Yes. I just opened up my very own storefront on the internet. Come see me! Faux Show Art It will most likely take me 20 years to be noticed, laugh out loud. I am an idiot when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Meta Tags, Meta Description, Meta Title, the list goes on.
I bought my space through Weebly, which was the best fit for me. Shopify was a close runner-up and I also liked that they mailed me a free chip reader for my phone, everyone else wants 50-75 dollars for one. But, after reading reviews, Weebly came in at the top for what I was looking for and the set-up was easy. I imported all of my Etsy listings in a snap. When I tried to do that with Shopify, it was somewhat nightmarish because the formatting didn't import right.
There are a ton of apps that you can add to your Weebly package, but beware, many of them want additional money every month and my efforts were to keep costs down. Etsy takes a lot of my money overall and the way they mess around with their own internal algorithms is disturbing. For example about a year ago, on Etsy, I was getting between 20-30 favorites a day and business was never better. Then overnight, literally, crickets... I was not the only seller screaming bloody murder, there were tons of us. Etsy came back with some lame excuse about how they were better serving buyers and all I could think was: Okay, I was receiving tons of favorites and sales were booming, you updated your algorithm, then it was gone! So, whatever customers were finding me before, were lost in the ether. This is not helping customers find what they are looking for. Many suspected the move to do this by Etsy was to coax sellers into paying for additional advertising through Etsy. Additional money for Google Ad Words, IntraEtsy Ads, etcetera. Let's face it, the day Etsy said it was okay to sell mass-produced goods, their sparkle faded for me.
I had talked about getting off of Etsy as my sole outlet but never did it. I paid for Weebly for four months before finally flipping the switch and opening my store. I had a Pattern site (provided by Etsy to the tune of $15/month) for 15 months and made ONE sale. I pray it is not that way for Weebly. That would stink.
I am offering all of the same items in my Faux Show Art store, but I am doing so at a 10% discount over Etsy, so if you see something on Etsy that you like, head over to Faux Show Art and save some coin!
Peace!
