Recently there have been a lot of courses launching claiming to teach success selling on Amazon. Some of these courses are getting the mega-launch treatment attracting multiple “big hitter” affiliates seeking the fat 50% commissions and contest winnings on the very high priced courses. As you might suspect, these types of “endorsements” aren’t always based on integrity. It’s important you know the qualifications and intentions of the person doing the endorsing when you encounter a “mega-launch”.
Part of what makes these big hype launches so disappointing to me is that many (most?) of these “experts” who are promoting these courses have barely any (if any at all) qualifications at all to talk about setting up a legitimate business selling physical goods online. They are just excited to get a big check for helping sell an expensive course that is being hyped with excitement and flare.
If you want to spend thousands lining the pockets of experts who are possibly only excited about their fat affiliate commissions, while learning the same things that we teach around here in superior, proven, time tested courses that cost 1/10th the price tag – that’s fine, but after you read this blog post at least you’ll know the full story from my perspective.
See the poll in our Facebook group here. |
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In this blog post I’ll make a simple case as to why you should consider an alternative to the “big launches” and stick with the long time proven courses with long term established communities and experts instead. Save your cash for inventory!
Consider the ProvenAmazonCourse.com (the “PAC”) course in this case if you are ready to learn how to sell on Amazon.
Are you eager to jump into Private Labeling? Our world-class, low-risk private label course (ProvenPrivateLabel.com was just added to the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course in Oct. 2017.
Or, don’t buy ANY course and just get going with one basic idea that anyone can use (one of the multiple strategies we teach inside our PAC course) – here’s an 8 minute video I made that’s getting great feedback so far. It shows you how to get started selling on Amazon at virtually no expense at all:
Make no mistake, there are some great courses, books and sites out there besides the Proven Amazon Course, and I won’t say anything specifically negative about my competition because I welcome all sources of creative content, but here are some factors that I think really set our Amazon training team apart from all other options out there:
- For over a decade my team and I have been teaching everyone from newbies to our highest end clients how to sell physical products online. The PAC course has generated nearly 1,000 verifiable testimonials in the last 8 years alone. The BEST students are recruited and become our expert trainers and coaches!
- We are always improving our courses. For example, we partnered with longtime community members and expert sellers on the topic of private label. If you were under the impression that selling private label is hopelessly confusing, high-risk, massive-investment type of venture, it’s not! Our experts teach “private label the easy way.” Their strategies focus on a simple, step-by-step process that doesn’t require a huge investment and minimizes the risks. We believe in slow-and-steady wins the race.
- We don’t insult and hound our students with upsells (be ready for this if you buy most online courses in this niche). I don’t do upsells. We sell the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course ONCE and students get all future updates automatically. No surprises. Ask anyone who purchased the Proven Amazon Course five years ago how much the course has been updated, improved, expanded etc. They’ve not paid an additional dime since then for the new ideas, updates and content.
- We teach multiple product sourcing and selling strategies (most competing courses teach only one). We have a wide variety of successful students – everyone from those who’ve built a virtually hands free operation & never leave home while selling into numerous countries, to those who love shopping retail for a living and finding great deals in their spare time (while making a great profit). Our success stories are quite diverse.
- We offer hand holding coaching for those who want it. You can work one-on-one with one of our successful students if you want to ramp up quickly. Our coaches are ALL successful students who we pay well to assist newbies.
- Our community is VERY international. This is a global opportunity. One of our most successful students literally lives on a beach on a tiny island! Where you live has nothing to do with your odds of success. See our community visually on this map we launched in mid April 2015.
- Our support team is the largest, most well trained and most experienced among all other “how to sell on Amazon” courses available. We have nearly 70 people who are in a paid position of support for the PAC as at least part of their responsibility while they build their own successful businesses as well.
- Our community consists of over 41,000 serious online entrepreneurs many of whom are very successfully working any number of strategies in the Amazon niche (with no sign of saturation whatsoever because hundreds of millions of people are shopping right now on Amazon!)
- While our courses are worth thousands, we are charging so much less than our competitors. Our popular ProvenAmazonCourse.com is the most comprehensive course on the market in the “Sell on Amazon” niche, and it includes a large number of modules that cover virtually every imaginable way to profit on Amazon – and as of this writing it’s only $399 ONE TIME fee – there are no “upsells” or recurring fees.
Once you purchase the PAC and join our active community and you’ll be surrounded by those DOING this business who are proud to be a part of our community. Some of our customers have been around for 12 years or longer doing this stuff – these are the people you want to hang out with if you are serious about selling product on Amazon.
Hi Jim,
All those ppl buying ASM are using credit card which is easy money.If they had worked hard for their money, they would be doing that.But cool for them. That’s capitalism at work.
I’d like to know, should I use the same login i use for my AMZ buyer and affiliate account for my AMZ seller account? or is it better to setup a seller account completely separated from my other AMZ accounts? Thanks
Thanks for the feedback –
RE: your question: You can only have one selling account, but I have multiple log in ID’s/pw’s for various Amazon services.
Best money we ever spent after litterly spending thousands trying to market through a web site..Starting with just $500 and just 11 months in after going through the PAC course we are hitting the 7K per month and our goal is 8K for this month..Can’t endorse it enough..
May I ask if the 7K indicated here as in revenue (before cost and expenses) or profit (after cost and expenses)?
Our average student has just under 50% net on Amazon sales.
Thank you sir for your answer.
Dont know if I’m related to you directly or not, but I hope it is at least a positive sign, lol! I have slowly started selling on Amazon, although tempted, avoiding ASM… Glad I saw your post. That is a incredible ROI and success! Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
I think Private Label is a great business model, but a major barrier I have is the risk of being sued due to unforseen circumstances involving one of my products. Jim, do you have any advice or suggestions about the risk involved and what you are doing to protect yourself and your business? Thanks.
we are in the process of putting together some advice on this very topic and adding it to the course. The bottom line though is this – consult an attorney when/if your biz starts to grow. Doing business = legal exposure.
Seems like it’s assumed that the basics like getting a product from a
China warehouse to an Amazon warehouse is so simple it’s never
discussed. Except on Amazon’s own site with notes and videos that never
seem to quite hit the mark.
if you are interested in sourcing from China please be cautious. It’s not actually “simple” if you don’t follow proper precautions. A great book on the topic can be found at provenchinasourcing.com. Please note -that same book is part of the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course as one of the valuable resources we include.
I went to the Proven Amazon Couse, but can’t find a link to purchase the product?
Try loading the page again -the order buttons are on the bottom of the page. If you still have trouble please contact my support team. the email address is: [email protected]
Hi Jim i was inspired by your book Silent Sales Machine as well as the high integrity you have which is not commonly found in most internet marketers. I am interested in FBA business model and as a starter have purchased BLDEW Amazon course promoted by you and also eager to join PAC community, But I hit a road block upon taking action – my country is not listed as those accepted by Amazon for seller registration (BTW I am from Malaysia). Would appreciate if you could direct me to resources that can guide me to work around this? TQ
You should invest in the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course. That is our flagship course that will take you through all the necessary steps to getting set up on Amazon regardless of where you life. The bldew course you purchased had some fantastic sourcing and business growth strategies in it, but it’s not designed to be a comprehensive guide to getting your business set up initially. We have many in our community who have successfully navigated the complications that come with living in a non-Amazon home base country. You can do this biz from anywhere.
ASM is a basic course really and the “strategies” that they reveal on pre-launch videos just make me laugh 🙂 Although their monthly newsletter has some really creative tips. That is why I always invest in several courses from different instructors…
I just purchased PAC and joined this community a couple of weeks ago. I am very impressed, not only with the excellent training and content, but with the integrity I’ve seen woven throughout everything you’re doing. I’m thankful to have found this and look forward to becoming one of your “success stories.”
Thanks Timothy – and welcome!
Hi Jim, Am ssssoooo tempted to do ASM although I don’t have the money. Does PAC teach everything that ASM does? What about use of software to automate the business? Is that not necessary?
There’s no such thing as a tool that automates a business for thousands of people. By it’s very nature, such a tool would soon have all users running all over each other and killing the opportunity.
I’m also not a fan of the “find a product”, commit to it, and THEN start the “marketing” or “driving traffic” portion of your plan. That’s the way business used to work. I’d rather know up front what will work. I like to find the gaps in the supply and meet the demand with my product offers. We are developing content for our community right now that shows you how to do just that.
We hear from students of other courses all the time who got WAY too deep into a products line, started trying to market it, and couldn’t move it. They lost before they started. PL is NOT for newbies no matter what you are begin told by others.
Amazon is a huge opportunity – there are numerous ways to get into the game and see results fast. We teach numerous strategies – not just one. Regardless of what you decide though – I’m cheering for your success!
That’s very kind of you. Does PAC run all year round? I wanted to work together with a partner on this. What’s the best way for us to do the course?
yes it is – we don’t use old school marketing scarcity tactics.
I understand that the level of successes vary from one individual to another, but in order to claim this is a way to achieve success, a certain quantitative measures never harm. May I ask out of all your subscribers who actually devote to the business, what’s the average earnings (i.e. after selling cost and other expenses) for an individual to make from selling through Amazon?
We have the only Amazon course in the world that displays an up to date results survey right on our information page. Look for it at the bottom of the provenAmazoncourse.com sales page.
Hi
If I were to sign up how would I pay since I’m in the UK
how would I pay in dollars with my bank card
Thank you for replying in advance
my support team can assist you if you have trouble, but we get orders from all over the world daily. Just use the order button on the bottom of the page and go through the steps. If you need assistance, contact support using the info on the support page of this site.
Anyone working more than 15 hours WAS included in the results regardless of their results. We had a few people report that they worked LESS than 15 hours (our suggested minimum), but we included them if (and only if) they were getting more than $1,000. I should reword that section for clarity, but hopefully that clears up your concern about any “discarding” of students on the weaker side of the results spectrum. Thanks for the observation!
Ok Jim, thanks for the clarification. I would still think including people working less than 15 hours with > $1000 sales contribute to an upward bias, but your active reply shows you are a open to questions and challenges. That is a virtuous act.
We don’t turn down refund requests on our digital products. To be in compliance with my credit card processor I have to say “60 days”, but you won’t find a single refund complaint anywhere on the entire internet with hundreds of thousands of customers served. We are proud of that.
Jim,
What’s your opinion on thrifting and retail arbitrage?
To me I could never understand why people do it. Who want’s to spend hours and days at a time hustling and couponing for deals to send into Amazon? To me that’s a job, not a business. There’s no time freedom with a system like that. Not to mention that scaling up is near impossible.
I agree – for me personally I can’t find time in my business schedule for driving from store to store sourcing products, but I have a team working for me who does just that! Also – if someone has more time than money, it’s a decent starting point. For some people an extra $200 profit per week is HUGE and just virtually anyone can earn that in a couple hours of time spent per week sourcing products locally.
Hi Jim,
I like your article given I have been bombarded with heaps of promotions for two major Amazon launches that were happening past few weeks.
I like to get into the Amazon business but I just have two questions:
1. Is there still an opportunity for newbies to get into FBA given experts like youself and lots others selling well on Amazon?
2. Is retail arbitrage still profitable?
Thanks,
Shan
you are wise to be VERY leery of “big launches”. The fact is, 50% or more of the price tag on those big launch courses are going into prize money and payouts to those promoting the courses. Thousands of dollars of commissions per sale can really tempt even the most ethical of marketers into saying things they don’t really believe in order to get a sale. This is one reason I keep my prices so low. I don’t want any “slick marketers” promoting my stuff – only people who are using it to succeed are my top advocates.
YES the opportunity is still more than viable. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg b/c online sales are still TINY compared to traditional retail. The trend is set to swing in our favor for another decade plus. As traditional retails continues to struggle, online sales are ramping up…and customers are coming in by the millions. There’s nothing remotely close to a “shortage”.
YES retail sourcing is a huge opportunity. Supply and demand drives free markets globally and will continue to do so indefinitely. Retail sources are only one of dozens of sourcing strategies we teach, and it’s a great one for newbies!
Thanks Jim for your quick response.
Yes I am very leery but at the same time it is quite tempting too when they show big fat pay checks they received from Amazon. Hard to lose distractions from these shiny objects and hype in the IM world.
I am a bit concerned about retail arbitrage that’s why I ask the question if it is still profitable. Everyone is now saying you need to come up with your own brand and private label product so you don’t compete with others selling the same product.
But for me as a newbie on Amazon I think retail sourcing is the way to go but got confused about all the comments I have received about it not being profitable and too competitive. Are your students being successful and profitable with retail sourcing? And they still doing it?
Whoever is telling you that private label products don’t have competition is misleading you. We have students in our coaching program RIGHT NOW who dropped thousands of dollars on “private label” products and can’t move them…because competing products are winning in that niche. They are told that it’s a lack of marketing that’s the problem, but that’s only an attempt to transfer responsibility for the true error and that’s the message that “marketing” can fix poor product selection.
Join our free Facebook community- search for “mysilentteam.com” on Facebook. you’ll see numerous successful Amazon selling students doing all sorts of business models. It’s a community of 14,000 people and many are doing amazing things.
We survey our entire student base and report our average results- no other course does that. In some cases the few dozen success stories our competitors have come from the pool of 10,000 students. Those aren’t great odds…
Stay away form any cookie cutter systems. Five years from now you’ll see what I mean. The “amazon” fad will have worn off and we’ll still be teaching the same three biz models we’ve taught for over a decade while the “gurus” will have moved on to other low hanging fruit selling courses to wide eyed eager newbies.
Quite interesting Jim. Thanks for the clarification as these new launches keeping us confused about retail sourcing. I believe retail should still be huge opportunity for newbies as when I look at other stores e.g. Walmart, Target, Coles and Woolworths (in Australia) they do have their own brand products but sell a lot of other products that they basically import from suppliers and sell it for a profit. So yes it should work well with Amazon as well and since you have students successfully doing it make sense too.
I think it should be a simple process i.e. select a product that sells well, then just buy it cheap and sell it for a profit.
That is one of dozens of ways to find profitable inventory!
In your previous post you mentioned you teach 3 biz models. Could you elaborate what they are or if you have a blog post I can read and get more info about them?
I know one of them is selling on Amazon and/or ebay 🙂
The book “Silent Sales Machine” goes in depth into all three of the complimentary business models we teach. CES is an acronym – each letter is one of the “multiple income stream” models that we teach. This short blog posts gives you a very nice overview: https://www.jimcockrum.com/blog/2014/12/09/a-multiple-income-stream-answer-to-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/
Thanks Jim. I am getting quite interested to learning more about you so will definitely check out your book.
I get the point of “S” i.e. to sell your own stuff. But some people go for digital goods (e.g. ebooks) and others go for physical. To me it looks more logical to sell physical items as I don’t understand why people pay for info products if everything is available online almost for free.
What would be your advice for newbies like me. Do you recommend newbies to go the physical route or the info product route? What do you let your students go for?
selling physical products online is the #1 starting point for “newbies” based on our decade plus of successfully helping our students establish thriving businesses online.
Hi Jim,
I am back again on this discussion :). As you’ve suggested I joined mysilentteam FB group and thank you for accepting me. I’ve been following this group for few months now and I have few concerns. I’ve seen a lot of people having issues with Amazon e.g. account suspension, listings not being approved, and even setting up seller account if you are outside US. No doubt I have also seen a lot of posts with people who are very successful in this business.
What makes me worried getting into this stuff is I live in Australia and therefore I need to source inventory online, then will be needing a prep service so have to pay their fees too, then there are FBA fees too, etc. Can we still make a profit minus all those fees and including inventory cost?
I like to invest in PAC but am just confused and worried that I will be able to run it from Australia successfully. Also can we start out with a limited budget?
What’s your opinion and advice on my confusion and worries?
Thanks,
Shan
There are a good handful of misconceptions in your post. The bottom line is this:
Amazon is a HUGE and GLOBAL opportunity with numerous creative solutions to any challenge you might bump into. I encourage you to plug into our community and you’ll soon be likely to join the ranks of those of us who see Amazon as the undisputed greatest online entrepreneurial opportunity of our time.
I’m one of Jim’s members who paid for the courses, and I can tell you, it’s totally worth it. It’s also 1/10 the price of other similar courses, and actually covers more content (not just private label).
Thanks for the note!
Hi Jim,
I’m Cosmin from Romania and I’m very interested to by part of ProvenAmazonCourse academy. If I start these days, is it too late for me to catch the november and december sales. I’m thinking I don’t have enough time to order the samples, to send the goods to Amazon etc. However, I’ll start the business anyway, it’s just a curiosity.
Thanks and good luck!
There are two good times to plant a tree. Today, or twenty years ago. 🙂
No, you aren’t too late for the busy shopping season, and waiting gives you no advantages.
Hi Jim! I’ve just planted the tree. 🙂 Thanks!
Just at water!
(Work the model! Slow and steady wins the race. You’ll love this biz!)
Great discussion on this topic on our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysilentteam/permalink/843306032452175/
Hi Jim, I have started following your blog and fb group and the info seems sound. Although can any of this be put in to practice or is it relevant for me over here in the UK??? I have been fobbed off by a few US based Amazon ‘coaches’ saying their info is no good for UK market. Surely this is adaptable?! Thanks for your time. Steve
A good deal of our audience is in the UK! Check out our world map:
MySilentTeam.com/worldmap.hmtl to see what I mean.
Here’s a post from just yesterday about a successful student in the UK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysilentteam/permalink/844104329039012/
The ProvenAmazonCourse.com course is truly a global course. It doesn’t matter where you live. You’ll have unique opportunity and challenges regardless of your location. Listen to the short interview at the top of the proven amazon course.com main page. You’ll see what I mean.
That’s great Jim. Thank you for your help 🙂
Do you use the Alibaba + Amazon FBA method?
If not, what is your strategy?
I’m NOT a fan of Alibaba. Our resident expert importer (ProvenChinaSourcing.com) has been importing successfully since 1987 from all over the globe – and he’s not a fan.
We reveal all our strategies in the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course – there are NUMEROUS proven source strategies…but Alibaba is NOT one of them.
So what is your most effective method..
Retail Arbitrage? Online Arbitrage? Wholesale?
Right now the stuff we are most excited about is the PPI course. ProvenPerformanceInventory.com.
Instead of GUESSING what to sell and HOPING to marketing your way out of bad buys, you can know up front what will sell – and find “gaps” in the Amazon market place. There are MILLIONS of “gaps” to be found and with about three hours of training, you’ll never see Amazon selling the same again.
you’d enjoy the in-depth conversation about the PPI course in our free FB community here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysilentteam/permalink/858055747643870/ That’s a direct link.
ok thanks!
Hi, Jim. i am in a bit of a dilemma
so i started going through the PAC course and just finished the welcome video. Now, i’ve asked this question multiple times in the facebook page and i want some more opinions and an opinion from you.
I live in the UK and i don’t know which to sell on. Amazon UK or Amazon.com. I keep thinking of reasons to sell in one or the other, like Amazon UK doesn’t require the time of shipping overseas and it takes longer to get to the warehouses. Amazon.com is a much bigger marketplace. etc. I feel that i shouldn’t bite off more than i can chew so i should sell on the UK and EU marketplace before i move onto USA. But i still haven’t decided.
So should i do Amazon UK first and then move on the amazon.com or start with amazon.com straight away?
I like to have your opinion before i make a seller account on EU or USA.
do both! Possibly start with UK b/c there are fewer barriers for you, but literally ALL of the strategies in the PAC course are truly global. No reason to limit yourself. Getting into the US market is where most of the activity is.
I WILL do both in the future. but i’ll think i’ll start with UK mainly to get experience with selling, prepping, sourcing etc.
Then i’ll ship overseas to USA warehouses
I want to source books first. do you think this is a good idea?
Books are a fantastic way to get started – the profitable inventory is as readily available as is any other category you’ll ever explore!