could this work?

[greenoak]

have you seen anyone sell actual items on their blog? i can manage the blog myself and so much easier than the website....

.whats wrong with this idea?...put 20 pieces of furniture on the magpie blog with pictures and prices.....
. put it on the side or somewhere away from the posts..but where?
..link to it from the greenoak website...no shipping and no shopping cart..
..they would have to call and pay by credit card or mail in money...i gladly store until pick up...
. it could serve retail and wholesale...
im getting lots of hits from people and stores who want my stuff and at this time i dont really show them anything actual or prices....i get about 60 hits a day on the blog....slowly growing...
i could manage this with the staff i have right now and even do quite a bit myself....a new website would be a lot more complicated.but im encouraged on that too, from convos here.....
love to hear any ideas or experience onthis....thanks...
ann.

[orion_joel]

I cannot see a reason why this would not work. There are many many people that sell things through there blogs, be it an ebook, physical products, or any number of other things. Maybe you will be the first for antiques, however if it has potential to improve your business then i cannot see any reason why you wouldn't at least give it a try.

[greenoak]

where would you put it on my blog? ann

[orion_joel]

It probably is not so much where to put it but how to incorporate it seamlessly.

Just looking at your blog one thing i notice is that you have a lot of product images as part of your posts, one option may be to make the images a clickable link to a more detailed page about that product with the option to purchase.

Another option may be a rotating product image next to your header, although this may detract a little. I think though it will really come down to the sidebar and will more so depend what you wish to get bumped down and what you believe is more important then the product image for sales.

[greenoak]

thanks joel....can you click to another place on blogger? i was thinking on the right fairly close to the top.... making a section FOR SALE NOW ...after the pictures of my dh dil son etc etc...
this idea would be fairly easy....but i have never seen it done...havent seen that many blogs tho....
then i would have to decide whether to put retail or wholesale prices on....sadly there isnt much difference...my good thing is that my retail is lower than most wholesale....
this might be a bridge to a website if it worked...

ann

[orion_joel]

I don't see any reason why you can not click to somewhere else on blogger. For example you already have a link to your daughters bella chic interiors, when you click on her photo. So i don't think it would be much different.

You may consider using the retail prices, i don't know that i would specify on the site that the price is retail or wholesale specifically, if you just list a price and it is your normal retail price, if it happens to be below normal wholesale but above your regular wholesale price, then you shouldn't really loose to many inquiries i wouldn't think.

[vangogh]

Ann I agree with Joel. Why not have those images link to a full page about them. You can definitely link to another site from blogger.

You could also add things on the side or at the top. One thing you might do is have a banner ad for your store at the end of every post. That's pretty common. You could probably add it once to the template and then it will always be there. There might even be something for blogger that lets you rotate a bunch of different banners at the bottom of each post, though I can't say for certain since I haven't worked with blogger.

I think it would be ok to add something in the header, but I wouldn't overdo it. Too much could turn people off from reading in the first place.

But I would definitely link the images you have in your posts to a full page describing what's in the image. People will definitely click those.

[greenoak]

thanks guys,,,i dont have another site for the pictures..dont quite follow where i would be sending them......
..already , if they had come from greenoak site to magpie i wouldnt want them to have to click again to go somewhere else....or is there an advantage there that im not seeing?
what are the negatives to having 20 pictures with prices on the blog? on the sidebar or ?????another option...
i wouldnt want them on top of the posts...i would want the most current post at the top at all times..... the posts would change lots faster than the pictures..... if one sold another would replace it...

my wholesale is lower than my retail...its just that in the gift world we like wholesale to be at least half, and its not there....its about 20...30% lower....
thanks ann

[vangogh]

Ann you could place the pages describing the images anywhere. It could be on your main site or it could be on your blog. It's not that big a deal to have people click back to the site even if they originally clicked from the site to the blog in the first place.

Ideally your blog would be on your site so it would just be people clicking around the same site.

As far as having all the images with prices on the side there's probably a point where it will be too many and people will just see the blog as trying to sell them something. You can certainly have some images with prices there. How many is the right amount is hard to say. You might have to try a few and see what happens and then adjust.

[Aaron Hats]

Ann, The biggest problem I see is that you don't have an ecommerce site. I went to your website, not your blog, and found no way to buy items directly on your site. I think you should set that up first then simply link the items you talk about in your blog to ecommerce site.

Aaron