So Zazzle is fairly well-known and it’s a pretty popular place to design your own t-shirts and products to sell or just buy on your own.
In fact, it’s so easy to become a Zazzle designer and open a store, that it only takes 5 minutes or less.
But the reality is that I personally don’t want to send my social media followers to Zazzle if I can lure them into my site. This is because it’s more profitable for me to have people come through my site both because of ads and page views but it also helps them better associate the bright and shiny product with me… you know, since I created it.
What sets Zazzle apart from other merchandise manufacturers
It’s easy to create everything from custom pacifiers for babies to stickers for a cause or event. I mean, the reality is you can make just about anything and if you’re a blogger with a serious following and/or you have a super catchy and useful name, then why not tap into the money that’s sitting on the table.
For instance, my blog and podcast go under the title of Extremely Good Parenting. And who doesn’t love a cute onesie that has a baby proclaim “I have extremely good parents”?
So while I absolutely adore Merch by Amazon, the limitation there is that they only sell t-shirts and their apparel is only available in Men’s, Women’s, and Youth sizes.
No onesies, no coffee mugs, no nothin’.
And while I have utilized companies like Spreadshirt, the reality is I can make more money on Zazzle if for no other reason than I can make both a commission from design purchases but also from affiliate sales.
BOOM! That’s magic.
How to make more money that just the designer fees on Zazzle
Affiliate links included in this tutorial for reference and for your convenience!
Sign up to be a Zazzle Affiliate on ShareASale.
So that’s your first step, get approved. Affiliates earn 15% of sales and there is a 45-day cookie meaning that you can earn an extra 15% on top of your designer commission and that when someone clicks on the link you share, you can earn that commission for up to 45 days. No presumably they’re only there to buy your product so they would always be clicking through your link, but the reality is, you may earn more if they decide to make or buy some other product.
You can sign up to be a Zazzle Affiliate on Share A Sale by clicking here.
In the meantime, open a Zazzle Store create a design to sell in your Zazzle Shop
So you don’t have to be an affiliate to sell your Zazzle designs.
And you’ll even still make money. Just not that extra 15% above and beyond your commission.
So start by opening a shop (personally I don’t typically do much to make it look awesome because I don’t use their store front. I have sales directly through my own site’s shop).
But you’ll want to go into PicMonkey, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or your favorite graphic design studio, photo editor, or the like. Make a photo that is large enough to be crisp on a t-shirt, so something like 5,000 x 5,000 pixels should be sufficient.
Then you’re going to go in and choose a product to design and upload your design to Zazzle, placing it where you would like it to appear.
After you’re done it’s going to look like you can only purchase it it or add it to your cart, but if you scroll down, you’ll find an itty-bitty option to post it for sale to earn money and that’s what will get your custom product published on your Zazzle shop!
How to make a Zazzle affiliate link to your own product(s)
Ok, now you’re an affiliate for them and you have created a product. So grab that product link and then head over to your Share a Sale Account!
Then in your top header you’re going to click on “Links” and then “Get Link / Banner”. Once there you’ll find the Zazzle store and then you’ll click on get links for their specific program. In the tabs section, there is a place that says “Create custom link”
Now that you have that you can use it as an affiliate link to your own products and even put it inside of your own eShop! Need more information on how to do that? Read about selling affiliate products in your eShop… and here’s a sneak peek at how it looks to entice you to see how I did it 😉
Other ways to maximize your eStore earnings & create products that sell
Nancy Sipes
Thanks for the information. I have a question maybe you have a answer to. Ok if I want a Merch account and I went to sign up and it has 3 steps first step says Sign in with the Amazon account that you want associated with Merch by Amazon. Does that mean I need to have a Amazon store that I sell stuff already ???? And should I create one? there site is confusing I am not sure what they want on step one. And for someone just starting out where do you recommend to start . I am doing the whole social media thing with fb and slowly with others. I am in the painting buss. and I have some ideas on sayings for shirts and want to do a journal that is related and not related to my buss. I have been gearing on doing social media more. Thanks for your time
Kara Carrero
No problem! So when Merch asks you that, they’re simply looking for ANY Amazon account. I have my business account that I use for affiliate links as the one that’s associated with Merch. I think that you should put a few things out there based on the ideas you have and see what grows the most for you. Then follow the money. You want to invest your time where the ROI is the greatest. Best of luck!
Abu Monsur
Thanks for the informative post on zazzle. Is there any way to use the same image on all zazzle products like in cafepress?
Kara Carrero
Yes! You have that option when uploading.