Nothing But Net (Internet that is)

When was the last time you were online? If your answer is last week (and its not Monday morning) you are living in the past, the distant past. The internet, with all its dot coms and dot bombs, is still chugging along, gaining momentum where it counts most (if you’re selling something), and growing its user base of middle and upper income families and single working adults. Another interesting fact is a large segment of this demographic chose broadband connections, i.e., cable and DSL, as their connection of choice.

What this means is the consumers with highest disposable incomes for buying things like cars, stereos, computers, and furniture are ready willing and able to plunk down forty-plus bucks per month for their online connection. Not only that, they are also using the internet to both gather information and make purchases online.

Jupiter Research, a premier internet consultancy, found that broadband penetration is maturing, with 40 percent of 542 respondents indicating that they have had a high-speed connection for more than a year. More than one-quarter (28 percent) said that they had broadband access for 7 to 12 months, and 32 percent had it for 6 months or less. More than half (56 percent) of broadband subscribers are male, compared to 44 percent for women. Interestingly, men represent 46 percent of the online population, while women account for 54 percent (Source: Jupiter Research).

Bottom Line: Our overall analysis revealed that broadband users come from higher-income households, and that this is the trend of the future.

Our web site, www.futonlife.com, is reeling in thousands and thousands of visitors every month. In fact, last month (August) we broke all existing records with over 24,000 unique visits. People are now aware, more than ever before, that the internet is the place to go for the best and latest information about almost any topic available, even futon furniture.

Our site covers all the bases. A consumer can find out almost anything they might want to know about futon mattresses (including a comfort rating scale and standard sizes table), futon frames (with pictures and technical drawings so they can understand frame terminology), and futon covers in our exclusive Futon Primer™. We have an extensive section and expert commentary on the latest futon conversion mechanisms, and a great section on wood and how the specific properties of different kinds of wood affect their use in futon frame construction.

Consumers who visit the site are greeted right up front with an opportunity to ask any question they might have, and they do…every day. They can ask me directly or put their inquiry on the Futon Forum, a full service Bulletin Board system that requires a login and sign-up.

Most consumers find us via search engines. Search engines catalog thousands of web sites and then rank them by various methods for thousands of key words and phrases. Places like msn.com, google.com, yahoo.com, lycos.com (the four top ranked SEs), and others typically list futonlife.com right at the top of the heap. They want inquisitive web surfers to come back to their site the next time they search the web so they can record visits and sell advertising. They send them to us for key words like futon, futons, futon mattress, and many other futon centric key words and phrases. Nobody knows more about futons than Futon Life and nobody has more general information than us about this category. Hence we are the place for search engines to send searching consumers.

These consumers can also find the best online dealers on our “I want to buy a futon now!” page. Our paid dealers have a listing where consumers can easily and quickly go directly to the dealer’s web site and shop til they drop, or at least until their modem stays connected if they don’t have cable or DSL. They can also browse a growing list of dealers who are part of our free listing service. This service is free to all and it allows consumers to search our data base of retail stores, who have submitted their information to us, by store name, city, state, and/or zip code. Here they find listed dealers’ addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses (if they have a premium plan).

The Futon Life web site also has another exclusive, one that is growing in importance every day. We are the only public source of statistics on the industry. I send one consultant or one editor per month to our Futon Life Exclusive Surveys page. This page contains links to over ten of our most recent surveys covering industry sales, consumer profiles, shopping trends, price points, and anything else a person putting a business plan together or writing an article on the industry might need.

We have tried from the beginning of this venture to cover the category top to bottom and east to west. Our success is your gain.

FL