Blog

ZeBooC Service launched for Zazzle

What the heck is that?

It’s our new service all about creating eBooks for you from your Zazzle collections.

Why would I want one?

It’s a brand-new marketing channel for your store collections and for affiliating those of others. As a result, it extends your reach to more potential customers. It’s an un-tapped reserve, an un-fished pond, an un-harvested field, a (insert own analogy here!)

What’s so special about ZeBooCs?

The service has been created for Zazzlers by another Zazzler (author of the Nifty tool set), and that means it’s fine-tuned to working hand-in-hand with all of Zazzle’s features.

What the ZeBooC looks like on a mobile phone – notice the link

All links in the ZeBooC eBooks are live and go straight to the respective product page on Zazzle. (And referral ids and tracking codes are included in the links.)

Is that it?

No there’s much more, with each aspect extending your reach still further – QRCode, bit.ly link, online version, Amazon Kindle program, book cover…

Every aspect of this “eBook from Collection” has been designed to give you new opportunities, remove obstacles and smooth the way to convert interest into sales.

So, whether you want to extend your reach with new online opportunites or real world ones, your ZeBooC eBook will meet the needs of both.

find out about those other aspects and order your ZeBooC eBook here


NiftyGridZPro V3.6 released – Buy Now buttons

V3.6 introduces a global (and shortcode) option to display a Buy Now button overlaid on each product image in your grids. See our previous post, for details and screenshots.

So now there’s no question that the displayed products are for sale if you switch on the global option. In turn, this should give a small boost to your chances of making a sale.

We’ve updated the FAQ with relevant info and at the same time made the new plugin versions available to purchasers. We’ve emailed the new versions to existing customers, so if that’s you, you should have received yours by now. If you haven’t, drop us a note at the usual email address.

 

Coming soon in V3.6 – requested feature: Buy Now buttons

We received a request to include “buy now” buttons on each displayed product. So obvious, we didn’t think of it!

The buttons adopt the theme styling (but with xx-small text), so on ours they look like this:

There will be also be a global setting (via your settings screen) so you can switch it on (or off) for all posts, including existing ones, that display products using NiftyGridZPro. Initially, products will not display the buttons.

global setting for product buy me button
Admin panel showing global setting for product buy me buttons

The global setting will be able to be over-ridden with a shortcode option, like this: show_product_button=0 (off) or 1 (on)

See it in use here: https://niftytoolz.com/popular-this-week-in-outer-space

Expect v3.6 to be released next week.

Getting your slot messages ready for Christmas

Now is the time to prepare your slot messaging for the holiday season. At the time of writing, I’ve used only one slot message, an animated gif from giphy.com of a christmas tree with snow falling. I’ve also got a Google ad set to show part of the time, so you might see that instead.

You might want to set up a number of slot messages, each with a different creative to showcase what’s important to you. The point is, now’s the time to do it!

Search Zazzle market place for:
How many to get (max 120):


Here’s the shortcode I used for the above grid:

[niftygridzpro title_font_size="11px" title_alignment="center" cell_max_width="190px" cell_border_color="#888888" cell_background_color="#DDDDDD" cell_font_color="#333333" cell_vlink_color="#666666" description_font_size="10px" description_alignment="center" description_length="0" include_product_names_in_titles=1 use_only_product_names_in_titles=0 include_by_line=0 include_tags_line=0 include_price_line=1 product_grid_nav_font_size="20px" fallback_filename="default-fallback-grid.html" grid_sort_method="pulledorder" associate_id="238582202591969585" store_or_collection="collections/119076182750895596" page_size="12" product_background_color="ffffff" tracking_code="ngrdzwp_xmas_ready" use_local_zsite=0 allow_interaction=1 show_visitor_search_form=1 ]

Example of the V3.5 feature: paragraph embedded grids

V3.5 of NiftyGridZPro introduced a new feature for embedding product grids into paragraphs. The shortcode option that controls it is:

  • paragraph_embed=”L”
    the product grid will be on the left with following paragraphs wrapped around on the right of it
  • paragraph_embed=”R”
    the opposite of the above
  • paragraph_embed=0
    no embedding happens and is the default if the option isn’t used

<1 of 20+>
<1 of 20+>
This is the new feature in action. You can embed the grid on the right, as in this example, or on the left if you prefer.

It’s perfect for small grids to illustrate the subject of the paragraph. If it’s taller than the paragraph, then the following paragraphs will squeeze up as well.

If you’re familiar with html styles, it uses a float left or right, depending on which you choose for the paragraph embed. Other styling it uses:

  • The maximum width for the embedded grid is set to 50% of the available width
    this is so everything will look good on mobile / tablet as well as on desktop / laptop
  • There’s a 6px margin between the edge of the grid and the paragraph text
  • The 1px border surrounding the grid takes its color from the cell border color
  • There’s 5px padding between the border and the grid

When using the paragraph embed feature, if you’re showing grid navigation, it’ll be centered as shown.

———————————

The shortcode used for the above product grid is:

[niftygridzpro use_only_product_names_in_titles=1 title_font_size="12px" cell_max_width="120px" cell_border_color="#aaaaaa" cell_background_color="#ffffff" cell_font_color="#333333" description_length="0" store_or_collection="hightonridley" search_term="law" page_size="4" product_background_color="#ffffff" allow_interaction=1 show_visitor_search_form=0 tracking_code="ngrdz_blg_pplr_pembd_exmpl" use_message_slot=0 product_grid_nav_font_size="14px" paragraph_embed="R"]

Only product grids with fewer than 10 products in them are eligible for the local domains feature. This is because, behind the scenes, NiftyGridZPro has to make a request for each product to check its availability and this takes time. Too much time to be good for your site if you have lots and lots of products in your grids, hence the imposed limit.