How to make money as a Zazzle Affiliate

Just like companies create TV commercials & magazines ads... businesses have sales reps, butchers have spruikers etc... The internet companies require advertising too... only it's done quite differently online. One of the biggest forms of advertising/promotion online is affiliate marketing programs.

Being an affiliate basically means you're advertising/reviewing/sharing/linking wares & sites to possible buyers for other websites & sellers.

Each businesses affiliate terms are different. In the case of zazzle... if someone buys something from your recommendation you get a very good percentage/commission of the sale. Zazzle pays an excellent 15% referral payment (15% of the total of whatever is sold) plus up to an additional 17% volume bonus* for each sale that you refer to Zazzle from your blog, e-mail, or even via offline marketing. *Calculated monthly, Volume Bonuses start once you refer over $100 in sales and can increase your earnings over 30%.

And if a person uses your referral links to zazzle... that referral cookie remains for 45 days! So if the customer comes back to purchase within 45 days you still get the referral!

For full details on zazzle's affiliate terms (including testimonials)... click here {Zazzle's Affiliate Terms}

Also here is more very helpful zazzle reading to get you more familiar with the whole affiliate program including using the star (*) for referrals... ~ PART ONE {SELLER NEWSLETTER - PART ONE} ~ PART TWO {SELLER NEWSLETTER - PART TWO}

Zazzle is an excellent affiliate program that works. I know of some people/businesses that are making an excellent living from just being an affiliate.

The great thing about zazzle is... you don't have to be referring your own designs (although that's definitely an option)... you can refer to anything sold on zazzle.... and zazzle are now the biggest distributor of Print on Demand licensed/branded products in the world! Just a sample of the brands they distribute (that you are able to refer and earn $$ for) are:

Disney,
Star Wars,
DC Comics,
Harry Potter,
Barbie,
South Park,
Nickelodean,
Hallmark,
Hanna Babera,
MTV,
Looney Tunes,
Garfield,
Hot Wheels,
Pink Panther,
Happy Tree Friends,
Casper,
Scooby doo,
Sponge Bob Square Pants,
M&M's,
Mythbusters,
Ansel Adams (the Photographer),
Discovery Channel,
Rod Stewart,
KISS,
Black Eyed Peas,
High School Musical,
Fergie,
Hannah Montana,
George Micheal,
Incubus,
The Who,
ZZ Top,
Woodstock
and so many more!

Not only that... you can refer charities like Breast Cancer Awareness, The Humane Society, National Children's Leukemia Foundation, Peta, Cure Autism Now, CTC International and more!!

And then on top of that... there's the 1000's of talented artists & designers from all over the world that have their own stores!!

You'll never ever be short of a choice of things to promote & earn possible referral $$'s with zazzle that's for sure!

One thing I'm not doing right here is promising a get rich quick scheme like you see so often on the internet! Being an affiliate takes time and comittment to be successful. But if you commit your time and energy you can make it happen! The one thing I can guarantee is that you don't need to put in one cent of your own money to get it started!!

And I believe the trick is to not be spammy. To make advertising and showing other's products for sale as interesting and as less forceful as possible. In between your marketing try and have fun and a social dialogue with others. People will always be more attracted to 'real' people than to a twitter or facebook page that only puts links to selling things. That really is just blatant spamming and most people switch off immediately as soon as they see anything of the kind.

My own analogy of business on the internet is this...

It's like throwing a stone in a pond. The stone is thrown to make a ripple effect and it takes some time for the ripple to reach you. The more pebbles and stones you throw regularly... the more ripples will come back.

So if you have the time, the commitment, the drive and the passion, you can... and definitely will... make money.

So once you're familiar with being an affiliate... there is endless opportunities for other affiliate marketing as well as many other ways to get an income all over the internet.... so you can look at zazzle as a starting point or a stepping stone to more!

1. Firstly... you need to create an account with zazzle which is very easy. Just click on 'My account' in the top right hand side of the zazzle home page to be taken to the sign up page. (Note - before you can be paid though you'll need to fill out your personal details in the 'Account Settings' part of the dashboard in order to be paid monthly via paypal or cheque)

These flags are links to all the different zazzle sites currently available around the world.

2. Once you're signed up click on the 'My Account' tab up in the top right hand corner of the screen. You'll then be taken to the dashboard where you'll see a row of tabs available regarding your zazzle account. The only tabs you'll need to concern yourself with as an associate is the Associates and Earnings tabs! (all the rest are really for sellers).



3. Under the Associates tab you'll see a bunch of information... the most important being your special referral code number! It's this number that is what is going to earn you the $$$.

The 'Associate' page details first on how to create a standard web address that points directly to any zazzle store home page which includes your referral number added.
Example - If say for instance I was creating a standard web adress referral code for my store (my store name is pip_gerard) it would show like this http://www.zazzle.com/pip_gerard?rf=28335672020447096

(Please Note - referral code shown anywhere on this page is my own referral code... you will get a different referral code to use)

You can use this actual website address (eg. http://www.zazzle.com/pip_gerard?rf=28335672020447096) by pasting it in facebook and/or twitter because they are set up to automatically create a blue link for you.

NB - Because you're so limited with the amount of characters to use on twitter I suggest using a html shortener first to bring the link down in size to leave more space to write something.

The html shortener I use all the time is this - Twitter Tiny URL Website

However, if you want a blue clickable text link for your website, squidoo or blog then you need to create a html store text link.

Zazzle have provided an easy way to create them just by clicking on the link you see on the 'Associates' page towards the bottom called 'Store Link'. Click on that and you'll be taken to the Store Link Page (example image below )



4. To create a blue text html link that directs to a stores home page... you need to first get the 'store link' name. The 'store link' name is found in the browser's web address of any store's homepage.
The 'store link' name is not the same (although it sometimes is) as the store name shown on the store's header image (because many sellers have a different store name compared to their web address link name).
Easiest way to find the 'store link' is to go the store that you wish to promote and copy the store name from the web browser address field.

EG. When on my Pip Pip Hooray store homepage I would copy the pip_gerard from http://www.zazzle.com/pip_gerard up in the browser address box .
So basically you copy whatever comes after the / (forward slash) after .com

You then paste that into the box provided. Click on the yellow 'build link' button which will then automatically create the full html code. You would then copy this entire code and paste it in your own squidoo, blog or website html area. When uploaded... this code will show as a blue text link.



5. So this example code (shown below) creates a referral for me to the Disney store. Whatever text comes after > is what will show on the link. So this link will create a single word link (the word being Disney). You can make the link whatever you like. For instance you might want the whole link to be 'Click here to visit the Disney Store'. To do that you just type those words after (>) and before (/a>)

You can easily refer single items from zazzle through to your facebook or twitter accounts.

You can make as many twitter accounts and as many facebook pages depending on the amount of email addresses you have accessible. This way you could perhaps create say a facebook page especially for a certain topic or subject and only market those things.

Make sure you're logged in to your twitter and/or facebook pages that you wish to link to first before you begin.

Then find the item you wish to refer on zazzle. When on the actual product page you'll see very small links to twitter and facebook underneath the main product image.

Click on the twitter link and it will automatically open twitter and create a twitter update with a shortened html code of your referral link details. You can immediately enter the link to your twitter although I find it better to personalize or change the words myself to have a better chance of getting other twitterers attention. Just make sure you leave the shortened html link so people can open it to the product you're advertising.

Click on the facebook link and it will automatically open and create a link to the product. You'll have a choice of many images to use in the link so much sure it's showing the actual product you're referring. Type in something yourself in the update to hopefully get your followers attention and not seem too spammy.

1. Firstly I'll just mention that clicking on the blue 'Email' link below the product image will create simple html text link in your email program (your default email program will open automatically and a new message will be generated with the blue text link included). If you wish to create an image link in your email program I show you how to do that below.



2. To create an image referral link you must click on the blue 'Link' button beneath the product image. Once you've clicked on link it opens another small browser page that will look similar to the one I've shown below.

Once you're there you'll see 3 different options. I've explained each option on the image below.



You'll notice there is another tab at the top called email. This is a handy automatic zazzle tool also for you to email the referred image link to one or as many people as you like. (see the step by step instructions in red below).

Handy to note.. this can also be used in websites and blogs too!

Unfortunately using the zazzle module in squidoo does not include referral codes so you must create them yourself.

Fortunately a zazzle member has created an automatic program to create them easily for you!! It's a fabulous program so make sure to visit him to show your thanks if you end up using it.

You can find the program here http://j32design.com/zazzle-to-squidoo/#jumphere

And it couldn't be easier!

So have the program page open on one browser page, Zazzle open on another and then open your Squidoo page on another. You can put html links into pretty much all of Squidoo's modules but the main one to use would be a simple Text module.

Make sure you're logged in to zazzle. Find the store, subject, products that you wish to share on squidoo.

Open one of the product pages. Highlight and copy the product id code as shown below.



Then just do the following!