Zazzle for Freelancers

T. Jay Kane
Zazzle.com describes itself as the only on-demand retail platform offering billions of unique products produced within 24 hours. Zazzle.com could be considered to be to graphic designers and artists what Associated Content is to writers. Zazzle.com lets individual members of their site (membership is free) become over night designers. Members can upload their artistic images and personal logos and decorate any number of the products offered. Products which can be designed include t-shirts, hoodies, shoes, jackets, hats, bags, aprons, ties, mugs, business cards, binders, letterhead, calendars, stationary, and postage stamps. Designs can be as complicated or as simple as desired. For those who are not as artistically talented with a paintbrush than as they are with a keyboard may be pleased to discover that designs are not just limited to the visually aesthetic. If a writer or independent jokester just wants to slap sarcastic slogans on t-shirts and coffee mugs then have at it. These items can then be hosted by Zazzle.com for sale crediting the artist as the creator of the content. Prices on the items are set but the creator does have some room to adjust prices to earn more in royalties.

Each time an item sells Zazzle.com will alert the designer via e-mail and credit a royalty to the designer's PayPal account. The base royalty offered to designers is 10% of the product cost. If the designer wants a bigger royalty Zazzle.com will increase the price of the item and pay the royalty based on the desired percentage of the new price. For obvious reasons, designers who keep their prices low and earn slightly lower royalties seem to do better in sales when compared to those designers who refuse to earn less in royalties and keep their overall prices high to ensure larger royalty payments. If a person is able to design a clever enough product people will buy. Since Zazzle.com is such a large site it is very possible that some items will gain so much popularity that the designer's item will become a top page result when items similar to the designer's product are searched for on various search engines.

If a designer wants to he or she can start a Zazzle.com storefront that would exclusively display the items created by a single designer. These store fronts come with their own Zazzle.com sub-domain designers can link to and spread the word about. Since all orders are processed securely by Zazzle.com, visitors to the designer's personal store front don't have to worry that their personal information is any less secure than shopping at major retailers on line.

Zazzle.com seems to continue its existence by filling two very specific niche markets. On the one hand Zazzle.com can be used by any person with an on line personality who just wants to create a few simple designs and see them on actual products that people might want to buy. On the other hand Zazzle.com can be used by companies and other organizations to develop promotional items for sale or free give a ways.

The minimum amount of cash required in a Zazzle.com account before a royalty payment will be transferred to the designer of the product is $25. Payments are made by check or PayPal upon request. If there is ever less than $25 in a designer's account those funds will transfer over to next month's account balance.

For those that are interested in the underground art scene and local art, think of Zazzle.com as the perfect chance to support an up and coming designer or artist. A single artist can be selected to support or a large selection of artists can be made. Collections from single designers or companies can be purchased for personal use. Designers could potentially develop an entire fashion line based off of a few simple t-shirt designs and run their operation through Zazzle.com.

Zazzle.com offers a lot of up and coming artists, designers, small business owners, charitable organizations, and clubs the opportunity to develop their own marketing and branding tools.

Sources:

Zazzle.com

Published by T. Jay Kane

T. Jay Kane is the owner/operator of www.FreelanceWritingSvcs.com, a full service writing agency in the Pacific Northwest. The work presented here is offered as a digital portfolio of T. Jay Kane's professi...  View profile

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