The last week has been really rough for me, culminating in a very disturbing announcement by Zazzle on Thursday, and while it's not exactly a shocking surprise, it will be cutting most of their good designers by a third or more of their income, including me. I am lucky at least in that, while it is certainly a major bummer, I was not yet to the point of paying any bills with my Zazzle income . . . this will just delay the day I can do that by a bit. Many were much harder hit, and left wondering how they will pay mortgages next month.
One thing it has done to me, however, is finally made me listen to the advice of so many other designers who were devastated after being CafePressed back in '08-'09 . . . diversify! Don't keep all your eggs in one basket, or in this case, all your designs in one POD (Print On Demand stores). I liked being able to feel like I could trust Zazzle to take care of its designers, to help me flourish with them . . . but, perhaps, this little wake up call will end up being a benefit to my financial bottom line after all. Zazzle has the best quality and range of products and best customer service of any of the PODs, but there is plenty of market for lower-end products, or niche product lines, too!
As such, I'm working to get my CafePress store in working order again (had some trouble back in December with it getting hacked, and it's been a nightmare trying to get it sorted out), and I've already signed up for two new smaller PODs, and considering several others.
My work can now be found in brand new galleries on Society6 and Skreened! Both of these stores have limited product lines (Society6 is focused on art prints, while Skreened is focused on shirts), but I have heard good things about the quality from each.
