Is it possible to make sales without any marketing at all?

[JulieV]

Hi there, I created my first Zazzle store a few months ago, so still have lots to learn. Am curious if there are any Zazzlers who make sales without any marketing at all. In other words, can sales be made on the strength of creative designs alone?

[PacifierCity]

@JulieV 

In theory the answer is yes.  Since your design appears in the Zazzle marketplace, it is possible that someone could somehow stumble upon your product and purchase it.

Just being a designer at Zazzle means that from time to time Zazzle will most likely market your product/s.  So there is a good chance that Zazzle may market your designs for you... but it probably won't happen a lot, if your designs aren't selling.

Affiliate marketers could also somehow happen to stumble on your store/products and choose to promote them, especially if the designs are amazing!

But the part that you did not mention in your post are the words you use to title, describe and tag your products with.  No matter how amazing your designs are, it is very unlikely that they will be found without descent words behind them, even in the Zazzle marketplace.  After all you are competing with 900+ thousand designers and millions of designs/products...

Zazzle is kind enough to provide the platform, the design tool, and the marketplace to all of us for free.  In doing so they do not promise to advertise, promote, market or otherwise assist us in making sales.  While just designing and not promoting on your own will probably net you a few sales a year, chances are, that that return on your effort will mean that you give up.  After all most of us design in order to earn from our efforts.  There are some that just enjoy putting art on things, without the expectation of making sales... you may be in that boat... but most of us want to earn money from our efforts.

The only way to do that is to get eyes on our products.  This is done via the words we choose, where products are found via marketplace searches and found on search engines, but relying on that strategy alone is one that will take months if not years to bare any fruit.  So self promoting is a must for most of us.

You can do this for free via almost all social media, through many blog sites, and even some websites can be built without spending a dime.  It can be daunting to some to decide which social to use, or to start blogging, and to create a website... but to not utilize these tools will most likely mean that you will only receive limited sales.

There is always the chance that someone could buy your design on a product and make a video about it that goes viral and all the sudden your in the money... but you could just win the lottery too.

Start slow and find a social media that you are comfortable with.  Stick with it on a consistent basis, as sales through promotion generally take a few months to start coming in.  As you begin to experience success, learn from it and build on your success.  That may mean joining another social, or starting a blog, etc.  And spend some time learning about SEO and choosing good words in your title. tags, and description.

Best of luck with whatever path you choose, but know that this is not a get rich scheme and it does take a bit of effort outside of designing to be successful... 95% of the time at least... 

or at least that's my experience... maybe someone else will chime in with theirs... that's way different...

Cheers

PC

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[JulieV]

Hi PC, Thank you so much for your thoughtful and info packed reply. There are some gems of wisdom in there. I agree 100% that this is not a get rich quick scheme....far from it. It takes a lot of time to create and list quality designs. Time for me to get cracking on the promotion side of things. 
Thank you again for taking the time to reply and providing such great insights! Much appreciated. 🙂

[EvalineMae]

Hi JulieV,

There's very little to add to PC's comprehensive post, you have already received advice from someone who knows very well what they are talking about. All I wanted to add was that unless I missed it, I didn't see you in the last couple of pages of the thread in this sub-forum for 'Zazzle Creators who want to be promoted'. It would be worth adding a link to your store and its description so that any affiliates browsing this sub-forum will see it.

Unfortunately I have no idea how many affiliates do visit here, many have different methods for choosing what to promote and don't actively use our forum. But many Zazzler creators with their own stores will promote others along with themselves where your work fits with a niche. Take a look especially at the Affiliate Requests sub-forum, if you haven't already. You have bright, eye-catching designs with variety and enough of them, so you are off to a great start if you want to suggest your products in reply to any relevant requests.

Best of luck, you have the right attitude and have kept the horse firmly before the cart by filling your store with unique and interesting designs before you spent a lot of time on promotion. Give it time and hopefully you'll see some reward!

[JulieV]

Hi ukdesigner,

Thank you for your reply. I will definitely take a look at the sub-forums, "Zazzle Creators Who Want To Be Promoted" and "Affiliate Requests". Thanks also for your kind words about my Zazzle store. It's definitely a work in progress! Fingers crossed this time next year I will be further along and making progress!