Update: After being inspired by Brian’s story I started selling as well! Here is my first 30 days of sales, 8th month of selling. We have a coaching group which you can find out more about here.
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Podcast episode number 17 is now live on iTunes. In this podcast episode I interview Brian Leyde who in less than one year is pulling in over $100,000 in profit per month selling physical products on Amazon.com.
Update: March 2014 he hit over $500,000 in sales.
Brian’s success story is amazing and as he shows in this interview, the business model of selling physical products on Amazon has huge potential to scale.
If you’d like to sell physical products on Amazon and avoid all of the hassles and headaches of shipping out product, dealing with refunds etc you’ll love this episode.
[yellowbox]BONUS: Click here to access your free video training on how to create a 6 figure plus Amazon FBA business in your spare time.
This step by step guide is the exact formula I’ve used to create my Amazon business[/yellowbox]
Brian’s Amazon Seller Central Sales Stats
Brian teamed up with a business partner and together they have two seller accounts with Amazon so the screenshots are from their two accounts:
Boo yah those are some nice stats! Brian shares his profit margin during the podcast episode so be sure to listen for that as well.
April Video Proof Update: Some haters commenters didn’t want to believe the stats Brian shared so he recorded a video where you can see him logging into his account, the pages loading as he clicks links in Amazon Seller Central etc.
Obviously his results are extraordinary, but that’s the beauty of any scalable internet business model. There are no rules that say you can’t do this with a business you build, but at a job you can’t go up to your boss and ask for a raise of this magnitude.
Video Sales Proof
Click the option to view on YouTube if you want higher res.
Note: I also convinced Brian to buy a better mic after he recorded this video lol
Items Discussed In This Episode:
– So far in 2014 Brian has had back to back 6 figure profit months (2 minute mark)
– Brian’s background in accounting (4 minute mark)
– How Brian teamed up with another seller (6 minute mark)
– How products are shipped (7 minute mark)
– How to pick a product (8 minute mark)
– How to source a product (10 minute mark)
– One of my failed businesses and how this model avoids that problem (11 minute mark)
– Brian does this 6 figure profit per month business on the side! (13 minute mark)
– The two main factors that influence sales on Amazon (16 minute mark)
– How to drive Amazon sales using PPC marketing (17 minute mark)
– The huge potential of page 1 listings for product searches (19 minute mark)
– Diversifying into other product lines to reduce risk (23 minute mark)
– What questions customers ask (25.5 minute mark)
– Selling products outside of Amazon (27 minute mark)
– The importance of playing by Amazon’s rules (28 minute mark)
– How much money you need to get started – it’s a lot less than you’d think (31 minute mark)
– What competition is there for private label products? (35 minute mark)
– What happens if you sell a ton of products on Amazon? – They may buy you out (37 minute mark)
– The importance of focusing in on one business once you eventually find success (40 minute mark)
– What websites are available to find products for sale? (41 minute mark)
– What not to do when buying from China (45 minute mark)
– How much the course Brian took helped him out (47 minute mark)
– It is possible to get out of corporate America (49 minute mark)
Want to find out when our Amazon mastermind starts up? Sign up here:
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When You’re Done Listening To The Podcast Please Review It
When you’re done listening please leave me a review on iTunes – I really appreciate it and it helps to get more people to listen to the podcast.
Ask Brian A Question – He’s Going To Be Hanging Out In The Comments
[yellowbox]BONUS: Click here to access your free video training on how to create a 6 figure plus Amazon FBA business in your spare time.This step by step guide is the exact formula I’ve used to create my Amazon business[/yellowbox]
Ask Brian your questions below…
amazing podcast..thanks buddy Chris
did u bring traffic by press release…?
Hi Lorenzo,
Glad you enjoyed the podcast. Initially I sent traffic from Google Adwords for a few weeks until the listing started ranking well for the main keyword within Amazon. Then I turned off the traffic and then the listing generated sales from organic search traffic within Amazon.
Brian Leyde
thanks buddy @Brian
i appreciate that ..
when i was listen the podcast ..i hear that is better to start build a eCommerce on side ..once you find a product that ready selling ..
Awesome. Want to learn more!
Hi Brandon,
I’m excited you want to learn more. Please go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and input your email and we will notify you in a couple of weeks when we will be starting the mastermind.
Brian Leyde
I am a newbie on Amazon and trying to get started. Maybe I missed it but can you tell me the name of the course that you took?
Hello Ken,
It’s great to hear you are already getting started on Amazon! The course I took is called The Amazing Selling Machine. Chris and I are putting together a mastermind next month to coincide with the re-launch of this course. If you’re interested in being a part of the mastermind and the course, please go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and enter your email and we will notify you in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
How many people do you anticipate will be in the mastermind?
Shooting for over 50 but we’ll see. It’s a higher priced program but when it launches we are really setting it up to help give students their best shot at success.
I don’t understand why a smart marketer would confine the feedback channel (in this case itunes) to a single method.
Perhaps I’m not a smart marketer – what are you saying lol? I may have been staring at my computer for too long and need to take a break.
How do you find inventory at enough discount to make money? I use FBA but it’s so hard to find products with enough margin to make money after all the fees.
Hi Joseph,
Thank you for your question. I’m glad you are already using FBA! Are you creating your own brand or selling name brand products? By developing your own brand you can get to those higher margins. I have found my suppliers from Google searches. If you’re interested in learning more we are putting together a mastermind in a couple of weeks. Go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and enter your email and we’ll notify you when it is available.
Brian Leyde
Thanks for this interview Chris.
I’m just about venturing into the ecommerce niche as this has been my dream all year long and this is the time to get in with my two legs.
I have DLed it and will listen then I will come back should I have questions.
Hello Michelle,
Thank you for posting a comment. I am excited you are planning to pursue your dream! If you are interested in joining the mastermind we’re putting together, go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and enter your email and we will notify you in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
Very informative podcast, Chris!
@Brian: Do you have a website or any other site where I can follow you?
Hi Luke,
Glad you enjoyed the podcast. I actually don’t have a website as I’m not an internet marketing “guru”. You can find me on Facebook though if you want to get in touch. Also, if you are interested in joining the mastermind go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and sign up to be notified in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
What was the link to the website? It was something.com/fba? I couldn’t quite hear it. Thank you…very inspirational and great interview.
http://chrisloves.com/fba
I’m a mumbler. I really should see a speech therapist or something, but I’m 30 now feels like it’s too late hah.
Hi Grant,
Thank you for the post and letting us know it was inspiring! It was really fun to do the interview.
Brian Leyde
Haha…me too Chris, me too!
You’re welcome Bryan. Looking forward to the mastermind group.
You mentioned during the podcast that for your product keyword, Amazon traffic is around a million visitors per month. How do you find out search traffic for Amazon? Is there a software tool that shows how many people search on the amazon site for a given keyword?
Hi Brandon,
Thank you for the post and question. Yes, there is a really neat tool called merchantwords.com
It gives you estimated search results of keywords within Amazon. We don’t know exactly how accurate it is but we believe it gives you a ballpark so you know how many potential buyers are looking for a particular product. It also helps you find related keywords to include in your listing.
If you’re interested in learning more we are putting together a mastermind to coincide with the re-launch of the course in a couple of weeks. Go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and we’ll notify you.
Brian Leyde
You mentioned the course THE AMAZING SELLING MACHINE. Would like to know how much the course cost? The reason is so I can start saving.
Hello Welner,
We do not know exactly of the cost of the course yet but will know in two weeks. Go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and put in your email and we will let you know as soon as we know.
Brian Leyde
Amazing interview… I’ve seen people exploit the “trade industry” (import/export)
but this is so obvious and mindblowing. You need balls and patience to do this.
It’s not easy as it seems.
I do have some questions.
1 – What is the purpose of your branding partner; what does he actually do and
how does he accomplish it. (Events, meetings, PPC, CPA?)
2 – How do you dialogue with suppliers and how do you select a supplier.
3 – How are you stocking products and what’s a good amount to keep for starters.
4 – Any software you’re using related to stock-management?
5 – Are the suppliers local or international?
6 – If you’re out of stock on amazon, does it affect your rankings?
7 – What’s your sales funnel purpose? generate a lead, a sale, a subscription?
8 – Are you making your own ecommerce store because you’ve now got a brand
recognition in the market? When is a good time to build your own store (would you have done it earlier…?)
9 – Do you actually fly and visit suppliers? How do you ensure product quality?
10 – Import duties, taxes, shipping time of new stock.
11 – ok so when are you making a course?
12 – Can i dialogue with you through email?
Hey Emiko,
I can chime in on one of these. Brian’s not making a course, he took a course and that’s what he and I were going to recommend in April when it reopens. You can sign up to be notified when it opens here: http://chrisloves.com/fba.
We have some more plans regarding that though so if you’re interested sign up there to find out more.
Hello Emiko,
Thank you for your questions. You are correct, this business is not for the faint of heart and is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes daily dedication and perseverance to achieve these results. Here are answers to your questions:
1. My partner’s strength is in branding and marketing. We both can run all aspects of the business but once we teamed up we decided to divide and conquer different areas of the business. He is in charge of all aspects of marketing from the images, copywriting, traffic, conversions, to press releases. Some of this he does in house and other tasks are outsourced. One thing I had to learn early on in this business was if I wanted to scale this quickly I would not be able to learn how to do everything, I just had to get it all done. This meant I had to get comfortable hiring out aspects of the business I did not have experience in such as images.
2. I communicate with our suppliers via email and phone. Down the road I also recommend visiting your suppliers in person. We select suppliers based on a variety of factors such as quality of the product, pricing, terms, capacity to scale should our orders increase, turnaround times, customer service, and experience shipping to Amazon.
3. I started with 100 units of my first product. Some suppliers will have minimum order quantities and some will not. Now I like to keep at least 2 weeks of inventory at Amazon FBA, sales can spike or there could be weather issues when you ship your product to Amazon FBA, so having a cushion will help you not run out.
4. I use Amazon’s seller central to manage our inventory. There are some outside software programs that tap into Amazon FBA to help you manage inventory as well, but I have not used one yet.
5. Our suppliers are both international and domestic.
6. Running out is not a good thing and yes it does impact your rankings.
7. I believe you are talking about a sales funnel outside of Amazon. Yes, this is something we’re in the process of building out. The purpose is to have our own ecommerce store with the ability to offer monthly auto ship and control the upsells along the sales process. It diversifies your revenue streams to additional channels so you are not one dimensional.
8. We have not had our own website for the past year because we wanted to focus on mastering Amazon first. I would encourage building out a website earlier on though because people do research your brand outside of Amazon and want to know more information about the company before they buy.
9. I have not personally visited all of our suppliers, however, we will be doing this later this summer. For product quality we make sure we get samples and then test every batch of orders.
10. I think you’re referring to importing and customs issues. Using a good freight forwarder helps will a lot of these logistics. The lead time will depend on the product and supplier. You just need to map it out and make sure you build in a cushion for unexpected delays.
11. The course I participated in as a student is re-launching in a couple of weeks. To be notified go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and sign up there.
12. Sure thing. Hit me up on Facebook.
Brian Leyde
Thanks, Chris, great information. I’ve just started selling on Amazon and it’s a lot harder than it seems from Brian’s tale to get sales, though it is inspiring to hear what can be achieved. The one thing I learnt was to get your listing packed with keywords and good photos of the product, as most of the competition just sell on Amazon as a sideline to their main website/shop and therefore don’t optimise. keep up the great work.
Hi Ron,
Thank you for your comment and listening to the podcast. I’m excited you just started selling on Amazon! This is definitely not an easy business and it has taken daily attention and dedication. You are correct that most sellers just throw up a listing and do not take the time to optimize the listing. The course I took last year teaches exactly how to optimize the listing so it converts better than your competition. If you’re interested in learning more go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and we’ll notify you in a couple of weeks when we launch the mastermind to coincide with the re-lauch of the course. I think you would be a great addition to this group since you already understand one of the main concepts of optimizing the page.
Brian Leyde
What’s the URL for the course mentioned in the podcast?
Hey Emiko, it’s http://chrisloves.com/fba to hear when it becomes available.
I was wondering where the course was that he used to learn about the Amazon FBA program? I am really trying to find an online option that I can start with. This sounds like a an opportunity I could really get into.
Hey Brad, I think I answered your email earlier but it’s http://chrisloves.com/fba to hear when it becomes available.
AWESOME podcast. My questions for Brian:
-Shipping: Are your products passing through your hands (involving household storage) before being sent to Amazon or do you have it set up to ship directly from the manufacturer?
-Organization: Being an accountant, you have some excellent business knowledge to draw on. What tips/tools would you suggest for someone without that background for keeping accounts organized?
Thanks for a great podcast, Brian and Chris. Of the many options out there for making an online income, this one gets me the most excited.
Cheers!
Hello Terran,
Thank you for listening to the podcast and the questions. I am excited you see the potential with this business!
I ship our products from our supplier directly to Amazon’s warehouse.
It really just takes daily dedication to each step to launch and market your product. My accounting background helped me look at profit margins of different products, however, there are great online tools out there to analyze those things. So don’t think you need years of business knowledge to do really well in this business.
For me, having a course with a mastermind helped me figure this all out because without a step by step guide and a group of people to ask questions of, I would not have been able to achieve these results.
I have not found a business that scales this quickly. If you’re interested in joining the course and mastermind, please go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and sign up. We will be sending out invites in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
Thank you for the great response Brian. That’s good news about bypassing shipping to yourself. It makes much more sense to ship directly. I’m glad to know it’s possible.
I’m signed up through chrisloves.com and I’m looking forward to it.
-Terran
Hi Brian,
How do you manage quality control batch testing and send directly to Amazon? I have had some problems with this myself.
Thanks!
Hey Michael, I don’t think Brian is actively monitoring the comments anymore he’s focused (along with me) helping the folks in our mastermind which will reopen near the end of this year.
I’m personally buying from China though and the way I test is just get a sample first. Then tell them I want the order just like the sample. Then I plan to order my own product from Amazon to confirm quality.
Great episode Chris and Brian, inspiring for sure! I like the idea of the private label scenario over the recent Podcast that Pat Flynn had on the same topic. In that scenario, the couple was also having great success, but had to shop local stores for deals, drive around town, purchase all the inventory they could and label and do everything themselves. This scenario sounds like a better way if you can find the right suppliers and deals.
I have two primary questions so far…
1) In the baby wipe example, what if a customer purchased the product, their baby developed a rash or something and they had complaints and lets say worst case they wanted to sue someone. Would you be potentially liable since the product is essentially your own branded product and as a result, would you need to have some sort of LLC or way to shield yourself from potential product liability?
2) On the other Podcast, the couple mentioned that there is a risk that Amazon could all of a sudden decide they will be selling that particular product themselves, which would essentially price them out of that product and their inventory might not sell. Since in their case they were selling whatever products they could get on any given day/week, that wasn’t a huge issue, but something they have run into. You mentioned here that they might buy you out or offer to, which would be great at the rate you mentioned, but what if they just decided to sell their own brand of baby wipes, essentially wiping out one of the product streams?
Thanks so much for sharing your details, looking forward to the responses and a huge congratulations as well Brian!
Hello Chris,
Thank you for listening to the podcast!
I did listen to the other podcast you are referring to and agree they could be more efficient and have higher profit margins if they were sourcing directly from the manufacturer. They are doing really well with it though, so it’s a matter of finding what direction you want to go with this business. There are many ways to skin a cat as they say.
I have an LLC in place and product liability insurance in case such an issue should happen with one of our products.
This has not happened to us yet, although it could happen at some point, although, I do not believe they would completely wipe out our product but it would become a bit more difficult to compete with them. I know Amazon launched a brand called Pinzon back in 2009. Also, keep in mind Amazon is just one channel to sell your products on so it makes sense to diversify your channels so if this did happen you would still have other sources of revenue coming in.
If you’re interested in joining the mastermind go to http://chrisloves.com/fba
Brian Leyde
Thanks Brian, appreciate the response and I wish you continued success!
Awesome stats and breakdown Chris!
I like that Brian developed a partnership. So key to prospering in any endeavor.
Tweeted to my 27 K followers 😉
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for listening to the podcast and forwarding it on to your followers. I’m very excited to be working with someone on this business!
Brian Leyde
Hi – I was hoping to hear the name of the class that he took. Would it be possible to share that with us?
It opens in April and Brian will be doing a mastermind (along with other stuff) as a bonus for people that decide to check it out. It’s called Amazing Selling Machine though.
I would really like to know how Brian can afford to ship that much to amazon. Amazon will hold your money for 21 days once you start and may hold your money up to 14 days after you sell something. So if he is really selling 250k a month and gets his products for 5 dollars
Hi Shaun,
Thank you for listening to the podcast and your question. I am able to utilize Amazon’s deeply discounted partnership with UPS. The shipping rates are very affordable.
Brian Leyde
Chris – OMG – I’m listening to this now……..HOLY S#$% is all I can say. Way to go Brain – I’m AMAZED. This sounds like an excellent opportunity! I recently heard about the FBA program on Pat Flynn’s podcast – but this is really taking it to the next level.
Brian – thank you so much for sharing your story – it really inspires and motivates people like me who are working days jobs and dabbling on the side. I really appreciate your honest interview and it sounds like you’ve done amazing things! Well done! I wish you nothing but endless success.
Hi Crystal,
Thank you for your listening to the podcast. Your comment is exactly how I wake up each morning and check the account. I heard the other interview as well and believe this version of the process provides higher margins while spending fewer hours per week.
If you are interested in learning more go to http://chrisloves.com/fba and sign up to be notified in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
Awesome interview, Chris! My question is, how to check the keyword search volumes on Amazon? Brian mentioned the search volume figures (1mln) several times… is there any tool available once you are sign up for Amazon?
Hi Elena,
Thank you for listening to the podcast. The tool I use is merchantwords.com.
We have many other tools but this is the one I use to get an idea of search volumes for particular keywords.
If you’re interested in learning more go to: http://chrisloves.com/fba
Brian Leyde
This is why I stay subscribed.
Hi J,
Glad you enjoyed it! If you are interested in learning more head over to http://chrisloves.com/fba and sign up!
Brian Leyde
Enjoyed this episode. I know next to nothing about this business but I did read something elsewhere and wondered if it could be addressed here? What about intellectual property rights? Is that something Brian looks into before private labeling a product?
Hi Jon,
IP is definitely an issue when you are building a brand and requires careful consideration. I look at whether the trademark, domain, and social media usernames are available.
Brian Leyde
So… this is referring to ASM (Amazing Selling Machine). I’m sure my comment will now be deleted for letting the cat out of the bag.
This course is super-expensive, I didn’t learn anything in the first 4 weeks that I didn’t already know, and it’s not as easy as they lead you to believe.
“Just private label a product”. When you hit the product sourcing module, that’s where you get stuck because it takes a long time to source a quality product, check it out, and invest in it. Plus, the products that are in the top 100 on Amazon, the majority are unique to design.
Plus, their course leaves out a lot of pitfalls that can screw you. For example, Amazon policies about selling products with certain ingredients. As we discovered, excise taxes on several products that fit the ASM criteria. They tell you to not worry about it though… which, you should.
I think the concept is sound but I am very skeptical about the forum members, their credibility, who is paid staff, who isn’t. The concept is solid, just don’t believe that it’s easy to source QUALITY products that fit the ASM criteria.
Plus, you will be kind of shocked to learn their promotion tactics are not very ethical – have members perform actions to game the Amazon algorithm. Not clever and not ethical.
I’ll leave this one for Brian to reply to. Would be happy to hear his take from someone that knows far more than I.
I don’t delete comments unless the people are specifically hateful for no reason. For example, two years ago after I had a good month I decided to buy a $5,000 well from Charity Water, normally I don’t publicly discuss how I donate money but I thought because it was World Water Day I should write a post.
I had two jerks say crap like “Ah you’re rich and so you just give money away and not your time” etc but they don’t know what I do with my time and I don’t see them donating wells so why say stuff like that? So I deleted their hateful comments.
Hi Jarad,
Thank you for your post and listening to the podcast. It sounds like you gave it a try and ran into challenges sourcing a quality product? Of all the modules in the course I found the sourcing module to be the most arduous. Also, once you pick your supplier, you might not use that supplier for very long. For example, once our sales spiked, I had to go through the process all over again and find another supplier because they could not keep up with the larger orders I was trying to send their way. The skills I learned from this module I now apply to each product that is launched. So I look at this course as building a set of skills you can apply to any product you decide to sell.
That’s awesome you already knew all of the material in modules 1 through 4. This should give you a huge head start.
As for price, I fully agree this course is not cheap. I paid the same price as a quarter of college tuition as I paid for the course. My opinion is the course is worth way more than the price. Just my opinion and my experience, but I truly feel the only way this business does not work is if a student stops working at it.
You are correct, the course does not include everything under the sun. There are many things I learn almost daily that are not inside the course. I use the forum and the relationships I have developed with other students to learn those additional items. One individual in particular I called up recently to ask how he is dealing with the logistics of sending products to Amazon from China. In a 30 minute call he was able to save me thousands of dollars and who knows how many hours of time because he walked me through exactly which freight forwarding company he uses and why and how to instruct your supplier to package the products so Amazon receives them properly.
Also, don’t necessarily limit your search to only the top 100. There are a ton of products outside the top 100 making great money.
Amazon is a large marketplace but it is not the only marketplace. Use it as a launch pad into other channels such as your own ecommerce store or into brick and mortar distribution. There was a gentleman at the live event who went around to local shops in his area and started selling to those local shops. Then he found a small chain of stores that wanted his product. Pretty soon he was selling his product in several hundred stores.
I certainly do not want to leave an impression this business is easy in any way. It has a steep learning curve. I had to get out of my own way and find people to do things for me that I was not good at such as producing quality images for the listing. Along those lines, have you thought about using a company that does product sourcing to help you find a supplier? One that comes to mind is Planet Amazing. I have not used them personally and am not affiliated with them.
I basically decided that I wanted to develop a business online in order to spend more time with my family and it was so important to us, that I did not let any obstacle knock us off that course.
My personal experience with the other members in the forum have been very helpful and I consider quite a few of them to be good friends. I went through the course in a mastermind group and I attribute a lot of our success to those people in that group.
As for promotion tactics, the creators of the course are constantly testing new ideas and releasing new tools. If you don’t want to use a particular tool because you feel it won’t work or is not ethical, then don’t use it. No one is saying the use of a tool is required to participate in this business. I don’t use all of the tools myself yet mostly because I got so busy with keeping up with the inventory demands and customer service.
Anyway that’s my story. Everybody will have a different experience with this business and I hope you will push through any obstacle that comes your way and launch some products!
Brian Leyde
Thanks Chris…I love the ending…and true….stop thinking/listening…start doing.
Thanks Andrew
Some people will like this business model and others won’t, but ultimately pick something and start doing it. That’s what it’s all about.
Nice interview….Brian sounds like a real down to earth gentleman..The course it sounds like he’s talking about is Amazon Selling Machine…the launch month Brian mentions was when I was contacted about the course….anyway it was a excellent interview…
Hi Will,
Thank you for listening to the podcast. The course re-launches in a couple of weeks. Go to http://chrisloves.com/fba to sign up to be notified.
Brian Leyde
Is the course that Brian took called Amazing Selling Machine? I am wondering if this whole interview is sort of a pre launch for the course.
Chris if this is for ASM, I thought you were against the “guru” high priced launches.
Hey Shaun, yes this is related to ASM but I can tell from the tone of your comment that you probably associate high price with guru (in a negative way). Just because something is high priced doesn’t mean it’s “guru” and in turn bad or scam or crap or whatever. Sure there are examples of this in the market but it doesn’t then mean that everything that is higher priced is bad. I spent $5,000 to attend a conference several years ago and through the connections I made at that event I was able to do my first six figure website sale. In total I’ve spent well into the 5 figures on information, software etc to help improve my business.
Also, again you seem to associate pre launch with something bad. When I released EasyAzon 3 in November I sent a few pre launch emails out to show people how the software works and why it’s valuable to potential users. Then I again sent an email letting people know that it was available for sale. That’s a form of pre launching (but again I don’t see how that is bad).
The ASM creators are making money with this business model (and it’s been out long enough now that students like Brian are having results), but obviously they can also make money teaching people what they do and why shouldn’t they? I’d do the same thing if I was making over million a year with a business that others can replicate.
I’d love to hear what you think in response but even if you ultimately think that you’d never buy something high priced that’s cool too. Take what you learned from Brian and go out and try and do it yourself.
Chris,
I wasn’t trying to insinuate that launches are bad. Apple does product launches.
Am i skeptical of ASM. Yes, but I think most people would be. If Brian is really doing 250k in sales and netting 100k in profit then he must have a credit line of at least 50k to source and ship his products to amazon, which I doubt someone in business for less than a year can obtain.
So in short his story is amazing but you have to admit it sounds too good to be true. And at the end of the day why would any share this information with anyone? Who needs more competition? I sell on Amazon and the last thing I would want is more sellers to compete against. Despite what people say the pool isn’t that big.
Hey Shaun,
Obviously Brian is an example of someone that took massive action and has done really well (which is precisely why I wanted him to come on this podcast and why he’d be able to provide a lot of value). I think the philosophy of “Who needs more competition?” is a little short sighted. I have a bunch of fellow entrepreneurs that I stay in pretty regular contact with (despite being in similar industries – and in some cases the same). The internet is a big place and so is Amazon…
In any case, I’ve found the more that I give the more I tend to receive and this especially applies to business and developing relationships with others (regardless of industry).
But if you’re already selling on Amazon wouldn’t it make sense to connect with others doing the same thing? The idea that you’d want to avoid others doing similar work as you is confusing. I mean not wanting to buy a higher end product is one thing but I personally love making connections with other entrepreneurs.
Chris,
The mechanics of Amazon isn’t difficult. I know there are super lazy people who give up on Amazon as soon as they learn they need a upc for their product. Even though getting a upc is as easy buying a book on Amazon.
The only hard part about selling on Amazon is sourcing your products. And that is the only thing I think is worth any money.
I understand the value of working with like minded people but I bet Brian would never divulge his suppliers or even any of his Amazon product pages.
Finally lets admit what internet courses are really all about. Short cuts. Can I achieve something faster with less mistakes and headaches If I purchase this product. So in my opinion the only thing that would be worth any money is exactly where he sources his products from. Now Brian could say he sourced his products from Alibaba or Thomas Register but that isn’t worth a lot of money.
Hi Shaun,
Just wanted to answer your question about a credit line. We actually grew to $400K/month in sales without any outside financing or funding from our personal funds other than the initial inventory purchase of 100 units. There have been multiple times in the past year when we were close to running out of inventory because our sales would spike up on us unexpectedly.
I can echo what Chris said about networking. In another comment I spoke about how I called up another member of our group and asked him about the logistics of shipping from China to Amazon FBA and in about 30 minutes he saved me thousands of dollars and hours of time because he was willing to share what is working well for him.
You can “lone wolf” this business, however, my experience has been very rewarding to work with a group of people. Imagine the marketing tactics you could come up with when there are close to 3,000 people all thinking and sharing new ideas, testing theories, and implementing them in their businesses. I now have connections to people scaling their businesses to $50M+/year in sales!
Your question about why would anyone share this is a question I wondered when I went through the course 1 year ago. These guys were and still are making millions, why would they bring other people into this? I don’t know exactly why they shared it, but for me I absolutely love it when I can help people succeed with this business. Also, in this mastermind, there will be people from different backgrounds and I will get to learn a lot by working with them. Joint venture opportunities and partnerships can form in these groups that you never thought possible.
Another idea to think about is the more sellers in your market means there are more sellers running PPC campaigns, writing blogs, issuing press releases, which all can all increase the size of the market and drive awareness of your product to the general public. I like to enter big markets with lots of competition because I know when I get to the top of the page rankings, there will be massive sales there! It is more work to get to the top but can be done. You can also go into smaller markets and dominate those as well. Just personal preference.
Let us know if you have further questions.
Brian Leyde
Question. If a experienced expert was willing to provide you with the start up few and be a advisor. Would you say giving them equity would be fair.
Hi Chris & Brian,
Glad I got your email about this podcast. I’m in exactly the same situation as Brian. A CPA tired of tax seasons and midnight oil sweating over everyone else’s accounting work. I’ve been looking to get into Amazon FBA and just waiting to get to where I have time to do it.
If Brian could give any tips… What is your process for selecting products ?
This has been an inspiration.
Hi Jay,
Thank you for listening to the podcast. It’s time to take action as soon as possible.
You’re looking for products that are lightweight, easy to manufacture, retail price is $20 – $40, selling well on Amazon, the number of reviews of the top product is not out of reach (meaning if you’re going up against the top 10 brands of that product and they all have 3000 reviews on each one, it will be challenging to compete with them), and there are not a lot of big brand names in the niche.
These are the factors I use to find product opportunities.
Brian Leyde
Little confused. So you are finding a popular product on amazon and working with a manufacture company to make a similar product that doesn’t conflict with a patent?? Could you expand on the private labeling?
Thanks and Great podcast
Hello Mike,
Thank you for your question and for listening to the podcast. You are correct. The model is to find an item that is selling well, find a manufacturer to put your brand on that item, and sell it. You bring up a good point and you do have to do your homework on whether or not you are infringing on any intellectual property rights. It is amazing to learn how many brands started as private label initially and then turn into giant companies. For example read up on the brand Method http://methodhome.com/
To learn more about the course and mastermind that will coincide with it go to: http://chrisloves.com/fba
Brian Leyde
Brian,
Thanks for responding. Quite honesty, with your career as a CPA I don’t see how you have the time to do Amazon. Also, you said you only spend a couple of hours. Wow! What is your recommendation for taking the course that you took?
Ken
Hi Ken,
Thank you for your comment, yes it has been a business that has been squished in from 9pm to 11pm every night and lunch breaks during the day when I have to talk with a supplier.
I highly recommend you go through the course. It is launching again in a couple of weeks and we’re putting together a mastermind group to coincide with the course.
Head on over to http://chrisloves.com/fba to be notified in a couple of weeks.
Brian Leyde
Hi Brian! Congrats on your success 🙂 For those that are already in ASM, would we be able to join your mastermind for a reasonable monthly or one time fee, rather than have to pay for a relaunch? Thanks Brian!
Would have to discuss that with Brian. Just stay tuned to the blog and other emails from me when the course opens later.
Hi David,
I’m sure we can figure this out.
Brian Leyde
Brian,
Great stuff! I’ve actually wanted to suggest just manually adding an affiliate program on top of amazon. Use Amazon’s affiliate program to keep track of affiliates, but then just add more commission on top. You can reach out to big name online marketers in your specific niches and they will be more enticed to promote your stuff when the commission is greater than 6-8%.
Never done this myself, but have found some people in the business doing similar white label products like yourself doing this.
Best,
Brian
Hi Brian,
Thank you for the insight. Starting an affiliate program has been on my to do list!
Brian Leyde
Brian and Chris –
Like David, I am a member of ASM. And I heard the phone call Brian did with Matt and Jason – and now this one. I too would like to potentially be part of some new MasterMind Group that is being formed – but of course, I would not be willing to re-join ASM just for that. Obviously too expensive. You are missing the boat if you don’t create a form of membership where existing ASM members could be mentored by Brian and his partner. There is great value here that many in ASM would be willing to pay a modest amount to acquire. Think about it.
Hey John, I’ll discuss with Brian and be sure to let you know. I’m sure we can figure something out like that.
In the same boat as John. Have done ASM already, would like to be part of this mastermind. Prepared to pay for that, not for ASM though. Hope you can work something out. Please email me.
Check your inbox
” And I heard the phone call Brian did with Matt and Jason . . .”
Is there a link to this phone call? The information provided here has been great, but I’d love to learn more, possibly join ASM. Thanks.
Hey Ray, I’ll ask Brian if he has a copy of this phone call saved.
EDIT: It was a private call only for ASM subscribers. I’ll send you an email though in case you want to talk to Brian I’ll just connect you two direct.
Thanks Chris – great info and since you’re a software genius – I thought you may find this package of interest – http://zonspy.com/demo/ – I have not tried it but would like to hear your views.
Hey Bob, funny you should mention them I’m supposed to have a call with the owner on Skype sometime soon. Will report back soon.
Thanks Chris – I really look forward to your feedback on that phone call. One has to wonder if real success is determined by having selected the right (best) product – or by – having the skills to market well and drive traffic to your site, get good conversion rates, etc. I hope your feedback can shine a light on that type of info.
Hi Chris & Brian,
I have one question for Brian… and would like to have him give a kind of overview…
What is your product selection criteria / how do you filter products to get to what is a good product to sell ?
For instance… for the top 100 in a given category, how many levels deep are you going for that initial top 100. You get a new “top 100” for each level you drill down through subcategories.
Thanks in advance for your response.
Jay
Hello Jay,
Great question on product selection.
Sometimes I end up searching through the top 100 in a larger category and find a great product to sell and other times I do end up drilling down a little deeper into the top 100 of a sub category. It basically depends. There are great products will amazing sales volume outside of the top 100, so definitely don’t limit yourself to just the top 100 in the broad category.
Brian Leyde
Hi Brian!
Great interview! I have been selling on Amazon for a few months (FBA). Like you, I started with 100 units and now I am selling over 1000 / month and started introducing new products as well, which are starting to pick up too. Here is my dilemma: I find that at this point all the money I get back (and I even need to add more), I need to reinvest in getting more and more inventory. How do you suggest handling this to make sure you end up making money at some point? Is there a break point where you actually start turning profit you can take out? I’m very interested in the mastermind for sure! Thank for your help in advance! Kat
Hi Kat,
When you go into a rapid growth phase basically all you can do is try to keep up with the inventory demands until sales level out. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened in the past year. There are a couple of places you can look to provide some cash flow relief. One place is your supplier. Now that you’re ordering larger quantities, talk to them about terms such as net 30. This way you can order your product, sell it, and then pay for the inventory instead of having to front the cost of the inventory. A second place to look is a credit line. Most traditional banks will shun these types of businesses unless you have at least 2 years of experience. Have you seen Kabbage or Upstart? There are other sources of funds out there outside of regular banks. You might also look at taking on a partner who has the money but not the desire to work in the business on a day to day basis.
Hope this gets some ideas going.
Best,
Brian Leyde
A friend of mine has ASM and I went over it and thought it was absolutely excellent. I however had no money to get product but after doing some research found a company that allows you to purchase very few unites to start and they work with people starting on Amazon.
Hi JaMina,
I’m really glad you took the time to do some research and find some suppliers with really low minimums. There are a lot of them out there when you start digging. And even if a supplier says their minimum order quantity is 1000 units, most of the time if you tell them you want to start with a sample order, they will work with you.
Glad you’re taking action!
Best regards,
Brian Leyde
A great insight into a little known opportunity for making money online. Unusual for someone with Brian’s success to be so open about his work and earnings, and this was very much appreciated. I feel inspired to continue to find great ways to make money online.
Hi Mathew,
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it. Keep pursuing ways to make money online. Pick one of them and focus in on it and let nothing stand in your way.
Best regards,
Brian Leyde
Why did this whole thing sound like a big advertisement for this “new” mastermind?
Making up some story that sounds perfect for the part timer, throwing up some bs screenshots, and posting that “mastermind” link 100 times?
If this is some kind of stunt in order to sell mastermind spots and his “amazon business” is just a fable, I say shame on you guys.
This will probably be deleted which will be more evidence of this sham.
If it sounds too good to be true people…
Hey Jeff, as I mentioned earlier I don’t delete comments except in very rare instances where someone is hate filled without reason etc.
I understand your hesitance, but from the tone of your comment it’s almost as if you wish it weren’t true. That someone could go out and build this type of business in less than a year, but if you take a step back and look at this even under a skeptical eye it’s easy to see this is certainly plausible:
Amazon revenues are billions of dollars
Amazon has tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands of seller – Brian do you know numbers?) that help contribute to their overall billions
Someone has to be selling all of these products right?
Also the idea that the screenshots are bs again is something that a skeptic would say (not that there is anything wrong with that) I’m skeptical as well of most things I read or hear about online. In April Brian and I will host a no sales pitch just ask him your questions about his business and I’m sure he can probably log into his amazon seller account live (or at the very least film a video).
I went from a $60k a year sales job to multiple six figures in less than 5 years and I keep in regular contact with other entrepreneurs that have done much better than me in even less time (rather than being jealous I try to speak with these individuals regularly to see how they can help me and in turn I offer what I can to help them as well). The beauty of the internet and any internet based business model is that you don’t have to adhere to any of the typical ideas of money / wealth creation.
e.g. “I had a great year at my company so I’m looking forward to my 10% raise” screw that. When you own your own business and can build something that scales you can give yourself a much higher raise than that.
In my first full year of self employment (2010) I earned over $150,000 after getting fired from my $60k a year job. I don’t have to ask my boss for a raise, I just ask myself how hard I want to work and what areas of my business can I scale as quickly as possible?
Your comment gives me a great idea for a blog post though and I’ll elaborate on this topic in more detail there.
Skeptical? Come on man…are you gonna play the “I get where you’re coming from” game here? Really man?
Do I have to go into details?
His specific products, his sales, all the marketing and seo and press releases he’s done? Come on guys.
Doing 5 min research online and this whole advertorial/pre launch marketing you’re doing is exposed.
I like the part about “baby wipes”…trying to get people thinking about the wrong niche.
We all know what our boy Brian is selling, and he ain’t doing 6 figures monthly sales.
Those affiliate commissions on the ASM program are just too juicy to pass up.
Eventually you’ll block my posts, which is why I’m screenshotting them being submitted/pending just in case I need to post them elsewhere.
Don’t you have a set of new twins?
I suggest now is a good time to stop taking advantage of people and set a good example for your little ones. Trust me man, what goes around comes around.
Just be honest with people…tell them how Brian gave it an honest shot, couldn’t quite cut it with amazon FBA so he’s becoming an ASM affiliate or maybe even launching his own course using some of the things he learned to teach others.
Nothing wrong with that…perhaps fewer people will sign up but at least you would be going the honest and moral route.
It’s sad to see you taking advantage of people.
And for the readers/listeners…please use common sense.
God bless.
Hey Jeff,
I’m not going to block your posts, the “Brian gave it an honest shot but couldn’t quite cut it” isn’t accurate from what Brian has shown me (and what I’ve said before). I’ll ask Brian to do a video of his earnings (but again you’ll just say something like oh these earnings are doctored or from another person or yada yada yada).
In any case I’ll let Brian chime in when he sees these comments.
Chris
“Brian gave it an honest shot, couldn�t quite cut it with amazon FBA”
You seem to have knowledge of Brian’s business that hasn’t been released here. Are you going to post proof so as to save us little guys from being the prey of info product gurus?
J, I’m going to give Brian and Chris a chance to set the records straight.
Just to be very clear, I have ZERO issue with selling courses or “systems”. What I take offense to is trying to trick people with bull shit claims and blatant lies.
Come on guys, we all have to do our part if we want this country and world to be a better place.
Ripping off or tricking fellow citizens to make a quick buck is not the way. This crap has to end.
Once again, I’ll give them an opportunity to step up and do the right thing before providing firm evidence and additional details.
Hey Jeff, will post an update soon.
Jeff,
FWIW, I despise the guru space in IM and the courses that are put out. 99% of them are absolute crap. And the vast majority of the “gurus” in this space only make their real money in the IM space, selling marketing courses to other marketers. I say this from a position of experience. I’ve been running non-IM products and ecommerce stores for over 6 years. I think my mid-high 5 figure net monthly might qualify me to report that. But who knows. Maybe I am indeed just a little guy still.
But I digress…
Seems to me the onus is on you at this point to take the first step. For one, you’re wasting your energy attempting to mold Chris and/or Brian’s behavior (ie: admit it was all a gigantic scam), which is as I’m quite sure you’re aware, not going to happen. But more importantly, you’re the one making a positive claim, and in so doing shifted the burden of proof to yourself, not Christ/Brian.
They made claims. You call BS. Chris is presumably going to at some point post proof in the form of another screenshot or video, both of which can be faked quite easily. And in the end, the onus will have still been on you the entire time to prove their claims invalid.
Seems to me you could skip the bullshit, time-wasting back and forth, and just post up this evidence you have and call it a day.
Or you can not do so, leaving everyone in these comments, and anyone viewing these comments to have no choice but to assume the only one bullshitting is you.
Jeff, I believe I now know what you know.
However, I’m not so sure you’re interpreting it correctly. Hit me up before posting the “evidence”: bauerst84 at gmail
I’ve done my homework after Jeff piqued my interest. The guy’s legit. He has several products. A couple are top 1000 which pull a nice income alone, but he has one top 100 from what I see which I’d guess is pulling 75%+ of revenues right now. It’s a hot product in a perpetually hot market. An entirely too high percentage of the reviews on that one look to have come from either paid or bartered sources (such as in the membership section of ASM, where a friend of mine does the same), but screw it, not gonna hate the hustle. Hell, even his baby wipes are appear to be doing well.
My guess, is Jeff doesn’t have experience with Amazon. He sees a best seller ranking of 3500 and assumes it makes no money. Which works to the advantage of everyone in the space of course. Less competition ftw
disclaimer: I hate gurus, I do not buy IM info products, and I’m sure as shit not an affiliate for one.
Gotta reply to this. Comment is this Jack Bauer from years past coming out to reply here? lol if this is you’ll have a laugh if not you’ll wonder what I’m talking about.
Not me, but I can see why you might think so. What can I say, I like the guy’s style lol. Plus, Jack Bauer > *
Years ago a fellow used to come to my blog and give me a hard time on occasion and he always put his user name as Jack Bauer and with the J and your email I thought it was you. Nevermind then hah.
Hey Jeff Gregson –
Without any actual personal knowledge or experience about ASM, don’t you think you are being pretty harsh and negative? Do you know anyone personally who is a Member of ASM and thinks they got scammed?
I am a Member of ASM – and while not in Brian and Adam’s league yet (they started well before I did), I am making progress and learning. I have personally met and become friends with a number of people who are doing exceptionally well with ASM. If you knew the people, heard the stories, saw the proof AND considered how many of them there are, you would know they are not “shills”. They are quite ordinary people who got lucky in hearing about something that works very well (IF you are willing to work) – and they just did what they were taught to do. You couldn’t pull a scam this big on the Internet today and not be “outed” even if you tried.
If you want, be skeptical – but not disrespectful. Listen to ALL of what Brian and Chris present, and then if you want to disagree – and/or if you have some real evidence (not just opinion) that this is not what they say, THEN take your best shot.
john
Hi Chris and Brian,
Great podcast! I’ve been selling private label products (along with wholesale, arbitrage etc) for several years- long before ASM was released. I remember when ASM first came out and there was a HUGE push back on the warrior forum and elsewhere saying it was a “scam” or “if this REALLY worked, why would they share?” etc. I had to laugh because I know this model works and it works well. I personally make around $200,000 a year, but I focus on small sub niches. If you can rank for the top products, it would not be difficult to make the kind of income Brian is making. This leads me to my questions for Brian:
1. I was intrigued that you use outside advertising (google adwords.) I’ve never used any outside advertisement (and just started using Amazon’s own PPC program and it’s increased my sales tremendously!) I’d love to hear more about how you set yourself apart from the competition (adwords competitors) to get views to your products if you’d be willing to share!
2. I’m not a member of ASM as I’ve already been doing this business model for a while. However, I’m always looking to network with other successful people. Is your mastermind group open to non-members?
Thanks again for sharing this information!
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for chiming in. With regards to your point #2 I spoke with Brian yesterday and he said that we’d make the group available to other people non ASM members. It would be a paid group of course but we’ll have more on that coming up here in April.
Chris
Thanks Chris! I’ll take a look at it! Is Brian still “on the line” here, or should I search him out on Facebook for my PPC question. Thanks again for putting together the podcast!
Hey Daniel, he is still looking I believe but I’ll ping him again to stop by. We’re actually going to do a webinar on Thursday where you can ask questions about his business model etc. We won’t be selling anything on the webinar it’s just a Q&A session.
Sign up link here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/457802142 (this time may change)
When I started with google adwords I just tested keywords and bidding strategies with $20/day just to get a feel for it. I broke even for the first 4 weeks and my page ranking increased along the way. So I kicked it up to $50/day and then $100/day. About 8 weeks into it, I shut off the google adwords and then I was high enough in the Amazon organic search rankings that I did not need to continue to spend $ on adwords. This is how I kicked off my first listing.
Hi Brian
My question is regarding your account. How many amazon accounts can you have? Do you make a new account for each product? Or how does that work?
It would be appreciated if this could be answered @brian or @chris
Let me rephrase my question to make it clearer.
How many amazon accounts can a person have? Lets say I have 10 brands, do I make 10 separate accounts linked to one main account or what?
Hi Zack,
I know you didn’t ask me, but I hope you don’t mind if I answer since I’ve also been selling this way on Amazon for a while. Amazon does not allow multiple accounts except in certain circumstances. I have 2 different accounts, but only after being approved by Amazon. Each brand will be under the same account. In my case, my “store name” is generic so it can house several “brand names.” I hope this makes sense- it would be like “Walmart” (store name) selling “Sony, Nike, Keurig (brand names), etc. Hope this helps!
I concur with Daniel, get it approved from Amazon first.
@Brian
How much does the course cost?
Do you sell under one Amazon seller account or have one for all the different niches that you are in? For example, if you are selling baby wipes and electronic accessories I would imagine that the branding on one of the niches would have a negative impact on the branding on the other.
When diversifying, what other websites do you sell on? Are they websites like Amazon i.e you have the stock shipped to them and then they do the rest? (in terms of shipping and packaging)
Hey Doug, I’ll let Brian answer the other questions but regarding the course price. It’s not cheap by any means. It’s a few thousand dollars. So it’s very much priced in a manner of “Be serious about this or don’t buy it” we’ll have more on that later in April though.
If you want to ask even more questions Brian and I will be hosting a webinar on Thursday at two different times in the day:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/457802142 (these times may change)
We won’t be selling anything, Brian will just talk a little more about his business and people can ask him any questions they have.
A few thousand is a bit on the steep side for me unfortunately so I have joined the webinar group.
Will the link work for both webinars? Say I enter the 11 am will the link still work for the 4 pm one? My internet is not very good at the moment and I would hate to run into problems since there will not be a recording of it.
Hi Doug,
Start one account and then ask Amazon about a second account and give them the business purpose for the other account. As for diversifying, your own ecommerce store, Ebay, Opensky, Rakuten, Nextag, are the few off the top of my head. Not sure if they have fulfillment services, so you could have Amazon FBA do fulfillment or another fulfillment center.
Best regards,
Brian Leyde
Video revenue proof update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUlC042uBtA
After some comments were left here on this episode about the stats being fake I asked Brian to record a video of his stats which I’ve posted the direct link to above as well as updated the blog post. That should settle it.
I’ve been blogging publicly for several years and I’ve had the lovely opportunity to read all kinds of hateful comments from the most wonderful of people.
Fortunately I’ve developed a thick skin over the years.
Notice how Jeff hasn’t come back. I guarantee he was seeing a seller rank of 1k, 2k, 3k, etc and assuming he wasn’t making money. I also guarantee he didn’t find Brian’s products that’s pulling in that revenue in the first account. If he had, he would have never gone on about that nonsense. Embarassing…
Yah, oh well. I don’t think that’s even his name because in addition to his blog comments he threatened me via email and when I tried to reply his name came up as something else. So he didn’t even use a fake email to go along with his fake name it appears /facepalm
I need to switch to Disqus ASAP where at least it’s a little less easy to be anonymous and post crap like that
Thanks for the podcast, and the webinar today, guys!
If you are still answering questions here, I have a couple quick ones for Brian that you didn’t get to during the webinar:
-How many products have you brought to market so far, Brian?
-And, aside from the upcoming course which I am considering joining, can you recommend any other resources to help with the specific topic of private labeling? Blogs, books, etc.
P.S., I’m from Seattle and I love the San Juans!
Thanks again!
Hey Joe,
So far 6 products and launching 4 more soon. Pretty much all of the resources I use are part of the course so I don’t have any other references at the moment. Look me up if you are on Lopez Island.
Best,
Brian Leyde
Chris,
Was the webinar recorded? Very much interested in what Brian is doing but I couldnt make either of the sessions.
Hey Zak, no worry we didn’t record it. I’ve found that only a small percentage of people actually watch the replays and doing a live only event gets better engagement. We’ll do another one later this month though.
[…] Chris Guthrie – Profits Over $100,000 Selling on Amazon […]
I may have missed this, but when you are creating a brand name would you have to go through a copyright or patent process for that brand name and if so, what would be the process.
Also generally how would you go about creating a name for the brand.
I can answer this one, Julian.
You patent an invention, copyright a book, and trademark a logo/brand. None of this is required, but is probably a good idea if you want to legally protect your stuff. You should definitely check to see if the brand name you want is already in use by someone else. You can do that at http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/search/
You can file trademarks yourself through websites like legalzoom.com, or there are law firms that will do it for you. Some services are pretty reasonably priced. Search for “intellectual property lawfirm start up” or something like that and you will find some to help you.
As for creating a name for the brand… that’s up to you… it’s more of an art than a science, and there are many books written on the topic.
Hello Julian,
Thank you for your question. When creating a new brand I brainstorm a bunch of them, then bounce them off of friends or family and get their opinion. After I figured out a few possible brand names I look to see if the domain is available, social media usernames, and then see if the trademark is available. If all 3 of those come back available then I proceed with the new brand.
Brian Leyde
Great info and thank you for sharing! Very inspiring! I have a few questions.
1. When is the next webinar? I missed the previous ones.
2. Where do you find freight forwarders?
3. Do you have to trademark the brand name?
4. I am not sure I understand why you’ll need more than 1 amazon account to sell your brand? Can someone please explain?
Thanks again!
Hi Just,
Watch your email from Chris and he will notify you of the next webinar. I like shipit.com for shipping. I do have a trademark. You only need one account to sell your product. My partner has one and I have one.
Brian
Thank you Brian for the reply. Appreciate you sharing all the info! I wish you even greater success with this business!
Great podcast and information!
I have a few questions about how you are ranking for keywords…
1. When giving away free product in hopes for a review, I am assuming you use a certain link that makes it look like the person went to amazon and typed in a specific keyword and then clicked on your listing. How do you create that link?
2. Would it better to give gift cards to friends and family to purchase your product or will a promo code hold the same weight?
3. When giving free product away, would it be better to have all of those people(lets say 50 people/sales) use your promo code on the same day, or would it be better to have 10 people buy per day for 5 days straight?
Thanks for your input in advance!
Hi Pat,
The link you are referring to is actually something we’ve been tinkering with. For now have them search the keyword you are trying to rank for and buy. I like full purchases myself vs. promo codes. I believe it is better to spread them out.
Brian
Chris – I assume you bought the course and are working this business model now that you’ve seen what Brian is doing?
Brian – thanks for sharing. For those of us (probably even including you too) that have been burned by courses promising the moon before – what about someone just doing what you’ve instructed here? I’m assuming the course does not divulge suppliers – which appears to me to be the real genie in the bottle here. Lastly – if you are netting $100k/month – it boggles my mind why you would still be doing your CPA work unless you feel it is a very shaky business model and could vanish over-night. Thanks to both of you.
I’m going to be learning from Brian once it ramps up again yes
RE Why Brian is still doing his CPA work – he owns the firm. So it’s not as easy to transition out by just quitting and besides it makes sense to just sell that business after the tax time anyway.
I’ll let him answer the rest though
Product sourcing is only daunting until you actually do it. Easiest shit ever. I exclusively use alibaba.com, but they tell you what you need to know in the promo videos which is basically just google for manufacturers of X product.
Hi Kent,
You can definitely start this business model without a course. Since I was new to the internet marketing world I wanted to go through some training first. My CPA firm is up for sale and I will be doing this business on a full time basis this year! We have scratched the surface of what is possible, so I am thrilled to be moving into this full time. Through the ASM group I have connected with people doing multiple millions per month so I know we’re just getting started.
I hope you will take action with this business model very soon either through the course or just by diving in!
Brian
You go Brian! Congratulations on all of your success!
Hi Tashia,
Thank you for your comment. If you’re not taking action already, get going with this business model!
Brian
Sorry I don’t buy any of this. Why would someone making 100k a month be so interested in getting students to compete against him in amazon ? Because he probably makes 2k on his best month. Don’t trust anyone that sells products as their motive , which his obviously is . Plus the course has bad reviews. John
Who says they would be competing against him? Obviously he’s not going to divulge the exact products he’s selling and again obviously Amazon sells a lot of products. The idea that he’s not making $100k+ a month and that he’s only making $2k a month was already debunked when he posted a video of his earnings after the first batch of skeptics (which have since vanished) demanded more proof.
You have to remember that with scalable internet businesses there are no rules about how fast you can or can’t grow. It’s not like working at a day job where you gotta go in and convince a boss for a 5% raise.
“Why would someone making 100k a month be so interested in getting students to compete against him in amazon”
I don’t think you have any idea just how huge the Amazon marketplace is.
“Because he probably makes 2k on his best month.”
As someone who a) doesn’t purchase info products, and b) despises gurus and the shit 99% of them put out, I can tell you you’re 100% wrong. He’s not great about covering his tracks. I’ve found multiple products of his (don’t bother contacting me about which ones. I’m keeping that info for my benefit ;)). Two of which are top 100 in a very competitive and huge-volume niche last i checked and accounts for likely 90% of his income. But you’ll probably just assume I’m a shill, so whatever.
“Plus the course has bad reviews.”
And it has good reviews as well. Like every other course, book, movie, tv show, software tool, website, business, whatever does. The only people who generally post reviews on anything are those who either absolutely hate the product/service in question or those who absolutely love it. The average case does not post reviews.
I need some help with the labels and codes.
I understand that Amazon give you a label that has to be put on the box when shipping and then they scan it once it reaches their fulfilment centre.
I also need a UPC code. I believe that this is a code for the product itself (to identify the product). Is a UPC for the USA only? Would I need an EAN barcode for selling in Europe e.g. Spain?
Is the UPC/EAN number + Amazon shipping label all I need? As I believe that Amazon keep track of their stock using SKU (stock keeping number)
Also, should the UPC be part of the packaging itself? Or a label on the packaging?
Hi Doug,
Amazon will create an FBA specific barcode for you to put on your product or Amazon will label it for you for a fee. I use http://cheap-upc-barcode.com/ I haven’t looked into the EAN codes yet, but expansion outside the US is in the cards for the future.
Brian
Just came across this podcast. Excellent.
I too am already a member of ASM – but I would be interested
in joining Brians mastermind group if possible. ( hopefully not too expensive).
What is the best way to stay in touch with Brian/Chris ??
Regards,
Fred B.
Regards,
Hey Fred, replied to your earlier email thanks
Hello,
I had another question for Brian. At the volume you are doing now – I would imagine that you have your products shipped directly from the private label source
directly to Amazon warehouse ( not directly to you, where you would repackage
then ship to Amazon ) – is that correct ?
#2 If that is the case, how do handle quality control ? If you product is shipped
directly to Amazon, how do you ensure quality control ? How do handle that ?
I love the idea of having that much volume, and then on top of that, not touching
or seeing the product. That allows you to scale. But, on the other hand you have to make sure the private label source is doing their job: in terms of maintaining quality and packaging. Could you discuss this a little ? What is working / not working ?
Thank you. Regards,
Fred B.
Hi Fred,
Yes, the inventory goes directly from the supplier to Amazon FBA. I like to get a sample every so often from the domestic suppliers and then on the overseas suppliers I recommend using someone on the ground to inspect quality. It is something you will need to monitor because if you have a quality issue it can have a negative impact on your business in the form of poor product reviews, customer refunds. Finding suppliers you can trust is a critical part of this business. Visiting your suppliers is a good thing when cash flow can allow this. I have found some suppliers excel in certain areas and are not so good at other areas. For example, one supplier might be really high quality but their lead time is really long. Also, consider having multiple suppliers just in case one has a delay in production or they have financial hardship themselves, it’s good to have backups so your cash flow is not interrupted.
Brian
Brian,
You mentioned in one of your comments that you need a good freight forwarder. I thought that if you order from a manufacturer in China you could have them ship to a FBA site in China and have them fill the oder from there and avoid import hassles. Is that not how it works?
Hi Matt,
We have the freight company pick up our shipment in China from our manufacturer and ship it to their warehouse in LA. Then we use Amazon’s deeply discounted UPS shipping to pick up the shipment from the LA warehouse and transport to Amazon’s FBA warehouses. The freight company handles the importing/customs issues for us.
Best regards,
Brian Leyde
Are supplier willing to work with Amazon strict shipping requirements. Who handles the labeling requirement? Is it the manufacturer or Freight company?
Everything I share in this comment I’ve been learning from the ASM course (and largely our mastermind group)
Basically you shouldn’t really ever have your supplier in China ship direct to FBA warehouses in the US. It’s just a pain when dealing with customs etc. I’m using a company that one of our other mastermind members recommended and they’re going to coordinate with their office in China to pick up the items and ship them to the states. Then they’ll send them onto FBA warehouses.
Honestly there is a lot to this business model. I can see why people just buy the course (even if it’s not this one). Sure you can learn it yourself but you’re left asking questions like this on a blog post hoping for an answer.
Brian,
Thanks for the response. That explains a lot but I do have a few additional questions. I thought that FBA was building warehouses all over the world so I figured they would have at least one in China so that you could ship from the mfr in China to an FBA warehouse in China then have Amazon ship to the customer from there. Obviously from your response that’s not how it works but I wanted to make sure that was the case. Also, is it that your freight forwarder happened to have a warehouse in the US or is that part of the conditions of FBA to have your merchandise warehoused in the US?
I read somewhere that Amazon has an Adwords type feature. Would you recommend using that or stick with Google.
Do you have a recommendation on how many views your top KW should get as evidence that it is a viable product to sell. Along the same lines do you have a recommendation, when looking for a product, on the ration between the mfr cost and the retail cost. I heard you mentioned one of your products cost $5 and sold for $35 – those must be hard to find.
Matt
[…] One of the best pieces of information I’ve seen on reselling items came in the form of a podcast from Chris Guthrie. I’d highly recommend you listen to this if you’re just getting started. How Brian Leyde Profits over $100,000+ a Month Selling Physical Items on Amazon […]
Hey Chris and Brian, any updates?
What update are you referring to? Brian’s still killing it and I’m working on my first product. I estimate I should be able to do several thousand per month on the first one – boo yah.
That’s awesome man. I’m curious to follow your progress more. Are you going to write any additional posts related to this like lessons learned, product selection process, etc.?
Well Brian and I formed a mastermind and in my case I’m sharing the product I’ve chosen with that mastermind group etc. It’s a paid mastermind group though of course because I value my time at greater than $0 per hour heh, but I may do some blog posts. I’m mainly just focused on building the business and helping the people in the group right now though but I may do some blog posts down the line.
Thanks. I’ll check out the interview. The guys selling that volume and margins are all selling diet pills like garcinia cambogia including in ASM. wondered if Brian sells outside that category?
Hey John, we’ve added a few more ASM alumni to our mastermind group including one guy doing $100k per month in sports and outdoors I believe. I haven’t really asked him straight up. Nearly 5 years of talking money out in the open to anyone that passes by my blog has changed my perspective on respecting people’s privacy lol.
I’m personally focused on products from China. Got my sample earlier today actually and placing my first 500 unit order this week.
Product I’m doing I estimate should give me ~$5k in profit per month I think which would be nice for a thing I’m only doing on nights.
Chris,
I started selling private label, but would really like to join yours as well. What would I have to do to start with this group?
It’s a premium group and is primarily based on following ASM and then myself (to a much lesser extent) but primarily Brian, his business partner and then another ASM’er that’s successful. So if you didn’t join ASM (currently closed now) there may be some confusion.
Email me though
Awesome podcast guys!
I’ve used FBA for one product (found an arbitrage opportunity in a warehouse store) but now looking into diving in deeper. I had a product line that I was a dealer for that just didn’t move that well. I sold through Amazon and eBay but low margins and low volume took the motivation out of it. Any suggestions on categories to avoid? And anything to look for in a desirable category or product?
Signed up for the mastermind group.
I haven’t been doing it long enough to know the best categories yet other than to know there are some that sell 10x 20x others. My personal strategy is to focus on the products between bestseller rank 101 and 1000 as opposed to going after the top ones.
The mastermind is closed until later this year if they reopen the ASM course.
Brian,
Do you purchase your products from alibaba? Is that a good place to buy from in bulk? And do they apply your logo or brand onto your products right at the manufacturing plant? I really want to try to begin a business doing this where can I find a course to take to help me? And with little experience with computers can I find someone to help me link my amazon account with a website?
Thanks sooo much,
Paige
Hey Paige,
Sign up for the email list on the blog post here as we’ll let you know when the course Brian learned from (and that I’m learning from) is open again along with our mastermind. Those questions have answers that can be several pages long quite frankly. I’ve learned a ton and I’m sourcing my product from China.
Hi Chris,
I’m bummed to have just stumbled upon this podcast. I’m particularly interested in joining your paid mastermind with a focus on learning the logistics of sourcing private label products in China.
When are you planning the next mastermind?
Thanks
We’re opening it back up in October. I’m publishing a post tomorrow morning actually that covers some more of the details.
Feel free to contact me via email as well.
This is cool. I don’t know why I just received the invitation to this podcast. The interview was done so long ago.
Great podcast, Chris. You do some good work online (I have your EazyAzon plugin for my niche sites). Anyways . . .
When you pick your FBA products to sell, what criteria do you follow? The sales volume and/or weakness in the top 24 search results? If the latter, is there any criteria you follow in seeing if there’s “weakness” there much like, say, forum results are weak in Google search results? I’m asking because I’m trying to figure out a product to sell but have no idea how to prevent it being completely lost among Amazon’s millions of products. Thanks.
Hey Raymond,
I look at bestseller rank to determine if it’s something I can sell. Bestseller rank can help translate to sales volume so I have a rough estimate of units.
Not sure what you mean by weakness? I just combine the training + superior marketing (e.g. what I do in my listing) over what competition is. The main thing I’m using to select products is looking at what sells in my existing niche that I can do, but then I’m using our own software tool we’ve got for group members that will join in October that lets us look up products selling on Amazon that are potential targets.
Chris
This is turning into a great resource as I am starting to add FBA as another income stream. It may very well replace what I’m doing already. Thanks for this great post/podcast Chris.
Happy to help
Great post Chris! Wish I would have read this/heard5 this podcast months ago. Decided to see what you’ve been up to these days so googled up the blog.
I joined the mailing list. I’d be interested in learning more about this for sure. You’re Niche Profit Course helped me a lot years ago with my frugal/coupon blog I had at the time. I was able to sell both of those blogs last September for five figures. Took a break, and starting up in a different niche now.
Hey Lisa, we’re getting ready to open our mastermind again. It will open Oct 16th to Oct 24th and then close down again.
Congrats on the five figure sales though that’s great!
Chris
I have $5,000 to invest and wanted to know is this enough to get started with fba on a serious scale? Also, wanted to know (honestly) if I can make 80 or 100,000 a year profit. I’m debating quitting my $30k a year dead end job….. please help!
Hey Brandon, I started with less than that. You just want to reinvest your profits. I wouldn’t advise ever quitting your job until you have some savings for living expenses and profits that exceed your day job. I estimate my Amazon business will do considerably more than $80k – 100k in profit. But as with all businesses most people fail, and most people talk about getting started and never do anything (or they run into roadblocks they can’t overcome) – that’s why we do our mastermind group to help.
Hello Brian,
What is the name of your Amazon.com storefront?
Alex
Hey Alex, Brian (like pretty much every seller) won’t share that information.
I know they wont. I just find it very hard to believe that they are making that much money. Especially with Amazon selling private label products under their brand Amazon Basics including diapers, baby wipes, backpacks, AA Batteries, and even clothes hangers. Just go to Amazon and search AmazonBasics and 20+ pages come up with everything they are private labeling. Amazon has over 20 years of data they have collected and they know what sells. If any product is making serious money on their site they will know about it and start private labeling it under their own name. We were approached by Amazon several years ago to sell toys on their site when they parted ways with ToysRUs and we still have a Sellers Account. It wasn’t long before Amazon started stocking and selling the same toys that we were and all of our sells went away overnight since Amazon then controlled the Buy Box. Before I spend $4000+ for the Amazing Selling Machine class I will need more proof.
Alex, Amazon is just the entry point. Selling on just one platform shouldn’t be a long term strategy for anyone. But I definitely think you’re confused on the business model. If you create your own brand of products – how can Amazon sell your brand unless you let them? They can’t. Could they sell something similar? Sure. But not the same thing.
There are people selling in our group that are doing products that Amazon Basics covers as well. Not all buyers want to cheapest quality Amazon Basics product.
Chris
But did you mean with regard to “I know they won’t” though I don’t see your comment as a reply to anyone else.
Hi Christ
I joined the program that Brian is talking about it in October -2014. It is great program if you keep up with it. So far I haven’t done too much because I haven’t found a reliable supplier in China. Now I’m looking for US suppliers. After listing to Brian (great podcast) my desire to succeed is greater ! BTW Christ, could you recommend me a few US suppliers? –
I know this is an old post, but can you give any type of figure of where Brian’s BSR ranking was on Amazon when he took these videos and screen caps?
We have a tool coming out soon that gives sales volumes by BSR stay tuned
i am asm and on board with several programs – a couple of those you are involved in too, chris.
Is brian still doing webbies with you?
your approach generally is something i will read, or find myself back on.
thanks
Yah we still do webinars when we open up our group.
Chris, great podcast! Thanks for sharing. I’m fairly new to Selling on Amazon. I was wondering, is there a difference between being an Amazon affiliate marketer and a fulfillment by Amazon seller? Is so, what is it? And in the fba side of things how do you go about getting products to sell?
Thanks again.
Awesome stuff Chris…
Thank you Chris and Brian! I greatly appreciate the wealth of knowledge you have presented. I’m planning to join Amazon’s affiliate marketing program. Is the affiliate program a good place to get my feet wet when working with Amazon? Or is it advisable to go ahead and private label product instead?
Keep up the great work and for helping us noobs!
I prefer private label at this point – more opportunity.
Thank you, Chris! I will look into private label.
Can you provide the link to Brian’s Amazon Storefront? I’d like to see what kind of items he sells.
Thanks SO much!
Ruth
Hey Ruth, for obvious reasons he doesn’t share the products he sells. Sorry 🙁
Hey, Chris.
Thank you so much for this podcast with Brian Leyde! I had been aware of private labelling and FBA for some time, but never really knew the power of the business model until I heard this podcast last year.
I want to tell you that I took action on it. My product has been up since March 30th – three weeks ago. I ended up giving a third of my inventory as a promo for reviews, and the reviews are flying in! I also started a Sponsored Products Ad, and generated some sales off that. In fact, the ratio is one in six who clicked on the ad have bought! I am now in profit and have sold nearly 40% of my inventory.
I am still in the very early stages, but this thing is working. I had some success before in an Amazon Kindle publishing business, but I take special pride in this as it is a product I developed and that people are liking and buying.
Boo yah 🙂
Chris & Brian,
Thank you for the informative and inspiring podcast!
I’ve heard the terms passed around before, but I am new to the concept of Private Labeling and Amazon FBA. It seems like a powerful business model with attractive margins and potential automation with different parts of the business. It’s also exciting that one may be able to sell their business in the future by building a brand with a private label. It’s even more exciting how Amazon can buy you out of your position and give you a huge payday. Alot of work to be done though before this happens, of course!
It’s interesting to me that one does not need to develop a product, but can still enjoy healthy margins. I suppose it comes down to your ability to negotiate favorable terms? Which terms do you often look for when negotiating with a supplier? What are your bargaining chips?
I’m currently not working and would like to pursue this business model full-time. I’ve recently taken an interest in Virtual reality and I hear that it’s a market that is expected to grow tremendously in the near term. Perhaps there are private labels I can find in this space, and I’m excited to find out.
Last question: Would you happen to know if there is an Amazon for software. Virtual Reality is interesting because it’s a space comprised of hardware and software and I’m not sure which way might be better to go.
Cheers!
Jure Erlic
[…] 2014 I started seeing more about people selling private label products through FBA (particularly this podcast�episode by Chris Guthrie), and immediately I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to […]