Intro and Questions, returning member

[Alissanos]

Hey everyone

I just wanted to say hi and maybe ask a few million questions at the same time.

Im an Irish creator, trying to start again here on zazzle

I joined zazzle years ago, made a few t-shirts and a handful of sales but life/kids/jobs and all that, I didnt have the time

I dont know anyone here, I havent really got any social media accounts to speak of, none with followers anyway, kinda been hibernating minding my 6 kids for years but im finally ready to jump back in and join society again. We are also saving to buy our own house so I am looking at zazzle as a long term work from home opportunity as I have children with special needs and i want to be at home with them! I lost my job last Christmas and we have had a very difficult year, so I am determined to make this work. I know its not a quick solution but I am thinking long term.

Anyway, enough about me, sorry for the wall of text!

I have millions of questions but no specific ones right now. I have a few shops but I am concentrating on my postcard one for now. I figure if I can get one store doing something, even if its only small items, I can build up from there.

My tags are terrible, I thought I had to add "postcard" in there but I have realised now that I dont, so will be redoing them. The product descriptions are not easy either, hard to write much about a postcard, how important are the descriptions?

I chose postcards because my dad is a postcrosser so hes been a big inspiration for me, this is the store im focusing on for now Themed Postcards 

I guess im just looking for any tips or general advice from those of you who have more experience. Im having enough trouble navigating the website to be honest, so I really am just finding my feet here for now. It actually took me a bit to find where to start a thread here!

So hello from Ireland, looking forward to getting to know you all

[Alissanos]

Oh and also, I bought a couple of postcards for my dad! Dont know why I didnt think of doing that in the first place but I didnt realise I could buy my own stuff 🙄

Cant wait to give them to him!

[Alissanos]

Just testing out my forum sig!

[Windy]

Lovely! It worked and looks great.

Once you succesfully make a new signature, that new signature will attach to all the posts you have made in these forums. Also, there is a testing board over here https://community.zazzle.com/t5/testing-board/bd-p/testing

[Barbara]

Signature looks wonderful except for one thing: Postcards is missing its 'T'!

Colorwash's Home

[Alissanos]

Little update..

I started a new store dedicated to throw pillows, I just love pillows and found I enjoy making them, anyway I decided to really work on getting this store to look nice so I delved into categories, which I havent used before, always preferring collections because they seem to show up quicker.

I spent quite a bit of time on covers for my categories and I couldnt see how they looked until today when they showed up in my store. Im not sure now if I like them or if they are too much, so if anyone has the time, Id love some feedback, there are only about hald of them showing at the moment and not all the products are showing in them, but its really just the cover images im not sure of..

https://www.zazzle.com/store/sofapillows?rf=238623409125842084 

Thanks!

[Barbara]

I like them. They say precisely what they are, both in words and pictures. You could do all sorts of swirly-twirly stuff, but would this help your sales? Probably not, particularly since customers don't constantly hang out at individual stores. They'll find a pillow they like via a link to it or directly in the marketplace and then go to the display page for that pillow. Some people might find their way to your store from there, but by then, they're already attracted enough to search further.

The only thing that might be nice is if, instead of the color bars, you had a pillow image in that particular color. Other than that, which isn't necessary, you've done a fine job of getting right to the point.

Colorwash's Home

[Alissanos]

Thank you Barbara, I appreciate your feedback and Im glad you like them!

I'm afraid swirly-twirly has never been my thing 😂 I can appreciate it in others designs, and see how beautiful it can look, but when I attempt it, it looks more like something my two year old drew, which is why I havent tried invitations 😂

I did actually try pillows instead of the colors but it wasnt working for me, what I do like about these ones is I can make only minor adjustments for new categories and keep the overall look.

Also you are completely right about how customers will find my products and its something I didnt even think of, so I can relax now, Im going to stop overthinking it and take the evening off working on it, so thanks for that 😁

[Barbara]

You and I are totally alike when it comes to swirls and twirls. I can't seem to arrange them properly, and my thing for bold color doesn't help the cause at all. I'm more Mondrian than Monet. LOL

Colorwash's Home

[Alissanos]

Oh me too! Personalised products are not popular here in Ireland, I actually cant think of ever seeing anything like that here in anyones home, so its a new area for me and despite the obvious popularity here on Zazzle and everywhere else I still find it hard to believe that that stuff actually sells. (I mean I know it does, I just havent wrapped my head around it yet 😂)

Another interesting thing, to me at least is cornhole sets which I just discovered and am having immense fun designing! Apparently its a very popular game, that I have never heard of or seen in my life, we live and learn 😂

[ColsCreations]

@Alissanos 

Quick reply before running off to work to say I love your covers, they are perfect just the way they are.

[Alissanos]

@ColsCreations 

Thank you so much! Im glad you like them!!

[Alissanos]

Also @ColsCreations, I love your forum signature, my html is so rusty I can just about get my link to show, you have all those links and it looks great

[ColsCreations]

Thanks. 🙂  Have a look at this thread, you might find it useful:

Template Codes For Your Forum Signature 

@Alissanos 

[Alissanos]

Thanks for the link, another thing to add to my to do list! 

[Polenth]

A general recommendation is not to get too focused on any one product type. Things go out of stock, they get discontinued, they don't sell the way you were hoping... spreading out and making a variety of things makes a more robust store.

[Alissanos]

@Polenth 

Great advice thank you! I never even thought of that, its best to know it now than hundreds of pillows designs in, thats given me a lot to think about now but Im so glad you mentioned it because I tend to get carried away with one thing

[Alissanos]

I have yet another question, or maybe more just wondering, I did search the forums, but the forum here still baffles nme a bit, I get lost about 20 times a day here,

Anyway...

I have read a lot about pinterest promotion here and the importance of titles and tags, back in the day I understood seo, many years ago. I havent seen a lot of people mention getting organic traffic/sales from Google. I have heard it takes much longer to rank in google than it did years ago, as in months rather than weeks and Im starting to see that because my stores have zero search traffic, I dont think any of my products have been indexed in G yet.

So my question is something along the lines of, how do you all do with organic traffic? 

The way Im looking at it is, organic traffic and having a product rank on page one would be good for regular sales, but would not bring in referral income. Pinterest on the other hand will bring in both sales and referrals but I think less frequently?

Am I way off in my thinking? 

As always, thanks to everyone for putting up with my incessent questions, I do appreciate every reply and to be quite honest I look forward to the conversation here 😂

Stay at home mam of 6 who doesnt get out much, its nice to have a chat 😂

[Alissanos]

I worked out why I'm not getting organic traffic yet, looks like Ill have to double down on other promotional methods for now and maybe a bit of store optimization! 

[Alissanos]

Oh one more, I made a facebook page, looked into making a shop, decided it was more effort than I wanted for now so page it is but does anyone know their policy on affiliate linking? Can i simply post an image of my zazzle product and link to it in the text or is that not allowed?

[Alissanos]

 The postcards I ordered from my shop for my dad finally arrived and Im so happy with how they turned out! Cant wait to give them to him now!

[Fizzy]

Hi! I'm a bit late to this Q & A party but I thought I'd throw in my two cents as well 😀. 

1. Pinterest - I have a hate-hate relationship with Pinterest but nevertheless, it's free and therefore a useful tool for self-promotion. You can easily pin from Zazzle directly to your boards, and not only can you pin individual products but also collections. Personally, I quite like that little feature.

3. Tags & Keywords - As many others have mentioned, tagging your products correctly is key. In order for your products to sell, they have to be found in the marketplace first. Remember, it's 2023 now. The number of online sellers has multiplied exponentially! 

4. Speaking of numbers - it's worthwhile to do a little math before you start slapping your designs on products. Set some earning goals for yourself and then calculate the number of products you'd need to sell (based on your royalty) in order to reach that goal. You'll probably find that postcards alone won't get you there. Thankfully, Zazzle has over 1'500 different products that you can design for, so branch out and have fun 🙂.

Lastly, and most importantly, enjoy the process and the experience. I started my Zazzle journey in 2021 and I'm having a blast!