Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

That's the worst advice ever. Domain parking is a business and if you specualte randomly you are probably going to lose money.

typical HN comment. meanwhile the author is doing pretty well for himself doing just that.

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I tried this with a domain. It's related to used beer kegs. The reason is because I was volunteering at a brewery, and one of the hottest commodities for small breweries is used kegs from bigger breweries that are replacing them. Most of the major breweries use keg management services and rent the kegs, which is overkill for smaller breweries, so owning kegs is important starting out.

Kegs are also sought after for the homebrewers market too; you can save a ton of money buying used, and they become available as people fall out of the hobby.

My plan was to either set up a market place or buy and resell kegs for a small profit. Even a bulletin board that just shows announcements for used keg sales would be helpful.

There are a few reasons I haven't pursued this. First, specifically for homebrewers, is gaining momentum from other marketplaces like Facebook, Craigslist, and local homebrew shops. For commercial kegs, these sales are usually announced word of mouth, and I am not well connected enough to be in the loop, and also, there is really no friction selling these kegs that a website could reduce. They "fly off the shelves". There are other issues too with the frequency these sales happen.

My point being, in a long winded way, is that buying a domain name and getting business ideas from it still requires business acumen, networking (which the author does mention), and a innate sense of the problem space and what desire there is for a web based solution. Just like every other way of sourcing business ideas.

I think this is a much better article about this from the same guy: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-inter...