I do, for about a month so far. Its been an interesting social experiment.I was probably way too naive about how many rings that needed to be kissed or how many people wanted to sell me their web site services. Shopify offers their basic service and template for $1 a month for the first 3 months. Obviously they know something...

Huh, I guess nobody is too interested or think I'm trying to sell them something so I'll give my experiences without telling you the specifics of my on-line little micro store. I can't believe that would violate any rules..

I copy some posts from another site:

A person can totally build one from scratch but most newbies go with a company that provides established templates and all the details of an e-store so people aren't doing their own code and other work. I ended up selecting to go with Shopify (an international company based in Canada). Their system is fairly easy to use but a person who hasn't done it before can certainly end up in various blind alleys so youtube videos addressing specific hang ups or steps was a must to get through all the aspects. So, over a couple of weekends and some time on weekday evenings, I was ready to go by last Saturday (Feb 17) evening. My fairly simple lay out looked good and my test sales to my wife appeared to work. I did the "publish" button and waited for orders to appear.

l then found out what Shopify or all the others don't tell you is that newbies are basically at the mercy of Google it give its blessing by finally "crawling" your website (as they crawl back and forth across the entire web!!) and verifying your store is legit. This might take from days to weeks to actually happen. My store does show up in the "Shop" app which is Shopify's way of buying on any store under its roof--we found it at lunch at work on Tuesday-- but from just putting in the name of my store:
nothing much will show up yet on Google except for my LLC that I set up with the State of SD for $150 and 20 minutes of work. Either late last Saturday night or on Sunday, I bought a domain through Shopify: and it shows up but the site looks corrupted (not what it appears in Shop) and it also tells people that its "unsecured."

A person can prompt Google to start paying attention but that requires playing around with "Google Search Console" and pasting some verification code into your URLs, etc. My two attempts of trying to do that this morning failed. I will probably try again tomorrow when I'm better rested. The moral of the story is that a person can build an alright looking on-line store and seem to have the apparatus to fulfill orders set up, but you're pretty much showing to empty space until the king of the internet decides to let you play. Long live Google!!!

(Feb 24)

Eureka!!! I did something right in getting Google to verify that my on-line store domain was legit. It appears that its now findable on Google and someone might see it. Please spread the word if you want to see how this little experiment goes from here

Again, I posted this somewhere else than tman so my "spread the word" isn't aimed at you to buy something from me.

(March 12)

An update on my little on-line store. Yes, I found out about King Google but there is also Prince (or Princess) Bing! About 6% of American internet users browse with Microsoft's Bing and having Google find out you're a legit website doesn't translate across to MS Bing or at least not very fast. I thought I had also did the little extra diddy to have Bing recognize me but maybe not really. When I put in my store's name in Bing, it doesn't show up, although Bing did produce what I have below for the first time. "TV Stuff Online" wonders if I'm legit whereas I wonder if they are 😁! Silly internet 🙃

(March 16)

I sort of knew this going in but perhaps I was more naive than I should have been but its all about getting "closer to the top" of a browser return after something is entered in their search bar. The browser companies know what percentage of people will only look at the first page of returns, how many will go say 5 pages deep, how many will go 10 pages in, etc.; any sort of metric that can be defined. My favor to ask is to go look at my product list and then search for that product name AND for a few of them. I'm not asking you to buy anything but to just search for some of my listings. From my searches, Google seems to do me well when I do this (enter one of my products AND the store name) but perhaps some of this is cached as well. Bing is now starting to show my store if I type in its name so perhaps Microsoft finally crawled my url and now considers it "legit" or if it has just taken time. My store doesn't show up on DuckDuckGo as of yet. One of the things with Bing is that I haven't finished off setting up a MS Merchant Channel yet because if you look at the metrics it keeps on people it seems to reduce people to "client ID cookies" but I suspect this is the way of the on-line selling world and probably about everybody does it, some probably more aggressively than others. Sigh...

From a couple of computers that I've tried with Bing, I show up with a few of my specific products by themselves or certainly when I enter the first name of my store after the product but it also might be that the cache of those two computers. From this computer, a product of mine and the first name of my store i Google, and it shows up on the first page. Again, this may be a cache thing.

In the Shopify store details beyond the product pages (people have to know where to dig), a person has a phone number and e-mail address. I've gotten a lot more out-of-state calls after Feb 17 that are mostly like web designer people who want to get hired by me to make the most killer website or get to the top of Google or Bing from no matter computer is used. I've also gotten a few e-mails offering such services. Most are supposedly from here in the States although there are a lot of web site companies in South Asia that also want to sell you their services. None of them have been very pushy so far but my phone (usually fairly quiet for several reasons) has been busier over the past month or so.

OK I have read everything you wrote but do not understand much of it. I am too old to understand this stuff. what is it that we type into the computer to find your "store"?????

Try typing "bloody butcher corn for seed, dakota" in your search bar and see what shows up.

Typed in what you said and Bucktown seed was at the top of the list. Is that you?

What was your reasoning for making it an LLC?

No. The first three words of the name are "dakota prairie stream..."

[quote][What was your reasoning for making it an LLC? /quote]

To keep the name from being used by others. Probably overkill at this point.

Ok, makes sense, haven’t ventured into the world of online stores yet, maybe someday.

An LLC will protect you personally. In today's world if you are going to sell on line you better be an LLC. I sold for 20 years, had my own website even., as well as a store on ebay. At the end of my adventure I discovered just how dishonest people really are. I'd never do it again but I wish you all the good fortune you can stand. Good luck.

I googled that name and your page was at the top.

Good point Spike369!! A LLC separates personal assets from the company's assets, even if the company is dinky. South Dakota is very "liberal" its in use and issuance of LLCs.

Thanks Jurassic Park!! That's good to know

Have you had an increase in orders yet? Do you sell elsewhere like Amazon? I’d be interested in hearing more about your experience v

No, I'm not doing Amazon because 1) I just don't have the volume of product at this point, and 2) I don't like Amazon. My family orders stuff through it but I never have. Probably cutting my own throat by not getting with Amazon but I guess I'd rather just bleed out before kissing their ring. Only so many rings a man can kiss.

I haven't run any ads yet. I suppose I should complete my Microsoft Merchant Channel and see what happens.