Last Christmas, I told my readers that a company called FBA Stores* was being sued by both Amazon and The State of Washington for, among other alleged crimes, charging people up to $35,000 for bogus coaching on how to sell products on Amazon. Here's a copy of the Washington State civil suit, and the whopper from Amazon too.

When you thought it couldn't get any worse for FBA Stores, last month the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged them for running the alleged scam. (See the court documents here.) Their "F" grade from the Better Business Bureau (which also references the governments' actions against them) is equally scathing.

I had at least 3 readers contact me and say "Yeah, I paid them $30,000+ and got nothing, too." [click to continue…]

I get these inquiries all the time:

"Hi Jordan, I want to start dropshipping - you know, find an Amazon item online, post it on eBay at a higher price, then when its sold, I want to buy it from Amazon and ship it to the eBay buyer."

I'll cut to the chase: That business model is a crappy one. It's high risk, with typically razor-thin (or negative) profit margins, and eBay and Amazon will penalize or ban your seller account if you get caught (it's happened).

The reality is many sellers are doing that type of dropshipping (if you even want to call it that) anyway, because it's "easy." And in this business, when something is that easy, it's destined for failure.

There are other forms of dropshipping. But even those are generally high risk. [click to continue…]

Ed. - Update 2/26/18 - Now Amazon itself offers coaching to sellers, which stars at a minimum of $700/month for 3 months. I don't know how good it is, so I can't offer specific advise on their coaching at this time.

Also: I've collected feedback from readers, and my notes over the years. There are two coaching services they and I trust. They are legit and very helpful to customers. I am an affiliate of each, so I may receive compensation if you decide to hire them: Jim Cockrum Coaching and Robyn Johnson Coaching. My readers tell me Jim Cockrum's coaching starts at approximately $3500, and if you hire a coach and you are not having success, you have the option to be reassigned to another coach at no additional charge. My readers tell me Robyn Johnson's coaching's fees are affordable.

Do you think coaching services are worth their $3,500-and-up investment? 

By 'coaching' I mean this: Many of my peers - Trusetd Amazon experts not officially affiliated with Amazon - currently offer one-on-one Amazon or eBay seller help that runs (generally) $3,500 to $10,000.  He/she will spend a few hours a week with you (phone and web), for multiple weeks, hand-holding you during the selection or discovery of products to sell (via one or more methods like retail, wholesale, etc), where to look for products, how to buy, the entire listing and selling process, dealing with customer service issues, tracking your sales and profits, and growing your business.

Many of my readers have concerns with that coaching:

1.) They are not entirely sure there's a need. The 'nut' of what you're getting with coaching is hand-holding and step-by-step advice. But that's already accomplished to a great degree - albeit not a personalized one - with (for instance) the acclaimed Proven Amazon Course.

2.) Some think coaching can be overpriced. If I were to hire a coach for (say) $10,000, I think the coach should be doing everything for me for a short period (account sign-up, creating new products, finding me ideal products to sell, product listing, customer service, etc.) and then sending me videos/documents of all those recurring activities so I know exactly what to do after the coaching service ends. It seems most coaches don't offer that, to my knowledge.

3.) Because of #2, there can be a shortfall of expectations. I think clients of coaching may expect that by coughing up a large sum of money, that their success will be easy, fast and guaranteed. That's definitely not true. Even if you have the greatest Amazon coach, you still have to do the work. Selling on Amazon is a wonderful privilege, but it's not without its downfalls and it there are moments where you have to work very hard. But the pros of selling on Amazon far outweigh the cons, as it has generated tens of thousands of successful sellers (like myself) that now don't have to work a 'real' job.

I would LOVE to get some feedback from you, how do you feel about $3,500+ seller coaching? I want to be proven wrong.

-Jordan

P.S. The above is not intended as a slight to any current coaches out there.

P.P.S. Before you buy any coaching, you should ask for recent, verifiable testimonials from previous customers. If the seller of the coaching denies you that, that's a reason to be concerned about the quality of the coaching you're about to buy.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Updated 2/15/18: This sample snapshot shows $480 in reimbursements I got from Amazon in January 2018 alone, thanks to Karen Locker's Solutions4Ecommerce, who does all the legwork for me

Many sellers and I have been discovering that Amazon does not always reimburse you for any inventory they damage or lose. They're supposed to do reimbursements 'automatically' but there's a whole lot they can forget. Which is where you come in: you have to ask (=file a case with Amazon).

I've received reimbursements of over $3200 in just a couple months. That's from about 1 year's worth of lost/damaged/improperly reimbursed inventory. Those reimbursements are paid to me just like Amazon's regular payments. There have been reports of $250,000+ annual sellers being reimbursed $3,000 to $10,000 at a time. [click to continue…]

Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) is not a scam by any means. It is 100% legitimate.

There, I said it.

ASM does NOT compensate me if you buy their $4997+ program. Go ahead, get it here. <-- That's not an affiliate link. (Translation: I don't get paid anything if you buy it.)

Why am I saying it's not a scam, then? Well, it isn't. If you remember a few years ago, I gave those guys (Matt and Jason, founders of ASM) a really hard time, and went out of my way to discourage you from signing up.

But as years went by, a weird thing happened. Those guys proved that they're a legitimate business. And they kept churning out legitimate Amazon seller success stories, growing and hiring at their office in Houston Texas, attracting quality partners, and honoring all their 30-day refund requests from customers.

But I'm still not promoting ASM. That may sound crazy to you. Because as an affiliate with the size of my audience (17,000+ unique readers, 4,000+ Facebook followers, and 10,000+ YouTube subscribers), I could make an easy $20,000+ in affiliate commissions from ASM - in 2 weeks!

Am I stupid? No. I'm not promoting it because the price - up to $6,000 if you pay in installments - unsettles me a little. That's not ASM's fault - they're pricing what the market will bear. Thousands of ambitious Amazon sellers will buy it.  Some will succeed, others will fail - but that has nothing to do with ASM (more on that in a moment).

ASM is arguably a bargain if it's juxtaposed against, say, my useless Boston University MBA, which I paid $35,000 for in 1998. An MBA today (still useless in most scenarios) will cost you around $85,000

But many of my readers are hard-pressed for cash, just starting out, or not ready to make such a large financial commitment.

See, there are other trusted Amazon systems/courses that focus on sourcing and selling private label products (your own products on Amazon), for a fraction of the price. And they're all from my honest, trustworthy partners.

And many of you will ask me "Jordan, what's the difference between Amazing Selling Machine and your recommended [Enter Course Name Here]?"

The truthful answer: Not a whole lot.

All the trusted courses:

• Teach the general same techniques and strategies
• Offer a few bells and whistles.
• Offer no-questions-asked money back guarantees

But none of them has THE magic bullet to your success. Nor do they offer anything that makes private label markedly "easier" or "faster".

(Some of them will respond to this post and say "Yeah but we have ___________ features that make us really unique from the rest!". That's a great selling point but it's not critical to you pulling off private label successfully. I don't care what the features are.)

See, an Amazon seller's degree of success tends to directly correlate to the amount of work he/she puts in to learning and doing, regardless of which trusted course they take.

Oh boy that was good. So I'll say it again:

An Amazon seller's degree of success tends to directly correlate to the amount of work he/she puts in to learning and doing...

A course (again, a trusted one) is something that can help you along the way. If you follow it step-by-step and execute, it's a tremendous asset.

And with other trusted courses generally teaching the same tactics, why pay that much? You don't need the bells and whistles to be sucessful.

So, what are my top recommendations* for you?

For Private Label (what Amazing Selling Machine teaches):

1.) Proven Amazon Course ($399). This will teach you Private Label the "Easy Way" via their Private Label 2.0 Mentor program (which is included within the entire Proven Amazon Course). And if you don't want to source private label but still sell on Amazon, there are at least 12 other courses within Proven Amazon Course that will teach you, step by step: retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, Amazon Merch, book sourcing and selling, reselling coffee, wholesale, and a whole lot more. Pay once and get lifetime access, lifetime updates and an anytime 10o% money back guarantee. Right now it's my top pick. At least read the testimonials here.

2.) StartupBros  ($2997) If you're looking for an apples-to-apples close pick to ASM but for $2,000 less, the StartupBros have been churning out big e-commerce experts for a while now (I've been following them for a few years.) Learn step-by-step how to launch a profitable e-commerce business from scratch. You can pay in installments, give full access to a partner for just $197 extra, and enjoy their 90-day 100% money back guarantee.

Other trusted experts:

• Scott Voelker of The Amazing Seller (all his private label 'how-to' podcasts are free).
• My #1 pick for helping non-U.S. sellers with Private Label: Manuel Becvar of the Import Dojo has some excellent programs with one-on-one coaching available.

My most critical advice for you: whether you buy ASM, another course/system, or learn on your own for free:  Take action. I've seen hundreds of sellers fail because they don't take the first few steps - they just prematurely quit. Take action, follow through, ask questions, and pick yourself up if you fall down.

I welcome your comments and feedback below.

-Jordan

*I am an affiliate of some of my recommendations above (Not ASM). That means if you buy any of them, I may receive a small commission from them.

Ed. note: This type of product sourcing can be very profitable, so don't dismiss it until you try it! 

U.S. consumers are living in a "throwaway" economy. This means that we buy lots of stuff, use it for a little while, and then replace it with other stuff. Or, we break it and it becomes worthless.

I'm always experimenting with all types of sourcing methods. Many of my peers scoff when I suggest that you (my dear reader) source stuff like ... broken calculators.

But here's the truth:  [click to continue…]

Ed note: You asked me for help with sourcing profitable, replenishable products for your Amazon business. Below is my review of the The Wholesale Formula for Amazon Sellers.

Review of The Wholesale Formula (Scroll down for text)

Note: the video review is from July 2016. Since then, The Wholesale Formula has improved even more, with incredible value.)

You're here because you're wondering "should I get The Wholesale Formula to grow my Amazon business?" or take it to the next level.

The short answer (my opinion) is [click to continue…]

eBay Sellers:

It's been a LONG time that I've gotten this excited about an opportunity for us. (And this one has been sitting right under our noses).

It's about sourcing and selling used shoes on eBay. Don't balk at it - sellers just like you are making some serious profits, easily. And I'm not talking bout Air Jordans nor vintage Vans. No, these are 'everyday' shoes.

First let's do some background here. [click to continue…]

Here is training (for U.S. and Internationally-based sellers) that I wish wasn't made available for such a low price (because it's that good).

Barrington McIntosh is well-known in Amazon FBA seller circles. He's 100% legit, lives in Jamaica, sells a lot of products [click to continue…]