I understand the frustration of Designer's helping customers personalize something and not getting any extra compensation for it. But 1), the referral system was never intended to be a means of securing extra payment for custom work and 2) the entire Z platform is based on shoppers being able to customize things themselves with NO limits (outside of what the designer may have intentionally limited such as by "locking" a layer etc..) If a shopper wants such extreme changes that they can't or aren't wiling to do themselves, then they either need to be looking for a different design that does suit their needs, or be willing to enter into a custom work contract with you outside of the Z platform.
An option to set things as "custom" so not subject to the referral system rules, that would be ripe for abuse. There'd be no reason to share something as anything but "custom".
It's often said that Z has THE best design tool of any POD (agreed!) but that's not just for Designers when creating - shoppers have the same extreme editing capabilities, beyond any other site I've seen. The more we cater to people wanting "tweaks" on a design, the more we dilute the intent of the platform & what sets it apart from others - to give shoppers the ability to fully customize on their own. If they want an extreme change that can't be achieved using the features they already have at their disposal, it's not Zazzle's responsibility to pay the Designer extra if/when they choose to placate a customer by doing extra for them.
I know this is an unpopular opinion but doing "custom work" for a potential customer is a choice one makes in hoping to cement a sale. Zazzle is not obligated to pay you extra for your choice. And even if they did, we have to remember that a sale can be cancelled at anytime so even if you are awarded extra by Z for custom work, the customer can cancel at any time and POOF! your extra time & effort was wasted anyway. Best thing would be to set up a revisions contract and payment terms for it outside of Z before sending them a link to their custom-designed product on Z. That way you are getting paid for your time & effort regardless of if they cancel the order or decide not even to go through with it to begin it, and regardless of whether it comes in as Self or 3rdP. You're still getting compensated for what you decided your time was worth.
Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, I did not mean "it sucks to be you". 😮
But I did mean that it's every Designer's choice as to how much they're willing to do to cement a sale.
Zazzle is known as a place where one can by themselves customize any of thousands of "templates" (or even make their own design from scratch). It's not a site for hiring a professional artist/graphic designer to do custom work for you at rock-bottom price or for free. I hesitate to say this as this is a publicly accessible forum, but, it is mind-boggling how clueless & entitled customers can be. I read the many comments from those of you who are constantly fielding chat messages from customers and it's sometimes shocking what they expect you to do for them as if it's a service included in the price listed on the page. If you (used in the general sense) consider yourself a professional and approach Zazzling as a serious business, you should not have a problem with requiring the customer to pay you for any additional services you provide for them. If you (again, used in the general sense) want to do the extra work for free to establish good customer relations, that's on you. And even if Z did set up some way to compensate designers for custom work on top of the regular royalty earnings, I can't think of any system that wouldn't be wide-open to abuse by every designer on the platform.
Also, no, I didn't mean you should be referring customers to other designs. What I meant was, if the design requires such extensive modification that the customer can't manage it themselves, then the customer should keep looking for something closer to what they actually want. It just seems very entitled to me to ask the designer to make something special without offering from the get-go, before even being asked, to pay for that special service
