Referral when buying one's own product?

[Barbara]

I remember there was discussion in the old forum about earning referrals when buying one's own product, and stuck in my head is that we pay our royalty, supposedly getting it back when we're paid that royalty, but what if it's self-referred? Do we get the referral fee? Do we pay full price and simply hope? What happens if we're in the Promoter program? Do we lose the 35%? What if my husband or son purchases what I want?

[Malissa]

Yes, you get your royalty and your promoter referral.  Just make sure you don't make any changes to before you buy it or it will be an unlisted custom product and you won't get your royalty.  If you need to make changes I would definitely have your son or hubby do it and make sure the link you use is clean and other cookies are cleared.  I go through a whole routine when I buy my own stuff just to make sure I get the royalty and the referral.  I am in the promoter program too so I have gotten my promoter referral.

[PacifierCity]

I'd like to note here that as long as I am not signed into Zazzle and don't have a Zazzle cookie set, I have been able to goto my own product page, enter the design tool, make changes, add to cart, then sign in and I still earn royalty and referral.

PC

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[Barbara]

@PacifierCity  Another good thing to know. Thank you!

[Malissa]

Yes, I've noticed that as well, but I couldn't think how to phrase it easily!😂

[WBartworks]

I once ordered something that I had been promoting on my Facebook website and got the royalty and referral.  However, for my last order I didn't get the referral, even though I did everything the same.

[Lujastyles]

I really needed that info... thanks a lot!

When you say "have your son or hubby do it" you mean make changes from another Zazzle account or another computer?

[Malissa]

Yes, you could just order from another Zazzle account if you need to make changes just to make sure you get both referral and royalty.  Make sure you still clear cookies to be sure.  You don't need to use another computer. 

You can also follow what JB said and do it all from your account. 

[CN]

Hi Malissa,

Thanks for your comment above....are you still able to earn a royalty on your own products utilizing this method? Thanks so much! 

[ColsCreations]

Not Malissa, but here's how I do it. I think the easiest way is to use a different browser instead of your every-day one. That way even if you did somehow pick up any Zazzle cookies on it you can clear all cookies before proceeding to be sure and it won't mess up all your log-ins and such on your every-day browser which you don't even need to sign-out of Zazzle in.

1) I open the product page in Firefox (my regular browser).
2) up in the address bar, I append ?rf=##################&tc=MyPurchase to the URL.
(My referral ID plus the tc= is the tracking code that will show on the referral report page.)
hit Enter to go to that URL to confirm it's valid, that I didn't make a typo.
3) open Opera (the alternate browser I usually use for testing things) and clear all cookies to be safe.
4) copy the URL from Firefox and paste to Opera.
5) customize the product if desired
6) add to cart
7) go to Cart and then when prompted on the checkout page, I log-in.
8 ) choose whether I want to pay outright or have it deducted from my available Zazzle balance
9) place the order

Sounds like a lot typing it out but it's really not and it has never not worked for me. The referral shows up immediately so you can confirm you did it right, the royalty/sale takes a bit longer to show up.

[CN]

Thanks so much, I appreciate your help! There have been other contributors stating that this is not possible on my post and it was really important for to me to find out the correct answer. Have a beautiful weekend!

[Barbara]

Thanks, Malissa! I'm redoing my kitchen and would like some posters for it that will pick up the accent colors I'm using. Finding just the right colors would be a search made in hell. Whatever I design won't have a spot for being personalized, which makes it just that much easier.

So, all I have to do is clean house on my computer and send myself a clean link. Again, thank you!

[glitterandchic]

Does buying your own invitations count as a sale?