«

»

New to Zazzle and liking what I see

January 20, 2010 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, CafePress, Zazzle 

Selling my own designs on CafePress

I have been selling products in my CafePress shop for several years and there are many things I like about it.

I enjoy selling my designs and earning commissions on a regular basis, but I’m not much of a graphic designer and there are many things I like that I don’t have either the time or the talent to create and sell.

Promoting designs created by others on CafePress

At one point, I was doing well with earning commissions through the CafePress affiliate program, but that dropped to almost nothing when they went from a private affiliate program to using Commission Junction.

CafePress changed the pricing model for products sold through their marketplace

Last year, CafePress made some changes and when one of my designs sells in their marketplace, I earn a smaller commission than when the same product with the same design sells in my shop.

Most of my sales in November and December were through the CafePress marketplace, so my earnings were smaller than they would have been if they were made through my shop.

On top of that, I didn’t earn any affiliate commissions.

Getting started with Zazzle

So, I decided today to look into Zazzle and see if it was something I wanted to try.

I have a lot of friends who have either moved from CafePress to Zazzle, or they have shops at both of them.

Getting started with Zazzle is very easy

I set up my account and opened my brand new Zazzle shop today.

There’s not much in it, yet.

Basically, I’ve chosen a theme, entered a bit about me on my profile page, uploaded my standard profile photo, and set up some of the optional stuff for promotions.

Adding designs and products to Zazzle

Now, it’s time to modify some of my best-selling designs and add them to products at Zazzle. That’s going to take some time and will be an ongoing process. My goal is to have most of my best selling designs on both CafePress and Zazzle before October, so they’ll be ready to promote in time for the massive November-December buying season.

I’ll start later this week with one of my best selling designs on CafePress and see what it takes to add it to multiple products on Zazzle. I’m sure there will be differences and I may run into obstacles as a result of my experience with CafePress and being so new to Zazzle. We’ll see if these are serious obstacles or just speed bumps.

Zazzle has their own private affiliate program

in addition to selling my own designs, I’m looking forward to trying their affiliate program and selling designs created by other people that I find and like.

For instance, when browsing through their marketplace, this afternoon, I found a design that cleverly combines two things that speak to me, and possibly to you, with a bit of humor.

I’m a huge Star Trek and Star Wars fan and I was really angry last year with the bailout of banks and financial institutions that were considered too big to fail.

That’s why I laughed when I saw this design:

Death Star: Too Big to Fail shirt
Death Star: Too Big to Fail by starwars
Browse more Death T-Shirts

A lot of people use the abbreviation, “lol,” to say that they laughed out loud when seeing something. I don’t make a habit of that, but I really did laugh out loud when I saw that design.

I like it better than my own Too Big To Fail design.

The nice thing is, if someone sees this and buys either a product with my design or the more clever death star product then I’ll earn a commission.

I enjoy earning a commission.

Really.

The more, the better!

Even though I don’t have a single product in my Zazzle shop, yet, I can still earn by promoting other people’s designs, and I like that.

When I have products in my shop, then I can benefit from any other Zazzle shop owners who choose to promote my products.

A sale of one of my designs through someone else’s affiliate link slightly reduces my earnings, but that’s more than made up for by their promotional efforts, so I’m happy to share part of the profits with them.

There are significant differences between CafePress and Zazzle

So, I still have a lot to learn about Zazzle, but I’m liking what I’ve seen and learned up to this point.

Another difference between CafePress and Zazzle is that you have to pay for a premium shop on CafePress in order to have multiple designs in your store, but on Zazzle, it’s totally free.

Even though it only costs about $7 per month for a premium shop on CafePress, this ought to appeal to you if you don’t want to pay anything and still have a way to earn money through online marketing.

Discussing Zazzle on Squidoo Marketing

I’ve started a discussion in the Zazzle Group on my Squidoo Marketing community for discussing opening a Zazzle shop, creating designs, adding them to products, and promoting them.

Since I’m a complete newbie on Zazzle, I’ll use myself as a guinea pig and talk about some of the things I do to create the products and market them.

I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes and I may have some ideas you never thought of, so I’m hoping it will be a useful discussion. You can see it here:

I am a newbie to Zazzle – do you have any advice?

That discussion is primarily for people who enjoy using Squidoo to market their products, but we’ll also be discussing other avenues of promotion and sales. You’re welcome to come and join us there, if you want.

In conclusion…

I like what I see so far at Zazzle and I’m looking forward to exercising what they offer and promoting designs I find that were created by other people, too.

I’m looking forward to seeing if I can develop a new, reliable, and growing income stream with Zazzle.

What about you?

Do you have any thoughts about CafePress, Zazzle, or either of their affiliate programs?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , , ,

Comments

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Delicious
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg

11 Comments on New to Zazzle and liking what I see

  1. Alec Steele on Thu, 21st Jan 2010 9:01 am

    2. Whoever designed the Death Star shirt is a marketing genius. Thank you for sharing and good luck with your Zazzle store!

  2. Joan Adams on Thu, 21st Jan 2010 10:35 am

    3. John, this is great! zazzle is near the top of my priority list for 2010. I joined last year, but have not created many products. We can learn together!
    Joan Adams´s last blog ..Honey, I am losing my sight. My ComLuv Profile

  3. Brandon | Metal paint on Thu, 21st Jan 2010 10:04 pm

    4. John, I really like your zazzle page. It looks like you added quite a few items to the page. Looking good!

    Brandon
    Brandon | Metal paint´s last blog ..Metal Paint on Surfaces My ComLuv Profile

  4. John Dilbeck on Fri, 22nd Jan 2010 4:16 pm

    5. Good afternoon, Alec.

    I agree. The Death Star shirt is the work of a marketing genius.

    Thanks for the kind words.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  5. John Dilbeck on Fri, 22nd Jan 2010 4:38 pm

    6. Good afternoon, Joan.

    Like you, Zazzle is now close to the top of my to-do list for 2010. What’s the link to your Zazzle store?

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  6. John Dilbeck on Fri, 22nd Jan 2010 4:39 pm

    7. Good afternoon, Brandon.

    Thanks for the kind words.

    Yes, I added a few new products to my Zazzle shop and I have a lot more to add over the coming weeks.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  7. Joan Adams on Fri, 22nd Jan 2010 4:51 pm

    8. John, here is the link to my store — which is totally undeveloped at this point! lol

    http://www.zazzle.com/moonvine44
    Joan Adams´s last blog ..Keep Your Sense of Humor – no matter what! My ComLuv Profile

  8. John Dilbeck on Sat, 23rd Jan 2010 11:07 am

    9. Good morning, Joan,

    Thanks for linking to your store.

    Also, thanks for linking (in one of our discussions on Squidoo Marketing) to your Squidoo lens where you offer to create lenses for people with Zazzle stores. It’s a nice combination. They upload and sell their designs and you create a lens to help promote them:

    SquidJoan – Creating Squidoo Lenses for You!

    That sounds like a nice match for people who don’t want to do both, and your rates are good, too.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  9. Joan Adams on Sat, 23rd Jan 2010 11:35 am

    10. Thank you, John! It is a great way for people who don’t want to make lenses, or don’t like to make them, to advertise their products.

    I am looking forward to seeing your new creations out there on zazzle and getting me out there too.

    Nancy aka Ohme has a store too. will look for that link. hers is beautiful. as is stargazer00 and susan52. you will want to fan their stores as well. have fun!
    Joan Adams´s last blog ..SquidJoan – Creating Squidoo Lenses for You! updated Fri Nov 6 2009 3:09 pm CST My ComLuv Profile

  10. Martin Kono on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 6:37 am

    11. This image on T-shirt is saying so much. I think it should become more popular, and you are totally right. The bigger doesn’t meant that it is better and can’t all. The biggest companies sometimes fall even more quickly than the small ones.

  11. Bendoodlyn on Sat, 20th Mar 2010 7:15 am

    12. Great article! I love the creative aspect of Zazzle and the affiliate program is awesome! I love the fact that even as I am designing new products, someone else may be promoting my shop for me.

    You can promote my Zazzle shop or anyone store and earn a whopping 15% from each sale that comes through your affiliate link.

    Check out my Zazzle gallery at http://www.athomedesigner.com
    Bendoodlyn´s last blog ..Personalized Baseball Rookie Card Binder My ComLuv Profile

«

»