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-   -   Any experience with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark? (https://www.warriorforum.com/internet-marketing-product-reviews-ratings/760938-any-experience-amazon-selling-machine-matt-clark.html)

Ryan David 9th October 2013 04:02 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by panorama (Post 8592110)
Ryan,

You make some good points, but I can tell you my personal experience is that the sheer volume of demand for products on Amazon means that a few small tips can lead to huge improvements in profitability, even for experienced sellers.

I agree that if your goal is just "to get started", you don't need a course to show you that. You'll learn from your own mistakes along the way, but most people won't figure out all the little things that make a big difference...and that's leaving money on the table.

I was an experienced FBA seller with sales of about $10k per month (including some private label items) and I can tell you there was incremental knowledge I picked up in ASM that has brought my business to the next level.

My line of thinking used to be just like yours - I thought "FBA isn't that hard...I figured it out myself, so why should I pay all this money when I already know 95% of this stuff." Well, (for me) there was tremendous value in that other 5% that I didn't know. Other people may have different experiences, but I consider myself to be a bright guy and I don't know how long it would have taken me to get to $50k+ per month without ASM.

If that's the case, then I won't argue with success. I used to be in Stompernet (the initial launch during Oct 2006) and felt the same way. And before I joined there, I was doing at least $25K in revenues per month.

Like I said though, if you haven't attempted to sell thru FBA, then I think you're wasting your money. I don't know if people realize this, but there is a forum full of successful FBA sellers at Amazon that are 10x more knowledgeable than most of the product creators I've seen.

Jordan Dekker 9th October 2013 04:45 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh Belanger (Post 8591767)
Jordan - you can find products that you can get started with for $100. I created a video I mentioned above on the 8 exact steps to get started. I even provided the product idea in the video.

Your inventory will likely never fill a whole container until you're doing very large numbers on Amazon. By that time you'll have more experience.

If your source through China, the product you'll likely sell can be air mailed. Shipping containers are different level.

Thanks Josh! I will take a look at it for sure.

Matthew Anton 9th October 2013 10:38 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
1) Why would anyone teach someone if they can do it themselves:
People do both. Great athletes become great coaches. It's a natural progression. Learn, do, teach/consult. Some teachers advocate teaching while doing, as they see from all points of view. "player/coaches" were always the most beloved. Think of Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Ray Lewis, etc.

2) Pimping your courses
Yes, we get it. You have a different, cheaper course. Do you think Honda can get Porsche clients by telling them this - hey our car is more reliable and less expensive? While other courses may be good, they don't have the support around it that this product has. It's impressive how much value is being generated in order to gain this type of traction. If they weren't helping others become successful, they would in turn not become successful.

3) If you don't have experience with it, you don't have experience with it
You are stating an opinion, or someone elses' opinion which is fine, but realize what it is

4) Amazon is a huge opportunity
Amazon is the Google of physical products. The amount of opportunity is crazy; considering Matt and Jason have cracked the code and successfully make money with them is very impressive and should be a real eye opener to anyone looking to succeed with ecommerce. It's a billion dollar industry. Businesses take investment, and time is money, so why not buy from those with a proven record versus floundering on the search engine or alibaba all night (have you tried it, it's horrible)? Equivalent to buying someone's autobiography - you get a man's life work for a fee, but what you get in return is much greater and will multiply in time.

hbsjcd3 9th October 2013 10:42 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh Belanger (Post 8592358)
Havana00 - what have you learned? :)

I know I have not learned anything...except what I already know about Amazon keeps my from fiddling with it.

dipakshorey 10th October 2013 03:04 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
It seems to me that there is plenty of information on Amazon on FBA and on YouTube that an entrepreneur can use to start a successful selling campaign on the Amazon website. Now there are very expensive (e.g. ASM) and very cheap (e.g. PAC) courses that tell you more or less the samething on what you need to to do but at the end of the day it is all to do with you, in terms of affordability, your appitude to apply available information, the amount of hand-holding you need, your accountability to someone more successful doing it and just your ability to becoming focused and getting on with it. My main concern is the vast majority of people who embark on these courses will fail no matter how expensive their course was, or how much information and help they were given. Generally it is all to do with attitudes and your ability to face and overcome obstacles you will inevitably run into along the road. Success has a price that all must pay. The elusive free lunch of doing nothing and expecting a good return doesn't exist per se!

TerrySilver 10th October 2013 08:27 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Here's a question....when private labeling products what steps are taken to ensure you are not infringing on existing design patents, trademarks, etc? Just because I find a product some overseas supplier has I think would be good to private label doesn't mean the product isn't already patented in the US. Does ASM cover this?

Ryan David 10th October 2013 08:50 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Anton (Post 8593065)
1) Why would anyone teach someone if they can do it themselves:
People do both. Great athletes become great coaches. It's a natural progression. Learn, do, teach/consult. Some teachers advocate teaching while doing, as they see from all points of view. "player/coaches" were always the most beloved. Think of Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Ray Lewis, etc.

2) Pimping your courses
Yes, we get it. You have a different, cheaper course. Do you think Honda can get Porsche clients by telling them this - hey our car is more reliable and less expensive? While other courses may be good, they don't have the support around it that this product has. It's impressive how much value is being generated in order to gain this type of traction. If they weren't helping others become successful, they would in turn not become successful.

3) If you don't have experience with it, you don't have experience with it
You are stating an opinion, or someone elses' opinion which is fine, but realize what it is

4) Amazon is a huge opportunity
Amazon is the Google of physical products. The amount of opportunity is crazy; considering Matt and Jason have cracked the code and successfully make money with them is very impressive and should be a real eye opener to anyone looking to succeed with ecommerce. It's a billion dollar industry. Businesses take investment, and time is money, so why not buy from those with a proven record versus floundering on the search engine or alibaba all night (have you tried it, it's horrible)? Equivalent to buying someone's autobiography - you get a man's life work for a fee, but what you get in return is much greater and will multiply in time.

In the financial world, a fund manager isn’t judged based on total return on the portfolio, he’s judged how he does according to the benchmark (S&P 500). It would be a much easier sell for them to simply say “Hey, I earned 8% for you this year and you would’ve gotten 0% in the bank, so you should pay me higher fees”. But investors know there is a passive investment option that is very cheap (Index funds that mimic the market) that is their competition.

I think IMers fall victim to all the clichés that Matthew just pointed out above; “time is money”, “cracked the code”, “proven record”. I’m not telling anyone anything that they don’t know already, but I’ve seen firsthand some INCREDIBLE examples of marketers co-opting someone else’s success and then spinning it to sell their own products. If you bought this course and were doing $50K a month in sales and took it to $100K a month, you can guarantee they’d be implying that you did it because of their course, even though you probably would’ve got there anyways.

So too often, people give someone credit for the ENTIRE success instead of the courses ability to deliver above the benchmark. The benchmark in this case is the free information that is readily available.

hbsjcd3 10th October 2013 09:38 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dipakshorey (Post 8593513)
The elusive free lunch of doing nothing and expecting a good return doesn't exist per se!

So true and yet so many people think its possible.

scottsmith24 10th October 2013 09:48 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
@Terry
"Here's a question....when private labeling products what steps are taken to ensure you are not infringing on existing design patents, trademarks, etc? Just because I find a product some overseas supplier has I think would be good to private label doesn't mean the product isn't already patented in the US. Does ASM cover this? "

This is a great question. One that I would also like to know, but am not willing to pay 4000 to find out. @Terry... Why don't we start a new thread called Amazon Private Labeling Q&A, or something like that. Personally I would rather ask questions like yours and get answers, rather than about this course. Isn't that what this forum is all about? This thread did address the question about ASM, but I think it's ran it's course, everything seems to be getting personal and opinionated. I'm going to try to start a Q&A thread:

"Amazon Private Labeling Q&A" if anyone wants in.

Ryan David 10th October 2013 10:08 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
I think "investment" in courses should be tethered to the amount of money you're making. So if you're a newbie, you use the free training until you've made $100/month profit. If you're intermediate, you buy a $100 course. And if you're advanced, you consider the more expensive training.

What people would realize that the $3500 course isn't what made them successful. They were going to be successful once they decided to master Amazon and it was their commitment that made them successful.

malia 10th October 2013 12:55 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Just because I find a product some overseas supplier has I think would be good to private label doesn't mean the product isn't already patented in the US. Does ASM cover this?
Absolutely not. It doesn't cover issues like this. They also gloss over product liability (at least in their webinars) by saying people worry about too many things before getting started.

While that is a valid perspective, the real answer is "infringement and liability vary greatly depending upon the product you are trying to sell". It's also a complicated issue and there's no way to give blanket advice that works across industries and products.

Quote:

Trademarks are for things like Coach, Prada. Patents are for things like Dyson Vacuum or iPhone.
Even this answer, while well intended, is simplistic. Trademarks are for identity/brand, patents are for design/process, etc., Products can be both patented and trademarked. And often the ENTIRE product is not patented as a whole, but in components/parts.

Having said that patents are very specific. Once I was retailing (not private labeling) a wall clock and got a cease and desist from someone who inherited the intellectual property rights to a patent of a wall clock from someone else. I politely sent them a response stating they should learn about IP law before trying to threaten people because they could be counter-sued. You can't patent "wall clocks" you can patent a very specific design for them, but a different design doesn't necessarily violate your patent.

The point being it's very complex and it's difficult to give a blanket answer about these issues. I don't criticize the course for not covering it (it is, after all, a legal issue), but I hate that they brush it off like it's nothing. It IS worth being aware of. But again, it's more of an issue in some fields than others and at a certain level of revenues you need to protect your business with insurance and proper business structure.

malia 10th October 2013 05:47 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

If you plan on selling purses on Amazon that look just like Prada, then you're going to have issues. However, if you private label a purse and sell it as your own brand. That is not an issue.

All valid concerns, but you're way over thinking this.

Do you think someone owns the trademark or patent on pizza? No, that is why there are thousands of people making their own pizza creation.

If you private label a product from a brand name, they are aware of what your are doing and will be part of the agreement that you can do that. That is what Walmart does very well.
I didn't go into detail but I'm actually very well versed in IP law for a business owner without a law degree. I'm not over thinking anything. I'm just providing a more detailed answer to the question.

The truth of the matter is that you used an example which is actually a minefield (fashion) and I have been in that industry for a while. So, while you cannot legally put the brand Prada on a bag and sell it under your own brand, you also cannot NECESSARILY make a bag in the likeness of a Prada bag and sell it under your own brand.

Now we are in agreement on that, but here is where it gets sticky: is the seller well versed enough in the industry to be well aware of ALL of a particular company's designs to know when they are or are not potentially infringing upon a design?

I'm not going to google and cite the many, MANY, lawsuits that happen in the fashion industry because it is an intellectual property minefield and there are so many issues involved that it is difficult to give someone a blanket answer. Fashion also falls under copyright law (in many instances) and in some instances an actual design can receive trademark protection (such as Burberry's plaid).

So that's why I pointed out that your original answer was simplistic because the issue is complex.

Pizza was a bad example and even after reading it three times, I'm not really sure of the point you tried to make with your comment. If your point was that no one can trademark or patent "pizza", agreed. Trademarks cannot be "merely descriptive" (a legal term).

Quote:

If you private label a product from a brand name, they are aware of what your are doing and will be part of the agreement that you can do that. That is what Walmart does very well.
And again, misleading and simplistic. The issue that new retailers/importers have is that they simply do not usually KNOW when a Chinese company is producing products that infringe upon intellectual property rights because it's so rampant, and somewhat accepted, to do so in China. So his concern is a very valid one that I completely understand. The risk of importing a product that is infringing is something that people should be aware of, especially in certain niches.

It's not that people should walk around freaked out about it, but they do need to be aware and prepared.

TerrySilver 10th October 2013 06:23 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by malia (Post 8595690)
And again, misleading and simplistic. The issue that new retailers/importers have is that they simply do not usually KNOW when a Chinese company is producing products that infringe upon intellectual property rights because it's so rampant, and somewhat accepted, to do so in China. So his concern is a very valid one that I completely understand. The risk of importing a product that is infringing is something that people should be aware of, especially in certain niches.

It's not that people should walk around freaked out about it, but they do need to be aware and prepared.

So are there any steps one can take to research this before they go through the trouble of sourcing and labeling the product? I know you check patents through USPTO, but it's not very user friendly, and I'm not sure if you can find design patents. Just curious if there was another way to be prepared? Can an IP lawyer check a product out for you for a reasonable fee?

BoJon 10th October 2013 07:11 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Anton (Post 8593065)
1) Why would anyone teach someone if they can do it themselves:
People do both. Great athletes become great coaches. It's a natural progression. Learn, do, teach/consult. Some teachers advocate teaching while doing, as they see from all points of view. "player/coaches" were always the most beloved. Think of Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Ray Lewis, etc.

2) Pimping your courses
Yes, we get it. You have a different, cheaper course. Do you think Honda can get Porsche clients by telling them this - hey our car is more reliable and less expensive? While other courses may be good, they don't have the support around it that this product has. It's impressive how much value is being generated in order to gain this type of traction. If they weren't helping others become successful, they would in turn not become successful.

3) If you don't have experience with it, you don't have experience with it
You are stating an opinion, or someone elses' opinion which is fine, but realize what it is

4) Amazon is a huge opportunity
Amazon is the Google of physical products. The amount of opportunity is crazy; considering Matt and Jason have cracked the code and successfully make money with them is very impressive and should be a real eye opener to anyone looking to succeed with ecommerce. It's a billion dollar industry. Businesses take investment, and time is money, so why not buy from those with a proven record versus floundering on the search engine or alibaba all night (have you tried it, it's horrible)? Equivalent to buying someone's autobiography - you get a man's life work for a fee, but what you get in return is much greater and will multiply in time.

This is one of the best post I've read so far in this thread. Makes me think out of the box (the box that says overpriced and saturated). :)

BoJon 10th October 2013 07:39 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Amazing Selling Machine will remain open for subscription till Oct 11 midnight. This is your last chance (and mine too).

I'm not sure how I'm gonna do yet. Still thinking about it.

For the moment, two things are holding me back:
  1. Price
  2. Saturation

I wait until Oct 12 to see how it went :)

malia 10th October 2013 08:14 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

So are there any steps one can take to research this before they go through the trouble of sourcing and labeling the product? I know you check patents through USPTO, but it's not very user friendly, and I'm not sure if you can find design patents. Just curious if there was another way to be prepared? Can an IP lawyer check a product out for you for a reasonable fee?
It depends on what you want to sell.

And yes an IP lawyer can check for you, but the fee won't be reasonable.

What you have to watch out for is categories of merchandise where it's common for Chinese companies to make a product that emulates (or outright knocks off) a branded product. Handbags, some fashion items, a lot of electronics, etc., even things like phone and tablet cases can fall into this area, and instead go for areas that are really generic/basic (and all of the aforementioned items can also be very generic and basic).

If you're using a sourcing site like Alibaba (which isn't the most reputable, but is the most popular) you will see it in your queries. If you see a lot of infringement in your search results, it would make more sense to just steer away from that mdse until you got more experience in the market.

Other things to be aware of is products that have a history of recalls or falling under a category that often has recalls. It's one reason I would not (personally) get into children's products-- too many regulations and hazards.

----------
Sidenote: i just caught another ASM video and they are really irritating me. They had a list of top products on Amazon and had Tweezerman tweezers as an example of a product opportunity, then went into this "thing" about how they could have had more keywords in their product description and a better description. Tweezerman is a globally known brand. Ugh. I hate that. Too many examples they give are known branded products and are selling very well partially because they are known brands. I once worked with a publicist who worked for Tweezerman. No Amazon-only seller is going to unseat Tweezerman on Amazon and would probably be sorely disappointed if they tried "Oh man, I thought I was supposed to sell a thousand tweezers a day, what happened)..Nevermind. There are just so many other factors.

Here is the gist of selling under this model:

Amazon provides you the opportunity to build a brand by tapping into their traffic/sales and logistic infrastructure. Spend a lot of time researching and thinking about the right product opportunity that YOU PERSONALLY can capitalize on it and take full advantage of it while you can.

Sidenote: they did it again with eyelash curlers (which I was going to use as an example before I heard this in their video) and they used the brand Shu Uemera as an example. Again, another globally known brand. WTF? Why do they just talk out of their butts with this stuff?

I can't wait until this is over.


Lesson: if you're looking at high selling products on Amazon don't base your sales potential on the rankings and reviews of products manufactured by globally known brands like Wilton, Shu Uemera and Tweezerman (that's what I caught from those videos), look at other UNKNOWN OR GENERIC brands and base it on that. Not brands sold in thousands of retail stores, even high end retailers, covered extensively in consumer magazines with a long history of branding and a lot of direct google searches for their brand name.

Spare yourself the delusions.

malia 10th October 2013 08:40 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Anyone still considering, here is interesting feedback

Amazing Selling Machine -- Customer Comments, Complaints, and Criticisms

dipakshorey 10th October 2013 11:33 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by malia (Post 8596042)
Anyone still considering, here is interesting feedback

Amazing Selling Machine -- Customer Comments, Complaints, and Criticisms

Yet More affliates trying to make a killing!

ChrisWF 11th October 2013 06:19 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Click on the YouTube sign in his profile

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmfell (Post 8597191)
Where can i see the video you took time to create Josh?


hmfell 11th October 2013 06:46 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Thanks Chris - just found it :)

crsnetwork13 11th October 2013 08:48 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
I have never heard about this Amazon Selling Machine what exactly does it do and how can I use it in my online marketing?

zemog630 11th October 2013 03:46 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Thanks Lisa! Your post on sourcing products was very helpful.

panorama 11th October 2013 04:08 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
I answered a ton of great questions about the course from people who either PM'd me or posted to my Facebook group. If anyone still has questions that haven't been answered, don't hesitate to let me know.

shabit87 11th October 2013 07:47 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Hey all!

Firstly a few guys in here are really killing it with sharing your experience, so thanks!

Question: to ensure I'm not wasting inventory and buying unneccessary stock, does it work if I buy and don't white label right away or use Amazon to ship/fulfill?

Ex. instead of branding Momma J's Kitchen spoons and spending money on whitelabeling and ordering bulk, I order a small order of the general brand and sell and ship myself to see if it will indeed SELL, then I brand.

panorama 11th October 2013 08:03 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by shabit87 (Post 8599179)
Hey all!

Firstly a few guys in here are really killing it with sharing your experience, so thanks!

Question: to ensure I'm not wasting inventory and buying unneccessary stock, does it work if I buy and don't white label right away or use Amazon to ship/fulfill?

Ex. instead of branding Momma J's Kitchen spoons and spending money on whitelabeling and ordering bulk, I order a small order of the general brand and sell and ship myself to see if it will indeed SELL, then I brand.

No, that would not be a good idea.

shabit87 11th October 2013 08:49 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Okay thanks! So I'm more so doing my research and decreasing my risk after a product meets a certain criteria? Is that more accurate?

panorama 11th October 2013 08:58 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by shabit87 (Post 8599309)
Okay thanks! So I'm more so doing my research and decreasing my risk after a product meets a certain criteria? Is that more accurate?

Yes, that's correct.

jon poland 11th October 2013 10:06 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by shabit87 (Post 8599179)
Hey all!

Firstly a few guys in here are really killing it with sharing your experience, so thanks!

Question: to ensure I'm not wasting inventory and buying unneccessary stock, does it work if I buy and don't white label right away or use Amazon to ship/fulfill?

Ex. instead of branding Momma J's Kitchen spoons and spending money on whitelabeling and ordering bulk, I order a small order of the general brand and sell and ship myself to see if it will indeed SELL, then I brand.

I agree with Panorama -- that would not be a good idea.

The idea is to get your product listed on Amazon so you can leverage the power of
Amazon. Amazon has a tremendous amount of trust with online shoppers and millions of people go to Amazon every week to shop for products. It will be a lot easier to sell your product once its listed on Amazon than it is for you to sell it on your own.

panorama 11th October 2013 10:32 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by jon poland (Post 8599407)
I agree with Panorama -- that would not be a good idea.

The idea is to get your product listed on Amazon so you can leverage the power of
Amazon. Amazon has a tremendous amount of trust with online shoppers and millions of people go to Amazon every week to shop for products. It will be a lot easier to sell your product once its listed on Amazon than it is for you to sell it on your own.

Hmm...I guess we came to the same conclusion, but my line of thinking is very different. The reason I don't think her strategy would be very good goes back to the whole difference between selling your own brand (private label) vs selling someone else's brand (retailing). It's been discussed many times throughout this thread and as part of the ASM launch that it's not worth describing in detail unless someone has specific questions. In short though, it's a bad strategy that would be more likely to backfire on you.

dipakshorey 11th October 2013 10:33 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Congratulations (er... Good luck) to all those who decided to 'donate' their hard earned cash to ASM and its affiliates bank accounts. Talk about overkill: persistence and not taking no for an answer, these salesmen must take first prize. Thankfully it will all end in a couple of hours, I hope...............until perhaps an extension to 'help' relieve cash from all those unfortunate victims who could not get in because of server melt-down during the last minute rush. Goodbye til the next relaunch.

panorama 11th October 2013 11:16 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dipakshorey (Post 8599436)
Good luck to all those who decided to donate their hard earned cash to ASM and its affiliates. Talk about overkill: persistence and not taking no for an answer, these salesmen must take first prize. Thankfully it will all end in a couple of hours, I hope...............until perhaps an extension to 'help' to relieve cash from all those victims who could not get in because of the last minute rush. Goodbye til the next relaunch

I honestly feel bad for guys like you who passed on an opportunity because you judged the process rather than the program. I can understand why someone passes because it's not right for them or because it's just too expensive for them - but those who passed simply because the launch was "overkill" - well, that's just stubbornness and they will never really know what they missed out on.

I've built a good business that I'm damn proud of because of ASM. I've made some money doing Internet Marketing, but I could never really say I was proud of building affiliate sites. This is on top of the fact that my business has real enterprise value.

Now as an affiliate for ASM, I'm still proud to say that I made money knowing that I'm going to be helping real people move forward in their lives. The doors will be closed in less than two hours, so this isn't affiliate salesmanship - I've personally experienced how it changed my life within a few months, and it's not due to some loophole or blackhat strategy that will stop working with an algorithm update. It's about learning how to effectively fulfill real demand for an existing product.

I can't wait to start working my affiliates because I'm genuinely excited to help them change thier lives the way I changed mine.

panorama 12th October 2013 12:33 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh Belanger (Post 8599544)
Panorama - I received a decent amount of emails from my video I created. Some of them were about bonuses because I mentioned Jason Fladlien would be one to look at if they were interested in ASM after watching my honest review. I ended up taking a look at some of the bonuses from some of the other top affiliates and buyers received some of the best because it became such a competition between affiliates.

As for people passing, It is what is. No matter the proof I provided or the what your and Ryan talked about the the possibilities from different angles. Some are just looking for a reason that sides with their belief. All you can do is provide the best and non bias information to educate the group. (Congress take note)

I had a couple people interested in my unique offer and excited to help them in their journey.

I have to give Jason Fladlien credit for being a great marketer, but if people really looked closely at his offer, they would have found much better bonuses out there. Just looking at his Profit Guarantee should have been a red flag that the bonus was mostly salesmanship - the truth is almost no one will be eligible for his guarantee if you read the terms, so it's practically worthless. Those are the kind of tactics that are a big turn off to me and make me lose respect for someone.

Also, with all due respect Josh, it's not really easy to accept your review as honest when you're pitching your own training course. I've got nothing against that, by the way - if people are willing to pay, then by all means offer the training, but please don't pretend that you don't have an agenda with that "honest review".

l@ttemonarck 12th October 2013 12:53 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Its a pricey in a way you can get the status they have right now.. Some business might be in good luck . work it out at your best to success..

shabit87 12th October 2013 01:41 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by jon poland (Post 8599407)
I agree with Panorama -- that would not be a good idea.

The idea is to get your product listed on Amazon so you can leverage the power of
Amazon. Amazon has a tremendous amount of trust with online shoppers and millions of people go to Amazon every week to shop for products. It will be a lot easier to sell your product once its listed on Amazon than it is for you to sell it on your own.

I didn't mean taking off amazon, but simply waiting to brand until it was proven to sell.

Rhodesian 12th October 2013 02:50 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by 1lov1 (Post 7852103)
Ok, I looked through the Proven Amazon Course mentioned above and it does cover the FBA basics and seems good. Much of the content was done in a couple years ago. It covers a lot about selling books through Amazon FBA and the strategy of finding cheap clearance items at local Walmart/target ...I didn't see anywhere where it shows you how to remove yourself from the process of having to package,label, and ship your products to Amazon FBA. to.

Does anyone who has done the PAC course know whether it is worth buying the PAC course in lieu of Amazing Selling MAchine if you don't live in The States? I want to find wholesalers in the STates whom I can send private lables to of products found on Amazon that meet the criteria-or even better, ask them to create the labels for these products. Then create a sellercentral account etc and have the products shipped there by the wholesaler. If I don't have a U.S bank account is this a difficult thing to do?

Lastly,do you- or someone else who has done PAC- know whether you can "remove yourself from the process of having to package,label, and ship your products to Amazon FBA"?

I agree with comments that ASM is way too pricey

MagicD 12th October 2013 03:42 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhodesian (Post 8599719)
Does anyone who has done the PAC course know whether it is worth buying the PAC course in lieu of Amazing Selling MAchine if you don't live in The States? I want to find wholesalers in the STates whom I can send private lables to of products found on Amazon that meet the criteria-or even better, ask them to create the labels for these products. Then create a sellercentral account etc and have the products shipped there by the wholesaler. If I don't have a U.S bank account is this a difficult thing to do?

Lastly,do you- or someone else who has done PAC- know whether you can "remove yourself from the process of having to package,label, and ship your products to Amazon FBA"?

I agree with comments that ASM is way too pricey

I have both courses, I bought PAC last year and I recently took a second look at the course to see what has changed. Yes he has added a few things on private label but not at the extent of ASM. The courses are two different animals, one (PAC) teaches about arbitrage (buying generic brands at low costs and selling for a higher price) this does require visiting shops, charity shops, car boot sales etc, box them up add the labels on and ship to Amazon. I consider this as a starter business, you can make money from this business, but in my opinion you can not automate the PAC business or hire scouters for your business as you run the risk of losing your worker.

There are ways to get around this, someone did mention it in the PAC forum sometime ago, but to me it seemed complicated. My thoughts are, this is a very good starter course, however you are not creating a brand for yourself you are selling other businesses brands.

ASM is more about your brand, the supplier/manufacturer does the work for you and sends your products to amazon, so all you need to do is market it or not, I recommend marketing your brand and at the sometime market your product.

TBH, if you were to read the rest of the thread, you would have seen this answer many times.

Jim Cockrum 12th October 2013 07:10 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by MagicD (Post 8599795)
... (PAC) teaches about arbitrage (buying generic brands at low costs and selling for a higher price) this does require visiting shops, charity shops, car boot sales etc, box them up add the labels on and ship to Amazon. ...you can not automate the PAC business or hire scouters for your business as you run the risk of losing your worker.

There are ways to get around this, someone did mention it in the PAC forum sometime ago, but to me it seemed complicated. My thoughts are, this is a very good starter course, however you are not creating a brand for yourself you are selling other businesses brands.

Two quick points:
1. There are numerous sourcing strategies in the 'Proven Amazon Course'. We have multiple students who are doing thousands in sales daily using a variety of strategies. Originally the PAC course was primarily about "arbitrage", but now we have students buying crates from China, buying huge liquidation lots, importing globally, partnering with large corporations for inventory, finding hot sellers at trade shows (that they don't even have to attend), white labeling successfully using our course etc. I could go on.

To say the PAC is about "retail arbitrage" is partly true...but it's about much more all the time as we continue to pay our huge & very creative student base to reveal their profitable inventory strategies.


2. RE: outsourcing work
There's nothing complicated about hiring help and having them sign a non-disclosure in order to grow your business! I haven't had a problem at all in my business doing it that way nor have I heard of others having trouble. Plenty of people are looking for work and are willing to run your system w/out the threat of creating a competitor. You'll have this same challenge with any business model unless you do it all yourself right?

dipakshorey 12th October 2013 02:28 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by panorama (Post 8599485)
I honestly feel bad for guys like you who passed on an opportunity because you judged the process rather than the program. I can understand why someone passes because it's not right for them or because it's just too expensive for them - but those who passed simply because the launch was "overkill" - well, that's just stubbornness and they will never really know what they missed out on.

Panorama, passing this ASM promotion believe me is no loss to me; in fact I am glad I kept away! I am not judging you or what you have achieved but remember there is more than one way to skin a cat. When each and every person who bought ASM has made a killing then I will eat my hat :(.....I will need to buy one first.

panorama 12th October 2013 03:01 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dipakshorey (Post 8601076)
Panorama, passing this ASM promotion believe me is no loss to me; in fact I am glad I kept away! I am not judging you or what you have achieved but remember there is more than one way to skin a cat. When each and every person who bought ASM has made a killing then I will eat my hat :(.....I will need to buy one first.

My point was that (based on your comments) it looks like you judged the launch process and not the opportunity. I agree there's more than one way to skin a cat, so all the power to you if you've found another way. But if you haven't found another way, and you passed on this just because the launch was "overkill", then you've only done yourself a disservice by not at least judging the course itself.

panorama 12th October 2013 03:24 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh Belanger (Post 8600775)
Panorama - No issues with your opinion. I provided my thoughts and reasons from my perspective with the exact steps on getting started with a product with a real example for someone. I also provided an alternative if people were interested, but left that last and provided 30 minutes of valuable information.

Explain what you mean about his guarantee? I noticed some others were doing the same. However, I was not explained well enough for me to even understand.

My thought is that they would just purchase the listing from the person because they would have done most of the work and they would just take it over and market it. Not sure though, because I didn't go through the TOS. They were the #1 affiliate again. I just looked at the leader board.

I can't comment on what others were offering, but Fladlien's guarantee was basically that he would guarantee to purchase a refunding member's inventory at a premium so they would have zero risk if the course wasn't for them.

Sounds great, right? You can get a 100% refund on the cost of the course, plus sell all your inventory back to them.

Well, if you read through the details, you'll see that one of the terms is that it's ONLY available to those who refund. So, having been through ASM 1.0, I can tell you that very few people will have inventory in-hand within the first 30 days (when the refund period expires). In the unlikely event that someone does have inventory within the first 30 days, they aren't likely to refund because they wouldn't really have had a chance to see if it sells.

So, basically, it's almost a zero-risk offer for Fladlien, which makes it worth very little in my opinion. Now, some of his other stuff sounded interesting, but it's so vague you really don't know what you're getting.

Yes, he was the #1 affiliate because I'm sure a lot of people were impressed by his bonus. He may be a great guy who knows what he's doing and I know he's not the only guy who does this stuff, but it's just an example of why people need to really be aware of the details.

Ryan David 12th October 2013 09:42 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by MagicD (Post 8599795)
I have both courses, I bought PAC last year and I recently took a second look at the course to see what has changed. Yes he has added a few things on private label but not at the extent of ASM. The courses are two different animals, one (PAC) teaches about arbitrage (buying generic brands at low costs and selling for a higher price) this does require visiting shops, charity shops, car boot sales etc, box them up add the labels on and ship to Amazon. I consider this as a starter business, you can make money from this business, but in my opinion you can not automate the PAC business or hire scouters for your business as you run the risk of losing your worker.

There are ways to get around this, someone did mention it in the PAC forum sometime ago, but to me it seemed complicated. My thoughts are, this is a very good starter course, however you are not creating a brand for yourself you are selling other businesses brands.

ASM is more about your brand, the supplier/manufacturer does the work for you and sends your products to amazon, so all you need to do is market it or not, I recommend marketing your brand and at the sometime market your product.

TBH, if you were to read the rest of the thread, you would have seen this answer many times.

I think that's a good summary and, personally, I've followed more of a style similar to the ASM approach. I think the content within ASM will probably be very good, but I'm not a fan of the extra "margin adders" that are thrown into these packages; notably the seminar and tools. Those things just unnecessarily pump the prices and probably provide little value.

Like I've said elsewhere in the thread, finding the right product is trial/error so that's why I think a good bit of your learning will be "on the job". If you spend your whole budget on the course, then you're missing out on a big part of the total education.

You can still make good money by focusing on other people's products, but the real money is when you own the ASIN (listing within AMazon).

cilcal 12th October 2013 10:51 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by TerrySilver (Post 8594197)
Here's a question....when private labeling products what steps are taken to ensure you are not infringing on existing design patents, trademarks, etc? Just because I find a product some overseas supplier has I think would be good to private label doesn't mean the product isn't already patented in the US. Does ASM cover this?

You either do a patent search or you ask for the manufacturer to show you their active license for that product. Or, you can get a license yourself from the patent holder. Some products with only a design patent can very easily be altered and produced without licensing. You can also go after products with no enforceable patents, meaning the patents are old and expired. Items like door knobs, or medicine cabinets (Things that I import personally) can be easily produced without any patent infringement. PM me if you want to know more.

cilcal 13th October 2013 12:32 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh Belanger (Post 8595041)
Milia - A Trademark - recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others.

If you plan on selling purses on Amazon that look just like Prada, then you're going to have issues. However, if you private label a purse and sell it as your own brand. That is not an issue.

All valid concerns, but you're way over thinking this.

Do you think someone owns the trademark or patent on pizza? No, that is why there are thousands of people making their own pizza creation.

If you private label a product from a brand name, they are aware of what your are doing and will be part of the agreement that you can do that. That is what Walmart does very well.

If you copy the design of a Prada purse and call it your own, you will get a friendly call from their lawyer. Now, if you improve or alter their design significantly, then you at least have a good defense in the court.

There is absolutely nothing preventing some company from suing you for patent infringement. Apple is notorious for that. And it's not alone. Monsanto sues even the smallest farms for patent infringement, even if the farmer had never done business with them. In one case, a farmer in Illinois was successfully sued for patent infringement, just because Monsanto proved his crop showed evidence of cross pollination with a neighboring farm which used Monsanto patented seeds.

There are lots of ways to play this game. My favorite ways are either paying for a license or making products with old and expired, and thus unenforceable, patents.

johnbrown12 13th October 2013 10:00 AM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
well , if you have private label products than people will not gonna buy unknown products rather than to purchase a same products with known label or has good reviews

affenpinscher 13th October 2013 12:03 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
The price point weeds out the people who shouldn't be getting into this because they don't have the budget or business experience (yet) for FBA.

It's tough to use FBA with a limited budget if you want to build a sustainable long-term business. Much tougher than the $10 WSOs would indicate.

IM is a market where the lower the price point, the more trouble and complaints you'll get about your product because so many people are looking for a no-work, make-millions a day product.

I'm not saying $3000+ is worthwhile or justified, only that it makes sense to weed out the most problematic buyers.

Jim Cockrum 13th October 2013 12:16 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by affenpinscher (Post 8603320)

It's tough to use FBA with a limited budget if you want to build a sustainable long-term business.

Based on having followed the success of numerous Amazon sellers I can tell you that there are numerous exceptions to what otherwise sounds like the common sense rule of thumb you've stated.

The fact is, many of my top students started with only a few hundred dollars to invest into their Amazon biz inventory, and now they sell thousands per day in many cases.

I didn't want anyone to read your post and get discouraged unnecessarily. :)

jordanmalik 13th October 2013 12:38 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Jim is right. People are going to throw rocks at my post anyway, but:

I was fired from my real job 4 years ago (world's largest ad agency in NYC).

And i started selling on Amazon, and my ONLY inventory was from buying used books (and used CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes and even books on tapes) at local libraries for literally ten cents to a dollar a piece. I had no car (my wife was using our only car for her housecleaning business) and thus my father in law would drive me to the 70+ libraries day after day in his van with 100,000 miles on it.

Those library books quickly grew into a couple thousand dollars profit per month, which I reinvested and reinvested until I started branching out into other products (NONE of which was wholesale). In 2013 my sales were $136K (see the below link) (VERY part-time (just me and my wife)) with a net pre-tax profit margin was around 55% to 65% of that:

2013-01-08_1054 - jbmalik's library

It can be done without expensive courses or buying thousands of dollars (or even hundreds of dollars) worth of goods to start.

-Jordan Malik

JamesBoyd 13th October 2013 02:04 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by affenpinscher (Post 8603320)
The price point weeds out the people who shouldn't be getting into this because they don't have the budget or business experience (yet) for FBA.

It's tough to use FBA with a limited budget if you want to build a sustainable long-term business. Much tougher than the $10 WSOs would indicate.

IM is a market where the lower the price point, the more trouble and complaints you'll get about your product because so many people are looking for a no-work, make-millions a day product.

I'm not saying $3000+ is worthwhile or justified, only that it makes sense to weed out the most problematic buyers.

This is totally false information, FBA is a piece of cake, I had never even heard of FBA before ASM and within a few weeks I had a private label product listed and selling with no problems

Suggesting that the course was priced at $4000 in order to weed out inexperianced people is just plain silly, with all due respect, I've come across a lot of really very naive and inexperianced people who bought ASM, so that obviously did not work

boonecountry 13th October 2013 06:07 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
I thought this was kinda interesting. So over and over we were all told that on October 11 at midnight this course would be closed and wouldn't let anyone else in no exceptions. Well today October 13 I sent an email to the affiliate promoting this course to me numerous times over the past few weeks and I asked the support desk if there was any way I could still be able to purchase the ASM course and they replied back “We are happy to inform you that we will be able to allow your purchase even after the doors have closed”
Whats up with that?

BoJon 13th October 2013 07:13 PM

Re: Any experiance with Amazon Selling Machine by Matt Clark?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by boonecountry (Post 8604079)
I thought this was kinda interesting. So over and over we were all told that on October 11 at midnight this course would be closed and wouldn't let anyone else in no exceptions. Well today October 13 I sent an email to the affiliate promoting this course to me numerous times over the past few weeks and I asked the support desk if there was any way I could still be able to purchase the ASM course and they replied back “We are happy to inform you that we will be able to allow your purchase even after the doors have closed”
Whats up with that?

So how did it go? Are you now a member of this course?

Actually, I just tried this myself and got the same positive response :cool:


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