The site is organized to allow consumers to create products, purchase products and photos by others, offer your own products creations and photos to others for contributor royalties, and advertise Zazzle for a kickback. The site does not, however, focus on storage or sharing albums.
Sharing products in the Creative Commons is the name of the Zazzle game. Members can view various galleries with professionally designed products or products made by creative consumers. Non-pro contributors can open galleries and sell their creations for up to 17% of the sale. Zazzle can be very useful for groups and for amateur artists.
If you are a digital imaging rookie, you may want to check out the glossary for descriptions of general features found on photo and video sites, and for some insight into basic industry terms.
[#Unique#]
Contributor accounts let members display their creations for the public to purchase.
Special Collections are filled with professionally designed items, including various products with branded graphics, like sports logos, movies, cartoon characters and products by professional photographers and artists.
One special feature that you won’t find elsewhere is the Library of Congress collection that includes unique image categories like vintage baseball images, historic events, geographical locations and more.
Receive royalties for stuff you create.
[#Membership#]
The options available to Zazzle members are diverse. There are three types of accounts. A basic account lets you create products for your own use. Contributor accounts allow you to open a gallery to display your products and earn up to 17% of any sales made. If you would like to partner with Zazzle and advertise their site, an associate accounts earns 7% for referrals.
[#Drawbacks#]
Many of the images are only available on one type of product, like a shirt or a mug.
This is not a typical storing and sharing site.
[#Uploading#]
Only 10 uploads are allowed simultaneously. After uploading, a title and description must be entered for each picture individually. Generally, the site is used for creation of merchandise only, so there is really no need to upload more than 10 photos at once.
Upload Speed*
Very
Fast
Fast
Average
Slow
*Under
upload speed, modem is a T1 modem.
[#Storage#]
Zazzle allows you to sort photos by date or name, but there is no advanced organization or album sharing.
[#Products#]
Zazzle is all about products. Create with your photos and stock, branded images. Contributors can add the completed product to a gallery where others can purchase it. The contributor earns royalties up to 17% and can add images to public or private galleries.
[#Prints#]
Images are available in the media that the creator chooses. Some offer their prints of images, others offer only products. If an image is available for print, the smallest size is 11” x 16.5” all the way through 78” x 52”. Prints are on card stock or poster paper, not photo paper.
[#Sharing#]
Products are shared through personal galleries. Photos are not shared via any other method.
[#Privacy#]
Photos and products are shared with the Zazzle community in public galleries. You can tag items private as well. Double check privacy settings for photos and items with personal material.
A rating system is encouraged for flagging adult content or anything not suitable for children. It is, however, used at the contributor’s discretion.
[#SiteNavigation#]
Clear text guides users through all steps of product creation. The site is user friendly, but options are limited.
