@ShooglyBeads, all items currently expire after 4 months. Unfortunately we cannot rely on everyone to remove their sold items and since we don't want a site with unavailable items, we have to do it this way.
@felting4you, we will develop the site later on to make it more quick to upload but that's a little in the future. Please do remember though that even if you do not get direct sales, you are back linking your Etsy listings and this will improve your search engine rankings on Etsy. Your items will therefore be easier to find.