Who sells their stuff online?

be prepared to spend more money that you think you will.first you need to set up a web site and maintain it.this will be a monthly or yearly charge.this gives you a website,but if people don't know what the address is you won't get any visitors,so then you will need to buy keywords,and they charge you for each one.then you need to submit your website to search engines.they charge for this,so if you want to start a business make sure that you have some extra money set aside and make sure you investigate all of the things you need before you start.don't start first and ask questions later.

I did. I had my own website when I first started on Etsy. I had heard that Etsy is such a hard site to make sales, so I started my own website, selling handmade jewelry and knitted scarves/hat sets that I didn't list on Etsy. I promoted my own site on Myspace, Yuwie, wrote blogs, sent out the site address on every email to my firends, family etc. I did make a few sales, but spent a lot of time promoting my own website while also doing some promoting on Etsy. While doing less promoting on Etsy, I started making a few sales and realized the whole aspect of designing, listing items and promoting my own website was very time consuming. Especially when I compared my website to my shop on Etsy. I've since abandoned my website and the site I created on E-crater and concentrate on my shop on Etsy. I still promote, but during the periods of time that I don't do much, customers still find their way to my shop (perhaps it's because a few of the groups that I'm in do a lot of promoting the entire group) There were a couple months during the spring that I just struggled tofind the time to promote, but I would still make a few sales. I'm not saying that I won't "fire-up" my website again, but the amount of time it takes to maintain the site and constantly promote (and it is constant promoting) compared to what I do to make sales on Etsy... well I'm just not motivated enough right now. In my opinion, handmade on Etsy is like auctions are to eBay. They both are well-known for what they do and the customers go their first when looking for handmade. Thankfully, I'm doing just enough for them to be finding my shop (and I know asome of my success is do the one of the clubs I'm part of) and making a decent amount of sales. For me right now, I don't want to have to go up against Etsy.com when trying to attract traffic. I'd rather have Etsy bring in the traffic and try to attract them to my shop. It's much less time-consuming and for the short-term, much cheaper. Have you tried Etsy? If so, what did you like/not like about the site?