I make afghans and was thinking of selling them on Etsy. I would do anything to be able to quit my work at home call center job.

I currently sell my crochet items on Etsy just had my one year anniversary in November. Prior to that I was selling at craft fairs...I have stopped doing craft fairs as it seemed to be way too much work and people seemed to always try to low ball me on the prices at the craft fairs. Since selling on Etsy people just purchase for the price I have listed the only time I am asked for discounts is w.hen they want to purchase wholesale.

I admire you for wanting to do your own website.

I've been selling on Etsy for a few years. I mostly sell purses, but lately I've been adding a few other things to my shop. I love it! I never get tired of getting that email that says I've sold something. And I get a special little boost when I get to ship one of my packages to far off places like Australia.

I also have an ETSY account, however, I believe that it is necessary to have other means of selling at the beginning. Surprisingly, facebook has given me more business just through friends & friends of friends! It is nice for people to share your links (for free) & get through to their friends as well. Marketing is everything!

I just opened a shop on etsy called kearsargecreations. I wouldn't call myself the most tech savvy person, but etsy is very user friendly! They have great articles and we binary on how to get started, I highly recommend it.

I am in the process. I just purchased my domain name this morning and am very excited about it. Not sure exactly how everything works but I've got nothing but time! I agree Etsy is a good place to start, however, my thought is that if I have to promote my shop that much, why not promote my own website and not have to pay the fees?

Lots and lots of people sell handmade items on Instagram and are making alot of money doing it. It's all invoiced on PayPal. I just bought 6 hand made skirts with matching bows for my 2 little girls. The girls had her instashop for a month and she's sold over 150 skirts and I have no idea how many dresses. Skirts are $20.00 each shipped. She charges $35.00 for a simple dress but its adorable & people will pay it. She's making me one for my daughters 2nd birthday party. I've ordered tons from the instashops. It's a great way to get your product in front of alot of people for free. If someone wants to buy they comment with their email address. You invoice them thru PayPal, get paid within 24 hrs and ship it when it's paid or made.

I just checked out Instagram and it looks like a photo sharing site to me. I didn't see anything about instashops or how to sell there. I would be really interested in more information if you could PM me about it.

It is a photo sharing. You share pictures of your items post your price. People comment with their email address that they want the invoice sent to. It's not a "selling" site. That's what makes it free and awesome. You can search the hashtag #instashop & tons will show up. Just look thru some & you'll see how its done. Follow me @susansellsoo. Make your acct name your shop name. Then pm me what it is and I'll tag you in some example if you need me to.

Thanks for the info, I will look into it a little more. I'm wondering though, if it is set up to be a photo sharing site, how long will it be before they shut down those accounts that are using it in a way it wasn't intended. I will check out the TOS and see if it mentions anything.