New Greeting Cards On Zazzle

The Gondolas on the canals of Venice (Italy) are associated with many things but especially for tourists - with romance.

I have found a source of photographs on Flickr where the photographer has graciously given all rights to use his images freely. If only more would do that, but I guess we all have to try and protect our art. But I have used a few of these images to create new greeting cards. I will still use my own - but nice to be able to do something different.

Here are a couple from Venice:

Venitian canals blank inside greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
Find more Venice Cards at Zazzle

Venitian Gondolas blank inside greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
View more Venice Cards at zazzle.com

I also liked a series of images from this source, of decorated masks. I decided to use a couple of these as well, hope you like them:-

Masquerade blank inside greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
Create a card designs on Zazzle

And there was a simple image of a red candle burning in a wreath - very christmassy, so I used this as well - never too early for christmas :)

Christmas candle blank inside greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
Shop for a different greeting card template online at zazzle

Well there we are, nice to use your own images - and I do, paintings, collages and photos - but nice to be able to use a few from a different perspective. My thanks to gnuckx from Flickr

Writers do it with a pen

OK so it is only one day since my last post but I am on a run (LOL).

I actually wanted to create a tee for myself with a specific design. I created a few designs on the basis of this approach some time ago - never really been successful except for the ones I bought, but I have just started wwriting my first novel and I wanted a Tee to celebrate. This line drawing was found on Wiki Commons and was in the public domain so I thought, "this ones for me".

Writers do it with a pen (quill) tee shirt by artyfax
Browse Writer T-Shirts

This one of course, was added just in case any lady writers were interested. 

writers do it with a pen tee shirt by artyfax
Create your own tshirt online at Zazzle.

And if you think that I am telling porkies, here I am in a few of my previous purchases. They really are great products from Zazzle, a little expensive perhaps but you get what you pay for. And don't say that you didn't know that.

"ROCK ON"

Guitarists do it with their fingers

(my wife thinks this has a double meaning)

not terribly clear, but this is one of my abstracts

(on the shirt that is)

Treat yourself, lots more designs in my store just click on oone of the top two tee-shirts and browse.

Floral mugs, large chrysanthemum images

This week I offer a group of mugs which have three large chrysanthemum blooms set in an overlapping pattern around the sides of the mug.

Red chrysanthemum mug by ArtyfaxProducts
View other Blooms Mugs at Zazzle.com

Yellow chrysanthemum mug by ArtyfaxProducts
Find additional mug online at Zazzle.

Blue chrysanthemum mug by ArtyfaxProducts
Check out Flowers Mugs online at zazzle

The original photograph was a bunch of flowers,

I extracted the centre bloom. Because of the purple flower at bottom centre I had to take a copy of part of the yellow flower, rotate it to match and then paste to a layer underneath the original extracted image. Sound complicated - no of course not, I have described extracting images in an article on squidoo.

I then saved as a dot PNG image to retain the transparent background and recoloured the yellow image to a dark red and then a soft blue. Nothing like offering a choice?

Selling On Zazzle (3)

Firstly, I am simply going to quote from an article which you may well find useful if you have - or are thinking of opening - a Zazzle Store. This is the authors own synopsis.

What Every Artist Ought to Know About Zazzle (Part Two)

Zazzle has many benefits for the aspiring artist and a great reputation especially for a print on demand company, but any business model has drawbacks.  This article will highlight the ones I have found to be the most bothersome.  You can make a full time income with Zazzle and work from home, but you need to be prepared and discover all you can from others like me who have earned royalties.

I have also written an article on Squidoo which attempts to record some of my early experiences on Zazzle, it also has a number of references which you maay find useful.

And don't forget that Zazzle also has a forum which is very well worth reading and of course you can post your own queries in the relevant threads.

I intend to live forever Tee shirt by artyfax
Use Zazzle for photo t shirt printing.

Make Art Not War Ladies t-shirt by artyfax
Get a custom made tshirt.

Devil In Disguise ladies' t-shirt by artyfax
Make your own t shirt design at Zazzle

More on selling at Zazzle soon, I hope to start getting a little more down and dirty soon but my own experience is nothing to shout about and there is so much froth around. Still perseverence is the name of the game and with billions of potential items competing for attention it is very much a numbers game. TTFN

What Sells Best On Zazzle - 2 ?

Following on from my last post, I have found a page on Zazzle itself which offers 8 tips to help answer this question. A few of these are:-

1. Best Sellers: a selection of products which are selling well
2. Most wished for: products which zazzlers/customers have favorited most
3. Todays best: similar to #1 but more current
4. Trending: what looks as if it might be about to surface
5. Top searches: what are people looking for

#4 and #5 look very similar but are on different pages. The other two are about how to select a niche and find inspiration for new products.

Because of the success (two sales) of a particular tee-shirt, I have decided to design more with simply text and no images. I have tried to be innovative not always successful and here are some examples.

STILL 21 Ladies t-shirt by artyfax
View Humour T-Shirts online at zazzle

I make mistakes men's t-shirt by artyfax
Browse other Humour T-Shirts

Still got lots more research to do, will get back to you with any positive results - promise 

How Can I Find What Sells On Zazzle?

This is a question which I have asked myself ever since opening my first store. The idea at that time was that I would be able to offer images of my paintings and make a little cash on top of any that I made by selling the painting itself. This has not proved the case and in fact have made few sales of products carrying images of my art, paintings or otherwise. The majority of sales have been with very different images.

A few photographs mine and those from public domain sources, and vintage images on cards have been my biggest selling items. I have sold a few larger (and more expensive) item such as apparel but they seem to be those with humerous text messages. I need to do a rethink and create a new strategy and simply ask myself if it is worth my while to carry on with a time consuming task, i.e. designing products for sale, when there is little reward.

I have been checking on google to see if anyone has found the secret, but if so they certainly haven't passed it on. Oh there are some simple tips but no more than confirms my own findings. For example, a blog post titled, What Every Artist Ought to Know About Zazzle (Part Two) includes tips for selling on the site. It starts:-

Zazzle has many benefits for the aspiring artist and a great reputation especially for a print on demand company, but any business model has drawbacks.  This article will highlight the ones I have found to be the most bothersome.  You can make a full time income with Zazzle and work from home, but you need to be prepared and discover all you can from others like me who have earned royalties.

 A couple of my latest sellers have a touch of deja vuabout them (see the last post for the explanation).

Another card with a hubble photograph:-

helix nebula birthday card by ArtyfaxCards
Create unique personalized photo note cards from zazzle.com.

and another sale of this twice lucky tee;

Genius In disguise Tee-Shirt by artyfax
See more Humour T-Shirts

I will be repoting more on this research in the next post, but I am thinking that I should carry on with my art for my own benefit as I do get lots of praise for the designs - just no sales! I should be adding more text-based humour on apparel and use photos and suchlike for cards and other products. More next time ....