黑料门

Take your Amazon game to the next level!

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

Steve brings his insights to our questions about:

• How to successfully launch a product on Amazon and accelerate its growth on a shoestring budget
• How to optimize everything about a listing without hiring someone
• Why made in the USA is about to surge on Amazon
• How Amazon sellers can stay ahead of the game in the midst of the changing Amazon landscape
• The biggest culprits of a failed product launch, and how to quickly recover from it.

We may need to order extra brains, on Amazon, to keep up with it all. Listen in.

Also:

• video
• My Amazon Guy
• My Amazon Guy

Transcript

Jesse: Happy Friday again, Richie.

Richard: Happy Friday, is that time again?

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

Richard: Yeah. Yeah, I think I鈥檓 going to try to learn as much as I possibly can today. I mean, we know a lot about selling on 黑料门. Why not take advantage of learning to sell on the biggest marketplace on the planet?

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

Steven: Guys, thanks for having me.

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

Jesse: You got it. All right. And happy Friday right back at you guys. I think it鈥檚 a good time to be selling on Amazon these days with everything that鈥檚 going on. No doubt about it.

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

Steven: Absolutely. I would say e-commerce and Amazon are up 50 percent year over year during what I like to call COVID 1.0, that kind of March into May, June time frame, a little softer in July. But I think Q4 is going to be one hundred percent up year over year. And I think the reason we know this is because Amazon has signaled, hey, don鈥檛 send too much stuff into my warehouse. There ain鈥檛 no more room. So people are going to need to be ready to ship their own items directly to consumers because the FBA is going to be collapsing most likely during Q4.

Jesse: OK, yeah, I saw a notification recently about their little inventory score or whatever you would call it. They bumped up the numbers to five hundred, which I didn鈥檛 meet that level, but my own personal store.

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

Jesse: Got it. So, yeah, I saw that email. I sort of ignored it a little bit because I鈥檓 not a huge Amazon guy. But taking it from your point of view is like, OK, guys, one, that鈥檚 a signal you might have trouble with storage limits, but also it shows like Amazon knows things are going to blow up this Q4, and they just want to make sure it鈥檚 the best people that are in there that they鈥檙e storing.

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

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

Steven: You鈥檙e price gouging. The weirdest thing happens when people raise prices, and they always do. Right. So this is a decade long common best practice on Amazon. Right. And all of a sudden, they started hitting people for price gouging. It was nuts. Yeah, they actually suspended listings and all that stuff. A lot of troubles that happened in April and May timeframe. To prevent this in the future, raise your prices in 10 percent increments. That鈥檒l prevent it in the future from getting a listing suspended for quote-unquote, price gouging. Which, by the way, I think capitalism solves. I don鈥檛 think there is price gouging. I just think it鈥檚 supply and demand.

Jesse: Sure. Well, there were a lot of bad stories about whatever if you鈥檙e hoarding hand sanitizer and don鈥檛 do that, but don鈥檛 take all the toilet paper. Somebody, we need that stuff. Come on, guys. Yeah, yeah. But if you鈥檙e selling your average items and you鈥檙e running low on stock, it鈥檚 a best practice to raise your prices because if you don鈥檛, then you stock out, then you lose your Keyword rankings. Yeah, that鈥檚 damaging to your listings. So it鈥檚 best not to stock out.

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

Steven: So step one, you need products, right? So if you鈥檝e got products, you鈥檙e ready. If you don鈥檛 have products, go source them. And there鈥檚 a lot of different ways you can source products from Alibaba to wholesale locally. But I鈥檓 going to speak about that next step. So I鈥檓 assuming you got the product. What do I do next?

So launching Amazon does require a little bit of investment, both in time and in money. But if you鈥檙e just getting started, you need to protect that finance. You don鈥檛 want to go too deep in investing before you know it鈥檚 going to work out. Right. So recently, Amazon鈥檚 required proof that you have permission to sell your own brand. So most people do not have a trademark at this stage.

And if you鈥檙e trying to list on Amazon for the first time without a trademark, without a brand registry trademark, you get a brand registry with Amazon; then, you鈥檙e going to have a picture of your product that shows your brand name. So these are two things a lot of sellers don鈥檛 have. They don鈥檛 have a brand name fixed to their product. They may not even have UPCs, and they haven鈥檛 filed a trademark. So those are kind of the things you need to be prepared to tackle if you don鈥檛 have a trademark, you can get one filing with USPTO. My Amazon Guy does offer trademarks. I鈥檒l give you a link if you want to put it in the show notes. It takes six months, though. That鈥檚 the kind of the downer on this; it takes six months to get a trademark.

Once you鈥檝e got some of these basics in place and you start to load on Amazon, you鈥檝e done your product research, you鈥檝e got the right items, and you鈥檙e like, hey, I鈥檓 going to launch my items. Here鈥檚 what鈥檚 called the first two weeks, a honeymoon period on Amazon. You want to do whatever it takes to sell as many units as possible in the first 14 days. None of this conservative “Let me see what happens and put my listing up, and I鈥檒l just kind of dicker around with it.” Don鈥檛 do that.

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

Number one, you need to focus on growing your traffic. And number two, need to convert as many people as you can that get your listings. And these are two best practices I鈥檓 sure you guys talk about all the time because they鈥檙e not specific to Amazon.

Richard: You know, that actually brings up a question I鈥檇 ask you. Normally, I wouldn鈥檛 drive business away from my traditional e-commerce store, but listening to what you were just saying, let鈥檚 just say in a hypothetical. I had a new product I wanted to release, and you were thinking about selling on Amazon; that might be a good time if you already had a list of buyers for your brand. And maybe I don鈥檛 know if you do it via email, there are probably different ways you could do it.

But if you took your audience that already loves your brand, and maybe you say for a limited time only, it鈥檚 going to be on Amazon because I鈥檓 trying to do a store over there. And you could; since it鈥檚 on your side or you鈥檙e communicating via your email, you could say, hey, we鈥檙e going to still be in business, we鈥檙e still doing this, we鈥檙e just going to test out Amazon, and we鈥檙e going to give you X deal or something like that. Is that something that you鈥檙e referring to as far as, like trying to push as much business to Amazon in those first 14 days as possible?

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

So the nice thing is that COVID caused a whole new population of people who would never have bought online, let alone on Amazon, and force them to buy online and on Amazon. So this new customer base was great. Amazon is super happy they acquired new customers. All that鈥檚 great. But you have to bring people to Amazon. You can鈥檛 just rely upon their platform to serve you. You must now serve them a little bit to get your foot in the door. If you send traffic in those first 14 days, you send a signal to the algorithm that, hey, these guys are legit, they鈥檙e going to bring people to Amazon. Therefore, I鈥檓 going to reward them with additional traffic, additional sales, and get them off the ground.

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

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

The external traffic, I think we鈥檝e mentioned this on some other parts, but I think that鈥檚 very important that external traffic could be an email offer to your base. Like, hey, I鈥檓 launching a new product on Amazon. Here鈥檚 the link. Bring it there. I know you can advertise to Amazon as well, which is extremely painful for somebody that does advertising that would pay to advertise to go to Amazon and then pay Amazon 15 percent. You got it. It pains me, but the margins. Yeah, you鈥檙e going to lose the money there.

And I know that鈥檚 just part of the Amazon product launch strategy or whatever it it鈥檚 it鈥檚 a launch strategy where you鈥檙e going to be paying that first couple of weeks. I think it was great to help us learn about that. The steps prior to that, you said trademark take six months, a lot of people have trademarks already. Does that kind of speed up that process?

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

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

Amazon鈥檚 trying to recognize some sort of 80/20 rule to help protect sellers and, quite frankly, buyers. That鈥檚 the real intent, right? Amazon is a buyer鈥檚 platform. They don鈥檛 give a crap about you as a seller, which is why agencies like My Amazon Guy exist. It Is because we go in there and we care about sellers. We take care of their problems and solve them when Amazon won鈥檛 solve them for you. Amazon is literally the most siloed organization in the world. The left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. And so you have to be very protective.

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

And so you鈥檙e going to see brokerages going like crazy with buying and selling. And COVID caused a spike in sales for a lot of businesses, but for other businesses that just completely destroyed their model and their supply chain. And they probably are going to sell and go bankrupt, if not sell. So there鈥檚 a lot of different things at play right now. And although we鈥檙e kind of bouncing all over the place from basics to Amazon鈥檚 complicated and you got to be careful.

But the long story short, to kind of wrap that up, Amazon has a lot of things happening and the catalysts that are happening. And you have to accelerate with Amazon. You have to play differently on this platform than you ever have in the past, or you will not succeed. And you鈥檝e got to get that trademark and brand registry in place. You have to optimize that content. You鈥檝e got to spend more on ads. And you鈥檝e got to grind it daily and understand all the technical aspects that go into selling on Amazon.

Richard: Yeah, you had quite a few good points there. I鈥檓 just going to pick and kind of riff off of one when you were talking about. So actually it鈥檚 a combination of two, the brand registry part of that. Even though they鈥檙e encouraging that because they have to help people, since they鈥檙e mostly a buyers platform, it鈥檚 also encouraging, though, because the one thing we can do that Amazon can鈥檛 do other than be a brand of Amazon is they can鈥檛 be a brand of that product.

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

Now you have an Amazon basics cable for your new recording studio or you, you know, whatever. The thing is, I think Amazon basics is going to make Costco鈥檚 Kirkland look like chicken feed as far as the new products are going to have.

Steven: Absolutely and honestly, I think Amazon is a brand killer, not a luxury brand killer, but a generic brand name killer. So this is kind of a fun game. I鈥檓 going to pick on Jesse here. So what鈥檚 the last thing you bought on Amazon? Hopefully, it鈥檚 not dirty socks, unicorn meat.

Jesse: Similar to your mount for your microphone. I bought a mount for a TV, like a desk. Mount for a TV.

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

Jesse: I happen to know it was Mounted, but I鈥檓 an e-commerce nerd, so I would remember that weird brand name. But yes, it was Mounted.

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

Jesse: No idea.

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

I think some of this advice is probably pertinent to selling online on your website. Right. But tell your brand story. It鈥檚 more important to tell your brand story than it ever has been before because nobody cares about your brand, and you need to make them care about your brand. But you can鈥檛 just simply force them. You can鈥檛 use the forceful techniques of old age. Right. You鈥檝e got to use power, love, and feeling. And here鈥檚 kind of the weird part of the podcast where we鈥檙e talking about lovey-dovey feelings. But no, I鈥檓 serious. Like I鈥檓 dead serious. Like you have to use the power of love and feeling behind your product. And if you don鈥檛, you鈥檙e going to be beaten from price competing competition sellers.

Richard: Yep, totally makes sense. It totally makes sense. Does Amazon make it easy for you to do that on Amazon, like in their videos, are you allowed to do? Because I know, as you mentioned earlier, they don鈥檛 even give you the customer鈥檚 email or their address or anything. So what鈥檚 a way that people could be doing that other than on social or something like that?

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

Well, it turns out if you looked at the data, the demographics, which, by the way, Amazon does actually share now, they will give you a female, male age, demographic breakdown in your brand dashboard, if you have a brand registry. It Was skewed heavily to women at the age of 45 to 60. So we had to rebrand this item. And instead of chasing sports, we chased older women with arthritis.

So what does that mean, and how does that relate to your branding question? It means the picture of a woman in there. Forty-five to fifty-five range became the focal point of the branding. And you talked about the features that help that woman鈥檚 arthritis instead of the post athlete workout. You got to listen, understand your demographic, your clients鈥� help.

Other things you can do. You can send a follow-up email. One of my favorite tools is feedback with an email explaining how to use the products, check-in, and ask for a review and whatever. But more importantly, add value to the customer and tell them exactly what they can do with your product. And they鈥檒l appreciate that with your website. You can nurture that lead even further, of course, and continue that engagement, whether it鈥檚 social media, email marketing, or even maybe a physical mailer. So you don鈥檛 necessarily get to continue touchpoints on Amazon, but the ones that you get are extremely important.

Richard: Yeah, that makes sense now.

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

Steven: All of that.

Jesse: Yeah, that鈥檚 what it sounds like. I mean, I鈥檓 scared now. I鈥檓 like, man, when I went on Amazon, it wasn鈥檛 that hard but sounded like it鈥檚 gotten a little harder.

Steven: Yeah. A decade ago, you could show up and succeed. Five years ago, you could show up and half-ass it. Today you have to show up and fight. If you don鈥檛 have some fight in you, don鈥檛 do it. If you go on YouTube right now and just type in Amazon tutorial videos. Right. Like, I hope I come up first. I get like three hundred of them.

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

If you love to interact and solve problems and fight tooth and nail and also make a buck, it鈥檚 a great platform. But because the sophistication is going up, because we鈥檙e entering the maturity cycle of Amazon, you really do have to have some ammunition. And if you don鈥檛 have the knowledge, you need to hire someone that does. And if you want to gain the knowledge, there鈥檚 a good piece of news and a bad piece of news. The good piece of news is there鈥檚 an immense amount of information out there that you can go find. The bad piece of news is you can鈥檛 tell the good from the bad anymore.

For every ten pieces of information about how to sell on Amazon, what is good and nine are bad. So you need to be very picky about the sources of information you now go after. And you should listen. I鈥檓 obviously biased here but listen to the guys that are telling you it鈥檚 hard. They鈥檙e the ones telling the truth, and they鈥檙e the ones that have done it. And they鈥檙e the ones that have looked at the profit margins and tried to find that pathway to profitability. And they鈥檝e had field projects.

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

I fought tooth and nail for hours on end, ticketing and calling Amazon, telling them to ship it in a frickin box, and they would not do it. So I鈥檓 telling you the things that you cannot fight, the illogical nature of Amazon right now, you have to solve the problem yourself. And in my case, I threw the talent on this product. But in other cases, it can be solved, and you have to seek out the solution. But the solution is not going to be obvious, and it鈥檚 not going to be logical. Most of the time, selling on apps.

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

Like there鈥檚 a lot of it鈥檚 annoying personally. I mean like I get really annoyed that OK, I do this. I do that. So, be ready for it. Now for people that have been able to get past this first stage, maybe they didn鈥檛 do the best product launch because they didn鈥檛 know this information. But they鈥檙e making some sales, doing a little bit of Amazon PPC. What advice would you give to this group of people that just need to up-level they鈥檝e already launched so that their honeymoon period is done? What kind of general advice would you give to them?

Steven: You bet. I do apologize if I made it sound too scary. That wasn鈥檛 my intention. I鈥檓 being authentic, though, and I鈥檓 real, and that鈥檚 me, and I鈥檓 going to speak my truth as Gary V would say. But the other thing I would say is it鈥檚 never a better time to sell on Amazon because the amount of tall-time traffic and available ways to buy fine consumers is at an all-time high. I seriously believe Q4 is going to be one hundred percent up year over year, and it鈥檚 a great time to do it. But you also have to have your act together. So some of the things you can do are always advertising, set your keywords on fire, do tons of keyword research, use tools like Jungle Scouter, Helium 10, and go figure out what your competition鈥檚 doing and duplicate their good things and then improve upon them.

Here鈥檚 a couple of quick-hit hacks. So if you鈥檙e selling on Amazon today and you need your two-minute action today, here鈥檚 what it is. Go look at the search term field of your bestseller. Make sure that you have two hundred and fifty characters of unique texts, and have zero commas in that two hundred fifty characters. Very different from your keywords on your website. Right. You used to go back in the day and fill that keyword tag in for your meta tags and have commas. Don鈥檛 do that on Amazon, and make sure you have no duplicate words.

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

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

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

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

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

I was trying to think of, like what he could possibly do and also still get people that are listening, 黑料门 users, that they might have other friends that have products or they have other skews that they could access that are already out there. So if you know something about a particular subject but you鈥檙e representing other people, is there a good way or should people, is there a good way to sell that on Amazon, or should they just stick to traditional e-commerce on something like that?

Steven: Yeah. So there鈥檚 several different models that you could do to sell on Amazon. So if you鈥檙e just getting started and you don鈥檛 even have a website, retail arbitrage is the obvious choice just to get your foot in the pool, so to speak. Right. And what do I mean by retail arbitrage? You鈥檙e buying somebody else鈥檚 products low and selling high on Amazon. So the second would be buying wholesale and then retailing it, right? So you鈥檙e going to a reputable wholesaler, you negotiate a price, you buy in bulk, and then you sell retail on Amazon as well as your website.

And then the third is to private label and go direct to the consumer, possibly manufacture it yourself. And so depending on each layer that I went up, it gets more complicated. But so do the margins improve. Right. Depending on what you want to invest in, the more product knowledge you have, the more successful you鈥檙e going to be because you鈥檙e going to be able to articulate your features better.

You鈥檙e going to be able to find better, higher quality products, and you鈥檙e going to have better-sourced relationships to have a better margin. So somebody like your friend Richard who has the knowledge and the database and the connections, they would do quite well on Amazon. And if they could represent some of those brands as a retailer buying wholesale from them, that would fit into our second model, the wholesale. I almost like to call it reverse wholesale in some instances, because if you鈥檙e listening to this podcast and you don鈥檛 have wholesale relationships, you can go get them just by grinding and talking to brands and saying, hey, I see that you sell on Amazon. I could do a better job. Let me buy from you, and I鈥檒l fix up your listings. Hey, those bullet points that stink, there鈥檚 only three bullet points, and one of them鈥檚 got a typo in it. Cuz, I can fix that for you. And all I鈥檓 asking for in return is that you let me be your exclusive seller on Amazon, so your friend should negotiate exclusive Amazon rights if you can, and that way he can justify his time and investment.

So that way, other sellers don鈥檛 show up on those listings selling those same items. Alternatively, he could go to those same wholesalers and say, hey, cool, you guys have a cool brand, cool product. I like it. It鈥檚 high quality, but I want to stick my brand name on it. Let me white label it. And that would be another model that would kind of fit in between world two and world three.

And if you do that, then you can still sell those products on Amazon profitably in e-commerce. I like to think there鈥檚 like a mantra for things. Sell more products to more people, more often for more money. And I steal this from Harry Joyner. He鈥檚 an e-commerce recruiter. And that mantra makes sense. It can be applied to everything. And if you aren鈥檛 tackling one of those four metrics and any action you鈥檙e taking today, I think you should retool and refocus and refocus on one of those four things, because that鈥檚 what it takes to sell in e-commerce or Amazon.

Richard: That鈥檚 a good point. I鈥檓 just going to give him the link to this episode and let him know.

Jesse: And yeah, we鈥檙e going to use that quote from Harry Joyner, who I have run across him in the past, too. There were four, usually there鈥檙e three of those particular ones that Richie has used before. So let鈥檚 hear it one more time.

Steven: Sell more products to more people more often. And the fourth one that people forget is more money. So is that the one?

Jesse: I think that鈥檚 the one we haven鈥檛 really used.

Steven: You know what that translates to. Raise your prices. Higher average value. I鈥檝e been trying to talk Harry into joining the podcast circuit; you guys should have him on.

Jesse: Yeah, I think we should.

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

Steven: They鈥檙e raising their prices?

Richard: They not only do they raise their prices but somehow or another, they鈥檙e so magic at their branding, no pun intended, that they鈥檙e able to get the kids to convince their parents to come back. Well, when you could actually go. And bring friends, and now you get the ears and the hats and so they鈥檙e literally getting you. They get it on full tilt. They鈥檙e getting you to buy overpriced things that are branding their product when you go home. Then they got ESPN and all these other cradle to grave content creation machines, too.

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

Jesse: Oh, good. Well, hey, Stephen, we know you have an agency. Can you give us a little bit about the agency? Obviously, these are the services you provide. What鈥檚 the ideal client that you like to work with?

Steven: So we鈥檙e a full service. I鈥檝e got two types of clients, the guys that want to buy a project and just hire us for a simple A-plus content design. We have our services on our website for you, and sometimes you just need to hire us for a quick problem and then go on your merry way. That鈥檚 cool. We鈥檙e here for it. The second type of client is somebody who wants us to grow their sales, and they hire us for a monthly consulting fee.

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

Jesse: Awesome, that鈥檚 a good intro. For people listening, that was not meant to scare you, but if you鈥檙e scared, go ahead to Steven. You can鈥檛 do everything; there鈥檚 SEO, there鈥檚 PPC, there鈥檚 a web design, there鈥檚 Amazon as a specialty. You can鈥檛 do them all. If you鈥檙e ready and happy to provide resources to our listeners. Richie, any last questions?

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

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

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

Steven: Thanks, guys.

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