Day 11 - Treasuries (Part 2)

I finished writing the Day 10 post feeling like I had left some valuable information on treasuries out and I really did!

Today, I would like to cover some of those things I forgot to mention last time and I would also like to introduce you to Etsy Teams and talk about what they can do for your shop's success.

Somebody commented on my previous post asking for suggestions on how to come up with themes to make beautiful treasuries. This, in itself, is a great topic as we are bound to eventually run out of ideas to create them.

So... How about approaching this by providing you all with a huge list of themes and sample treasuries so you can get inspired all year long?

I figured this has to be the simplest for everyone as we all can get a visual and spark our creativity so much quicker this way.

Theme #1 - Colors
(One color, two colors, three colors, multicolor, complementary colors, cool colors, warm colors, primary colors, black and white, etc.)

Ex: This is a Plum, Black, Gold color themed treasury.


Theme #2 - Holidays
(Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Earth Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Teacher's Day, Secretary's Day, etc.)

Ex: Valentine's treasury by HarrysGirls


Theme #3 - History, Ancient times, Worldwide Events
(The Mayans, The Romans, The Greeks, Napoleon/French Revolution, Discovery of the Americas, etc )

Ex: Ancient Times treasury by theVerdantGarage

Theme #4- Day to Day activities
(Exercising, At Work, Buying groceries, Babysitting, Shopping for Gifts, Cleaning, Organizing, Drinking Coffee, Riding a bicycle, etc. )

Ex: Riding a bicycle treasury by kiddinsdesign

Theme #5- Moods
(Happy, Sad, Content, Surprised, Anxious, Blissful, Bored, Nerdy, Hungry, Silly, Tired, Relaxed, etc. )

Ex: Sadness treasury by muratyusuf


Theme #6- Weather
(Winter, Summer, Fall, Spring, Rainy, Windy, Snowy, Hot, Cold, etc. )

Ex: Winter treasury by aandboriginals



Theme #7- Age Groups, Gender
(For him, For her, Kids, Seniors, Grandparents, Babies, Adults Only, etc. )

Ex: Children treasury by lynsflinders



Theme #8- Popular travel destinations
(Caribbean, Mountains, Egypt, Italy, Spain, France, South Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, Alaska, etc. )

Ex: Riding a bicycle treasury by etherealflowers


Theme #9- Animals
(Owls, foxes, deer, squirrel, dog, cats, elephants, horses, birds, butterflies, etc. )

Ex: Squirrels treasury by AliRage


Theme #10- Nature
(Plants, the Sea, Trees, Sun, Moon, Leaves, Wood, etc. )

Ex: Woods treasury by calloohcallay



Other Themes - Music (soundtracks, favorite songs), Poetry, Books, Fairy Tales, Movies, etc

Wow! That was a lot of pictures.

This short list of themes should really help you get started with your own treasuries. Always try to experiment with something new, combine themes to create a more complex and intriguing treasury.

And while you are at it.. How about joining a treasury team?

Treasury Teams?

Well, today I also wanted to bring up the topic of 'teams'. If you go to Etsy's website and click on 'community', you will notice a link for 'teams' in one of the top menu bars. If you click on it, you will be taken to this page: http://www.etsy.com/teams

In my experience, the best way to get started with teams is to search for one.

Think of something that interests you in particular.. like 'dogs' for example. Let's pretend you are an avid dog lover and that everything about dogs and pets in general, keeps you fully engaged.

After you search for the word 'dog' you'll notice that there are lots of other Etsy members sharing the same common interest and that they have created or become members of a team that loves dogs as much as you do.

Some of these teams will be listed as 'open' , meaning you may join immediately without having to fill out an application. Others will be 'by invitation only' and others will require you to 'apply' and provide the current members with answers to some specific questions in order for them to make you (or not) a member.

For now, I would like you to join an 'open' team of your liking. See how many members it has, read some of the rules and forum posts to get an idea of what they are all about and introduce yourself as a new member.

Many teams will not be as active as others. There are teams that meet often and participate in different types of events throughout the entire year while others don't really do anything. It is up to you which one to choose.

When it comes to 'Treasury Teams' things change a bit.

Treasury teams have 'treasuries' in common. Their members create treasuries often, enjoy doing so and feature their fellow team members in such treasuries. Are you seeing the advantage of this yet?

Let's take for example... the PayItForward Treasury Team!. I recently joined this treasury and 24 hours later, I had been featured in at least 15 new treasuries.

Why? Well, first of all, this team is awesome :)

Their rules involve creating treasuries for team members and in exchange, whenever you are featured in one of these teams, you must include the curator in a treasury you will have to create.

Yes, I know.. I now have to include 15 sellers in one or more of my treasuries and it will be a lot of work.

But.. who cares? The free promotion I've been getting from these treasuries make me happy and I do feel the need to 'payitforward' and return some of that love to those great curators.

It is just such a great idea, isn't it?

Teams do a lot more than just creating treasuries. In my next post, we'll dig a little bit more into it and get an insight of what exactly teams can do.

Until then, you've got the inspiration.. go on and create a beautiful, front page worthy treasury!