Promoting product on Amazon vs Website

this is what i'm looking into Easy First With Amazon Affiliate : Step-By-Step...

Congratulations on building a business for 30 years. You are right, Amazon is not necessarily the route you want to go when you have complete control over your brand unless there is something that is very specific to distinguish yourself on Amazon. I have never used your seasonings so I can't speak towards it. If you are going to promote, you are right, going to your own website where you don't give up 15% plus .99 is the smart way to go.

A few things I need to ask and a few things to consider. Most of us are brutally honest here so please be open minded, we don't know everything but we try.

First, do you only want to do sales direct or are you considering wholesale as well? I am assuming some of the grocery stores are carrying your products in Texas. Have you considered selling to jobbers and other wholesale buyers?

Second, how open are you to using a shopping cart that will help you grow your business? The GoDaddy shopping carts are horrible (especially for what you pay) and don't provide you near the same amount of tools a modern dedicated shopping cart will provide. They also don't give visitors a warm fuzzy when they don't know you (they look amateurish) which is especially important for any consumable good (if they skimp on the website, what else are they skimping on). Since you have less than 25 products, you can probably run a modern hosted shopping cart for the same money you are paying to Godaddy (you will learn that most of us dont like godaddy except for domain names and ssl certificates).

Third, not all of them do but many do work with Constant Contact so that when a customer checks out they are added to your email list automatically.

Forth, a modern shopping cart will let you run an affiliate program if you so choose so that if you wanted to provide samples to BBQ websites and give them a referral code to give them a commission if they refer people to your site.

Not sure if this answered your question but it is what I can give as advice.

^^^^^What OnlineStoreHelp ^^^^^

EJ - First thing I noticed when I visited your website is that its not user-friendly or modern. That would be my first step - update the website. I recommend WordPress using Woocommerce shopping cart plugin or go to their website and get one of there free themes or buy one they offer. Take your current information and place it in there. WordPress has a lot of plugins that would be useful to you. I install WordPress on several of my clients and they love the flexibility it has.
Then add SEO to the site. I can't say anything to help you out with Amazon, I buy from there but thats it. I live in Illinois and they will not allow us folks to be a affiliated partner due to Il tax law bs.
Hope this helps.

I'd personally do both. I would sell on Amazon and give them the 15% - It's an extra avenue of sales. People might stumble across your brand by search Amazon and then come to you directly.

Or they might just purchase through Amazon (and if you weren't there they would have purchased a competitor product) when you send the items make sure you include details about your company. They might come to you directly next time. Either way it's extra sales and exposer.

Plus if it's your brand you don't have to compete on price in the same way as lots of other sellers all selling the same thing. Show the person you have a quality product.

You can propose to Clickbank sellers if they will email to they list about your product and offer them those 15% commissions since they have more targeted traffic and buyers list. You can contact those in Health category, setup affiliate program first.

Congratulations on your success thus far. My recommendation is to seek out a mentor to bring you to the next level. Someone you can relate to and who will answer your questions. You will have to spend some money, they do not work for free, but their are mentoring memberships that are affordable and you can quit any time. Check out my link in my signature, get a free ebook and meet my mentor. Hope this helps.

I would think that with Amazon's reach in the marketplace, you would want to take advantage of that reach. (new customers)

You may not want to devote all of your resources to Amazon, but some of your resources devoted to Amazon might be profitable.

If you handle the fulfillment of the orders you would of course include reorder forms and catalogs with each order. Then your Amazon customers would most likely order from you directly.

I think I would consider Amazon to be a traffic source for your business.

I would also suggest that Amazon has a countless number of affiliates that may promote your product to their own customer base, giving you a broader reach than you have now.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Ideally you can do both. Leverage the power of Amazon and continue doing your own website at the same time. There are virtual assitants who would help you along the way for a reasonable price. And btw Amazon is not the only option for you. There are other auction sites and resources for you to send profits skyrocketing. Take care.