Saturday, October 9, 2010

Treasury Challenge Guidelines

This page has been updated based on how Challenge #1 went....

A creative challenge open to all members of Etsy!
Create a treasury around the current Inspiration Item. Win the Challenge and the Inspiration Item for the next Challenge will be something of yours! Who knows how many treasuries will be created with your item! Find out what it's all about....

Why should you join a NonTeam?

Teams are wonderful, but this is different because...

* No commitments. - Participate once, daily, weekly. It's up to you! No pressure.

* We're never full. No applying. No rejections. - Everyone is welcome to participate! Buyers-only and Sellers of handmade, vintage and/or supplies are all welcome to participate.

* No emails to keep up with. What you see here on the blog is what you get. That's it.

* This NonTeam is spreading the treasury love. We aren't featuring the same people every time.

* Shop Exposure -
* Win a Challenge and one of your items will be the inspiration for the next Challenge. Your item could be in tons of treasuries!
* The winners will have their etsy mini on the sidebar of this blog until the next winner is announced.
* The winners will have their shops linked permanently on the sidebar and on a page with past winners.
* If your NonTeam Treasury makes it to Etsy's front page, we'll post a screenshot of it here along with a link to your shop.
* Volunteers have their minis on the sidebar.

Even if you don't win....
* You may be included in many treasuries just for participating.
* Great exposure for your treasuries from other NonTeam members' views/clicks/comments.
* You'll get to know fellow etsians and they'll get to know you and your shop.

How does it work?
* Each week, a new Challenge starts. Treasuries created will be based on an "Inspiration Item". Create a treasury inspired by that item in any way you'd like That's your challenge! It'll be great to see the many interpretations and ideas that a single item can spark.
* At the end of the week, a winner will be announced.
* The Inspiration Item for the next challenge will be something from the winner's shop. If a buyer wins, he/she may choose any item on etsy for the next Inspiration Item.
* Need I tell you that the Inspiration Item must be in compliance with etsy's TOS? I didn't think so.
* The winner will be the judge for the next week's Challenge. He/she will choose the winning treasury (based on any criteria).
*The new winner will choose her own Inspiration Item for the next Challenge. It might be best to choose something in which you can raise the quantity.

The list of shops on the left sidebar will change every week, reflecting the shops that participated in the *previous* Challenge. For example: After Challenge #1 ends, Sarah will make a list of all those that entered treasuries. These people will be left up throughout Challenge #2. At the end of Challenge #2, she will delete the first list and make a new list of all those that participated in challenge #2. These people will be left up through challenge #3 and so on. No need to leave comments anymore. We feel that this will be a much easier way of maintaining the list.

How does the judge decide the winner?
Anyway she/he wants! It can be the most creative way to build a treasury around the Inspiration Item. It can be the most beautiful. The most outrageous. The funniest. The one that's simply the most appealing. It's totally up to the judge.
All treasuries submitted by the deadline are eligible to win - even if they've won a Challenge before.

* After seeing how Challenge #1 has gone, we have a new schedule for Challenge #2....
New challenges begin on Thursday.
We have Thursday through Sunday (noon - eastern) to create ONE treasury each.
The judge reports the winning treasury to Dotty on Monday.
The winning treasury is posted on Tuesday.
The new winner reports the Inspiration Item to Dotty by Wednesday.
The new challenge is posted Thursday at noon (eastern time).
We'll do our best to stick to this schedule so you know when to check in.

Well, that's the plan for now. Let's see how the second Challenge goes and take it from there.

Guidelines for Participation...
Create a treasury using the current Inspiration Item as one item in your treasury. Fill the rest of the treasury with any other items on etsy. Follow etsy's treasury guidelines. Do not include any of your own items. Make your treasury awesome - great photos, variety of item types and prices, etc. Add descriptive tags to your treasury and give it a creative title.
1. Read the guidelines.
2. Become a follower of this blog.
3. Include the Inspiration Item in any of the first 12 spots (not as an alternate).
4. Tag your treasury with nonteamchallenge and the current number (separated by a space). For ex: nonteamchallenge 1. Be sure that it shows up in the weekly search by the deadline for judging.
5. Be sure to include a link to the current challenge post in your treasury description
6. Leave a link to your treasury in our weekly promo thread by the deadline.
7. Make sure that if you win, you'll be available to judge the next week's Challenge and report the winning treasury by the next Monday to the volunteer in charge.
8. Support other participants - View/Comment/Click on at least a few other treasuries in the Challenge.

* Only treasuries that follow the above guidelines will be considered for each Challenge.

Suggestions...
* If you win, you may want to choose an item that you can re-create and raise the quantity on.
* Keep your treasury updated during the Challenge. Replace sold/expired items.
* Include a few items from other NonTeammates if possible.
* It might be best to give your treasury a descriptive, creative title to help getting our treasuries to the front page. Titling with "nonteam treasury challenge" or similar might not be as appealing to viewers.
* Tweet, Facebook, Blog, start a forum thread, post to the forums, etc to spread the word about your treasury and our Challenges.
* Post a button to our blog on your blog.
* Follow NonTeamTreasury on Twitter.
* Create a treasury of NonMembers (not as part of a challenge - just for fun and additional exposure). Tag it with NonTeamTreasury and put a link to our blog (http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/) in the description. Leave a comment on this page so that we can post it along with a link to your shop.
* Volunteer. Check out the volunteer page to see if we need help. Volunteers' minis will be posted on the sidebar. Volunteers are welcome to participate in challenges and are eligible to win, except Dotty - who will participate but is not eligible to win.

* If your treasury makes it to etsy's front page (or if you see another NonTeam's treasury on the FP) let us know by convoing the volunteer in charge of FPs.

***Please keep checking back to this page. We're making changes all the time to it as we figure things out and new ideas come rolling in.***

If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them in the comments below.
Thanks!


The code to insert this button onto your blog...

2 comments:

nomadcraftsetc said...

Thank you for laying this all out there! I can't wait to get started!

Dotty said...

My pleasure! I can't wait too!