That's a really nice, straight-forward tute for getting started. I'd like to add my own two recommendations to it:
1) Forget about using Notepad. Or any other simple text editor intended for plain text. You will drive yourself batty & get eye strain staring at code in it. Instead, do yourself a favor and download Notepad++ which is a TOTALLY FREE editor that despite the name has nothing to do with Microsoft's Notepad.
With Notepad++ you can have two tabs open side by side which is unbelievably handy when you are copying & pasting code from one doc to another and is ideal for comparing two docs line by line, such as say a template you are using that you don't want to muck with, to a new page you're creating with that same code that you'll be editing. It has a ton of bells & whistles, more than the average Joe including self would ever need, but the #1 thing for me is how visually easy it makes editing code. You pick the language you want it displayed in (HTML or CSS for example) and each language has a default style applied to it to make it easy to read. But there's a very easy to use style configurer to set your own font style & colors and/or highlight colors for the different parts of a code in whatever way is easiest for you to read.
This screenshot shows the same piece of example code (copied from the Nifty bookmarklet tool) in two tabs. I have HTML set as the language and my own custom style applied. Below that is what the same piece of code looks like in Notepad. Ughh! Look how hard that would be to work with. Even if just dabbling starting out, having a decent editor meant for code and not just plain text will make the learning experience less frustrating.
2) You can quickly test snippets of code here: TryIt Editor
Delete the default sample content in the left pane, paste in your own code, and click the green Run button to see the results rendered in the right pane. Here's the sample code from the above screenshot in the TryIt editor:
It may seem really difficult & time consuming at first, but once you get the hang of the basics it's very satisfying to know you can control the look of your content without having to completely rely on code that was auto-generated for you somewhere.
Not being able to generate html for products outside my own store, will negatively impact sales traffic from blogs/websites. Also, by removing the html tool on the product page, we now cannot generate html for different view options. So, if I want to promote the front and inside views of a greeting card (see sample below), I can now only offer the 1 view that's on the product page. This huge disadvantage will hinder driving sales from my blog and website to zazzle.
Go to your Products page and below each product. Click "SHARE"
You will see the chain/link icon that used to be on the individual product pages.
Unfortunately we can no longer change the "view options" and generate html code for different views.
That's not working for me for my own or other people's products from the product page. There is no "share" link on the product page any longer for me. Only the curved arrow in upper left corner which opens these share options with no HTML option:
We're referring to the HTML code generator (see below)..... up to a few days ago, before they disabled the function on the individual product pages (below the product image),
we WERE able to:
1. generate code on ANY product (our own AND other designers')
==> Now we can only get HTML code our own products from the products catalog page.
2. switch to different views on the individual product page, and immediately generate code for that view (so that we could offer different view options on our blog/website).
==> Now we're stuck with the product view on the Products catalog page only (no HTML code for an alternative product view).
Oh boy. There is a way to do it, but it is so time consuming!
It involves combining the copy link on the individual product page from the new white arrow with HTML coding from the page source (specifically, line 45 (product view link) and line 391 (store link)) ... at least, in this particular instance.
As an example ((this is another designer's binder I'm posting, based on the HTML coding I was able to generate and extract from employing the View page source (Alt+U) command:
Pastel Pink Blue Candy Cane Spiral Fractal 3 Ring Binder
by AN School & Office Supplies
And that's just for one view. So yes, let's hope that the chainlink icon gets reinstated!
In the meantime, as a temporary workaround, I suppose you could always create and curate a Collection for Postcards, and share that to your blog instead.
W.H.
The key thing to note from that article, WIndy, is:
Total Cookie Protection is Firefox’s strongest privacy protection to date, confining cookies to the site where they were created, thus preventing tracking companies from using these cookies to track your browsing from site to site
For our affiliating purposes it means that when someone follows a referral link, they get to Zazzle and Zazzle "places a referral cookie in the Zazzle jar".
When that visitor buys something (either now or on a subsequent visit), Zazzle looks in the Zazzle cookie jar, sees the referral cookie and acts accordingly.
So affiliating will work as it always has.
What will be prevented is a site other than Zazzle trying to look in Zazzle's cookie jar. That has no impact on affiliating.
I hope that puts your mind at rest 🙂
There's another easy way to get the HTML you're after, @Donna - have a look at this post in the tools forum to find out how: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/tools/v2-easy-to-use-html-generator-tool-for-promoting-a-product/m-p...
It should be easy to get going on your blog again 🙂
I'm really worried about these things, too. Now it's going to be much more difficult to add interesting content to blogs and web sites. I can't imagine why Zazzle would want this to happen. I hope the change is not final and that the html code will be back very soon!
Also I would like a return to a one-click way to add designs to my promoting-others collection.
OK - here is "something".
I wanted to post a newly created product to the forum - no immediate link on product page. However, when I clicked on the EMAIL IT button on the Congratulations on the post, there is "Email this to a friend" and "Link to this" on the left side. Link to this gives the usual/old HTML selections.
Yes, it's nofollow - just like the code that Zazzle generates / used to generate.
As a work around, you can use Mark's Nifty Tool to generate a code that can be pasted into a post's HTML share box, same as before, that gives results similar to what we got with the HTML share code provided by Z.
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![[Fun with Stripes] Pattern #6c Rainbow Hearts 1974 Throw Pillow](https://rlv.zcache.com/fun_with_stripes_pattern_6c_rainbow_hearts_1974_throw_pillow-rd894cfb288464ee689d1fb639dacde62_4gu9o_8byvr_400.jpg)
[Fun with Stripes] Pattern #6c Rainbow Hearts 1974 Throw Pillow
by ColsCreations
This colorful accent pillow of rainbow hearts and stripes will add a youthful feel to any room. Click Personalize and then the big blue box to "Edit using the Design Tool" and have fun customizing this design to suit your own style.
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As a bonus, the Nifty Tool pulls the first bit of your description too and you can easily edit that text after pasting the HTML to your post. To get this code, I went to the Nifty Tool and entered the product ID number in the "Your search word / phrase box" in the Step 1 box. In Step 2, I chose "Share individual products with Speed-Sharers". Under that heading I chose "to Zazzle forum". Then I copied the code shown in the box and pasted it to my post (in the HTML box). I did edit the above description a little to shorten it from what was auto-generated, and also deleted the 'generated by Nifty' line that comes after the description. (I'm sure @HightonRidley will chime in here on whether this is or is not OK with him.) I also bet he is already working on an easy html share code we can use to replace the one Z used to provide for us.
Anyhows, this doesn't solve the issue of being able to get a quick HTML code for any product view you want, but it's a relatively quick way to get a workable HTML code for the default view. Until/unless Z brings back the HTML share code the way it used to be (for any view and accessible for all products not just your own), the Nifty Tool is a good option if you don't want to construct your code from scratch.
Yes, that's cool @ColsCreations 🙂
For reference the Nifty Tool (officially called the Nifty Promo Control Panel) is here if you want to try what ColsCreations suggests: https://niftytoolz.com/npcp/nifty-promo-control-panel.html
If Zazzle doesn't correct their omission, I'll see about providing a new tool that does it, including the ability to choose which view / in-situ to use.
