Contributed by: The House of Mouse
Learning to make a great treasury is an art. It is also an important education for any seller who wants to get their work featured on the Front Page of Etsy. If you take the time to learn what makes a treasury the kind that an Admin will choose for the Etsy Front Page, you will quickly learn how to make your listings the kind that will get chosen for that honor.
Take a look at the Etsy Front Page Flickr group. This is full of screencaps of treasuries that have been on the front page. Notice how each one looks amazing, the photos are top quality and the treasury always has a theme, be it a shape, color or something else.
As a seller who was been both curator for and featured in Etsy Home Page treasuries, here are my top 10 tips for making a Front Page worthy treasury.
1) Use the EtsyPoster Sketch. You can build as many treasuries as you like there, although only you can see them. You can always save your sketches to use when you actually manage to grab a treasury. (Bookmark it in your browser because the link to it is hard to find on Etsy.)
2) Choose a theme. The theme can be colour, tone, shape, emotion , keyword or anything else you like. You can try picking one listing from your favorites to start with; try to find other listings that match it in some way. Think of your entire treasury as a piece of art, each listing should go well with the others.
3) Use the EtsyTag Fractal. Y ou can use the Tag Fractal to search for listings that fit your theme, you can search based on their titles and tags here. It is a great tool. (Bookmark this one too!)
4) Choose listings that look great as thumbnails. Take a look atthis post for further explanation on this.
5) Vary the types of listings in your treasury. Unless your theme is a certain type or category of listing, try to avoid having too many of the same kind of listing in your treasury. For example, not more than 2 pairs of earrings, 2 toys, 2 illustrations, etc.
6) Vary the prices of the listings in your treasury. When Admin choose a treasury for the front page they make sure that the price range varies. they don't want everything to sell out before that front page's time is up. If everything is too inexpensive then the items will sell out too fast and cause technical difficulties for the front page.
7) Fill up all the alternatives. When you make a treasury you get 16 slots to show off, but only the 12 on the left can be seen. The other 4 are called the alternatives. If your treasury makes it to the front page then when something sells one of your alternatives will take its place. Admin will only ever choose a treasury that is full, including the alternatives. Make sure your alternatives are just as good as the others.
8) Don't feature yourself.You are allowed to feature yourself in one listing of your own treasury, but if your treasury gets picked for the front page then your listing will get swapped out for an alternative. From an Admin's point of view you will only have 3 alternatives instead of 4 as they won't ever have the curator of a treasury featured on the FP too. It lowers your chances significantly and it is considered by some to be an "unwritten rule" of making treasuries.
9) Choose an interesting title. Titles are hard to come up with, so while you are filling your Poster Sketch try to think about your theme and what title would go well with it. A good title will get a few more people clicking on it, just to see what is in there. I should say that Etsy Admin has stated that they don't pay any attention to a treasury title, they are interested in how it looks and the price ranges it includes, so it's not essential.
10) Promote your treasury. When you have caught a treasury and filled it, tell your friends about it. If you belong to an Etsy Street Team then post it in your team thread. If you are on Twitter then post the link there too. If there are threads in the forums sharing the latest treasuries then post there too. (You get the idea.) The more views, clicks and comments your treasury gets the "hotter" it becomes and the higher up the treasury list it will go. The more people see that you make great treasuries, the more chances you have of making it to the Front Page one day.
Good luck and happy treasury making!
About the author: Etsy Treasury Team member, Anna, runs her store The House of Mouse from her home studio in Holland. She loves to make treasuries and her blog is full of tips for new and struggling sellers on Etsy.
Take a look at the Etsy Front Page Flickr group. This is full of screencaps of treasuries that have been on the front page. Notice how each one looks amazing, the photos are top quality and the treasury always has a theme, be it a shape, color or something else.
As a seller who was been both curator for and featured in Etsy Home Page treasuries, here are my top 10 tips for making a Front Page worthy treasury.
1) Use the Etsy
2) Choose a theme. The theme can be colour, tone, shape, emotion , keyword or anything else you like. You can try picking one listing from your favorites to start with; try to find other listings that match it in some way. Think of your entire treasury as a piece of art, each listing should go well with the others.
3) Use the Etsy
4) Choose listings that look great as thumbnails. Take a look at
5) Vary the types of listings in your treasury. Unless your theme is a certain type or category of listing, try to avoid having too many of the same kind of listing in your treasury. For example, not more than 2 pairs of earrings, 2 toys, 2 illustrations, etc.
6) Vary the prices of the listings in your treasury. When Admin choose a treasury for the front page they make sure that the price range varies. they don't want everything to sell out before that front page's time is up. If everything is too inexpensive then the items will sell out too fast and cause technical difficulties for the front page.
7) Fill up all the alternatives. When you make a treasury you get 16 slots to show off, but only the 12 on the left can be seen. The other 4 are called the alternatives. If your treasury makes it to the front page then when something sells one of your alternatives will take its place. Admin will only ever choose a treasury that is full, including the alternatives. Make sure your alternatives are just as good as the others.
8) Don't feature yourself.You are allowed to feature yourself in one listing of your own treasury, but if your treasury gets picked for the front page then your listing will get swapped out for an alternative. From an Admin's point of view you will only have 3 alternatives instead of 4 as they won't ever have the curator of a treasury featured on the FP too. It lowers your chances significantly and it is considered by some to be an "unwritten rule" of making treasuries.
9) Choose an interesting title. Titles are hard to come up with, so while you are filling your Poster Sketch try to think about your theme and what title would go well with it. A good title will get a few more people clicking on it, just to see what is in there. I should say that Etsy Admin has stated that they don't pay any attention to a treasury title, they are interested in how it looks and the price ranges it includes, so it's not essential.
10) Promote your treasury. When you have caught a treasury and filled it, tell your friends about it. If you belong to an Etsy Street Team then post it in your team thread. If you are on Twitter then post the link there too. If there are threads in the forums sharing the latest treasuries then post there too. (You get the idea.) The more views, clicks and comments your treasury gets the "hotter" it becomes and the higher up the treasury list it will go. The more people see that you make great treasuries, the more chances you have of making it to the Front Page one day.
Good luck and happy treasury making!
And last but not least...beware! Making treasuries is addictive!
ReplyDeletewww.niftyknits.etsy.com
Ha ha - Indeed it is NiftyKnits!! :) ~ Sandie
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks for this post Anna! You've taught me a few things I wasn't aware of. Very enlightening!
ReplyDeleteGreat article, I learnt some stuff I didn't know about!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat tip about the Tag Fractal. That's a feature I had no idea about!
ReplyDeleteGreat article, lot of good information! Thanks Anna!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post - a few new insights for me!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot and happy treasury making for all of you!