How to: Create an Etsy Treasury! Plus tips on how to create a popular treasury and find out if your work has been featured.

A fun treasury I created featuring work by my Lilla Rogers MATS classmates

Ready to create your own Etsy Treasury? 

1.Go to www.etsy.com and sign in

2.Next head to the Etsy Treasuries Page  you can get there by clicking "See More" link next to the text "Handpicked Items" that appears over the Treasury featured on Etsy' home page or just head straight there via this url: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/?ref=fp_treasury_more

3. Now you are on the Treasuries Page. Here you can do a few things...

• The main part of the page is a long list of other treasuries. You can sort these by either "Most Recent" or "Hotness". 
• On the right hand side of the page you will see the text "Start Curating" in a light blue box. Click the "Create a list" button to begin.
• Also on the right hand side of the page Etsy lists "Today's Trending Tags."  If you create a treasury involving some of these tags you have a better chance of your treasury being seen by Etsy and also of it gaining in "hotness".

Tips on Creating A Treasury
It will probably help to have some idea of a theme for your treasury before you begin or at least 2- 3 items you would like to build a treasury around. Of course there are endless themes to curate around but here are a few ideas: current season, upcoming holiday, a color or a color combo, a narrative, events (weddings are popular), shape, etc.

Open up a second tab or browser window so you can search Etsy in one window and work on your treasury in another.

Etsy likes it best if you: 1. Don't feature your own work and 2. Feature a mix of products- art, clothing, home decor, edible, vintage, handmade, etc.

You can collect potential treasury images in your Etsy favorites for easy access.

Photos are everything. You need to select photos that make people want to click on them and view the item. If you adore a product or it's maker but the photo isn't up to the job leave it out. :( You're job is to select photos that look good together. Review Etsy's Seller Handbook Photo tips if you need some schoolin on what makes a good Etsy image. (That being said it's also fine to create treasuries of your friends that aren't perfectly composed. It's still fun and helps drive traffic to everyone's shops)

Be aware of background in photos as you arrange your treasury. All light backgrounds and one dark background can throw off the look of the treasury as a whole.

Review the trending tags

Move items around in your treasury to see what arrangement looks best. Just click and drag the images/squares to rearrange. Then rearrange again till it sings.

Pay special attention to the top row and make sure it is filled with tantalizing images. These are the images that will show up on the Treasuries page in the big list of treasuries. People will decide if they want to view your treasury based on these images and...

Title your treasury thoughtfully. Make it interesting. This can be difficult as there are tons of creative people on Etsy making creatively titled treasuries.

Add a wordy description and tag your treasury appropriately. Be sure to include any of the trending tags that are applicable.


Etiquette for when you are featured in a treasury

It's generally considered good etiquette to leave a comment of thanks on a treasury in which your shop has been featured. If you like you can also favorite the treasury.


How treasuries get popular

The more of these:

• Views    (number of times people viewed the unique url for your treasury)
• Admirers (number people who click the heart/favorite button)
• Clicks    (number of times people clicked any image in the treasury and visited the item's page or shop)
• Comments   (number of comments left about the treasury)

the better chance of your treasury getting picked up for the Etsy front page.

You can post your treasury on facebook/twitter/etc. and ask people to check it out increasing your views. You can also "like" it on facebook, etc. See the bottom right hand side of your treasury page for links to share it on major social networks.

There are groups on Etsy that create treasuries featuring each others work and then they all click, comment, and favorite the treasuries to make it a hot treasury. I don't really go in for all that but generally the more involved the featured artisans are the more popular it will become. You can find such groups in the forums. Sometimes I will receive a convo from a treasury creator alerting me to the fact that she's featured my work in a treasury. I have no problem receiving these convos but I am not sure it is technically permissible under Etsy's rules. 


How to find out if your work has been featured in a treasury

When you login to Etsy there will be a spiral image at the top left of the page next to the Etsy logo. If you hover over this you will see that spiral means "Activity." Click spiral to see your Etsy Activity Feed. Select the feed for "Your Shop". This is where any notices of treasury features will be listed.

How to find out if a Treasury made it to the front page of Etsy.

Notice a big jump in your views on Etsy? Maybe you made it to the front page. Here is how to check. Craft Cult is a site that archives all of the Etsy front page treasuries.

• Head over to Craft Cult
• Select "The Vault"
• Select "search for member" 
• specify whether to search for items by or treasury list created by

 Be sure to check out all of the other useful Etsy gadgets on Craft Cult while you're there!


Good luck!