Wednesday Wisdom

To make an Etsy Treasury really special,
choose listings that mean something to you.

Sometimes, even though I want to make a Treasury, I just can't think of a decent theme to tie it all together. I bet I'm not the only one! I realised recently that if I make a Treasury based on my feelings or my life situation at the time, it often flows really well. It has more of a 'meaning' to me, and it's easier to spot the items that fit in with my 'feeling' (like a Moodboard!) than it is to randomly look for items that might look good together.

Also, this way, if it does make it to the Front Page, I'd be sharing a bit of my life or my soul with thousands and thousands of people. That's pretty cool!

The first Treasury that I made for The House of Mouse.

Much love,
Naomi xx

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Wednesday Wisdom

If you sell small items, use a light box to create beautiful photos every time no matter what the weather is doing.

Great photos are one of the most important things to get right if you sell online. Your photographs are your virtual shop window: If they are not light, bright and eye-catching then often buyers will surf right past your store without even noticing your work.

Here's a tutorial Anna wrote on how to make your own lightbox


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Etsy Sellers tips – Custom orders

Image: Needle Felted Dog by KaysK9s

The world of custom orders is a tricky one for any Etsy seller, because we enter the minefield of creating something unique to a buyers design specifications. We hand over some or all of the creative control to our buyers, who are often unaware of the limitations of our craft and the time that their items take to create.

I know of many Etsy sellers that have fallen foul of custom order requests gone wrong: Where buyers expect way too much for no increase in price, or when communications have not made it clear exactly what they want before the seller starts work, causing sellers to redo items over and over wasting precious time. The steps below are designed to help you work out the kinks of your custom order process so both you and your buyer are clear on exactly what you expect from each other, hopefully meaning that you both come out happy with your transaction.

1. Talk to your buyer about what they want.
Colors, sizes, design features etc. Ask for images or links for reference if applicable and make sure you get as much information as possible. If your buyer asks for a quote at this point give them a ball park figure if you can, but be clear that until you have decided on ALL the details you can’t give them a specific price.

2. Be honest about what you can and cannot do.
Sometimes buyers assume your craft is capable of things that are just not possible! Be honest with your buyers about what you can and cannot do, it is much better for the both of you if your design specification is achievable right from the beginning. If your buyer sets a low budget, be clear with them about what you can accomplish for their price range.

3. Write up a clear design specification.
When you are sure you have all the information you need: Write up a clear design specification. It sounds so simple and yet it is very easy to get crossed wires even at this early stage, especially if you have had several convos already and important information has to be sifted out.

Write out all the details you have discussed and put it all in one place, give them a price based on this information. Ask your buyer to check it and if they make any changes make sure you adjust the price accordingly if you need to.

Include the shipping cost and the time it will take you to complete the order in your design specification as well. Overestimate the time it will take you by about 20%, this gives you some wiggle room should unforeseen things happen, and if you get it done before you said you would this will make your buyer even happier.

It is a good idea include small piece of text making it clear that changes to the design specification later will incur additional costs, if your buyer keeps changing their minds and costing you time then it is fair that it should cost them more money. Make sure they are aware of this when they are confirming their design specification.

4. Ask for payment before you start work.
You don’t have to ask for all the money before you start, but a partial payment of 50% is more than acceptable. Most professional businesses require 100% payment before they start on an order, and I see no reason why an Etsy seller should not ask for the same.

Some sellers prefer not to take this approach, and of course the decision is up to you. If the item you are making could be sold in your store as a non-custom item then you might choose to risk it and not ask for payment ahead of time, then should something happen you could place it in your store to resell later. However if you are making something that you could not resell, I would highly recommend that you ask your buyer to make some kind of financial commitment before you start work. This is a common policy for most professional businesses.

5. Set up a listing on Etsy so that your buyer can pay
Include the whole design specification (omitting any personal information that the buyer does not want to share). By doing this you receive payment as well as having a new transaction and feedback options.

6. Keep the lines of communication open as you work
When you wrote out the design specification you set a timetable for the work to be completed. If the work will take more than a week, make sure you keep your buyer up to date on how their item is coming along. If you are having difficulties you did not foresee (such as materials out of stock from your local craft store, or technical problems with some of the design specifications) make sure you keep your buyer informed. Buyers would much rather know about things like this ahead of time than be surprised with them later on. Managing their expectations in important for your customer service record. You don’t need to send a convo every day, but a quick update once a week will really help your buyer feel as if something is happening.

7. Send photos of the completed item to your buyer
Give them the opportunity to suggest any changes they would like you to make. If the changes they want are significantly different from your original design specifications and will cost you more time to do, then make them aware what extra cost they will need to pay to cover this.

If the buyer does request changes repeat step 7 until they are happy with their item.

8. Get the rest of your payment
If you took partial payment before you started work, ask for the rest of it now before you ship the item off.

9. You’re done!
Ship off their items promptly and make sure to let them know how long it should take to arrive.

It helps to write about your custom order policies in the Policies section of your Etsy Store, you can then direct your buyers to read this section as you start convoing about a possible order. Include information on possible costs, construction times, additional charges to changes in the design specifications, when payment is due etc. The more information you include the better your customer will know what to expect from you, and the more protected you are should something go wrong. For example if a buyer claims that they did not know changes that require more work on your part would cost them more money. If it is there in their policies, and you have been clear about it in convos they do not have a leg to stand on.

So many of us rely on custom orders for a large proportion of our income, and many new sellers on Etsy inadvertently allow buyers to walk all over them. Buyers that demand a great deal of work from a seller for a low budget often get a very good deal while the seller is left running in circles for a pitiful amount of money. Don’t allow your need for more sales cause you to undersell what you do.

Summary:

1. Talk to your buyer about what they want.
- Colors, sizes, design features etc.
- Collect together links, images and any other reference material.
- Give a ballpark figure on cost if requested

2. Be honest about what you can accomplish, especially if a low budget it set.

3. Write up a clear design specification and ask your buyer to check it.
Include:
– All the details you have discussed, colors, sizes, design features, links, images and reference material etc
- Total price for the work including the Shipping cost
- Time it will take you to complete the order
- Be clear that major changes to the design speciation will cost the buyer more money.

4. Ask for payment before you start work.
- Partial or full payment, however you decide to do this.

5. Create a special listing in your Etsy store so your buyer can pay. Include the whole design specification in the description. (Remember to protect your customers privacy, remove any personal information like names, addresses etc from the listing description)

6. Keep the lines of communication open.
- Keep your buyer up to date once a week on how things are progressing.
- Let them know if you are having any difficulties with their order, especially if this will affect the construction time.

7. Send photos of the completed item to your buyer.
- Ask for their opinion and any changes they might want.
- If they want changes that are significantly different to the design specification and will cost you more time then give them a quote for the additional work.
- repeat step 7 until your buyer is happy with their order.

8. If you took partial payment before you started work, ask for the rest of it now before you ship the item off.

9. You’re done! Ship off the item promptly.

Etsy Sellers tips - Shop Policies

A frequently overlooked part of an Etsy store is the policies section. Your store policies tell your customers what to expect from you. I am always sad when I see a store with no policies, because I know it is costing them sales. Customers look at your store policies to judge what kind of customer service you will offer; if there is nothing there they are likely to walk away.

Shop policies do not only help your customers but they also help the store owner stay consistent and have actions in place for certain situations.

You can find the page to edit your policies buy logging in to Etsy, click "your Etsy" and look for the "policies" link in the left hand column, click it.

Here are some things to consider when writing your store policies.

Welcome

• You don't need to put a lot of information here, any personal information you want to share can be put in your profile. A brief introduction is fine here and you can encourage buyers to contact you if they have any questions.
  

Payment

• State what methods of payment you will take (PayPal, cheque etc)
  
• If you take PayPal, a brief description of how to pay with PayPal is useful. Lots of people don't realise they can use this method to pay with their credit or debit card without having to sign up for a PayPal account. It helps to explain how they can do this. This is what I say in my policies, you can copy and paste it if you want

"You do not need a PayPal Account to pay for your items through PayPal:

You can choose the PayPal Option during checkout. After you submit your order click the "Pay Now" button. Scroll Down and you will see the option to pay with a Credit or Debit Card WITHOUT having to sign up for a PayPal account."

• State that you will not send packages until payments have cleared.
• Encourage buyers to contact you if they are having any problems with payment
• Tell your buyers what you will do in the event of non-payment. Non-payment is a common problem on Etsy, part of this is down to the way the system works there and it can be confusing to new buyers on Etsy, other times people are just messing you around. This forum post has some great advice on how to deal non-payment, but it helps to leave something about it in your policies too. Will you leave negative feedback for non-payment and no-response to emails? I do, but it is a personal choice. Whatever you decide, put it down in your policies. It will make it easier for you to follow through on it when non-payment happens to you.
• If you offer payment plans explain how this works to your customers.
  

Shipping

• Describe how your items are packaged: Do you gift wrap? Are your items sent in boxes? Do you include a certificate of authenticity? If you use recycled packaging write that in here too, Etsy buyers love sellers who do this.
• Tell your buyers what shipping company you use.
• What shipping do you offer? (priority, standard, first class, registered mail, online tracking?)
  
• Can customers request faster shipping or insurance for an additional charge? If yes, ask them to contact you for more information.
  
• If the Etsy and PayPal shipping addresses you receive for an order are different, what will you do? Some stores state if they have had no contact from the buyer within 3 working days then they will ship to the PayPal shipping address. Other sellers clearly say that they always ship to the address given during Etsy checkout. Decide which you will do and state it here (I used to say I would contact the buyer to confirm if their addresses were different, only once did the buyer say they wanted it shipped to their PayPal address, all others said the Etsy one. So now I always ship to the Etsy address, no more waiting around for buyers to get back to me) If you will automatically ship to a certain address make sure you include info on this in your "message to buyer" box as well.
• Give information on estimated shipping times. If you have already done a lot of shipping you will have a good idea of how long a package takes to arrive in certain parts of the world. If you have not done much shipping yet, ask at your post office, and then add a few days to their estimated times. Packages almost always take longer to arrive than the PO says they will.
  
• If you ship overseas, state that customs can delay packages by up to 6 weeks, say that this does not happen often but that it can happen. It is better to forewarn your buyers about this possible problem.
  

Refunds and Exchanges

• If you don't want to do refunds and exchanges then put it politely. Something like "I'm sorry but at this time [insert shop name here] cannot accept refunds or exchanges, please purchase seriously" comes across a lot better than "No exchanges or refunds accepted"
• If you are going to offer refunds and/or exchanges then put your terms and conditions here. How long after receiving an item can people ask you for an exchange or refund? Will you refund only the cost of the item or the shipping as well? If a buyer returns an item to you who is responsible for the return postal costs?
  

Additional Policies and FAQs

• This is a great place for any custom order policies you have. If you take custom orders then you can talk about the process you go through for these orders.
  
• An estimate of how long an order will take is good here, if it varies a lot then ask buyers to contact you for more information.
  
• When you require payment. I recommend you at least take a deposit before starting work, unforeseen things can happen that may mean your buyer cannot pay you by the time you have finished working (this has happened to me in the past, I now require full payment before I start work)
• Frequently Asked Questions, is pretty self explanatory. If you have some questions that you are always getting asked then this is the place to put them down with your answers. This won´t stop everyone as some people just don´t look hard enough for the answers, but it will help a few and you can just copy/paste them when you get convos about them.
  

Other tips for your policies.

• Run your policies through a spell checker, and get someone else to proof-read them for you if you can. It looks unprofessional if you have spelling and grammar mistakes everywhere.
  
• Keep a friendly and polite tone in your policies. Don´t get angry, confrontational or rude when you write them. Be clear and concise without being rude.
• Re-read your policies as if they belonged to a shop you wanted to buy from. How would you feel as the customer when reading them? Make any changes you think you need.
  
• Ask a friend if what you have written makes sense.
  
• Sometimes people will write to you with questions about your policies. When this happens take note and if necessary make adjustments to your policies if you think they need it.
  

Here are my shop policies, I give you permission to copy and paste bits of it you feel are useful. However, make sure you actually agree with what I have written if you are copying it.

Did you find this post useful? Is there anything I left out that you think should be included? For links to other Etsy Sellers Tips I have written check out this page.

Etsy Sellers Tip #4 - Promotions

Photo by MajoReyStore

For most creative people the prospect of promoting our work is just plain scary. We hate shouting "Look at what I made!" because it feels boastful and takes us way outside our comfort zone. But the truth is that if you don't shout about what you do then no one will.

I know from experience that you can get past the shyness and awkwardness that comes when you start marketing your product. There are literally hundreds of ways to tell the world about your creations and you can start with the ones that you feel most comfortable with and work up to the ones that scare you.

I certainly don't recommend that you try to do all of these things for your store at once. Some of them are time consuming, especially to set up. Allot yourself a certain amount of time per day/week to spend on promotions and don't allow yourself to spend all day on your computer. Get yourself set up with Google Analytics so that you can see what promotions are working for you and which aren't. then you can spend your promotions time much more efficiently by cutting out the sites that don't bring you views.

Your choices for promotions will depend on many different factors; time, money, confidence, target audience etc. I have tried to include a little run down on the pros and cons of each one so you can pick an choose what works best for you. I have also included links to posts on how to get the most out of each promotional tool where I have found them.

Twitter - Social Networking Site
How to use Twitter as a marketing tool
Pros
- Free to use
- Fast and easy to set up
- Very popular right now
- Simple and easy to use
- Share links and chat
- Build a fan base quickly
Cons
- Limited message size
- Only use links, no space for images
- Saturated by other sellers
- Addictive

MySpace - Social Networking Site
How to use MySpace as a marketing tool
Pros
- Free
- MySpace groups enables you to find your target audience faster
- Share images, videos and other embedded HTML
- Post bulletins, blog, photo albums and chat
- Possible to get a large number of sales and hits from MySpace
- Your page is totally customizable making branding much easier
Cons
- Time consuming to set up
- Posting comments regularly is also time consuming
- Need to learn some basic HTML to get the most out of it

Facebook - Social Networking Site
How to use Facebook as a marketing tool
Pros
- Free
- Relatively easy to set up
- Facebook groups enables you to find your target audience faster
- Facebook applications make it possible to share images
- Chat and comment
- Improvements being made to the site all the time
Cons
- Site is less geared towards promotion than MySpace
- Takes a while to figure out
- Addictive

Flickr - Image Sharing Site
How to use Flickr as a promotional tool
Pros
- Free
- Quick and easy to set up
- Flickr groups makes it easy to find your target audience
- Share comments
- Easy to network
- uploading new photos is quick and easy
- Friendly artist community
Cons
- Not allowed to overtly promote your store on this site. You can leave links in your profile but you will get removed from the site if you advertise in your photo descriptions.
- Addictive

DeviantArt - Artist Community and Gallery
Pros
- Basic package is free
- Easy to set up
- Have your own gallery and sub galleries
- Share comments and network with other artists
- Get critiques and advice from other artists
- Features include a blog/journal newsletters and forums
- Can post links to your store in photo descriptions
- Friendly artist community
- Sell prints of your work through this site
Cons
- To get all the features you have to subscribe
- Print shop takes large commission on any sold prints
- Has some mature content (there is an option which allows you to block mature content)
- Addictive

The Ning Network - Collection of Social Networking Sites

Pros
- Free
- Easy to find your target audience
- Share photos and comments
- Endless ways to take part in your community
- Reasonably easy to set up
- Make contacts and network
- build your own Ning network if you want (LOTS of work to do this)
Cons
- Photo sharing is slow to upload
- Some Ning networks are better than others - takes time to find the good ones
- Addictive and easy to waste time here

Word of Mouth
The easiest way to gain a reputation is my word of mouth. To make sure that they are the right words work on making your customer service and packaging the best it can be. Make sure that your buyers will want to tell their friends about your product!
Pros
- Free
- Easy
- Probably the best advertising there is
Cons
- To get it right you must have great customer service skills and beautiful packaging helps too!

Blogging - Online Dairy
Blogging tips for beginners (Blogger)
There are several different pieces of software for blogging but the best one for beginners is Blogger. it is easy to use and does not require that you understand HTML coding to get a good looking page.
Pros
- Share your experiences and new listings
- Helps your buyers get to know you
- Comment on other blogs to make connections
- Share photos, video, stories, anything you like
- Add advertisements and even make money from blogging
- If you love to write this blogging is a lot of fun
Cons
- Time consuming
- Requires continued input to be successful
- If you don't like writing this isn't for you
- Customizing your blog takes time
- To get the most out of it you need to learn some basic HTML

Blog features - Getting Featured
Being featured by another blogger is one of the best ways to get sales, especially if their blog is a popular one. However getting that feature can be hard work. It requires time and effort to write to other bloggers and tell them about your work, most of the time you won't get a reply but occasionally you will get that feature. Personally I think the time spent on this is worth it. Sometimes bloggers want free samples for the feature, it is up to you to decide if that is worth it.

Business Cards
It is so simple and yet many Etsy sellers forget this wonderful marketing tool. You can get some great deals on business cards from vistaprint and you can Google for some great coupon codes for massive discount. Keep them with you all the time and hand them out to anyone who is interested in what you do.

Forums - On Etsy and Off
Pros
- Free
- Make friends and network
- Share your knowledge and advice
- Gain a reputation
- Find forums for your target audience
- Connect with people of similar interests
Cons
- Easy to waste time in forums
- Forums can get nasty, learn to walk away when the claws come out

Paid advertising
(not a lot of pros and cons here because I don't have a lot of experience with this medium yet)
Pros
- Target your advertising to the right people
- Gain large numbers of buyers
- Prices to suit everyone
- Millions of places to advertise
Cons
- Cost (be smart and find slots that fit your budget)
- May get more sales that you can deal with

Craft Fairs
Pros
- Meet people face to face
- Network with your local community
- Make a large number of sales in 1 or 2 days
- Have a fun day out
Cons
- Organization to get set up
- Confidence to do your first one
- Fees to rent your stall (these vary wildly so do your research first)

Wholesale - Pitching your product face to face
If you have enough stock then you are ready to sell wholesale. The best way to get interest here is to walk into your local stores and present yourself (I know, seriously scary stuff)
Pros
- Make BIG sales
- Gain a reputation locally
- Make contacts with local store owners
Cons
- Takes lots of confidence
- Need a lot of stock
- Set up contracts and legal agreements

General tips for marketing
- Have great photos. Most of marketing is a visual experience, make sure your images are the best they can be. Take the time to learn how to get them looking great.
- Choose a marketing style that you are comfortable with. You don't have to be like that pushy sales guy at the car dealership, you can be more subtle and advertise your work with great photos, humor and genuine interest in other people.
- Don't let marketing take over your life. Allot a certain amount of time per day/week to promotions and stick to it.
- Build friendships with those you meet on social networking sites, it is not about the quantity of friends you have but the quality of those relationships that is important.
- Always keep your communications professional. Don't become whiny, rude or argumentative - this will quickly damage all the work you have put into it.
- Once you have built a reputation and people know about you, you don't need to spend so much time on marketing because Word of Mouth will do a lot of the work for you.

Other places to advertise
(no pros and cons here because I have not tried them properly yet)
Project Wonderful
Squidoo

More advice on promotions

Pimp your shop Etsy Blog Article
HUGE list of places to sell, advertise, network, and more Etsy forums
Ultimate Craft Guide - tutorials, advice, suppliers.... Etsy forums

Etsy Sellers tip #3 - Tagging

Tags are the way your buyers find you, they are the words buyers put into the search bar on Etsy to find specific listings, so getting these right is essential.

A quick explanation on how tags work: Each individual word in a tag is searchable. If you have a tag that says "sterling silver" then your listing will be found just with a search for the word "silver". You do not have to search for all the words in a single tag for it to show up.
For example: Listing is tagged "sterling silver" and "wire wrapped"
Then the listing would be found in a search for "silver wire"

Let me take a moment to talk about the "rules" of tagging on Etsy. There is a never ending debate about this in the forms because the Etsy DOs and DONTs state very clearly that using more than one word in a tag is against the rules, but that using words that obviously go together like "sterling silver" or "navy blue" are allowed.

However, the problem comes in when you attend an Etsy Virtual labs shop critique run by an Etsy admin. Because in this situation and on more than one occasion I have heard admin say that you can put more than one color word into the same tag: like "black white red" and that you can also put words with similar meaning in the same tag: like "mouse mice rat"

I have read more than one rant about "tag abuse"* - sellers putting more than one word in a tag - in the forums, and I feel for those who stick diligently to the rules as stated in the Dos and Don'ts and watch other sellers apparently getting away with "tag abuse"*

I decided from a business perspective to tag more than one word in a tag - just so long as the words are related - as it gives me more signposts to my creations, more chances for buyers to find me. I have done this for over 6 months and Etsy has never written to me about it. If they do then I will of course change my tags, but I believe that as long as your tags are RELEVANT and SPECIFIC to the item listed then it is not tag abuse.

Things to consider when tagging:

• Make sure you are in the right section, this is the first tag you choose. If your product is not handmade then it either belongs in "supplies" or "vintage".
  
• If you are not sure what section you should be in then search for similar listings to yours on etsy and take a look at what their first tag is. If you are still not sure then go ask in the forums, you'll get a pretty quick response.
  
• Once you have your first tag, Etsy will suggest others. Take a look through them and choose any ones that are RELEVANT to your listing.
• Think about the style of what you are making, is it classic, romantic, funny, humorous, cute, steampunk, country?
• Who is your product for? women, men, baby, children, boy, girl, adult, pets, dog, cat? Any of these words can be tags.
• Tag for colors. If you have lots of colors in one listing then try to narrow it down to the main 2 or 3 colors of the listing or you will use up too many tags.
  
• Where will your item be used? Is it designed for the kitchen, living room or bedroom? These tags only apply to some listings.
  
• Use synonyms - words that mean the same thing. Like infant for young babies or purse for handbag. Just make sure the synonym is still relevant to your listing. I find using the thesaurus in Microsoft word very helpful for this.
  
• Choose words that describe your item, try to think about what words someone might search for to find your work.
  
• If you are in an Etsy street team that regularly makes treasuries then remember to include your team tag so they can easily find you.
• Some sellers tag for their shop names or locations, this is allowed. However I would only do it if I had a spare tag available.
  

You will probably find after going thorough all this that you have waaaay too many tags, so it is time to think about narrowing them down. Choose tags that are the most likely to be used in a search. If you are not sure then experiment with changing the tags to see what gets you the most views and hearts. If you have more than one of a certain item them why not try listing them both with different sets of tags and seeing what effect that has on their views.

* IMO tag abuse is when a listing is tagged with popular search words that have nothing to do with the product.

Etsy Sellers Tip #2 Avatars

Your avatar is like a little advertisement of your shop. If you post in the Etsy forums it is a great way to show off your creations, which is why so many people have one of their listings as their avatar. You can use the same avatar in any of the many social networks where you can advertise your store; Twitter, MySpace, DeviantArt, Flickr, facebook, your blog etc. Every time you update your avatar every one of your posts will change to the new image, imagine all those places a little photo of your work will be showing to the world, and it's free too!

Things to consider when making an avatar

• Chose a photo that is clear and bright, make sure that it is still easy to make out even at the small avatar size.
• Crop it so that no space is wasted in the background.
• Always make sure the photo is something you have available to sell, there is nothing more frustrating that seeing an item you like in an avatar only to find it sold months ago. If the listing sells, replace it with a new one to keep your avatar fresh. I know I have sold more than one listing because someone fell in love with my avatar.
• the avatar doesn't have to be the entire object, you can focus on an attractive detail of you like, or create some curiosity by cropping it in an artistic way so buyers click to find out more.

Some people choose to use their logo as their avatar, which is a great way to brand a store, others put a photo of themselves in there. Both of these ways are equally good, but they don't spark the kind of targeted interest in what store lies beyond the avatars link. If you can get a photo of yourself with one of your items into an avatar then this makes for a very clickable combination!

Things to avoid putting into an avatar

• Dark or badly lit images. Get those photos looking bright and colorful first. Check out this Etsy tutorial for more info on how to do this.
  
• Political images - unless you sell political themed products you should separate your political views from your store advertising, they don't belong here.
  
• Your pets - yes, they are cute but it is to personal for a professional looking store. Of course if you sell pet accessories or products then making your pet your avatar would be a good idea.
  
• Random photos that have nothing to do with you, your store or your product. Why waste this free advertising space?

My Top 10 Tips for making a Front Page worthy treasury

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 worthy of 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.

For those of you who don't know what a treasury is or how to catch one check out this article.

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 Poster 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 or anything else you like. You can also pick 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 Tag Fractal.
you 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 at my previous 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. To read more about what Etsy Admin said about this check out this forum thread

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 on the Front Page one day.

Good luck and happy treasury making!

Etsy Sellers Tip #1 Thumbnail Photos

When someone views your store they usually do so in "gallery mode" this is when the images are the same size as the ones featured on the front page. To put your store in gallery mode just click the link for "gallery" under your shop announcement. This is your store "window", the first thing your buyers see when they come to your shop. You should try to make each thumbnail look the best it can, which means taking into account the way your first image is cropped to fit it. To get the best out of your thumbnails try to take the photo you will use for the first image as a "horizontal" rectangle, aka "landscape" so that little of the composition of the photo is lost when viewed as a thumbnail.

These thumbnail photos are also how your listings are viewed in treasuries, having a great thumbnail increases your chances of making it into a treasury and therefore your chance of making it onto the Etsy Home Page. Always make sure that the first photo for your listing is the best one from your collection!