What are you working on now and what are your goals for the next 6 months?

[CreativeLeahG]

A little chit chat about what we do other than design templates... a good way to focus our efforts and learn more about each other's processes.

Myself I'm currently taking a break from designing to work on my website. Giving it a new look and rewriting and reorganizing the content.

Simultaneously working on learning more about social media marketing strategies and honing my efforts, primarily re audience and confidence building as well as updating group images and pages and trying to get a cohesive branding look across various sites. 

My goal over the next 6 months is to achieve a cohesive image, double the size of my social media presence and see some results.

What are you working on now and what are your goals for the next 6 months?

[Cat]

Wow! That sounds like an impressive strategy. Honestly, my plan for the next few months is to just try to dig out of the hole that I've found myself in. There are just sooooo many problems that have been created recently - I feel like I'm just treading water and trying to get back to where I was 6 months ago.

Anyhow, my list includes:

1) Changing the sizing options on all of my foam core boards - I used to have them set to "this size only." It was a great option because it removed the standard sizes which confuse customer, but still allowed them to pick any size they wanted using the spinners. But recently, Zazzle removed the spinners on that option, so now I have to go through all of them and set them to "all options."

2) Zazzle changed the way that extended text characters (hearts etc) are rendered - so they suddenly became twice the size they were before. So, I've got hundreds of designs that need to be fixed by replacing those characters with images instead of using a text character. I'm not going to use those special text characters going forward lest Zazzle decide to change them again.

3) For some reason magnetic invitations have been out of stock FOREVER but magnetic cards are not. I don't know what's up, but I'm tired of waiting, so I'm transferring hundreds of designs from magnetic invitations to magnetic cards so customers can buy them. Of course, I have to go delete all of the pins & promotions for the magnetic invitations too. 

4) For some reason all of my repeating text patterns stopped working correctly. It may be because most of them included special characters (hearts, diamonds, etc.) But at any rate, they're a mess, so I've got hundreds of things to fix there.

5) I'm dealing with lots of fallout from the discontinued fonts. Some Blooming Elegant stuff that no longer works with Morgana, but also lots of things where I've used symbol fonts. Some of those have already been automatically replaced with things that don't exactly work, and I'm trying to get ahead of the rest before those products get destroyed too.

This sounds like I'm just complaining, and I suppose I am. But I'm really feeling discouraged and super frustrated at the moment. There are so many things that I want to be working on (designing for all of the new foil cards & other products, making cover photos, making products with the new QR code thing, fleshing out a bunch of new wedding suites that I haven't had time to work on.) But I just feel overwhelmed with the backlog... it's like Zazzle is breaking things faster than I can fix them. But at least I've got access to the "replace product" feature, so I feel like I'd better do as much as I can before they take that option away again. Sigh.

Anyhow, sorry for the downer post, but that's where I'm at - overwhelmed and frustrated.

[CreativeLeahG]

Oh Cat, I really feel for you! 😓 This does sound like a nightmare.
I am so acutely aware that everything can spin on its head at a moments notice here. I wish Zazzle had a way to implement changes only on NEW stuff not across the board. I do spend a lot of time correcting and amending things too. I noticed today that there seems to be some issue re the 'wedding 'save the date' product category' ... I don't even want to look and see if all the categories re that are now wrongly or insufficiently categorized. I hope Zazzle can reach out you meanwhile and offer some assistance re your many issues..due to updates.

[Cat]

Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm really sorry to be a whiner, but it does help to vent - especially to someone who actually understands what I'm talking about. I try to explain to my family why I'm overwhelmed - but when I try to explain about fonts & symbols & cards vs. invitations, their eyes just glaze over with confusion. 

Anyhow, I know that Zazzle is doing what it thinks is best for the company, and I just happen to be caught in the crossfire, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. In some sense I suppose I should look at it as an opportunity. I'm sure the marketplace is chock full of designs that have been impacted by all this, so the fact that I'm paying attention and trying to fix mine should give me some sort of a leg up. 

Anyhow, best of luck with your marketing endeavors. That's another thing I haven't had time to really work on. I actually have a web page that gets a pretty respectable amount of traffic - I just haven't had the time to work on leveraging it with my Zazzle designs yet. I need to come up with some sort of a system to automate it because trying to post things one by one on my website is not a workable strategy. 

I think I just need to figure out how to be more than one person! 😜

[CreativeLeahG]

I totally get it! I have the same exact thing when I want to have a vent to an in-person person! 

Re systems ... I don't do anything automated myself, it would be another thing I'd have to figure out and after all these years I still haven't got my head around API which I really would have liked to. It's been on 'forever to-do-do' list! urgggghhh. And re corrections, I have literally spent 2 whole hrs uploading, and reuploading a pdf doc to my website because everytime I checked it there was an error I never noticed. My maths teacher said to me when I was a child : " Leah, more haste and less speed". And not a day goes by when I don't remind myself of this. 

[PacifierCity]

There is a lot kicking around in my brain for the next 6 months....

1. Further develop www.pacifiercitycards.com.  Right now I finally have a set up that is worthy of promoting to, but it lacks FUN!  I plan to add a map of where sales have occurred... and I really want to explore an api function that lets potential customers build their own birthday cards.  I am also thinking of adding a freebees section to the site...  And I want to expand the affiliate portion of the site to include free ads to use digitally and for the RW.

2. Fill out Pacifier City Cards Pinterest account.  Posting 5 - 10 pins a day.  I have hundreds of cards, so it is going to take that long to get every card posted... and then there is posting different views too... so it might take longer...lol

3. Continue working on RW advertising.  I currently have ads on every table at a local pizza restaurant, a local laundry mat, and a small mom and pop eatery has an ad for my cards at their ordering counter.

4. Develop an email campaign for my cards and gifts.  Every now and then I spend time online searching different niches... ie martial arts studios, dance studios.... and add their email address to a .doc that I will eventually use for email marketing.

5. Fill out every collection in Pacifier City Cards so that it has at least 4 cards so it can be seen publicly.  This is almost done, but I am struggling with holiday cards.

6. Design more holiday cards.

7. Create at least 2 more games to include in my cards.

8. I've been waiting for the attribution to change on trifold cards before designing more of them... but I'm tired of waiting.  So I will create at least 1 trifold card for every theme/collection.

9. Stop ignoring my other stores...lol.

10. Stop ignoring my other Pinterest accounts.  They are still earning for me and I need to give them some well deserved attention.

I could probably go on, but if I can accomplish all that in the next 6 months, I'd be pretty proud of myself.

PC

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

[CreativeLeahG]

Wow that is a lot! I look forward to seeing and hearing about the results, you will do it!

[KeegansCreation]

My plan is to do more mockups. This just got easier with download artwork and download the default mockup.

Once Replace Design is open to all I intend to go through all my products and fix goofups like text that isn't template or dates from the past. I will also need to fix some fonts.

Then I plan to go over the recently introduced products (foil postcards, various food party favors etc.) and make sure I'm utilizing them all.

[CreativeLeahG]

A solid plan! I hope they do open up the edits for all so you can utilize this function.

[Barbara]

My big plan is to play catchup after having been out of the design and maintenance end of things since the spring. New products, mockups, pinning on Pinterest, and running through my oldest products where I need to create text templates wherever appropriate. Product replacement, however, is annoying because the process only works when submitting the product a second time.

My goals are more short term than I suppose others' are, but that's okay. I've come to an age where ambition has a different flavor than it once did.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

Yes the product placement is a worthy 'challenge' with the 'do it all twice' thingy-ma-bob! It's such a great feature though! Hopefully all these bugs will be ironed out in time.

[marciak]

These are all great ideas, thanks for sharing. I have no time to create and design right now so I am laser-focused on trying to get pinterest and my website to work for me.  I also suck at Google Analytics 4 so learning more about that.  Today is more research on pinterest to see how far behind I am in my thinking of how this works. I just realized I could tag and add my other products to my pins to have them displayed with the pin.  So much learning over here! 🙂  Also, trying to put my design ideas in order for 2023, you know, the ones you create when you go to bed to sleep at night that keep you up at night for the first hour? lol.  

For those of you that use pinterest, do you link from your pins straight back to zazzle or do you do link your pin to > your website > then to zazzle?  What is working better for you? I've got both going on. I also use idea and static pins for variety.

[CreativeLeahG]

I recently started recording my Zazzle 'ideas' that appear at bedtime (best time for original thoughts!) via Facebook in a private 'only me' post, for easy access the next day. 

Meanwile re Pinterest ... I'm a prolific pinner ... trying like you to work out what grabs more interest! I link pins both to website and direct to Zazzle. I think pinning FROM the blog or website might be better from Pinterest perspective BUT that is speculation on my behalf, just a hunch. So far it all seems so random. 

[marciak]

Great idea on the 'only me' post, I might try that!  
That's what I'm thinking too on Pinterest, that through website is better - for pinterest.  But yes, it is all totally random and confusing.  Pinterest keeps us on our toes doesn't it? lol.  If you figure it out, let me know!

[TheDesignerVib1]

Hi! I started on Zazzle in May this year, but I kind of slept on it for a month, 

But I am back on it so far I only made two sales on the same product which was a magnet 

my goals is to promote my stores on social media since the market is so saturated I have less then 5 views on each product,

My plan and goals is to grow an audience on social media for my products and stores, I am using Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube shorts, If you are interested in following me which I really appreciate because I barely have followers 

https://www.tiktok.com/@tropikalkahve?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

https://pin.it/5BSlYrx

TheDesignerVibe - YouTube

[CreativeLeahG]

It's great that you're going to start actively marketing. Re your accounts, you'll grab more followers when you post content, they're empty at present.  Let us know when you post your first TikTok!

[BeccaB]

Wow, I'm seeing some really awesome ambitious plans here!  I've only been on Zazzle for a month or so, and my goals are fairly basic.  They are to:

• Fill out my existing categories with products
• Get to a point where I feel secure about which products I offer and which I don't
• Get to 1500 followers on Instagram
• Figure out what the heck I'm doing on Pinterest.  I've only been using it for a week after not logging on since 2014 and I'm still quite confused!  Hopefully I can build up my boards, and somehow get followers
• Spend at least 10 minutes a day creating and/or organizing
• Find and fix any mistakes I've made so far!
• Stay relaxed about taking things slow and steady, enjoy myself, and make sure this fits into my life without extra stress
• And the big one...make my first sale! 🤞

[CreativeLeahG]

Hi Becca, lovely to hear from someone so new to the group! Great start, I gave you a follow on Pinterest and Instagram.

[BeccaB]

Thank you so much!

[Fizzy]

I'm a fairly lazy Zazzler because my "real" job is quite time-consuming. However, I try to dedicate at least 4-5 hours a week to my Zazzle store, either creating new designs or creating content for Instagram and Pinterest. I admit I'm not an expert when it comes to Pinterest and I haven't quite figured out how to get massive views there. If anyone knows of a course (free or paid) that actually explains the inner workings of Pinterest, let me know 🙂.

[Connie]

My current goal is to get back on track with my production goals- I'm way behind with posting Christmas designs, that I haven't even made yet, and they should have been mostly posted by now. I had planned on posting 100 products this month, but haven't even gotten half of them done yet. So many things are going on outside of Zazzle, and I haven't had the time or the motivation to work on Zazzle, even though I usually look forward all year to doing Christmas designs!

My goal for the next 6 months is to do cover photos for the products that don't already have good mockups. Going forward, I also hope to get ahead with my seasonal designs, so they are ready to post at the appropriate times.