Online business Archives - Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Opening your first online shop is such an exciting experience! When I started as an Etsy seller in 2008, the options for handmade sellers were limited. Etsy was the standout choice then—and it’s still an option in 2025—but today, there are so many ways to sell your creations online. With so many choices, it can be challenging to decide which platform suits your products, budget, and goals.

I sold handmade goods on Etsy for years, but over the past five years, I’ve transitioned almost entirely to selling digital products like weaving PDF patterns and eBooks. Last year, I decided to open a Shopify store, offering the same products as my Etsy shop. In this post, I’ll share my experiences with both platforms, the pros and cons, and my advice for choosing the best platform for your needs.

Should I Start with Etsy or Shopify?

Both platforms have unique advantages and challenges, so let’s break them down to help you decide.

Etsy Pros

Beginner-Friendly Setup:
Starting a shop on Etsy is incredibly easy. Creating an account, listing products, and processing payments requires little technical knowledge and takes very little time.
Low Upfront Costs:
Etsy’s listing fees are just $0.20 per item, and if you don’t make a sale, that’s all you pay. This makes Etsy a low-risk option for beginners.
Built-In Marketplace:
Etsy attracts millions of buyers, giving you instant access to a marketplace that helps you build a customer base without needing a website or extensive marketing. This is invaluable if you are just starting out and don’t have an audience.

Etsy Cons

High Fees on Sales:
While the $0.20 listing fee is affordable, Etsy’s transaction fee of 6.5% (on the item price and shipping) and payment processing fees can add up quickly.
Intense Competition:
Etsy’s marketplace is crowded. While buyers may find your shop, they’ll also see competing listings—sometimes directly on your product pages!
Limited Control:
You don’t own your Etsy shop, meaning you’re subject to their rules. Sellers can be suspended or removed without warning, often due to accidental copyright issues.
No Customer Email Collection:
Building a mailing list is essential for growing your business, but Etsy doesn’t allow automated email collection from customers.
The Future Doesn’t Look so Bright: There is a growing level of discontent with Etsy from shop owners. There are too many reasons to list here, but if you Google or Youtube it, you will find plenty of explanations. Personally, I feel glad to be moving away from Etsy and towards Shopify at this point.

Shopify Pros

You Own It:
With Shopify, you have complete control over your store, branding, and customer data. It’s your shop, not a rented space.
Customizable and Professional:
Shopify stores are clean, professional, and customizable. Even with the default templates, your shop will look great.
Email Collection:
Shopify allows you to collect customer emails, making it easier to build relationships and drive repeat sales.
Your Own Domain:
You can choose a custom domain name, making your shop easier to find and more memorable.
It is More Affordable: Now, this is somewhat dependent on how much you customise your shop. I have fairly basic level paid customisations (like apps for collecting shop and product reviews) but how much you do is up to you.

Shopify Cons

You Drive the Traffic:
Unlike Etsy, Shopify isn’t a marketplace, so you’ll need to bring traffic to your shop. This can be a challenge if you’re starting from scratch.
Monthly Costs:
Shopify charges a monthly hosting fee (starting at $42 for my setup) regardless of sales. You may also need paid apps for customization, as I mentioned in the previous section, adding to the costs. Although there is the monthly fee, you can start for as little as $1. Scroll to the end to see this special Shopify offer.
A Little Trickier to Learn: I found that it was more complex setting up a shop. Again, this can depend on your level of customisation and needs for your specific business. I found I needed to do some research regarding some aspects of opening my shop, but information and instructions are readily available online.

Cost Comparison: Etsy vs. Shopify

Here’s a breakdown of my typical monthly expenses for each platform:

Etsy Fees: $50–$1600/month, depending on sales.
Shopify Fees: $42/month for hosting + $20 for apps = $62/month.

For me, Shopify’s flat fees are more predictable and affordable. I love that the fees don’t increase based on my level of sales. But as an established seller with over 12,000 Etsy sales, I already have a strong customer base to direct to my Shopify store, which has given me a considerable advantage.

Final Thoughts on Etsy vs. Shopify

If you’re just starting, Etsy is still a good choice. The low upfront cost and built-in marketplace make it ideal for beginners. However, as you grow, you might want more control over your shop, branding, and customer relationships—this is where Shopify shines.

While my Shopify sales were slower than I’d hoped initially, it’s now picking up as customers become aware of my newer shop and accustomed to using it. Over time, I hope my Shopify store becomes the primary home for my digital products.

Want to Start Your Own Shopify Store?

Try a 3 day Shopify trial, then start seeing for $1 a month for your first 3 months! Click here to start your free trial.

If you’re still exploring options for selling online, check out these helpful resources:

I hope this article helps you choose the best platform for your business. Have questions? Drop them in the comments—I’d love to hear from you!

This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure policy for details.

If there is one important thing I’ve learned in the 8 years of running an online business it is that you must diversify your income.

That is a fancy way of saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. Relying on just one source of income is risky because you don’t have anything to fall back on if needed.

Today I’m going to talk about my 11 income streams (yes, that’s right – 11!) I’m not going into any figures because numbers can be misunderstood (for example, I get to keep approximately half of my actual revenue once taxes and running expenses are paid).

But I will outline my 11 income streams in order from what makes the most to what makes the least amount. The order is still a generalisation as most of my income streams are fluctuating from month to month.

Online courses

The Online Weaving School was started back in 2017 and supplies the largest part of my income (by a long shot!) The weaving school is hosted at Teachable, which works very well because I, as the creator have my own space on the internet and I’m fully in control of how the school runs, the type of content available there and the pricing for my students.

There are two models on which the school operates – single purchase classes and memberships.

A single purchase class is just what it sounds like – the student make a one time purchase and then has permanent access to the class. They can come back, log in to their account and re-watch the class as many times as desired. They also have the ability to receive feedback, share comments and photos on the platform.

Memberships have been a huge part of my success as an online business. The student chooses a membership tier and then has access to a full class library, including member’s only classes until their membership expires (at which point they can choose to renew or cancel). A membership also gives a student access to the private member’s community. A membership model is excellent because it provides the creator with recurring and somewhat more predictable income.

Premium Membership

Access to full class library for one annual fee. All prices are in US dollars

1796 students enrolled

Last updated Apr 8th, 2025

Select a Pricing Plan

Premium membership$157/year

Buy now

2. My Design Store

For many years I have also been designing weaving patterns. These are usually project based and provide the buyer with step by step written instructions, colour photos and often video links to complete a weaving project.

I sell my designs in digital format at Kelly Casanova Designs using the Shopify platform.

I have also branched into writing ebooks to provide even more information to weavers and these are also available in my design store.

Digital downloads are an excellent source of (mostly) passive income as much of the work is done up front in the designing and writing. There is often some follow up needed in the form of support for purchasers but this is relatively minimal compared to the weaving school.

Very occasionally I also make weaving/yarn kits available to my audience and these are based on existing patterns.

If you are interested in trying a Shopify store for yourself, you can get 3 days free plus 3 months for $1 each when you sign up for a trial, just use this link to take a closer look at that offer.

3. Youtube

Income from Youtube is made through Google Adsense. The ads are place on my videos and I get a cut of what the advertisers pay to Youtube (about half). This type of income is fluctuating and not very reliable and because I’m in the “craft” niche, advertisers pay much lower rates than they would for videos in something like the business or finance niche.

The beauty of Youtube when it comes to online business is that it can act as an audience funnel for your existing business. It allows you to build and audience that can get to know and trust you. It can be a way for potential students to sample your teaching style before investing in a course or membership.

My business has grown from my Youtube following, so it has been an absolute essential part of my success.

4. My blog

Income from my blog is also made through Google Adsense. This is not ideal, and some readers do complain that there are too many ads when they read articles. Having ads enabled on my blog does cover my hosting fees though, and gives some small compensation for the many hours I’ve spent writing informative articles.

Similar to Youtube, the blog also acts as a funnel or advertising space for my paid products.

5. Affiliate income

Affiliate income is when you recommend a product, service or company to your audience with a special referral link. If someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you receive a small percentage of that purchase as a thank you from the company.

Affiliate income is an excellent way to make money, but certainly not the easiest (at least, that has been the case for me!) Affiliate commissions vary a huge amount from as little as 1 -4% of the sale (hello Amazon!) to 30-50% (I don’t have any affiliates that pay that much but I know they’re out there).

It takes a lot of time to insert links and write them into content in a way that provides value to your audience. No one wants to feel like they’re being spammed so it’s important to use affiliate links properly and respectfully.

You can do this by only recommending products/services that you use yourself or that you have sufficient knowledge of in order to recommend with confidence.

Some months my affiliate income now surpasses my blog or YouTube income but this is not a frequent occurrence.

6. Paid newsletter

This year I started my very first paid newsletter through Convertkit (now known as Kit). I have been sending out a free newsletter for many years but the paid newsletter is separate and covers different topics.

7. Magazine work

This income stream involves writing articles and submitting projects. I have completed quite a bit of this type of work over the last year or so and continue to receive requests and proposals.

Submitting projects takes a great deal of work and time and I don’t feel the compensation is high enough for the amount of work required. So, for the near future at least I will stick more to the article writing, which I find enjoyable and rewarding.

8. Public speaking/ presentations

This is another income stream that I just started this year. I receive invitations to speak or present for weaving guilds or groups. So far, these presentations have been online, which is brilliant as it allows me to reach people that live in different locations to me! I prepare a presentation ahead of time and then give the presentation live.

9. Handmade items

This is a very, very small stream as I only sell handmade items occasionally. Before I started the Online Weaving School, I was a handmade seller, but I have very little time now to actually make something physical to sell.

10. Facebook

This one is kind of a surprise. I logged into my Facebook analytics one day and found that I had made a little money! I didn’t even know that was a thing 😆 Since then, I’ve made small amounts every month. It’s really only pocket money but I certainly don’t mind earning money for posting on my Facebook page, which is something that I would be doing anyway.

11. Merchandise

I have tried merchandise with Society6 and Spring. I have closed the Society6 store and will likely do the same for the Spring store in the future. This has not been a good source of income for me, so I have stopped promoting it in order to focus more on the streams that do work well for me.

Being an entrepreneur is such a journey of learning, adapting and pivoting when needed. Having more than one stream of income really helps you to try things out, see what will work and what won’t and then maximise the things that work the best for your business.

If you are starting out with online business, you will find these articles helpful as well:

Should I start with Etsy or Shopify?

Handmade Business Beginner Essentials

3 ways to start selling online for free

Do you want to start selling your weaving?

This article is also available in video format here: