Is that a Profile in your pocket?

Zazzle Profile Cards!

Get your creative juices flowing with the release of Zazzle Profile Cards!

• Free 2-sided printing
• Free full color printing
• Free image uploads
• 3 card sizes
• 11 types of card stock
• Thousands of card templates
• Hundreds of font styles
• Save with bulk orders
• Ships in 24 hours

Start designing your profile cards»

Or choose from one of many templates!»

Skinny >(1in. x 3in.) $6.95 for 20 cards – As low as $2.00 in bulk

Business (2in. x 3.5in.) $16.95 for 100 cards -As low as $4.52 in bulk

Chubby (2.5in. x 3.5in.) $18.95 for 100 cards – As low as $5.05 in bulk

Barack Obama T-shirts!

Looking for a way to support Barack Obama?
Well then…

Get Your Barack On!

Available on over 250+ different styles.
Mens,Womens, Kids, Toddlers & Infants
Some sizes up to 6XL!!!

How to post products for sale

Turn your ideas into high-quality products and avoid the cost and challenges of maintaining your own inventory, while providing a safe & secure shopping experience for your guests. And remember, nearly all products ship within 24 hours*.

Best of all, it’s free!!

Here’s how you get started:

1. Create Products!

Select a product type and starting designing! Download one of our Guide Files to help you create great designs.

2. Put your products in the marketplace

When you’re done designing, click “Post for sale”, and follow the steps to put your product on sale. Make sure to use a description, tags, and proper categorization so buyers can find your products.

3. Promote your products

Don’t forget to use the promotion tools that Zazzle has created (as well as your own ideas) to spread awareness. Check out the promotion tools. Read more in the Zazzle forums

4. Set up a gallery on Zazzle to show all of your products.

Learn about the gallery features

Create-a-Zazzle-Product API

Step 1: Setup your account on Zazzle.com

Sign Up and become an Associate to earn with the API

In order to create products via the Zazzle Create-a-Product API, you will need to set up your account:

1. Create a Zazzle user account. Go here and register for an account.

2. Set up your “Associate” account on Zazzle. Go to here and create your associate account. This will give you a Zazzle “Associate ID” which you will use for referral tracking.

3. Create “product templates”. Product templates define the design that you will complete with dynamic images and text passed in through the API. See Step 2 “Creating product templates” for more information.

4. Submit all domain names where images will be downloaded by Zazzle for your use of the API.
Images can only be downloaded from authorized domains that you specify.

Step 2: Creating product templates

Placeholders allow for dynamic images and text via API links

A product template is a special kind of product that contains images and text designed by you, the API user, as well as “placeholders” for images and text that get dynamically replaced through the API. Images that you pass via the API will be downloaded from the URL you specify. With your template, you specify the layout of the design as well as the style and color of the product. Once a template has been processed by the API, the user can still customize their product further including modifying the design and choosing different styles, colors, and sizes.

Your template may contain:

• A border or frame or any design on the product. Borders and frames can be added using transparent PNGs.
• Placeholders for dynamic images which get passed via the API – dynamic images are automatically sized to fill the area occupied by the placeholder images
• Placeholders for dynamic text which get passed via the API – font, color, and size are all specified as part of the template. Dynamic text is positioned so that its center falls on the center of the original placeholder text.
• Any additional images, logos, and text which complete the design

For example, if you run a pet photo site, you can create a t-shirt with your company’s logo on the back of the shirt, and a placeholder for the user’s pet image on the front with a border. When the user clicks through the “Create-a-product API”, they will have a t-shirt with their photo on the front within a border, and your logo on the back.

Alternatively, you can create a link to an entire category of products, which would allow your users to see their photo or design on as many products as you wish. Continuing the above pet photo example, the create-a-category link API would allow the customer to see their pet’s photo on several different shirts, mugs, hats, bags, etc. with just a single link to Zazzle.

Templates can be made for any Zazzle products including t-shirts, mugs, cards, and postage (posters and prints coming soon).

Creating a product template

Designing a product template is just as easy as designing a product on Zazzle using the Zazzle Design Tools. Click here to create a template.

When you create a product template, you will be designing a full product on Zazzle and will create and “tag” the placeholders for images and text that will be dynamically replaced via the API when linking over.

If you are going to create a link to a whole category of products, be sure to use the same tags on your placeholder text and placeholder images across all the template products you create in that category.

Zazzle will gladly help you set up your first templates. Please contact devsupport@zazzle.com or click here for step by step instructions.

Step 3: Generating the Create-a-Product Linkover URL

In the end a simple, powerful link to your customized product.

Once you have set up your account and created one or more product template, you are ready to go!

First you must decide if you wish to create a link to a single product or create a link to an entire category of products. If you wish to link to a single product, follow Step 3b (link to anchor at step 3b) below. If you wish to link to a category of products, follow Step 3a.

Step 3a:Generating the Create-a-Category Linkover URL

To generate your link, you can use the Create-a-Category Link Builder.

1. First your must select the category of products you wish to link to by clicking the “select category” button.

2. Then choose whether you will allow customers to further customize your designs by checking the allow editing checkbox.

If you choose to allow editing, you have the choice of editing being done directly on the page (i.e. “Inline”) or in a pop-up dialog box (i.e. “Dialog”). If you choose Inline, then a tabbed navigation interface will appear on your category landing page which allows users to navigate categories of your products and modify the template information via the Personalize tab. If you choose “Dialog” then navigation will not appear on the page and a Personalize button will appear to open the modification dialog. For most uses, Dialog is recommended, however for products like Profile Cards where you want your customers to enter their own information, you may wish to use the Inline option for easier editing.

3. Next determine whether you want the product sub-titles to display on the category link landing page by checking that “display short descriptions” checkbox.

4. Enter a “Go Back” URL and link name. This is usually your web site’s URL and name, so customers can get back to your site.

5. Choose whether users should be taken to the Product Page or the Design Tool when they select a product on the category landing page.

6. Click Generate Link to create the link.

The URL generated will look like the following:

http://www.zazzle.com/api/create?at=328583162388361096&ax=DesignBlast&cg=196245694376705754&ed=true&ds=true&

continueUrl=http%3A//www.zazzle.com/test&rut=Go%20back%20to%20test%27s%20gallery&fwd=ProductPage&coverimage=

Generate link creates the URL for you with the following parameters:

?at — your associate id.

&cg — the id of the category to which you are linking (set in step 1 above)

&ed — true or false for whether users can customize products (set in step 2 above.)

&ds — true or false for whether short descriptions are displayed (set in step 3 above)

&continue URL — the URL for your site (set in step 4 above)

&rut — Title of your URL (set in step 4 above)

&fwd — ProductPage or DesignTool (set in step 5 above)

&eds — Show in inline or dialog mode

Additionally, the Create-a-Category Link Builder will add any field names specified in your templates as new parameters.

In the above example, the tag for the placeholder images was [ Cover Image ] so the parameter name in the URL is &coverimage. There could be multiple placeholder parameters for both images and text. You will fill in the text and images on your web site and pass them to Zazzle via the API link.

For text fields, the text is specified as URL-encoded text.

For example:

• If your field name in the template is [name], and you want to specify the name Josh, then in the query string it will look like: &name=Josh
• If your field name in the template is [songtitle], and you want to specify the song title “Gimme More” then in the query string it will look like: &songtitle=Gimme%20More.

For image fields, the image is specified as a URL to the original image. You do not need to URL encode the URL

For example:

• If your field name in the template is [coverimage], and you want to specify the main image http://www.blah.com/image1.jpg , then in the query string it will look like:

&mainimage=http://www.blah.com/image1.jpgNote: images should meet Zazzle’s image guidelines

Step 3b: Generating the Create-a-Product Linkover URL

Once you have set up your account and created a product template, you are ready to go!

To generate your product link, you can use the Create-a-Product Link Builder which will put the following information in the link:

• Associate ID – your associate ID for referral tracking. The Create-a-Product Link Builder will retrieve this ID for you
• Product template ID – the ID of the product you will be using with the API. See below to find your product ID
• Field names – all field names for the product template that you will be using with the API

Your product ID can be found on the Product page for your product template. If you need to locate your product, go here and click “Manage my gallery” on the left side.

URL Parameters

The Create-a-Product API URL will always have the following base: http://www.zazzle.com/api/create

You can use the Create-a-Product Link Builder or create the URLs yourself. We recommend using the Create-a-Product Link Builder first as an example if you intend to generate the URLs yourself.

The Create-a-Product Link Builder will append the following required parameters:

• ?at – your associate ID (example: at=238710477930300964)
• &pd – the product template ID (example: pd=168981312161515872)

Additionally, the Create-a-Product Link Builder will add any field names specified in your template as new parameters:

For text fields, the text is specified as URL-encoded text.

For example:

• If your field name in the template is [name], and you want to specify the name Josh, then in the query string it will look like: &name=Josh
• If your field name in the template is [songtitle], and you want to specify the song title “Oops I did it again” then in the query string it will look like: &songtitle=Oops%20I%20did%20it%20again

For image fields, the image is specified as a URL to the original image. The Create-a-Product Link Builder will URL-encode the entire URL.

For example:

* If your field name in the template is [mainimage], and you want to specify the main image http://www.blah.com/image1.jpg , then in the query string it will look like:

&mainimage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blah.com%2Fimage1.jpg

Note: images should meet Zazzle’s image guidelines.

Overall Example

Once you have completed the Create-a-Product Link Builder, your URL should look something like the following:

http://www.zazzle.com/api/create?at=238710477930300964&pd=168981312161515872&n ame=Josh&songtitle=Oops%20I%20did%20it%20again&mainimage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blah .com%2Fimage1.jpg

You’re Done: Referrals and Reporting

For each sale generated by the Create-a-Product API, you will receive your selected product royalty plus the 7% associate referral fee received for every qualified sale (10% royalty fee plus 7% referral fee). “Net revenues” for postage products exclude the face value of the postage. Additionally, if a customer purchases any other product on Zazzle within 45 days after being referred through the API you will receive 7% of those sales. Please note that these rates may be subject to change in the future.

You will be able to track the number of linkovers and the number of sales of each product template using Zazzle’s robust reporting tools.

You can track the number of links by day here.

This will show you the number of links you received each day, and You can track the number of times each of your product templates is used and purchased here.

To track your total earnings, go here.

How to create Product Templates

Steps for designing your template:

Start designing as you would for any Zazzle product:

1. Go here and choose “create” for the product you would like to
   create (t-shirts and apparel, mugs and drinkware, custom postage, and cards.) please note that
   posters and prints are not currently supported through the create-a-product API.
2. Dismiss the “Get Started” dialog by clicking the close button in the upper right. Do not add an
   image or text via the “Get Started” dialog. Instead, add your images and text using the “Upload
   New Image…”, “Add from My Images…”, or “Add Text” buttons that appear in the “Customize It!”
   tab.



3. Create the full design of your product including images, text, and logos. Feel free to design on all
   sides of the product and use the full design area.
4. Add any placeholder images to your product , and use the “move up/move down” buttons (arrows
   in the upper-right corner of the design pods) to move the placeholders into the right place. If you
   are using transparent frames/borders, make sure to place the “placeholder image” beneath the
   frame/border. This is where the images will appear when passed through the API. You can put
   placeholders anywhere on the product, and on any side.
5. Add placeholder text to your product and set the font, size, and color as you want it to appear.
6. Continue designing your product adding any additional images and text to complete the design.
   Now that you’ve created a product design, you now need to turn your design into a “template”.
7. Label the placeholder image and text objects so that you can specify them via the Create-a-
   Product API.
   • Find each image that you want to be a placeholder image for the user. Click once on the
     title of the image’s pod to open the pod. Then, double-click on the title.
   • When you double-click on the title, you should see this prompt:

   

   • Choose a name for your placeholder object. This can be any text. We recommend
     something descriptive since you will use this field name as part of the API. We also
     recommend that you use one word, no spaces, and no special characters.
   • In the prompt, enter the name you have chosen inside square brackets. So, for example,
     if you chose the name “petImage”, you would enter “[petImage]” inside this prompt. The
     square brackets tell the API that the design object is a special placeholder and not one of
     the fixed objects in your design. When you click OK, your field name will now show in the
     title of the pod.
   • Repeat this process for all placeholder objects that you want to be dynamically replaced
     through the API. You can have up to 10 of these placeholders in a product template.

Now you should be done with designing your product template!!

8. Click “Post for Sale” to post the product to the public gallery. This is necessary to ensure that your
   product can be used with the API. When given the option, make sure to specify that the product is
   Customizable, otherwise the API won’t be able to dynamically modify it.
9. Add any and all descriptions and tags to your product template.
10. Finish the Post for Sale Steps, including setting up your contributor gallery, and you’re all done.

When you have finished publishing your product, please keep careful note of the Product ID. You will need this information when creating links to use the
API.

Cool tips!

• If your API involves images, try creating borders and frames to outline images that will be passed in via the API.
• For transparent areas of your image, you will need to use PNG images with transparency (24-
  bit or 32-bit PNGs with alpha channel transparency). Partial alpha transparency and gradients are
  supported too.

Make $$$ on Facebook

How to add the Zazzle Merch Store on Facebook:

1. Head over to Facebook and click the”Add to Profile” button in the upper right corner of the Merch Store app page.
2. Once the application is installed, you will be on the app “settings” page. At the bottom of the page is the list of Zazzle artists whose products you’re displaying on your profile. Enter your Zazzle username to have your products display. You can add or remove Zazzle artists at any time.
3. Enter your Zazzle username and password to receive your associate referral. That’s it! (Learn about the Associates Program)

Add the Merch Store App to your Facbook page:
http://apps.facebook.com/merchstore/

You can view an example installation of the Merch Store App on the Zazzle profile page we recently created on Facebook.

Promoting yourself on Facebook

1. Share your products and store with friends in two-clicks from the “Make Money” tab in the application. When they add the application, your products will be displayed to their friends and they will have your merch store listed in their favorites! (Maximum of 20 invites to friends per day)
2. Create a “posted” item for your friends to see. From the “Your Store” tab in the application, click the “Share” button (screenshot to the right) and type a fun comment like “Check out the Merch Store I made” or “I created these products! or “Here are some of my favorite artists” and click the “Post” button.
3. Encourage your friends to join Facebook and install the application. The more visibility for the products you’ve created, the better!

P.S. Zazzle now has a profile on Facebook. Show your support by becoming a fan and we’ll send you updates on new features.

$$$, ???, !!! & Zazzle

Do you have a Zazzle store? Do you want to make money and learn about everything there is to know about Zazzle. If so you might want to stick around. I plan on dumping everything that I know about Zazzle into this blog. You will find tips, tricks & even updates. I plan on working tutorials as well as best practice seller strategies. I am always available for questions, please feel free to send me a message!

Zazzlr