# [TL;DR](/article/what-is-tl-dr)

If you have permission to manage a page you'll see a switch in the upper right corner of that page to toggle between view mode and management mode:

![Image](80ed06e4-a2e4-499a-9d63-bf1966ca08d6)

![Image](692ddc33-f4c7-4207-9bd5-f788ab3568d5)

# Toggle what?

Your customers and other casual visitors will only see a small subset of the website meant for the general public. As a designer with one or more stores you get to see a lot more pages. And those pages are naturally more complex than the public sees.

There's a lot of stuff to learn and mentally juggle. We tried to make it as easy as possible for you to manage your stores here. One key observation is that when you are doing your work, you need to go back and forth between seeing your complex management views and the simpler public views so you understand what your customers see. So we tried to design the management tools around this assumption. Look to the top of each page for the toggle switch. "On" means you're in management mode. "Off" means you are in public view mode.

![Image](c4883eb4-afa5-4d2f-b6f2-42908e4e4e89)

Often we talk about a given "edit page". That is a synonym for a management page. Same thing.

# Public and management page styling

You probably noticed that the website has two major page styles. This is not an accident. The public pages have a familiar white background and sharp styling. The private management pages have a colored background and somewhat different colors. This is to help keep you at least subconsciously aware of where you are as you move around this website.

![Image](ce1232b3-1d95-4c6b-b7cf-f46d7e69502a)

![Image](40d3e303-9650-4bb0-a111-07716c7845fb)


A quick look at the usual way to go back and forth between the public pages casual visitors see and the private ones your agency manages

How to toggle between edit/manage and view modes

A design agency is usually just one Zazzle designers but can include other designers or staff to support the efforts of those designers. An agency usually has one or more stores under it.

# Managing agents

From your "My account" page you should see the agencies you own or are an agent to. Click the "Manage" button. Scroll to the bottom of the agency editor page to the "Agents" section:

![Image](03e8bc16-7131-4103-bba2-a5d3920f7fae)

(This is a messy work in progress. Sorry!)

You can add an agent by typing in enough of an existing user's name until you see their name listed. Click the correct one in the list.

![Image](12a8843c-bea8-4d29-9d14-5ae6e6a27c64)

Decide whether the person is a manager with full permissions or is merely here to manage inventory (products, collections, etc). Check the appropriate checkbox in the "Full" or "Inv." column.


The process for adding other users to your design agency's team

How to add agents to your agency

# Teaming up

Most Zazzlers are [independent designers](/article/whats-the-difference-between-my-user-account-and-my-agency) creating and marketing their own products using Zazzle and sometimes other platforms. But sometimes we team up with one or more designers to pool resources and create bigger inventories. Zazzle makes this a little frustrating because it becomes necessary to share a Zazzle login account. Which Zazzle might even see as a violation of their terms of service.

But you might also want to get help from other people with managing your business. Maybe you design products and have a friend who helps you come up with tags and descriptions. Or maybe you hire an outside social media marketing consultant to help you out.

# Agents of agencies

All an agency is is a way for you to enable more than just you to work on your print on demand business. You've got your user account and you've got your agency. Those other people on your team are what we call "agents". And you are the agency's "owner". They each have their own user accounts. No need to share passwords.

You can [add agents to your agency](/article/how-to-add-agents-to-your-agency) from your agency's editor page.

# Ownership of assets

An agency almost always has one or more stores representing the more prominent brands designers place on their products. But it's worth noting that all products, collections, and so forth related to stores should be thought of as being owned by an agency. That agency's ownership may change hands over time. But those stores, products, and so on are owned by the agency.


Explaining the purpose and nature of design agencies

What is an agency?

# Why verify my store?

Store verification challenges you to prove you are the owner of this Zazzle store by demonstrating that you can log into Zazzle and edit one of your own products. The edit is temporary.

This is actually for your protection. If not for this then any site member could create a store that mimics yours. They could potentially make your brand look bad. Or unfairly gain market insights into your products. Or possibly even redirect your customers to some other place.

# Where do I go to start?

In your store's edit page you should see a warning notice letting you know your store will stay [disabled](/article/disabling-stores-products-collections-etc) until you verify ownership. Look for the "Verify ownership" button next to the "Zazle store ID" field:

![Image](54cbfc6a-dc1a-47e5-8b44-a4aaa397cdab)

When you click it you'll see a wizard-style dialog with the tools you need to execute the procedure:

![Image](9c627fe0-525a-4c0b-a358-ccc48cfa58dd)

# Procedure

Enter the ID of your store as it appears in Zazzle. You can also just paste the URL to your Zazzle store and tab away:

![Image](cf47632a-5fb5-48f5-8705-eab2a5805443)

If you see the above error, check on Zazzle to make sure you have it right. When it is found you'll see this:

![Image](c52cd0bf-da4e-4d27-abf8-9804550052b8)

Click "Next step" to continue:

![Image](5c943be2-14ca-47ad-9905-db9f535048fe)

Copy the verification code to your clipboard. Edit the newest product that is currently visible in your Zazzle store:

![Image](d8d9e2e5-d05b-426e-a3b8-d38015c767f4)

Paste the code at the bottom of the description:

![Image](01fc611e-d595-41e7-9126-24468d5cf111)

Save. Keep that tab open. You'll want to clear this code out later.

Click "Next step" to verify the code is found:

![Image](24ee6f33-8f86-4138-b94c-a3fc126ffabb)

If you see this then it's possible there is a short delay between when you saved and when it shows up on Zazzle. Give it at least a few seconds and then click "Try again". Eventually you should see this:

![Image](6b5cf685-559b-4677-8450-5bbb1ccec26d)

Hopefully you kept that other tab open on Zazzle. Delete the text you added. Save.

That's it. You're done. Your store is verified.


The reason for and procedure of Zazzle store verification

How to verify your ownership of a Zazzle store

So you say you like keeping secrets. Have we got a thing for you!

I was inspired by some obscure social media systems that allow me to keep notes about users I befriend. I have a terrible memory. They let me keep track of when I met people, some key moments or insights about them that helps me even when I meet them many years later.

Look on a user profile for the "My notes" button:

![Image](d6c9f173-b87c-489b-9363-8ec9b4e4babd)

Click it and you'll get a dialog pop up. Add whatever text you want here. These are just for you. Not even shared with your agency. Just you personally.

![Image](f84c8139-9157-48bc-a30b-7fe1b07c8646)

For store owners and others managing content, you'll see these on edit pages as well:

![Image](50563e74-fd00-4a70-a2d3-eb74e1b23d6e)

You can search through all your notes by visting "My account" and switching to the "My notes" tab:

![Image](c8c8ea56-de19-4a49-bc58-48173dded6e1)

Introduction to a simple feature that lets you keep private notes about users, products, and many other things

Keeping private notes about everything

# What is a "code"?

When you see a "Code" text box on an editor pages, think "part of a URL". For example, the [Snuggle Hamster Designs](/a/shd) agency has the URL https://snugglehamster.com/a/shd. The "Code" for this agency is "shd".

# Manually edited codes

Some codes are totally up to you to come up with. They must be unique though. Your agency code and stores' codes must be globally unique.

I recommend favoring plain words with dashes between. Like "mary-had-a-little-lamb".

![Image](9efd2111-037d-47a5-b881-4b0801232f2f)

# Automatically generated codes

Other codes are just too tedious for you to come up with. Like for products. So what this site does for you is takes the product (or other entity) name and turns it into a URL-friendly code for you. For example, the [Louise Brooks in 1920's Miami Poster](https://snugglehamster.com/a/shd/p/louise-brooks-in-1920-s-miami-poster-66) product has the code "louise-brooks-in-1920-s-miami-poster-66".

![Image](d3b662fd-2290-4bd7-8b05-6e63d8dc3e5e)

You might think that changing the product's name would automatically trigger the code to change too. But it does not. Why not? Because it's very possible you have already shared your product's URL on social media sites or elsewhere. You don't want those links to break just because you made a small spelling correction or made the name a little extra spicy.

But let's say the name changed so much that you really want a new URL that looks more like your product's new name. Click the little circular arrow icon on the right side of the Code field:

![Image](06ba01ba-6ef5-4fb5-a260-478551383a8d)

You'll see a dialog pop up like this to warn you and give you the choice of whether to continue on. Just follow the instructions. You'll need to save the product before the code will change.

![Image](57f4ac9a-de13-431e-ab11-e8c5d5186223)

This same approach is used on collections and some other entities you'll manage.


An explanation of the purpose, nature, and ways of changing the mnemonic codes that uniquely identify stores, products, etc

About mnemonic codes for things

# [TL;DR](/article/what-is-tl-dr)

Click the "Disable" button in a toolbar to disable something:

![Image](57ba42eb-45e5-4c19-b2b5-11ee9cbaa3a1)

And then "Enable" to reenable it later:

![Image](a5968f1e-99ce-46c5-8a0c-efcc1dd048d2)

# Deleting versus disabling

Simply put, deleting a thing is a one-way process. Sometimes we are just permanently hiding it. Sometimes it is completely removed from the database. But to you it is deleted permanently.

Disabling is a two-way process. It's your way of hiding something from the public. You and your agents within your agency can still see these disabled things. And of course so can system administrators. But other people outside your agency cannot.

There is generally a hierarchy of disabling that is intuitive. If you disable a store, you can expect the products in that store to also be hidden. If you disable your agency, you are pretty much hiding everything about your agency from the public.

# Why disable something?

You'll have your reasons. Maybe you just created your store and have not configured it yet. It's still "naked". You need to dress it up to make it presentable to the public. Same for products, collections, and so forth.

You may choose to hide some things that are seasonal. Maybe you get your Christmas inventory ready months ahead and keep it hidden until it's appropriate.

You may choose to "retire" some old things that you are not yet ready to part with. Or which you want to keep a history of data for. Deleting is more brutal.


The benefits of disabling various things temporarily and how to do it

Disabling stores, products, collections, etc

- [What is a store?](#what-is-a-store)
- [Creating a store](#create-a-store)
- [Disabling your store until it's ready](#disable-store)
- [Editing basic settings](#basic-settings)
- [Connecting your store to Zazzle](#connect-to-zazzle)
- [Verifying ownership of your Zazzle store](#verify-ownership)
- [Adding images](#add-images)
- [Mopping up](#mopping-up)


# What is a store? [#what-is-a-store]

So you've created your user account and [set up your design agency](/article/how-to-create-and-manage-your-agency). You're ready to create one or more stores.

If you are used to Zazzle then you probably already understand how you can have one member account with more than one store. This lets you separate your many products into well-defined brands that serve your different customers.

This site follows that same model. Except you also have the added notion of an "agency", allowing multiple people to work together without having to share a login password.

# Creating a store [#create-a-store]

There are a few ways to do so. But probably the best way is from your "My account" page. You'll see all the agencies you're part of listed. Odds are good there's only one for you. Look for the "New store" button under your agency's heading. Click that.

![Image](954f77be-eac7-4637-afa4-572a88f5c458)

Enter your store's name. It will suggest a "code" based on it for you. You can change it. This mnemonic code will be used in the URL for your store. You will be able to change both of these at any time in the future.

![Image](be64537a-ce6c-4dfd-9619-0b4fec911da4)

Click "Save".

# Disabling your store until it's ready [#disable-store]

I recommend you start by [disabling your store](/article/disabling-stores-products-collections-etc). Click the "Disable" button on the toolbar. You'll see a friendly note reminding you to enable it later. When your store is ready to go live, just come back here and click "Enable".

# Editing basic settings [#basic-settings]

Go ahead and edit your store's tagline, description, and other basic settings. They will not be automatically imported for you.

# Connecting your store to Zazzle [#connect-to-zazzle]

Technically you don't have to have your store on Zazzle too. But there's not much point right now to doing this. So you're going to need to get your store's ID from Zazzle.

Easiest way to do this is to open a new tab and go to your Zazzle store's home page. Then copy the URL from the address line:

![Image](d07b88b8-3b2a-4e35-b188-131c3f09935d)

Then come back to your store's edit page and paste the whole URL into this text box. When you click or tab away it will strip away the parts of the URL it does not need:

![Image](26ee8fae-becd-46d0-b8e1-b53384ee66f0)

Click the "Save" button. Now you're ready to verify.

# Verifying ownership of your Zazzle store [#verify-ownership]

Now you need to [verify your store](/article/how-to-verify-your-ownership-of-a-zazzle-store). We need to know that you actually own your Zazzle store. This is to prevent unauthorized people from pretending to be you and easily importing your inventory and other public data. You prove your ownership by editing something in your store that we can see.

Click the "Verify" button. You should see a popup like this:

![Image](d1b3b442-a3c3-4219-b174-921e0904129a)

[Click here to read more](/article/how-to-verify-your-ownership-of-a-zazzle-store) about the verification process.

Once you are done your product editor page should look something like this around the Zazzle store ID:

![Image](379b3a25-932e-4e71-bc1f-a89c8158acfd)

# Adding images [#add-images]

One final thing you'll want to do is polish your store's branding with 3 essential images:

![Image](7d90b56f-44af-4cbf-9678-b26877ae427b)

The main/thumbnail image should be a 1000 x 1000 pixel square with your main logo. The banner is a 1:4 ratio big splashy image. Here's how the first two images typically play together on your store's public home page:

![Image](d38732f2-bbd6-46cf-9730-0208c7bef0f6)

That third "Mobile banner" image is for people visiting on their mobile devices:

![Image](5d54dfcd-603e-4cc7-8a70-224b0bd1fd7f)

If you don't provide a mobile banner version then the site will just use your Desktop banner version and chop it down to a square to fit.

# Mopping up [#mopping-up]

You're done with the basics. Try switching to the Products tab and [kicking off an import](/article/how-to-import-your-stores-products-from-zazzle).

A brief look at how to get started creating a new store to your agency

How to create a new store

The closed beta is over. You can set up your agency and do all the things. Cheers. :-)


A summary of the initial steps required to get started as a beta tester once you are invited

Articles