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.

Handmade Profiles: Jen from Sweetestpea

2008-04-30T13:53:00-05:00

Sweetestpea, a maker of enticingly round plush stuffed animals, visited us down at the Etsy Labs. Jen calls her line of plump ones "Zooguu," and you can see some of them in the related items below (as well as some of her favorite Etsy toymaker compatriots). She was brave enough to get in the "cardboard videobooth." Here's her Handmade Video Portrait!

MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | Subscribe in iTunes

Click here to see our other Handmade Video Portraits! Do your own and tag it with Etsy on Youtube so we can find you. Don't forget the ten second dance break!

Storque articles by sweetestpea

How to Make a Treasury: The Nuts and Bolts

Handmade Profiles: Jen from Sweetestpea