I need some encouragement please:(

[womaninlove1980]

Hello, guys!

I need some encouragement please:(

I feel like I am doing something wrong here. I have over 200 what I think cute and sellable designs and I also advertise on Pinterest and I have zazzle affiliate program that I use as well. My store rank is 6.

Please advise what products do you have the most luck with referrals? What products do you advertise via your zazzle affiliate program? 

I barely have anyone coming to look at my products. Traffic is non existent:(

And I only made like $12 from referrals.

What am I doing wrong? 

How long does it take to get sales going?

Thanks

[PacifierCity · Accepted solution]

@womaninlove1980 

How long have you been at it?

Some semi Zazzle facts to remember when you are feeling down.

You are 1 of 50,000 - 100,000 designers that upload their designs in hopes of earning.

and...

There are probably at least 50 million products in the market place.

More designs and more designers become part of the mix everyday...

With that said, How do people even find our stuff to begin with?  It's the words that we use to title, describe and tag our products.  Are you using every bit of verbiage allowed?  What I mean is, Do you use every bit of the allowed characters for your titles?  Does your description describe the design to the fullest extent possible?  Do you use all 10 tags?  Are any of your tags the actual product? (If so, get rid of them.  Z already adds those.)  Do you use phrases in your tags and not just single words?  When you think about what words to use, consider how a 10 year old might describe a design, your mother, grandmother, an art teacher, the nightly newscast anchor...  Break out a thesaurus and explore other words that you had not thought of.  This part of selling online is the absolute most important part.  There is someone out there that is going to like what you design, but you have to get your product in front of their eyes, and its the words you use that do that.

At a Zrank of 6, you must be selling.  But like many, you are at a point where you desire more sales.  Its the why are my designs not selling more phase...  And for some it lasts a long time...  This is probably the hardest part of selling online.  There is no magic answer for this.  

It seems you are promoting... How long have you been at it?  How big is your presence at the various socials you utilize?  Do you have an email marketing campaign?  Do you have a website, blog or other online, non social presence online?  Do you do real world advertising?

It is some magic mixture of the above that will equate to success.  As well as designing and publishing more and more.

The most important part is never giving up.  It seems the ball is rolling for you.  You are in fact earning from your endeavors.  Congratulations!   Very few designers show up online and make good money quick.  They usually already have some sort of following or have degrees in marketing and advertising.  This is not usually a get rich quick process. 

I started here 7 years ago.  I opened a store, uploaded a dozen or so AWESOME designs and expected that they would just start selling.  It was a very niche store so I decided to spend a few hundred dollars on Fbook ads and I got almost nothing from it.  I walked away for years... but the sales did start to trickle in and about 3 years ago I earned my PRO level.  It took another 6 months to a year to come back and I did so with vigor.  I earned bronze in about a year.  Now onward to the Silver level... not sure how long that will take.  But I have evolved my understanding of how to do things over that period of time and hope that the work I'm doing now will result in a massive uptick in sales... but I'm months away from finishing this new plan... 

A few months back I was talking about what I do and sharing some sample products with my mechanic and I said that I would be doing this for the next 20 years...  He said really, I said yes.  This response to him actually surprised even me...lol.  But knowing that about myself has really changed the way I think about everything.  I'm not so rushed, I really try and take my designs to the next level and I've created a plan to success that I know is going to take 6 months to a year for me to complete the structure I desire, then sales should follow... hopefully big time.

So those are my thoughts, a bit of my story, and a short story...  I hope something there helps.  You do have nice designs but do need to work on your words.  I wish you the best of luck and will promote some of your goods across my many P accounts.  May the sales come at a greater rate!

PC

...............................

[LDS222]

great response, thorough and absolutely true...

not a get rich scheme, and definitely takes thoughtfulness, strategy and networks and marketing; Best of Luck to everyone!

[Windy]

Another absolutely awesome, thoughtful and thorough response from @PacifierCity ! And now I learn something new about his marketing. He shows samples to his mechanic! I never show samples to anyone. Maybe I should think about this!

[PacifierCity]

@Windy 

LOL!  Get this.  He let me leave business cards on his counter for my birthday cards.  I few days later I had to swing in to have something checked and there was a young women there.  When she went to pay she started looking at my business card.  I chimed in that that was my card, showed her some samples that I had in the car and she told me she was a Mom, and knew tons of other Moms and that she loved my cards!  Sure to be a customer at some point in time.  You can't beat real world advertising in my opinion....

PC

........

[Windy]

@PacifierCity 

You are so right about real world advertising. I read a book once which made a pretty good case that we are on the wrong track with social, now the big companies have muscled in. It's a good read.   https://books.google.com/books/about/Social_Media_Is_Bull**bleep**.html?id=5-bCntQFYI8C

QUOTE He shows you why all the Facebook friends and Twitter followers in the world mean nothing to you and your business without old-fashioned, real-world connections. He examines popular tales of social media "success," and reveals some unsettling truths behind the surface. And he tells you how to best harness the potential of the Internet—without spending a fortune in the process. END QUOTE

[DM]

I started the POD business in 2005. The advice I was given then was that once you had a thousand good-quality designs with proper tags and descriptions, you would start to see consistent sales. Now, 17 years later, it's probably more like 4,000 or more good-quality designs with proper tags and descriptions, plus excellent marketing and a dash of good luck will get you consistent sales. My point is that if you have 200 now, then you're off to a good start. It is not a get-rich-quick business. It isn't necessarily a get-rich-at-all business. Unless you already have an audience, it takes time and a lot of work before you start seeing results.

[Connie]

It definitely takes some time to gain traction in the marketplace, no matter how much outside promotion you do (unless you have a huge following already). The biggest tip I can give you is to check out Elke and Jen Clarke's blog, podcast, You Tube channel, and Facebook group. And if you can at all afford it, sign up for their paid Coaching Program! My sales have skyrocketed since joining their classes!

[Caprice]

Hi Connie - not asking for numbers of course - but can you characterize 'skyrocketed'? Have your sales doubled? Tripled? 

[JerryLambert]

Don't give up. Keep going. 

[WBartworks]

You do have really cute stuff!  How long have you been with Zazzle?

[Barbara]

Everyone here has given good advice, so here are a few things to simply think about:

There are seasons here on Zazzle where sales are good or when sales aren't so good. Summer, many of us have found is the worst, and autumn seems a time of buildup toward the holidays. January can often be good. Currently, we may be feeling the effects of post-pandemic and a very bad economy, so if your sales are downright puny, it may not be your fault, so work for the future. Everything is always changing.

Don't try to emulate the types of designs or products that sell for others. Do your own thing, focus on what interests you. When you're out and about, look at the people around you, the objects they carry, the things that interest them. It's where ideas can blossom. At first when I was here, I saw how popular wedding designs were, and so I tried to create my own. I failed miserably simply because I'm not "into" weddings regardless of having my own. I gave up and began creating designs for activities that interested me. It was my own passion for certain things that helped my sales increase. So, what do love doing? Seeing? What are your hobbies? What gives you joy? You might not think others will be interested, but they are. As is said, follow your heart.

Connected with the above is discovering a niche or two or three. Focus on this for a while, building an inventory of that type of design. You'll be happy, and so will the customers seeking that sort of thing. One evening, I was watching a TV show with people doing metal detecting, which fascinated me, and in turn, this got my thinking about coins and how beautiful some of the old ones were, which slid into a business card for coin collectors. I doubted it would sell, but it has--not hugely, but certainly more than once. Work at it, but be happy in your work.

[CreativeLeahG]

You're not doing anything wrong. Most of us who generate daily sales only do so after being here for 10plus years and generating thousands of products, learning from our results and being patient. It takes a lot of time.

You have lovely designs as you say, keep promoting and sharing via all the various social media channels and most importantly, keep adding more products. There are hundreds of thousands of Designers,, several million products. These are your competitors.

The best way to generate sales sooner is to develop a brand new niche that isn't over saturated. Create a store specifically for the niche and do your research to see what people are looking for in this niche.

[shellifitz]

Can't really add anything to all the great replies already except to encourage you to stick with it.  Keep designing and promoting and share your products in the show me threads.  If you want to try to make referrals too you are welcome to promote any of my products.  Look for what comes up first in the popular sort for my bestsellers.  Maybe we will both make some more money.  🙂 

I have many stores you can choose from to promote when you visit my profile. 

[mrdoodle]

My main store is a steady earner in a BORING niche started way, way when many of you were still in diapers. My other main store has roughly 1000+ designs - started about 2 years ago. I upload 10 designs per week to this store on 7 PODs. I have one year's worth of designs in queue. After 20 years, my wife and I finally retired our home food business to concentrate fully on our PODs. So... it's taken me nearly 20 years of slow, grinding work to where I am now.

And of all things, this year (and maybe next too) looks like it's going to be really hard. Folks have less disposable income and basic everyday stuff prices are increasing. It's reflecting in my sales, but thank God that my catalog of designs are solid and earnings are "steady". Steady if you take into account the seasonal fluctuations. I have a spreadsheet that tracks my earnings monthly on the 7 PODs that I sell on, with roughly 10 active stores and about 10 seasonal stores. This spreadsheet keeps me sane. It tells me that the ups and downs I experience is all a pattern. There will be ups, there will be downs, but the number at the end of the year show a slow but steady trend upwards. So basically what I'm sharing is :

1. Consistent hard work. Don't slack in this. NEVER slack in this. Yes... the beauty of PODs is that you can work when you want, where you want, yadda, yadda, yadda, but if you want a steady income, you gotta put in the time and effort.

2. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER rely on just ONE POD. That will surely kill you eventually if not it will give you a lot of stress and worry because you're relying on only one ship. If it sinks, you're sunk. Multiple niches in multiple PODs. They call it multiple streams of income.

3. Never STEAL. Create original work as best as you can. If you have to rely on "borrowing" ideas all the time, you won't be able to create new designs consistently. And that is going to quickly turn your store into a chore.

4. As best as possible, find a niche that you love and stick to it. Everyone's experience may differ, but I have learnt that if your store is a mish mash of funny cartoons, typography, patterns, photography etc, you're going to find it tough going. Keep your stores to a niche as far as possible. If you're starting out, a mish-mash store is okay, but you'll quckly find that niche stores are easier to manage and market. Also, if you jump into a niche that you "think" sells well but you have no passion for it, it is going to reach a dead end really quick and you will start to be tempted to copy and steal designs.

5. Don't be a perfectionist. You think your designs are good, but customers will think they suck. You think your designs suck but it sells by the thousands. I have a little doodle that I drew on my computer with a mouse of all things. Looks crappy. Didn't even bother to color it and you can see every mistake, but it's sold thousands. Go figure - 5 minutes of work.

6. Diversify, diversify, diversify. If you have a one track mind, it might lead you to a dead end. I never ignore rabbit holes... I don't jump into every rabbit hole,... I pick them carefully, but I follow rabbit holes. You gotta look for new stuff, new trends, new designs. Try new stuff. You never know. You might just fall in love with that new thing and while you're slogging on with the current stuff, that new thing might just open up a whole new revenue stream. And by this,  I'm not just talking about designing on PODs. Right now, I'm planning to actually produce button badges, laser engraving etc to sell locally. Might not be a big revenue source, but I love making stuff so....

Oh and another thing. Don't BLAB about how easy it is to make money on PODs to everyone. That will just invite lots of people who come in and flood the market with stolen designs. ONLY tell the people you love and care about. We can all feel it happening now. I get emails every other day now asking me about my stores. The story is the same. The pandemic has devastated them and they're looking for a quick easy way to make money ( translation : I just want money quick... can I steal designs from you??) . I tell them PODs is NOT quick and easy. So don't blab to everyone about making money on PODs - only the ones you know and love.

And what do you know... I've rambled on giving unsolicited advice. Probably didn't even answer your question. Oh well, someone might just find a pearl of wisdom or two in my long ramble. .

[CreativeLeahG]

Super great advice 🙂

[shellifitz]

priceless!