Using RSS Feeds To Promote Your Zazzle Gallery

In a previous installment of my article on Zazzle I stated there are many ways to drive traffic to your Zazzle Gallery including social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yuwie... and many more.

The best way that I have found in using these sites is to use an RSS feed to feature your top or best selling artwork and submit this feed either directly like you can do on Yuwie or indirectly to Twitter and Facebook using a service like TwitterFeeds.

I'll show you how to build a simple feed you can update yourself or use Zazzles own feed building service to submit feeds of your own work or that of other Zazzle members.

Forget The Hard Sell On Social Networks:
One thing I need to point out when your using the social networks; social networks are not for selling. They are a community that requires interaction and communication with your friends or followers.

To be successful you need to build a relationship with the people whom you want to convert into customers. So that when you post new items they will be more inclined to take a look at what you've created and make a purchase if they like what they see.

This is especially true with Twitter, since you can not display your artwork in your tweets. I've tested this out on several Twitter accounts and know this to be a fact.

If you mass blast with the hard sell it doesn't matter how many followers you have people will ignore you. Post relevant content to what you do, informational tid bits, tips on how they can improve their artistic skills, art news and event that may be of interest and if at all possible use keyword targeted phrases that are being searched for on the major search engines.

I state this last portion because I've come across search results in search engines that are tweets. So if something you post is of interest not only will it be re-tweeted by your followers the SE's will pick it up also.

The Zazzle RSS Feeds:
To Begin RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication for those that may not know.

Zazzle Product Line RSS Feed

This Feed Link Displays Your Latest Creations By Product Line ID

http://www.zazzle.com/USERID/rss?cg-18DIGITPRODUCTLINEID

You Can Get The Product Line ID From Your Zazzle Gallery Links

When You Pass The Cursor On Your Product Listings In The Status Bar At The Bottom Of The Browser Page You'll See The Product Line Link With The Appended ID

Right Click And In FireFox Select Copy Link Location Or In IE Select Copy Shortcut Paste Into Notepad Then Just Copy And Paste The ID.

Product Category RSS Feed
This Feed Link Displays Your Latest Creations By Category - In This Case pt=228 Is The Category For Posters

http://www.zazzle.com/USERID/rss?pt=228

Here Is A List Of Categories
// 128 Bumper Sticker
// 137 Card
// 144 Mouse pad
// 145 Button
// 146 Keychain
// 147 Magnet
// 148 Hat
// 149 Bag
// 151 Tie
// 153 Photo Sculpture
// 154 Apron
// 156 Photo Print
// 158 Calendar
// 167 Keds Shoes
// 168 Mug
// 172 Postage Stamps
// 217 Sticker
// 228 Print (posters)
// 235 T-Shirt
// 239 Postcards
// 240 Profile Card

The Following To Feed Structures Allow You To Promote Another Members Zazzle Gallery And Earn Money On Generated Sales Since It Incorporates Your Associate ID Along With Their Gallery ID.

Google Base Feed Structure With Your Referral ID Attached
http://feed.zazzle.com/USERID/feed?ft=gb&at=AssociateID

Regular RSS Feed Interpretation Of The Above
http://feed.zazzle.com/USERID/rss?at=AssociateID

Where The:
Gallery ID = is your USERID
Associate ID = is the 18 digit number assigned to associates
If you have your own site or hosting webpage account to host your own feed you can use the sample XML to build your own feeds

[?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?]
[rss version="2.0"]
[channel]
[title]Feed Title[/title]
[description]Feed Description[/description]
[link]Feed Site Link[/link]
[language]en[/language]
[lastBuildDate]Build Date Time Of The Feed Posting[/lastBuildDate]

[item]
[title]First Product Title[/title]
[description]First Product Descritption[/description]
[keywords]target keywords seperated by commas[/keywords]
[link]Product Link[/link]
[pubDate]Product Build Date Time[/pubDate]
[/item]

[item]
[title]Second Product Title[/title]
[description]Second Product Descritption[/description]
[keywords]target keywords seperated by commas[/keywords]
[link]Product Link[/link]
[pubDate]Product Build Date Time[/pubDate]
[/item]

[item]
[title]Third Product Title[/title]
[description]Third Product Descritption[/description]
[keywords]target keywords seperated by commas[/keywords]
[link]Product Link[/link]
[pubDate]Product Build Date Time[/pubDate]
[/item]

[/channel]
[/rss]

Here Is An Example
[?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?]
[rss version="2.0"]
[channel]

[title]Renwable Energy Plans And Guides[/title]
[description]Off The Grid Living With Do-It-Yourself Renewable Energy Guides And Plans[/description]
[link]http://renewable-energy-resource.propom.com[/link]
[language]en[/language]
[lastBuildDate]Sat, 6 Mar 2010 00:00:00 AM EST[/lastBuildDate]

[item]
[title]Make Your Own Solar Panels[/title]
[description]Build Your Own Solar Panels And Save Thousands By Going Green[/description]
[keywords]renewable energy,free energy,wind energy,solar energy,magnetic energy,magnetic power,make your own solar panels[/keywords]
[link]http://bit.ly/csqNF3[/link]
[pubDate]Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:30:00 EST[/pubDate]
[/item]

[item]
[title]Secrets Of Building Your Own Solar Panels[/title]
[description]Step-by-Step Guide For Building Your Own Solar Energy Generator[/description]
[keywords]renewable energy,free energy,wind energy,solar energy,magnetic energy,magnetic power,build your own solar panels[/keywords]
[link]http://bit.ly/8ZgGMS[/link]
[pubDate]Sat, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST[/pubDate]
[/item]

[/channel]
[/rss]

In order to use this code make sure to replace [ with < and ] with >

<b>Save The File With xml File Extension</b>

You Can Test Your Feed Here - http://beta.feedvalidator.org/

Note: To Avoid Errors In The Feed Don't Use "&" Use And, Spell Out Everything To Avoid Problems.

Best Of Luck
Xzendor7