Treasuries vs Collections

First a little background...

I am completely wishy washy when it comes to ArtFire. (A well known fact) As I've posted before, I started up a PRO account over there (again). I then imported my entire Etsy store and then left the scene. I didn't "work it" and then wondered why I wasn't getting sales. (um, duh.)

It's been interesting to see the views and incoming URLs add up on ArtFire. So (once again), I decided to pay it a little more attention. I've been exploring their tools and handy dandy seller options. It's been fun. I do love some of their options they have that Etsy doesn't have.

Yet, sales continue to come in via Etsy and only one on ArtFire. Pretty typical.

With both sites, it's still up to me to get traffic to my shops. Backlinks to my shop is one way. Making a Treasury or a Collection is an easy way to get a backlink to your shop.

This past week, I made a Treasury on Etsy and two Collections on ArtFire. (basically the same thing, just called by a different name.) Oh boy, did the differences in the sites really show.

Here is my Treasury on Etsy. Houndstooth Love

Here are my Collections on ArtFire. May all your days be Merry and Bright
Grab a cup of hot chocolate

See the difference?!

• I did the Houndstooth Love Treasury first. It was hard to decide which pictures/products to use because there were so many great items to choose from.
• I then tried to do Houndstooth on Artfire. I came up with 4 (seriously 4) pictures that were clear and crisp enough to use. Also they had to be sellers with PRO accounts, not ones with Basic accounts. (ArtFire will only use Collections for their front page and in their emails that have all Pro sellers in them.)
• I then changed my search options to "hot chocolate" and "bright holiday christmas decor" and still had a hard time coming up with enough decent listings to use.

My conclusions

• The actual process of making Treasuries and Collections is about the same.
• ArtFire has a handy option of automatically letting sellers know they made it into a Collection.
• You have to do it "manually" with Etsy, quite time consuming. You also have to make sure that each of your convos is worded a bit differently so it's not considered spam which will shut down your convos.
• ArtFire gives you the option of submitting your Collection for consideration for the front page and in emails as long as all sellers featured are PRO. (Update: My Hot Chocolate Collection made it to the front page of ArtFire today. How cool is that?)
• Etsy you have to cross your fingers it'll be seen or else promote the heck out of it.
• It was much easier to find "decent" listing on Etsy, much harder to find on ArtFire.

Is one better than the other? I'm not sure. All I know is it's a long of fun making them and an easy way to backlink my shop!