Elke Clarke

Now what do I do?

It’s a question that many new designers on Zazzle ask as they are starting their journey.

While we cannot guarantee the income you will earn through selling on Zazzle, we have discovered through our years of experience which skills and practices have been more successful than others on this platform.

One successful skill is to learn the Zazzle design tool effectively.

One of the amazing benefits of selling on Zazzle is the Zazzle design tool.

It is like Photoshop, but free for Zazzle sellers!

Zazzle is all about customization and uniqueness, and this tool facilitates that.

It allows you to create designs and templates that the customer can use and create their own design using your initial design template.

This provides additional revenue for you while the customer is creating their own version from your base product design.

Being able to use the design tool effectively allows you to harness that potential and make the most out of the platform.

So it is a very important skill to develop.

To learn about more skills to utilize as you start out on Zazzle, tune in to episode 65 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

If you have just started out on Zazzle, you may be wondering what to do first.

It can be confusing searching for help and advice in the Zazzle forums when you don’t already know what to look for and what to ask.

You might encounter others on the platform that will tell you that it is incredibly difficult to sell products online and rare to make money from your Zazzle storefront.

However, we are here to debunk that myth.

While we cannot guarantee the income you will earn through selling on Zazzle, we have discovered through our years of experience which skills and practices have been more successful than others on this platform.

One successful skill is to avoid overwhelm by specializing in one niche first.

To do this, focus on delivering intentional products within that one niche that you have researched and created designs that will serve that customer.

Once you start selling in that niche, you can use the same design and modify it to serve customers in a different niche.

For example a business card design could be used on a product for school or in the motivational niche.

This allows you to scale easily and efficiently, in a way that doesn’t require extra work or force you to start from scratch with every product.

Plus, this is an amazing way to gain momentum in sales by zeroing in on a niche, which will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or ready to throw in the towel on your Zazzle business.

To learn about more skills to utilize as you start out on Zazzle, tune in to episode 65 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

There is no one answer for the number of products you need to have in your store for success on Zazzle.

That number depends on so many different variables.

One of these major variables is whether or not you are providing what your customer actually wants.

Once you have an understanding of that, ask yourself how you can deliver that product or experience.

This may require shedding your “artist ego”.

Sure, you may create art that people love.

But that does not mean you can solely rely on the Zazzle marketplace to drive your sales.

Chances are, you will need to drive traffic from external sources as well.

Zazzle customers are usually looking for something unique and different.

This requires you to speak their language in terms of how they would find your product.

You can do this by using SEO and other tools to effectively tag products so that your customers can easily locate them.

To learn about other factors related to your product creation volume, tune in to episode 64 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

There are so many areas of opportunity for making money on Zazzle.

Reaching those possibilities does not rely on the number of products you need to create.

Other factors are more important.

For example, you can create demand for your products in nontraditional ways that can bump up your sales and visibility in the market.

One way to do this is through promotion.

Once you have assigned an effective SEO strategy for your products with their titles and tags, you will be ready to promote your products effectively.

When you promote something that you know is intentional and your products are set up properly, this will give them the best chance to be searched and found.

You can promote your products on external sites, such as Pinterest or Instagram.

These promotions will drive new audiences to your product pages and likely convert to more sales. (We can't make income statements. We can encourage you to promote your products.)

To find out more factors related to how many products you need to create, tune in to episode 64 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

September is staring off well with $205.60 referrals earned in the first 3 days. DM me if you want to know how and I get these all the time

What’s the magic number of products that you need on Zazzle to start making sales and earn an income?

The answer to this question is more complex than just a straightforward number.

The secret to this is most likely not the number that you expect.

You first need to analyze several factors.

A major tip for deciphering the right product number and making sales is to define your niche and your ideal avatar.

“What do you mean by that?” you may be wondering.

Well, you need to know the person you’re serving as a customer.

If you do not have a clear idea of who you want to attract to your store, how can you know what they want and how much money they are willing to pay for that product or experience?

Furthermore, it is important to understand the volume of people that are willing to browse your products, let alone buy them.

Gaining insight into their preferences surrounding these products can help you make them more appealing.

What materials do they like?

What designs?

What mediums do they want to buy your designs on?

When you figure out what your customer wants and you conduct the market research, you can then decipher a much clearer picture of what amount and types of products are needed to captivate your customer.

(We can't make income statements regarding your sales. We can tell you to consider your customer in relation to your products.)

To find out more factors related to how many products you need to create, tune in to episode 64 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Before you even begin selling on your Zazzle store, decide on your brand.

When you do this you want to set up your brand in a way that allows for expansion once you develop your abilities on the Zazzle marketplace.

That means that you don’t want to box yourself into one product.

Instead, target a broad audience to get the volume of sales that you want.

It’s helpful to be open to suggestions as to what you should offer in the Zazzle marketplace, as you may encounter some ideas you have not considered yet.

When deciding on your brand, you’ll also want to choose a name that is generic but helpful, as well as one that does not infringe on someone else’s copyright.

Even if your branding is somewhat generic to allow for expansion, it should still be memorable to and resonate with your customers.

Zazzle has many opportunities that you can tap into so keep that in mind as you design your brand.

Be broad to account for possible future expansion of your business.

This ensures you won’t waste time going back to rebrand down the road.

To find out the other key tips that you should know BEFORE opening your Zazzle store, tune in to episode 63 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

It’s easy to assume that selling on Zazzle is a piece of cake and that it can be a quick way to make extra income.

However, failing to put in the work prior to opening your Zazzle store can result in frustration and disappointment.

Through our selling experience, we have learned so much about what truly drives sales on Zazzle and how to profit on the platform. (We can't make income statements. We can tell you what we've learned from our experience.)

To help you avoid frustration and disappointment, here is a key Zazzle Selling tip that will help you on your Zazzle journey to success.

Before you open your Zazzle store, know your customer.

You will need to know who you’re going to serve from a customer standpoint.

On the Zazzle platform, you won’t have direct interaction with your customers.

This is because Zazzle (conveniently) takes care of everything in terms of fulfillment, customer service, and billing.

But even with that being true, you still need to know your ideal customer and how to best serve them.

If you don’t do that, you won’t make sales, which defeats your reason for being on this platform in the first place!

You need to understand who your customer is.

What is their age range?

What type of products are they looking for on Zazzle?

How can you fulfill their needs?

Start doing this before you have even opened your store.

To find out the other key tips that you should know BEFORE opening your Zazzle store, tune in to episode 63 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Because Zazzle can be viewed as “a business in a box”, many people have the mentality that they can just hop on and sell on a whim, allowing them a big piece of the profit pie.

However, without taking the right steps and understanding what you need to succeed, there will be a lot of frustration and disappointment.

There are major things that you MUST do before you begin your selling journey on Zazzle.

Action #1: Do Your Research

There’s so much to know about Zazzle, and it’s important to do your research before you begin selling on the platform.

Here are some important Zazzle selling tips you need to know about Zazzle to understand and make decisions about how to set up your Zazzle store:

There are 16 million views per month on the Zazzle site – while this is not as high of a number as sites like Amazon, those that visit Zazzle are more targeted and dedicated shoppers

The average time spent on Zazzle is three seconds – this is a very short amount of time, which means you have to make your product thumbnail very visible, clear, and desirable

82% of Zazzle customers are from the U.S. – this is another important fact to help you understand your target audience

This research gives you a great starting point as you research Zazzle and begin understanding your target audience and how they interact with the platform.

To find out the other major actions you should take BEFORE opening your Zazzle store, tune in to episode 63 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

*All statistics are as of the recording of this podcast

Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) could be the right choice for your business.

It was for Christine Factora, a top-selling Zazzle ProDesigner, who has reached well over $230K in lifetime earnings on Zazzle.

How can you find a VA?

Christine hired her VA through the site Fiverr.

There are also other similar sites that can assist in your search for a business VA.

For instance, the site Upwork is similar to Fiverr.

Facebook groups specific to VAs are another free option to find an assistant that fits your business’s needs.

Christine knew that she wanted to have a long term relationship with this individual.

She also realized that she would have to put some time and effort into figuring out if the person she connected with on Fiverr was the right one for her business.

To start, she was able to see this individual’s skills showcased via their portfolio.

Initially Christine had the VA begin doing a smaller task for three months as a trial and training period.

Once they realized they really clicked, the contract was extended to a full year.

It definitely takes some time and effort to work with a VA in a way that truly benefits your business.

You need to be specific with this individual on what they are responsible for, what their deliverables are, and when the deliverables are due.

To learn more about working with a virtual assistant, tune in to episode 62 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Hiring a VA or virtual assistant could be what you need to help scale your business.

It’s something that has helped Christine Factora, a top-selling Zazzle ProDesigner, who has reached well over $230K in lifetime earnings on Zazzle.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who can be assigned to any tasks within your business that anyone can do, not just you.

This person does not have to handle solely administrative tasks.

In Christine’s case, the VA she is using handles her promotion and social media.

Based on our Zazzle business teaching and coaching, Christine knows how important promotion is to scaling her business.

This is not her strongest skill set and she knew that it could be handled by someone else with her direction and oversight.

For Christine, hiring a VA for these tasks was a great business decision.

To find out Christine’s advice about finding and working with a virtual assistant, tune in to episode 62 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Would you like to know a major business tip from Christine Factora, a top-selling Zazzle ProDesigner?

Something that has helped her scale her business and saved her valuable time?

It’s hiring a VA or virtual assistant.

Christine has seen huge success on Zazzle.

She was on the platform for 2 years on her own before she started working with Jen and in 2018.

In 2020 alone, despite the effects of the pandemic, she sold over a million dollars worth of Zazzle products – that means she was paid out over $100K by Zazzle in 2020.

As mentioned above, our coaching has helped her to scale her business successfully.

Hiring a VA has also assisted in this undertaking, as Christine was able to delegate some of the rote tasks so she could focus on the things that add more value to her Zazzle business.

Using a VA effectively has allowed her to focus on revenue-driven tasks, instead of the other tasks required, like promotion, that don’t necessarily need to be completed by Christine herself.

To find out Christine’s advice about finding and working with a virtual assistant, tune in to episode 62 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Teaching your young adult about online business is an opportunity to help them learn responsibility and goal setting.

Elke encouraged me (Jen) to start an online business through Zazzle because she knew it would help teach me responsibility and how to use my own creativity as opposed to only looking at the numbers side of things.

The life experiences that your young adult gains can contribute to their life tremendously.

Another benefit is that running an online business means that their earning potential isn’t limited to a minimum wage job.

As a young person, their job options aren’t always very profitable.

But with an online business, they have the potential to generate wealth at levels that aren’t possible with physical work. (We can't make income statements. We can tell you that you'll be giving them an opportunity that they may never have considered.)

To find out more about the benefits of teaching your young adult about online business, tune in to episode 61 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

If you have a young adult in your life who is trying to figure out their career path, starting an online business could give them clarity.

When I (Jen) was at university, I didn’t quite know what my path was.

I thought that I would get some kind of validation from picking a business major.

But mostly, I felt a lot of pressure and didn’t totally know why I was pursuing a traditional education.

Eventually, I dropped out and took time to learn from Elke.

She taught me the benefits of starting an online business through Zazzle and I was able to apply some of the skills that I’d learned at university while also getting to use my creative side as well.

After starting my online business, I saw the benefits immediately.

A lot of my friends were exhausted from working physical jobs for an hourly wage while trying to stay on top of their studies.

Because my business was online, I wasn’t as exhausted and had time to take care of myself and my workload.

Elke gave me the tools to start my Zazzle business at a young age, and it’s still working for me today.

Tune in to episode 61 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast to find out more about the benefits of teaching your young adult about online business.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

You’re in the process of building your business.

Have you considered teaching these skills to a young adult in your life?

When I (Jen) was 18, my mother, Elke, helped me create my online business using Zazzle.

Running my own online business helped open up possibilities for me that I had never imagined.

At face value, running an online business makes a lot of sense.

I had the freedom of location, freedom of financial time, and freedom of creativity.

Along with this, running an online business has even more benefits.

The life experiences that you gain can contribute to your life tremendously.

While many young adults are internet savvy, they may not realize that they can start a business online by using skills they already have.

They might not realize the world of opportunity that is available to them, since it’s not taught in schools.

If you’re someone who has children that are at the age where they can start learning about entrepreneurship, it’s time to start.

In episode 61 of our podcast, I (Jen) walk you through my journey as a young adult entrepreneur and how I got started.

Tune in to episode 61 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast to find out the benefits of teaching your young adult about online business.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

Have confidence in your capacity to create your business and build it to success.

You need to believe that you are able to do this.

It’s easy to get frustrated early on in your process.

A lot of people start their business and don’t make as much money as they were anticipating.

They immediately panic, and decide to quit.

Before they became our coaching clients, people took one specific action, did not see the results they wanted right away and got frustrated.

It’s a very natural reaction to back away or feel defeated. That will hold you back.

It doesn’t mean that you are not doing the right thing.

It just means that you have to do something differently or follow a different strategy.

Being an entrepreneur requires you to own your outcome, and make the decisions and take action steps that will get you what you want. (We can't make income statements for your business. We can tell you that you need to believe in your own capacity to succeed.)

It’s easy to let mindset roadblocks get in the way of your designing a business that you love and being your own boss.

Don’t let these barriers stop you from being the best entrepreneur you can be.

To find out about the other mindset roadblocks that can hold you back from being an entrepreneur, tune into episode 60 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.

There are thoughts and ideas that can hold you back from becoming an entrepreneur.

One of them is that being an entrepreneur isn’t really a “thing”.

The mentality is that you can’t be an entrepreneur if you don’t have the proper business degree.

Even at business school, you’re trained to work for someone else.

Being an entrepreneur is usually viewed as a risk, and many people don’t even consider the possibility of being their own boss.

While having some training and coaching along the way can help speed up your achieving your goal, you don’t need a business degree or college or university degree to be a successful entrepreneur.

The barriers today to starting your own business are far less than they used to be.

The reality is, your success depends on your passion, willingness to learn, and taking action.

To find out about the other roadblocks that can hold you back from being an entrepreneur, tune into episode 60 of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast.🎙

Comment PODCAST EPISODE to this post and we will provide you with the link to the episode.