Wizzley

My Journey on Zazzle

by Ragtimelil

I joined Zazzle 8 months ago. I'm a dog trainer, weaver and sometimes artist and photographer. These are some things I've leaned and have yet to learn about Zazzle.

I don't have any new and great insights as to how to increase business to a Zazzle store. I've been told over and over that it takes time. This is just the beginning of my journey on Zazzle.

When I first opened my store I did the typical thing most new Zazzlers do and put all my photos on products. I was thrilled when my dad bought some greeting cards with pictures of Lake Conroe on them. He had lived on the lake some years ago. I thought I was on my way.

First Payment

 A few more months went by without any sales. Then the Christmas season rolled around. I sold quite a few products to my sister and got my first payment from Zazzle. I was ecstatic. 
 
Christmas rolled on by and the sales stopped. I sold a few niche buttons for a net income of 21 cents.
I read about creating with Zazzle. I got more creative with my products. In fact, I am quite proud of some of the things I've created, such as my cards.and matching envelopes and my new band items.

Holidays

Meanwhile, Valentine's day was approaching. I made some Valentines cards. I didn't sell any. I'm not really a Valentine kind of girl so I wasn't too surprised. I also learned, from looking at other stores, that some people make hundreds of holiday items. I had made only a handful.

Then St. Patrick's day was coming. I made everything I could think of. They started out rather homely, but got better as I worked on it. I didn't make hundreds, but I did manage to squeeze out 30. I sold none.
 
I consoled myself with the thought that I'm still very new on Zazzle and a lot of what I'm creating will benefit me in the future. The holiday items I make now are really a start for next year's holidays. I've sold a hat and some business cards, but still haven't reached the threshold for another payment from Zazzle.

Referrals

I started reading and learning about Zazzle. I found a mentor who is quite successful on Zazzle. I took her advice and made some items that she recommended. 
 
I studied other Pro Seller's stores. I checked my Google Analytics and was shocked to find that my top referrals come from Squidoo. I have very few articles on Squidoo and most of them get maybe one or two views a week. The second top referral slot was from the Zazzle forum. I rarely visit the forum and even less often comment. This was all very strange.

Customize the Store

I have, and continue to learn how to customize my store using CSS. I try to spend more time creating products but every now and then, I like to play around with the store front. I created a "sandbox" store for that purpose. It's a store that remains private and has no real products in it. It's the experimental site that wouldn't matter if it became unusable. I'd just revert everything back to the default and try again.

RagtimeLil's Store

Visitors

I promote my creations with a Facebook page dedicated to my Zazzle store. I created another lens on Squidoo about Zazzle. I post every new product on Twitter.
 
I've been trying to increase my daily visitor rate. I know, from my years selling at craft fairs, that numbers of visitors do not always translate into sales. Yet I feel that no visitors also means no sales. I'm happy when I visit a Pro Seller's store and their numbers of visitors are close to mine. I despair when I see they have many more visitors to their shop than I do. 
 
I discovered that I could sort my products my "most views per week." I thought this was a very handy feature since it tells me what people are looking at. It just might give me a clue as to what I should be creating. 

Resolve

I have resolved to make 5 to 10 items a day. I made some plain business cards that were easy to do. I make a batch of backgrounds in Photoshop and then used them for the cards. That went pretty fast and I thought they looked pretty good. 
 
My immediate goal is to have over 1,000 items in my store as soon as I can create them. I know I also need to spend more time working on tags and descriptions since that is how people find the items. I have found that the more products I create, the better they get. It's all part of the creative process. 
Updated: 04/01/2013, Ragtimelil
 
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Ragtimelil on 10/17/2013

It's a lot of work but the rewards do come. What is your store name?

Raintree on 10/09/2013

I have recently started on Zazzle and very much finding my way there.

Ragtimelil on 06/30/2013

Yes, sales are good! :-))

CherylsArt on 06/30/2013

Yes, I love to Zazzle. It is a balancing act it seems, between creating and also promoting. I like that Zazzle is doing more promoting now too; may that help us all have more sales.

Ragtimelil on 05/29/2013

Some of it is fun. Some of it is darn hard work!

kimbesa on 05/29/2013

It looks like fun!

Ragtimelil on 04/17/2013

Yep. It seems we must have good Christmas gift stock. I'm trying to hit all the holidays but so far haven't sold any other holiday products. Everyone says you do have to make a lot of products. We're competing with thousands of other products.
Keep on plugging!

anitalite on 04/17/2013

I think your experience is very similar to mine, and I think we actually started on Zazzle about the same time, summer of last year.

I was very encouraged in December, I was making several sales a week, presumably people were buying Christmas gifts, but since the beginning of this year, sales have dried up alarmingly.

What I find disappointing is that the products I am most proud of don't sell! But I'm determined to keep making the sort of thing I like and force people to buy them by shear numbers!

Ragtimelil on 03/25/2013

Well, thank you. And good luck with your store. It's hard to put in a lot of work for months and not see much results, but, I am told, that, yes, persistence is the key.

WiseFool on 03/25/2013

Hi, Lana. Thanks for sharing your experience. I made a pitiful attempt to start a Zazzle store last year and very quickly gave up. You've made me see that persistence is key. So, I'm making plans to get back into it. Thanks for the push and I wish you great success with your own store!

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