
Freshjerky.com - johns
http://www.cringely.com/2009/07/freshjerkycom/
======
apowell
"There is nothing Gus does that any of us couldn’t do as well — nothing."

Making good jerky is a skill honed with years of practice. I think Gus
deserves more credit than this.

~~~
jfno67
I don't think he meant literally "make good jerky and sell it on the web..."
He is pointing out someone who is doing well, serving a small niche. This
shows that small success is within the reach of most, and that you don't have
to have a idea for the next Google to succeed.

Unless you really have to have that private jet.

------
michael_dorfman
What Cringely doesn't recognize (regarding the "furor" around Parrot Secrets)
is that in the Fresh Jerky case, there is no attempt to deceive-- they
actually make fresh jerky. No faking involved.

------
ashishk
Something doesn't make sense. $2 million in sales with just 178 monthly
visitors?

<http://siteanalytics.compete.com/freshjerky.com/?metric=uv>

~~~
staunch
Well, Compete is probably really inaccurate, but still. I'd bet good money $2
million isn't coming through that web site.

According to Google, there's exactly one link on the entire web to
FreshJerky.com. All these happy customers would be linking and talking about
it, if it were true.

It's not like journalists actually verify claims like this. If the guy says he
has $2 million in sales, that's what gets written.

------
sant0sk1
I'm willing to wager that the 2 millskie is gross sales not net profit. Still,
pretty impressive. People love their beef jerky and are willing to pay hefty
prices for it. I bet his margins are Apple-esque.

------
edw519
"So how is the company doing? Just fine, thanks, though most of the sales are
online, about $2 million per year."

Or after Bob Cringely writes about you, $3 million per year.

------
extension
Yup, we can all get rich by choosing some product or service that we know
nothing about and selling it on a web site. Consumers would much rather fill
out forms and wait weeks for shipping than endure the fun and convenience of
the mall, because hey, it's on the _internet_! This completely novel idea
shall be named.. i-shopping.

------
kirubakaran
I found this to be pretty interesting: Gus, The Beef Jerky King
[http://chrisblogs.typepad.com/chris_has_stepped_out/2007/09/...](http://chrisblogs.typepad.com/chris_has_stepped_out/2007/09/gus-
the-beef-je.html)

------
il
I think the point of the article is that too many startups are wasting time
and money trying to create a market for their worldchanging revolutionary new
product, as opposed to entering an existing niche market and dominating in it.

------
callmeed
I think it's worth noting that Fresh Jerky does what it does with a relatively
poorly designed website (half of which is in Flash) and only PayPal for
ecommerce.

I doubt Gus does much a/b testing on his site ...

------
antidaily
Ugh and he's using PayPal. Get a merchant account and save some money on fees,
Gus!

------
tarmac
It's like real estate. It's all in the domain name and freshjerky.com is very
attractive and sought after.

~~~
billydean
Sorry but that's nothing but an excuse, "I could do great things, too, if I
had a great domain name..."

Unless, I guess, you really think linkedin.com is a better domain name than
business.com

