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I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

deepsouthventures.com

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Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#101

Post by BenjiWiebe »

NuclearPM wrote: post #35
chrneu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing some version of this since college. ...holy shit that's almost 20 years. It started as a bit of a joke on the "That's a good band name" line. It became "That's a good domain name". Yes, I went to a stem college. Anyway, i've started 4 pretty decent businesses based entirely off that bit. My friends and I would be riffing out behind the pizza place/bar we frequented, someone would say something and the…

> Yes, I went to a stem college. I don’t understand this.

Probably: "band names" -> Science, Engineering, TECHNOLOGY, Math college -> "domain names"

Learned about more things tech, started thinking about domains more than bands.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#102

Post by dotancohen »

arraypad wrote: post #83
stephenlf wrote: post #7

Absolutely insane way to start a business. “Let me blow 2 grand on a domain name. Not sure what it’s for, yet.”

I've hung on to spellign.com for a bit over twenty years now. Creation Date: 2005-10-19T05:59:21Z The name still makes me giggle. I'd love to build something relevant and silly enough to put there, but I haven't found it yet. Suggestions are welcome! :)

Your could do a spofo Wikipedai cloen.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#103

Post by twarge »

fylo wrote: post #69
leonhard wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate on the phone basis with engineers? I can’t really imagine how that wouldn’t be much more hassle discussing details without written documents, so I’m intrigued

A picture paints a thousand words

A word is worth a thousand pictures.

— Jobs ?

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#104

Post by array_key_first »

leonhard wrote: post #64
chrneu wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found more and more often the last few years that a lot of the long time businesses I use still do most of their ordering by phone. Or some version that involves talking to actual person. The restaurants I go to still generally do phone ordering because they care about the quality of their ingredients. They want to discuss and talk about it with someone before placing an order. The engineering and consulting fir…

can you elaborate on the phone basis with engineers? I can’t really imagine how that wouldn’t be much more hassle discussing details without written documents, so I’m intrigued

You do both, but I know at work for me the problem with written communication is we just talk past each other. Writing is, still, a very distilled and compressed medium. Meaning, a lot of the information is lost when translated to writing. I've spent weeks talking over email and on ticket just to solve it within 5 minutes on a zoom call.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#105

Post by pottertheotter »

This crosses from quirky to unhinged:

During a phone order one season – 2018 I believe – a customer shared this story where he smuggled some Vidalias onto his vacation cruise ship, and during each meal, would instruct the server to ‘take this onion to the back, chop it up, and add it onto my salad ‘.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#106

Post by voidfunc »

bencornia wrote: post #15

> The way Faulkner treats his characters, I treat domain name projects. I buy them with an intention to develop. And I let them take the lead. They’re the inspiration for the business itself. They guide me towards what they need to become. I’m just the dude behind the keyboard (sorta). I feel the same way about personal projects and blogs. A good idea tends to be self-reinforcing. It just needs someone to uncover it.…

I buy domains and then forget about them only to renew them once a year for aspirational reasons.

Its kinda like seeing my family at Christmas once a year.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#107

Post by bubbleRefuge »

jmkd wrote: post #84
eightturn wrote: post #32

author here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions

I live in a mountain valley in Mallorca where hundreds of tons of perfect Canoneta oranges fall to the floor and rot each year because the cost of picking them outweighs their market value. The valley became wealthy from this fruit in the 19th century but the economics no longer add up. [0] At the same time the price of orange juice (elsewhere) has skyrocketed [1], yet this rural community seems unable to take advant…

Do they let anyone pick for free ?

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#108

Post by jliptzin »

dugidugout wrote: post #96
jliptzin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really sure what's so crazy about that. A brick and mortar shop will spend way more than that on renting a good location for their business when they have no clue whether they'll turn a profit. This is just the digital equivalent of that. People trust authoritative domains like vidaliaonions.com way more than something like vidaliaonions-direct.net and they're given more SEO weight as well. At least I know that u…

You believe brick and mortar shops put money down on a location with no plan at all? This is what OP did, your analogy is pretty weak.

Yes, I have seen it happen many times.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#109

Post by mattmaroon »

eightturn wrote: post #32

author here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions

I guess my question is: why is this better for me the customer than just buying them at my local supermarket? The shipping must make them very expensive, relative to my store. Are they that much better onions?

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#110

Post by mattmaroon »

NuclearPM wrote: post #85
arcanemachiner wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that he took a meme for normal people ("that would make a good band name") and twisted it into a more nerdy version ("that would make a good domain name").

That makes sense. I assumed posting on hackernews implies the nerdiness.

Lots of nerds go to regular colleges so perhaps he’s saying he’s extra nerdy. (Though I think at this point we’re overanalyzing, the worst thing you can do to any joke.)
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