424: How I Sold 64,000 Pounds of Onions Online: A Creative Drop Shipping Case Study

The Side Hustle Show

Nick Loper

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What comes first, the domain name or the business idea?

For Peter Askew, the author of a viral blog post called “I Sell Onions on the Internet,” the answer is always the domain name.

Peter is fascinated by expiring domain names and how they’re treated like physical assets.

This is how he ended up with VidaliaOnions.com long before he had any plans on starting an e-commerce site shipping onions.

Peter took that domain name, partnered with an award-winning onion farmer, and last season shipped more than 64,000 pounds of onions!

(Prices range from $2.50-$7 per pound so you can estimate the site doing multiple 6-figures in revenue.)

Like the product itself, this is a business with layers worth exploring. From the domain name to the farmer/supplier relationship, to the marketing efforts, and to the logistics and customer support that make it all work.

Tune in to hear:

why Peter says starting with an expired domain name gives you “a small unfair advantage”
how he found a supplier and manages the logistics of his business
his marketing and customer support methods

Full Show Notes: How I Sold 64,000 Pounds of Onions Online: A Creative Drop Shipping Case Study

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up? What's up? Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Side Hustle show because businesses are like onions. They look simple enough but there's a lot of layers going on behind the scenes.
0:10.0	This is the story of a particularly sweet onion and a particularly sweet online business selling that onion.
0:17.5	Peter Askew is the owner of Vidalia onions.com
0:21.3	and he's the author of a viral blog post called I Sell Unions.com and he's the author of a viral blog post called I sell onions on the internet and he sells a ton of them by partnering with an award-winning onion farmer
0:30.7	by Dahlia onions shipped 64,000 pounds last season. But like the product itself, it's a business with
0:37.6	layers worth exploring, from the domain name to the supplier slash farmer relationship to the marketing efforts
0:45.1	and to the logistics and customer support that make it all work. I promise this
0:49.8	one will get you thinking differently about domains, hybrid drop shipping type of businesses,
0:55.0	direct to consumer stuff, it's a lot of fun.
0:57.6	Notes and links are at side hustle nation.com slash Peter.
1:01.3	Thanks to Andrew Olliman from domain name Wire for the intro and big thanks to our sponsor
1:05.9	Skillshare.com. With any new side hustle there's always lots to learn.
1:10.6	Thankfully Skillshare offers thousands of inspiring classes for lifelong learners and
1:15.6	creative and curious people like us. You find those classes on topics like design, productivity,
1:20.9	marketing, freelancing, social media, and tons more.
1:24.4	As a side hustle show listener, I want to invite you to explore your creativity
1:28.5	at skill share.com slash side hustle and get a free trial of Skillshare premium membership. That's
1:34.3	Skillshare.com slash side hustle to get started today. This story starts with
1:39.7	Peter's interest in domain names as assets and specifically expiring domains.
1:46.1	These are domains that were previously claimed but the owners for whatever reason abandoned.
1:51.6	When that happens, investors, entrepreneurs, and regular people like us
1:55.6	have a chance to snap them up. Ready? Let's do it. Roughly 50 to 100,000 to 100,000 expire every single day, so became fascinated with this deep rabbit
	...

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