Addicted To Zazzle

One thing you've probably noticed about me is I have plenty of passion! I'm all in or all out...then all in again. So in the last blog I believe I said I was through with Templates, well now templates are back on haha! I have done a bit of problem solving and this mad scientist has a new formula so to speak. I'm now onto making just large square images. I have been able to make them so they fit everything as long as everything is precisely centered and made them into templates so I can keep ploughing on. I have realized I will still need to go back and change the descriptions for each one and a couple of the tags so that Google knows what products I'm talking about, hopefully that will make it easier for people to find my stuff, and again, I will also still need to add more when I pin on pinterest but it's easier just to make what I need in bulk and go back in and change it. There are still some older ones which I need to go back and adjust, I was pretty lazy with m...

Yesterday while chatting with my husband about something entirely different I had this feeling, like it was time to create! It's like an urge or a craving, and no, it wasn't because I was finding the conversation (or my husband) boring or irritating haha! It doesn't come around often, I usually have to search for it and then force it out of hiding, like a raccoon which is in the roof but which is reluctant to come out, but maybe for food. When it does show up I find I'm more intuitive when it comes to shadowing and adding things which sets the rest of my art perfectly with every other aspect, and the works I create come easily and are of the the kind of quality which stands out from the rest of my work. I have also been pinning a lot, mostly other peoples work but some of my own, hopefully by doing both I can get two income streams coming in, but it's early days yet. It would be really nice if they both pan out, I'd still be happy if even one became wildly s...

So today after expressing my feelings about being particularly bogged I managed to find the planks, shoved them under my wheels and free myself from the sand. I ended up focusing on one category in my Beautiful Frames store, which were my Butterfly Ribbon Frame designs. It took me all bloody day to fix the horrors which awaited me, and I think that overwhelmed feeling was my subconscious warning me of things to come by bombarding me with a million other things which could serve as an awesome avoidance tool! And it worked... for 3 whole days. So I have come to yet another conclusion. Quick Create is not for me. I thought it was really the most awesome thing I had EVER come across because I could see my store building and building at a faster rate than I had ever been built before! I had goals to build an empire, but I am now realizing that it is not faster, I still have to go back and fix all the descriptions and that takes just as much time as doing them all one by one. I was toying wi...

The last few days I have been finding it very difficult to do one thing at once and this has been very counter productive. Since Zazzle has announced they are changing the way our products appear in the search I haven't been able to create, I have been going into my stores changing my titles, descriptions and tags and then "ooh look, somethings happening on Pinterest!" I jump on, look at my feed, see who's following me, follow them, see something beautiful and pin it, this seems simple enough but then I realize I have to add my source code and, since a lot of people don't add much else, I realize if it's going to get noticed, ever, I need to add a detailed description in a way in which the potential customer can imagine themselves having this product for themselves and that takes time. Then I worry that I'm not creating, then I think about how I need to make the products I already have in my shop more specific. So I have too much going on in my mind! I am ...

After long lulls in my sales this year, and upon investigating why, the last couple of days have given me a realization about my product rankings and it was clear to me as I was searching for my photo mugs and realizing they had really sunk in the search that what I am doing isn't working as well as I had hoped. So I get my Problem Solving Ninja on and look over the specs. My titles, tags and descriptions are tight as a drum, they all match, my power tags have the right mix of general and descriptive words and phrases, and the Google search tags fill the gaps nicely. I have made products which serve a purpose rather than products which just sit there and look pretty - you can find pretty mugs and house wares in K-mart, Target, Woolworths, The Reject Shop and Red Dot for up to $5 - so what could I be doing wrong? Could it be that my store and the products in it are fairly new so not many people have had a chance to find them and bring them to the top of the search yet? Could they ev...

I have been away for a few days! It has been a busy time as my Mum had lost a dear friend to Mesothelioma and then my step dad went into hospital for extremely high blood pressure that night. It's times like these that you realize you need to spend more time with your family and let them know you love them so much! So I only managed to get one design out, but it is one of my best! I worked on it late into the night for hours, obsessed, I HAD to finish it, then wait for it to upload so I could see what it would look like on a product. The reason why it took so long was because I spent a lot of time trying to find just the right foliage swirls and get them just the right color, the colors had to be coordinated and fit well with the rest of the details, some needed to be more prominent, some were supposed to be there but not be as noticeable, like a nice surprise, something new to be discovered each time you look! The 3D aspects also needed to be just right, but it was worth it as i...

Today I thought I would write about an issue which I am very passionate about, that being mental illness. I have grown up around it as many of my close family members suffer from bipolar disorder and depression, I too have experienced both depression and post-natal depression and let me tell you, it is a battle you can't afford to lose, you must fight to free yourself, and it is an uphill battle, but also one you can most definitely win. I was lucky that, like for most people, medication worked but I must be on my guard, I must keep my diet clean and healthy and I must exercise and get plenty of vitamin D as a precautionary measure. Once you're already depressed these can help but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, at least in my case. So let me show you this piece of art I created back in 2012 to represent the ongoing battle which I have experienced, watched growing up and still see today among friends and family. Good Versus Evil Fairy Wrapped Canvas Can...

I have been working day and night on my Zazzle store for a good four months now with almost no break on any day. Today there is big biz about how Zazzle is changing their product search system. There is confusion but also a lot of problem solving and support between the Zazzle community. So long story short is if your product hasn't ever sold or if it hasn't had a view in 6 months it is no longer going to be in the search, a customer will still be able to see it in your store if they visit and look through. I personally love this idea as most of my products get views, but many people are scared about how this will affect their sales because indexing takes time. So today began the fantastical search for products which had terrible tagging, and boy did I find what I was looking for. This iPad case was the first and the worst. Glowing Glittering White Fairy Glow Strings iPad Mini Covers by AllysDesigns Browse more Fairy Cases at Zazzle It had the title "fairy...

It's been too long since I created something which I considered really beautiful, an art piece, something which deserved to go into my Allys Designs store so yesterday in my last post I told you I was working on something  intimate, magical and dark. This design is all about love, intimacy, seduction and lust, a perfect Valentines Day work of art! So as I added the last finishing touch this morning, zoomed in and looked it over, then zoomed out I had one of those "OMG, it's beautiful, it's genius, it's pure emotion...." moments. So here it is on an iPad case! Two people overcome with passion, love and complete trust for one another as they intertwine. Passion Love Intimacy Sparkles Valentines Day by AllysDesigns Find other Love passion intimacy Cases at zazzle.com Sure! I love making my frames, they serve a purpose in the Zazzle market place which is somewhere nice for a customer to place their favorite photo of their loved ones, and I do finish...

Today I have managed quick create about 600 hundred products and it's all because Zazzle seems to be running well today. Uploads are fast! Quick Create isn't jamming up bad after customizing 30 products! I'm getting quicker and am starting to understand QC a lot better! So today has been a really good day in regards to productivity. I also ran a search of Valentines Day mugs and had a little sneak peak at where they all fall in the pages and every single one is on the first page! I'm super happy!! Now to just get a sale... haha! Yep, still nothing. I'm also working on an art project for Allys Designs instead of making another photo frame, it's all about intimacy and it's going to be magical, dark, and super hot! So I will leave you with a recent design as I always do! Have an awesome day and subscribe away! Purple Butterflies Photo Picture Frame by BeautifulFrames Shop for case for galaxy s5 online at zazzle.com Purple Butt...

Sometimes in Zazzle you come across a product which doesn't go with the picture, and this was one of mine... Pink White Butterflies Photo Picture Frame Rectangular Cheeseboard by BeautifulFrames See another Cheese Board at Zazzle This seems more appropriate...

For those who don't know me very well I must inform you that I am a creature of pleasure and habit so the first thing I do when I wake up is boil the kettle, make myself a coffee, grab my laptop and then go outside for my cigarette. One thing I have not found very pleasurable about my mornings this past week is every time I look at my earnings they HAVE NOT CHANGED. This is strange as before Zazzles Christmas Season I was making at least 4 sales a week if not one or two a day. I'm not sure but it could be because I have been working overtime on my new store and not paying much attention to my art based store called Allys Designs . So balance comes into question, the freshness of one store drops as I'm waiting for the new stores products to crawl up the index leaving a gap in the sales. Or it could be that every ones wallet is recovering after Christmas, or people are buying in the shops because the big sales are on. Whatever is going on right now is the stuff that self dou...

A few days ago I joined a Facebook page for Pro-Zazzlers and it has been really encouraging! Zazzle admittedly has become a huge part of my life and it's nice to meet like minded people who are able to offer some help. We all decided to join forces on Pinterest by sharing a board to help each other out by pinning each others pins, if we all pin the same products we all get a leg up in the searches. I'm not able to pin my products on the board yet, I'm not sure if this is a technical glitch, or if there is a delay time to wait a day or two before you can, or if it's something to do with the board settings but I have made a few boards and have begun pinning anyway until it gets sorted. I'm really excited about the prospect of helping others while gaining a small percentage of the profits, and hopefully getting sales from it too and in turn being able to help someone else make a small profit. I now understand the full meaning of the word networking. I used to liste...

I have been trying something new with my BeautifulFrames  products in the last couple of days, instead of being a lazy ass and writing "Your image or text here" in the frame spaces I have started adding pictures so people can get an idea of what it would look like with an image inside, and damn it looks good! But quick create has been REALLY slow in getting the products into my store, the first lot only came in today, I made them four days ago. It has been a really suspenseful few days as I wait, making more images especially for this new template setup, and because of the delay, let's just say I'm ready to hit the ground running the second they land and I'm SO looking forward to seeing the product counter click over to 3000! So here is the comparison, text vs image. Subscribe to my blog to see what I'm up to next! Pink Black Gingham Hearts Dots Monogram Frame Kindle Keyboard Cases by BeautifulFrames See additional covers for Kindle 3 at zazzle.co...

While creating my designs I always worry that there's something more fancy, I always worry that I'm not on the right track and that I need to add more detail like for example, maybe I should be making more "30th Wedding Anniversary" designs or "Happy Mothers Day" designs or "It's a boy/girl" designs. I like the idea of making products where people can slap a picture of themselves and their best friend, child, wedding day, partner on a product, or even just their name but I'm not sure it's enough just to do that. So in the coming months I'm going to be adding different occasions just to see if things pick up! I also tend to LOVE a design I made, I make it in different colours then by the end of posting them all up for sale I have picked it to pieces, it's a typical perfectionist trait! One day I will be at peace about the decisions I have made in my designing adventure and I know I will get better at what I do as time goes on, bu...

My family and I went away on holiday to Busselton this weekend just gone and it was wonderful! My gorgeous best friend and her husband let us all stay at their home in Capel to help us cut back on costs and that allowed us to see more and travel further. We went to the Apple Fun Park in Donnybrook and then headed over to Meelup for a swim on the Saturday, both were gorgeous locations especially for the kids, and we went swimming at the Busselton Jetty and headed to Simmos for some ice cream and a play on the playground before the long trip back home on Sunday. We collected shells from each place we went to so we can put them in little jars, label them and place them somewhere so we have a little memento of our holiday. As much as we loved our little holiday together it was really nice to get back home and sleep in our own beds, though we all dreamed about our lovely holiday away that night. I am a very early riser so I planned ahead. I packed my laptop into the car and the next morni...