Why don't you have a website yet?

If you are selling your sewn items online why don't you have a website? Sure you say that eBay is fine for now but what happens when eBay gets hacked? Yes eBay has been hacked in the past and several hundreds of accounts had information that was compromised. I was actively selling my sewn items on eBay in September of 2007 when the site got hacked into. At least 200+ eBay accounts had to be put on hold because they were now suspected of being fraudulent. My account was safe but I knew 2 people that were so upset after the incident they left eBay for good and developed their own websites. I had an eBay store there and I closed it down because eBay accused me wrongly of shilling. They (eBay) canceled all of my listings, over 300+ in the store and I had to wait until someone answered my email to find out what happened. They refunded my listing fees, said they were sorry but I lost several sales because of it. Now I only list an occasional item on there. I refuse to be at the mercy of a larger website (I do trust Google though) that can do what they will with your account or website (as in the case of those "free" websites).

I encourage all my readers that plan on selling online to own their own domain name and have their website hosted at a reputable hosting company. I know that many of my friends that also sew for money don't know much about websites and wouldn't know what to look for in a web design company that could put up a website for you without you having to know anything about computers. Of course to have someone design and maintain your website for you is not as cheap as you doing it yourself but you also get an objective view from someone other than yourself when it comes to layouts and appeal of your website. If you click on the link above you will find that this website design company also talks to you on the phone and takes you step by step through the whole design process.

You need to get away from so called "free" websites that post ads on YOUR website for their gain. Get your own website and domain.