AMAZON FBA PLAYBOOK: 5 STEPS TO 10K
Did you know that most of the stuff you buy on Amazon is sold by people like you and me?
I’ve been selling on Amazon for nearly 6 years, and in that time I’ve generated over 5 million dollars in sales and i started as a complete beginner with no experience at all..
In this Amazon FBA Beginner’s Guide, I’m gonna walk you through our 5 simple steps for how Amazon FBA works and how to follow those so you can start paving the way to making your first $10,000.
From making sure you have enough cash to get started, to sourcing a suitable product to sell… to preparing a killer launch, to growing a sustainable business that will keep that cash for years to come. Plus all the stuff in between.
Of course with Amazon there’s a ton of stuff to know, but today we’re gonna scratch enough of the surface, so that by the end of this article, you’ll understand the key steps to follow if you want to start making money selling your own products on Amazon.
AND I’m also gonna point you in the direction of some of the best free resources out there for learning more about anything I’m about to say – god I’m generous aren’t I? I’m also gonna help you understand whether you’ve got enough starting cash in the bank to bring in $10k a month with your Amazon business. Plus: the biggest mistake that beginners are making when it comes to selling on Amazon (those will be scattered throughout this article, so you better pay attention).
Right – let’s get started.
START
Before you start with Amazon FBA, you need to know what you’re getting into… (apart from making money from your sofa, which is pretty damn sweet).
So first off, what’s Amazon FBA?
FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. FBA in Amazon means that when someone orders something from your Amazon store, Amazon grabs your product from their warehouse, packages it up, ships it to the customer… and then puts the cash into your account.
So all you have to do is to decide what you’re gonna sell, set up your Amazon product listing, and then send your product to an Amazon warehouse so that they can do the rest. And how you do that is what we’re gonna cover in the rest of this article.
But before we get to products, there’s a couple of things you’ve gotta know and commit to if you
wanna get to a point where you’re making, say, $10k a month with your Amazon business.
The first thing to say is that running this type of business is gonna take some money to get started. You gotta buy stock, create a brand identity, make your listing look sexy and so on – and that requires cash.
A quick rule of thumb is that whatever your monthly target revenue is, that’s the amount that you’re gonna need to get properly started. So if you’re aiming to make $10k per month, then you’re gonna need around $10k to invest to get started.
That might sound like a lot. But if you think about it, if you can turn an $10,000 upfront investment into something that generates $10,000 in sales every single month, and you’re operating with an ROI of 80% each month… that’s a pretty tasty deal right? But I don’t want to sugarcoat this. This ain’t a get rich quick scheme – it requires hard work, and if you want to scale quickly, you’ll be reinvesting those profits so you can purchase more and more stock every few months.
Basically, there aren’t many investment opportunities that can beat the kind of return on investment that amazon FBA provides.. but you need to do it right.
Now, one important thing to understand with Amazon FBA that we try to make really clear on this channel – is that you’re not gonna start seeing money come flooding in next month. It takes time to find the right product for your budget, and get it produced and launched. So you need to be prepared to put in at least an hour a day for the next 2 to 4 months.
If you’re willing to do that, and you’ve got a good framework to follow and a strong community to support you, it’ll be the most life-changing investment investment you’ll ever make. I know this because I went from feeling pretty stressed and anxious working in finance, to making over $2M in sales last year.
So, now you know the time and money investment required to set up an amazon business doing $10k a month, and you know what that investment can turn into if you commit. And that’s why committing to the process and having the right mindset is gonna be a crucial step before you start.
Once you’re committed to the game of Amazon FBA, you’ve got three things to do to properly start your journey…
- Set Up Your Business
- Amazon Seller Account
- Register Your Brand
The first is to set up your business. Yep, despite what others may say, Amazon FBA is a real business. Now, usually this means setting up an LLC in the US, or an LTD in the UK. But exactly how you do this depends on where you live and where you wanna set up your business (and these don’t need to be in the same place). And honestly it’s much easier than you’d think.
Next, you need to sign up for an Amazon Sellers Account. This is where you’ll manage all your inventory, write your product listing, check your orders and so on. You’ll need one of these accounts to show off to everyone how big your orange bars are getting.
To do this, you go to: sell.amazon.com and click the Sign up button. From there, just follow the prompts.
And #3, You need to register your brand. This helps protect your IP, and opens up a lot of new tools you can use to grow your brand and business. It’s free to do, and you can get started at: brandservices.amazon.com/brandregistry
And after you understand what you’re getting into, you’ve committed to the process, you’re set
up your business and accounts, then… well, you need something to sell…
FIND
When it comes to selling on Amazon, the product that you end up selling doesn’t need to be
something that you love or have in mind already – no, no no. The right way is to find something that (a) has existing demand, (b) is something you could afford to launch with your budget, and (c) that will actually make you a healthy stack of dough each month. And all of that has a couple of different implications that you’ll need to think about:
1) First, you’re gonna need to pick a product niche that aligns with your budget. Like I said before, whatever you’re aiming to make each month in revenue, make sure you have at least that amount ready to invest so that you can afford your stock, shipping, branding and so on. We don’t want to cut any corners and we want to do things properly here.
Now I know it can be pretty mouth watering to find a niche where some random product is raking in tons of cash a month, like these bad boys that are making the seller $1.5 million a month. But if the top sellers are making that much, you’re not gonna be able to enter that niche with a $10k budget and have a fighting chance of competing. Soz.
2) Second, you need to pick a niche where there’s an opportunity for you to improve upon the current product offering and stand out. To sell products on Amazon, your product offer can’t look and feel the same as everyone else’s. And that means you’ve gotta think about ways to customize your offer so that what you’re selling is way more compelling than anybody else. And you can get a bit of help by looking at the negative reviews that people have left on your competitors.
Now to actually find something that matches your budget, you’re gonna need the help of a
special tool called Helium 10. With H10, you can look at any product on Amazon and see things like: how many units it sells a month, how much revenue it generates, the Amazon fee, and the main keywords people use to search for the product and so on – all thing that are going to help you to understand whether the niche you’ve come across is likely to have an opportunity for you to sell in.
Like any great tool, it does have a cost, but it’s well worth the price. When you’re ready, check out this link that’ll get you a pretty tasty discount.
So now it’s time to source your product… and that means finding a manufacturer and getting
your product made and shipped to Amazon.
SOURCE
When it comes to finding a supplier, the place that most sellers start with is Alibaba.com.
Alibaba is not a manufacturer themselves. It’s more like a big shop window where you can browse factories from all over the world, that make pretty much any kind of product on the planet, and find the ones you want to connect with. A bit like Amazon except it’s just for product suppliers instead.
You can go check this out right now on your own, and it’s actually kinda fun to see all the different things you can order and how cheap.
Now this site is legit, but of course there may be a few bad actors like with anything. So to stop you getting yourself into a pickle – here’s a few things you can do.
You can tick boxes for Trade Assurance, which makes it easy to get your money back if a manufacturer doesn’t deliver what you agreed to. And also look for the Verified Supplier status, which means a third party has gone to the factories and verified they actually exist and make what they say they do.
To find what you’re looking for, you just type in your product idea, for example ‘ear plugs’, and a huge list of suppliers for that product are going to appear.
You can also filter by things like product price, and the country where the factory is located. And even though China is the most common country on Alibaba, it’s not your only option… and there can be a lot of advantages to looking outside of China too depending on what you’re looking to have made.
If you wanna learn more about sourcing products go check out this article: How To Find The Best Amazon FBA Suppliers.
You’ll wanna spend some time narrowing down your options before you start reaching out. And you might reach out to as many as 20 or more suppliers at a time.
Once you’ve got your list down to say 2 or 3, the next step is to order samples so you can actually touch and try the products from different suppliers. This is pretty cheap to do, and it’s a step you absolutely don’t want to skip.
And once you’ve settled on the supplier you feel comfortable with, you’ll negotiate final prices, and place your first order.
Now in order to ensure you’re properly stocked, you’ll want to order at least 2 or 3 months worth of inventory. Because what you don’t want to do as an Amazon seller is sell out. It might sound amazing to imagine your product flying off the shelves to fulfill crazy customer demand, but Amazon’s algorithm doesn’t like to see its seller’s stores with nothing to sell. So if you stock out, you’re gonna drop in Amazon rankings, and then you’re gonna have to work hard to climb back up after you’ve refilled your stock, which will come out of your profit.
So, once you’ve found a supplier, you’ve placed your order and it’s finished being manufactured, the next step is to ship that mother to Amazon. To do that, you’ll need to work with what’s known as a freight forwarder, who will help you ship your products from the factory to one of Amazon’s warehouses – most likely on a big old ship… unless you enjoy burning money by sending everything by airplane.
And if all that just freaked you out, I promise it’s much easier that it first seems. And if you wanna dive deeper into the details of finding a great supplier without them stealing your Amazon FBA products, check out this article: 5 Steps To Stop Suppliers From Stealing Your Amazon FBA Products!
So, while your big ass boat is making its way across the ocean, you’re gonna need to get ready to launch.
LAUNCH
When it comes time to launch, the most important thing is getting early sales velocity – and this means that a good chunk of people who arrive on your Amazon store actually end up buying something. And I’ll explain why this matters so much in a minute. When you first launch, Amazon gives you a special window called the “honeymoon period” where you’ve got a better than average shot of getting seen by potential customers. If you prove yourself during this time, then everything gets a lot easier.
But you’d be amazed at how many sellers get this wrong. So I’m gonna share with you the two main things to do to make that happen.
#1 – You need to create a standout listing that makes people think “Damn, this is exactly what I was looking for.” People buy with their eyes, so you need to look way f*cking better than anything else out there, with a product listing that jumps off the Amazon results page like a neon kangaroo.
This starts by having an actual product that’s more attractive than your competitors. And then you need to be using top-notch, professional photos and videos. Or depending on your product, high-quality user-generated videos. For UGC(User-generated-content) videos, we recommend a company called Billo, who does awesome work for a good price.
You’ll also need to look good below the belt, with high-quality A+ content. This is what people see when they scroll down on your page… these big blocks of colorful images, helpful comparison tables, and other interactive modules… having this massively increases the chances that people will buy from you.
The next step is to build your listing around the keywords and desires that people are actually searching for. You need keyword-driven language in your title and benefit-driven copy in your bullet points—and all of this needs to be laser focused on what people are already searching for. And with the release of Amazon’s new AI bot, Rufus, your keyword strategy needs to evolve to consider new ways the customers are shopping online.
And if you don’t know what that means, make sure you go read this article (Amazon AI Bot Revolutionizes FBA Forever) I just did about Amazon’s Rufus.
So building an amazing listing is #1… #2 is you need to attract people to your listing who already want to buy the things you sell.
And you do this through smart, well-targeted advertising campaigns, also known as Amazon PPC (or Pay Per Click)… as well as off-Amazon strategies. When it comes to Amazon PPC, you need a structured and aggressive PPC strategy with very specific keyword targeting.
Lots of first-timers get bad advice here from gurus who have no idea what they’re talking about. So be wary of where you get your info.
The most important thing to keep in mind is this: it doesn’t matter how much traffic you drive to your Amazon store. What matters is the quality of that traffic.
If you bid on a lot of high-volume keywords or clever campaigns that get clicks, but then people show up on your store and don’t buy anything… not only are you throwing your money away on ads.. you’re also sending signals to Jeff and the boys that people who arrive on your listing aren’t interested in what you’re offering.
And while Amazon advertising is absolutely key, you’ll also need to drive external traffic from other sites like Facebook and TikTok Shop. Amazon loves to see sellers driving traffic from other sources. If you do these things right during that first 3-4 week “honeymoon period” – and you start driving high quality traffic with a good conversion rate – Amazon will reward you by moving you up higher in the organic search results – which means you can lower your PPC costs, and watch those profit margins grow.
Now, there are lots of other things that go into a successful launch, like building communities before you launch, and how to get those first 5-star reviews…
And once you’ve followed the playbook and sales are starting to come in, it’s time to crank up the machine.
GROW
After a successful product launch, things do get a lot easier. But you can’t just sit on your ass and watch the money roll in. It’s way easier than a 9-5 job, but Amazon FBA isn’t a fully passive income business. There are things you need to keep an eye on and invest in if you wanna keep growing your business.
I’m gonna walk you through 5 quick things you’ll need to do to keep your store cranking.
The first one is ordering more inventory and keeping in stock.
Like I said before, you do not want to run out of stock. Because you can’t make money if you don’t have anything to sell. And Jeff and company will ding you for this – the sales traction you’ve earned will be lost, and you’ll have to start again when your new stock arrives.
Remember that it can take 3-6 months for a ship to arrive from China. So budget that time when it comes to ordering more stock.
Next up is optimizing your listing.
Of course you’re gonna follow all the best practices we just talked about when building your listing before you launch. But there are always things to improve. Like adding lifestyle photos or UGC videos or actual customers using your product. Not to mention the keyword strategies you’ll be keeping an eye on as the Rufus AI bot becomes more popular.
Then there’s optimizing your PPC bids.
Once your listing starts gaining some organic traction and appearing in search results, you’ll be able to turn down your Amazon ad spend. But if you’re doing things right, you should be able to reduce your ad spend from say 40-50% of your sales price at launch, down to around 20-25%.
You’ll also wanna start experimenting with pricing.
When you first launch, you’ll want to start with a price a little lower than what you ideally want to be selling at. But once you get some traction, you’ll wanna start bumping your price up little by little. It might be $1 per week. Nothing drastic, and always giving enough time to see how the market reacts before you make your next change.
And when the time is right, you’ll be ready to expand to new products.
If you follow the product research strategy we teach in HonestFBA, you’ll already be thinking
about future product lines when you’re honing in on your first product niche.
And that’s FBA in a nutshell. If you’re ready to crack open that nut and dive deeper into how to
find a product to sell and start bringing an extra $10k a month into your pocket.
If you want to learn how you can create an Amazon FBA business yourself, then check out my free training where I’ll teach you everything you need to launch your first product on Amazon and scale to $5,000+ in monthly profit.
Or if you’re ready to begin your journey and want to start with the best chances of success, apply to become a member of HonestFBA’s training programme where you’ll receive guidance & support from our team of 7-figure Amazon FBA seller experts whenever you need it.
