Razamazazzle

Thursday, 14 September 2017

V3.2 NiftyGridZPro now out - WordPress plugin for Zazzle

I've completed the next version of the NiftyGridZPro WordPress plugin for Zazzle and made the release public.

V3.2 adds Google Ads capability to improve your earnings!

A random slot / cell in each product grid (created by NiftyGridZPro) right across your site will be chosen to display a Google Ad. You set it up in your admin settings as shown here.

Think of the Google Ad as another type of global slot message. Learn more and get tips in the FAQ on it, here.

Tuesday, 12 September 2017

V3.1 NiftyGridZPro officially released

It' s been a few achievement-filled days with NiftyGridZpro. Extended testing of the new features in V3 of NiftyGridZPro went well and it was publicly released.

V3's main feature is to allow the principle of "rotating ads". For NiftyGridZPro the "rotating ads" are placed, real-time, into randomly chosen slots in your grids of Zazzle products.

V3.1 now formally released as well.

V3 made one such global message available, V3.1 extended it to allow you to store up to 5 global slot messages. There's a full post with demo, on the NiftyGridZPro site.

FAQs updated.

Thursday, 7 September 2017

Nearly ready to release the next version of NiftyGridZPro

Finalising...

I've been working away at finalising the next version of NiftyGridZPro. The new version brings with it:

A new shortcode option to use only the Zazzle-added product names in your title area.
This gives a nice, clean product grid item display and is really hepful when when space is tight
A truly powerful Slot Message system
An Admin Settings page for NiftGridZPro (used to set associate (aka referral) id and to set up global slot messaging

FAQ update

The last couple of posts describe each of these features in depth. What I've been doing is preparing the FAQ entry for Slot Messages.

Now those are done, all that remains is to work out

pricing
when / how to release the new version
how to deal with upgrades for exisiting license holders
what goes into the announcement material

Once that's done, all that's left to do is to share the material and make the new version available.

I've just had a thought about the marketing aspect of it. Perhaps I should do teasers on the new version on the NiftyGridZPro site? That's be cool!

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

NiftyGridZPro Slot Messages - Another new feature for the next release of our WordPress Plugin

I've continued working on the next version of NiftyGriidZPro, my WordPress plugin for Zazzle storekeepers and affiliates.

Slot Message

The new Slot Message feature allows you to use an optional set of shortcodes to set up an image and link. The optionally linked image gets placed randomly somewhere in your product grid, replacing temporarily what was already there.

You can see it in action here

You could even use a gif image to give a short animation.

Other features may be added as time goes on. No release date has yet been set for the new version.

Tuesday, 5 September 2017

Working on next release of NiftyGridZPro WordPress Plugin

I've been working on the next version of NiftyGriidZPro, my WordPress plugin for Zazzle storekeepers and affiliates.
I've added an optional feature to only display the part of the title that Zazzle adds to product titles made up by the designer.

You can see it in action here

Other features will be added as time goes on. No release date has yet been set for the new version.

Sunday, 3 September 2017

How to: Get Animated Zazzle Collection gifs on Pinterest, Facebook and GPlus

Animated posts are easy!

I just made this #animated pin on Pinterest. When its url is shared on Facebook or GooglePlus, it only takes one click to see the animation and then one more click to visit your #ZazzleCollection (or whatever link you give when creating the pin).

It's a 25 minute project the first time you do it, 2 minutes when you get good! This is a sceenshot of the pin, click it to see the actual pin doing its animation thing :)

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/332562753725231675/

You can see how to do this for your Zazzle collection in this 6 minute vid tutorial:

Saturday, 2 September 2017

All tools now operational in the Nifty Promo Control Panel

All tools in the Nifty Promo Control Panel are now working again.

It's brilliant for promoting and has some neat features. Best of all, it's entirely free. Tip my coffee jar with a donation if you like it :)

Slideshow Generator fixed in Nifty Promo Control Panel

Here's a slideshow created by copy-and-paste code from the Nifty Promo Control Panel.

search (new window)

What do you think?

Friday, 1 September 2017

YQL issue and the Nifty Promo Control Panel

I've partially solved the issue with YQL and the Nifty Promo Control Panel.

What happened

On Thursday 24th August the Yahoo Query Languge RSS feed facility stopped working. Soon after it started to work only intermittently. Many of the tools within the Nifty Control Panel use it, as does the panel itself, so everything stopped working reliably.

The fix

After lots of research on line, I found someone who mentioned that if you keep retrying to pull the feed with YQL, you eventually succeed.

I've only applied this fix to:
1) the control panel's own display while you're getting the products you want
2) the live product grid pull in:
Step 2: Choose your type of promoting->Get code for embedding in other sites->Product Grid code

I've tested the fix and it works just fine. Any new ones you create on your blogs / sites by using the live grid code will now work. It might take a little while longer to display your grid, depending on the number of attempts it has to make in trying to get a successful pull. It'll try up to 10 times before giving up.

(The static product grid code option above the live one works just fine as is - no changes were required)

There is a risk and it's that Verizon (who bought Yahoo) decide to remove YQL completely. If that happens, a completely different approach will need to be developed.

Over the next few days, I'll be applying the same fix to the other tools in the Nifty Promo Control Panel that need them.

Sunday, 20 August 2017

Nursing Stationery and Office

If you have a friend or family member who is a nurse, or you are one yourself, then these personalized business cards, journals and other office items could be the perfect gift.

They're easy to personalize - just click to visit the product page (opens in a new window) and type over the placeholder text with the details you want. If you like what's already there just leave it as is or you can choose to blank it out if you like, your choice.

I'd love to hear what you think of the designs, so leave a comment if you're so inclined :)

Saturday, 19 August 2017

New - Guitar Cases on Zazzle

I love the new guitar bags / cases just released on Zazzle. Here's a lovely outer-space themed selection I made today:

Carina Nebula, Hubble astronomy space picture Guitar Case

Hubble's view of the Carina Nebula shows star birth and fantasy-like landscapes that are sculpted by the action of outfl...
Stellar Nursery - Star On The Inside Guitar Case

An amazing guitar case. Hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds appear in this Hubble picture ...
Astronomy, Starry Wingtip, Small Magellanic Cloud Guitar Case

The tip of the "wing" of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this view from NASA's Great Observatories. Orb...
Barred Spiral Galaxy outer space picture Guitar Case

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the beautiful barred spiral galaxy, more than 60 million light-years away in the ...
Celestial Bauble - SXP1062 space picture Guitar Case

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series: In this composite image, the flowering shape is a star factory and the bright blue s...