Storque articles by jared

How to Make a Treasury: The Nuts and Bolts

2009-04-15T17:30:00-05:00

Have you ever wanted to choose the handpicked items on the home page of Etsy? Do you enjoy carefully selecting and arranging collections of wonderful things? If you’ve answered “yes” to either of those questions, then Etsy’s Treasury may quickly become your favorite feature. Below is a step-by-step how-to for snagging a Treasury list and creating your own collection of featured items.

Satisfy your inner curator — Treasury to the rescue! The Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items. Members can feature their favorite items, items selected on a theme or just whatever they like. The Treasury is not intended for self-promotion, but instead to acknowledge and share the many cool things for sale on Etsy. Etsy’s staff (“Admin”) often choose whole or partial exceptional Treasury lists to promote to the featured, handpicked items on Etsy’s home page. Treasury lists are temporary and limited in number, so there is some competition involved in creating a list of your own.

This How to Make a Treasury guide was created to help you navigate the Treasury with ease, answer questions and perhaps show you some new tricks you might not have discovered on your own.

How to Get a List

Step 1: Enter the Treasury. (You can easily find the Treasury via the link on Etsy’s home page, under Explore on the left side menu.)

Step 2: Look in the upper left portion of your screen. Find the number of lists that are currently in the Treasury.

IF THAT NUMBER IS LESS THAN 333:
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see a box at the bottom where you may type in the title for your Treasury list. Think carefully, this cannot be changed later. Read the Treasury terms, then click Create. Continue on to the other sections in this tutorial that show you how to fill your list with items.

IF THAT NUMBER IS MORE THAN 333:
The Treasury is full and will not allow you to create a new list. You must wait for enough lists to expire so the number falls below 333.
Step 1: Sort the lists by "expiration" (click on the "expiration" tab).
Step 2: Count backwards from the end to find out when the 333rd list will expire. Come back to the Treasury a few minutes before that list is set to expire and wait for it.
Step 3: As soon as you see the box appear at the bottom of your screen, click inside so that you see your cursor blinking. You should have a list. Now, type in your title, and you're ready to continue on to the other sections of this tutorial that show you how to fill your list with items.

With a limit on the lists, it can be tough to get one. Be patient, try again, and you're bound to get one eventually.

TIP: Go to the FAQ at the bottom of this tutorial to find more answers.

Welcome to the Treasury!

This is the screen you see when the box is available for you to type in your title.

You can see 16 lists at a time. When you see a list you might like to check out, simply click on the title.

You can sort lists by:

Hot: This sorts by popularity. Hotness is calculated by a special, secret formula of clicks, views, comments and other factors.
Title: This sorts by title, alphabetically.
Curator: This sorts by username of the person who created the list, alphabetically.
Expiration: This sorts by how many days/hours a list has before it expires (sorting by time, essentially).

Treasury lists are temporary and will generally expire two days after creation. Bonus time (up to 24 hours) may be randomly added to the lifetime of a list to help stagger the expiration of large batches of lists. New lists may only be created when the total number of lists drops below 333.

Starting With a Clean Slate

When you enter a title for your list at the bottom of the first screen, you will be taken to a page like this.

There are:

Places for your subtitle and location
12 empty slots to insert items
4 alternate slots for extra items
A place for comments
A direct URL link to your list. You can copy this URL (web address) and send it to your friends

Important things to note:

Only one Treasury list per person. Do not create lists with multiple accounts at the same time.
Etsy may, at times, promote whole or partial selections from a Treasury list to the home page.
This list will expire two days after creation. Bonus time (up to 24 hours) may be randomly added to the lifetime of your list.
Treasury is not intended for personal promotion. Please do not include more than one of your own items.
Your list can be edited as many times as you like.
All items in your list should be actively listed for sale, not already sold.
Your alternates are only visible to you, the curator.
If an item featured in your list sells, if will remain in your list. You may which to manually replace it with an alternate.

TIP: Use the Poster Sketch Tool to create a "test" list. See the FAQ at the bottom for more about using the Poster Sketch Tool.

Customize Your List: Edit the Subtitle

Not only do you get a title for your list, but you get a subtitle as well. You can do something like this:

Title: My top 12 list
Subtitle: things with numbers

Title: Color Me Bad
Subtitle: Red Items

Customize Your List: Edit Your Location

The default for the location is "somewhere special," which is very sweet.

But, should you want to say "Paris, France" or "from my backyard" you can choose to edit this area. You can also add a link to this text if you choose. So, you can link to your favorite coffee shop, your Etsy shop, your blog, your website, where ever you want.

Curate Your List: Adding Items

Before you can add an item to your Treasury list, you need to first locate the item’s listing ID number. When you’re viewing the item listing page, the listing ID is found in the URL (web address) of your browser window or in the side bar under “additional item info.”

To add the item to your Treasury list, click within the "listing id" blank box. When you find an item you like, copy the listing ID and then enter it into the listing ID field in your Treasury list and select "ok."

TIP: Open two browser windows when adding items to your list: one window with your Treasury list and one window to browse and select items. You can also copy and paste the entire URL (web address) for the listing page into the listing ID box on your Treasury list. The number will automatically be selected from the URL you pasted in.

Here is how a completed list looks to the curator. You are allowed twelve items + four alternate items. (More on alternates below.)

To reorganize your list, simply click and drag items around to different spots. Mix and match to make the best looking list possible.

Alternate Items

You can choose up to four additional items for your list, called “alternates.” These alternates will only be visible to you, the curator. You can choose to show/hide your alternate selections while creating your list. If an item from your list sells, you can move an alternate in to take its place. This does not happen automatically, so keep an eye on your lists. The alternates are a handy way to help you visually curate your list. If you have all sixteen items visible, you may want to mix and match a bit, or see that two items go better next to each other.

Alternates are only visible to the curator, and are shown at 50% opacity to indicate their inactivity. You can drag an item from "active" to "alternate" and vice versa. Alternates are also visible to Etsy Admin as they search through for great Treasury lists to promote to the handpicked items on home page of Etsy. Admin look for lists with alternates that don't repeat the same items or sellers. This makes the list nice and robust for the home page and gives the highest number of sellers a chance to be featured. When an item sells from the home page, the alternates will be used to replace those items.

Community Comments

People can leave comments on your Treasury lists. Hear what others have to say about your choices and comment right back! A great way to say why you like your favorites. Note: Comments are limited to a maximum of 44.

Seeing Stars

On the main Treasury index, you may occasionally see different colored stars by list titles. These stars have special meanings:

Blue stars: This indicates that you are the curator of the list
Gold stars: This indicates that one of your items is featured in a list (visible to the public)
Silver stars: This indicates that one of your items is an alternate in a list (visible only to the curator)

FAQ and Additional Info

Why doesn't the Treasury work?

If you are getting a black screen, simply click the black screen to start the loading process.
Try downloading the latest version of Flash
If the Treasury is running slow, it may be that your internet connection isn't powerful enough... sorry.

Why don't I see a place to create a list of my own?
Look at the bottom of the page. If there is a notice saying the Treasury is full right now, you need to come back later when the number of lists drops below 333. See the posts above for tips on getting a list of your own.

Why are there limits for the Treasury – 333 lists, one list per person?
These safety measures are in place to ensure that the Treasury does not crash. Embrace the decay! Wait for a list to expire, then pounce. The one list per person limit is to ensure that more people get the chance to make a list.

Why does it say the Treasury has more than 333 lists? I thought there was a limit of 333?
Sometimes people create lists at almost exactly the same time. The Treasury allows for some wiggle room, to be fair to the many people who patiently wait for the opportunity to appear to create a list. Everyone that sees the box and types in their title at the same time will get a list.

How can I get into more Treasuries?

Take fantastic photos. This is a good rule in general for selling online, but curators want to make their lists as beautiful as possible. Help yourself by taking clear photos.
Use your tags appropriately. Often, curators are looking to create themed lists. Be sure to use your listing tags for themes and colors.
Create unique and interesting products that stand out from the crowd.
Join an Etsy Team. Help to get the word out about Etsy and meet up with other Etsy members who share interests or live in your area. Often, Etsy Teams will come together to create Treasury lists of their members.

Can I prepare my list ahead of time to make it easier once I get a list?
Yes, there are a few methods for preparing a list in advance:

Use the Poster Sketch Tool, which is a feature that lets you create a “mock up” Treasury list.
Browse items on Etsy, and copy the listing ID numbers or URLs into a text document on your personal computer. Save that document, and when you've got a list, copy and paste those numbers into your Treasury list.

How do I save my Poster Sketch?
You don't need to! The Poster Sketch Tool will automatically save, and you will be able to see it again if you are using the same computer. Just make sure that you don't delete your flash cookies (these are different from your internet cookies).

Can I send my Poster Sketch to others?
Only you can see your Poster Sketch Tool. If you would like to send your Poster Sketch to anyone, take a screenshot of it and save it in a photo format.

This article is adapted from (and updated over time) the original Treasury guide written by Jen Bennett Gubicza of zuugoo.etsy.com, and published on the blog, etsytreasurydemo.blogspot.com.

You may also wish to read How to Make a Great Treasury List, which covers not so much the technical details, but more of the compositional techniques for making pretty lists and tips for making your items appealing for Treasury curators.

We have to close comments on this post because there are so many that the page is taking too long to load! Please continue the discussion in this Forum thread.

Tech Update: Introducing a New Recently Listed Items Site Feature

2009-02-27T19:00:00-05:00

Etsy admin/guru/spiritual leader Jared Tarbell has developed a new site feature: Recently Listed Items.

With Etsy's marketplace growing along with some sellers' concerns about the traffic jam of items being uploaded to the site, we want to do our best to show you as many fresh items as we can. Recently Listed Items will be linked to from, not surprisingly, the "Recently Listed Items" ticker on Etsy's homepage.

Check it out! It's a super fun way to "speed shop."

(Please note that we can't guarantee that this new site feature will show every single listing, but we hope this will help.)

All items below were found using: Recently Listed Items. See what you can find before the page fills up!

Let us know what you think in the comments!

P.S.
If you want to get the breaking, vital Etsy news as it happens — delivered straight to your email inbox, then sign up for Etsy News Alerts emails. Read more about it here. Expect this as an Etsy Alert email in your inbox if you already subscribe to the list.

You can also get an RSS feed of all TechUpdates here.

Tech Update: Rainbow Connection Mandala

2008-08-19T18:03:00-05:00

A rainbow connection mandala has been added to the Treasury.

Most of you will see the mandala as it should be viewed, slowly growing in complexity until completing in a rainbow arrangement of successful connection. The mandala is generatively constructed and thus different each time.

Connection failures are also indicated in more detail. A failed connection will cause the mandala to turn red. Additional descriptive text will be shown to help identify why the connection failed.

We have also created a new Port Tester. This simple application can be used to determine if your computer is behind a firewall. Firewalls prevent certain types of internet traffic and are common at work and school. Tips on how to correct the situation are also provided. The Port Tester will be helpful for those wishing to use the Chat Rooms, Virtual Labs, or Treasuries. These applications currently require port 1935 to be open to TCP/IP traffic.

These changes were made to improve the Treasuries by making them available to a greater number of people. Thanks for your support!

Tech Update: Treasury, Chat, and Virtual Lab Server Upgrade

2008-08-01T12:15:00-05:00

Good news! The Treasury, Chat Rooms, and Virtual Labs are getting a significant server upgrade. The change is being made to address a number of key performance issues caused by record high usage. If the old server was a Honda Insight, the new server is a Tesla Roadster. Yes, it's quite fast.

In order to make the change, we are temporarily suspending the creation of new Treasury lists. This will allow all the current lists to naturally expire in about three days. After all lists have expired, the server change will take place. The change itself will only take a few moments. If all is successful, the creation of new Treasury lists will once again be enabled, and we can all enjoy the performance boost.

With the current expiration schedule, the server change is looking like it will take place early Sunday morning, August 3rd. The exact time may change.

The Chat Rooms and Virtual Labs will also be moved to the new server at the same time as the Treasury. Both applications will experience about 60 seconds of downtime. All user created Chat Rooms will need to be recreated.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

UPDATE: The server switch was completed successfully this afternoon at approximately 2:10pm ET (Sunday, August 3). A forum thread has been created to report your experiences. Thanks again!

Fresh Shops: merlinsbarkproducts

2008-07-31T11:45:00-05:00

Recently, I was clicking through Pounce Undiscovered with my right hand while rubbing my dog’s head with my left. I saw this great (well-crafted and simply designed) elevated dog feeder (in red-stained chestnut) by merlinsbarkproducts, and I ah-ha’ed aloud.

I love finding good woodwork on Etsy. This shop couples creative carpentry with a design sensibility that’s driven by deep compassion for animals.

So far, merlinsbarkproducts features an assortment of feeders and little wooden homes for an array of animals, such as bluebirds, bats, butterflies, flying squirrels…and of course, dogs.

I put a few questions to the creators behind merlinsbarkproducts, Sherry and Jerry:

There is a great beauty and variety of wood in your items. What are some of the benefits to using sustainably harvested or recycled wood?

It is very important to me that we use wood that comes from trees that are managed and farmed in ways that ensure the protection of the environment and other natural resources. Also, I would hate to think that I was contributing to the removal of old growth trees. I know that a lot of different animals depend on those trees for housing. Also, you can find a lot of beauty in old recycled wood. We get a lot of our recycled wood from a local building material recycling center. I am hoping to use some of their old barn wood for owl house I have in mind.

The designs of your animal homes seem strangely inviting...

I love to lay outside in my yard and watch all the different animals run around. When I’m watching them, I start to think about what type of houses and feeding station they would need.

One of my favorite products is our condominium for flying squirrels. It is just amazing! It is over 3-feet tall and has four floors. I came up with the design after watching our own flying squirrels and wondering what type of house they would need if our old pine tree didn’t exist anymore. I did a little research and came up with a house that any flying squirrel would be proud to call home.

I also realized the need for Purple Martin houses when a whole colony of them decided to move into our gutters this spring. I did a little research trying to figure out why they moved in and found out that Purple Martins are the only birds that totally depend on humans for housing. So now we will be adding Purple Martin houses to our product line.

Your blog details a very interesting story about how you turned an idea into a real company. Can you talk about some of the challenges you faced and how you resolved them?

One of the biggest challenges was figuring out what type of products I wanted to concentrate on. At first I was thinking about making products for animals and humans, but I have found myself concentrating more on products geared toward animals.

Though, humans benefit from our products too. Whether it is from installing a bat house and having Mother Nature’s little pest control experts take the place of using poisonous insecticide, or being entertained by song birds eating out of a feeder, the enjoyment our of products can be shared by animals and humans.

Our product line continues to evolve. I love receiving feedback and suggestions from customers. Recently we had people ask us about elevated cat bowl feeders. I had never thought making those before, but now we will be adding elevated cat bowl feeders to our product line. I also continue to do research on animal husbandry to see what other types of products we should be offering.

You are a member of the Abandoned Wild Babies Animal Resuce (AWBAR), who also keeps an Etsy shop. How does being a member of such a compassionate organization affect your role as a shop owner?

Since I’ve joined, I’ve been helping to spread the word about AWBAR through my blog and also on forums. I recently donated one of our dual feeders (a feeder that can be used by both birds and squirrels) to the AWBAR Etsy store. I can’t wait for it to sell. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to support the care of the baby animals at AWBAR.

See more Fresh Shops and say hey to a new seller!

Tech Update: Showcase Living Large & Storque Upgrade

2008-04-24T18:14:00-05:00

Dear Sellers,

In the past, you could tell when a Showcase wasn't sold out: the items in it would look a little sad and lonely, there was white blank space... But we just put through an update: any Showcase that isn't sold out now looks a whole lot more full-bodied. The images expand to take up more room!

For info on Showcase, read 13.5 Questions About The Showcase or other posts on this topic here.

Dear Storque readers,

Bless the Engineering Team and QA! They made us a number of wonderful changes to our admin panel. And you readers will notice admin have badges by our author avatars, so you can better tell who is who. We can now put videos in the Featured spots on the homepage of the Storque!

For more on new site features, check out the TechUpdates Featured Column and subscribe to Etsy News Email alerts!

Etsy Finds: Spring in a Can

2008-04-13T13:39:00-05:00

For a computer programmer, spring is the worst time of the year. The increasing warmth, colorful buds, and bright green growing things are all signs that the season is changing quickly. No longer can I sit comfortably inside, gazing out the window at the cold, feeling lucky I have a job that keeps me indoors. No, spring is a time of great guilt.

Fortunately, with help from a few great Etsy sellers, this year I can bring a little spring indoors with me. Dandeedesigns makes it easy and beautiful with her 'Spring in a Can' grass growing project. This small kit contains everything needed to have a lovely living, breathing bushel of grass in just a few weeks. Just open the lid, pop in the seeds, water appropriately, and in no time at all I'll be welcoming the new buds (oh, and don't forget sunlight, programmers).

There are many sellers offering high quality, hand picked heirloom seeds from their gardens.

Herbs possess magical properties, from cleaning the air around you, to invigorating your senses with their complex organics. Stuck on a bug? Try a pinch of mint. Having a hard time with the forums? Break off a small stem of rosemary. Looking for some creative new idea? Sprinkle some lavender on your head.

I'm looking forward to watching the progress of my own private garden. Having herbs within reach of the keyboard will also be a great reminder that not all things begin after one presses the power button.

Need a daily fix of Etsy Finds? Sign up for the Etsy Finds e-mail! Conveniently delivered to your inbox on the daily!

Tech Update: The Virtual Labs Gets a Facelift!

2008-03-31T16:44:00-05:00

Today you might notice a brand new look and a few new features when entering the Virtual Labs lobby!

We have condensed down Virtual Labs from 18 rooms to 9 essential rooms.
We also added a brand spanking new events schedule!
You can now find out about all upcoming events by taking a quick peek at the events schedule which will let you know the date, time, room location, title of the event, and give a brief description of what the upcoming event's topic will be.
You might also notice the link at the bottom of the Virtual Labs which directly leads to more information and help with using the Virtual Labs!

We hope you enjoy the new changes and will see you in the Virtual Labs!

xoxo,

Etsy

Color Picker Update: Filter by Search Terms

2008-02-19T13:46:00-05:00

The Color Picker, one of our oldest and most iconic features, has received a significant update today.

Now you can filter your color picking by using search terms! First, enter what you’re looking for in the text field on the left, then click a color on the right.

You’ll get some listings that match both the color and the search phrase. To see more results, click the “MORE” button.

You can also click different colors to see all of the results side-by-side!

In addition, we have tweaked the color averaging algorithm to be more precise. This will effect all newly uploaded listing images, so our results should get even better as time goes on.

These enhancements should make the color picker much easier to use. Let us know what you think!

Please address all comments and questions to the associated forums thread.

Tech Updates: Pounce for the Undiscovered!

2008-01-28T18:30:00-05:00

We've just added a new feature to our newest way to shop, Pounce. Previously, it was a way to find other items by a seller who just made a sale. Now you can also find items just listed by sellers who have yet to make any sales. So support the Etsy underdogs, the Featured Sellers of the future and find yourself some fresh-to-the-market handmade goodies!

Also new to Pounce, you can now view 10 rows instead of 3. This extra little improvement really made my day. Check out tomorrow's Etsy Finds Email to see products I've found using the new Undiscovered feature on Pounce!

Comment below with the undiscovered gems you've found!