June Stats from Zazzle, Redbubble & Nuvango

Hey guys, this month has been quite an unproductive month for me on the zazzle front... yet again! But for an unfortunate reason. As many of you may know, I have put my Zazzle shop on hold while I wait to see what is going to be happening with my W-8 BEN form. 7 months on Zazzle, and still no payment has been processed. Not to mention they declared there are new rules with the IRS that states international designers have to get an ITIN number to be able to receive their full pay. Without this number, they will be "withholding" 30% of our payment for tax reasons. That would be fine and dandy if it is a real rule, but the official IRS W-8 BEN instructions state that the ITIN is only used if an individual DOES NOT supply a foreign TIN number. Everyone who works in their own country has their own foreign tax number, and therefore supplying it on the W-8 BEN form is sufficient enough for the IRS. It is terribly bad practice to withhold income for tax when people are supplying perfectly fine identification numbers that are accepted by the IRS! The designers are waiting to see what will happen, hopefully Zazzle will re-read  the instructions and begin to accept what the IRS has already stated they will accept.

It does not look good though. This fiasco has been going on for nearly 3 weeks - which means that for 3 weeks, I have put all designing on zazzle on hold. I refuse to create more things for a company that is going to take away 30% of my income because they are too lazy to read through the whole W-8 BEN instructions. I might not delete my shop if they decide to take 30% of my earnings, but I will most certainly be forced to raise my royalty rate to make up for the profit I will be losing. On the other hand, if they do decide to honour the IRS W-8 BEN rules and they FINALLY accept my form as proper, it will be like starting on zazzle all over again for me, because I will have SO MUCH to upload and so much work to do on my shop. I have been adding daily patterns and designs to my RedBubble shop in the mean time, so there is that.

Sorry for the wall of text, this whole ordeal is very frustrating. I have been waiting over half a year with no pay, and then there is this. All of my work promoting and selling is for nothing if all I did was make one company richer, and I never see any payment for my art (which btw has been featured on their front page this month... I would usually be happy about that but now I am not).

On the bright side. The Canadian dollar is doing really bad, so the longer my money sits, the more Canadian dollars I get in the end... LOL.

Now this is after all my monthly comparison of my sales & stats, so I will get to it! You will notice that I did not include my Society6 in this update. That is because I have decided society6 won't work for me until I get a new computer. I make some pretty high quality patterns, but my computer literally can't handle making 6000px x 6000px + designs, they take over 10 minutes to save. Its bad. So I can't take advantage of the wide variety of products they have there, and so I will put it on hold until I can afford a new computer.

Nuvango Shop

Last month I reached the max designs on my Nuvango shop... So not much activity on this front! I am looking at maybe revamping some of it, getting rid of old patterns and adding new ones eventually. They added leggings this month though, and it seems only certain designers can put their art on leggings and I am not one of them. So while my art was featured in the old galleries, it is not featured here... leading me to a sloooow dead month on Nuvango.

Sales: 0 (so sad.. I was getting a sale each month and now back to 0)
Advertising/Sharing: None
Followers: 38 (6 more than last month)
Most liked Design: Tri-Colour Geometric Pattern (41 Likes!)

Nuvango also added Tank Tops! Here is a womens tank top
in my pattern. I really like it and I want one. These colours are
very summery and light! It would look fab tucked in to a pair of
high waisted shorts. 

Redbubble Shop

My RedBubble shop has started to take off! May I saw three sales, mostly thanks to a bit of extra exposure courtesy of redbubble sharing my sisters Cat to be Kitten me right meow pillow on Instagram AND Facebook! There will be more exciting news about that particular pillow, so keep an eye out for it! ;) I have also been promoting my redbubble shop more, and adding all of my new designs to redbubble instead of Zazzle. It does not see the same amount of sales that Zazzle does, but as they add more and more products to design on, I am confident redbubble will be huge.

Sales: 3

Advertising/Sharing: Small amount of sharing on Wanelo due to a glitch, small amount of sharing on Pinterest because I don't use pinterest much. Every design I upload I pin 1 product to Wanelo, and two + to pinterest.

Most Viewed Design: Glitter Tropical / Retro Pineapples: 1593 Views

Total Views: 14415 Views

My sold items on RedBubble this month:

A cat to be kitten me pillow sold! :) I am thinking of making it in different colours soon!
People seem to really like it in the turquoise but maybe pink and lime green would be popular too.

A cat to be kitten me right meow sticker! Now someone out there is going
to have a very adorable and punny laptop back.
Or notebook, or whereverelse people put these stickers!

A White and grey Lily of the Valley Floral Pattern mug! This is the first
mug that I have sold on Redbubble! 

Zazzle Shop

My Zazzle shop was the real test this month. How much action does it see when I do not add more designs and I do not promote it? The answer is less than last month... but not by much shockingly. It did surprisingly OKAY this month. This month, out of all months, my Popsicle Tote Bag (it says "Be cool"... its pretty cute) has been featured on the front page of the US Zazzle shop for atleast a week and a half for the subheading "tasty summer totes". So that is the most exposure I have gotten this month, as I wait for my form to be processed before resuming work!

Sales: 7
Advertising/Sharing: None, though my tote bag is on the front page of Zazzle.
Page Views: 1044
Most Viewed Design: Tropical Summertime Pineapple Fabric (386 Views now!)

My sales from this month:

I sold 25 of these this month! I had never sold letterheads before.  This is a pretty
cute design for children or a daycare. 

Polkadot Pastel Sheep Custom Letterhead by TanyaDraws
Check out other Little black hearts Letterhead at zazzle.com

1 roll of wrapping paper! :) This design is definitely my most popular...
and it is so tropical and pretty, perfect for summer!

Tropical Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Gift Wrap by TanyaDraws
Look at another wrapping paper at zazzle.com

Sold 3 of this watercolour pineapple fabric! :) Really happy that people like it.
A friend from the states told me he saw someone wearing this pattern, so
it really excites me that someone out there is making dresses out of it!

Tropical Summertime Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws
View more Fabric at Zazzle

My very first air freshener sale! These are a really great idea. This
is actually the first time I have sold this wreath design too, I think!
It is a great autumn feel pattern, and it looks wonderful on the creamy
white background. 

Illustrated Flower & Laurel Wreath by TanyaDraws
Check out another Air Freshener

A personalized fox and hearts keychain! The fox looks like
it is walking on a little cloud. :)

Cute Red Fox and Hearts Keychains by TanyaDraws
Make your own photo key rings.

With all the excitement over gay marriage finally being legalized in the states,
I sold 5 of these lovely rainbow chevron heart stickers! :) It definitely
is a great sticker for the occasion. 

Rainbow and Textured Chevron Pattern Heart Sticker by TanyaDraws
Browse more Faded rainbow Stickers

Last but not least, I sold a flask! I am super excited to have finally
sold a flask, especially one of my most favourite flasks that I have designed!
Someone will be super summery at parties with this!

Tropical Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Flask by TanyaDraws
Browse more hip flasks at zazzle.com

Well that is all for my monthly roundup! This month, in total from all my shops I saw 10 sales, but many multiple item sales! Less than last month, but not so shabby for way less advertising and sharing. A big thank you to all my customers over my shops. I hope you are enjoying your gifts, and if you ever have any requests feel free to reach out to me! 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

- Tanya

A general update

Hi guys, I know I haven't been posting here lately! I went on a lovely vacation, got back, and now I have tons of stuff to do. I haven't forgotten about this blog, I promise! I have been working with my boyfriend at his marketing company, and we just launched a website & lookbook for a client of his ( I even wrote their first blog post & made lots of graphics for them!) It was really exciting, but beyond that, my regular work hours, upcoming freelance work & recent family events, I haven't had much time for my print on demand hobby, or new patterns! :( I really am itching to make a new pattern, as this month's birth flower is the red rose, and I love making my monthly floral pattern.

Another reason I have not been posting much is that I am hesitant of promoting my Zazzle shop more, as my W-8 BEN form still has not been processed, 6 months after initially submitting one. Now there are new IRS updates and Zazzle is saying that international sellers require an ITIN number on their W-8 BEN form to prevent the IRS from withholding 30% of your earnings. Getting an ITIN number is pretty much impossible for me, as I don't have the required identification to get one. I don't even get taxed 30% in Canada, and I have no intention of giving another government 30% of my income, so if this is indeed a new rule I may be closing shop at Zazzle and finding a new POD to act as my main shop. I will be sad if I have to do that, I had so many plans for Zazzle! I do have hope though, as the actual w-8 ben form instructions state that the ITIN number is only used if you cannot provide a foreign tax number. I have one of those, so if I can provide that on my W-8 BEN and not get taxed I will do that! But in the end it all depends on whether Zazzle will accept foreign tax numbers on the forms, because they are the ones who are saying we need an ITIN number. I haven't had much time to think about this whole process, and since submitting forms on 3 separate occasions I think it is best for me to just wait it out and see what zazzle decides in the end, rather than starting the form process over all over again.

For anyone else who is an international seller like I am, I will keep an eye out for any updates and post when I find out what is really official.
The post about ITIN from Zazzle:
https://forum.zazzle.com/news/action_required_international_designer_payment
The W-8 BEN form instructions: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8.pdf (see page 5 for information saying that you can provide your foreign tax number.)

Other than that, I did start an infographic about my Zazzle shop's sales over time, since it has been 6 months on zazzle for me. I think it is quite interesting to see my progress on Zazzle over time, and if I do stick to Zazzle it would be a neat way to see how it is growing, when my slow months are and what countries are buying from my shop. I will be posting it this month!

In the absence of my Zazzle shop, I will be promoting my Redbubble shop for now. ;) Did you know redbubble has new items? Check out drawstring backpacks and notebooks! They also have pencil skirts!

Drawstring backpack: $35. My old watercolour hearts design goes great on black!
I love how these bags look.

Spiral Notebook: $15. Same heart design. I will feature more designs later!
If you get a white gel pen, you can easily write your name in fancy lettering near the hearts.
Or get a black permanent marker and add your name inside a heart! :) 

I hope everyone is having a fantastic June, I will post soon!