Interesting post, Lee, if a bit on the cautionary side. Yes, caution is needed, but I think that in coming to an information site such as this, people have already shown that the venture of of opening their own web store is something they've already given some careful consideration. There are pitfalls to every new endeavour and in reality the risks of trading from one's own website are far less than they would be if it was a bricks and mortar shop. No lease, no by-laws, no roadworks to stop passing traffic - and no sneaky shoplifters to walk away with the profits.

Driving traffic is, as you say, a problem, but how to do that is something else this website is here to address. Adwords are expensive, especially for a shoe-string site, but they aren't the only means of driving traffic. One, as you aready mentioned, is to wean customers over from auction buying to direct purchase. Another is to start out with the right SEO in place rather than putting off until later something that should be done at the very beginning.

Then there's the question of auction-site shops vs own web-stores. A close look would show that except for powersellers, auction shops are the more expensive choice. Ebay removed shop visibility, now they have removed sub-categories. Sales have plummeted yet again but the same fees have to be paid each month for an ever decreasing return. Then there are the St. Elsewhere shops. No listing fees and a modest monthly 'rental'. Sounds good. Except that St. Elsewhere sites have to fight for traffic with just the same effort that solo traders do, and mostly the promises made end up being jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but never jam today.

My own advice for what it's worth - probably absolutely nothing like everything else that comes for free - would be, if you have a dream, follow it, open your own store, work like the devil, never relax for a minute when it comes to creating a web presence, and learn everything you can about becoming a darling of the search engines. It can be done, not by everyone, but who can say where success might come if a dreamer never tries?

Just my own two'pennorth.

Kate