Zazzle is known for its use of templates and easy personalization. As designers we are expected to provide templates that are ready to use. I believe that our products posted for sale should nearly always offer at least one template.
I have worked in association with Zazzle since 2007. At that time in my life I barely knew how to upload something, much less create a template. Heck, I didn’t even know what that was!
So, I have come a long way and learned a lot. And one important thing I learned early on was how to make a template. Zazzle has also changed a lot, and now we have very advanced templates – such as photos and photo blocks – compared to back then. Everything is easy now to center and make more perfect.
My Oldest Zazzle Designs
This is a bit embarrassing, but here are some of the first things I made. Many first items have been deleted because they were just so awful. For some reason these are still around.
To begin my Zazzle journey I upload photos of things around the house – like my little dog Rolly. I also began to draw more and eventually I figured out how to add my art to my shop. The cupcake with #1 candle was an early illustrated image.
My text sizing was off, like in that “baby girl” greeting card – it was huge! I had very large text inside the card too – and none of the text was in template form! I still managed to sell 30 cards over the years. I chalk that up to the fact that it was “art” and also the nice message inside. But, 30 sales in 18 years is pretty pathetic!
Zazzle Offers The Best Customization – I looked Around
Zazzle falls short in some areas, which I won’t go into here, but when it comes to customization, they are the top POD company – IMO. Many designers also agree with that. After they made all their recent changes, that takes 40% of our royalty amount now (Grrrrr), I got ticked off and decided to try another POD.
For most of the first part of 2026 I set up a Shopify store, created products at Printify and Gelato and began to learn new things about how to sell through them.
I am not a techy person at all. Printify and Gelato provide the products, but the sales have to come through another outlet – like Shopify or Etsy. I do not have an Etsy account – except for personal shopping – but a lot of POD creators use it to sell POD products. This is completely different from Zazzle. As the designer YOU handle payments, problems, and returns.
What I discovered first hand is that although Printify wants me to make products that can be customized with text, to do so is not straightforward. I got fed up with the difficulty and quit the whole thing before I even made a single sale.
I also wanted to integrate Zazzle items into my Shopify account, but couldn’t do it. All Zazzle items came up as “sold out” because they couldn’t be linked the right way – this was because Zazzle is not integrated with Shopify.
Let me say that I was very impressed with Shopify. I truly wish Zazzle would change and let us promote on such a platform. Shopify’s AI was a huge help to me when it came to navigating and setting up my site. And, Shopify does not begin charging (except for $1.00 a month) for three months! I wanted to shift everything to that place, but it didn’t work out. I had already sunk nearly 20 years of time into Zazzle, so I returned.
Adding Zazzle to My Blog
Now I am back to updating and posting for sale at Zazzle. They are simply the easiest for designing, and the best for customer personalization. Where else can you create a custom, multi-photo blanket gift like this!
Maybe by having a Zazzle section on this blog, some other designers will chime in with helpful suggestions and selling advice. I think most of us can use support at this point. It’s why I have wanted to find a way to keep Zazzle posts separate from my boating and camping posts.
Create Templates on Every Product
Text templates can be deleted by the customer if they don’t want to use it / them. Provide them anyway. It will help your product. I’m not sure how, but Zazzle does want to sell custom items and customers who know about Zazzle know they provide custom items.
I’d be willing to bet that most things you sell are customizable. Unless the product is going to really look bad with a monogram or name or text, add a place for it.
Make Message Templates They May Keep
I’ve found that including a message inside a greeting card helps it to sell better. Create a heartfelt message – maybe one you would like to receive – and make it a template. The customer can then decide to keep it, change it, or remove the wording. Often a customer doesn’t know what to say, so think it up for them. Make the effort. It is better than saying, “Your message here”. I think customers like to see your vision for the item. Go the extra step – it may earn you a few bucks.
People Love Themselves
People are in love with sharing selfies, making videos of how they do things, and showing off proud images of their big families. Tap into that. Provide templates that include a family name, a “date established”, a monogram – single initial or three letters. Belonging to your “tribe” is big. Think about that when you create a product and customize the template accordingly.
Families are Big
When Zazzle began offering Christmas tree skirts I made many that had beach and sea themes. But, until I added curved text across the front – with a family name as an example – I didn’t sell many.
*Making templates is not enough – you must promote the items as well.
Also, create items that work well for gift gifing, especially for the holiday season. But all items tend to sell year round, although maybe not as often. I usually sell Christmas items long into the new year.
Use AI For Ideas
I do not use AI to create my designs. My products in all of my stores contain photos or art. Some clipart may have been created with the help of AI, I purchased some clipart from Etsy, so I’m not sure. I do use AI for help with tags, descriptions, and message ideas. Occasionally, I create an AI image to use as a mockup.
Some designers sell AI created products, and to each his own. I like making authentic designs, and have recently dug out my old iPad to create hand-drawn, seamless patterns. It was another new avenue for learning! It was my newest shop that was born away from Zazzle but now lives in a new Zazzle shop named Sabal and Soil.
Photo Templates Are Easier Now
Ever since phones began to give us the ability to take loads of photos, everyone loves to share them. Therefore many products you create should have photo templates. If it makes sense, add some photo templates.
Text template are easy to do, but photo templates are also easy now with Zazzle’s new grouped photo frames in the “elements” section of the design tool.
New Templates Vs. Old
Card on Left: The orange Happy Thanksgiving cards, I had to make each photo template myself and figure out the spacing, which was very time consuming.
Card on Right: Used a 4-photo ready-made template. We now have better options for making multi-photo cards. Filling these photo templates to sell took me seconds.
Please Chime In
In closing I would suggest that if you design for Zazzle you become familiar with all types of templates available for us to use. Label them and go back and double check that the templates show and work.
I have recently found that I have some trouble with my text templates NOT showing correctly – they are made as templates but don’t show for a customer. The new design tool makes it much harder to double check our templates. We basically have to post items for sale and then try them out. It’s not good, IMO, but it’s what we have at the present time.
If you design for Zazzle, or even if you don’t, I’d love to hear your opinions. Thanks for reading.
