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| Corroded Rustic Electric Hurricane Lantern |
It was 2012 when I first opened my Etsy shop featuring my
Electric Hurricane Lanterns Table Lamps. I was facing a hardship and knew I had to do something to be prepaired. About two years before this time I was looking for some cool lighting for my home office and I thought about a kerosene hurricane lantern. I figured someone probably has an electrified one for sale online. I searched and searched and couldn't find one so I made one myself and I loved it. While trying to figure out how to make an income from home that's when I thought about the electric lantern. I figured others might love it as well. I figured I could sell them on ebay but during my research I discovered
Etsy and gave it go. I created my own shop and in less then two weeks I made first sale. I was on my way! Now I have create a brand new stand-alone
shop that makes buying so much easier!
Electric Hurricane Lanterns - In The Beginning
Two months after I started my lantern business I lost my job. Things became rough I lived the next five years in pure hell. Truly the worst days and years of my life. The one thing that kept me going was the success of my own home business. I was not able to earn a full time income but the sales of the
Electric Hurricane Lantern Table Lamps kept food on my table and heat in my house. I have been grateful that I discovered Etsy, a site I never heard of before I started my business, because it gave me the customers and the exposure. It is the perfect home for electric lanterns. With that being said it is not been free from problems.
Etsy was great in my first few years. They were designed around us, the creative home business artists and vintage item collectors, who are entrepreneur's who typically work by themselves. In the last few years that has been brushed under the rug in favor of wholesalers, bigger businesses, and in some case copycats. Etsy changed the site, terms, the keyword process, and have things available to buyers that deeply hurt sellers. They are no longer designed to help us succeed. I am not turning my back on them, as I will continue to offer my Electric Hurricane Lanterns Table Lamps, but if I am to grow I must branch off and take complete ownership.
A New Home For My Electric Hurricane Lanterns
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| Painted Copper Electric Hurricane Lantern |
There are many options available for home business owners including Shopify, Amazon, ebay, Bonanza, etc. The drawbacks of these sites is cost. Shopify costs $30.00 a month with it's lowest plan, Amazon takes a huge cut of your profits, ebay has high fees and serious competition, and Bonanza still gives them control over your online business in many ways. I've seen some justify Shopify's monthly fee by saying you have a much lower fees. This may work for high volume shops but smaller shops with lower inventory it will be much higher. For my shop it's not economical. This lead me to a great find. There are various web hosting sites available that are cheap and allows you to keep all your profits. No listing fees, etc. I personally choose to buy a new domain and then get hosting through
Site Ground. They are just a few dollars a month (I paid for two years at once) and they are not alone. I found many hosting companies like that. You can then install Word Press (Free) and the plug-in WooCommerce (also free) and create a secure shop that is under your complete control. I had to watch some You Tube videos to learn what I needed to do to set it all up but after a few days I had a beautiful site featuring my own
Electric Hurricane Lanterns Table Lamps based shop with no influence or control from Etsy.
A New Home
I am excited to announce my brand new stand-alone shop
MikeMBurkeDesigns.com now active and ready for orders! The site features a very clean and simple design. Secure credit card payments through Stripe, Paypal check-out, option to create an account for faster check-out during repeat buys, and access to some other cool products I offer such as my framed art and photo prints, mugs, kitchenware, T-shirts, greeting cards, etc. I will still keep my Etsy shop (business as usual) but this site is a great alternative for customers who don't like Etsy or are confused by their interface. It also allows me more control without their input.
If you have seen my lanterns before and wanted one or to give as a gift, but didn't want to buy through Etsy, you can now visit
MikeMBurkeDesigns.com and buy with ease on a safe and secure site. Everything has been done to make it a quick and easy experience so you can get your hands on a one-of -a-kind
Electric Hurricane Lanterns Table Lamp!
Mike M Burke
http://mikemburkedesigns.com
