This picture is a representation of what it's like to work with Zazzle's website.For those on the PoD trail, that is, print-on-demand as a passive income stream, many will stand before the entrance to the Kingdom Of Zazzle and wonder 'should I enter'? Is it safe?
Well, here's my experience.
To clarify, Zazzle is a PoD website where designers both professional and amateur alike, can upload artwork. If a customer then browsing the website likes your artwork enough, they can have it printed on all sorts of products such as tshirts, jandals, even shower curtains, bathmats or frisbees. As the designer you then receive a commission while the company owning the website handles everything else - printing, postage and collecting of monies. This business model describes PoD in general.
Sounds great, but in many ways, to enter Zazzle is to enter a hall of mirrors.
The first thing to know is that Zazzle's interface - particularly compared to the majority of competing pod sites - is a mess - if not an archaic mess. Even before you've logged in, information overload is likely. Options are everywhere, it's not clear where to click and what to click and what mode you're in - public preview or 'store management'.
In time you'll come to know the intricacies, but it's very confusing at first. Likewise, before you have that experience under your belt, you'll find yourself creating multiple copies of designs on products because for the most part, to edit a product is not to update it, but to create another iteration of that product. And so just like seeing your reflection multiply in mirrors, you'll find yourself creating multiple copies of a product without even realizing it's happening.
It also doesn't help that there's a lag between updating details and seeing that reflected in your product listings, which again, can lead to mistakenly creating multiple copies of a product.
But leaving all that aside, Zazzle is a bit of a trap for unwary designers in other ways.
Because in a way Zazzle seems larger than it really is.
It has the greatest range of products of all the pod sites. The range of products is dizzying - it comes across as an alternate Amazon. You won't know what products to drop your designs onto, to begin with and so may spread them across as wide a range as you can (I know I did - I spent an entire afternoon putting a couple of designs on dozens of phone cases before twigging that it wasn't necessary. Duh.)
But be aware;
Traffic is half of Redbubble's.
It's very US oriented.
More importantly, the users who make money on zazzle are;
Those who've been on it for years.
Have shops that are extremely well organised and niche targeted.
But the magic key to Zazzle success and escaping the maze?
Customizable stationery - in particular, birthday cards, business cards and wedding stationery. This is Zazzle's claim to fame - that customer's can add their own names to designs - or their grandparents or childrens names or the name of their business. That's Zazzle's market strength.
New designers may not recognize this and instead wander the halls, dazzled by the array of options, posting designs until the cows come home, but for the most part, gaining rewards that will likely always be mediocre.
This is what has happened to me. But now that I have a clue, I'll be changing tack and focusing on customizable stationery - weddings, birthdays, that sort of thing.
Wish me luck.
MADJACK TEES on Zazzle
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