BellaOnline Forums Career Business Coach Online Stores Like CafePress & Amazon's astore

Hi,

Does anyone know any sites where you can create a store, like cafepress and Amazon's astore?

Looking for more. If I don't start turning a profit soon my husband says I have to go back to work.

Should be interesting because he doesn't want the kids in daycare either.

School start 8:00, kindergarten p/u 10:30 and school out 2:30.

So I have yet to figure out how I can go to work outside the home and take care of the kids, all while he's living in Ponoka.

ebay !! (hang in there Carennedy!)

lulu

barnes and noble

usborne chidrens books- dont know how much might be online

Carennedy- sorry to hear that! I know how it is and earning at home takes time when you have an online business.

When my kids were small, I did home daycare, which pays a lot more now than it did then. Did you ever think of trying that? I took babies at first and they sort of grew up with me.

I know the hours for school aren't conducive for a job. I tried working outside the home a few times and it just didn't work.

If my husband didn't make good money, I couldn't afford my "jobs." I had a very lucrative job for about 3 years, editing and managing an online newspaper. When the owner gave up on it, there went my good income. I've never managed to replace that amount and writing doesn't pay all that well anymore either. Too much is outsourced overseas for $5 an article.

I wish you luck. If the online stores pan out, let us know.

I don't know how successful it is, but Etsy.com was just in the NY Times. It sounds (and looks) similar to Cafepress. Does anyone know anything about it?

I love Etsy! I rarely buy anything because I'm on a tight budget but they have some of the cutest things. It's like Ebay (without the bidding) but everything is handmade by the sellers. It's a great place for really unique pieces.

I ran a dayhome and burned out big time and when my husband figured how to work from home I went back to work outside the home. Now he's made a career change and lives 2.5 hrs away and I'm home again. Definetly not going to do the full on dayhome again. Mornings are so brutal for us that a before school kid would be in the way. I might see about advertising for an after school kid... maybe.

I also run a networking group which will generate fees in the future and from that organize cooperative marketing groups. I have so many facets, I sell Latasia Jewellery and other products through direct sales home parties and open houses. I help mothers make the decision regarding whether or not to stay home or go to work then find the resources they need to ensure it can be done. My business has so many facets but it is a start up and isn't making money yet so I have to get as much cash flow as possible to shut him up. The more sources I have the better because it will add up to enough.

I'll check it out.

I also was in a store today -- the General Store -- I'm going to get some inventory and put it in there.

carennedy i loved the shutting up bit - you made me laugh - i have been working hard all day on it today like you - i really do think theres some sense in joans idea - after all, all you want is some at-home cash to free you to stay home and build your business right? - does it matter where it comes from legally obviously, as long as it liberates you to stay home and build?

might even consider it myself if things dont look up soon - i might take in some ironing lol lol

I have a friend who has a shop on etsy.com. She just started a month ago and has sold a few things. It is very affordable I think she said .03 to list items and then if you sell something, I think they take a very small percentage, I think she said 3%. It's a nice, unlike ebay there aren't millions of items, and as it was already said, everything is hand made.

I'm on my way to etsy.

The only thing about the daycare thing is that I did it and the burn out was serious burn out to the point I couldn't even stand my own kids. In the end I had 11 kids in and out all week, some full time, some part time, some before and after school. I know I don't have to do it to that extent again and one kid may work out in the new year.

It is really good money. I made enough to support the family. I didn't make as much as I did in the Financial Planning industry, but I didn't spend as much either.

Carennedy -

What are you good at? What do you love to do? What would you do all day if you didn't have to worry about money?

What are the things you DON'T like to do?

These are important questions to answer.

If you want to bounce some things off of me, in private, go ahead and send me a PM.

Meg

And on Etsy - One of my International Clients is an artist. He makes a pretty good income on Etsy, with his paintings.

Seems to be all homemade arts & crafts. Fabulous idea!

I am doing what I love. Helping women succeed in business so they can stay home -- I should start charging though.

I'm in start up that's the only issue here not what I'm doing, it's a time deadline thing that my husband has so gratitiously put on me.

I left him a voice mail today because he's on a flight outlineing exactly what he's asking of me and to come up with suggestions to exactly what job I can do that won't put the kids in daycare when I've only got 2.5hrs without them. I also mentioned that if I was to put them into daycare then I'd be bringing home as much as I do selling jewellery and the online stores, so wouldn't it be better if he helped me get the business going rather than be an idiot and ask me to be 2 people.

We'll see. He is my biggest obstical, he places tonnes of demands on me and expects me to keep a clean and orderly home. He doesn't do anything I ask of him. I critizes me constantly and nothing I do is good enough and he appreciates nothing I do.

So my issue isn't what I am passionate about or what I need to do, it's how will I do it with him being his usual Ahole self.

I looked at etsy and it is a really neat site for handmade gifts. In the new year I'll have lots to put on. For now, I'm looking for an easy bake oven & a cheap cd player.... I thought Wii's were hard to come by.

good for you - good luck with etsy!

Ebay and Squidoo Lens. They really help build online business. It works for me. Good Luck Carennedy!

Tonet

I've become addicted to Squidoo.... it's so easy

I love to write, I just published a book.
It is a drama romance novel about a young woman struggling to find her center inside her trials and tribulations....

The book can be attained through.... www.publishamerica.com
For Immediate Release

Contact: Shawn Street � Public Relations
pr@publishamerica.com
www.publishamerica.com

PublishAmerica Presents Broken Dreams by Stefanie

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Stefanie was born in Formia, Italy. She enjoys writing poetry and short stories. Her passion is literature. She likes to write about life experiences and romance. Her objectives are to become a novelist and memoir writer. Married with four children, she shares a passion with her family through artistic expression. She enjoys teaching her children to sketch nature, animals and cartoon characters.

writing is like taking everything that you store away inside a box and as you open the box, it reveals more than what has been stored....

Write a squidoo lens to market this. Check out mine at

Support and Resources for those who work at home or want to work from home

Information on latasia jewelry business

It's really easy and you can promote your book there. Takes 10 minutes to make a lens.

Found a new store site....

I now have 5 online stores... and to think I had only one with a couple of designs at the beginning of December.

Purchase unique designs on shirts, mugs, cards, and more for friends and family.

If you are looking to add to your business or even just to put a logo on a shirt, card or mug it is really easy to do at zazzle, because it has a built in typing feature.

For those who have websites you can develop some products really easily, put them into a gallery and then add what they call a panel to your website.

Even if it's just positive thinking quotes or a nice picture you took with an inspiring quote. Simple to do and you can build a store too.

There are many sites. I always felt that Printperfection had more functionality at the free level than Cafepress. You may want to check them out.

That's the other one, I do have a store there too and on the free level yes it is really good.

I recently set up a store on ecrater and wanted to give an update. I hadn't done much with it and didn't get any sales, then I decided to hook it up to my blog and health and wellness site and have gotten 2 orders this week!

I discovered they do have html you can use to add a kind of slide show of your products to your site.

Here is one page on my blog where I added the html Just scroll down a bit.

Ecrater is free and I've been happy with it, esp since I started selling things. I plan to promote it more in the future.

Hi joanj - I had another look at your blog - your store looks professional! So good that ecrater is free too. - yes, I signed up with guru, elance and a couple of others. I also once signed up for cafe press but there's only so much time!

I know exactly what you mean about the lack of time. There are dozens of things on my "to-do" list related to my sites.

Thanks so much for the kind words about my blog! I just started it and it's been fun. Different than doing a website. It's a great way to keep your site updated tho if you link your blog to it.

My zazzle and cafepress stores have been selling consistantly but still is peanuts.

What do you sell on Cafepress? I haven't heard of zazzle - great name though!

my cafepress store isn't working if you use internet explorer to surf. If you use another browser you should be able to see it.

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Here's a funny story, that I think Carennedy will appreciate!

I logged in to an ancient email that I haven't touched in years. And it turns out that a project I put on Cafepress years ago, has been selling all this while.

I completely forgot about it!

Talk about passive income!

Hey C - Lisa has pointed out the guidelines about external links - can you refrain from publishing so many links in future posts? Thanks! Here's the link, in case you would like to read it for yourself. BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

That's Great about the Cafepress. With Cafepress and zazzle and squidoo I make about $100 a month passive income -- not alot but enough for Christmas Gifts -- of course everyone will get a shirt or coffee mug lol!

The kids love wearing their shirts and my husband, reluctant to wear them is now seeing the benefits.