Seems like as a community we've 'discovered' Benable...  As with any platform there's definitely going to be a learning curve with how to please the algorithm...  Two things I've noticed so far - a list I had that was not 'optimized' for a few days - it was my first and I needed to add more items has not earned an optimized badge, even after I updated it. I tried to avoid this with a very large list I was making by hiding it until it was all done and that list has also not earned an optimized badge. Neither of these lists are in  the "Tune up" section of my dashboard, so I'm wondering if a list doesn't earn optimized right away, if it perhaps never will. If that is so, I'm going to have to be very organized and make sure I always have at least 15 items queued up and ready when I decide to make a list. The other possibility, I guess, is that my second list is too large - it contains 146 items, they are separated into sections.  And a question - has anyone earned a referral from Benable yet? I'm in the promoter2 program and of the two I'd rather get my promoter referral than the referral offered through the Benable site... but the links list look like my clean ones that I need. Should I switch the Benable "auto affiliate link" off on all of my Z items or is is possible to earn in both places..  ... View more

Since it seems like Benable will be the new Pinterest for Zazzle creators, I created an account and I was trying to add a mix of Zazzle and other brands/shop's products to make it less salesy on gift idea lists, but all the links say "Auto-affiliate links are not available for this site".  Does anyone knows of any USA sites or partner brands with auto-affiliate links that could work for us creators? I see Etsy is an option but I'm not sure if I want to promote the competition, for Amazon it says I have to be in their program, and I'm not from the USA so I don't know more cool stores. Mybe we can make a list? Thanks in advance! If anyone wants to sign up without the waiting list, here's my invitation link: https://benable.com/i/MHB53 ... View more

If you come across a product that used to sell and now doesn't - check whether the product is still in stock and not showing the 'Heads Up' Message. Small bath mats - change to medium. Medium Stadium Seat Cushions - change to large. Small Bandanas - change to large. Flip Flops: OOS (all types) - not sure when these will come back in stock 😞 Scented Candles : OOS Uncommon Phone Cases showing as discontinued on co.uk but not discontinued on .com so who knows what's happening with those Poker Chips (black edge) - change to different color - thanks to @ColsCreations  Medium Teddy Bears - change to small or large If you know of any others - feel free to add   ... View more

I just started sharing to a new site called Benable and I am loving it so far, I think getting in early is key to beating some heavy traffic later because we will be one of the early birds to already have an established account so people may be more likely to want to follow us. I have always loved Pinterest as it's a popular method of traffic for me but I am really excited for something new... Benable is very similar but like a fresh spin and without character restrictions. Here's my link if you'd like to check it out. I've heard from others and seen online in forums there's currently a waitlist to get on the site (I was fortunate enough to be invited) but you can skip past it and start creating your own shareable lists by signing up with my invite link if you'd like to give it a shot: https://benable.com/i/TPQUX Also, if you'd like to connect on Pinterest here is my account:  https://www.pinterest.com/sparkleandshinezazzleandetsy/ Best of luck to you my fellow Zazzlers!  ... View more

Some struggle with getting their W-8BEN accepted due to missing or wrong information. Here are a few links PLUS some tips on how to correctly fill in the confusing but crucial section PART II, Point 10. Links to official IRS website and documents W-8BEN Form (Oct. 2021 Revision): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf  Page with links to all tax treaties documents sorted by country: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/international-businesses/united-states-income-tax-treaties-a-to-z  How to find your country-specific treaty data and fill in the form correctly: Find and open the most actual/newest tax treaty document between the US and your country Search the Article that handles Royalties - in most cases, it's Article 12 (e.g. UK, IT) Now you need to find the correct paragraph that defines the tax rate for royalties for artistic works that applies to your situation. Both tax rate and paragraph vary from country to country and in some cases, it can get confusing. For Italy (my country), the article is 12, paragraph 3, and the rate is 0%. For the UK it's article 12, paragraph 3, and the rate is 0%. Download and open now the W-8BEN form and fill in your personal data - I won't address this part, because it's usually not a hassle. In Part II / 10 fill in the fields as follows, according to the tax treaty document: Article & Paragraph: Article & paragraph that describe your rate and situation, in the format: ART#(§#) - Examples: UK: 12(1) / IT: 12(3). Rate (%): The % of the tax rate that has to be paid in the US.  If the document states that the taxes are fully paid in your own country, the US tax rate to fill in is 0. Otherwise, enter the rate defined in the document. Examples: Italy and UK: 0 (no taxes have to be paid in the US). Type of Income: "Royalties for the use of artistic work" or similar Additional Conditions: This part is where most struggle and that causes most rejections. Write something like "Creation of artistic works (designs) sold on Zazzle online web stores on a range of goods." (worked for me). Sign the document either digitally or manually (print, sign, and take a pic) and send it via email to Zazzle either as a PDF or a well-readable JPG in the case of a manual signature. Note that it can get a while until you receive a confirmation from Zazzle that the form has been accepted (even a month or longer). The rule no news = good news applies in this case. Hope this helped.       ... View more

Starting a store on Zazzle is an exciting journey, but achieving visibility and consistent sales requires strategy, creativity, and adherence to platform policies. If you're ready to grow your store and increase sales, here are some tips tailored to your niche:   1. Optimize Your Store Profile   Create a professional store banner and logo that reflect your brand identity. Write a compelling store description, highlighting your specialization in T-shirts, art prints, stickers, baby and kids' clothing, and ceramic mugs. This helps attract the right audience to your store.   2. Focus on Quality Designs   Designs should be original, high-resolution, and visually appealing. Invest time in researching trends and customer preferences. Use tools like Photoshop or Canva to refine your designs and ensure they meet Zazzle’s quality standards.   3. Use Relevant Titles and Tags   Make your products discoverable by using clear, descriptive titles and keywords. For example:   Instead of “Cool Shirt,” try “Funny Graphic T-Shirt for Men – Humor Gift Idea.” Tags should include relevant phrases like "baby clothing," "personalized stickers," or "ceramic coffee mug."     4. Respect Zazzle’s Content Guidelines   Ensure your designs comply with Zazzle’s policies regarding copyright and community standards. Avoid using copyrighted characters, logos, or trademarks unless you have proper permissions. Always create original work or use royalty-free resources.   5. Promote Your Products   Leverage social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok to showcase your products. Use engaging captions, lifestyle photos, and videos to grab attention. Consider creating a blog or YouTube channel to share behind-the-scenes content or design inspiration.   6. Participate in Zazzle’s Community   Engage with other Zazzle creators by joining forums and participating in discussions. Share tips, ask questions, and learn from experienced sellers to refine your strategy.   7. Offer Personalization Options   Products that can be customized, like baby onesies or mugs with personalized text, often attract more buyers. Highlight customization options in your product descriptions.   8. Monitor Analytics and Trends   Use Zazzle’s analytics tools to track your sales and visitor stats. Analyze what’s working and adjust your strategy based on customer preferences and seasonal trends.   By following these strategies, you’ll not only boost your store’s visibility but also build a loyal customer base. Remember, success takes time and consistent effort, so keep experimenting and refining your approach.   Good luck with growing your Zazzle store!   ... View more

https://www.zazzle.com/sitemap  I've never looked at this before. If you haven't either, check it out and bookmark it. It's a gold mine of convenience! It's sort of a combination of a visual guide to category structure + common themes at your finger tips So you can for example go down to the Office & School section and click "Floor Decals" and that will take you to the [Office & School] --> [Promotional Products & Small Business Supplies ] --> [Signs & Posters] --> [Floor Decals & Stickers] section. Or you could go to the Wedding section and click on "Bride Tribe" or "50th Anniversary", or to the Gift Guides section and click on "Pharmacist Gifts" - and in each case the products I was shown were all relevant to that specific theme, unlike when manually searching when you often get results that aren't relevant. I don't know how this treats Zazzle product blank categories vs categories Creators choose on publishing (like if you made a floor decal for weddings) but regardless, it's pretty helpful. And note the listings under "Gift Guides". Some are pretty specific, like "Pineapple Gifts". Which if you click does indeed show you pineapple theme designs over a range of product types. Why "Pineapple Gifts" and "Pug Gifts" and not "Avocado Gifts" or "Poodle Gifts" I don't know, but perhaps it's due to trending/popular searches. I don't know. Any either ways, it's a great page to bookmark and help with navigating/finding stuff around Zazzle. ... View more

I have been creating designs for the past 6 months, but I haven't made a single sale yet... Why could that be? Am I making any mistakes while uploading my designs? ... View more

You know how it is when you're trying out different tiling effects and are like, yeah, I THINK I like this but want to keep playing to see if I can do better .... But unlike experimenting with other things, you can't duplicate & hide the layer so you have it to go back to, since you can only tile once per layer. So I was doing that last night and took a little screenshot of just the tiling options section and then pasted that snip directly into the design tool. So I didn't have to make a note of the tiling type and W & H numbers. I've got a note right in the design, EZPZ, of the options I want to return to if nothing else works out better. 😉 Then of course just delete the snip before publishing. If you're keeping notes in a separate app of say hex colors or fonts, you could paste a snip of that right into the DT, too. You could paste any kind of note to help you remember what you were doing when you come back to the design later. Also can snip & paste things you want to color sample. ... View more

For those of you with an Adobe subscription, and do not have Adobe Illustrator, check to see if you have Adobe Express in your subscription.  I have always wanted to create SVG (vector) files, but didn't want to use Illustrator, as I didn't find it user friendly.  However, you can upload a PNG or JPG file to Express, then convert it to an SVG and redownload it.  This makes it very easy, when you have a small image that needs to be made larger for wallpaper or a shower curtain, etc. ... View more

When you set an image as a template there are various options at your disposal: Fill, Fit, or None - determines how the user-uploaded image fills the designated template area.  * Fill = will resize the customer's image to fill the entire dimension of your placeholder image. If their image is a different size than the placeholder, it will result in cropping and/or zooming of their image.  * Fit = Will resize the customers image, maintaining proportions, to fit inside the dimensions of your placeholder image. This ensures their image will not be cropped off, but can result in background space showing.  * None = the customer's image simply replaces your placeholder image and may be larger or smaller. Masking - a separate shape layer added that virtually transparentizes part of the image Cropping - changes the shape of the image Flipping, Rotating - changes the positioning of the image All these choices, alone or in combination, can get really confusing but there can be rather drastic consequences on the customer's end so I think it's important to get a grasp on them. Since I don't do many image templates myself I've been all over the map on this recently so finally made a live demo I could use for quick & easy testing & learning. This all is probably old hat to many, but may be helpful for others like me trying to get a grip on how this all shakes out. (And there's one combo I ran into that is a definite DO-NOT-DO.)  So ... 1) The Adjust button does not appear on the product page to you as the designer. If you want to see what the Adjust button does you have to view your product as someone else / anon shopper. 2) The Adjust button on the product page personalize menu won't appear to a customer until after they have used Replace to upload their own image. 3) The Adjust button only appears for template images you have set to Fill.  For plain templates, a customer can use the Adjust button to move their image around within the placeholder's dimensions and/or resize it to make it fit better. However - and this is where the big problem comes in - if you've selected Fill for a template image you have also masked,  things do not work as one might expect and it could cost you the sale. Masking an image has the effect of cropping/cutting off parts of the user-uploaded image so it's the mask shape. When a customer uses Adjust to tweak the size/positioning of their image within your masked placeholder dimensions, they can only see that "cropped" portion of their image. They can move that part of the image around and/or resize it, but there is no way for them to edit or even see their original size image. So if the part of the image that is showing is not the part of the image they want showing, there is no way for them to fix that, they are stuck with the "cropped" portion of their image. The only way for a customer to tweak their image is to 1) enter the Design Tool 2) click on the masked layer Group 3) click  the Unmask button 4) click on the image layer 5) click the Crop button  - this reveals the original boundaries of the image plus the boundaries created by the mask 6) use the confusing drag handles to "un-crop" it and drag it to desired size/crop. 7) click Done to preview results This is so difficult to explain in just writing that I don't think there's a chance in heck that a customer would figure out these steps if they need to tweak an image they uploaded via Replace on the product page template menu. They're going to see that their uploaded image isn't showing the portion they want and that the Adjust button isn't letting them fix it and even if they go ahead and enter the Design Tool, odds are very much against them figuring this out.  So using Fill on a masked image template is the DO-NOT-DO thing; it prevents the customer from being able to tweak things to work if their uploaded image isn't a perfect match for the masked template dimensions. 4) Moving past the Adjust issue with masked images set to Fill, the other important thing to be aware of is that anything you do to your template image will also be done to the customer's uploaded Replace image. So if you've cropped, flipped or rotated your placeholder image, theirs will be too. There are cases where this could work but there are many cases where it's just going to leave the customer perplexed and frustrated as to why their uploaded image is turning out upsidedown or backwards or cropped off.... So while I am a novice at image template, from my experimenting I can confidently suggest that 1) never use Fill on a masked image and 2) while it's tempting to recycle an image you already have on file by cropping, rotating, flipping it to work with your new design, DON'T do that if its going to be a template image as it will create chaos for the customer. Here is the live demo model I made. It uses the same 1500 x 1500 square image as a template, as Fill, Fit and None, plain (blue), masked (green), and also cropped. flipped & rotated (black back side). You can use this demo from a customer's perspective to compare how the different options turn out when uploading your own image via the Replace template option.       Image Template Choices - Live Demo ... View more

Hello! I am Amanda Renee from CtrlZ Digital Designs. I have a YouTube channel where I have posted some Zazzle video reviews and tips, and I have a new video coming soon! I am sharing the info today because the forum will close for quite some time, and I'm not sure I will have my video edited and ready before it does.  My new video relates to Zazzle socks. They have been a favorite of mine, and for Christmas presents this year, I ordered 8 pairs! There's a lot I still love, but there's one huge warning I have for designers and customers.  Yes, I AM going to wait to reveal it in the video. lol Sorry, I'm shameless.  If you'd like to know when it comes out, I hope you will visit YouTube and subscribe (or at least check out my channel in a few days to see if it's up.) You can find my channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/@CtrlZZazzle  (I have a new name for the channel because I'm taking my nature content to another place that makes more sense.:) ) If you haven't already, you can also join the Snuggle Hamster discord server, which has 85+ and counting Zazzle creators. I will announce when the video is up in their "General" channel. Here's the invite link to join: https://discord.gg/4A3yYkJFwe   I have purchase A LOT of items from Zazzle recently and was a little behind to begin with, so I have many videos planned for the new year including reviews and general tips for Zazzle creators. I'd love to see you on my channel. 😄 Happy holidays, and happy designing! Amanda   ... View more

If you added those now discontinued tag shape invitations from anywhere but your backend of your store then the tag shape will show in your collection even after you have switched to another shape and when your customer clicks through to the product it will also still show as the tag shape until you remove the invitation from the collection and then add it back.  But you need to add it back from the backend of your store to get rid of that tag shape in your collection.  The shape is correct in the marketplace after the change but it seems you need to remove the entire product from the collection and then add back from the backend to rid that tag shape from your collection. You might be able to add back from the product page if you are seeing the corrected new shape on the page you are viewing,  I did succeed doing it this way too but to get the new shape to show on the product page you need to go to the product page not from the collection but from the backend where you see the new shape or from your recently viewed products at the bottom of your screen.  Hope this makes sense and helps. ... View more

I joined Canva education and designed some images from there. Didn't realize it would be copyrighted. Please tell me what to do now. I don't want my account to be banned. please help me ! ... View more

Text strokes are placed above the text. Depending on the font and thickness of the stroke, this can lead to undesired results, especially on handscript and thin fonts. Here's a little, easy walkthrough to solve the problem and get neat results:  1. Edit and format your text as desired and enable the text stroke option. Choose the stroke color. The thickness doesn't matter yet. Depending on the font used, you will see the imperfections and overlapping. If you want to use the text as an editable template, enable it now and edit the template label and URL. 2. Duplicate your text or text template. Disable the text stroke option so you get a plain look (note: the stroke of the underlying original will shine through, nothing to worry about). Move the new text object in the layer bar ABOVE your original with the stroke. If you have duplicated a template, make sure you do NOT change the URL. The URL MUST be the same so both duplicates are changed when the text gets edited in the form. 3. Switch back to the original text/template with the stroke and adjust the stroke thickness to your liking. Done. The stroke is now behind your text and the text itself is neat. When a customer edits the text template, both duplicates are updated.   ... View more