If you run a museum, no matter how big or small or where you are in the world, a presence on Toy Collector can be a great help in letting the world know about you and attracting visitors.

Among the museums who already use Toy Collector are the V&A Museum of Childhood, the Minichamps Museum, the Marx Toy Museum, the Buenos Aires Toy Museum and Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg.

Here are all the things you can use the site for, and how using them can benefit you.

Blogging

Creating a blog for your museum is a great way to let everyone know about new items you're adding, ongoing development, cataloguing or restoration work on your archives - or to announce new exhibitions, events or similar one-off or finite events. Similarly, you can showcase particularly interesting items or collections you have on display and reach a global audience, ensuring that whenever any of them visit your town, they'll add you to their list of things to see.

You can see the Miniatur Wunderland and Milano Toy Museum blogs here and here as examples.

Galleries

Galleries are a great way to show samples of your exhibits to the collecting community. Of course, nothing beats the real thing, but once they know how great what you've got on show is, they'll know to make a date to come and visit whenever they're in your area.

Check out the Milano Toy Museum Galleries here, here and here for examples!

Profiles and Communication Tools

Putting up a profile lets the community know all about you, your history, what you've got on display and generally get a feel for your museum. You can  You can link to your own external website from your profile too.

Check out the V&A Museum of Childhood's profile here as an example!

Events Calendar

The Toy Collector Events Calendar is the largest calendar of toy, model and collector-related events on the web. As such, listing upcoming exhibitions or any special events you're having is a must. The calendar is global, with searchable events categorised by location, reaching a massive global audience.

Check our the ever-changing Events Calendar here for examples.

Yellow Pages

Our Yellow Pages Section is a directory of toy and model-related businesses. As the first point of call for site visitors who are looking for services or establishments, a free listing here is a must. The section is categorised by business type and allows you to add a description of your services, another link to your own site and your contact information.

Check out the Museums section of the Yellow Pages here.

Publicity & Search Engine Optimisation

Of course, all the above will help you build that all-important awareness among potential customers of all types, but that's not all. The more times your name and links appear on the internet, the better your Search Engine Optimisation will be too, meaning better search results for your museum's name and more interest from everyone searching!