I thought about titling this post "Running an Online Business at Night, When Your Day Job Goes Into the Night." You can tell my day job has been consuming all my night hours this year. I mean, this is the first post since February.
This year I experimented with running multiple stores. I had my Etsy shop, my shop on ShopDelighted, and then I was beginning to set up shop on Craftinest. I think I did this based on some idea that multiple venues = more exposure and maybe better SEO. What I found out is that I don't have time to do more than check one shop in the morning and maybe do a little at night. So I've decided to go back to one store.
But which store? Etsy has made one bad decision after another this year, but it's where I make my sales and get traffic. ShopDelighted has no traffic and since the amazing staff member left, that place is completely dead. Craftinest, the juried site, looked great but they've closed up and gone out of business. So, with a creeping sense that I have no principles left, I'm moving everything back to Etsy. It's all I have time for.
Maybe someday another online venue with traffic will open up and I can move there. But for now, it's the big orange E for me.
