Of Selling Furniture Online, Marketing, and a Linkback Contest

This is a good idea I probably won't be using soon. Unless I can think of a valuable and desirable prize that costs me nothing.

However, Barn Furniture's Linkback Contest looks like a good idea for marketing.

The webmaster of Barn Furniture, an online furniture retailer, left a comment on one of my posts on another blog, "Thursday: More Family Stuff." Barn Furniture has a blog linkback contest and, more to the point for this blog, the company has a pretty good website, and an attractive line of furniture.

I checked out their Home Office Furniture section: wishful thinking on my part: I've got a home office, but no budget for new furniture. Barn Furniture also has quite a decent display of Bedroom Furniture, Amish Furniture, and other breakouts of their selection on their website.

I also checked out their domain registration. For me, this isn't anything unusual. Before I send my name and a valid email address, I like to know who I'm dealing with. Besides, these days research like this is fast and easy.

The addresses on Network Solutions' WHOIS Search, Barn Furniture's website, and Google maps all match: plus, a few clicks over, Google even had a photo of the storefront that more-or-less matched Barn Furniture's 'here's our store' photo.

Selling furniture online? Furniture?!

It's not as far-out an idea as it sounds. A few years ago, I heard a small business conference speaker tell how he turned a billiard table retail store around by marketing and selling the things online. He found out that people were willing to pay shipping charges, if they found something they liked. So, selling furniture online can work.

Studying the Barn Furniture website didn't convince me that I should be selling furniture. On the other hand, what I saw helped me get more specific about an idea or two that have been sloshing around in my head. If anything comes of that, it'll show up here.