Tutorial Series: How to Prepare Your Item for Treasuries #3

Treasuries are a huge promotional tool for Etsians.  There are some shops whose items are featured all the time.  Some shops never have items in a Treasury.  If you are part of the second group, do you know why?  And do you want to know how to become a member of the first group?

Peacock Pride Stick by ajbcreations

This series of articles started as a tutorial type blog post but there is just too much information for a blog post.  Each post in the series will discuss tips that will raise the odds of your item being included in a Treasury.  Most of these tips will also help you make sales because buyers are looking at the same things that a Treasury curator looks at.  I will be using "Awareness" as my theme for examples, but you can substitute any theme that your items fit in and follow the tips using that theme.

Pictures

 Pictures may be the one thing that prevents most items from being included in Treasuries.  Your pictures can also determine whether or not customers even consider buying your item.  I know that getting good pictures of your items is not easy.  I have jewelry in one shop and beads in the other.  Neither one is easy to photograph.

Easter Candy Pinks Birdnest by Star Creations

My awareness treasuries are not as dependent on the quality of the photograph as most treasuries tend to be.  The nature of a Treasury requires the curator to find the most beautiful items with the best photographs to include.  A customer will not usually give your item a closer look if the first picture they see doesn't catch their eye.

I am not a photography expert.  If you look at my pictures that fact is obvious.  You will not get information on how to photograph your items here.  These are general guidelines for what your pictures should look like.




1.  You can upload 5 pictures.  Include pictures from different angles.  You need to provide the customer with as much information about the item as possible through your pictures.

2.  The item should be identifiable.  There are many items that have not been included in my awareness treasuries for this reason alone.  An Awareness Ribbon is easily identifiable.  It looks pretty much like view 1 of this picture.  I have seen pictures of awareness ribbons that look like view 2.  Why would a customer who is looking for an Awareness Ribbon buy an X?

Decadence Chocolate Cherry Bracelet by Artisan Originals

3.  If more than 50% of the picture is the background you need to crop that picture until you see more of the item than the background.  It is called background for a reason.  If you need to show perspective or size, you can include 1 picture of the item that is more background but only include 1.

4.  Use a good photo editor and play with all the settings to see which combination gives you the best result.  I have used the tools in a different order to get pictures that are different. Try cropping before you adjust the color and try doing it in the opposite order.  You will be surprised at the difference the order that you apply the tools can make in some pictures.

Now that you have a few guidelines, answer this question:  Do you ever shop in your Etsy shop?  Why not?   Try viewing the items as a potential buyer and you may find out why you have not sold that item that you thought was going to be hot.  If you work in a retail store, you are always making sure that your products look their best to the potential buyer.  That is even more important in an online shop.  Your customer can't examine the products in an online store like they can in person.  They depend on your photographs to see what the item looks like,  so your pictures better be good.


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As an afterthought did you notice anything wrong with one of the pictures in this post?  I didn't until  ajbcreations contacted me.  She missed the date stamp on her photograph when she was listing the item and I didn't even see it when I was looking for pictures to include. 

tip # 5.  Look for the little things that normally get overlooked that can affect the quality of your pictures.

Thank-you  to ajbcreations, Artisan Originals and Star Creations for allowing me to use their pictures.  Please click on the picture links to view that item or on the name here to view the shop.