FREE PrintKEG T-shirt

Want to try out a free custom t-shirt at PrintKEG?  OK, free is relative...this does require some of your time and influence.  You can get the free t-shirt by sharing about it on your blog, on your facebook page, on Pinterest page, or several other venues (but they do have some minimum follower requirements...read the fine print).  Click here to learn more.

POD Giveaways

Here are the latest giveaways I've stumbled on  that might be of interest to shopkeepers (some carry-overs from last week, and some new ones).

POD Marketplace Giveaways
Giveaways for a gift certificate or item with your choice of design  from a POD marketplace.  You can usually use you're winnings to sell your own stuff sold through these PODS.

(3/28) CafePress - Item of Choice
(4/15) Zazzle $50 Gift Card


Shop Specific or Design Specific Giveaways
Giveaways from a specific POD shop or set of designs...ie, you can't use this to buy your own stuff, but can sport some items by your fellow designers.

(4/10)  T-shirt From Joy's Fit Girl Wear CafePress Shop
(4/10)  Spreadshirt Mother's Day T-Shirt
(4/10)  Spreadshirt Father's Day T-Shirt



Other Custom Printing and Business Related Giveaways
Things that might be useful in growing your business, or if you were printing things to sell offline.

(3/31) Piczzle Custom Puzzle
(3/31) $25 Gift Card to Build a Sign
(3/31) $50 to VivoPrint Blogging Mammas
(4/1)   $50 to VivoPrint Love, Life, Logistics
(4/1)   $50 to VivoPrint Housewife on a Mission
(4/6)   1000 Custom Postcards (Says to promote your book, but you might be able to use them for other things...not sure)


Note, I got free entries for posting some of these.  

Zazzle Improvements, Including Aquaclock Picture

Scribbleprint Waves Aquavista Clock by scribbleprints

Zazzle just announced a lot of small changes they've been making, including new product views, and new fonts (check under the new "Wedding" section).   Some of them are items that I've specifically mentioned here before, like the lack of water or a fish in the Aquavista Clock (I made up a graphic for adding a waterline, which is still useful since it's from the straight front view, which is easier to work with if you are adding alternative contents.)

POD Giveaways

Giveaways that might be of interest to shopkeepers--my latest finds below:

POD Marketplace Giveaways
Giveaways for a gift certificate or item with your choice of design  from a POD marketplace.  You can usually use you're winnings to sell your own stuff sold through these PODS.

(3/28) CafePress - Item of Choice
(3/31) $25 CafePress Gift Certificate (must submit story)



Shop Specific or Design Specific Giveaways
Giveaways from a specific POD shop or set of designs...ie, you can't use this to buy your own stuff, but can sport some items by your fellow designers.

(3/26)  CafePress Divergent Giveaway - Ends at 5 pm 3/26
(3/26)  Book and Silk Fat Quarters from Spoonflower
(4/10)  Spreadshirt Mother's Day T-Shirt
(4/10)  Spreadshirt Father's Day T-Shirt



Other Custom Printing and Business Related Giveaways
Things that might be useful in growing your business, or if you were printing things to sell offline.

(3/31) $25 Gift Card to Build a Sign
(3/24) Piczzle Custom Puzzle
(3/24) Piczzle Custom Puzzle
(3/25) Silhouette Portrait
(3/25) Silhouette Portrait and Online Classes
(3/25) Silhouette Portrait
(3/25) Silhouette Portrait
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo
(3/25) Silhouette Cameo - Daily Free Entries
(3/26) Silhouette Portrait
(3/31) Piczzle Custom Puzzle

Note, I got free entries for posting some of these.  

FREE GRAPHIC: Add "Water" To Your AquaVista Clock, Front View

Zazzle has recently added the Aquavisa Clock, a clock that is designed to double as a fish-bowl for bettas.  They do not, however, have any pictures of these clocks with an actual fish in it.  (UPDATE:  They have added a view with water and a beta fish!  Yeah!  It's an angled view, so you still might want to use this one,  especially if you are adding alternative contents, like I mention below, since those are easier to add from a straight on view).  When I made a comment on the Zazzle forum about that, I started a firestorm of backlash against this clock/bowl, which many said was too small to keep a fish in (I researched...Bettas can be kept in a bowl this small, though a good environment is harder to maintain and a larger bowl is better for them).   That aside, you COULD use this for a number of other things, such as a indoor water garden or terrarium, displaying flowers, showing off your marble collection, etc..  Personally, I'd like to try this out with a ROBOTIC fish (yes, there is such a thing, and they're not that expensive even)....

I also posted about this  on Zazzlers on Facebook, mentioning the lack of a "with fish" example.  And in response promptly had someone add a fish for me (thanks Maria) and that prompted me to get busy and see if I could figure out how to add some water.

The following graphic should fit the 499 pixel wide graphic of a fishtank.  If you want to know how to save a Zazzle image at this size, click here for my tutorial.   This should be added as a layer on top of the fish tank graphic, with an opacity of around 33% (play around with it to see what works for your design).  Then just merge the layers and you should have a tank that looks like it has water in it.  

TERMS OF USE
I got the waterline from this Creative Commons picture from by Dean McCoy.  While it is free for alteration and commercial use, attribution is required (not to me, but to Dean McCoy...though if you want to mention PODNews I'd be pleased).  I'm going to ask if it's ok to use this without attribution if we are using this on a banner ad or advertisement where attribution would be difficult.  But I haven't heard back yet, so for now, please attribute.  Otherwise, this is free for you to use.

You will have to find your own fish or plants or whatever you want to add to your "water" as I don't know where Maria got her fish and if I have permission to distribute it.   I looked on the Aquavista website and they also show their "example fish" smaller, so this fish is not to scale.
 

How to Link, Resize, and Save Zazzle Images

Zazzle makes it very easy to link to images.  Here's how...

First, go to the product you want to link to.  To the right (or sometimes underneath) the product, you will see a "Share" button.  Click it.  Then click the "Link To This" button or tab.  That should bring up the following screen...

You can see, there is HTML code you can add to your blog or website, and BBC code you can add to many forums, including the Zazzle forum.   You can select a large or small image.  The large will be 325 pixels and the small 125 pixels.  You can simply highlight the code and paste it in the HTML editor of your blog.  If you want to save a picture of the product, you can right click on it from this screen and save it.

But what if you need it in another size?  All Zazzle image URLS can be tweaked to create a different size.
I'll show you how, but first, lets look at the different parts of the code so you can tell which part does what.


<div style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-175357796143474991?rf=238984407003792011"> <img src="http://rlv.zcache.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-rfaa50f5381ee4a78b3df1aa6421ed9c1_x7s21_8byvr_325.jpg" alt="Heart of Flowers Ornaments" style="border:0;" /> </a> <br /> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-175357796143474991?rf=238984407003792011">Heart of Flowers Ornaments</a> by <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/scribbleprints*">scribbleprints</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/custom/ornaments?rf=238984407003792011">Make your own Christmas ornaments</a> online. </div>

Here is what all the sections do:

• The orange section sets the style...it makes it centered, etc.
• The pink and purple section is what makes the image and links it to the page.  The pink is the part that creates the link.  The purple is what makes the picture show up.
• The green is what makes all the links and text at the bottom show up.
• The black <br/> tags mark a new line...without them this would all be on the same line.

OK, now that that's covered, lets just look at the image URL....

 <div style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-175357796143474991?rf=238984407003792011"> <img src="http://rlv.zcache.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-rfaa50f5381ee4a78b3df1aa6421ed9c1_x7s21_8byvr_325.jpg" alt="Heart of Flowers Ornaments" style="border:0;" /> </a> <br /> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-175357796143474991?rf=238984407003792011">Heart of Flowers Ornaments</a> by <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/scribbleprints*">scribbleprints</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/custom/ornaments?rf=238984407003792011">Make your own Christmas ornaments</a> online. </div>

There is a number in it.  Changing that number will make the image a different size.  For example....

If I change the image URL to http://rlv.zcache.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-rfaa50f5381ee4a78b3df1aa6421ed9c1_x7s21_8byvr_200.jpg  (changes in bold purple), it will look like this....

Heart of Flowers Ornaments by scribbleprints
Make your own Christmas ornaments online.


And if I change the image URL to http://rlv.zcache.com/heart_of_flowers_ornaments-rfaa50f5381ee4a78b3df1aa6421ed9c1_x7s21_8byvr_500.jpg  it will look like this...

Heart of Flowers Ornaments by scribbleprints
Make your own Christmas ornaments online.

Images 500 pixels or over will sometimes show a Zazzle watermark.  

If you want to save an image at any size, just copy the image URL to your browser window, right click on the image, and save it.  

Embed Feature On CafePress Products

One thing I love about Zazzle is how easy they make it to add product images to blogs or wherever...on any product (unless it's been disabled by the artist) you can click the share link and get code to embed it.

Looks like CafePress has finally jumped on the bandwagon.  I just saw a new embed button on one of my products in the marketplace, as well as a button to share it on facebook and favorite it on CP. NICE.  (Note, no affiliate link if you're part of that program, though...you'll have to add that manually).

But, would they have the same thing in my shop, I wondered.  The answer is sometimes and kind of. I haven't found this on any in my upgraded shops...they are on some products in my BASIC shops, so it may be that this is being added to all of them there (and may show up in upgraded shops eventually...I don't know).  You will notice a difference though...

Notice the difference?  (Yes, this is like one of those spotting games they have in magazines).  Clue...there's one less button.

Shamrock T-Shirt by Scribbleprints
Find more mens & unique gifts at CafePress

And you can also choose a smaller size....

Shamrock T-Shirt by Scribbleprints
Find more mens & unique gifts at CafePress

CafePress does not seem to be sneaking in links straight to the marketplace if you embed from a marketplace shop, which is good.  But I do notice that if I try to get back to my basic shop (unlike my Updated non-basic shop, which so far doesn't have this embedding feature) from the product page, the only way is to use the back button on my browser.  There is a link to my CP profile, but not a link to my basic shop anywhere on the page.  While means, if someone embeds a product from my shop and someone follows it, even though it looks like I will get shop credit if they buy THIS product,  they will never find their way to the other products in my own shop.  This is a change that took place a while ago...I'm just noticing the implications now.

So, even in this CP makes certain that all roads go to the marketplace.