I Sell Onions on the Internet

&gt; I backordered the domain as a spectator, but for kicks &amp; giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid.<p>It&#x27;s funny and beautiful how a moment of whimsy ends up being a fulcrum point in his life.<p>It seems there&#x27;s a lot of interest in gardening &#x2F; food production among tech people. For me, one of the reasons I love gardening is because in many ways it&#x27;s totally different from working inside with machines, but there are important and unexpected overlaps. For example if you have a solid understanding of the OSI model which informs your method of system design, you can easily move into gardening where knowledge of the layers of a forest plays a similar role. Having this experience in tech makes it easy to zero in on similar structural principles in gardening, learn about them, and <i>apply</i> that knowledge whereas many others clearly don&#x27;t.<p>Just like a person who doesn&#x27;t understand the value of a proper foundation in tech (hardware, lower protocols like DNS, etc.), a similar gardener won&#x27;t first seek to build strong healthy soil, and they will constantly fight against nature rather than work with it, doing more work while getting fewer results.<p>As an aside, regarding onions: last year I cut off some green onion bottoms from the store and put them in the ground (including the little roots). They grew back and gave several more green onion harvests before winter set in, and now they&#x27;re back on their own! Permanent green onion. You can do this with a number of plants, btw. Try it!

Just look at the dignity here in this humble creation he has made!<p>&gt; [...] she interrupted me mid-sentence and hollered in exaltation to her husband: ” THE VIDALIA MAN! THE VIDALIA MAN! PICK UP THE PHONE!”<p>The happiness I feel reading that is so sublime. His work is needed and appreciated -- and what a humble trade with a beautiful simplicity to it. It is repeatable; others could do this too! Imagine what our communities would be like if most families had a little something like this. It reminds me of G.K. Chesterton&#x27;s &quot;Three Acres and a Cow&quot; [1] slogan (implying that can be enough).<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Distributism#Economic_theory" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Distributism#Economic_theory</a>

I actually had this exact same idea in like...2011. So, ideas are worthless without execution. I used to work in Middle Georgia where Vidalia Onions are plentiful. I went to visit a friend in NYC, where Vidalia Onions are scarce. I brought some with me on the plane...<p>The plan was I&#x27;d just run to the local grocery store and just fulfill online orders and if demand was there, purchase from local farmers. I didn&#x27;t get any further than than just mentioning the business idea. Kudos to Peter for executing and meeting a need. Looks like he also owns onions.com, so they are making enough money to acquire that domain name.

Peter here (author) - happy to answer any questions..

I want someone to write some analysis of this particular... voice, or style of writing, being used here.<p>&quot;I&#x27;m a web guy. I’m not a farmer.&quot;<p>I already knew that, because in just a couple paragraphs, I was already recognizing the style of writing as... SEO, &quot;influencer&quot;, I don&#x27;t know what to call it?<p>It&#x27;s a personal first-person voice, which right off the start tries to establish that the author is a human being writing about their life -- but also that they are an expert in what they are going to tell you about, and <i>very successful</i> too.<p>The text includes many one or two sentence paragraphs, and has aggressively styled pull quotes and&#x2F;or callouts. Short sentences too. Not entirely complete sentences. Interspersed.<p>It makes sure to open up with some kind of very short story that is only tangentially related to the content but is folksy and cute. (Smuggled vidalia&#x27;s onto cruise ship).<p>The information is very cleverly structured to keep you reading, by dropping <i>just enough</i> of the actual info, page to page, to pique your attention and make you think there&#x27;s an interesting story here, but not enough that you can leave having actually learned anything before you&#x27;ve read a pretty big chunk. And is written artfully for this purpose, it works, and keeps you reading. Sometimes at the end you feel rewarded, other times you feel like it was a shaggy dog story. The best authors leave you happy, of course.<p>It&#x27;s got information to convey, but the goal is not to convey the information as effectively as possible, but to keep you reading as long as possible -- and, usually, to sell you something.<p>I don&#x27;t know if I have a value judgement on it exactly -- okay, I&#x27;ll admit it annoys me, perhaps because it <i>all sounds the same</i> while trying to convince you it&#x27;s a folksy authentic voice. But either way, it&#x27;s a <i>thing</i>, a genre even, that I&#x27;m not sure I&#x27;ve seen anyone comment on.<p>It&#x27;s: &quot;Content Marketing Voice&quot;.<p>(Also selling people onions on the internet is &quot;purpose over profit&quot;, really? What the world needs now is frictionless access to vidalia onions shipped directly to your home?)

This is an American dream-esque article about a boy and a domain name. They meet, he wins the auction, and they start spending time together. The domain name, she calls to him and eventually they hook up with an industry group and bring onions to the world. While on the face of it, this may not seem like the best business plan - I actually really like it. He found something personal (domain knowledge from his home state industry), something with a good customer need, and filled a niche of better customer service and process. Here, everyone wins... So I guess it is also an &#x27;invisible hand of the free market&#x27; dream too.

This was really fun, so I checked out the site<p>- Least expensive order is a 5-pound box for $34.95<p>- Runs on Shopify<p>- As they&#x27;re seasonal, there are some built-in scarcity aspects I hadn&#x27;t thought of (which is kind of neat business wise).<p>Two aspects I might try if this was my business:<p>1. Some kind of &quot;Chef&#x2F;Restaurant&quot; option<p>2. An option to send 1 beautiful onion (ala the referenced Harry and David&#x27;s)

I spent a minute thinking about a product local to me that had the same appeal. I typed <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;michiganlamb.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;michiganlamb.com</a> into the browser and discovered the concept is not uncommon.

That&#x27;s awesome. A couple responses to yesterday&#x27;s thread regarding bookmarked hn quotes really opened up my eyes regarding building and maintaining side projects. I picked up a book, &quot;Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer&#x27;s Guide to Launching a Startup&quot; which has been informative (if a little dated). This article is a great supplement to that book, and is inspirational to a 9-5&#x27;er like me.<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0615373968" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching...</a> | <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;startupbook.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;startupbook.net</a>

This story brings a tear to my eye.<p>I&#x27;ll see myself out.<p>But seriously, this is the type of side projects I dream of. Not the next soul sucking social network, but rather something meaningful and real.

It sounds like he created a co-operative. This is the case in Oregon where lots of milk growers...er...dairy farmers pool their resources into a funnel organization, Tillamook Farmer&#x27;s Co-op, that handles packaging, distribution and marketing. This is such a wild story tho, I loved reading it.

As of 5 minutes ago I am now the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.co.uk..... UK vidalia market here I come!

The most impressive thing was the bit where he spent 2 grand on a domain name he didn&#x27;t want and didn&#x27;t think &quot;Oh shit, I&#x27;ve just blown 2 grand I needed to...&quot;

Turning a domain name into a business.<p>Even more simple than that really, taking an existing industry and using a domain name to create a front end to that industry.<p>There is opportunity everywhere. Especially if you don&#x27;t require creating a billion dollar company.<p>Thanks for sharing Vidalia Man.

It was a fun read. But also a bit sad that it takes thousands of dollars and a lot of available time (which many people don&#x27;t have) to do something as fundamental as this.

Couldn&#x27;t help but think of this [Planet Money episode](<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;14&#x2F;448718171&#x2F;episode-657-the-tale-of-the-onion-king" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;14&#x2F;448718171&#x2F;epis...</a>) about a man who cornered the onion market with some repercussions.

&gt; universally, the domain name always comes first, the business idea comes second.<p>I wonder what others think about this quote. Could he not have started the same exact business with another domain? Is owning the &quot;right&quot; domain that important that is should &quot;come first&quot; and be forgotten without it? naively I&#x27;d think Google@2019 gives more importance to content then to the domain name. No?

It seems like operating an online business is 5% software hackery and 95% finding a cool thing to sell, finding a supplier, building a supply chain and fulfillment system, and customer support. Think about it like this: if you can find a thing to sell on a street corner, you can sell it online. Seriously. Say you found these awesome fucking USB-C cables for about $1&#x2F;each from a Chinese supplier. You think people will pay about $15&#x2F;each for them, so you set up `awesome-fucking-cables.com` and start selling them. Registering a domain and setting up a web shop is the easy part, but it tends to be what people focus on.<p>Some ideas of the stuff you could sell:<p>- Kombucha<p>- Specialty sodas<p>- Heirloom seeds<p>- Specialty light bulbs and&#x2F;or batteries<p>- Spice packets<p>- Carpet cleaning powder<p>- Dice<p>- Specialty candles<p>- Prepared origami paper<p>- Specialty pens&#x2F;pencils&#x2F;crayons<p>- Funky hair accessories (someone recently asked me why there aren&#x27;t many superhero themed ones because it would be a huge market)

Originally I was expecting an article about mining .onion domain names, but this is good too!

Great story. One quick bug report: your Bulk &amp; Wholesale page has a broken contact form: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonions.com&#x2F;bulk-wholesale&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonions.com&#x2F;bulk-wholesale&#x2F;</a>

Lots of posts nowadays are just people humble bragging. This was read as an honest account of an enjoyable business ride.<p>Thanks for sharing this!

I buy domain names for weird and random ideas that come to me. I really like the reverse concept of buying interesting domain names and then letting them turn into something that you never anticipated. That sounds like a really fun and potentially highly rewarding hobby. It also seems to break every Startup book&#x27;s rules, since you&#x27;re looking for a problem to a solution, but who cares? This guy is having tons of fun and learning a lot, so good for him.<p>Edit: Looks like they have some competition: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonion.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonion.org</a>

Thanks for such a great read. I have a somewhat similar story.<p>My brother and I started our company the moment after we bought our domain name: retreat.guru. We actually wanted a different domain but didn’t get it; retreat.guru was the runner up. Then we had a spontaneous 3 hour call where we mapped out the entire global wellness retreat marketplace we would build - all based off the domain name! 5 years later we are still going strong.<p>We are based out of a small mountain town in B.C. Nowhere near the buzz of Silicon Valley. We gradually took investment and grew from revenue as well. We are very vision driven.<p>‘I sell ayahuasca retreats on the internet’<p>:D

What I liked most about this story was the fact that he went into it kind of ass-backwards - domain name first (almost by accident too), then the business.

Sort of ended up in a similar boat: I sell hemp on the internet at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cascadiablooms.com&#x2F;direct" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cascadiablooms.com&#x2F;direct</a><p>These stories are good to tell, sometimes what can help a farmer the most is just someone who can help market and sell their crop.

I’m a sweet onion fan. I didn’t realize that Texas sweet onions were a different variety: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texasmonthly.com&#x2F;food&#x2F;the-texas-sweet-onion&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texasmonthly.com&#x2F;food&#x2F;the-texas-sweet-onion&#x2F;</a><p>(They’re real good)

Why didn&#x27;t the farmers just independently open an Amazon shop before he came along? Is it just the case that they&#x27;re not tech savvy enough?<p>I&#x27;m not downplaying what he did - it&#x27;s really cool - what I&#x27;m trying is to get a better sense of the business dynamics here.

Great read! The blog has another post which I found personally interesting -- Slow Down &amp; Wander [1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deepsouthventures.com&#x2F;slow-down-wander&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deepsouthventures.com&#x2F;slow-down-wander&#x2F;</a>

This is really inspirational: who knew that such a rudimentary site could be a viable business?

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I&#x27;d love to read a bit more detail on his process of spinning up the customer relations sides of the business that he mentioned. What was the hardest thing to get right? What were the unexpected pitfalls?

Just be careful of <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Onion_Futures_Act" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Onion_Futures_Act</a>

Buy buy buy, they are shipping soon: (I&#x27;m not affiliated in any way)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonions.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vidaliaonions.com&#x2F;</a>

How was organic traffic in the early days?<p>You&#x27;re now ranked #1 for &quot;vidalia onions&quot; in Google -- but, I&#x27;m really curious what the evolution was after buying the domain?

Thanks for sharing your story. I think there are a lot of people out there like me not looking to be a unicorn company, but would love to be the next VidaliaOnions.com

That&#x27;s the kind of lifestyle business I dream of finding myself into. Except maybe I&#x27;d want it less involved with customer service, but roughly similar. Somehow that&#x27;s much more appealing to me than heading the next big buck hot startup out of my SF penthouse office. Guess there has to be some for everybody :) That was a good read and I bet that to the core more people resonate with this than most startup jobs!

I loved this piece. I&#x27;m from Florida and Vidalias are a staple.<p>Whole wheat bread, lightly toasted with a smear of mayo and a thick slice of Vidalia. Mmmm... So good.

sorry about a tangent, but that Indian Jones scene bothers me so much. i mean... there are so many safer ways to validate you <i>can</i> take that first step. i&#x27;ll name a few<p><pre><code> 1. crouch down and reach out your leg gently tapping the &quot;invisible ground&quot; 2. throw a pebble. 3. throw a bunch of sand to see exact available surface area. </code></pre> i mean.. he&#x27;s a scientist.

I&#x27;m not sure I&#x27;ve ever seen such a highly-voted post.<p>I checked using the search box, and it appears this the 12th most voted post of all time (so far!).

This is what a marketing piece should be. This is an ad I&#x27;m happy to read. Were I in the US, I would totally order onions from this guy.

&quot;I&#x27;m addicted to Domain Names... but for kicks &amp; giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200&quot;.<p>Not trying to be a killjoy, but everytime I hear about people reserving domains for fun or future, it just tells of so much privilege. Americans and other Westerners people have already reserved so many domains. Domain name squatting always is a rich-get-richer story.

This is by far my favorite post on Hacker News. :D

I would say this is crazy, but truth be told... if I saw someone selling like super high quality heirloom tomatoes online... I&#x27;d probably buy some. But what I&#x27;ve actively searched out, and have yet to find is someone selling lobster stock. Sometimes if i&#x27;m lucky, I can pick up some from my local fish monger... but it&#x27;s uncommon.

So, only slightly related to this article, but I’ll say it anyway:<p>I’ve bought domains for years. Through that process, I’ve developed a specific routine to evaluate a name prior to purchasing.<p>I’ve been sketching out a plan to build a web app that largely automates this evaluation process, that I would hope to release as a small side project SaaS in the future.<p>Anyone here interested in such a thing?

My wife is from Georgia, and I&#x27;ve visited many times.<p>I don&#x27;t really like onions. But real Georgia Vidalias are something special.

Reading his article I cant help but wonder why he isnt scaling his entire setup to help ALL farmers, regardless of what they are farming, to sell online. Cant he create an online marketplace and onboard basically every portable vegetable? He should be able to replicate this same model with every veggie we got.

Reminds me of the accidental tumbleweed magnate:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.business-opportunities.biz&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;the-worlds-most-successful-accidental-tumbleweed-saleswoman&#x2F;?amp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.business-opportunities.biz&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;the-worlds...</a>

This was an amazing read. Not only do you sell onions on the internet but you are an amazing writer! I had to stop and comment before I dived into what else you&#x27;ve written.<p>I copied the quote “take the path to Nothing, and go Nowhere until you reach it.” and got it turned into a canvas to hang above my desk.

Agree with the other comment saying this was fun and exciting to read -- very well written and makes a strong point. I fully hope, when I am able to get off my lazy ass and do something, to sell a simple physical product that people already want. Food&#x27;s a great example of this.

As a Georgian transplanted into California, I miss these onions so much. Great read as well.

I&#x27;ve been umming-and-ahhing over an entrepreneurial endeavour for a while now. I&#x27;m very tempted now to just go out there now and see if I can get a good domain name. Letting the domain make the business decision for me seems fun.

&gt; I’ve been buying expired or abandoned domain names for a while, and enjoy developing them into niche businesses.<p>Am I the only one here who has a problem with this kind of &quot;business&quot;? I see it as a very asshole thing to dedicate oneself to.

This post makes good use of one of the 48 laws of power.<p>Law 30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless

This is awesome. Always great to read about someone&#x27;s hard work and dedication paying off. I love a good onion, but am not within the 48 lower states, so unfortunately I&#x27;ll have to wait for the international delivery option :(

I loved this story, and you all clearly did, too.<p>How can I possibly be the first person to get stuck on the fact that this fellow dropped $2200 on a niche domain without a business plan in mind?<p>Most people don&#x27;t have that kind of whimsy cash, sadly.

I love this and can relate to it so much. This is very similar to how I ended up in the Japanese matchmaking industry. Noticed a good domain was available and ended up going on an odyssey of sorts.

Bravo. I love his approach and his analogy with fictional characters. Such a wonderful way to view your work - stop trying to force it and let it tell you what it wants to be.

Funny article. Like a lot of people I also collect domain names, some day hoping to make a business out of them. :)<p>My current business and startup take too much time, but some day..

Had no idea when I clicked on that link that I&#x27;d be contemplating buying a box of onions. I&#x27;ve never tried a Vidalia but now I&#x27;m intrigued.

Boy did this article surprise me. Glad I clicked on this!

Okay since no one has asked this yet, I will...does this man have an onion site?<p>Because I&#x27;m a big fan of onions, but an even bigger fan of onion sites...

&gt; I got along quite well with the 3rd farmer I met, so we decided to partner &amp; give this a shot.<p>Just curious, how were the first two farmers you met?

This is posted in so many subs on reddit in the last 24 hours. Including unrelated subs. Please don&#x27;t encourage spammers.

That&#x27;s a great story... And a perfect timing for an amazing marketing campaign with seasonal shipping starting next week.

Awesome post. I am dying to try these onions now!<p>Who would have thought that content marketing would work to sell onions through hacker news!!

Seriously can&#x27;t understand why this post is getting upvoted so much(2896) as of now. Is there something i am missing.

I wonder about the domain name snapping business. Are there people doing this full-time, buying expired domains in bulk?

What a wild ride. Can you give us more information about the boxes? I feel like I need to know more about the boxes.

My understanding was that the actual domain name doesn&#x27;t make much difference? I setup <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.drivinglessonslimerick.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.drivinglessonslimerick.com</a> for a friend (I&#x27;m not a web dev) and it is on the second page of results when I search for Driving Lessons in Limerick. $2200 seems way too much, the value here is in this Onion business not the domain.

Unintentional ad, in a way —- one that caused me to visit, delighted me, and makes me delighted with HN.

Feel sorry for the writer that Google Map folks some in and smash the whole onion field (last photo) :D

Am I the only person who saw the headline and assumed this was about onion routing?

You just have to post here on the affect of a having this STORY on HN

I thought this was going to be a new version of the onion router.....

&gt; I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid. 5 minutes later, I was the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.com<p>For those that are looking to replicate the success of this Vidalia Onion business only have a $10 budget for a domain here are some other options:<p>onlyvidalias.com<p>vidalias.net<p>tryvidalias.com<p>yummyonions.com<p>ordervidalias.com<p>buyvidalias.com<p>organicvidalias.com<p>vidaliafarm.com<p>allvidalias.com<p>simplyvidalias.com

2396 upvotes and counting. How much more onions do you sell now? :)

Wonderful! This quote sums it all up for me: ”I didn’t have other projects that were this front-facing, customer wise. And I discovered I immensely enjoyed it”. Wow, does it show :) By the way, the quote was not a TL;DR - it was an invitation to read a great story. I am glad I did.

More detail on the cardboard shipping box debacle needed!

It&#x27;s absurd and preposterous. I love it!<p>Late April: Season Begins.

The title alone makes this worth reading.

i like QA so much but i am a girl person . it is difficult for me and english is not good .what should I do?

Wow! What an inspiring reading :)

As Simple as peeling an onion.

Love this.

+1

I just have to stop and say that this was an immensely fun and exciting post to read.<p>So much of the business stuff we read now is bullshit. It is stupid people getting lucky and riding on VC money while making more stupid decisions but ultimately dumping enough investor money into it that it works enough to get sold.<p>At which point, that founder then goes around and tells the same stereotypical story of dropping out of college, running out of money and getting investment on the day they were planning on giving up, etc. We have all heard the bullshit before.<p>So I was genuinely grateful to read a real business story. The owner saw an opportunity, took it when other people probably wouldn&#x27;t have, and just genuinely worked hard to get where he is.<p>This is inspiring because anyone here could do it too if they wanted to. I don&#x27;t mean selling onions specifically, but I mean they could just go out there find a product, work hard towards selling it, team up with manufacturers&#x2F;producers, etc and make the dream come to life.

This reminded me of an old friend from school. He finished high school and decided to work any type of job would land in front of him.<p>Meanwhile, his closest friends would finish school, go to colleges and universities and they would come back really proud for having a bachelor or masters degree.<p>One day they met at a crepe shop. He was making his orders along with the other folks that were behind their crepe pans.<p>&quot;So...you work here mate?&quot;<p>&quot;Yep.&quot;<p>&quot;Ah...shame. We make very good money, thanks to our <i>degrees</i>. Isn&#x27;t a sad thing that you are forced to work in this shitty job?&quot;<p>&quot;First of all, I enjoy doing this job; and second of all, how much are you earning annually, if I may?&quot;<p>&quot;Around 35K euros&quot;.<p>He burst to hysterical laughter.<p>&quot;I happen to make the least 1000 euros daily and this &#x27;shitty job&#x27; happens to be mine; yep, I own the place. At my highest peak I earned 1 million euros and these guys you see working next to me are my employees which are getting paid more or less the same amount as you.&quot;<p>I happened to be there when this incident took place; it was the best day of my life! ^_^

What an incredible story. Encapsulates American entrepreneurial excellence !

Cool image. Can drag &#x2F; rotate it, etc., along at least 2 axes.

Who... buys onions on the internet?

While unique and somewhat gratifying that you can build a business with just a chance at a good domain and some internal motivations, do you find yourself adding value over other means of onion sales?<p>Oh, and please downvote. Thank you.