Retailers across the board are reporting weaker sales this holiday season as shoppers have less money to spend on gifts and on themselves in this ugly economy. There is one exception, though. Craft sales are much stronger this year, as folks turn to do-it-yourself projects and handmade goods to save money on gifts.

In years past, maybe you spent $10 or $20 on each of your gifts, but when you can't afford to spend like that anymore, it's time to get creative. You can make your own gifts for the cost of some inexpensive craft supplies, or you can buy directly from crafters if you're not so talented with knitting needles and glue sticks yourself. Etsy, the popular website for buying and selling handmade goods, has seen a real boom in both listings and transactions this holiday season. Sometimes it's more expensive to buy handmade goods, but etsy is a great place to find less expensive but still high quality merchandise. I did a lot of shopping there myself this year!

While Web 2.0 was to bring about the death of the middleman, this would have little impact on the nation's artists and crafters, who never had a middleman to begin with. Millions still hawk their handmade goods at fairs, open markets, co-ops, wherever a few customers might congregate.

For these people, the web site etsy.com has been a Godsend. Operating on the template of eBay, etsy offers a way for creators of handmade art, tools, decorations and useful household items to offer their wares directly to the public. Over 60,000 vendors offer almost a million different items for sales to around 650,000 registered users.

As you can imagine, the site offers a huge variety of jewelry, knitted goods, etc. Parenthood and agriculture and folksy humor seem to typlify many of the offerings.It also offers a number of unexpected delights, such as a knit dissected frog, a A knit tuna roll, or soap in the shape of a pickle.

If you're looking to sell your crafts, or in the market to buy some, give etsy a try.

I read an interesting article recently over at TheStreet.com which outlined five business ventures which can be undertaken with little or no cash investment. These are proven ideas which may work for just about anyone. I'd like to give you a brief synopsis of that article by Jeffrey Strain and I'd also like to interject a couple ideas of my own.

Jeffrey's opportunity list starts out by suggesting a venture which is near and dear to my heart (and wallet). That suggestion is blogging. Yes my friends, there is money to be made in blogging. In fact, I'm padding my own bottom line right now. Blogs are easy to start and if you're a natural writer, blogging is easy to do. Jeffrey gives you a couple directions you can go for getting started as an independent, or you could take your shot at blogging right here with us! There are two basic kinds of blogging you may wish to consider. You can blog as a strict independent or you can blog as a freelance / contract writer. I prefer the contract gigs for myself, because they offer a good measure of security and you often have seasoned writers zipping around who can help you out of an occasional tough spot. (Thanks team!)