weeshelf guides

Sharing what you recommend, without a link in bio that goes nowhere

For anyone who gets asked "where is that from?" — a way to keep your recommendations in one page you can update.

3 min read

  1. Collect the things you actually get asked about

    Not everything you own — the handful people message you about. A page of eight things somebody can act on beats a catalogue of eighty they scroll past.

  2. Keep the shop on every item

    The reason somebody opens a recommendations page is to buy the thing. Every card should say where it came from and link straight there, so the answer to "where is that from" takes one tap rather than a reply from you.

    A shared page of products from six different shops, each with the shop name and a link out to buy it.
    Six shops on one page, each item linking straight back to where it is sold.

  3. Make it public, and put the link where people ask

    A public shelf is one URL — it goes in a bio, a story, or a reply. Nobody needs an account to open it, which matters because most people will not make one to look at a list.

  4. Update the page instead of re-posting

    A story disappears in a day and a pinned post ages badly. A shelf you edit means the same link keeps working, and somebody who saved it last month sees what you would recommend today.

On being honest about what is in it

If something on the page is an affiliate link or a gifted item, say so on the item. It costs you a line and it is the difference between a recommendations page people trust and one they stop opening.

This is also the practical reason to keep the list short. A page of things you genuinely use is defensible; a page of everything you were sent is not, and readers can tell the difference faster than you would expect.

Group by occasion, not by category

"Everyday kurtas" and "what I wore to the wedding" get opened; "clothing" does not. People arrive with a situation rather than a department, and a page named after the situation answers them before they have to look.

It also gives you something to post. A new occasion is a new page and a reason to share the link again, where one permanent list quietly stops being mentioned after the week you made it.

Expect most of it to be read on a phone

Almost everyone reaching this page came from a story, a bio or a reply, which means a phone, often on mobile data, often in an app's own browser. A page that needs pinching to read, or that asks for an account before showing anything, loses most of its audience in the first few seconds.

The practical test is to open your own link on your phone over mobile data, having signed out first. That is the experience nearly everyone gets, and it is not the one you have been checking.