You're here:
How To Start A Zazzle Photography Business
Author: Aysha Iqbal
Are you looking for a way to make money by doing what you truly love? If you enjoy taking pictures and designing your own scrapbook pages, then a small business in photography and design may just be your dream come true. There are many ways you can turn your passion for photography into a profitable business venture. In-home studio photographer, photo journalist, and food photographer are just a few ideas.
Another way of earning a little money with photography is to create products using your photos, and the easiest way to get started is through a print-on-demand service like Zazzle.
Benefits Of A Print-On-Demand Store
A print-on-demand service, like Zazzle, is a great way to start a homebased business because the startup cost is minimal, the shopping cart is free, and there is no need to maintain inventory.
How Zazzle Works
You create designs, per Zazzle's product specifications, using your home computer and software programs like Corel Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. Once your design is complete, you load it to Zazzle's free, online shopping cart and set a price.
When someone purchases a product from your Zazzle store, Zazzle takes payment, creates the product, packages it, and ships it out to the customer. Once the transaction is complete, Zazzle credits your account with a percentage of the sale.
Why Use Zazzle
Again, it's cost-effective. But more importantly, Zazzle makes it really easy for you to create amazing products, like greeting cards, posters, mouse pads, mugs, key chains, binders, and apparels with the simple click of a button. Once the product is created, your time and energy can then be spent on promoting your products.
Here are just a few key selling points:
- When compared to other print-on-demand services, Zazzle is definitely more user-friendly. It is also more flexible when it comes to product creation. You have the ability to personalize text, create fancy borders, increase or decrease the size of the image and position it within the allocated region to create the style you desire.
- Zazzle allows your designs to be customized by your customers. They can add their own personality to your designs by including their own images and/or text.
- Zazzle allows storefronts to be personalized. You can create an aesthetically pleasing storefront through a variety of templates or, by using a little CSS and HTML programming—and all at no additional cost to the store's owner. You can also add your own company’s logo or header to help brand your store.
- Zazzle provides tools to help promote your products. With the click of a button you can create a panel for your blog's sidebar or a flash panel for a post. You can also create links to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and blog directly from the Zazzle website.
- Zazzle allows you to earn referral income, through their affiliate program, from your own products and those of other Zazzle members. How great is it that you can be an affiliate and a store owner at the same time?
Make The Best Of Zazzle
When using your photos to create designs for your Zazzle store, think about your customer first, yourself second. But always stay true to who you are as an artist or creator of photographic works of art.
When designing your products, keep these tips in mind:
Make your images shine.
Take the time to read Zazzle's user guidelines before you create your first image. By adhering to these guidelines, you will ensure that the image you create will look just as good on the product as it does on your computer screen.
A main area to watch out for, when creating image files, is the pixels per inch (PPI) value. This is defined as the number of pixels (or dots) per inch in an image. You want to create an image with at least 300 PPI, not the standard 72 PPI used with most computer-based images.
While the 72 PPI image might look good on the screen, it will appear too grainy and blurred on the actual product. This is because when the image is enlarged on the actual product, the pixels on the 72 PPI image enlarge, thus creating very large pixels and a grainy effect that is simply undesirable. Images with the 300 PPI, however, create sharp bright, crisp images that are both desirable and worthy of your customer's money.Make your design relevant to the product.
Not all designs make sense on all products. An image that looks great on a greeting card, may not work well on apparels or bags. An image that looks good on clothing may not look good on a keychain. Therefore, it is important that you make sure the design you create makes sense on the product you created it for.
A round image, for instance, will not look good on a square magnet. Likewise, an image created for a greeting card will not work for a postcard because the dimensions are all wrong. A postcard is 5.6 x 4.25. A greeting card is 5 x 7. If you attempt to take an image you sized for a greeting card and place it into the postcard template, the image will not fit. Should you attempt to squeeze the image into the postcard template, you will distort the image and produce an unsatisfactory product.Categorize your storefront.
Don't just throw a bunch of images on products and call it a day. It is important that you accurately and appropriately categorize your products. Not only does this make you appear more professional, but it is an effective tool for directing potential customers to desired products.
Break your products up into main categories, then sub-categories. Holidays, for instance, would be considered a main category. But because it's such a broad term, it can then be broken down into several themed sub-categories, like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Those sub-categories can then be broken down into several product themed sub-categories like greeting cards, invitations, magnets, and bags. The key is to make it easy for your customers to find what they are looking for.Establish a niche market.
Establishing a niche is a great way to let potential customers know what they can expect from you—and your store. It is also beneficial from a search engine optimization perspective and makes it easier to market your store. When you have a specific niche to focus on, it's easier to highlight that niche in advertising copy, press releases, and/or articles.
Promote Your Zazzle Store
Once you've created a minimum of ten designs, it's time to promote your store. Do not rely solely upon Zazzle's traffic to sell your products. There are far too many shops for your new shop to get noticed.
It is pointless to create a product and then sit back and wait for orders. You need to let others know it exists. And you can do that through traditional means like advertisements, press releases, and radio spots. Or through online venues like blogging, social media, article marketing, and even forum posts. But your best form of advertising is going to be self-promotion. Promote your products by using them yourself and giving them out as gifts.
Sign Your Designs
Finally, don't let Zazzle get all the credit for your designs. Opt to remove Zazzle's logo and replace it with your own company logo. If you don't have a logo consider something as simple as text that reads. © Your Name, www.yourdomain.com
In the end, your Zazzle store will only be as successful as the time you put into it. The Internet is like an ocean, people will not find you unless you send up a flare. Create quality designs, place those designs on appropriate products, then effectively promote them to ensure the success of your Zazzle store.
And remember, success does not come overnight, but with a little hard work you should start making money from your photographic passion.
* At the time of writing this article, Zazzle is free to join. Zazzle makes its money from the sales of your product line.
Read more on small business ideas
Want to tell us what you think about this article?
Email Us | Tweet Us | Comment on FB
If you found this page helpful... Share it with a friend.