TEAM CHALLENGE 3: 10 MINUTE TREASURY CHALLENGE

10 minute treasury challenge:

Create an EE Team treasury within ten minutes using EE team members products! In this challenge you will choose whatever products your eyes are drawn to first to include in your treasury.

1. In a new tab, search for the words "eeteam" and/or "etsy entrepreneurs" for our team members items.

2. Select one or two items per page that your eyes are naturally drawn to. Feel free to skip pages, go back and forth, start from the end, etc. because there are tons of items! Since there is only 10 minutes there is little time to choose a theme, but if one happens that's amazing!

3. It's fine if it takes longer than 10 minutes; just try to do it as fast as you can.

4. Tag your treasury with 10 minute challenge, and ee team/etsy entrepreneur team.

5. Send a message to all members with your featured items to let them know they should check it out, share, and comment.

6. Post your treasury to the 10 minute challenge discussion as well as your twitter, facebook, and blogs for all to see!

Good luck!
When you are done, please post your finished treasury in this thread for other members to see, share, and click. Thank you for your participation!
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7978/etsy-entrepreneurs/discuss/7604729/

TEAM CHALLENGE 2: TREASURY CHALLENGE

Thank you to TopiaryDesigns for putting this treasury challenge together for our team. (She stepped in for Carrie, who have been experiencing some computer problems).

If you are totally new to treasuries check out Esty's FAQ on treasuries
help.etsy.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/82

Treasuries are great marketing tools. Not only are treasuries selected for the front page they also browsed by thousands of customers everyday. There are currently 22,641 pages of treasuries with 20 treasuries per page, that's 452,820 treasuries! So it's extremely easy to for any treasury you create or that you are featured in to get lost. But we have a secret weapon! We have a team of over 1,100 members to help push our treasuries to the top pages!

Treasuries are listed by "hotness" not by creation date. Hotness is determined by how much activity a treasury generates, views, clicks and comments. With 1,100+ people and all their Facebook friends and Twitter followers to visit our team treasuries we can generate lots of activity pushing our treasuries to the first pages!

So that makes our treasuries easy to find but are they front page worthy? Will Etsy pick it to be featured? You don't have to be a mind reader to figure out what Etsy is looking for. They tell you! If you haven't found the merchandising desk yet head over and take a look. The link is below. In addition to the desk Etsy will send you emails telling you what they are interested in! The link to sign up is also listed below.

If you build your treasury around one of their trends it is more likely to be selected. And DON'T feature yourself! Treasuries are about sharing the love.

But at the end of the day it needs to be beautiful. Don't just pick random items from team member shops. Compose your treasury around a color, theme, season or story. Here's an Etsy Storque article about how to curate an amazing treasury. www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-to-make-a-great-treasury-list-671/


So before we begin the challenge, please tag ALL items in your shop that you would like to have other EE TEAM members be able to find in a search for items to put in their treasuries. (You can tag a few items or all items in your shop if you want).

1.Check out Etsy's Merchandising Desk. www.etsy.com/storque/search/title/merchandising/
2. Sign up for at least one Etsy newsletter www.etsy.com/mailinglist
3. Create a treasury based around a current trend Etsy has promoted on the merchandising desk or one of the email newsletters using at least 8 items from Etsy Entrepreneurs Team members.
4. Tag your treasury with the tag EE TEAM, EtsyTeam and Entrepreneurs
5. Send a convo to every seller featured in your treasury letting them know you've featured their item and asking them to come take a look.
6. Maintain your treasury by revisiting at least once a day to replace any items that have sold and respond to comments.
7. Comment on every treasury you are featured in.
8. Comment on at least 10 Etsy Entrepreneurs team treasuries you are not featured in. You can find them be searching Treasury for the tag EE TEAM
9. Promote your treasury and the ones you are featured in on any platforms you can, Facebook, your blog, Twitter. Etsy gives extra brownie points for using the tag #EtsyTeamTreasury on Twitter. I don't tweet so I hope that makes sense to those of you who do!

All right, when you are done with your treasury, please post them here so that all of our team members can view it, comment, click, tweet, blog, FB, etc..

We have over 1000 members, and if each of us make at least 1 treasury to share and then click on each other's treasuries, just imagine the amount of exposure that we all would get! I'm so excited just thinking about it. This challenge will last for about 1 week to 1.5 weeks. I want to give people enough time to tag all of their items and then make treasuries of items that they find.
Okay, let's have FUN!

TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE GO TO OUR TEAM FORUM:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7978/etsy-entrepreneurs/discuss/6814175/

TEAM CHALLENGE: LESSON 1

TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS TEAM CHALLENGE: FOLLOW THIS LINK: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7978/etsy-entrepreneurs/discuss/6787871/

Team Challenges are designed to help ALL of our members increase exposure to their shops and increase sales. Our team have new members enrolling everyday, so I have to design the team challenges in series of lessons. That way, the new members will not feel like they are falling behind. They can follow and catch up to the rest of the team by simply following these lessons in order. This is the 1st lesson so we all have a fresh start. Ok, here we go....

Starting a business is a difficult challenge and it is also an art. As business owners, we have to wear many hats and have to be a jack of all trades. I know how overwhelming it can be to start a new business venture. Even if you are not a new business, you can still benefit from our team challenge business series of lessons. The market is always changing so you have to make sure that you are adapting to the changes each season. Plus, there are always something new out there to learn. Now, since there are so many topics and lessons to cover, and each of our members are on different growth level of their business; I have to make sure that we are ALL on the same page so that we can move along together.

Now, keep in mind that we all have different business needs. So if the lesson does not pertain to you then you have no homework for the week. Treat these lessons like your weekly homework. Each week, you will be assigned new homework assignments. Your reward at the end of the semester (lesson series) is to see growth in your business and sales.

First off, like I have mentioned earlier, to move forward together as a team, we cannot be doing random things here and there online or in forums. This is extremely non-productive. So to move our team along, I have to make sure that we are ALL on the same page and we will be starting off our Team Challenges on a level playing field. That way, we will ALL be able to grow together. Even if you think that the lesson pertains to you, please don't discount the lesson entirely. Before you decide that the lesson is not advanced enough for you, please give it a try. There is ALWAYS something that you can improve on because the market is always changing.

LESSON ONE: Store Makeover
1. Make sure that you have a cohesive theme and look throughout your store.
1a. Make sure you have a banner with your store name and logo
1b. Make sure you have an eye catching avatar
Your Avatar should be something interesting. It should be eye catching. It should make you want to click on it if you see it in a forum, chatroom, or facebook.
It could be your best selling item. Something that screams You. I see some people putting their picture up as their avatar, but let me ask you this question: If you see someone's picture in a chatroom or forum, would you click on it? Does it catches your eye? Does it stand out among the thousands of other images online? Does it tell others what you are selling? Does it represent/fit in with the theme of your shop? Now do you see my point. It is up to you if you want to use your own picture as your avatar, but I do not think that it is a good idea.
1c. Make sure you have set your store policies: including Returns and exchanges. Many people do not have a return policy in place and then when something goes wrong, then it's just a big mess because you did not state your terms ahead of time. Your store policy is a place where you can state your store terms and what your customer should expect from you and your shop (especially if something were to go wrong). And it is where you can lessen your liabilities. You should state a clear return and exchange policy. Also include shipping and insurance info here too. Just in case, if something were to go wrong, you would be covered if you state it beforehand in your store policy.

2. Take Great Photos
Good photos are not enough...it must be GREAT!
Online shoppers do not have the luxury of feeling and touching your products in person. So your job is to be able to do that for them. You should create an experience for your shoppers by the way you portray your products. Suggest how it is used, but don't just say it, show it with pictures.
2a. Lots of lighting (use natural light, no flash).
2b. Use light color background
2c. Do not use distracting props
2d. Ask yourself if you were in your shoppers' shoes, would you buy your own goods by just looking at the pictures? If you wouldn't buy it, then chances are your customers won't either.
2e. You do not need an overly expensive camera to take great photos. This is a secret, but some of the pictures in my shop were taken with my cell phone camera...can you tell which ones...exactly my point! A good source of natural lighting is the secret to taking great photographs.
2f. You do not need to be a professional photographers to take great photos. Just practice practice practice. Also, another tip is taking as many photos of 1 item will give you a better chance of getting a great photo out of the bunch. A professional photographer once told me that his secret to taking amazing pictures is to take as many of them as you can...you might be able to use only 40 photos out of hundreds. But 40 amazing photos is better than hundreds of so so photos. Do you see my point.

3. Lastly, make sure that all items in your shop follow the same theme and color scheme. When you open an Avon catalog or some other store catalog, all of the items look like they belong to 1 collection. There is no single item that screams, "I don't belong here." Now, make sure your shop is the same way. Your store is like an upscale catalog...now it is your job to stage your product and use the right color schemes (use a light color background for your photos)

4. Write a good description of your products. Paint a story. Suggest some uses for your products. Many shoppers might admire your products but they are only lookers and won't buy because they don't know what they will use it for. It is your job to consult them on what they should should it for. Lastly, answer this question for each of your products (in your customers' point of view): Do I have to have this item and why?

Alright...you are done! See that is not so bad!
Once you have completed this assignment, post your store here and we will critique your shop (optional). By posting your store below you are agreeing to have our members visit and critique your shop. Doing so is extremely helpful for our members who feel that they need a non bias opinion. Please remember not to take our critique personally...remember it is just business! Ok, now let's all have fun and help each other out!

TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS TEAM CHALLENGE: FOLLOW THIS LINK: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7978/etsy-entrepreneurs/discuss/6787871/