POD For You! » Zazzle

Zazzle Bulk Tools, ProSeller Program And Other Updates

Kayecee — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:23:09 +0000

Sorry! I know I’m a tad late here, but Zazzle has been hard at work! They’ve added some cool new tools yesterday and today:

1. Quick Product Create – Forget creating products one at a time! Zazzle finally has some bulk create tools! Go to My Zazzle > Public Products and click the “Quick Create Many Products” link to get started.

2. DST Embroidery Files Now Accepted – A lot of shopkeepers have been reluctant to venture into embroidery with Zazzle because of the prohibitive cost of setting up designs for it. No more! Now you can upload the common DST file format for embroidery.

3. Preview your gallery – Play around with the colors and themes for your galleries and preview the results before applying the changes.

4. New size charts – Updated and more complete sizing information on all apparel product pages for customers.

5. ProSeller Program- The ProSellers program is a FREE, invitation-only seller benefits program.

View all the chatter about the Zazzle updates at the POD For You forums!

Kayecee gives all the Zazzle updates a five shoe review! (5/5 shoes)

Zazzle Launches Custom Embroidery

Kayecee — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:04:59 +0000

According to TechCrunch, Zazzle is launching custom embroidery. Yes…. real honest-to-gosh embroidery.

The embroidery process should be fairly simple for users. Simply upload a design and choose how large you want it to appear on the clothing. Zazzle then uses a fairly complicated process behind the scenes to digitize the images and sew them onto items. Computers are being used to perform 50-70% of the digitization process with human workers manually adjusting the image to ensure the outcome of the design.

Getting an image digitized will take 24-48 hours and generally costs approximately $5 for every 1000 stitches required.

Here is the link for the Zazzle embroidery page… be forewarned…. the link has been spastic…. perhaps TechCrunch was a bit premature or Zazzle is having technical difficulties….

Here is a link to the Zazzle Embroidery Design Guide

So, what do you guys think of the possibility of custom embroidery from Zazzle? Love the idea? Hate it? Give us some feedback!

Zazzle Limits Google Feed To 100 Products

Kayecee — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:01:37 +0000

If you’ve been enjoying the new Google feeds from Zazzle, you may have noticed a change yesterday. Shopkeepers from the Zazzle forum began to report that their feeds were being limited to 100 products.

A Zazzle employee announced the following today:

Hi folks! Sorry for the delay in this response. Here’s what’s going on:

We have currently implemented a 100 product per feed limit on our servers for performance reasons. We were getting reports about incomplete feeds, or feeds timing out soon after we started promoting our new feed platform. This limit will remain in place until we can address the volume of requests more reliably.

As many of you have figured out, you can still generate more than 100 products by requesting multiple feeds in a paginated fashion. Use the pg parameter in the feed URL to specify which page of results to pull, and set the ps parameter to 100 to pull 100 products per page. Mousefx is correct.

I know we should have warned you about these changes earlier, and I apologize that it got pushed out without warning. Sometimes we have to react quickly, and unfortunately some things may fall through the cracks when that happens. This message was one of those things, and again, I apologize.

For now, rest assured that the feeds should no longer time out, and our feed server remains stable. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this matter.

You may view the entire discussion here in the Zazzle forum.

Zazzle Introduces Custom Shoes

Kayecee — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:01:48 +0000

Zazzle has a new product today…. custom shoes! These shoes look great and should be a lot of fun to design for. There are 5 styles to choose from…. 3 for women and 2 for kids. Make sure you read the design disclaimer! The shoe size can have an effect on the appearance of the design. Reported problems also include reversed text on one shoe in the preview.

As I was reading their announcement, I realized that I didn’t agree with a statement made and have issues with it:

Zazzle, the world’s best website for print-on-demand products, is the first and only to offer a new technology that allows you to create shoes from your own artwork and photos instantly.

*ahem* I think they need to do their homework…. Spreadshirt has offered shoes for quite some time! Just click the Product link in the .

The shoe may not be as pretty and they may only have one style, but Zazzle can’t claim that they are the “first and only” POD that allows you to create shoes from your own artworks and photos.

Also, they claim that they allow you to create shoes “instantly.” I’m hearing a different story from shopkeepers. At least one shopkeeper has reported that they are waiting on design approval. Design approval?!? Uhm….. that’s not quite “instant” to me!

Although the announcement could have used some work, overall, this looks like an excellent product to design….. very unique offering with the holiday season approaching.

So, hey…. what are you waiting for? Get busy with your designs at Zazzle! If you’ve designed some shoes for sale, drop us a link in the comments. I’d love to see some!

Zazzle Rating System Flawed?

Kayecee — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:19:04 +0000

NOTE: Links in this article may contain nudity or other images that may offend. DO NOT click if you do not wish to view designs of this nature.

Now, come on.... y'all know I'm not a prude..... far from it....

But, seriously..... do y'all think my 8 year old daughter should be shopping for gifts with a design like this for dear old dad? How about this design on a gift for my Mother's Day present?

But..... but..... but..... those gifts should be fine for an 8 year old to pick out for her parents! After all.... those designs are rated G.

Me thinks Zazzle has opened a can of worms with their zazzle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/zazzle.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=144">rating system. Concerning the G-Rating, their own Q&A area states:

DOES NOT CONTAIN: Nudity.....

Uhhhhh.... hello..... I believe that there's just a bit of nekkid-ness goin' on in those designs!

What does Zazzle have to say in response to complaints in the forum about the first design? Here is ZazzleTony's response:

There have been some great posts here and I along with other members of Zazzle have been following this thread very closely.

There are some good points made here and it's been great to read everyone's input on this matter. The reasoning behind having this gallery stay at G-rated is along the lines of CowboyCraic's post. The images in this gallery are provocative in nature and they definitely do walk the line, but we feel that these images are no different from what you see on television shows or various style/fitness magazines that you see on magazine racks and are displayed for anyone to see.

We would like to thank everyone for their concerns in regards to this gallery, but please understand that the decisions made by Zazzle are for the best interest of Zazzle and our mission to be the world's leader in creating one-of-a kind products for everyone to enjoy!

While I applaud Zazzle for taking a stand and attempting to make their marketplace family friendly, I have a problem when designs like the ones I just linked to are considered appropriate for my 8 year old to peruse. If you wouldn't see it on the Disney channel or Nickelodeon, it shouldn't be showing in a G-rated area. Sorry..... don't think either one of those products qualify!

If Zazzle is going to keep this policy, I feel that they need to get some strict guidelines in place. If not, the system just deteriorates into a subjective thing..... what I feel is inappropriate may be smiled upon favorably by someone else.

They will also have to actually follow their own policies. Dictionary.com defines nudity as, "Having no clothing; naked." Responding with, "The images in this gallery are provocative in nature and they definitely do walk the line....." when the image in question clearly displays nudity is beyond belief! Unless, of course, wearing a pair of shoes constitutes being fully clothed. Let's see someone walk down the street dressed like that..... it won't take 5 minutes to get busted by the cops for public indecency!

I've seen complaints from various shopkeepers who have had their designs yanked from the open marketplace because they were not deemed appropriate for a G-rating. But those above are? Tell me if I'm wrong!

(And yes, I am fully aware that other POD companies have mature designs as well. Zazzle is the one company that has implemented the Rating system, however.)

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Zazzle Bulk Tools, ProSeller Program And Other Updates

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