I am the author of 30+ books, 200+ short stories, & 2,000+ articles, I am also an artist, painter, photographer, fashion designer, doll maker, psychic, card reader, hoodoo rootworker aka a witch doctor, feral cat rescuer, faerie channeler & contactee, 5 time NaNoWriMo winner, 2 time Script Frenzy winner, Script Frenzy ML for Southern Maine, CosPlayer, huge fan of Liberace and Sesshomaru, was born a Scottish Traveler and Princess of The Royal Highland Clan, am also a Kickapoo Princess, vegetarian animal rights activist, and the original outspoken Proctor and Gamble Boycotter.
I am referred to by locals as "The Sea Witch of Old Orchard Beach, Maine", with most people being scared shitless of me and living in mortal terror that I'll cast some Gypsy Curse their way.
I became "officially" homeless on May 9, 2006 after a flood.
I started life living in a 1964 Dodge. The family had a farm, but as Travelers, did not stay there. In the 1970s we settled down, escaping weekly for drives across New England, unable to become accustomed to a non-mobile house. The 1980s-1990s saw members leave and take on "normal" homes. I remained on the farm. In 2006 a flood took the tiny cabin. I spent the next 3 years under a 8x6 tarp, before moving into a Volvo. Now I am saving up for an RV. I was born a Scottish Gypsy and this is my life.
A common question I get from people is to ask how it is I am able to work full time online and not have a "real" job besides. Seeing how Zazzle is my #1 source of income, I will tell you how it is I make money here, and maybe it'll help you to do the same thing.
I can't tell you how other people do it, but I can tell you what I do and maybe it'll help you out and give you some ideas.
I was here 3 years before I saw a single sale. Today I have 24 stores and am earning $200 to $600 a month (at 30% earnings, so my monthly sales are 70% higher than that). But it took a long time for me to reach that level - this is my 7th year. All of my art is 100% my own drawings, paintings, and photography, of which there are about 5,000 images uploaded across all of my stores and while most of my stores are small with less than 8,000 items each, one of my stores carries over 100,000 items for sale.
When I started out Twitter and FaceBook had not been invented and Google was laughed at as a joke, no one actually used it. Today these three are sending me a lot of traffic, HOWEVER, they are not driving my sales. I get almost no sales from people searching and browsing on Zazzle's web site.
Most of my sales come from my having built 200+ web sites, each on a different topic, and than illustrating the pages using the images of my art, via Zazzle associate product links. I than when on to create 500+ Squidoo Lenses, using this same method. I also write for over 30 different blogs and illustrate my blog posts with my art via Zazzle links.
Also, and this is important: ~~~ ALL ITEMS IN ALL OF MY SHOPS CAN BE CUSTOMIZED BY YOU ! ~~~
My designs come in a variety of styles for you to choose from, but don't let that stop you from using your own creativity to express your unique personality. That's right! EVERYTHING in this shop is customizable! Simply click the CUSTOMIZE IT link on the product page and move design elements around to explore what will look best on you! You can add your own text or images, change colors, add new backgrounds, change product sizes, styles, colors, and shapes. The possibilities are endless!
Yeah. That helps a lot. I get more sales because I allow people to customize my products. On average 2 out of every 3 sales is customized by the buyer, so if you want to increase sales, make sure you set your shop to allow buyers to customize items!
Also, I don't just promote my own products on my web sites and blogs and Squidoo lenses, I also promote other peoples shops as well, which usually results in them in turn promoting my shop. It's a win-win for both of us that way as we both end up with more referral sales. Which brings me to another thing: I have my account set up to allow referrals and I'm an associate/affiliate seller as well, which means every time some one refers my products I get bonus commissions on top of my standard commissions AND every time I promote someone else's products and some one buys that product off of my blog, I get a commission from the sale even though it was not my own product. So I'm making money via Zazzle by taking full advantage of every money making option they offer up to us.
I'm an author first and artist later, having written 30+ books, 200+ short stories, and 2,000+ articles, all of which I have slowly been converting over to my web sites. So people are coming to my sites to read what I write, but than clicking on the images of my paintings and being sent to my Zazzle stores where they can than buy my paintings on products. In the end, it is this that is bringing me a steady stream of monthly sales across all 24 of my Zazzle stores, and I am online 6 to 8 hours a day 4 days a week doing this as my full time job.
This is my full time career. I work from my Volvo and and saving up for an RV. So when people ask me how I do it: I write, I draw, I paint. I put my art on Zazzle, than I put my writing online and use my Zazzle to illustrate my articles. I get paid by the places I write for and I get paid by Zazzle because people read my articles than buy the paintings I used to illustrate them. It's A LOT of work. Like I said: I am online 8 hours a day 4 days a week to do this. A few months back I was in the hospital. No new articles went online for 3 months. Those 3 months I did not have a single sale here on Zazzle. That proved to me big time, just how dependent my sales are on me being online every single day.
So, that's what I do, what about every one else?
