area of expertise. Oh well, that’s life! I’m glad you told me now so I didn’t waste a lot of time on this. Your forthrightness is greatly appreciated.

[Jadendreamer13]

You keep focusing on what you CAN’T do rather than what you CAN do. Try making text-based designs before you call it quits. Being elderly doesn’t stop others from making sales on Zazzle. I’m retired, and I show up (for myself and my business) every day. I have never once said “I can’t do this,” or “I’m too old,” or “it’s too late.”

Whether you think you can’t or you think you can, either way, you’re right. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Puntoonz]

I would like to thank you and everyone else for your guidance and suggestions. I will try to explain my situation better. The fact is, I actually CAN’T do what you suggest. It’s not because I physically can’t, it’s because I mentally can’t. I’ve been abandoned mid-job by two cartoonists so far, the first 20+ years ago. I spent 40 years in jobs where I was bored out of my mind. The more I was promoted, the further away I got from the enjoyable parts of the job. I won’t spend another minute being bored. I love making people laugh and I love making these cartoons. That’s what I do. I know they would sell, but with Zazzle, they would never be seen. Sitting in front of a computer thinking of text to put on a shirt or a mug, or grabbing some free flower art and adding text to it, I WOULD LOSE MY MIND. I will NOT be bored toiling years doing that for pennies. That will never ever happen. That would be insane, counterproductive and unhealthy for me. I owe myself that much. I’d rather sit in front of a TV, drooling, watching Judge Judy reruns than sit around thinking of text. I cannot even fathom doing that. For some, it may float their boat. It would sink mine. Quickly. I hope you can understand that. It’s not a prophecy at all. It’s not negative thinking. It’s just simply knowing myself. I know what I love to do, and I know what I would hate to do.  

[Barbara]

You've taken stock of what you don't want to do, but you haven't yet done the same for what you can do. You love making cartoons, you believe you can't do it, and so you want to make an end run around the problem by having someone else render the cartoons for you. Honestly, this makes no sense. Take a look here:

https://www.zazzle.com/s/stick+figure+mugs

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[Puntoonz]

I’m curious if there is a way to tell how many any of those have sold? I’d try it if my jokes had any people in them, but they don’t. People need to know what they are looking at for the jokes to work. With me doing the drawings, they would not. I’m sorry you think I don’t make any sense.

[Barbara]

Save the Date for Baby Shower - Cracked Egg
by colorwash 

That's one I've sold.

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[Puntoonz]

I like that very much. Nice job. How many have you sold? Yeah, that is eons beyond my capability. My forte is the joke, the humor. I don’t enjoy drawing. I prefer to leave it to professionals. That’s the only way it would ever get done.

[Barbara]

They were sold in a multiple order as invitations to a shower.

I've tried cartooning innumerable times, have three different how-to books on it, but I can do it only when I'm doodling and a little miracle shows up.

We all have a little kid inside us, and if we keep telling ourselves we're no good at something, that little kid believes it. Kids are like that.

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[KeegansCreation]

Use AI to make cartoons.

[Puntoonz]

Tried. The designs are too complex for AI.

[LMGildersleeve]

@CatThe products within any store are found in the MP. The zRank of 4 and above stores used to show on those special lists of creators that used to exist on the sidebars.

[Cat]

Thanks for the info! That actually makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking! 

[WBartworks]

Wow!  17,000 products. How do you deal with product that needs to be optimized?  You must have a lot unless most of your product gets viewed often.
I also believe that marketing your products is most important.  Somebody has to see you product first before being able to like it.

[SJoy]

I agree with @Cat .  I also think you should widen your product range. Just a thought here, perhaps put this type of design on a car sticker people can place on their back windshield or on a bumper sticker.  You can also use your own stick figure drawings for this same purpose (cutting out the cost of having a middle man for the artwork).  Everywhere I go, I see so many funny and silly stickers on the back of people's cars.  I can totally see pulling up behind someone at a red light and reading this! 

[Barbara]

It doesn't necessarily require art talent to create designs and use them to sell Zazzle products. If you look through the marketplace--an absolute must--you'll see those who focus on text-based designs. The art they use is in their choice of font, color, and placement. If you haven't the ability to do cartooning, you might think about text. You can also add shapes around and behind the text to make it stand out. Again, look through the marketplace to see the possibilities.

I recently sold a text-based mug, and at a 20% royalty--higher than what Zazzle recommends--made $2.03. I'd have to sell 25 of those mugs to make $50, but that's an unlikely scenario. And if I were paying someone else to execute the design? Would I have profited at all?

Age doesn't preclude the ability to learn. I'll be turning eighty this year and know for a fact that we never stop learning. Never.

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[whimsywhim]

Last viewed date hasn't been working for the last 4 days.

[Puntoonz]

Thanks. We kind of got off track here. You would think that wouldn’t happen frequently with an established site like this.

[Puntoonz]

The count not working that is.

[almdrs]

That's the billion dollar question.

[Fantabuloustef]

Hi, 

In addition to all the different comments of good sellers here, I would like to add my testimony ( quite recent for me) . I started on Zazzle mid-2022 and before, I just have tried  competitor platforms and thought it was the same thing. So, I just put a few designs on several products and let them live to see what would happen next. And I later realized it was a very bad strategy. In Spring 2023 I tried to understand better the specificities of the platform, and there are many. I started to sell one or two products per month since July 2023 and made my best season last quarter of 2024. I’m still not a big seller, but I improve myself everyday.

I think it’s very important to understand and use Zazzle advantages: 

- Make many Customizable Products, Customers really love that and it’s so easy on Zazzle to offer them the possibility to add a monogram or custom text or their own pictures on the products.

- Use the strengths of the editor. At the beginning I created very big paintings and generated a png file with everything on it and tried to apply it on every product then. But now, I generate every layer separately. It allows to adapt the design to the products, ex: It’s not aesthetic to put a square painting on a t-shirt , you need to have your main subjects on a transparent background, it’s really better. I also use many svg shapes I created to do the best clipping of my pictures or backgrounds  for the products. My strategy now is to have libraries of many little designs I can re-use, combine, and separate backgrounds  … And it’s really better. ( I keep painting big pictures at the same time but really slowly in comparison to my beginnings)

- The views are not a good indicator of what will sell or not. It’s encouraging to see we have a lot of views, but I rarely sell any of my most viewed products. 

- Always keep an eye on what happens on the forums, there are very interesting topics , helping yourself to improve, and it also allows you to see when a  new type of product is launched. If you think this product is good and might please the customers, create immediately your versions with your designs. It’s really a strength to have this very active community, I don’t know anything similar on other pod platforms.

- Promote, promote, promote wherever you can. I don’t know really well how many sales come from outside the marketplace for me, but it’s very important to be viewed, even if it doesn’t trigger an immediate sale. It also improve your SEO to be found on Search Engines.

- The products I sold the most are either very new and specific types of products ( that are difficult to find somewhere else) or products I created more than a year ago. ( I guess there’s a delay before the creation of a product and its visibility everywhere and on the third party sellers platforms) .

- I add that I don’t have a niche, and it could be probably faster for you if you have, but It’s not my personality to limit my creativity that much. 

Hope it will help you. Don’t give up, take it seriously as a job and you’ll be so happy when your first sales will come! 

BR

[Barbara]

I learned to have individual designs in PNGs with transparency about a year into being here and for the very same reasons as you. They can be combined in various ways, from just one to multiples.

Don't discount having a niche. I have one that's broad enough to cover any number of subjects, which means boredom isn't an annoyance because it's focused on idea, not product nor design style.

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