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Podcast episode number 23 is now live on iTunes
In this episode, I interview 3 separate entrepreneurs who are all doing thousands of dollars per month on Amazon. These guys are all members of our private Amazon selling community calledοΏ½AzonMasters. We interviewed them and combined their stories together into one podcast session answering some of the most common questions people have about getting started selling on Amazon.
In this interview, you’ll learn the techniques that have worked and what hasn’t for Jakub, Steven, and Bruno, along with their plans for growing their businesses in the future.
Success Stories Sales Stats
Here are the sales stats for each of the 3 guys, along with their pictures so you can put a face to the voice:
Steven
Steven’s Sales Stats
Jakub
Jakub’s Sales Stats

Click to Enlarge
Bruno
Bruno’s Sales Stats
Items Discussed In This Episode:
– How Steven picked his product (3 minute)
– How Steven managed to keep his rankings up even though he ran out of stock for a week (6 minute)
– How getting your first 10 reviews is the biggest step in growing your ranking (7 minute)
– Why having competition is actually a good sign for your business (7 minute)
– Why it’s best to go with a simple product as your first product (10 minute)
– Steven’s long term goals for his first product (11 minute)
– Try to pick a non-seasonal product (12 minute)
– Why Jakub wanted to start small to start out (17 minute)
– Why Jakub decided to go into a niche he personally likes (18 minute)
– Where Jakub found his supplier (20 minute)
– Jakub’s launch plan for his product (22 minute)
– How Jakub promoted his product even before it was on Amazon (23 minute)
– Why taking action is the biggest advantage to have (28 minute)
– Why keeping inventory is one of the biggest priority (33 minute)
– How Bruno found which product to sell (34 minute)
– The criteria you should look for when sourcing from Alibaba (34 minute)
– Bruno’s plans for the business and quitting his current job (37 minute)
Links Mentioned
Private Amazon Coaching Mastermind Group – Join The Waiting List
Amazing Selling Machine live event (The live event component from the course that Brian and I learned from)
How To Get The Podcast:
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via RSS to get future episodes automatically
Download the podcast MP3 here (Right Click + Save As)
Cool episode. Is the audio split left and right on purpose?
Yah audio balancing the levels wasn’t working very well in this episode with all the guests etc (basically my mic was louder than most of the guests etc). I may be able to fix and reupload the file in the AM.
These sales snapshots are for 60 days?
Hey Joe, the snapshots they posted are from the time they first started selling so some are around that mark and some are longer.
Ok podcast….although I couldn’t get over how hard your Belgium friend was hawking the ASM course. Some people are more effortless than others, with him you can almost hear the commission rate in his voice : /
Hey Chris, to clarify no one that we’ve interviewed was paid (and we don’t give them any commission split or anything else). I simply reached out to some of the people in our group that we’d helped and because we had helped them they were happy to be interviewed to talk about their businesses. Also, if you learned from something that helped your business wouldn’t you think it was useful to others?
Yes we of course earn a commission on the people that join ASM and our community but that commission then goes towards the software costs for what we’ve developed (and future things – because if you recall I’m doing this business as well and there are a lot of things I want for myself), venue space for our live event and of course the massive amount of time we spend in our community.
Chris I am trying to get a hold of you on a possible website sale deal. Please contact me when you get a chance.
Contact form at top of website. As always if it doesn’t do at least $1k a month in revenue then it’s not for me. Ideally it would need to be doing more than that.
Hi Chris. Listening to the podcast, and to Steven’s specific case, I assume it isn’t a problem to be based outside the USA (i’m in Spain) in order to be selling in Amazon US, I mean customs-wise and all that, considering that I’m not an american citizen, etc… Also, if I decide to join the mastermind group, I’m not sure I’d be able to make it to the coaching calls ’cause of the time difference, would I have access to coaching outside the group coaching calls in this case?
Hey Sergio,
Nope there are no issues being outside the US. We have folks in our mastermind from several places in Europe, Canada and other countries as well.
Every coaching call webinar we do is recorded for future playback by our mastermind members and our Facebook group is live all the time of course so we have many people that have gone through the first time that are now helping out with questions that our second group of people have started asking as well.
So there is a lot of overlap in the amount of communication we have with the group and inside the community.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thank you for all the valuable information you’re sharing with us.
I’m considering to start selling in North American marketplaces while I’m based in Germany. Is there any resource you’d recommend where I can get some detailed information regarding the legal issues? At the moment I’m registered as a freelancer and I do have a VAT number but I don’t know if that qualifies me to become an individual seller in Amazon. I find it a bit tricky as two different legal systems are involved…
Also, if I start as an individual, I guess it is possible to switch plans later, right?
Thanks a lot.
Keep up the great work!
Best,
Anita
I’m hosting a training session in December with a few friends that have been selling in Europe for a long time and help people get set up there. If you’re on my email list watch out for that. Frankly there is a lot that goes into it π
Another wonderful and very motivating podcast Chris, thank you very much for all the help and support you are giving to your fans, I have been listening to your Podcast #17 with Brian for like 5 times now and I really can’t wait to start my own business with Amazon FBA … day and night dreaming of it π and currently collecting the materials and information needed for the start up.
For me being from the Middle East it will be a great challenge to remote everything that is located on the other side of the world but i have been in business with Amazon buying physical products directly from Amazon and selling them locally over here, I used to ship them to a my physical address in USA and then ship them to me in Egypt as most of the products on Amazon can’t be shipped directly overseas but i got the way to ship them here via Aramex.
Once again i thank you for opening the way to such great opportunity for anyone looking for a serious online business.
Bakr
Hey Bakr,
Awesome thanks!
Chris
Hey Chris,
I’ve been following your blog for a while now and had a question regarding FBA vs website building. Which has a better return on your time? I’m a fledgling FBAer, doing about $1000 in sales per month (started with a $40 investment) and I was wondering if, in your opinion, FBA is a better use of time than learning to build websites for profit?
Thanks.
Hey Aaron, so far I’m having more success with Amazon faster than anything else I’ve done. But if you did only a $40 investment is sounds like you’re not doing FBA the way that I am…
Chris
Hi Chris,
Good podcast. I’m just researching selling products on Amazon so far (and saving enough dough possibly for the Amazon Selling Machine course). Quick question, though: how much of the reviews for these products are purchased reviews? I’ve been looking at some successful FBA products on Amazon, and some of the reviews are obviously purchased reviews. I’d think this is a HUGE part of being successful on Amazon FBA, yet nobody talks about it (sort of like steroids in bodybuilding; it’s hush-hush, but everybody’s doing it!).
Hey Ray,
Thanks, because I share my brand in the mastermind group during the later modules I want to show people primarily white hat stuff (while still making them aware of the grey hat stuff).
I’ve not done any grey hat stuff for reviews, but obviously am well aware of them hah.
Chris
Chris,
Do you know if there is a way to see the Amazon best seller rank for the main category on every product? A lot of the products I look at show the best seller rank only in sub-categories that are 4 or 5 levels deep and it’s hard to get an idea of where it ranks within the main category.
I’ve yet to find a product that doesn’t have a BSR for the main category.
Post a link perhaps?
Maybe it’s only in certain categories (and maybe I am looking in the wrong place). Here are a few examples:
This one only shows as #4 in Electronics > Accessories & Supplies > Accessories > Filters & Accessories > Neutral Density Filters
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER%C2%AE-Neutral-Density-Adjustable-Variable/dp/B0059ATVJW/
And this one shows #2 in Camera & Photo > Accessories > Filters & Accessories > Polarizing Filters
http://www.amazon.com/Tiffen-77CP-77mm-Circular-Polarizer/dp/B00004ZCI3/
In the camera & photo category that’s really all I am seeing is rankings in sub-categories. I’m pretty sure I’ve had the same issue with products in other categories but I can’t find an example at the moment.
Chris
If there was ONE resource you would recommend at this point for learning how to choose, source and market physical products on amazon–it would be….
Hey Mike – our mastermind group π currently closed until 2015 but you can get on the wait list here: http://azonmasters.com
Great podcast π
Love to hear the succes of Steven, since I’m a Belgian as well.. Motivates me!
Thanks for the good info Chris π
Awesome
Chris,
I just came across this podcast. Awesome information! What is the name of the web site that Bruno said was his first web site (at 30:50)? It’s a little hard to understand. Thanks a lot!
I don’t recall off hand π recorded this quite a while back.