Ever wondered how you can be sure to get an Etsy treasury? Ever waited all day, carefully watching the number of lists, and then refreshed the page to find that the number of lists has gone back up to 590-something in the amount of time it took you to load the page? Then read on, and you’ll never miss out again! It’s really very straight-forward – you just have to be vigilant and keep an eye on the clock!

Firstly, a little extra information.

What’s an Etsy Treasury? It’s a place where you can hand-pick items from other Etsy users and form a collection of these items for everyone to see. It’s a fun thing to do, especially if you decide on a particular theme or color scheme you’d like to use. Primarily, treasuries are supposed to be used to promote the work of other Etsians – a way of showing everyone your favorites, or what you think is worthy of some attention! If you get lucky, Etsy might even promote your treasury to the front page, resulting in lots of views and hearts for the Etsy members whose items you chose, and possibly even a few sales!

A treasury is made up of twelve spaces, each waiting to be filled with an item of your choice! There’s also another four spaces, which are for back-ups. They’re only visible to the maker of the treasury. If you find out one of the main items sold, you can quickly replace it with a back-up item.

You can include your own items in your treasury, but any more than one item is considered by many to be a bit of a faux pas and rather tacky. I think one item is acceptable, but no more. And there are even some who would frown upon that, given that treasuries are supposed to be for promoting the work of others and not your own. But that’s a little too purist for me, come on – we’re all desperate Etsy sellers at heart, aren’t we? It’s an opportunity for extra views and another way people can potentially find your shop, so why not? Of course, only do it if your item fits in with the theme and style of your treasury, you don’t want it sticking out like a sore thumb! Also, bear in mind that if your treasury is promoted to the front page and you’ve featured one of your own items, Etsy will replace your item with one of your alternates.

Etsy have a very useful tool called ‘Poster Sketch’, which is like a practice treasury page, where you can assemble your treasury before doing it for real. Just paste the listing IDs of the items you like (these are found at the bottom of the sidebar on the right on any Etsy listing page), hit the ‘ok’ button, drag and drop to rearrange until you’re happy with how it looks – and you’ll be all ready to go as soon a real treasury becomes available! It’s also a good idea to have your title ready. Think carefully though, you won’t be able to change it!

Anyway, here’s what to do:

1. Head on over to the Treasury Clock. You’ll see something like this:

2. When either treasury is close to opening up for new lists, the countdown for that treasury clock will be replaced with ‘Opening Soon’. At that point, just click on the middle of the clock (where it says ‘Click here for treasury’), and it will take you there.

3. Okay, so the treasury clock says that it’s opening soon, and you’ve clicked onto the Treasury or Treasury West page. What next? Well, you won’t have long to wait. If you’re viewing the Treasury Main page, you need to wait until the number of treasuries drops below 333. If you’re viewing the Treasury West page, you need to wait until the number of treasuries drops below 222. The trick is, DO NOT REFRESH. The page will update itself without the need for you to refresh. All you do is scroll down to the bottom of the page, while keeping an eye on the number of treasuries. (You can also sort the treasuries on the page by their expiration time, so you’ll have an even better idea of how long it’s going to take). When the number drops below 333 or 222 (depending on whether you’re on the Treasury Main or Treasury West Page), a little box will appear on its own at the bottom, where you can enter the name of your treasury. Then, click ‘ok, create it’, and there you have it! If you already compiled your treasury using the Poster Sketch tool, all you have to do is copy and paste the listing IDs in for your items, and voila! All done!

A few other things to mention:

In case you were wondering, Treasury West is a beta version of Treasury Main, but exactly the same!

The treasury clock is just an estimate. I’ve found it to be pretty accurate, but you don’t want to leave it too late before you head over to the treasury page on Etsy. People can choose to delete their lists before they are supposed to expire, so the number of treasuries can reach 333 (or 222) quicker than you expected, especially if the number is very close already.

Anyway, there you have it. I hope this was of some use! I remember just a couple of months ago when I was new to Etsy and I had no idea what a treasury was, or how to get one! Some fellow Twitterers kindly gave me some advice, and I’ve been making treasuries pretty much continuously since then. It’s addictive – try it!