51ÊÓƵ

Take your Amazon game ³Ù´ÇÌýthe next level!

Today we explore deep into the Amazonian jungle. But it will be OK, because we have an expert as our guide. He’s our guide, he’s our guy, he’s My Amazon Guy — Steven Pope. His 300 Amazon Tutorial videos are evidence of his expertise. All of that and more can be found at the My Amazon Guy website.

Steve brings his insights ³Ù´ÇÌýour questions about:

• How ³Ù´ÇÌýsuccessfully launch a product on Amazon and accelerate its growth on a shoestring budget
• How ³Ù´ÇÌýoptimize everything about a listing without hiring someone
• Why made in the USA is about ³Ù´ÇÌýsurge on Amazon
• How Amazon sellers can stay ahead of the game in the midst of the changing Amazon landscape
• The biggest culprits of a failed product launch, and how ³Ù´ÇÌýquickly recover from it.

We may need ³Ù´ÇÌýorder extra brains, on Amazon, ³Ù´ÇÌýkeep up with it all. Listen in.

Also:

• video
• My Amazon Guy
• My Amazon Guy

Transcript

Jesse: Happy Friday again, Richie.

Richard: Happy Friday, is that time again?

Jesse: It is, it is, yeah. We’ve been doing a lot of pods lately. We’ve got ³Ù´ÇÌýget these live. You know, we’ve been talking a lot about different e-commerce stuff. One thing that we mentioned in a lot of pods; we never like dive in super deep is how ³Ù´ÇÌýget going on Amazon. Right. So are you pumped? Do you want ³Ù´ÇÌýsell some stuff on Amazon?

Richard: Yeah. Yeah, I think I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýtry ³Ù´ÇÌýlearn as much as I possibly can today. I mean, we know a lot about selling on 51ÊÓƵ. Why not take advantage of learning ³Ù´ÇÌýsell on the biggest marketplace on the planet?

Jesse: It’s the big one. You cannot ignore it, particularly if you sell items that are the lower-priced items that can advertise on e-com. Like a lot of times, people just start their search on Amazon. Don’t forget that if you have an Amazon Prime account yourself and then you’re thinking like, I don’t really want ³Ù´ÇÌýsell on Amazon. We might want ³Ù´ÇÌýtake a moment ³Ù´ÇÌýrethink that. Anyway, why don’t we bring in my Amazon guy, Steven Pope.

Steven: Guys, thanks for having me.

Jesse: Yeah, welcome aboard. You are actually the founder of My Amazon Guy.

Jesse: You got it. All right. And happy Friday right back at you guys. I think it’s a good time ³Ù´ÇÌýbe selling on Amazon these days with everything that’s going on. No doubt about it.

Jesse: Yeah. So, I mean, you have clients, you sell on Amazon yourself. Is it blowing up as much as the rest of e-commerce, what’s the take?

Steven: Absolutely. I would say e-commerce and Amazon are up 50 percent year over year during what I like ³Ù´ÇÌýcall COVID 1.0, that kind of March into May, June time frame, a little softer in July. But I think Q4 is going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe one hundred percent up year over year. And I think the reason we know this is because Amazon has signaled, hey, don’t send too much stuff into my warehouse. There ain’t no more room. So people are going ³Ù´ÇÌýneed ³Ù´ÇÌýbe ready ³Ù´ÇÌýship their own items directly ³Ù´ÇÌýconsumers because the FBA is going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe collapsing most likely during Q4.

Jesse: OK, yeah, I saw a notification recently about their little inventory score or whatever you would call it. They bumped up the numbers ³Ù´ÇÌýfive hundred, which I didn’t meet that level, but my own personal store.

Steven: One of the side household brands I have ³Ù´ÇÌýkind of test things out. It’s called Momster. I sell wine glasses with funny sayings on them. Mr. Right, Mrs. Always Right, that kind of thing. And my scores for eighty-five. So I’m like right in with my clients on this one. And I’m thinking ³Ù´ÇÌýmyself, can I increase my API score by fifteen points and I don’t know, less than 30 days, and I don’t think I can. So I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýhave storage limits like everybody else, and it’s part of the game. You got ³Ù´ÇÌýsometimes know where the puck’s going in Amazon, not where the puck is today, ³Ù´ÇÌýuse the hockey metaphor.

Jesse: Got it. So, yeah, I saw that email. I sort of ignored it a little bit because I’m not a huge Amazon guy. But taking it from your point of view is like, OK, guys, one, that’s a signal you might have trouble with storage limits, but also it shows like Amazon knows things are going ³Ù´ÇÌýblow up this Q4, and they just want ³Ù´ÇÌýmake sure it’s the best people that are in there that they’re storing.

Steven: I thought this announcement would have hit in like September. Right. So it’s coming super early, which tells me either one or two things. Either they are already overwhelmed, which is probably true, or they actually got their act together and did some forecasting and realized that, wow, every brick and mortar business out there needs ³Ù´ÇÌýrush ³Ù´ÇÌýe-com right now. And yeah, we just had, I don’t know, fifty thousand new accounts open on Seller Central. Somebody is going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe shipping some stuff into our warehouses, and we’re not going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe able ³Ù´ÇÌýmanage or deal with that. So it’s a good sign that Amazon’s very healthy and good, but overrun just because and that catalyst called COVID changed the game. So the way you can manage your deal with this, send all your inventory that you can 90 days supply, but also be ready for December, 1 ship out of your 3PL or your house if you have to. You’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýhave ³Ù´ÇÌýthis year because you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýstock out, and so are all of your competitors. Raise your prices on Black Friday weekend. That is probably the number one tip I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýgive on today’s podcast. Raise Your Prices Black Friday weekend, because you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýsell out and stock out by the first or second week in December, most likely.

Jesse: Love that tip, actually, because during this kind of this past, COVID 1.0 I actually was in a situation where I started selling a lot of products. And next thing you know, it’s like it’s disappearing and I’m happy. But then I’m like, OK, well, I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýrun out of inventory soon. And so I did raise my prices towards the end of it just because I could, I guess.

Steven: You’re price gouging. The weirdest thing happens when people raise prices, and they always do. Right. So this is a decade long common best practice on Amazon. Right. And all of a sudden, they started hitting people for price gouging. It was nuts. Yeah, they actually suspended listings and all that stuff. A lot of troubles that happened in April and May timeframe. To prevent this in the future, raise your prices in 10 percent increments. That’ll prevent it in the future from getting a listing suspended for quote-unquote, price gouging. Which, by the way, I think capitalism solves. I don’t think there is price gouging. I just think it’s supply and demand.

Jesse: Sure. Well, there were a lot of bad stories about whatever if you’re hoarding hand sanitizer and don’t do that, but don’t take all the toilet paper. Somebody, we need that stuff. Come on, guys. Yeah, yeah. But if you’re selling your average items and you’re running low on stock, it’s a best practice ³Ù´ÇÌýraise your prices because if you don’t, then you stock out, then you lose your Keyword rankings. Yeah, that’s damaging ³Ù´ÇÌýyour listings. So it’s best not ³Ù´ÇÌýstock out.

Jesse: OK, so for people listening here, like what the heck is stock up. Right. Steven, you’re showing that you know what you’re talking about because you’re bringing in some good Amazon terms here that a lot of people might not be familiar with. So we want ³Ù´ÇÌýpick your brain on like, hey, there’s a lot of 51ÊÓƵ users out there that are selling. They’re doing fine. They know Amazon’s a thing that they should probably be looking into. You know, like what would you say is the first step? Like, research. Just start selling. Where would you go from somebody that has products there? Want ³Ù´ÇÌýexplore Amazon?

Steven: So step one, you need products, right? So if you’ve got products, you’re ready. If you don’t have products, go source them. And there’s a lot of different ways you can source products from Alibaba ³Ù´ÇÌýwholesale locally. But I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýspeak about that next step. So I’m assuming you got the product. What do I do next?

So launching Amazon does require a little bit of investment, both in time and in money. But if you’re just getting started, you need ³Ù´ÇÌýprotect that finance. You don’t want ³Ù´ÇÌýgo too deep in investing before you know it’s going ³Ù´ÇÌýwork out. Right. So recently, Amazon’s required proof that you have permission ³Ù´ÇÌýsell your own brand. So most people do not have a trademark at this stage.

And if you’re trying ³Ù´ÇÌýlist on Amazon for the first time without a trademark, without a brand registry trademark, you get a brand registry with Amazon; then, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýhave a picture of your product that shows your brand name. So these are two things a lot of sellers don’t have. They don’t have a brand name fixed ³Ù´ÇÌýtheir product. They may not even have UPCs, and they haven’t filed a trademark. So those are kind of the things you need ³Ù´ÇÌýbe prepared ³Ù´ÇÌýtackle if you don’t have a trademark, you can get one filing with USPTO. My Amazon Guy does offer trademarks. I’ll give you a link if you want ³Ù´ÇÌýput it in the show notes. It takes six months, though. That’s the kind of the downer on this; it takes six months ³Ù´ÇÌýget a trademark.

Once you’ve got some of these basics in place and you start ³Ù´ÇÌýload on Amazon, you’ve done your product research, you’ve got the right items, and you’re like, hey, I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýlaunch my items. Here’s what’s called the first two weeks, a honeymoon period on Amazon. You want ³Ù´ÇÌýdo whatever it takes ³Ù´ÇÌýsell as many units as possible in the first 14 days. None of this conservative “Let me see what happens and put my listing up, and I’ll just kind of dicker around with it.” Don’t do that.

The honeymoon period is so important that you will leapfrog your listing into the Amazon world, gaining rankings that you would not normally have if you just spend a few grand in ads. Now, if that budget’s too much, spend whatever you can; 10 percent of your sales should be spent in PPC, in my opinion. Pay per click Amazon advertising. If you do this, you get your listing optimized from head ³Ù´ÇÌýtoe. Send your inventory into FBA, so you’ve got a prime badge, get your title, your bullets, your A-plus consent, or enhanced brand content. You’ve got all these great designs in place. Launch your Amazon ads, set up your keywords for your SEO and search engine optimization, and then off ³Ù´ÇÌýthe races. So it’s obviously a lot more complicated than I’m trying ³Ù´ÇÌýmake an assignment. These. Basic sound bites, but at the end of the day, you need ³Ù´ÇÌýdo two things as a strategy.

Number one, you need ³Ù´ÇÌýfocus on growing your traffic. And number two, need ³Ù´ÇÌýconvert as many people as you can that get your listings. And these are two best practices I’m sure you guys talk about all the time because they’re not specific ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon.

Richard: You know, that actually brings up a question I’d ask you. Normally, I wouldn’t drive business away from my traditional e-commerce store, but listening ³Ù´ÇÌýwhat you were just saying, let’s just say in a hypothetical. I had a new product I wanted ³Ù´ÇÌýrelease, and you were thinking about selling on Amazon; that might be a good time if you already had a list of buyers for your brand. And maybe I don’t know if you do it via email, there are probably different ways you could do it.

But if you took your audience that already loves your brand, and maybe you say for a limited time only, it’s going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe on Amazon because I’m trying ³Ù´ÇÌýdo a store over there. And you could; since it’s on your side or you’re communicating via your email, you could say, hey, we’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýstill be in business, we’re still doing this, we’re just going ³Ù´ÇÌýtest out Amazon, and we’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýgive you X deal or something like that. Is that something that you’re referring ³Ù´ÇÌýas far as, like trying ³Ù´ÇÌýpush as much business ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon in those first 14 days as possible?

Steven: If there ever was a time ³Ù´ÇÌýutilize external traffic into Amazon, it’s in the product launch phase, that honeymoon period, or the first 14 days. I completely understand that people want ³Ù´ÇÌýown their customers. Right. And when you sell on Amazon, you do not own your customers. And so when you sell through your site, you own them. You get their email address; you get there, you actually get their address like a physical address, which Amazon took away. I’m on record June of twenty nineteen, predicting prophetically, if you will, that I think that Amazon was going ³Ù´ÇÌýmove ³Ù´ÇÌýan external traffic necessity platform. That prediction came ³Ù´ÇÌýfruition by the end of twenty nineteen. We have seen that Amazon is giving relevancy scores and more traffic and more keyword rankings ³Ù´ÇÌýlistings that bring customers ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon.

So the nice thing is that COVID caused a whole new population of people who would never have bought online, let alone on Amazon, and force them ³Ù´ÇÌýbuy online and on Amazon. So this new customer base was great. Amazon is super happy they acquired new customers. All that’s great. But you have ³Ù´ÇÌýbring people ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon. You can’t just rely upon their platform ³Ù´ÇÌýserve you. You must now serve them a little bit ³Ù´ÇÌýget your foot in the door. If you send traffic in those first 14 days, you send a signal ³Ù´ÇÌýthe algorithm that, hey, these guys are legit, they’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbring people ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon. Therefore, I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýreward them with additional traffic, additional sales, and get them off the ground.

So you leapfrog the rankings by doing this instead of just ranking organically for like three or five keywords, you’ll rank for hundreds, if not a couple of thousand if you do the honeymoon period correctly. And the last thing I mentioned on this, there’s a setting inside a Seller Center where you can go in there and pick your launch date. So before you launch, before your item goes live, have everything, everything ready, everything from your title, bullets, pictures, design, your store, FBA launched, have it already before you go live with your item. If you do this, then your two week period will start on that offer release date, and then you’ll have a way more successful time.

Jesse: All right. I really like that, and I hope for people listening, this is where you take the notes. That 14 days being super important because, in the E-com only world, we might say, like, OK, you just just get the product live. Let Google start ³Ù´ÇÌýsee it, Google indexes it. You don’t have ³Ù´ÇÌýworry so much like there’s actually a benefit in just launching and let the URL age a little bit. I mean, don’t be ridiculous, but there is a benefit, and that sounds like it is a fact that in Amazon, that is a horrible strategy. You’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýhurt yourself. You did not get those first 14 days.

The external traffic, I think we’ve mentioned this on some other parts, but I think that’s very important that external traffic could be an email offer ³Ù´ÇÌýyour base. Like, hey, I’m launching a new product on Amazon. Here’s the link. Bring it there. I know you can advertise ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon as well, which is extremely painful for somebody that does advertising that would pay ³Ù´ÇÌýadvertise ³Ù´ÇÌýgo ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon and then pay Amazon 15 percent. You got it. It pains me, but the margins. Yeah, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýlose the money there.

And I know that’s just part of the Amazon product launch strategy or whatever it it’s it’s a launch strategy where you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe paying that first couple of weeks. I think it was great ³Ù´ÇÌýhelp us learn about that. The steps prior ³Ù´ÇÌýthat, you said trademark take six months, a lot of people have trademarks already. Does that kind of speed up that process?

Steven: Yeah, so that trademark gets you what’s called a brand registry. Brand registry is Amazon’s way of saying, hey, you’re an authentic brand. The government recognizes that you have a mark, intellectual property if you will. And this is really fundamental because Amazon has thousands of would-be scammers trying ³Ù´ÇÌýsell fake products, rip off products, hijacked listings, all kinds of garbage. And quite frankly, it’s mostly coming out of China.

So if you’re an Amazon seller and you’re frustrated by somebody mucking with your data, it’s probably not your direct competition in the state over in the US, it’s probably a guy in China. And guess what? They are trying ³Ù´ÇÌýfight tooth and nail for dinner on the table tonight. They are not fighting for a shirt on their back for tomorrow. And that means they’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýfight dirty and you have ³Ù´ÇÌýdo whatever it takes.

Amazon’s trying ³Ù´ÇÌýrecognize some sort of 80/20 rule ³Ù´ÇÌýhelp protect sellers and, quite frankly, buyers. That’s the real intent, right? Amazon is a buyer’s platform. They don’t give a crap about you as a seller, which is why agencies like My Amazon Guy exist. It Is because we go in there and we care about sellers. We take care of their problems and solve them when Amazon won’t solve them for you. Amazon is literally the most siloed organization in the world. The left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. And so you have ³Ù´ÇÌýbe very protective.

By the way, I’m a self-starter. I like my default marketing philosophy. Philosophy is that something is better than nothing. And for you ³Ù´ÇÌýtalk about, hey, just get it up. That’s me that is like me ³Ù´ÇÌýa core. However, Amazon has entered its maturity phase as a product lifecycle. So what this means is the sophistication involved in selling on Amazon is peaking. It’s getting harder, and a lot of the unsophisticated sellers are going ³Ù´ÇÌýget knocked out. You’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýsee a bunch of other businesses come in, gobble up the unsophisticated sellers, merge and acquire, bring every bring all the talent and house, and then they’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýexpand and dominate the platform.

And so you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýsee brokerages going like crazy with buying and selling. And COVID caused a spike in sales for a lot of businesses, but for other businesses that just completely destroyed their model and their supply chain. And they probably are going ³Ù´ÇÌýsell and go bankrupt, if not sell. So there’s a lot of different things at play right now. And although we’re kind of bouncing all over the place from basics ³Ù´ÇÌýAmazon’s complicated and you got ³Ù´ÇÌýbe careful.

But the long story short, ³Ù´ÇÌýkind of wrap that up, Amazon has a lot of things happening and the catalysts that are happening. And you have ³Ù´ÇÌýaccelerate with Amazon. You have ³Ù´ÇÌýplay differently on this platform than you ever have in the past, or you will not succeed. And you’ve got ³Ù´ÇÌýget that trademark and brand registry in place. You have ³Ù´ÇÌýoptimize that content. You’ve got ³Ù´ÇÌýspend more on ads. And you’ve got ³Ù´ÇÌýgrind it daily and understand all the technical aspects that go into selling on Amazon.

Richard: Yeah, you had quite a few good points there. I’m just going ³Ù´ÇÌýpick and kind of riff off of one when you were talking about. So actually it’s a combination of two, the brand registry part of that. Even though they’re encouraging that because they have ³Ù´ÇÌýhelp people, since they’re mostly a buyers platform, it’s also encouraging, though, because the one thing we can do that Amazon can’t do other than be a brand of Amazon is they can’t be a brand of that product.

So still creating great content and social stuff and having your community engage in a hashtag, in your brand name and whatever, all the number of things you can do is still super important because even though they’re trying ³Ù´ÇÌýdo brands. I don’t want ³Ù´ÇÌýgo down it too deep, but they got data on everything, so if you’re not brand heavy and they start ³Ù´ÇÌýrealize in this data that a brand doesn’t really matter, voila.

Now you have an Amazon basics cable for your new recording studio or you, you know, whatever. The thing is, I think Amazon basics is going ³Ù´ÇÌýmake Costco’s Kirkland look like chicken feed as far as the new products are going ³Ù´ÇÌýhave.

Steven: Absolutely and honestly, I think Amazon is a brand killer, not a luxury brand killer, but a generic brand name killer. So this is kind of a fun game. I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýpick on Jesse here. So what’s the last thing you bought on Amazon? Hopefully, it’s not dirty socks, unicorn meat.

Jesse: Similar ³Ù´ÇÌýyour mount for your microphone. I bought a mount for a TV, like a desk. Mount for a TV.

Steven: What was the name of the brand you bought?

Jesse: I happen ³Ù´ÇÌýknow it was Mounted, but I’m an e-commerce nerd, so I would remember that weird brand name. But yes, it was Mounted.

Steven: So when you ask this question of one hundred people, generally three out of 100 will get it right. And so you’re one of the three in this case now. Now, here’s the next question. What was the name of the seller you bought it from?

Jesse: ±·´ÇÌý¾±»å±ð²¹.

Steven: Nobody ever gets that one. And that’s because Amazon has made it, so they are seen as the seller. Even though you are a third party seller on Amazon and the brand names, if they’re not a luxury brand or a super technical brand, perhaps the Mounted was in the technical category. They’ve kind of destroyed brand equity. So what does this mean? It means a couple of things. Number one, price competition is at an all-time high, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýsee lower margins. Number two, if you don’t have some brand equity, intellectual property that we’re talking about on today’s call or some content that talks about your features, or if you don’t have a brand position like, hey, you help hungry kids in Africa or you don’t do something special, you are going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe unmemorable and unmemorable means they’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbuy from the next guy shop.

I think some of this advice is probably pertinent ³Ù´ÇÌýselling online on your website. Right. But tell your brand story. It’s more important ³Ù´ÇÌýtell your brand story than it ever has been before because nobody cares about your brand, and you need ³Ù´ÇÌýmake them care about your brand. But you can’t just simply force them. You can’t use the forceful techniques of old age. Right. You’ve got ³Ù´ÇÌýuse power, love, and feeling. And here’s kind of the weird part of the podcast where we’re talking about lovey-dovey feelings. But no, I’m serious. Like I’m dead serious. Like you have ³Ù´ÇÌýuse the power of love and feeling behind your product. And if you don’t, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe beaten from price competing competition sellers.

Richard: Yep, totally makes sense. It totally makes sense. Does Amazon make it easy for you ³Ù´ÇÌýdo that on Amazon, like in their videos, are you allowed ³Ù´ÇÌýdo? Because I know, as you mentioned earlier, they don’t even give you the customer’s email or their address or anything. So what’s a way that people could be doing that other than on social or something like that?

Steven: Yeah, so you can do a few things. Number one, in the images on your products, you can tell the lifestyle story. Right. So I was helping a client that sold hemp cream. Hemp is really big right now. Highly competitive, though. And so we had Mike Tyson sponsoring this brand, and we were advertising ³Ù´ÇÌýcompetitive athletes. And we’re saying, hey, after a workout put on some of this hemp cream.

Well, it turns out if you looked at the data, the demographics, which, by the way, Amazon does actually share now, they will give you a female, male age, demographic breakdown in your brand dashboard, if you have a brand registry. It Was skewed heavily ³Ù´ÇÌýwomen at the age of 45 ³Ù´ÇÌý60. So we had ³Ù´ÇÌýrebrand this item. And instead of chasing sports, we chased older women with arthritis.

So what does that mean, and how does that relate ³Ù´ÇÌýyour branding question? It means the picture of a woman in there. Forty-five ³Ù´ÇÌýfifty-five range became the focal point of the branding. And you talked about the features that help that woman’s arthritis instead of the post athlete workout. You got ³Ù´ÇÌýlisten, understand your demographic, your clients’ help.

Other things you can do. You can send a follow-up email. One of my favorite tools is feedback with an email explaining how ³Ù´ÇÌýuse the products, check-in, and ask for a review and whatever. But more importantly, add value ³Ù´ÇÌýthe customer and tell them exactly what they can do with your product. And they’ll appreciate that with your website. You can nurture that lead even further, of course, and continue that engagement, whether it’s social media, email marketing, or even maybe a physical mailer. So you don’t necessarily get ³Ù´ÇÌýcontinue touchpoints on Amazon, but the ones that you get are extremely important.

Richard: Yeah, that makes sense now.

Jesse: Good, good advice there and we have actually had Feedback Whiz on a while back. So, you know, definitely, once you get those sales, you spend all that time and effort and you spend money on off Amazon traffic, like make sure you do it, you’re getting feedback, make sure you’re getting those follow-ups. So I really love that. Now, you mention all the steps it takes ³Ù´ÇÌýlaunch for a novice, what kind of like hours of investment are you talking about or?

Steven: All of that.

Jesse: Yeah, that’s what it sounds like. I mean, I’m scared now. I’m like, man, when I went on Amazon, it wasn’t that hard but sounded like it’s gotten a little harder.

Steven: Yeah. A decade ago, you could show up and succeed. Five years ago, you could show up and half-ass it. Today you have ³Ù´ÇÌýshow up and fight. If you don’t have some fight in you, don’t do it. If you go on YouTube right now and just type in Amazon tutorial videos. Right. Like, I hope I come up first. I get like three hundred of them.

But if you see ads on YouTube right now, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýsee like ninja guys talking about their Mercedes Benz and traveling the world. It’s all total malarkey, guys. There is no such thing as passive income on Amazon. It’s a lie. It’s a giant lie. I am grinding my account. I am grinding brute force for my clients every day. And there is a problem that occurs on Amazon every single week on your account. You have ³Ù´ÇÌýsolve problems constantly. If you don’t like ³Ù´ÇÌýsolve problems, don’t sell on Amazon. It is not the platform for you.

If you love ³Ù´ÇÌýinteract and solve problems and fight tooth and nail and also make a buck, it’s a great platform. But because the sophistication is going up, because we’re entering the maturity cycle of Amazon, you really do have ³Ù´ÇÌýhave some ammunition. And if you don’t have the knowledge, you need ³Ù´ÇÌýhire someone that does. And if you want ³Ù´ÇÌýgain the knowledge, there’s a good piece of news and a bad piece of news. The good piece of news is there’s an immense amount of information out there that you can go find. The bad piece of news is you can’t tell the good from the bad anymore.

For every ten pieces of information about how ³Ù´ÇÌýsell on Amazon, what is good and nine are bad. So you need ³Ù´ÇÌýbe very picky about the sources of information you now go after. And you should listen. I’m obviously biased here but listen ³Ù´ÇÌýthe guys that are telling you it’s hard. They’re the ones telling the truth, and they’re the ones that have done it. And they’re the ones that have looked at the profit margins and tried ³Ù´ÇÌýfind that pathway ³Ù´ÇÌýprofitability. And they’ve had field projects.

For example, I sold hot sauce on Amazon. This was an amazing product, had great reviews. Everybody loved it. And it was a sweet hit, and I hit the competition because there wasn’t a sweet hit hot sauce on Amazon. I failed, the logistics completely fell apart; I was sending in my pallet of a thousand units into Amazon, and one mistake that I made as a supposed Amazon probe, I didn’t box my individual units for shipment. I thought, oh, Amazon is smart enough ³Ù´ÇÌýsend my item in a box. They are not, and they do not care about you as a seller. They were shipping my hot sauce, my four and a half-pound hot sauce bottle, and got this, a freaking padded envelope. And as you can guess, what happened next? Eighty percent of my items were damaged on delivery ³Ù´ÇÌýmy consumer.

I fought tooth and nail for hours on end, ticketing and calling Amazon, telling them ³Ù´ÇÌýship it in a frickin box, and they would not do it. So I’m telling you the things that you cannot fight, the illogical nature of Amazon right now, you have ³Ù´ÇÌýsolve the problem yourself. And in my case, I threw the talent on this product. But in other cases, it can be solved, and you have ³Ù´ÇÌýseek out the solution. But the solution is not going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe obvious, and it’s not going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe logical. Most of the time, selling on apps.

Jesse: Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s really good stuff. Hopefully, people aren’t getting discouraged, but like, yeah, it’s hard. This is not like you are swimming with the sharks where if you’re just selling online, you’re making a few sales here and there. Nobody’s really messing with your site. On Amazon, you’re playing with the big boys right off the bat. So you have ³Ù´ÇÌýhave your A-game. You know, if somebody asked you a question, you have twenty-four hours ³Ù´ÇÌýanswer that question.

Like there’s a lot of it’s annoying personally. I mean like I get really annoyed that OK, I do this. I do that. So, be ready for it. Now for people that have been able ³Ù´ÇÌýget past this first stage, maybe they didn’t do the best product launch because they didn’t know this information. But they’re making some sales, doing a little bit of Amazon PPC. What advice would you give ³Ù´ÇÌýthis group of people that just need ³Ù´ÇÌýup-level they’ve already launched so that their honeymoon period is done? What kind of general advice would you give ³Ù´ÇÌýthem?

Steven: You bet. I do apologize if I made it sound too scary. That wasn’t my intention. I’m being authentic, though, and I’m real, and that’s me, and I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýspeak my truth as Gary V would say. But the other thing I would say is it’s never a better time ³Ù´ÇÌýsell on Amazon because the amount of tall-time traffic and available ways ³Ù´ÇÌýbuy fine consumers is at an all-time high. I seriously believe Q4 is going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe one hundred percent up year over year, and it’s a great time ³Ù´ÇÌýdo it. But you also have ³Ù´ÇÌýhave your act together. So some of the things you can do are always advertising, set your keywords on fire, do tons of keyword research, use tools like Jungle Scouter, Helium 10, and go figure out what your competition’s doing and duplicate their good things and then improve upon them.

Here’s a couple of quick-hit hacks. So if you’re selling on Amazon today and you need your two-minute action today, here’s what it is. Go look at the search term field of your bestseller. Make sure that you have two hundred and fifty characters of unique texts, and have zero commas in that two hundred fifty characters. Very different from your keywords on your website. Right. You used ³Ù´ÇÌýgo back in the day and fill that keyword tag in for your meta tags and have commas. Don’t do that on Amazon, and make sure you have no duplicate words.

So let’s say you sell a dog leash or a dog bowl. Well, the word dog should be in your keywords one time, even though maybe some of the keywords that have high impressions are Big Dog Bowl or Red Dog bowl. Your keyword field should be Dog Bowl Red, followed by a series of related keywords, maybe the word dog in Spanish, maybe God instead of a dog because everybody is dyslexic and types it in backward, whatever it might be.

Make sure that your keyword field is completely optimized. And your quick hit hack today, two hundred and fifty characters. Put, misspellings, typos, no commas, and maybe a little bit of Spanish. Other things you can do is do the same thing we just described, but in the alt text field of your photos, in your A-Plus content, that is pretty technical. I will send a video ³Ù´ÇÌýJesse and Richard and put it in the show notes on what I’m talking about. But basically, the most unutilized field on Amazon today is the alt text of your photos on Amazon.

Jesse: OK, yeah, that is a good one, because I probably would have ignored that. As you’re doing your profile, it gets tedious. It’s very, very good. So, Richard, what else can we take this here?

Richard: You know, there’s quite a few, and we talked a little before like there’s a friend that I specifically I’m trying ³Ù´ÇÌýfigure out something for him. He’s a broker that gets products into stores. But you said something earlier that I’m going ³Ù´ÇÌýtry ³Ù´ÇÌýtie them together and ask a question on how you think someone could do something like this. So you mentioned that there are ten pieces of information out there and only one of them is good, and so there are people out there that may have a really good knowledge base that really maybe their brand is almost more about what they know than a particular product.

So in this particular friend of mine’s case, he knows a lot about health and supplementation and all this. And he’s a rep for these companies. But that industry is changing a lot, too, like Whole Foods. Basically, they’re not even dealing with brokers or reps anymore. They’re like, you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýpay ³Ù´ÇÌýget on the shelf. And it’s just crazy. So, like, his whole model is changing, but his knowledge base and what he could do ³Ù´ÇÌýcreate the kind of tying these together, he could be that type of person that could pull in and know what that one great piece of content is.

I was trying ³Ù´ÇÌýthink of, like what he could possibly do and also still get people that are listening, 51ÊÓƵ users, that they might have other friends that have products or they have other skews that they could access that are already out there. So if you know something about a particular subject but you’re representing other people, is there a good way or should people, is there a good way ³Ù´ÇÌýsell that on Amazon, or should they just stick ³Ù´ÇÌýtraditional e-commerce on something like that?

Steven: Yeah. So there’s several different models that you could do ³Ù´ÇÌýsell on Amazon. So if you’re just getting started and you don’t even have a website, retail arbitrage is the obvious choice just ³Ù´ÇÌýget your foot in the pool, so ³Ù´ÇÌýspeak. Right. And what do I mean by retail arbitrage? You’re buying somebody else’s products low and selling high on Amazon. So the second would be buying wholesale and then retailing it, right? So you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýa reputable wholesaler, you negotiate a price, you buy in bulk, and then you sell retail on Amazon as well as your website.

And then the third is ³Ù´ÇÌýprivate label and go direct ³Ù´ÇÌýthe consumer, possibly manufacture it yourself. And so depending on each layer that I went up, it gets more complicated. But so do the margins improve. Right. Depending on what you want ³Ù´ÇÌýinvest in, the more product knowledge you have, the more successful you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe because you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe able ³Ù´ÇÌýarticulate your features better.

You’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýbe able ³Ù´ÇÌýfind better, higher quality products, and you’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýhave better-sourced relationships ³Ù´ÇÌýhave a better margin. So somebody like your friend Richard who has the knowledge and the database and the connections, they would do quite well on Amazon. And if they could represent some of those brands as a retailer buying wholesale from them, that would fit into our second model, the wholesale. I almost like ³Ù´ÇÌýcall it reverse wholesale in some instances, because if you’re listening ³Ù´ÇÌýthis podcast and you don’t have wholesale relationships, you can go get them just by grinding and talking ³Ù´ÇÌýbrands and saying, hey, I see that you sell on Amazon. I could do a better job. Let me buy from you, and I’ll fix up your listings. Hey, those bullet points that stink, there’s only three bullet points, and one of them’s got a typo in it. Cuz, I can fix that for you. And all I’m asking for in return is that you let me be your exclusive seller on Amazon, so your friend should negotiate exclusive Amazon rights if you can, and that way he can justify his time and investment.

So that way, other sellers don’t show up on those listings selling those same items. Alternatively, he could go ³Ù´ÇÌýthose same wholesalers and say, hey, cool, you guys have a cool brand, cool product. I like it. It’s high quality, but I want ³Ù´ÇÌýstick my brand name on it. Let me white label it. And that would be another model that would kind of fit in between world two and world three.

And if you do that, then you can still sell those products on Amazon profitably in e-commerce. I like ³Ù´ÇÌýthink there’s like a mantra for things. Sell more products ³Ù´ÇÌýmore people, more often for more money. And I steal this from Harry Joyner. He’s an e-commerce recruiter. And that mantra makes sense. It can be applied ³Ù´ÇÌýeverything. And if you aren’t tackling one of those four metrics and any action you’re taking today, I think you should retool and refocus and refocus on one of those four things, because that’s what it takes ³Ù´ÇÌýsell in e-commerce ´Ç°ùÌý´¡³¾²¹³ú´Ç²Ô.

Richard: That’s a good point. I’m just going ³Ù´ÇÌýgive him the link ³Ù´ÇÌýthis episode and let him know.

Jesse: And yeah, we’re going ³Ù´ÇÌýuse that quote from Harry Joyner, who I have run across him in the past, too. There were four, usually there’re three of those particular ones that Richie has used before. So let’s hear it one more time.

Steven: Sell more products ³Ù´ÇÌýmore people more often. And the fourth one that people forget is more money. So is that the one?

Jesse: I think that’s the one we haven’t really used.

Steven: You know what that translates to. Raise your prices. Higher average value. I’ve been trying ³Ù´ÇÌýtalk Harry into joining the podcast circuit; you guys should have him on.

Jesse: Yeah, I think we should.

Richard: Disneyland’s had that one for quite a while too.

Steven: They’re raising their prices?

Richard: They not only do they raise their prices but somehow or another, they’re so magic at their branding, no pun intended, that they’re able ³Ù´ÇÌýget the kids ³Ù´ÇÌýconvince their parents ³Ù´ÇÌýcome back. Well, when you could actually go. And bring friends, and now you get the ears and the hats and so they’re literally getting you. They get it on full tilt. They’re getting you ³Ù´ÇÌýbuy overpriced things that are branding their product when you go home. Then they got ESPN and all these other cradle ³Ù´ÇÌýgrave content creation machines, too.

Steven: I like the South Park episode where they make Mickey Mouse this evil, evil business capitalist. And then South Park comes up, and they’re like, do they own us yet? They’re like, not yet. And so, yeah, that summarizes this conversation quite well.

Jesse: Oh, good. Well, hey, Stephen, we know you have an agency. Can you give us a little bit about the agency? Obviously, these are the services you provide. What’s the ideal client that you like ³Ù´ÇÌýwork with?

Steven: So we’re a full service. I’ve got two types of clients, the guys that want ³Ù´ÇÌýbuy a project and just hire us for a simple A-plus content design. We have our services on our website for you, and sometimes you just need ³Ù´ÇÌýhire us for a quick problem and then go on your merry way. That’s cool. We’re here for it. The second type of client is somebody who wants us ³Ù´ÇÌýgrow their sales, and they hire us for a monthly consulting fee.

We come in and do whatever it takes digitally ³Ù´ÇÌýoperate your Seller Center account, run your PPC, your SEO, catalog, design, all in house. We take care of them so that you can focus on sourcing products and focus on other things and operations in your business. If you want ³Ù´ÇÌýlearn more about My Amazon Guy, just go ³Ù´ÇÌýMyAmazonGuy.com or simply google My Amazon Guy plus any Amazon topic. You should find YouTube videos on it. We’ve got three hundred of them. Any possible topic, we share secrets openly, we feel like we want ³Ù´ÇÌýhave value for the community. If you found some value and want ³Ù´ÇÌýhire us, all the better.

Jesse: Awesome, that’s a good intro. For people listening, that was not meant ³Ù´ÇÌýscare you, but if you’re scared, go ahead ³Ù´ÇÌýSteven. You can’t do everything; there’s SEO, there’s PPC, there’s a web design, there’s Amazon as a specialty. You can’t do them all. If you’re ready and happy ³Ù´ÇÌýprovide resources ³Ù´ÇÌýour listeners. Richie, any last questions?

Richard: I could talk ³Ù´ÇÌýyou for hours, I appreciate you being on the show, Steven. It’s obvious you’re a Gary V fan because very similar in the model. Totally different people, but similar: you keep providing content, transparent, as high quality as you can. If they can take that and run with it, awesome. If not, we’ll help you out. He’s got huge agencies helping too. Another way it shows he’s preaching and people are listening.

Steven: I’m a listener, I’m building my agency ³Ù´ÇÌýhold recent decisions. It changed how it worked out everything. Now I’m thinking about how I can make people stay at my agency for five, ten, or fifteen years. A completely different way of doing business and how I make a buck today.

Richard: That was great having you on the show, Steven.

Steven: Thanks, guys.

Jesse: Perfect. All right, guys, get out there, make it happen.