Guidelines

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?

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.

* 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.
* Participating shops will have their shops favorited and have their first four most recently listed items show up on our etsy buyer account

Those are two ways that you're promoted so others can find you to include you in treasuries. For each one, you will appear for one week after you participate.  Continue to participate and your link and hearted shop will remain.

The sidebar list and the shops on our buyer account will change every week, reflecting the shops that participated in the *previous* Challenge. More about that here.

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's 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.
* The Inspiration Item and the shop of the winner MUST be in compliance with etsy's TOU and Do's and Don'ts.
* 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 and something that goes along with Etsy's Merchandising Desk to help us get treasuries to the front page.


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 and that follow the guidelines are eligible to win - even if they've won a Challenge before.  Shops that have obvious violations of etsy's TOS will not be eligible to win.  Please read the guidelines for judging here.

*New challenges begin every Thursday.
We have Thursday through Sunday (noon - eastern) to create ONE treasury each.
The judge reports the winning treasury to Dotty on Tuesday evening.
The winning treasury is posted on Wednesday.
The new winner reports the Inspiration Item to Dotty by Wednesday evening.
The new challenge is posted Thursday at noon (eastern time).

US eastern is the same time zone that etsy uses.

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. Don't include more than one item per shop.  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. Include the Inspiration Item in any of the first 12 spots (not as an alternate).
3. Do not include more than one item from a shop.  Use 16 different shops in your treasury.
4. Tag your treasury with nonteamchallenge and the current number (separated by a space). For ex: nonteamchallenge 1.
5. Be sure to include a link to the blog or the current challenge post in your treasury description. If it doesn't fit into the description, you may leave it in the first comment.
6. Leave a link to your treasury in our weekly entry thread by the deadline on our Team page on etsy.  Your treasury will not be judged if you don't leave the link there in time.  Also, your shop link on the sidebar and your shop on the buyer account will not be added if you don't leave your link there.  The judges and volunteers use the Entry thread to go through the challenge treasuries.
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 Tuesday to the volunteer in charge.  Judging is a HUGE job. Please read the Judging Guidelines should you win a challenge.
8. Support other participants - View/Comment/Click on other treasuries in the Challenge.  Do not leave a link to your treasury in the comments of another's treasury.
9. Don't tag your nonteam treasury with tags for other treasury teams. Your nonteam treasuries are not to be used to promote other teams that you're a member.


Your shop and items must be in compliance with Etsy's Terms of Service and Dos and Don'ts in order to win a challenge.   Judges will not choose curators whose shops have major and obvious violations.  We won't promote shops that we should be flagging.

* Only treasuries that follow the above guidelines will be eligible to win each Challenge.

Suggestions...
* Keep your treasury updated during the Challenge. Replace expired/missing items.
* Include a few items from other NonTeammates if possible.  There are several ways to find participating shops. You can read about those here.
* Become a follower of the blog.
* 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.
* In between challenges, play the Lightning rounds!
* 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.
* Come chat with us in our chatting thread on the Team page.


* 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 leaving a link in this thread.

***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!