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NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13 (Read 71852 times)
Deborah_156571
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #150 - Sep 7th, 2014, 2:10pm
 
I just got a notice that I sold a card.  I had forgotten I even had this site.  When I looked at my account and found that I have sold 176 cards but only made $26.27!  I am out! Not worth the energy or time to update my account.  What a rip off!  Angry
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Carolyn_134621
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #151 - Sep 7th, 2014, 5:10pm
 
Dear Deborah,
 
I agree that the GCU royalties are very small and unfair for the design work we each contribute to our store fronts.  The positive factors is the superior quality of cards printed by GCU, but if you do find another online card site with the same quality printing and service AND paying fair royalty rates, I would so appreciate knowing what you found.  
 
Good luck and all best wishes,  Carolyn Grossman
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Deborah_156571
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #152 - Sep 7th, 2014, 5:30pm
 
Hi Carolyn,
I use Zazzle and Fine Art America.  You can set your own prices and the quality is really good.  Best Wishes!
 
Quote from Carolyn_134621 on Sep 7th, 2014, 5:10pm:
Dear Deborah,

I agree that the GCU royalties are very small and unfair for the design work we each contribute to our store fronts.  The positive factors is the superior quality of cards printed by GCU, but if you do find another online card site with the same quality printing and service AND paying fair royalty rates, I would so appreciate knowing what you found.

Good luck and all best wishes,  Carolyn Grossman

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Catinka_133492
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #153 - Sep 8th, 2014, 5:41am
 
Deborah! That at least should mean you get to be paid - as you have now earned over $25, correct? Why not at least stay with what you have. You never know when you might make a large sale. And it costs nothing in further effort, fees, or upkeep.
Apparently the trend in any POD sites is toward 5% commission as there is so much POD competition out there now...
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Lois_138267
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #154 - Sep 8th, 2014, 12:36pm
 
Actually, Catinka, I've read the same thing about the push by many pod sites to bring our commissions down to a miserable level.  Yes, keeping inventory at sites like GCU that we've already spent so much time and effort to create and upload does make sense.  That big sale we all hope for MIGHT be right around the corner (the same things the compulsive gambler tells himself  embarrassed ).  
 
But the smart thing for all artists to do is to find sites that respect us and allow us to set our own commissions.  Abandon the places where we're not valued.  Pretty soon the POD sites that treat us with such embarrassing disrespect might come to their senses when the flood of new artwork, which THEY NEED, turns to a trickle.
 
And yes there ARE such sites out there where we can make more than 19 cents per card. Two have just been mentioned.
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Mindy
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #155 - Sep 8th, 2014, 3:32pm
 
Quote from Deborah_156571 on Sep 7th, 2014, 2:10pm:
I just got a notice that I sold a card.  I had forgotten I even had this site.  When I looked at my account and found that I have sold 176 cards but only made $26.27!  I am out! Not worth the energy or time to update my account.  What a rip off!  Angry

 
Hi Debbi,
Considering that your last card was added over 3 years ago and your store, which you'd forgotten about, holds a mere 10 cards I was actually expecting your post to be a joyful sharing about effortlessly selling 176 cards.   Huh
 
Good luck to you with your other endeavors.
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Catinka_133492
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #156 - Sep 8th, 2014, 6:38pm
 
Wow! Only 10 cards and you did that well! I have only 15 cards and drag my feet so about putting more into it. Basically you are getting a royalty fee here whenever you sell a card. I believe authors make only  10% royalty fees on their books, unless they self publish? True, things are changing in terms of self publishing. but that I still a royalty on top of whatever you sell elsewhere. If GCU's market is a market you would not reach otherwise, wouldn't that be a good thing to also make these sales? You have already set it up. Gee, if you don't want the future possible sales, then maybe sign them over to your favorite charity.
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Catinka_133492
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #157 - Sep 8th, 2014, 6:40pm
 
Oh well - I just tried to find Deb's page. Seems to be gone already. 404
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Natalie_152060
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #158 - Sep 9th, 2014, 1:25am
 
Well I love GCU   I think it's great place to get your card designs seen and sold. There is such a great community here and a tremendous amount of opportunity to learn.  
 
If I had one gripe it would be the reduction in royalty percentages paid to artists on bulk sales. That particular aspect I find very disappointing. If your card design is so good that someone wants to buy 100 or so of them, then it seems a real shame to cut the artists percentage royalties. The amount per card paid is already lower anyway because it's a bulk sale, so cutting the royalty percentage as well really is disappointing.
 
That said, I'm still a huge fan of GCU and nowhere else could I have had this type of opportunity to sell my designs on such a regular basis. Not to mention the card quality and service is excellent.  Smiley
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Tracy_135547
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #159 - Jan 12th, 2016, 2:43pm
 
I've only made a few sales over the years - I sell cards here as a fun outlet for my work - so I've never met the threshold.  
 
I think this means I'll never get paid anything?
 
(It's around $16 right now.)
 
 Huh
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Catinka_133492
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #160 - Jan 12th, 2016, 3:39pm
 
Haha! I did finally manage to get a check from GCU just a few months ago!  
 
Tracy do you have a website, or, better yet, a blog? You can write stuff and include a link or gcu widget to your various designs within your posts. Use the cards as they show on GCU as something to illustrate each blog post. I think it may be hard to get buyer traffic right from GCU or even google. It is possible to develop one's own regular traffic. If you were to  start keeping a blog, with a card within the post, you would be giving more chances for people to come across your cards.
 
I keep meaning to use this strategy but just don't keep up with frequent blog posts.
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Doreen_137017
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #161 - Jan 12th, 2016, 4:03pm
 
Quote from Tracy_135547 on Jan 12th, 2016, 2:43pm:
I've only made a few sales over the years - I sell cards here as a fun outlet for my work - so I've never met the threshold.

I think this means I'll never get paid anything?

(It's around $16 right now.)

Huh

 
Tracey,
 
The threshold is only there to offer 'premium earnings'. It has nothing to do with getting paid for standard earnings.
 
When you reach the payout you've set in your profile settings - $25 is the minimum I think, then you'll get paid.
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Julie_273348
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #162 - Jan 16th, 2016, 6:01pm
 
Don't forget, Tracy, that you can use your earnings, however small, against your own purchases of cards. That's what I do as my sales are so small. It helps encourage me, to feel I am getting some kind of reward for my efforts, and I have been impressed by the quality of the GCU product and the speed of supply.
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Ginger_150679
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #163 - Jun 5th, 2016, 1:52pm
 
2. Incent artists to take an active role in self-promotion driving traffic and sales  
 
Hi -
 
Well, I realize I'm way behind the times, but just finally at the point in life that I have time to tackle this item.  I've read through various posts, but I'm not quite sure what I need to do.  I've had a link from my website (AZ-Artists.com - Details of Arizona) back since the time of the change, but that hasn't really seemed to make a difference in my commissions.  
 
Could you please advise more specifically what I should be doing?
 
Thank you.
 
Regards,
Ginger
 
P.S. - Thank you for the change that kept the storefronts free. I don't sell enough that I would have been able to keep mine active if there was a monthly fee.
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Doreen_137017
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Re: NEW - Earnings Modifications Effective 7/01/13
Reply #164 - Jun 5th, 2016, 2:39pm
 
Hi Ginger,
 
No, a link from your website won't be enough to see a difference from my experience.
 
Here is a place on the Community Blog where you'll see a section on Marketing which has good reads for you.
https://gcucommunity.com/artist-resources/
 
And if you do a search on the blog for Marketing you'll get many bits and pieces of value.
https://gcucommunity.com/tag/marketing/page/2/
 
Promoting yourself involves many things, but I've found that the first and most important steps are:
 
1- Great meta-tag data. This is CRITICAL to being found in today's SEO.
 
2- Keep your store alive weekly with new/improved content. Sites which are not fresh with new content at least weekly drop to the deep black hole of the bottom pile for external search engines.
 
Again, all this and more great articles on the blog on this subject.
 
Good luck!
 
Quote from Ginger_150679 on Jun 5th, 2016, 1:52pm:
2. Incent artists to take an active role in self-promotion driving traffic and sales

Hi -

Well, I realize I'm way behind the times, but just finally at the point in life that I have time to tackle this item.  I've read through various posts, but I'm not quite sure what I need to do.  I've had a link from my website (AZ-Artists.com - Details of Arizona) back since the time of the change, but that hasn't really seemed to make a difference in my commissions.  

Could you please advise more specifically what I should be doing?

Thank you.

Regards,
Ginger

P.S. - Thank you for the change that kept the storefronts free. I don't sell enough that I would have been able to keep mine active if there was a monthly fee.

 
 
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