I've told you this before - you should NEVER use a free platform as a replacement for your own business website.

You have no control over your content, like the guy who had used Blogger for 14 years and one day his site was shut down without warning & he lost all his work.  14 years gone! Today the reason was illustrated once again when Facebook went down for a while.

When most business owners think of selling online, they think of it as a Yes/No question: either they do sell online or they don't.

The reality is that there are so many possible new revenue streams you can create that it's not a Yes/No question.

Recently we launched a new online store for Distinct Impressions that's a great example. DI is an established boutique in historic Downtown South Boston, VA, that sells gifts, fashions, and custom apparel, and offers embroidery and screen printing services. Their e-commerce project now brings in:

• sales through the e-commerce site itself,
• sales through their Facebook page's Facebook Shop tab,
• and sales generated automatically by comments on specific Facebook product posts.