The Roadmap To Making Money On Amazon - 101

Ryan Daniel Moran’s businesses have reached the multi-million dollar level using
Amazon as the primary channel for sales. Here’s the roadmap to launching your own
successful business leveraging the Amazon marketplace.

1. Decide what type of business you want to build

Businesses fall into two main categories: “cash flow” and “scalable” (learn more in this
podcast). The only wrong answer to this step is to not intentionally make a decision
about what you’re building.

2. Decide what business you want to be in

Before you pick a product you MUST decide what business you want to be in.
Remember two crucial points:

- You are not building a product, you are building a brand.

- Amazon is not your business.

Listen to Ryan expand on these important points in this podcast episode so you can
avoid making a mistake on the very first step.

3. Pick your first product

Some basic criteria for your first product:

- items cost between $20 and $50

- Lightweight and small (under a few pounds, fits in a shoebox)
- Bonus: customers buy more than one
Check out this resource from JungleScout where they walk through choosing a product
to sell using several techniques.

4. Differentiate your product (optional, but highly encouraged)

Start with what has already been proven to be successful based on your research, and
make it better. Try reading the 3 star reviews to see what possible improvements you
could make.

Lots of sellers on Amazon just sell products straight from the manufacturer with no
customization. This is easy to do, but it also means it’s easy for someone to copy your
brand exactly.
5. Make a list of suppliers / manufacturers
China is a great place to get reasonably priced products produced (check out
alibaba.com). Note, if you’re product is consumable then get it sourced in your own
country.

6. Thoroughly vet suppliers / manufactures

During this phase you’ll get product samples and prototypes made. You’ll evaluate both
the product quality itself as well as the manufacturing company. Are they easy to work
with? Is communication clear?

Note: This is a key piece of the puzzle and too involved to cover completely in this
checklist. When you get to this step see what the team from JungleScout documented
from their experience.

7. Choose a manufacturer and make your first order

Your manufacturer will create your product as you discussed and then ship it straight to
the Amazon warehouse for you.

The Dead Time - Waiting For Your Product

Typically there’s about a month to six weeks of waiting for your manufacturer to produce
your order and get it to the Amazon warehouse. You can’t start selling yet, but there are
some other steps you can take to keep moving forward.

8. Setup your Amazon Sellers account

This is the account you need to sell as a business on Amazon ($39.99 / month).
Register here.

9. Product photography
To stand out you need high quality photos. It’s worth the small investment to have a
professional product photographer make your listing stand out. Upgraded Images is a
great resource for this.

10. Build pre-launch lists

When you finally start selling your product you want to make as strong a start as
possible. Make a list of as people as you can to buy, try, and review your product when
it launches.

Bonus: Start building an email list or a Facebook page for your brand to launch to.

Start Selling
Your new product is on the shelves at Amazon and ready to launch. Now you need
sales and reviews to start growing your business.

11. First sales and reviews

Beg everyone you know to try your product and leave a review.

- Unverified reviews: when you hand your product to someone, they try it, and
leave a review on Amazon later.
- Verified reviews: when someone purchases through Amazon and then leaves
a review. These are worth much more in Amazon’s ranking algorithms.

12. Run a “ZonBlast”

ZonBlast is a proven platform to help launch successful brands. It’s the fast lane
strategy to taking your brand from zero to six figures (and beyond).

13. Turn on Amazon PPC (pay per click) Ads

Once you have 25 reviews it’s time to start investing in Amazon Advertising to drive
more traffic to your product. Here’s a great podcast from Scott Voelker at The Amazing
Seller about Amazon PPC.

14. Reinvest in your business

You’re up and running. The fastest way to build on what you have now is to reinvest
your profits right back into inventory and marketing. The higher your level of
commitment, the faster you’ll be able to scale.

Joe Junfola talks about this approach and how he’s built multiple seven figure brands in
this interview on the Freedom Fast Lane podcast.