A funny card design with a surprised-looking cartoon puffer-fish. The words say :"I've stopped thinking.....it's just not one of my strengths!"Inside is a message you can change that says "I saw this card and thought of you!"The puffer-fish design is repeated inside, under the message.more items with funny puffer fish sayingsmore items in the Just Fun series #stopped #thinking #humor #funny #sayings #pfstpth #hrbstslr #surprised #blowfish #fun #pufferfish #shocked #balloonfish #funny #fish #cartoon #globefish #humour #joke #bubblefish #swellfish #toadfish #toadies #honey #toads #sugar #toads #sea #squabs #puffer #fish #hrfuni #amusing #bemused #blow #fish #clean
All about my Zazzle and Society6 journey, including graphics design hints and tips, effective promotional tools and showcasing some great products from me and other storekeepers.
Friday, 28 November 2014
Thursday, 27 November 2014
Scottish Tartan Plaid, black and tan checks Throw Pillow
Featured Product!
A gorgeous design. Click to customize and personalize. Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it?
tagged with: tartan patterns, scottish tartans, scottish style plaid, irish style tartan, check pattern, black and tans, tan checks, hrplcsh, hrfptraz
Plaid series This design features a Scottish tartan-style plaid pattern in black and tans.
more plaid / tartan-style items
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!
Motivational Words #2 positive encouragement Post Cards
A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?
tagged with: motivational words,, motivation,, motivating,, positive thinking,, encouragement,, positive outlook,, positive attitude,, values,, hrbstslr mowds2,, wordart
Motivational Words series Give some positivity! Here's a great design using motivational word-art. Each time you look at them, you should get a subtle positive boost!!
more items featuring these motivational words
more items in the Motivational Words series
image code: mowds2
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
tagged with: motivational words,, motivation,, motivating,, positive thinking,, encouragement,, positive outlook,, positive attitude,, values,, hrbstslr mowds2,, wordart
Motivational Words series Give some positivity! Here's a great design using motivational word-art. Each time you look at them, you should get a subtle positive boost!!
more items featuring these motivational words
more items in the Motivational Words series
image code: mowds2
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Cute Corgi Puppy Card
Cute Alert!
How can you resist this cute puppy design? Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it? Click to customize and personalize...
tagged with: cute corgi puppy card, corgi card, pembroke corgi, welsh corgi, corgi puppy, corgi, dog card, puppy card, cute puppies
Cute Corgi Puppy Card
»visit the Lawlzorz store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Carina Nebula in Argo Navis constellation Canvas Prints
Featured Product!
A gorgeous design. Click to customize and personalize. Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it?
tagged with: stretch frame, carina nebula, argos navis constellation, carina the keel, star formation, galaxies and stars, gas clouds, ngc 3372, hrbstslr carnebngcttst, hrfptraz wallart
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Hubble's view of the Carina Nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born. The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina the Keel (of the old southern constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, from Greek mythology).
The original image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of ionized hydrogen. Colour information was added with data taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.
more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series
image code: carnebngcttst
Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope; colour data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!
Cute ponies for the bedroom and school
Black Cartoon Shetland Pony Love Hearts Stretched Canvas Print | Brown Pinto Cartoon Shetland Pony MacBook Air Sleeves | Blue Roan Cartoon Shetland Pony Courier Bags
Cute ponies for the bedroom and school
If you know a boy or girl who loves ponies then here's a collection that should give you some gift ideas.Any boy or girl will love them - some for bedroom and some for school. Which of these would be best?
Click the image for more details and to buy. You'll also see more designs from the artist there.
Man Vs. Machine: Get Better Sales by Keeping Marketing Automation Human
Blogging with purpose
original post »
Image via Flickr user Peyri Herrera
This is a guest contribution from Veronica Taylor.
Marketing automation without a human element is just a robot on autopilot. Before, during and after each automated campaign it is essential for real people to plan, edit and review. When campaigns aren’t working, they need to be tested and updated. Most people think of marketing automation as efficient yet impersonal. When used correctly, however, most automated marketing solutions now provide the possibility for highly targeted messages based on each customer’s personal interests, preferences and history. Here are a few tips for making your automated campaigns efficient and dynamic while also building stronger connections with your customers.
Have a Specific Goal
For each campaign you create, it is essential to know what you are trying to accomplish. Are you seeking more new signups? Trying to get leads to download your whitepaper? Simply raising awareness about your business or an upcoming event? If you have automated messages going out to customers but you don’t have a clear idea of what results you are trying to measure, you will not know if the campaign was successful. You won’t know which messages were effective and which ones need to be changed. If you are not measuring the response to your messages, you are not listening to your customers. The automated campaign will continue to run robotically, with no edits or improvements. Know what you are trying to achieve. If it’s not working, update it.
Survey and Track Customers
The best way to give marketing automation a personal touch is to use it to its full potential. Marketing automation now has the capability to track and store each individual customer’s preferences, history, important dates, interests, personal information and much more. With this wealth of data, it is possible to automatically create highly personally targeted campaigns for each customer. This way, the customer receives information that is directly relevant to them, making the experience much more personal. You can send out automated appointment date reminders, bill payment notifications, birthday messages, personalized promotions and so on. This type of personalized messaging builds stronger connections and reduces customer churn. When you want to update your customer information in order to provide even better targeted messages, survey customers to learn more and keep information up to date.
Know When to Write a Personal Message
Sometimes automation just isn’t appropriate. There are many instances in business where it is essential to take the time to manually write a message or a response to a customer. In these cases, a prompt message sent by a real person has a much greater impact than an automated message ever could. These are just a few examples: when a customer makes a very large purchase and you want to thank them with a special discount or free product/service, when a customer has been with you for years and you want to show your appreciation, when a customer takes the time to write to you with feedback, questions or comments, when you make a mistake with a customer’s bill, purchase or account, when a customer has a complaint, and when you have time to make personal comments on social media (automated social media management saves oodles of time, but you absolutely need real posts or tweets thrown in).
Review and Analyze
As mentioned before, if you don’t keep track of how customers are responding to your automated messages you are simply letting a robot control your marketing, which is going to show in your sales. Real people are essential to a marketing strategy because they try different things when they see something isn’t working as well as they had hoped. One of the greatest advantages humans have over machines is that they take chances and make mistakes rather than doing the same thing over and over again. The best way to increase revenue, boost customer life span and attract new customers is to listen to what your customers want. Automated marketing solutions provide you with all the data you will ever want. Keep a close eye on your reports, open rates, unsubscribes and other data. Review your campaign data after each campaign you send. Learn what customers respond to, learn what they don’t want and learn how to react positively when you need to make a change.
To summarize:
Your marketing is ultimately in your hands. Marketing automation makes it possible for businesses to save time and money, reduce the daily effort their staff has to put in and connect more effectively with their customers. Marketing automation is a powerful tool, but like any other tool it needs a skilled operator to make it work.
Veronica Taylor, Assistant Marketing Manager at SimplyCast, enjoys writing about small business marketing, improving communication strategies, social media trends and more.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Man Vs. Machine: Get Better Sales by Keeping Marketing Automation Human
Man Vs. Machine: Get Better Sales by Keeping Marketing Automation Human
#bloggingtips
Architectural Landmarks Created with Bicycle Tire Tracks by Thomas Yang
Fun and Random
Earlier this year we mentioned Thomas Yang over at 100copies used the prints from bicycle tire treads to create a poster of the Empire State Building. Yang has since explored three additional landmarks around the world that merge his passion for cycling and architecture including depictions of the Eiffel Tower, the Tower Bridge, and China’s Forbidden City. While it appears the individual prints are sold out, they are still available as a full set. (via Arch Atlas)
#funandrandom
» see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/colossal/~3/L8CuJH8BEIA/
Explore Eight New Mind-Bending Worlds in Monument Valley’s ‘Forgotten Shores’
Fun and Random
It’s rare that we stop to consider apps and video games on Colossal, but when we do, it’s with good reason. Monument Valley (previously), a gorgeously designed Escheresque puzzle game for iOS, just released eight new levels, collectively titled Forgotten Shores. Over the last few months Monument Valley has proven so popular and ground-breaking that it picked up an Apple Design Award, released a soundtrack, and turned 10 of its levels into an open edition of giclée prints. I spent some time with my six-year-old son working through Forgotten Shores last night, and it’s every bit as fun and innovative as the first release. Get it here.
#funandrandom
» see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/colossal/~3/X_tSXKrOIfY/
Tuesday, 25 November 2014
All about the free SeeMyBest Zazzle webpage creation tool
Nov 27th Edit: I've got the Google link shortening service
working with it. You no longer need to copy and paste the really long url for
your new webpages, you can use the Google-shortened ones instead :) The button to shorten it appears right underneath the link you're given.
Now that I've finished adding features to the free version of this fantastic web-page (and more!) creation tool, I can now write it all up and, hopefully answer your questions before you even think of asking them!
But I'm getting ahead of myself... here's what one of the pages created with the free version looks like
See what 's possible: here's a page I created with SeeMyBest of my most popular watches with an outer-space theme. (resize the window and watch the behaviour - made for mobile, too!)
Well, SeeMyBest sorts all that out just by you:
The absolute minimum you have to do, just to see what it looks like, is put in your storename - nothing more. It's so easy, why don't you give it a try here.
Here are some screenshots and some notes on each. I'll use the popular watches with an outer-space theme page I showed you above as an example. Here's the live configuration page, already filled in with the info for it.
All explained below:
Fairly straight-forward. Watch out and don't use fancy symbols in this text. Single quotes ' and double quotes " are fine but 6 and 9 single quotes, 66 and 99 double quotes aren't. Dashes (-) are fine, en-dashes, em-dashes aren't. If a plain text editor gets confused, so will the internet!
You can mix up the case on your storename (mine on Zazzle is actually hightonridley but I can use HightonRidley, too)
If you don't know your referrer id, you can look it up by following the link. As long as you're logged in to Zazzle, it'll take you to a page with it right there, in your face. You can copy and paste form there.
Search term(s): You can use a single word or a phrase separated by spaces. You can see I didn't use one, I used a different method for getting what I wanted.
I could have used nebula (because I know I have watches power-tagged with nebula) or I could have used spiral galaxy.
Note that Zazzle treats phrases in a special way. To get 'pulled', that phrase has to appear as is in a power tag or title. The important thing is it doesn't match products that have either spiral OR galaxy, only those with the phrase spiral galaxy.
How many to fetch: Just remember that different people have different connection speeds.
If you put in the maximum of 30 then those on slow connections will likely notice delays.
Category id: Get it from your browser's address bar. Go to your store's product admin area, navigate to the category you want to pull from and copy the long number you see after cg=
For my Outer Space category, the category id I need is 196007871454443931. Do you see it in the address bar in the screenshot above? If I went to my Fine Art category instead, I'd see a different category id there.
Department id: pretty much the same thing for departments. Here's the one I used
There's a link on the form to a partial list of Department Ids that's maintained on the Zazzle forum. It opens in a new window. I find the quickest way to find something is to use the browser's in-built page search (usually <ctrl>f on Windows and <cmd>f on Macs) and find what I'm looking for that way.
A tracking code tells you which link was clicked that resulted in you making a sale. It shows up in your Referral History report on the line item that details the sale. You can use letters, numbers, and dashes. It looks like this:
I know from this that it was a link on my coordinated wedding blog that was used to buy something that gave me the referral commission. All links I place there use that tracking code.
I mentioned above about the image size. This is the size that will be used when a product is shared. The image size used on the sharing page is set to a comfortable 275px but if someone pins it on Pinterest, shares on Facebook or wherever, then it'll use the size you specify here.
You can use a different colour for your product image background (000000 to FFFFFF) or (for nearly all Zazzle products) a transparent background version of each product image. You can use these type of images by giving a colour of 0x00000000, which gives a fully transparent background. If you use 0x88000000 you'll get 50% transparency and 0x44000000 gives 75% while with 0xCC000000 you'll get 25% transparency.
You're also given two links you can bookmark. One is so you can always return to this form with the details you've used already filled in. And the other is to your newly created page.
Nov 27th Edit: A button will appear under the link that lets you shorten your new web page link using Google's link-shortening service.
A note about your page: The html used for the page uses a 'fluid' design. This means that it adjusts to suit the size of the device it's being displayed on and the width of the browser, if you're using one.
Go on, visit your page and make the browser window narrow and wider to see the effect in play. If you've got a phone or tablet, try on them too.
You also get another button: Show pastable code for your 'card'...
BBCode: this is the special code used on the Zazzle forum (and many others like it). When you create a new topic or reply to an existing one, you can paste the bbcode for your sharing card right into your reply (no fancy border, I'm afraid). That's all you need to do. Really simple.
And if someone clicks it, then they'll be taken to your new web page.
html: paste this anywhere that lets you paste html. This could be on a Wordpress blog, a Blogger blog, Wix, Weebly and in Mailchimp mailings, to name a few.
And if you want more than one of them in the same place, you need to paste the html for them, one after the other and then enclose them in the following div.
That way they'll behave 'fluidly' wherever you paste them.
So that's the end of the detailed walk-through of all the options. There's a topic on the New to Zazzle forum where it's discussed and questions get asked and answered. I'm happy to do the same here in the comments and would love to see what you create!
There is a Zazzle banner on the webpages SeeMyBest creates and its link includes my referral id (and tracking code). This is the only place, in case you were wondering.
All other product links use yours.
At the bottom of each page is a Google ad that can generate revenue for me. Of course many peeps use ad blocker to stop them being shown.
Finally, I ask that if you regularly use SeeMyBest then please donate to my tips jar. If you do, I'll give you access to the Pro version that does so much more...
Now that I've finished adding features to the free version of this fantastic web-page (and more!) creation tool, I can now write it all up and, hopefully answer your questions before you even think of asking them!
But I'm getting ahead of myself... here's what one of the pages created with the free version looks like
 |
| A web page I made with SeeMyBest (free version) |
What is SeeMyBest?
SeeMyBest lets you (you are a Zazzler aren't you?) show the best products from your store on web pages that are refreshed whenever someone visits. And it has a search box that allows visitors to search just in your store, too, showing the results right there on your page!
See what 's possible: here's a page I created with SeeMyBest of my most popular watches with an outer-space theme. (resize the window and watch the behaviour - made for mobile, too!)
Who is SeeMyBest aimed at?
Well, first and foremost it's aimed at Zazzlers who are artists first and techno-geeks last! I'd say that you're the sort of Zazzler artist it'll suit if:- you probably don't have a website, and if you do, you don't have time nor energy nor technical know-how to easily put your products on it
- you have heard of referrer ids - and maybe even tracking codes - but don't have much confidence you're using them right, if at all!
- you would jump for joy at being able to share your lovingly crafted product designs in a way that looks great and is so easy for other folk to pin / share on Pinterest, Polyvore and Google+.
- you don't really promote / share much because of the time it takes to put together something attractive
- you maybe have a blog but it's such a fight and time-consuming to put products on it
- you'd love just one place from which you can do a big promotion push, with pin / share buttons right there, next to each product - easy-peasy for you and for your web page visitors!
(every navigation-click a visitor has to take to achieve something, drops the number who do by half, two thirds or more. Having it there in their face means 100% who want to can do!)
Well, SeeMyBest sorts all that out just by you:
- choosing some options that decide what products will be shown on your page
- typing a tiny bit for your web page description
- providing your referrer id so it can be used in the links.
The absolute minimum you have to do, just to see what it looks like, is put in your storename - nothing more. It's so easy, why don't you give it a try here.
Here are some screenshots and some notes on each. I'll use the popular watches with an outer-space theme page I showed you above as an example. Here's the live configuration page, already filled in with the info for it.
All explained below:
Using the web page generator config form
Your page heading info
 |
| details for your page heading |
Your details
 |
| entering your store and referrer details |
If you don't know your referrer id, you can look it up by following the link. As long as you're logged in to Zazzle, it'll take you to a page with it right there, in your face. You can copy and paste form there.
What to pull
You've got really flexible ways of deciding what products you want to show on your web page. For my example, I chose to show products from the watches department and my outer space category. |
| how you determine what shows on your web page |
I could have used nebula (because I know I have watches power-tagged with nebula) or I could have used spiral galaxy.
Note that Zazzle treats phrases in a special way. To get 'pulled', that phrase has to appear as is in a power tag or title. The important thing is it doesn't match products that have either spiral OR galaxy, only those with the phrase spiral galaxy.
How many to fetch: Just remember that different people have different connection speeds.
If you put in the maximum of 30 then those on slow connections will likely notice delays.
Category id: Get it from your browser's address bar. Go to your store's product admin area, navigate to the category you want to pull from and copy the long number you see after cg=
 |
| you can see the category id in your browser's address bar |
Department id: pretty much the same thing for departments. Here's the one I used
 |
| you can see the department id in your browser's address bar |
Tracking codes
You can see that because I'm pasting this here on my blog, I'm using tracking codes that tell me as much. What could happen is that a) someone visits here, looks at one of my pages and then pins one of my products on Pinterest and b) the pin gets re-pinned over and over.
Then one day I'm looking in my Referral History report (see below) and see TC: razadnopntrst then I'll know that it came about through this blog post.
 |
| each place where the products on your page can be shared has its own tracking code |
Other pinning / sharing details
I mentioned above about the image size. This is the size that will be used when a product is shared. The image size used on the sharing page is set to a comfortable 275px but if someone pins it on Pinterest, shares on Facebook or wherever, then it'll use the size you specify here.
You can use a different colour for your product image background (000000 to FFFFFF) or (for nearly all Zazzle products) a transparent background version of each product image. You can use these type of images by giving a colour of 0x00000000, which gives a fully transparent background. If you use 0x88000000 you'll get 50% transparency and 0x44000000 gives 75% while with 0xCC000000 you'll get 25% transparency.
Saving your page setup
When you click the build web page button, all your choices are used and the page is built. You see a preview of it after the form.You're also given two links you can bookmark. One is so you can always return to this form with the details you've used already filled in. And the other is to your newly created page.
Nov 27th Edit: A button will appear under the link that lets you shorten your new web page link using Google's link-shortening service.
A note about your page: The html used for the page uses a 'fluid' design. This means that it adjusts to suit the size of the device it's being displayed on and the width of the browser, if you're using one.
Go on, visit your page and make the browser window narrow and wider to see the effect in play. If you've got a phone or tablet, try on them too.
You also get another button: Show pastable code for your 'card'...
Sharing Card
This is what you see when you click the button: |
| this is a 'sharing card' and is what you get when you paste the code somewhere suitable |
And if someone clicks it, then they'll be taken to your new web page.
html: paste this anywhere that lets you paste html. This could be on a Wordpress blog, a Blogger blog, Wix, Weebly and in Mailchimp mailings, to name a few.
And if you want more than one of them in the same place, you need to paste the html for them, one after the other and then enclose them in the following div.
That way they'll behave 'fluidly' wherever you paste them.
 |
| An html div for when you want to use more than one sharing card and get fluid behaviour |
So that's the end of the detailed walk-through of all the options. There's a topic on the New to Zazzle forum where it's discussed and questions get asked and answered. I'm happy to do the same here in the comments and would love to see what you create!
So what do I get out of this?
Kudos :) Also...There is a Zazzle banner on the webpages SeeMyBest creates and its link includes my referral id (and tracking code). This is the only place, in case you were wondering.
All other product links use yours.
At the bottom of each page is a Google ad that can generate revenue for me. Of course many peeps use ad blocker to stop them being shown.
Finally, I ask that if you regularly use SeeMyBest then please donate to my tips jar. If you do, I'll give you access to the Pro version that does so much more...
Golden Dragons Envelope Sealer sticker
A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?
tagged with: chinese dragon, happiness, immortality, fertility, power, heroism, overcomes obstacles, success, perseverance, hrbstslr chdrgngld, fire lizard, excellence, boldness, nobility, divinity, symbolism
A gorgeous gold-leaf effect sticker design. It features two golden dragons, facing each other with mutual respect.
The Chinese Dragon symbolizes happiness, immortality, power and excellence. Also boldness, heroism, perseverance, nobility and divinity. A dragon overcomes obstacles until success is achieved. S/he is energetic, decisive, optimistic, intelligent and ambitious.
more items with this image
more items featuring Dragons
image code: chdrgngld
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
tagged with: chinese dragon, happiness, immortality, fertility, power, heroism, overcomes obstacles, success, perseverance, hrbstslr chdrgngld, fire lizard, excellence, boldness, nobility, divinity, symbolism
A gorgeous gold-leaf effect sticker design. It features two golden dragons, facing each other with mutual respect.
The Chinese Dragon symbolizes happiness, immortality, power and excellence. Also boldness, heroism, perseverance, nobility and divinity. A dragon overcomes obstacles until success is achieved. S/he is energetic, decisive, optimistic, intelligent and ambitious.
more items with this image
more items featuring Dragons
image code: chdrgngld
»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Cute Puppy Ukulele Key Chain
Cute Alert!
How can you resist this cute puppy design? Maybe you'd like to see your name or initials on it? Click to customize and personalize...
tagged with: dog,entertainer,instrument,musical,musician,performer,pet,player,puppy,ukulele,singing,crooning,dancing,tail,wagging,collar,bone
A cute puppy with tail wagging, is singing and dancing, while strumming a ukulele.
»visit the mariabellimages store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!
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