Zazzle - PG-13 and up need not apply

I'm going to take a break from jokes to talk about a weird adventure I had with Zazzle, the online POD t-shirt company. I started a new election store called Choice2008 and I added this design called "Screw Hillary" . I never though it would be a problem because I have seen plenty of more strongly worded designs on Zazzle and every place else.


The big stuff hit the fan and FAST. Whew! The fallout was fast. First I got some angry comments, but then Zazzle sent me a strongly worded message that this design violates their terms of service and the only way I could have it is if I rated it PG-13 or ABOVE.

OK... .fine.... UNTIL I found out.... (drum roll) that if a design isn't rated "G", it not only isn't displayed in the Zazzle marketplace, NOBODY, but NOBODY can see the design in my shop unless they are logged into Zazzle.

Now wait a minute folks. How many members of the public, when they find my shop via Google are logged in? How many members of the public who find my shop via my blog or somebody else's blog are logged in? That tells me I effectively cannot promote this design because if I display it and you click on the designs, its Sorry Charlie, you aren't logged in. People aren't going to bother making a new account, they are going to move on to the next selection in Google.

Zazzle could easily remedy this market place issue by instituting what Google Images does. Google permits the end user to set search preferences for images to something they call Safe Search which permits you to set Strict Search or moderately strict search, or do not filter.

Anyway, I hope this gets resolved soon. I have heard from other Shopkeepers who have stores at Cafepress that they don't bother putting any more energy into their shops at Zazzle because their designs are PG-13 or above and they can't promote them.

And by the way, if you want to buy the Screw Hilliary design, its HERE

Cheers y'all. Tomorrow, back to some better jokes.