Showing posts with label print on demand comparison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label print on demand comparison. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 May 2015

May stats from Zazzle, Redbubble, Nuvango & Society6

Hello everyone! I am writing this blog post from beautiful New Brunswick, Canada, where I am on a much needed week long vacation. Its a rainy day, so this is a nice time to review what has happened this whole month in my shops! As you know I am tracking my growth on all my print on demand websites over time, and comparing them as a whole. Last month I had my best month so far.. and this month I surpassed it! I think this actually marks 6 months on Zazzle now, so I am very happy to be seeing growth over this amount of time. This month was a pretty exciting month! I was much more active over my social media streams and I did a lot of extra posting to my zazzle store. I was able to post real pictures of a skin I bought in Nuvango, resulting in lots of traffic & reblog from Nuvango on my tumblr. My "Cat to be kitten me" pillow that I bought my sister was used by Redbubble in a "Caturday" instagram contest, which resulted in a lot of traffic (609 likes, a RB sale & new followers & likes on my instagram page). Here is the breakdown for this month!

Society6 Shop

I am starting this post off with my society6 shop, because it is the one with the least to say. :P I haven't been doing much with this shop, I just have a few designs up there. I am not yet in the "marketplace" and that requires a lot of networking. I would rather focus on my other shops for now and start working on this one when my works are browsable through Society6 themselves.

Sales: None
Advertising/Sharing: None - just browsing society6 for now and attempting to break in to the artist community there.
Followers: 21 (5 more than last month)
Total Promotions: 22 (also 5 more than last month)


Nuvango Shop

My Nuvango shop currently has 30 designs on it, so I can only add more when I decide to disable another design from my gallery. Because I like my gallery so far, I am going to leave it as it is for now (unless I make something I think is really stellar, or if another design just isn't getting the same amount of traffic). I will be sharing different products over the next few months however, and staying up to date with other artists work!

Sales: 1
Advertising/Sharing: High amounts of sharing over polyvore and wanelo, some sharing over pinterest and a product review with pictures.
Followers: 32
Most liked design: Still my tri-colour geometric pattern (38 likes)!
My sold design this month... Tri colour fade iPhone 5s skin. :) 



Redbubble Shop

My redbubble shop was sort of depressing for a little while there. It was the second print on demand website I joined, yet my Nuvango shop consistently saw sales while this one stayed quiet. Now I am beginning to see sales, which is really nice. Redbubble has started to add more products along with a "tiling" option to the design process, so I might just update this shop more than I usually do.

Sales: 3
Advertising/Sharing: Small amount of sharing on Wanelo, promoting on instagram in response to RedBubble's instagram post featuring my cat to be kitten me pillow
Most Viewed Design: Glitter Tropical / Retro Pineapples: 1138 Views
Total Views: 12312 Views

My sold items on RedBubble this month:

I sold the pillow to someone else! For a while there, I thought my sister and I were the only people to find this funny. Since it was featured in RedBubbles caturday instagram post, I saw a few sales and noticed this design getting consistent views on my zazzle shop, as well.
Cat to be kitten me pouch, in a lovely light green. This is a new product on RedBubble and these pouches are so nice! I hope whoever bought this posts pictures, I would love to see how they look in person!

This is the second pineapple sticker I have sold on RedBubble. XD It is funny how this design doesn't get much attention on any of my other print on demand websites but is my most popular on RedBubble. This is why I love posting on multiple PODs... some designs appeal to a completely different audience!

Zazzle Shop

Last but not least, my Zazzle Shop! I saw lots of traffic to my shop this month as well as sales - this is my best month on zazzle. I said that last month too! ;) I am seeing a gradual increase of sales over time, which is really nice. Quick Create still is not working well, so I have been manually adding my designs to individual products. I still have not completely caught up adding all the designs I made in April and May, but I should be done by the middle of June. This month I contacted Zazzle about my W-8 BEN form. I FINALLY got a response... and it turns out I forgot to add my middle name to my payment settings, when I had added it to my form. You have to have your name EXACTLY matching on both. Soo I sent in my form again, and this time my payment settings also have my middle name. Lesson: Read everything very carefully or be prepared to wait 5 months + for your zazzle form to be completed.

Sales: 9
Advertising/Sharing: High amount of sharing on Wanelo (50+ items), semi-active amount of sharing on polyvore & pinterest
Page Views: 795
Most Viewed Design: Tropical Summertime Pineapple Fabric (320 Views now!)

My sales from this month:



Siamese Kitten Tote Bag
Siamese Kitten Tote Bag by TanyaDraws
Shop for other tote bags online at zazzle.com






Tasty Summer Watercolour Popsicle Pattern Trivets
I just recently added this design, I sold two of these! :) 

Tasty Summer Watercolour Popsicle Pattern Trivets by TanyaDraws
Look at Popsicle Trivets online at Zazzle.com

In total I made 13 sales over all of my shops - my most in one month ever! :) Since this marks 6 months on Zazzle, I am going to make a month by month comparison of my sales very soon. These posts really encourage me to continue on, and I hope that the stats I provide help encourage others or will atleast make interesting month by month comparisons of the market.

Now, back to my holiday! Have a good week everyone.
-Tanya
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Monday, 4 May 2015

April Stats from Zazzle, Redbubble, Nuvango & Society 6 + new Art of Where Shop

This past week was an extremely busy week, so my monthly stats blog post was delayed by a bit... but not forgotten! :) I am actually outside writing it right now, it is such a gorgeous day. And yes, being outside typing this means my laptop is not plugged in... I got a new battery! Woohoo! Now when I trip the cord, my laptop doesn't die! I really, really love having a working battery. Seriously. Buying that battery is probably one of the best things I have done for myself all year. As for my POD shops, April may have been my best month on zazzle, best or second best, which is fine by me either way. I have recently experienced some creation problems on zazzle, so productivity wasn't a big point for me this month. My patterns are just building up on my computer, waiting for me to have a day where I have tons of free time to work through those problems and just mass create.

Here are my Monthly stats for the month of April, 2015! 


Sales: No Sales
Advertising/Sharing: None, except I joined a great society6 group on Facebook at the end of March dedicated to showcasing and promoting work. I sometimes promote other peoples work, but have only linked to my work a few occasions. I recommend a group like this if you are heavily into society6! That way your work can be seen in the marketplace. 
Followers: 16
Total Promotions: 18
Most promoted item: Decorated hair Girl (13 promotes)

Decorated hair girl on iPhone case.... This is my most popular design ever since I started society6.
At 13 promotes, it is not in the marketplace yet, however.
My society6 shop is sort of my "neglected shop" at this point. It has been put on the back burner, but I occasionally add designs and as always, I'll continue to put my monthly stats here. 



Sales: No Sales
Advertising/Sharing: Small amount of sharing on Wanelo
Most Viewed Design: Glitter Tropical / Retro Pineapples: 1138 Views
Total Views: 11286 Views

Again, not doing much on Redbubble. I think my patterned designs don't do so well here, so I'm going to start adding art that would look best in sticker format. 


Sales: 1
Advertising/Sharing: High amount over pinterest, wanelo & Polyvore.  I joined a Nuvango group on Facebook dedicated to sharing your work and liking other peoples work. Its a great idea to do this, because the more likes & attention you get on Nuvango, the better chances of it being selected on a gallery.
Followers: 28
Most liked design: Tri Colour Geometric Design (34 likes)
Sold this month: Also, my Tri Colour Geometric Design... in Tshirt format!

This is the first shirt that I have sold since starting my POD journey!  Nuvango makes these awesome all over print tshirts. This style of tshirt works really well with my patterns!
I worked on my Nuvango shop a bit this month and I now have 30 designs. So the next time I make a design that I really love, I have to disable a different one from my shop. That is going to be challenging! As you all know by now, I love Nuvango for its simplicity, its products & product previews. I've made only three sales (one for each month I have been on the website), but I have good feelings about Nuvango for sure!


Okay guys, this was a really exciting month for my zazzle shop! After looking at my stats, April was my best month ever. I'm pretty sure my account has reached a pro seller amount of earnings now, the only problem is that my W 8-BEN form has not gone through so I can't actually process my earnings.  I've made 23 sales to date, my products have been featured all over zazzle & even in a fabric promotional blog post this month, and I even added a few designs! I am so excited that my shop is growing.. little by little, but each month has been better than the last!

Sales: 7 (same amount of items as February, but the earnings were larger and some of these purchases were multiples of the same item!)
Advertising/Sharing: High on Pinterest, Wanelo & Polyvore 
Page Views: 507 
Most Viewed Design: Tropical Pineapple Pattern with 277 views

My sales from this month:


Cute Kitten Face Pattern Pins
Cute Kitten Face Pattern Pins by TanyaDraws
Check out more Cute kitten Buttons at Zazzle

Slow Cooker Snail Apron
Slow Cooker Snail Apron by TanyaDraws
Design your own customizable aprons at zazzle.com.





Tropical Summertime Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Fabric
This one was featured via a promotional blog post for Zazzle Fabrics. On top of being my most viewed design, I sold two of these!

Tropical Summertime Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws
Look at Zazzle Fabrics

Now I did join another POD this month, called Art of Where. Click Here to see my shop. They don't seem to have any stats to track, which is a downside of it. They have a lovely selection of wearable items that are handmade in Montreal, Canada which impresses me a lot. Its so hard to find items that are made in Canada! Because of this, and the 25% commission artists make off of the POD shop, I really hope it turns out to be a website I can make sales from... although I have the feeling it gets low traffic. They seem to be primarily for wholesale and drop shipping, but I will add more designs and see where this takes me! If I make any sales (or no sales at all, like this month..) I will post here! 
Here is one of the items from my Art of Where shop, a body con dress in pinkish coral with black flowers! I wish there were different previews of the item to make it easier to share and gain traction on social media. There are also flare dresses, skirts, leggings & scarves here... beautiful selection!

Was April a good month for your POD shops? 

-Tanya 
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Sunday, 4 January 2015

Redbubble VS Zazzle

When I was thinking of joining a print on demand website, I searched for comparisons to find out which to start with, and settled with Zazzle. I later joined Redbubble, and I am glad that I did. Today I am going to share some of the things I have liked and disliked about both these websites thus far, mainly their usability but also how artist friendly they are. I hope my experiences can help you decide where you will start your POD journey. :)

Now before I joined Zazzle, I was quite skeptical about the whole POD selling style. The user agreement, royalty rates and usability were things that I was concerned about. I knew for sure that I wanted to maintain the rights to my own images, to set my own royalty rates and to be able to put my designs on products hassle free.

1. Artist Rights: Do the Terms and Conditions allow you to retain the rights to your work?

The good thing about both Zazzle and Redbubble is that you maintain the rights to your images. The main thing is that you are not giving them exclusive rights to your artwork - you can still sell and use your artwork anywhere else, while also selling it at Redbubble and Zazzle. When you sign up for these websites you grant them the right to print your images on their products, and to use your designs in advertisements if applicable. When you remove your designs from these websites, that terminates the user agreement and Zazzle and Redbubble will not be able to use your designs anymore.

I recommend reading the terms and conditions for any Print on Demand website you sign up for. You always want to make sure you are comfortable with, and know what you are signing up for.

2. What is the default Royalty Rate at Zazzle & Redbubble?

Redbubble and Zazzle both allow you to set your own royalty rates, which is good. Redbubble recommends the default royalty rate of 20% although you can raise and lower the rate accordingly. I opted to do different default prices for different products, depending on what I would personally purchase something in a retail store. On Zazzle you can set your royalty rate anywhere from 5% to 99%, though they recommend that you set your royalty rates to 5% - 14.9%. I've always thought that their recommended rates are rather low, considering they have 40% off sales rather often (which lowers the amount of royalties you get). The important thing is that you can choose your rates, so you can set them to whatever you are comfortable with. Keep in mind that your designs are unique - so if someone really really likes it, they will buy it, regardless of what so-and-so's item is priced at!

3. Usability & Customization

As for usability, both are relatively easy to use, although Zazzle is definitely more tricky than Redbubble. I actually found Redbubble very easy to start up... I am not sure if it is because I tried it after I had learned Zazzle.

Zazzle has a more in depth customization system, and more things to consider when designing. You can either add items individually or you can use quick create. Since quick create often "breaks" and does not give you the full range of products, most people add each item individually. Both of these options allow you to adjust your artwork to your liking, change your background colour, add text, etc. You can even use Templates at Zazzle that allows customers to easily change the text or add their own pictures to products you design. This is especially useful when making invitations, greetings cards and photo gifts.

It did take me quite a long time to get zazzle's customization system figured out, and I am still learning new tricks as time goes by. Zazzle is considerably more time consuming than Redbubble, because of the care it takes in making each product customizable for customers, and because of how in depth you can go in personalizing each product. Not to mention the hundreds of products they have available to design and sell!

Redbubble on the other hand does not allow customers to customize the products, and since there is less you can do with your artwork on a product it takes less time to add your work. The great thing about Redbubble is that you add your artwork first, and it then loads on all of the products available. Here you can resize it, choose placement for each product type by dragging it around on a template, and there is even a tiling option on most products. I do like how easy it is to add things here, and that they group similar products together for an easier creation experience. The products look eye-catching and professional in the preview, which is a nice bonus.

The Verdict 

 As of today I still prefer zazzle, even though it takes me a lot longer to upload products there.
What I like about Zazzle that Redbubble lacks is the customization. I like that I can pair different design elements and template fonts together to create unique designs that people can customize themselves.

Another thing I like about Zazzle is their product selection. They literally have hundreds of products, so you can design on almost anything, from luggage tags to wedding invitations. Redbubble has been adding to their product line, but I do not think they will ever go this crazy in products. On the other hand, Redbubble is simple, easy to market, and clean. Its more art focused, whereas Zazzle is more product focused.

One thing I mentioned previously is that I love the tiling ability Zazzle had on its products. Redbubble now offers this on their products as well, so its a tie in this regard! I love to pattern my illustrations. This is great because if you are creating patterns you can add a single pattern tile (which looks great in product previews) and repeat it to fill the entire space on a product using Zazzle & Redbubbles design tools. This is also helpful because it means you can save smaller files, instead of tiling it yourself and taking up massive amounts of space on your computer with huge patterns.

Right now this is still a hobby with potential for me, so my decision is partially based on how much fun I have creating on each website, and Zazzle wins out in that regard. :) There are things I have been noticing about Redbubble that makes me feel like I will have more success there, but that is something for another post.

Maybe in the future I will add another POD site to the mix, who knows? (I am open to suggestions!)

Do you have any questions about Zazzle or Redbubble? Feel free to ask in the comments below, and to share your Redbubble or Zazzle shop! :)

Updated September 25, 2017 to add new information.

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