Hi Lori,

I'm really glad to hear it's working for you now.

I'd also really love to hear back from Zazzle. ematson said he was looking into it, but that was weeks ago. I wonder if Zazzle can work out the same shortened form format that tinyurl uses which keeps the referral code intact. (At least, I hope it does.)

Patricia
PR Prints

I'm just a newbie amateur, but i'm getting a good bit of traffic and sales through twitter and I use tweetlater and tweetdeck and my links are shortened with bit.ly and i'm not witnessing a problem with referral links that you are speaking of. You can check my tweet stream to be sure, (and if i'm wrong set me straight) but it may be the third party twitter software that you are using..?

Bill

Hey folks!

I'd recommend using the service bit.ly above TinyURL or other similar services. bit.ly offers custom URLs, so you can do a cool trick like this:

http://bit.ly/campbellwt

I've titled the shortened link something indicative of my product, rather than some weird code. Here's what the full link is:

http://www.zazzle.com/campbell_water_tower_postage-172147133001877039?gl=erikpemberton&rf=238556993100141324

The referral is in the full link and will register when the bit.ly link is opened.

As an extra bonus, bit.ly offers tracking, so you can just add a "+" to the end of your link and see what's going on with it:

http://bit.ly/campbellwt+

Since the "+" sign won't link up here, you can also do this:

http://bit.ly/info/campbellwt

Both lead to the same page.

Since Twitter doesn't support HTML, there's nothing that can be done on Zazzle's end to force the * or any other HTML in your tweets to link properly. Twitter does this to avoid exploits and attacks that could be run with executable code (like most phishing sites do). This method may be your best bet to track traffic, referrals, etc. via Twitter.

This just isn't working for me.

I just came up with an idea to help promote fellow Zazzlers on Twitter. (For those of you who've seen it, hope you like it and want to be included. For those who haven't, I'll explain in another thread tomorrow when I'm awake!)

I posted links to about 10 different products. I used tinyurl - and didn't get the zbar. I switched to try bit.ly - and didn't get the zbar. Is there anything that works???

Hope I can help make sales for some fellow Zazzlers, but it still looks like I wouldn't get any referral credit for them, which is really frustrating because this *could* be a great way to enhance our income here. I was really hoping this could be a chance to help others while raising my earnings a bit.

Has anyone found anything that does work consistently?

(Quick preview - the posts are at www.twitter.com/standoutproduct if you'd like to try the links and see my new project before I get into the explanation tomorrow. If the zbar comes up for you on any of them, I'd love to know it.)

Patricia
PR Prints

Thanks for checking, Lori. It's just so frustrating. I checked back through my last few tweets on my regular PR Prints account, and some give me the zbar, some don't. I use the same process every time. I just don't understand what's going on.

I guess until we find something that works, I'll just carry on and hope that somehow I'll "luck" into a referral. At least it might help someone get a sale.

I haven't tried Facebook from Zazzle. I've used the Facebook "attach link" application, but I can't remember if it gives the zbar or not. I'll check later. Keep your fingers crossed.

But if anyone ever figures out a way to ensure the zbar from Twitter, please post it!

Patricia
PR Prints

I'm not getting a special page when I click on my zazzle via twitter posted links either.

Have there been any updates on this? I like using Twitter, but have never gotten a referral from it nor do I see it showing up as a source of traffic on Google Analytics or Stat Counter. I do think it has increased my traffic, but that's just a theory at this point.

Patricia, if you're following this again/still - didn't realize you were Standout Product! Thanks for all the nice tweets. So, I clicked on your url and it took me to your site complete with the little asterisk - for a second. It disappeared as your site came up.

Bottom line, are we wasting our time on Twitter? I know I should do Facebook, but I'm confused by their TOS that say you can't have a business and a personal account. . .

Anyway, who believes in Twittering for Zazzle?

Thanks,
Deb
ha ha - follow me @lakeeffects!

Hi Woodswalker/Beachwalker/lakeeffects!

Yes, I'm still here. Reading the forum instead of spending time on Twitter, where I should be. Not sure that I'm helping much, but I'm still hopeful someone will make a sale from my few efforts.

It's discouraging, though, that we can't count on the referral going through. Definitely a concern that Terry was getting the zBar one day and not getting it the next on the same links. That's pretty much what was happening to me, too. (I don't check anymore - it just depresses me.)

I wouldn't call it a waste of time - it's still promotion for your products, and hopefully royalties. It'd be nice to count on those referrals, though.

I've only had ONE referral since I started this, and I can't see what that product was, so it's probably not one I tweeted. Can't tell if it's working but no-one's buying or if I'm losing out. But as I find time, I'll keep trying to help promote anyway. (I'd just be a lot more motivated if I knew it was working.)

And none of my tweeted links (I use bit.ly now) show up in StatCounter. I think they are at least showing the Zazzle views now, though, but they didn't seem to be before. Bit.ly would say I'd have 10 hits, but Zazzle would show none. Now, I have a LOT of views on a few things I tweeted, so at least that's improving. But it's so hard to figure out if it's actually doing anyone any good or not . . . .

Patricia
PR Prints
www.twitter.com/prprints
www.twitter.com/standoutproduct