Tips for Designing and Selling on Zazzle

If you've decided to take the plunge and market your design on Zazzle, these 5 tips will make your venture easier and more profitable.

Tip #1. 

Do not - and I repeat - do not use the quick create function unless you have time to individually edit every design, I haven't created any design which fits well on every product Zazzle sells.

That fabulous design you slaved over may look good on a t-shirt or mug, but it probably won't work for those earrings Zazzle sells. And does anybody buy Christmas ornaments with skulls on them?

Tip #2

Don't use just any image you find on the internet. Most are copyrighted and using them is STEALING! You could find yourself in a world of trouble if you use them. Zazzle will catch most copyrighted images.

There are many resources to find images in the pubic domain. Try Pixabay and Wikimedia Commons. Flickr also has public domain images, but you have to check the license on each image or do a search specifically for images you can legally use.

Tip #3

Check the size of your image files. You may have a great idea for a t-shirt that you believe will break all sales records, but if the file is too small you will have a tiny picture on a big t-shirt. Trying to enlarge the pic will generate a "pixelated image" warning and you won't get your design onto Zazzle.

If you do not have your own graphic or picture program, Picmonkey can resize your pictures for free. Picmonkey also has premium features you can access with a monthly subscription.

Tip #4

Plan out your collections before starting. Zazzle allows you to group your products together under different collections. The collections can be anything you want, such a collection each for spiders, snakes, or bees. You can also make collections using products, such as mugs, t-shirts or cases. It's up to you how you want to showcase your products.

If you have many items with the same image, you don't want to add them all to the same category. No one wants to wade through a collection of  different style shirts with the same design on them.

Tip #5

Try to specialize, When I started, I had so many ideas for products that I ended up with a mess. I have since opened five new stores so I can concentrate on selling one theme per store. The original store is still cluttered with too many products, but I'm slowly getting it sorted out. Uffda!

Bad kitty belated birthday card by MyFireWithin
Browse more Bad Cards

Tip #6

Check all your text in the "art view" before posting for sale. When I started I lost two sales because the edge of the text was slightly outside the printable area. It was discouraging to lose sales because I didn't take the time to ensure the design didn't fit properly.

Tip #7

Put your designs on a variety of products. I never thought jewelry or puzzles would sell, but I have been proven wrong! What do you have to lose? Sometimes I have created a design and put it up for sale thinking it would be a dud and I have been surprised when it sold.

Good luck with your "Zazzling!"

Need extra money? Try Mechanical Turk.

My search for online work

There was a time I would have laughed at being paid $1.00 an hour. After all, I came of age when the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. But being desperate sure makes a difference in one's perception of the value of a dollar. I even no longer suck up pennies off the floor when I vacuum. After all, 150 of those round beauties will buy a loaf of bread.

I need to make some money, but even more I need to do something productive. My self esteem is around zero, my computer is hanging on literally by a wire, and my car has been down since before Thanksgiving. I type "work at home" into the search engine. I can skip the "Make Thousands a Week from Home" come-ons. My momma didn't raise a fool.

Surveys suck!

Surveys look promising. A number of reputable sources say that even though you won't get rich, you can make some extra money from home. I'm in! I set up a new email address and follow a link to legitimate survey companies. I spend hours filling out forms with my name, age, address. Over and over. When I'm done I check my email. Eureka! Surveys await with promises of cash and sweepstakes rewards. I start the first survey, only to be kicked out after a few questions. "Sorry, you are not a match for this survey." Hmmm. Okay. I start the next one. Same thing. And again. And again. I realize that maybe the survey companies want people who actually can afford to buy a car, a new washing machine, or new shoes. Surveys are out.

I  discover a transcription company that lets beginners work at their site for $30 an audio hour. I can type, sort of. I can do 30 wpm if I look at the keys. I take a test and pass. In like Quinn. I read the rules and get poised to type. The audio files are broken into 10 or 20 second clips. The first one is awful. The audio quality is bad, and the person speaking sounds as if he has marbles in his mouth. I have no headphones, and the dogs won't quit clicking across the floor. A gravel truck seems to pass by outside every 2 minutes. The first 10 second clip takes me 5 minutes. That means that at this rate, I'll earn $30 a week. Woohoo! I'll take it! Unfortunately, they do not always have clips to transcribe, so I look for something else while I wait.

Mechanical Turk

And then I find it. The Holy Grail of work-at-home: Amazon's Mechanical Turk. This work from home gig is heaven sent. Amazon hooks up business people who need tasks done cheaply with people from around the world who will work cheap. From copying business card text for a penny, to transcribing audio files for hundreds of dollars, it is a stay at home worker's paradise.

 I start out searching the internet for a company for 10 cents. I transcribe a recipe for 15 cents. Then I discover surveys. Many colleges pay people to fill out surveys, from "Moral Judgment" to "Visual Memory and Personal Preferences". The pay ranges from .50 cents to $2. I have many opinions about many topics, and I don't mind sharing them. This is right up my alley. So far, I am averaging about $10 a day. Nice if you only need a little pocket money, but I need to support myself. Those transcribing jobs look promising, so I'm ordering a foot pedal and headphones with the money I earned last week.

The most important thing about my work-at-home dreams is that I have hope and I feel like a productive human being again. Wish me luck!

Turkopticon is a must!

If you have decided to become a "Turker" (worker at Mechanical Turk) I highly recommend installing turkopticon into your browser. It is a free extension hosted at UCSD.

Like the real world, the are some "work providers" who will take advantage of workers. This nifty extension will allow you to see how other workers have rated the "employer." The ratings are based on fairness, how fast  and how well he pays and  communication, After completing a task, you too can rate the employer. 

You will need to sign up to be able to post. 

Turkopticon is invaluable when it comes to avoiding work assigners who don't pay well, or unfairly reject work completed. You can also see the good work assigners when deciding which tasks to perform.

Bubblews vs. Hubpages Review: Which is a Better Long-term Residual On-line Income Earner?

Bubblews is now defunct. I will keep this article up for historical purposes. :)



I currently have approximately 40 articles each on both article sharing sites HubPages and Bubblews. If you are not familiar with the sites, see my articles reviewing them: Bubblews or HubPages.


Bubblews is a new and very popular posting/social site. Because of a writer's ability to quickly earn money, many online writers are flocking to the site.  Many people reach the minimum $50 dollar payout weekly, with more then a few claiming to do it every other day. It does takes some work to earn the $50. You may get an initial flurry of likes and views, but these quickly disappear. To continue earning a steady amount, you must either have a lot of dedicated connections to other "Bubblewers" , or you must spend a lot of time liking and commenting on other people's posts.

HubPages is much different. It may take months before your views and earnings start to increase. Once the search engines "discover" your hubs, your views and earnings go up and tend to remain stable with only slight fluctuations from week to week.

Without interacting with other writers on either site, I can see a clear winner in my residual income quest: HubPages.  

I make between 5-10 cents a day in residual income from Bubblews. My worst earning days on HubPages earn me at least 35 cents, with my average earning being  over 75 cents.

Let us not forget that on HubPages we can also earn referral  money by selling items from Ebay and/or Amazon through our hubs. That referral capability brought me a nice little bonus last month from HubPages.  :) Since Bubblews frowns on affiliate links and will delete your account if it finds them, the same earning possibilities are not possible from Bubblews.

When it comes to long term residual income from your writing, I would put my money (and articles) on HubPages. If you are looking for quick money with no long term potential, give Bubblews a try.

Bubblews Review: Easy Money for On-Line Writers?

Bubblews has burst. The notice reads:
Greetings,

After being up and running for almost 3 years now we regrettably need to inform you that we will be shutting Bubblews.com down. The climate for display advertising has drastically changed and made it impossible for us to sustain the business model and operations.

We want to thank everyone that was a part of this journey. We wish you all the very best.

–Bubblews

My first impression of Bubblews was not a good one. The site looks cheesy and unprofessional. My second impression was that it resembles the Tower of Babylon. It is madness. But it is a site where you can earn money a lot faster then most revenue sharing sites. You don't even have to write well, you just have to write in English - or something which resembles English.

The minimum post is 400 characters - not words, characters! You can post a review, a complaint, a story, even your grocery list. A lot of people are using Bubblews to link to their blog or to their articles on other websites. I write on Bubblews using a pseudonym because I would rather not have my name associated with the silliness I post there.

But there is money to be made, you just have to know the system. A person earns a penny for every like, comment, and view their "article" receives. You receive a penny for every tweet, Goggle+ or Facebook like your article gets. When you post your first article, people will descend from nowhere and "connect" with you. You are expected to connect back, and start a reciprocal relationship where you like, comment on and view  each other's posts. It doesn't matter how awful or inane it is, you will get your penny! If you have the time to play the game you can earn money with little time or effort. (Bubblews has changed its earning system. See my last update at the end of the article)

There is a $50 minimum payout  (up from the previous minimum of $25) which is paid through your Paypal account. I have read of people who cash out every day, even sometimes twice a day. It may just be urban legend, but I believe if you have a good network of "friends" it may be possible. I have 8 posts currently and have earned almost $5 by basically throwing up crap. I have made a few connections, but I don't have the inclination to play the system.

If you have the time and inclination, Bubblews may be the place for you. How many products do you have in your home on which you can post a 400 character review? Got a gripe?  Write about it. Have a blog you want to promote? Use Bubblews for link building and for promoting your site. If you decide to try it and have success with Bubblews, drop me a line. I'm interested to hear how it works out for you. Happy Bubblewing. :)

Update 4-18-2013
I am up to $13.44  for 18 "articles". They are either links to Hub Pages or my blog here. Pretty impressive for a few minutes every day! I'm going to continue linking as it seems to be paying off. As one fellow writer said, it is like Twitter, but we get paid for promoting our own sites.
I'll update this again when I hit the payout of $25 and report if I get paid. I'm off to write another Bubble "tweet."

 

First Bubblews Payout, May 14. 2013
I hit $25 on May 11 and hit the redeem button that same night. On May 14th I received notice from Paypal that the money was in my account. So Bubblews does work! (So why can't I get motivated to write more there?)

Update: November 1, 2013
After moving June first and being offline until mid-August, I logged back into Bubblews and found myself half-way to pay out again with no new posts.  I have since received another payout, and am again half-way to a third payout. I post about once a week, and like or comment on one or two articles a day. I could earn much faster by posting and interacting more, but I am now working full time.


Check Bubblews out with this link: Bubblews


My last update for Bubblews: December 26, 2014.
I have decided to stop being active on this site. I was at $24 last year when the payout changed to $50. In the last 12 months I have earned only an additional $20.

I usually post something once a month, but I wrote a few times hoping to get to the payout by Christmas. I received NO views at all. Even when I "played" the system by liking and commenting on others articles, I did not earn anything.

The rate of earnings has changed to some unknown formula, and we can no longer see how many people have viewed our pages.

I am looking to earn residual income with my writing. I do not have time to connect and comment all day long.

At least I did earn $50 for the time I was there.

C'est la vie. :)

Is Squidoo a Scam? Who Earns Money at Squidoo?

Another content site bites the dust. Squidoo is no longer. It has been incorporated into HubPages - my own favorite writing site.





Is Squidoo a scam? The simple answer is no, not really. A little deceptive, maybe, but some people do make money and do on Squidoo. Let me explain by sharing my own personal experience and research.

Giant Squidoo. Photo by Citron at Wikimedia

The Squidoo Welcome/Come-on
Squidoo was the first shared revenue writing site I wrote for after I had searched for ways to write and earn money online. Although I was a little puzzled by the silly squid characters and inane squid related phrases (squidlikes?), I was intrigued.  Here was a site that promised to be easy to use, would host my writing, and would share the revenue I created. Says Squidoo: "It's simple to write a lens. And of course, it's free. Even if you build 100 of them! You can also start to earn royalties from your writing, when the pages earn their way up in the site and when readers start interacting with them."

Squid Angels
It was easy to create a lens, especially for a web content neophyte like me. I wrote three "lenses" - articles in the real world  -  using their helpful guidelines displayed on the side of every lens. I had pictures, links, polls, and Amazon and eBay sales capsules. I wasn't sure who would actually buy something from my lens considering my writing topics, but they were required to have a "perfect" lens.
After a week I received an email. The Giant Squids had selected me as a rising star  - or was it a squid - and they wanted to interview me for the site! Wow, I had some talent, eh? I agreed to the email interview and I was named a rising star/squid a few days later. It was exciting to watch my view numbers rising so fast. I was blessed and praised by "Squid Angels" and high-ranking Squids. My most popular lens rose to the rank of 4,000 quickly. This isn't so bad, I thought as I quickly planned out more lenses. Dollar signs were dancing in front of my eyes as I wrote.

Squidoo Lens Payout
As I explored the Squidoo community, I noticed there was a big emphasis on lens rank. I started to research what it meant. It was very discouraging to learn that not everyone is paid for the views they draw to their pages. Payout depends on lens rank. Tier one, the top 2, 000 lenses, get the bulk of the money  - up to $50 or more from what I have read. Tier two is the next level of payout is the next 8,000 lenses, or lenses ranked from 2,000 - 10, 000. They earn $5 or less. The next 80, 000 lenses (this figure varies)  is tier three and they get pennies.


Reality Sets In
The next few weeks I watched as the lens blessings (which give you a boost in lens rank) wore off.  Surely I could stay in the top 10, 000 at least? Nope, by the end of the month my lenses had dropped off into the "pennies" zone, even though they had been picked up by Google's search engine bots. By this time I had started writing for Yahoo and was getting upfront pay and pennies for my views there. And it was mine, no matter how popular my articles were.


Who DOES Earn on Squidoo?
The top 2,000 lenses do earn decent money, but the odds of achieving that level are not in your favor. There are over 4,000,000 lenses all battling to reach the promised land. It is sad, really. All those lenses earning money for the "elite" lenses. There are rumors of a clique at the site that controls who ascends into the upper levels. That may be true, but it also may be sour grapes. I honestly do not know.


Marketing 101
If you have ever explored Squidoo, most of the lenses look more like ads for products then "real" articles. The marketing of Amazon, eBay, and other products is the reason some people achieve financial success at Squidoo. Well, that and the people who write "How to Succeed at Squidoo" lenses.
My writing isn't something which lends itself to marketing. Writing about autism, politics, and animals doesn't lead to sales. I may have to learn though - there IS sunken treasure waiting to be discovered out there in Squidoo-land.
If you write and  market products well, go for it! I wish you happiness and much success. I may even see you there someday - after I brush up on my own sales skills.

Update 4-30-13
It appears the Squidoo community was hit hard by a Google update. People are speculating it is because of the spammy, low quality content of the site. Some people claim to have lost 50% of the income due to the update. Others say they have lost a bit less. Here is one link: http://squidu.yuku.com/topic/2208/Squidoo-vs-Hubpages-the-statistics#.UYBXS7VQGTw
This is a webpage to a real Squid, and her experiences and advice to Squidoo: http://greekgeek.istad.org/

Squidoo has also updated their policies. I have copied some of the content and gave my view of it.

• We pool that money in order to prevent click fraud -- this is a pretty common solution.

Yes, it is common for some sites to pool the money, but not common to give it to only a select few.

• We work in a meritocracy, where lenses earn royalties based on how well they perform. We believe in paying our best people, who make the best lenses, more.

And the rest of you undeserving, lowly schlocks get squat!

• And if a lens has an average LensRank of #400,000, let's say, well, we're making the bet that lens needs some work and isn't that useful to readers on the web. It probably didn't get much traffic or contribute a whole lot of goodness to the whole Squidoo community (and didn't drive any ad clicks, either), so that lens gets 0% of the ad pool.

Um, I bet these lenses are getting views and ad clicks,  you just may not want to share. And I have seem some REALLY bad lenses in the top tier which were little more than full page ads. I'd like to see what the millions of lenses that "aren't contributing" earn every month. I bet it's a nice chunk of change which goes to the top tiers.

• Our goal is to pay out best lensmasters, the most. As more lensmasters make better and better lenses, it might make sense to shift the tiers in the future.

So, with over 7 years and millions of lenses, there STILL  aren't enough good lenses to increase the 2,000 top tier payout scheme? What about Squid Blessings that add a little "up rank"  juice to lenses? Isn't it possible there is a "clique" that likes the payouts just the way they are?

• Where the real money can come in for you is using Amazon and eBay and your own strategies to monetize your lens, without waiting for a handout from the ad pool. (Emphasis is mine.)

Really! People are writing lenses hoping to make a little money, and you think they are waiting for a handout?!? Wow! Words escape me.

Update November 2,  2013

The new payout amounts for Squidoo were released:
Tier 1:  Ad Pool $12.24
Tier 2:  Ad Pool $2.08
Tier 3: Ad Pool $0.10

Yes, You CAN Earn Money at Home Writing on Hubpages

What is HubPages?

A "hub"  is a blank page waiting to be written on. The site as a whole is made up of writers who create and manage their own articles in exchange for a share of the  revenue generated by people reading the articles. HubPages provides the tools to design your page, does the work of keeping track of money and page views, and regulates the site to ensure quality.

You have only to abide by a few of the site's rules  about what subjects are taboo. You can write about anything along as it is not pornographic, illegal, or spammy. It has to be original and your own work. They have a duplicate checker, and you may lose the privilege of publishing on HubPages if you plagiarize or create content strictly to promote your own products or services.

The staff at HubPages is very responsive to questions. They regularly show up in the member's discussion forums to help out and answer questions. I had a  problem with my eBay account, and within an hour I had a response and a promise to fix it. For a site as large as theirs, that is impressive.

How do you earn?

There are a few ways to earn. HubPages  and Google Adsense display advertising on your hubs, and you get a 60 percent share of the money earned by pages views or ad clicks by readers. The RPM (rate paid by advertisers per thousand views) varies daily, so I cannot give you a direct dollar amount. I have heard it ranges between $3- $10  per mille. I can assure you I have not seen the $10 mille.  I have yet to discover the "golden goose" topic, though I have personally had a PPM at just under $9 .

In order to share in the revenue, you must apply to and be accepted by Google Adsense. When you apply, Google Adsense will view your hubs, and if you have ample content that is well written and abides by Adsense's terms and policies, you will be accepted.  The current thinking is that you must have a minimum of ten hubs to be accepted, unless you are an Asian writer. AdSense appears to want a minimum of 20 hubs and six months of being published for writers from Asian countries.  Most of the money I earn right now is through the HubPage ads, not AdSense.

Additional earning possibilities

With the HubPage program, you can make money when someone buys a product from eBay or Amazon.com through your hub.  A hub has a special feature to add text, photos, and eBay and Amazon modules. To earn off these two, you must apply and be accepted as an affiliate marketer by eBay and Amazon.  Your Hub page will have an earning tab which will help you apply for Adsense, eBay, and Amazon. EBay  and Amazon pay a percentage if a product of theirs sells because someone entered their site through your hub.

Once approved, you can choose which products to display on your page or let EBay and Amazon automatically choose an item. You will want to display items that relate to your topic. You will get an automatically generated warning if you try to place too many eBay or Amazon items on your page. Remember, too few words and too many ads looks spammy to Google, and your Hub may not be published as a consequence.

I give HubPages a thumbs up!

How much can I earn on HubPages?

This depends on what you put into it. If you throw up low quality pages and expect to make money - it's not going to happen. Like every other PPV site (are there any others left?), you need to have many (at least 10) quality articles that have been researched for SEO (search engine optimization.)  It is a slow process that takes work, research and lots of patience.

Each potential Hub goes through a quality review process. If it doesn't meet the staffs criteria for quality and clarity, it will not be published.

As to my earnings - I have been on HubPages for over three years.  I have weathered the upsand downs and the Panda hits,.

The first month I wrote only two articles. I decided to get into gear and wrote 8 more hubs two weeks ago. As soon as I finished, I applied to Adsense , and I  was approved a few days later. In the first week, I have earned more in PPV's on my  hubs than the entire first month PPV's writing for Yahoo.

I'm not getting rich, but I earn a nice residual income that comes in handy for emergencies and holidays. Some "hubbers" do support themselves through HubPage earnings. These people have been there years and have found a niche market.

Helpful hints for writing on HubPages

Write about things that interest you, unless you have excellent marketing skills; You will have more motivation and will write more frequently if you are passionate about your subjects.

Get involved with the HubPage community. Until the search engines discover your hubs,  you will want the views and support of others to keep motivated. You can also learn strategies, be exposed to differing  writing styles, and even make some new friends.

Certain topics earn more PPV. Technology, insurance, and medical gets higher rates than recipes or gardening.

Be patient! As you will see with my updates below, it does take time for Hubs to "mature" and start earning more than a few cents.  Not every Hub will be a winner, but most will earn some money every day.

Update 4/20/2013

With only one month of ad revenue, as of today I have earned $6.79 with 28 hubs. The traffic appears to be growing a bit every week, with Google and Bing sending  people to my webpages.  I have had no eBay or Amazon sales, but did not expect any because of the nature of my writing.
I also received a Rising Star award, awarded to new up-n-comers.  :) I plan on adding a few more hubs in the next month. I'll update then.

 Update 4-30-2013

As of today, I have earned $10+ through HubPages on page views alone. It is well shy of the $50 minimum payout, but you can see the steady progression. I hope it keeps up. :)

Update 10-29-2013

After being offline since the first of June, I made payout in August. I have added no new Hubs since May and as of now I have 39 Hubs. I did have 45 hubs at one time, but not all of the hubs were great performers, and some garnered fewer than 10 views a month. I removed these low performing hubs and put them on Bubblews where they could at least earn a dollar or two.

There was a drop in traffic in August, but my views are picking up again, and I anticipate making payout again in November. Like most people, I have just a few Hubs that perform really well, with the rest pulling in a few views a day. I am pleased with my progress, and I plan to add more hubs as time allows.  :)

Update 12-9-13

Not only did I make payout in November, I also had a pleasant surprise when someone purchased a used truck through my hub. I received 2.5% of the purchase price, though I am forbidden to give the exact dollar amount. I will say  the commission brought a big smile to my face and reinforced my commitment to HubPages.

Earnings as of  May 14, 2014

I am now earning between $1.50 to $2.50 a day on my Hubs. I also earn money on EBay and Amazon. Its not enough to live off of, but I expect to reach the $50 dollar payout threshold every month now.

I think it is great to be earning this money off of pages I wrote a year ago. If I only had more time to write more Hubs!

Earnings: 2015  

The Google "Panda" updates hit content sites hard. Many failed but Hubpages has hung on. I no longer earn payout every month unless my Amazon sales are good.  I do still earn approximately  $30 a month   at Hubpages. Not bad considering I have only 35 Hubs and  haven't added any new ones since 2014. :)


Earnings: 2016

Hubpages staff has decided to branch out and make niche sites dedicated to certain topics. It was a wise decision as earnings and views have come out the post-Panda slump and have started to earn again.

Click here to view my HubPages profile. Happy writing!