Nothing beats going into a store and personally finding and laying hands on a great guitar...but with the advent of the internet, it does make it awful tempting to be able to get practically any guitar you want with just a few keystrokes (especially if dealers in your area are lacking in their stock). It's risky ordering a guitar that you've never played before, but the more experience you have with many different kinds of guitars, it's a bit less so, since you'll have knowledge of different pickups, woods, neck shapes, etc., so you should be able to have a general understanding of what a guitar will be like just from the specs. Still, sometimes some guitars will surprise you, for better or worse.