Do you want to make a blog treasury?
Also known as Folksy Friday, Etsy Finds or Misi Monday - crafty folk love to share a weekly selection of their favourite items from these excellent handmade artisan marketplaces. Why not share your own and 'find' some new blog readers while you're at it!
Are you keen to get involved and post your own blog treasury?
In this post I will be sharing a few tips on how to write and promote your blog treasury. If you are tired of dragging images around in blogger only to find the text is misaligned when you finally post it then you will also find this post useful as I will show you how you can use my 'haptree mini treasury template' and avoid wasting time spent formatting your post that could be better spent promoting it, reading other peoples treasuries or maybe even doing a little crafting!
Why Bother with Blog Treasuries?
In this post I will be sharing a few tips on how to write and promote your blog treasury. If you are tired of dragging images around in blogger only to find the text is misaligned when you finally post it then you will also find this post useful as I will show you how you can use my 'haptree mini treasury template' and avoid wasting time spent formatting your post that could be better spent promoting it, reading other peoples treasuries or maybe even doing a little crafting!
Why Bother with Blog Treasuries?
A blog treasury is a post that shows you are an active member of a crafting community, that you appreciate the talent of designers and crafters and enjoy publicising their work along side your own. It also shows you have a keen eye for a great image, something that is often inherent in a successful artist or crafter. Aside from these positive incentives to write a treasury post it is also a fantastic way of attracting new commenters, followers and subscribers to your own blog.
How to Promote a Blog Treasury
Use tweets, updates and add links to forum threads along with all the usual ways you promote a post but the difference with a treasury is that it's not all 'me, me, me' so it's easier to promote this kind of post without feeling like a spammer, allowing you to post a few more links than perhaps you would normally.
A way of rousing interest before you even write the treasury is to post threads, tweets or updates on facebook requesting people suggest items of their own that fit your chosen theme for this week's treasury. I think facebook is a particularly good medium for this as people can post links to their images very easily and directly. You then have a thread and pool of interested people you can post the finished link to as well as encouraging all those that suggested items to come and see your choices and write up.
Let each crafter featured know about your post, this isn't just for common decency, but how else can they help you promote it and become followers of your blog themselves! Alot of bloggers seem to miss this vital part out or misunderstand the purpose of it - it only takes a few extra minutes to leave a link on their blog (make sure it's clickable so their readers see it too), send them a tweet or direct mail them.
Sellers who are not keen on having their images displayed on blogs will usually have a note in their profile page or on their blog that states this clearly. If someone asks you to remove the image you have posted do so graciously and replace it with another seller who will appreciate the free publicity.
Sellers will be keen for people to see their handmade goods in as many places as possible and may even add a link to the post on their site. You must not expect this though, pick images based on your true opinion and not because the designer has 4,672 twitter followers and writes for the Etsy Storque or chooses the featured items on Folksy!
Sellers who are not keen on having their images displayed on blogs will usually have a note in their profile page or on their blog that states this clearly. If someone asks you to remove the image you have posted do so graciously and replace it with another seller who will appreciate the free publicity.
Sellers will be keen for people to see their handmade goods in as many places as possible and may even add a link to the post on their site. You must not expect this though, pick images based on your true opinion and not because the designer has 4,672 twitter followers and writes for the Etsy Storque or chooses the featured items on Folksy!
It's very unusual for a crafter with an online shop to be unhappy about an image being used when it's clearly linked back to their own website.
I'd love your opinions on this matter having been emailed by a friend of mine since writing this paragraph, who has experienced a seller asking for an image to be removed - in what situation does a crafter not want the publicity and should bloggers always ask permission first, before posting?
Encouraging More Comments on Blog Treasuries
Try and engage your readers by asking them to pick their favourite image or add any links to other items that fit the theme. I often request that readers help pick a theme for the following week, it can increase comments and also help with brainstorming ideas for fresh posts - if you mention that you will credit the commenter who left the idea they'll be more inclined to take part and help to promote the post next week.
Remember to comment on other peoples treasury posts if you want to become part of a community of bloggers - it can be great fun to blog hop from treasury to treasury and see everyones weekly picks - let it be a labour of love rather than a weekly chore if it's the latter then stop doing it - you are wasting your time. If you hate their picks and can't think of anything good to say then don't!
Reading posts from other people making a Folksy friday or Misi Monday will also help keep your ideas fresh and original and that is the key to a great treasury post that people will want to share on various social media networks.
< - - How to Create your Treasury Post - - >
List Style Blog Treasury
This is probably the most popular - blogs like the fantastic cuteable have being doing this for a long time with great success, an image followed by a description, most people use about 6 images per post. You must have a link back to the original location of the image within the text or the image itself must be 'clickable'.
Grid Style Treasury
Using a grid style for your treasury is an instantly recognisable format thanks to Etsy Treasuries, which are so enormously popular. There are a number of different ways of creating a grid - you can use software to create a mosaic of any size - such as 'Mosaic Maker' from Big Huge labs but you'll have to add in the links within the text as the images aren't individually clickable.
Alternatively you can use the 'haptree mini treasury template' method to achieve a look like this treasury below with each image already clickable and no further links required, just a sentence to let people know the images are clickable for more details. With a little practise this will take you no more than 15 to 20 minutes to achieve each week. It's just a case of copying and pasting a few links into an html template that I have written (minus the time to find great items like these in the first place!)
Preservation
Mother Nature has a funny way of letting us know what's best, I think that the snow and ice we have had recently is her way of saying slow down, wrap up warm, get a good book and wait for spring.
All of the work above has been handmade by artists resident in the UK and is available for sale at http://www.folksy.com/ please click the images for further details and to search for more beautiful creations.