Carrying this over from here as I just realized that's the Tech forum where we're not supposed to clutter up threads with extraneous content.
A month or two ago I was testing out something unrelated so was pinning the same product link w/ same image/vid but in different formats and either manually or automatic Shared. I was using the Description field to note what I was doing on each one. But I very quickly discovered that my personal titles & descriptions were being reverted to Zazzle's default within minutes of posting, which meant I couldn't easily compare results without having to go in to Edit on each pin and look at my custom text fields there. So I abandoned that test out of frustration, deleting those pins, but my feeling then was that hmmm, first original pin of something retained my own personal title/description but subsequent pins of same thing reverted to Z's default. After some testing these last few nights, that only partially kind of pans out. My TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) summary is that Pinterest just randomly does things and we and probably not even Zazzle can control what happens to our Pins.
For anyone interested, here's the details on how I was trying to test things out.
Here's a marked-up screenshot of my Shop Col's Creations board.
When I manually pin something I use the Notes field to record the where/what/when of the pin since Pinterest makes it impossible to figure out later. (Forgot to do it on the backpack though so don't know what date I pinned that.) SO when you see 'Manually created pin Posted ...' that's my private pin Note viewers can't see.
Pins that have reverted to Zazzle's default show 'Zazzle' above my user name so I can tell without even clicking each pin that it's been reverted.
I took this screenshot yesterday. For the duffel bags, pinned just days apart, the first one I pinned 4/2 had reverted but the second one on 4/5 had not. Now today, less than 24hrs later, the 4/5 duffel has also reverted to being Zazzle's default. Why? Absolutely no idea.
The wedding cake invite, that was my first test. It was a new product manually pinned by me, manually uploading my custom cover image to it, on 7/3. I picked this one to re-pin as I found it unlikely anyone else has ever pinned this product with this image, or re-pinned it. So I made another manual pin yesterday, uploading same image and using same link, to same board, and as soon as I refreshed the Pin after posting it, it reverted to Zazzle's default description. Meanwhile, the original pin from 7/3 still shows my custom description. So then I made a duplicate pin of another product but this time I posted it to a different board than the original. That one retained my custom description. Until I used Edit to move it to the same board as the original and then poof, instantly reverted to Zazzle's default.
Then I did the tie pins. That's a Direct-Only product I made to show how the design repeats so I know it's never been pinned before even by me. I downloaded the image from Zazzle and uploaded it to a manual pin I titled "Tie - Test Pin #1". Then I made a duplicate pin but titled it "Tie - Test Pin #2". (In the above tests I used the same titles which also happened to be same title as used on Zazzle). Neither of those pins reverted. So hmm, I changed the title of the second one to "Tie - Test Pin #1" - exactly same as first one - and poof, it reverted to Zazzle's default. So I thought maybe I was on to something with exact-same titles, which would happen with multiple people (affiliates) pinning the same thing using the same title as copied from the Z product page. I deleted those first two pins to try another take.
This time I created the manual pin and titled it "Tie - Test Pin #3". (#3 in the screenshot mark-up). It retained my custom title & description. Then I made a duplicate pin, titling it the same - "Tie - Test Pin #3" - but posting it to a different board. As above, it retained its custom info, but unlike the above case, when I moved it to the same board as the original, it did not instantly revert this time. (#4 in the screenshot mark-up). Then I pinned it a third-time with same title, but directly to same board. (#5 in the screenshot mark-up). This time it didn't instantly revert, but within the hour the description did revert to Zazzle's but while retaining my custom title and without showing the 'Zazzle" underneath it, as in above screenshot.
Now today, the title of #5 has also reverted to Zazzle's default, but still no "Zazzle" on it. Meanwhile, pins #3 & #4 still retain my custom title & description.
And if you look at the screenshots of my old pint glass pin in the above referenced thread, that one started as a normal manual pin w/ my custom description which at some point converted to a type of shopping pin with multiple images pulled from Zazzle and then converting again to the weird inbetween type pin it is now. And it's the only one of my older manual pins that has been reverted/converted so there's no rhyme or reason to any of this I can find.
So in a nutshell, all this testing proved absolutely nothing other than the unpredictableness of Pinterest behavior. 🙄🤔 I do think however that there is something to the inkling notion that using a unique pin title (rather than the default product titles another affiliate might be using to pin same item) might be helpful.
Final thoughts: pin your stuff and quit worrying about what Pinterest is doing to them as we can't control it. If I'd been pinning stuff the last two nights instead of trying to figure out a method to their madness, I probably could have pinned everything in my shop already. 😋 But all was not a waste, at least now I feel like when I want to pin something i don't need worry about the "right" way to do it as there doesn't seem to be any right way and even if there were it would be different next month anyway.
Now today, the title of #5 has also reverted to Zazzle's default, but still no "Zazzle" on it. Meanwhile, pins #3 & #4 still retain my custom title & description.
One more day later and all three tie test pins have now reverted to Zazzle's default title & description and all now show "Zazzle" above my name.
The original wedding cake invite from 7/3 still remains as I pinned it though.
The original wedding cake invite from 7/3 still remains as I pinned it though.
Not any longer. As of this morning, it too has now reverted to Zazzle's default title (product title as on Zazzle) & description.
And now the backpack has also reverted to Zazzle defaults. I found how to see what date you created a pin, too. You have to click on the pin to view it, then on the bar directly above it click "See more stats", then click "date range", then click the little arrow to open the drop down, then click "lifetime", and then you can se the creation date shown below the "lifetime" button. Way too many steps.
Anyway, backpack was created 12-13-2023. And just now reverted sometime on 8-3-2024. So age of pin is not a factor, things are not reverting once they reach some certain age as pins created much more recently already reverted
Newest update, 1 week (8-6) after original post & screenshot (7-31).
At this time, all of the older pins in my original screenshot have now reverted to Zazzle's default title (product title) & description, w/ the Zazzle "badge" showing on them (highlighted in yellow).
The three tie-test pins are another story.
As of 8/2 they had all reverted to being Zazzle's default title & description with the Zazzle badge on them.
Now tonight, 8/6, all three show Zazzle's default title, but there is no Zazzle badge on them and when you click to view the pin, they have my custom description again. 🤔😣
So, huh, I strongly feel like this is all just random and nothing we can do to control it, but on the other hand ...
I feel like computer science must have a logical reasoning so the algorithm must have some sort of "if that, then this" logic. But I can't for the life of me think of what "that" might be. My rudimentary testing has ruled out it being age of pin, title of pin, image used in pin, or if the pin is a duplicate. So the only thing left is what, the activity level on the pin?
** I know all these detailed updates are not of much interest but I have been noting them here as it's an easy way to record whats happening and if on the chance it is something Zazzle can control via page meta data, then the info is here for the techs to see.
I tried to look at that pin but it's on the French Pinterest domain where I am not logged so I only get a "preview" of the pin. It has your custom description on it but there is noway/nowhere to click to go to the product on Zazzle. Mousing over the image gives me a prompt to create an account instead the little zazzle.com bubble that would lead to the product when clicked. So I can't tell you what your pin looks like to a logged-in user who is not you the account holder. (Last time I tried to log-in to a foreign Pinterest domain it took me forever to figure out how to get back to being in my US domain one.)
Your question is not trite. I agree with all the points you made about the purported benefits of making manual pins. But,
If you use the Zazzle share option or Pinterest's own browser add-on to pin something, you get Zazzle's default title & description without even the option to customize those fields. If you make a manual pin, you can customize the title & description, BUT, that can revert to Zazzle's defaults within minutes or months so no different than if you'd made a quick & easy automatic pin. And then it can change again and then change again ...
If you Google up best pin practices, it's all geared towards pinning to direct to viewers to your own company/website/blog/ which would all be cases of claimed domains. I've found zero zilch nothing on pinning when you're linking to someone else's claimed domain, which is the case here when affiliate linking to Zazzle products.
So right now, I feel like if having your own custom pin title & description is really important, you need a middle-man, which would be linking to your own blog or website which in turn the viewer would click through to Zazzle from.
I'm not sure about linking to a Collection on Zazzle instead of an individual product. I just did a couple of quick pins of Collections using both Zazzle's share option from the Collection page and Pinterest's browser-add-on, and got mixed results too complicated to get in to. Maybe tomorrow I'll try making some manual pins that link to a Collection on Z and see what happens.
I took this screenshot yesterday (8-30). For the duffel bags, pinned just days apart, the first one I pinned 4/2 had reverted but the second one on 4/5 had not. Now today, less than 24hrs later, the 4/5 duffel has also reverted to being Zazzle's default. Why? Absolutely no idea.
Now today, 8-7, that duffel from 4/2 has gone back to showing my own custom description again with no Zazzle "badge" on the board grid view.
UPDATE 8-14:
Of the 10 pins I've been "tracking" in this thread, they are all now back again to showing my own custom description except for the playing cards & rug.
The three test tie pins, they show the product title as pulled from Zazzle instead of my custom title, but they do show my custom description.
I just had a look at your pins to see if another user would see the same data as you do. And the three tie Testing at the top have another title from here ( don’t know if it also changed on your side since you posted this.) :
Took this shot being logged on my account on safari for iPad. ( in case it could have an impact)
Oh, that's interesting. You're seeing my custom title but as the account owner I (still today) am seeing the product title as pulled from Zazzle.
UPDATE 8-24:
As of tonight, all ten manual pins I've been watching are back to showing my own custom description, and none of them have the "Zazzle" anymore between the title & my Pinterest username (as I've been highlighting in yellow).
The three tie-test pins are still showing the product title as pulled from Zazzle, but @Fantabuloustef showed on 8-14 they were seeing my custom title even though I as the account holder was/am not.
Scrolling down to the few old pins I made using the Zazzle share option, the "Zazzle" is no longer showing on any of them either. So that may be a Pinterest change as formerly, automatic pins always showed 'Zazzle' there.
All this "testing" & checking may be for naught though as I can only look at my stuff as the account holder since on Pinterest you are always in the "back-end" view when looking at your own things and between this thread and one going on in the Tech forum, I am beginning to suspect that just like on Zazzle, we as the logged-in account holder may not be seeing our pins the same as others do.
