Up Fuel 
I’m back with another case study update of the product I’m selling on Amazon (read my first update here) and I’m excited to share that in the last 68 days I’ve sold $12,987.81 worth of this one product.
The best part is that I’m even on target for a $10,000+ month in October which would represent several thousand dollars per month in profit from just one product.
Even better? I’ve never been to a post office to ship my product. Amazon handles that. Shipping. Refunds. Everything.
Table Of Contents
What makes this business model most exciting?
[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]
Anyone can do it with no existing customer list, website or platform to leverage from any country in the world.
Example: I’ve made a ton of money with software products but I don’t really talk about it on my blog because it doesn’t help you. I primarily leveraged my existing audience and customer base I’ve been building for the past 5 years. You don’t have that advantage.
On the flip side with Amazon I intentionally launched a product in an area that I had no website, email list or platform I could use to give me an edge and yet I’ve still been able to succeed.
Video Proof: $12,987.81 In Sales On Amazon.com – On Track For $10k+ October
I think I can hit $15k per month with this one product – maybe $20k if I really push it. My strategy is to find relatively low competition products and dominate through superior marketing and customer service.
I could easily do another dozen to two dozen products in this one niche before moving into something else. Sure some may be lower sales numbers but others may be higher.
How do you find low competition products?
There is a manual method of looking through Amazon trying to identify products with a low enough, but not too low, bestseller rank but that’s very time consuming and doesn’t paint the full picture.
Fortunately for the people that join our group we’ve been working on a tool (that no one else has) that helps identify these products to make product selection (one of the most important components of this business model) easy for people. Boo freaking yah.
Of course you can always target high competition and go that route but I prefer my strategy.
Would you like help learning how to sell on Amazon?
The mastermind group I run with Brian Leyde (from Podcast 17) is going to open October 16th and close October 24th. The only way into the group is to buy the same course that Brian and I both learned from using our referral link – Amazing Selling Machine (here’s a review I posted of the live event portion of the course).
That course provides an in depth step by step process of how to sell on Amazon in 8 weeks and then our private group is designed to offer more one on one and group support to help people get selling. We also offer a variety of exclusive bonuses to our members as well.
This will be the first time in roughly 6 months our group will be opening again and the crazy part is that we’ve got several members selling even more than I am.
Just a few of the folks in our mastermind group that started from zero like me
Can you go out and try and figure out how to sell on Amazon on your own? Sure but you’re more likely to fail than if you learn from someone who has done it before. It really is that simple.
Years ago when I started building websites and trying to make that work I wasted several years in niches I shouldn’t have even tried. In hindsight if I had the opportunity to learn from someone that had been there and done that it would have greatly accelerated my learning curve.
That’s precisely why I’m involved in running this mastermind and why I’m so excited for our next batch of students. If you’d like help learning how to sell on Amazon sign up for the waiting list here. It opens October 16th and closes October 24th.
We will have several webinars, Google hangouts and more to provide people plenty of opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have.
[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]
Chris!
I’m waiting for the opening!
I am excited about your software product that find the lower competition keyword products.
Looking forward to learning it all!
Will you be limiting the number of people you allow is the mastermind?
Josh
Hey Josh,
Yah we’re still finalizing how it all works but needless to say it will be a huge advantage and something I plan to use for my own business as well of course (as I do with all my software).
Regarding limits: In terms of affiliate size for Amazing Selling Machine I’m actually a pretty small one. That’s part of the benefit of the people that decide to join with us. I got to meet and get to know everyone from our first batch of students that came to the live event and we’re all still trying to help each other in our own separate Facebook group now.
I still need to discuss with Brian what our limit will be.
Needless to say Brian and I definitely put a ton of time and work into the group both via the webinars and then bonus webinars we do and other stuff regardless of group size. We also have some new awesome bonuses planned for this group that I know none of the other affiliates can do (for starters I don’t know any of them sharing their main Amazon brand like I am doing and Brian is launching a new brand as a case study for the group as well).
Chris
Hey Chris!
I’ve gotta give you props for your business thus far. Great work!
For everyone a bit unsure of how this business works, Chris already mentioned that the course (Amazing Selling Machine) will be opening up soon. I also run my business based on what I learned from the course and have been loving life ever since. Do yourself a favor and at least checkout the videos that the course founders will be sending out soon.
For my end, my product launched about 3 months ago and we’ve hit $40,097.35 in sales. The course is super simple and the community is extremely supportive.
I mention this here, not because I know Chris personally, but I’ve been following his stuff for a while and wanted to put forth my support to him and this course. I can only imagine how much more successful I’d be if I had been working with him and his private mastermind group from the get-go.
Cheers!
Hey Eric,
Thanks. Yah we all start from zero and just want to keep on scaling up. Looks like I have some work to do to catch you 😀
Are you going to the next live event? Will have to offer a thunderous high five if I see you.
Chris
Hahaha! Bring on the live event and the thunder brother! 😉 I’ll be there. Were you in Vegas too?
Epic. That changed my whole mindset on how I run my business to how I even think. I get chills just thinkin’ about it.
Anyhow, I’m sure with your current and other products you’ll catch up in no time.
Hey Eric,
Yah I was at the last live event. We took 35 folks out to dinner as one of our many bonuses to talk business etc. Looking forward to what we’re doing at the next ASM event 😀
Chris
It’s funny because I remember listing to the podcast when you first posted this and thought, Chris is going to try this because the guy you were interviewing was making so much money in such a short time and here we are. I don’t see any post though of how much the amazing selling machine course costs or how to buy it. I heard it is very expensive.
It’s $3,500 one time or 4 monthly payments at $997. We had half the students go with the payment route and the other half with the one time if I recall correctly. Of course with a higher price we’re able to deliver higher value in the form of significant personal time investment and the exclusive bonuses that we’re doing too (which we aren’t revealing until the course opens).
The course is available on October 16th and will close October 24th and the only way into our mastermind is via our referral link for the course. This way everyone has the same base knowledge we both had (Brian and I) and then our group can serve as a supplemental resource.
Let me know if you have any questions but we’ll have more webinars etc leading up to the release to help discuss it more.
Chris
P.S. And yes anytime I hear about someone with very little experience making a lot more money than me I take notice. Fortunately in this case I’ve also taken action and am in the process of doing even more products too. 😀
Hey Chris,
Along with the $3500.00, what are the approximate start up costs (ie inventory, LLC, etc)? I ask only because I like to budget accordingly.
Thx,
Aaron
Hey Aaron,
Main costs besides the course would be:
Inventory
Shipping
You can probably get started for about ~$500 depending on your product and the minimum order quantity (MOQ), but if possible I’d advise more. At the last minute I decided to up my first order from 250 units to 500 units so I spent ~$1k. Then because I wanted to run this business with the absolute least effort possible I paid for a more expensive shipping option where the company has an office in China and they coordinate with my manufacturer on the ground and then just notify me when the product is in the US. That was also about ~$1k but I could have saved several hundred dollars if I went with a different shipping option e.g. using my manufacturers UPS account.
Your LLC costs vary by state if you want to go that direction. I’m not a lawyer or accountant so all I can really speak to is my own experience. I set this business up as a separate LLC to set it apart from the other businesses. I think it’s $175 in WA to get an LLC but you don’t have to go that route.
So not too much to get started vs a more traditional business and you have the benefit of location independence and ability to scale quickly. My personal approach is to dump all the profits I’m generating back into the business to launch more and more products.
Chris
Hey Chris,
I understand that Amazon FBA is only available in certain countries so if we are not within these countries, we can’t do FBA, right? As there is no way to open a seller account with them. Pls correct me if I’m wrong. Thank you.
Hey Mary, we had students in our last mastermind that were based in the UK, Belgium and Australia. The idea is you sell on the US Amazon and use FBA but you can operate your business from any country.
Thanks Chris. So you mean we can open a seller account with USA Amazon with our local address? And do we need to pay tax to US eventually?
Hey Mary, not sure on what you need to do tax wise but yes you can do this from your country (most likely you only pay your taxes and not any US sales taxes etc). Where are you based though out of curiosity?
You got a fan from a little sunny island called Singapore!
Hey Mary that’s awesome. Yah I don’t think we had anyone from Singapore in our last group but like I was saying before we had a few from the UK, Belgium and Australia. 😀 so it can work pretty much anywhere.
I’ve recently been experimenting with Amazon and have made some decent money.
If you know how to rank your Amazon page on the first page of Google for a buyer keyword, you’ll make a killing.
Hey Walt, yes this is one of many things I have on my plate as well. In the interim I’m not doing any marketing work off Amazon in regards to link building etc to influence my Google ranking.
This is super cool. So, I’ve been on the hunt for a podcast that could help me learn some internet marketing basics. I have NEVER run a business and have no experience selling much of anything online (5 years ago I wrote a book…if you could call it that, and made a website for it. All very amateurish and didn’t go anywhere).
Found your podcast and just learned today that you are an ASM3er like me! Awesome. Yea, this program is stellar. As I mentioned I have no experience running any kind of business, online or otherwise. Getting my product has been challenging because lead time is very long…but, I have a bit of inventory before I will be going out of stock. In the last 3 weeks I’ve generated over 20k in sales. This whole experience has been surreal. Cheers to your success and I hope all of your listeners sign up for ASM4…it’s worth it to say the least.
Hey Anthony,
That’s great $20k in 3 weeks is an excellent start. What sales target are you shooting for before you quit your job?
Perhaps I’ll see you at the ASM4 event 🙂
Chris
I’m not really going for a sales figure. My problem is lead times. It takes 3 months to get my product to FBA. Right now I am fighting to get enough inventory in stock and then get a steady flow of reordering to stay in stock. Aside, I am also going to release a new color option and shortly thereafter two new products….so….by the time I’m ready to quit my job(s)…I’ll likely be at around 50 to 75k a month.
Maybe we can link up at ASM4. It was great connecting with you.
Dang dude you need to start looking for a new supplier? I thought my 35 days for 5,000 units was long.
Yes we should connect at live event perhaps 😀
Hey Chris,
I sent you a PM but I’m sure you’re fielding a ton of emails right now.
I was wondering if the Mastermind Webinars you will be conducting will be available to be viewed later or if everything is live. I’ve got a newborn son so my nights are unpredictable but I’d like to keep up with the mastermind via video and emails at the odd times I have free.
Could you let me know if the course will be structured so we can watch when our schedule permits?
Thanks
Hey Davidson,
Yah sorry for any delayed reply. It looks like we already have at least a few dozen people that want to join and we haven’t even announced our exclusive bonuses yet.
Yes we will be doing 8 weekly webinars the day after the main ASM group does them. This way you can ask is literally anything and we’ll give you an answer and because we are a smaller group it works pretty well. We record these calls and then offer them to members later.
What we also do are what I like to call bonus webinars where there is a topic we see a lot of people asking about so we just do a full unplanned bonus webinar in addition to what we already said we’d do. For example, a lot of people are curious about setting up a website to sell their products off Amazon and so I’m in the process of planning out a webinar to show everyone that process using WooCommerce.
etc etc
But yah we make it easy for people to follow along regardless of location or available time in evenings
Chris
No problem Chris. Thanks so much as always. Look forward to meeting you soon.
Yep sounds great! 😀
Hi, Chris,
Thanks for your post.
I am waiting its opening and hope for learn it all!
I have been doing my online business on affiliate programs and building my first budget travel website selling affiliate products from Amazon since two months ago. I hope I could find my own direction to success one day like yours.
Many Thanks?
Hey Lerong,
Sounds great thanks!
Chris
Hello Chris,
Thanks for the insight. A $3500 investment for an ROI similar to what you’re posting is fantastic however I am concerned about time.
I do have a few projects on my plate and was wondering what time investment is expected to get returns similar to what you’re getting?
Another question if I may ask, where do you believe is the most difficult aspect of the entire process? is it coming up with a product, sourcing the product, sales or other items? It’s good to know that upfront so that extra focus is given on that weak point to avoid possible failures.
Thanks in advance.
Hey Mac,
Yah you of course need to invest time but I’ll speak from my experience. I had two existing 6 figure profit businesses before I started my Amazon business and my wife and I had twin baby girls in January so clearly I was already pretty strapped for time. I did my work at night because that way I could speak with my manufacturer in China via Skype (text only – never even had to speak to someone yet).
I think the most difficult aspect is product selection. You want to pick something with enough competition that there are enough sales there but also not too much competition where it’s difficult to break into the market. We built our own tool to help with this that we’ll be giving to our mastermind members.
The other thing you really want to think about is not to view this as “a way to make money” but a way to build a real scalable business asset. So when you pick your product you only want to do one product to start but in the back of your head have a plan for what else you can launch under your same brand.
We’ll cover more on our webinar that we do so just make sure you’re on my email list if you want to know more.
Chris
Hi Chris,
one thing I’m a bit unsure here, is that you’re basically building, and training your own competition with this course. Why don’t you just keep this idea to yourself, and rule amazon with as many products as you can?
Thanks,
adam
Hey Adam,
Yes and no. Inside the group I tell people “look I’m sharing my brand with you, there are thousands of other products. Please don’t pick the one I’m in” so far it hasn’t been a problem. There are plenty of products to do.
To your point: “Why don�t you just keep this idea to yourself, and rule amazon with as many products as you can? ”
I don’t have a scarcity mentality. I have an abundance mentality. There are plenty of opportunities on Amazon and the more I can help others succeed the more it can also help me succeed.
Also, if I’m not running my mastermind group there will still be new sellers out there trying to potentially compete with me anyway so it’s a way to have a more close knit intimate group of individuals interested in the same thing – building and growing their Amazon business while sharing what they learn with the group.
I’ve learned a lot from the folks in our group that are up and selling on Amazon and there are several individuals that are selling more than I am even.
These questions are always something that people have but when you really think about it Amazon is gigantic. Can I really try and rule Amazon by myself? No of course not. So that’s why I prefer the share the wealth approach and help each other succeed mentality.
Chris
I’m so looking forward to this, it’s a new venture for me. I live in the UK so if your webinars are aired early hours in the morning, then will there be videos to watch later during the daytime? THX for sharing and all your hard work.
Hey Sharon,
Yes we do recordings of all of our videos and make them available to members to go at their own pace. Happy to help 🙂
Chris
Hey Chris, I am very interested about the ASM program but I have one question about it that I must know the answer before registering.
Some facts: I’m a programmer and internet entrepreneur, based in Greece, currently making a high-4-figure per month income on the net with various websites that I built or bought. I am really busy and have no time to waste, since I’m alone at it, I manage everything on my own.
I took a quick look at the ASM promotional video and I almost puked! It seemed like this kind of live seminars, where a good-looking, well dressed, obviously “rich” guy tries to inspire the cheerleader-ing crowd with this whole “you can do it” attitude… Then the whole “academy” thing is coupled with networking, in various US cities, that are MANY thousand miles away from my place, even though I wouldn’t probably attend them even if I was there, since I don’t need any more networking (at least not now).
However, like you, I do know very well that it’s a HUGE benefit to learn from someone who has been there, done that, that would help me avoid all the BS and all the common pitfalls, especially when I really need answers to questions like:
– “How do you find a trustworthy supplier that WILL send the goods”
– “Is there a list of those (the trustworthy ones) anywhere?”
– “How do you pay the supplier, shipping and customs?”
– “Should I use escrow? Do they accept it? Do I pay everything upfront?”
– “Insurance”?
– “Do I sign a contract -remotely from the net – with any of these guys?”
– “What happens if the quality of the shipped products turns to be bad”?
– etc
SO, my question about the program is: If I pay my hard earned $3500 for ASM, what will this get me?
Will they give me 2 hours of video training? 4 hours? 100 hours? Can I watch the videos at a later time? Can I download them? Do they provide any additional material that one has to read? Do the videos answer the questions I have above? Is it necessary for someone to attend the gatherings? Can the whole learning happen remotely?
Chris I love what you are doing with ASM and the added value you are giving to it. I guess I could find the “answers” to all my questions with a little bit of googling and experimentation, skipping the $3.5k, which is outrageously too much for me, NOT because I cannot afford it, but because I don’t need someone to inspire me to take action.
Please tell me what will $3.5k get me? Some videos and a support forum? Should I stick to googling isntead of ASM?
NOTE: If I decide to take the course, then I will certainly do it through your aff link since you are the one that got me inspired to do it!
Thanks.
Hey Geo,
So for starters, last time we did our group we had 47 people join with a sizable chunk based outside the US – so you don’t have to be US based to do this.
RE: Puking at the ASM Promotional Video
Hah. Yah I hear where you’re coming from, but behind the sales material and the way they promote ASM is a solid course that is working. I don’t think that a “you can do it” attitude is really a bad thing if that helps others succeed and again I know it’s perhaps not something you care for.
RE: Your questions
� �How do you find a trustworthy supplier that WILL send the goods�
� �Is there a list of those (the trustworthy ones) anywhere?�
� �How do you pay the supplier, shipping and customs?�
� �Should I use escrow? Do they accept it? Do I pay everything upfront?�
� �Insurance�?
� �Do I sign a contract -remotely from the net � with any of these guys?�
� �What happens if the quality of the shipped products turns to be bad�?
� etc
Basically everything is covered in the course. Anytime I didn’t know the answer to something I posted either in the main ASM community on Facebook (which has several thousand people) or I post in our private group etc. So ultimately there is plenty of coverage in that area.
I’m posting a podcast – episode 22 in about 6 hours (I’m up late finishing up the editing right now) which answers some of the questions you posted and during the time our mastermind is open we’re doing multiple webinars, Google hangouts and Q&A sessions.
I don’t know the exact hour amount of ASM training other than that there are at least a dozen or more videos for each of the 8 week lessons and that I watched the videos, implemented and asked questions where I needed help. I can ask to get a solid number but it’s in the double digit hours I’m sure.
The full list of bonuses and everything that we’re doing to add value we’ll be sharing on October 16th via our webinar. We have two time slots you can check them out here and then on that date I’ll also have a page I can point you to that has everything on it as well.
Will send you a follow up email in case you don’t stop by the comment area.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for this really helpful information and congratulations on doing so well so fast. So amazing!
Is it possible to tell us what category on Amazon the product you are selling is in?
Thanks, Juliet x
Hey Juliet, sorry the only people I tell what product, category etc I’m doing are the people in our mastermind group. The only thing I can say is that I buy my product from China (so it’s not a supplement, skin cream etc as those are typically US only suppliers).
Nice job, how much have you spent on advertising?
Have you made a profit yet?
(I’m still sourcing products to sell for my amazon business.)
Hey Gage, yes I’ve made a profit. I technically made a profit on my very first inventory order but I ordered my second inventory fairly quickly before I sold all of my first. Now it’s set up where everything is feeding future larger and larger inventory orders. I just placed an order for 5,000 units and I’m looking to do 2,000 units and 2,000 units of product 2 and product 3. I have a very aggressive growth goal but you could build this business as simply as only one product.
Our mastermind is closed though now too bad 🙁 you wouldn’t be able to join us.
Wow that’s a lot of products.
Did you do facebook and amazon ads to get a jump start?
Please keep talking about this on your blog, very interested in this.
You don’t want another noob in your mastermind group anyway, no problem.
Hey Gage, no FB ads. I use Amazon Ads but my budget is $15 and I haven’t looked at them in over a month. Amazon doesn’t allow you to create the copy.
We have plenty of noobs in our mastermind. Happy to help everybody.
Chris
Hi Chris,
It sounds great for selling physical product on Amazon with sourcing from China, let say Alibaba.com or others in China sourcing.
If selling on Amazon with FBA, in which can manage your storage, inventory and even shipping and the like. May I ask, can Alibaba or Aliexpress do the same as FBA. Do they have same or similar service like that?
Many Thanks
Lok.w
No I don’t think they do. I use Amazon for FBA. I’m not aware of other solutions because this business is built on using Amazon’s platform.
Okay so I’m commenting roughly a month after you published this article but I’m just curious, what are your current figures standing at now? Have you been able to significantly increase it again and reached your 15k mark yet?
I did $12K+ in October will be posting an income report here in a bit.
Hey Chris, I’ve been reading your articles for about a month now, and have read tons of other materials about private labeling with FBA (Pat Flynn’s podcast, Jm Cockrum and Walter Hay’s books, your material, etc.)
Like most others, I’m stuck on product selection (everything else I have pretty much in place). I’ve found a few that I think are good ones, but I’ve been scared to pull the trigger until now.
Can I ask you about them and see what you think?
Hey Brandon, help with product selection is only something I help people with in our mastermind group. If I help you freely then I will feel compelled to help everyone freely. Our group opens in April, not that you should wait that long to get started but ultimately: is the product selling now? If yes = good. Is it patented? If no = good. There’s more to it than that but those are big ones.
Hi Chris,
I am just trying to understand better the ranking on Amazon.
What is the volume of sales for someone let’s say on #1,500 ranking?
Is there a way they calculate this or is it just something depending on reviews and department etc.??
Cheers
[…] not uncommon and some well-known bloggers like Spencer Haws at Niche Pursuits and Chris Guthrie at UpFuel have been experimenting very profitably […]
[…] Chris Guthrie did $12,987.81 on Amazon 68 days with no pre-existing platform to leverage. […]