Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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Hi there, I used the Zazzle's API to create a J o o m l a component (compatible with Joomla 1.5, 1.6 and 2.5). It allows you to setup a Zazzle store in minutes (literally!), it's very easy to implement (no programming skills are required) and basically all you have to do is provide your Affiliate's ID. The component comes with tons of options that you can easily manipulate through a GUI interface. Whether or not you've created products on Zazzle, you can still earn money and benefit from Zazzle's referral program, the component will take care of appending your associate's ID to every product link in accordance with Zazzle's API. Also, In addition to making money with Zazzle, the component comes with all the necessary tools for inserting your own Google Ads code into the product listings, in a very easy way, and all you have to do is copy-paste the code provided to you by the Google Adsense program into the corresponding Menu Item parameters. Learn more about the component here: w w w . a b s o l u t e j o o m l a . c o m /news/new-aj-zazzle-marketplace.html (please type in the URL, I had to use spaces because the blog was blocking the URL, don't know why, sorry about that) And take a look at this example site that's already using the component: http://www.giftrapido.comThank you, ~Luis
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/5/2011
Posts: 99
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Looks good but one problem is when you mouse over the image the address for the link is to the image, not the product. Clicking on the "Design by" link just reloads the page. Other than that it looks good and can be a big help to Joomla users.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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Thank you TheZUG for taking the time to take a look at the demo site. When you mouse over the image you see the link to the image because when you click on it the image zooms in, if you click on the product title then you go to the product page.
The component comes with two templates to choose from, one that shows one column per row and another one one template that shows 3 columns per row and both have it has different options that you can turn on/off (like showing the product price, choosing the image size, etc, etc).
Regarding what you mentioned about the page only refreshing when you click on "designed by", it actually works fine, what happens is that for the page that you saw on the demo site all the items on that page happened to be designed by the same person (i guess he/she is a popular designer).
Thanks again for taking the time to review the component..
Best Regards,
Luis
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/5/2011
Posts: 99
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Ah, ok, I didn't click the image, just looked where it was sending me and assumed it was the same image as already displayed. 
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 18
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Very nice! I was wondering why the links of the products on your site (giftrapido) are nofollow? Also, is there functionality for products to link to its own page (a product page) instead of directly to zazzle?
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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@MerchieMart,
Thanks a lot for pointing this out, what a bummer! I didn't see that on the API documentation so I wasn't aware of this...
I've just sent an inquiry to Zazzle to see if they like my approach enough to overlook the iframe feature (which I think it's not very intrusive, but it doesn't matter what I think).
I guess in the worse case scenario I would have to modify the code a little bit to open a new window to the product details instead of the iframe (not as fancy but would do the trick).
In the meantime I'm holding off on selling the component until I hear back from Zazzle.
I'll let you guys know what happens...
Thanks again,
~Luis
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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@ SnarkyGuy Thanks for your comments... Currently there's no functionality for linking a product to an internal page, I didn't do that because linking the product directly to Zazzle gives your users more options that are not available through the API (unless you're very creative and have LOTS of time to replicate what they have in place), like choosing sizes, colors or any other product personalization option... Besides, if they want to buy your products they would end up in the Zazzle website anyway, so I tried to cut corners in that regards. The main thing is that we want people to buy products, so once the users find a product in your site and click on it, they already carry your referral and have it in a cookie in their browsers  So, at this point if they leave your site and end up buying something on Zazzle there is a good chance that you will earn that commission ;) The nofollow instruction is to let googlebot know that those links are external and should not be follow when indexing my site. Regards, ~Luis
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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Hi Again, After consulting the Zazzle folks about the frame issue pointed out in this forum (for which I'm very thankful), I ended up modifying the component and releasing a version 1.1 that doesn't compromise the user agreement and actually looks better Basically, I added a product details page that replaces the illegal frame (of the zazzle product details) that used to be there. So, now we're all legal, happy and looking good ;) Please take a look at it and let me know what you think... I have a few other ideas that will be making it to the next version I'm already working on.... Demo site: http://www.giftrapido.comThe component is here: w w w . a b s o l u t e j o o m l a.com/news/new-aj-zazzle-marketplace.html (again, please type in the URL, I had to use spaces because the blog was blocking the URL, don't know why, sorry about that) Thank you, ~Luis
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 18
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Nice. I think it would be better if clicking on a product would take you to a page rather than have that popup window.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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@SnarkyGuy: Thank you for taking the time to review the site and for your feedback, very appreciated!
For the next release version of the component I'm going to add an extra configuration parameter to leave it up to the site Admin if he/she wants to show the product details as popup or new page... this is an easy change and it will be a nice extra feature for version 1.2
Thanks again,
~Luis
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Groups: Member
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 8
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@MerchieMart: Thank you very much for your great feedback... I see your point and agree about trying to send the visitors to Zazzle as quick as possible (once they carry our referral ID of course )... My idea of creating this component is to commercialize it (for a very reasonable price as you pointed it out) so other people can benefit from it, and in order to cover as many scenarios as possible I think I'm gonna come up with either a series of pre-made templates that you can choose from (including suggestions like the ones you kindly provided me with), or a very easy way for the users to create their own template through the component Admin, or maybe both ideas will be a good combo for a next version release.  Sweet!
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