Sending emails directly to notice@amazon.com when you found a copyright infringement has been a way to easily contact Amazon about stolen Zazzle designs.
It seems this email address is not working anymore, so PLEASE help me to address this topic with Zazzle by commenting on my forum entry here:
https://forum.zazzle.com/misc/notice_at_amazon_com_for_zazzle_image_report_has
I have been extremely inactive on both Printalloverme (PAOM) and CowCow in over one year and now I would like to make it official: I owe to not add any new designs to these two print-on-demand websites anymore.
The reason is probably pretty understandable: Sales and earnings are not worth it. Period.
While the number of sales on CowCow is still ok (some months I have 20, some months I have 0), the earnings are cents.
On PAOM, I have one sale every few months. Given their really TEDIOUS process of cerating new products, it is simply horrible.
My already designed products will stay online, so will my shops and accounts. I will even try to integrate them into my Polyvore sets where suitable but do not expect new things to arrive.
How are these two sites working for you?
I usually do not share anymore what I have sold on various print-on-demand websites but last night’s Zazzle sales made me happy. Someone is obviously planning a Santa Monica Pier themed birthday party 🙂
Fight against Image Theft on Amazon! #stopimagetheft
Zazzle has started an online survey where you as a Zazzle seller can report counterfeit Amazon Marketplace listings with your stolen designs!
Please help Zazzle providing them the info they need. And please note, that submitting these links to fake products is NOT a substitute for reporting them on Amazon. Zazzle is currently collection information and hopefully plotting a plan to help and support us!
Here is the link to their form:
https://www.research.net/r/KFWJL6Y
Fight against Image Theft on Amazon! #stopimagetheft
So, you would like to help us raise awareness of the problem we independent artist from Zazzle and Society6 have with the Chinese copycats in the Amazon Marketplace? (Read about the issue HERE)
Here is a list of useful links. It includes an online petition and supportive Facebook groups you are free to join. Let’s work on this together 🙂
Please let me know if there are noteworthy links I should add. Thank you!
Fight against Image Theft on Amazon! #stopimagetheft
Image theft on the Amazon Marketplace is a huge deal. Are you a designer selling your artwork or photos on Zazzle and/or Society6? Then it is very likely that your designs have been stolen from mainly Chinese businesses and are sold on Amazon without you getting one cent from it! So far, we do not yet know how these copycats do get our images but it is likely that they only take a screenshot and use this screenshot which will result in very bad printing quality.
On Zazzle, you can add watermarks to your designs which seems to help in most cases, but Society6 does not have watermarks and they do not want to use them in the near future.
In the last few months, many of us have tried to report these copyright infringements to Amazon. Some stolen designs from a store get removed, most won’t be removed since Amazon is not very cooperative and requests more and more proof that this is OUR work we are reporting. Even Zazzle did try to help us by contacting Amazon directly but Zazzle does not hold the rights to our work. Good to know but that’s a bad thing in this case 🙂
And even if a counterfeit product is successfully removed, new products and even sellers pop up almost instantly. It is insane! And when you contact them about what they are doing and that they are stealing your design, they do not even understand the concept of copyright!
So here is a new idea: Did you know that after only one purchase from Amazon.com, you are entitled to review EVERY item listed on their marketplace? Yes, really! Since I am from Germany and have never ordered anything from them I thought I could not review but hey, apparently my free Kindle ebook purchases did count, too. And here is the plan:
Let’s all write very low 1 star reviews on products with our stolen designs. Let’s raise awareness about image theft on Amazon and let’s fight back! All it takes is a comment about the poor printing quality, e.g. like this:
The printing quality will be very bad since the image was stolen! Do NOT buy this item!
And you can rate the other 1 star reviews as helpful 🙂
If you don’t know where to start, please take a look at my Amazon profile where my reviews are all public. I do not only review my own products but also help other designers. Just click through the products, review and rate the other reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2101VVWW4OQ28
You can also leave a link to your Amazon profile as a comment or links to stolen artwork on Amazon. I will visit and review them!
So after I just did what I rarely do (deleted all my works from Live Heroes as I had not even one encouraging sale in my first 6 months), I am now contemplating about giving up on Redbubble. Is selling one pack of stickers worth it? I will definitely not add any more art/photos to my shop. Deleting would be a pain since I have a LOT uploaded and maybe I will reach cashout in a few YEARS… *lol*
With my cute baby girl keeping me busy, I would like to concentrate on POD sites that REALLY pay and are worth my time. Zazzle, Cafepress and Society6 are my top 3 shops at the moment.
What are your thoughts on Redbubble? Are you happy with your sales and earning good money with it?
In case you want to check out my work and hey- maybe even BUY something (wishful thinking) here you go 🙂
http://www.redbubble.com/people/stine1
Fellow Zazzlers have a pretty cool and free forum where we all can chat about print on demand websites like Zazzle, Cafepress, Society6, Live Heroes, Redbubble, Cowcow and all others. You can exchange links, get help with problems and learn a lot about promotion and creating products. Please join 🙂
December 2015 has been my BEST month so far with Cafepress! Due to all the Christmas shopping, I had a total of 26 sales and earned about $45. Woohoo! This is a breakthrough, especially since Zazzle had been disappointing during Christmas season 2015 🙂
Since Cafepress’ embedded code is still not working, I will continue to post screenshot of my sales along with links to my profile page where you can take a look at all designs and products:
January 2016 marked a very busy time in my life. On January 5th, I gave birth to our cute baby girl. She is keeping us busy and limiting my online time. Therefore, I cannot create as many products as I used to. Take Zazzle’s Quick Create issues into account, I concentrated on weeding out my Zazzle store and viewing old products to get them added to the public shop again. By concentrating on this task, I have been able to improve my zRank and my sale amounts. I also reduced my royalty back to 14.9%. During January, I have had 27 successful sales which is better than the months before. Long story short, these are the items I have sold:
