Aussie-Online-Entrepreneurs-Amazon Australia-Book

Special Offer!
I know these offers normally suck but hear me out :)

I didn’t write this book to make money, Amazon takes most of the profits
as you no doubt know.
I wrote it to find ecommerce entrepreneurs, people just like you that love
online marketing.
If you’re currently doing this on your own then I want to encourage you
to come take a look at the Aussie Online Entrepreneurs.
It’s a group of Aussies that all run ecommerce businesses, we’re at various
stages from just getting started to making 6 figures a month online and
everything in between.
We’re aged from 34 to 84 and we’re a friendly bunch.
We organise regular get togethers across Australia, and we help each
others businesses get better.
Whether that’s a shoulder to cry on when things don’t go well or a joint
venture deal to take your business to the next level.
Anyway I don’t want to over sell it you’ll either be interested or you won’t.
If you want to learn more head on over to
http://aussieonlineentrepreneurs.com.au/
To learn more
Enjoy the book!
Neil
amazon
DOMINATION
By Neil Asher
with Miriam Battersby
Outsmart the Rest and become a
Bad Ass Aussie Entrepreneur
CONTENTS
Special Offer!........................................................................................................ii
About the Authors...............................................................................................1
Introduction.......................................................................................................12
1. The Master Plan.............................................................................................14

2. Product Sourcing...........................................................................................23
3. Your Amazon Seller Account.......................................................................33
4. Product Listing..............................................................................................39
5. Ways to Get Product Reviews......................................................................49
6. How to Drive Traffic.....................................................................................55
7. Launching- How to DRIVE Traffic ............................................................63
8. Systemising and Outsourcing......................................................................69
9. What’s Next?...................................................................................................75
Appendix 1. Glossary of Terms.......................................................................77

Appendix 2. Amazon Gated Categories.........................................................78
Appendix 3. Resources.....................................................................................79
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT NEIL
Neil Asher – Cuban Drug
Lords, Maniacal Chefs, Naughty
Housewives and a Few 7 & 8
Figure Businesses I’ve Built
The guys have asked me to write

something here… It’s tough to write
about yourself without feeling like a
narcissistic idiot, I guess that’s why
people get biographers, still…
Here’s a start:
(nb: over time I have added to this and it’s gotten quite long…. sorry
bout that, turns out I am a narcissistic idiot after all….)
I was born in Derbyshire in England in 1971 yes I’m a pom 🙂
My dad had a horrendous accident when I was young, he was involved
in a 3 lorry pile up on the motorway, his legs were crushed… he was
hospitalized for 6 months, i remember my mum spending weekends with
him and working 3 jobs to help support us whilst he was in hospital.
I learnt that you need to have a back up plan in life, time is the single
most precious thing we have and if you want something you’ve got to work
your ass off until you get it.
When i was 9 I had a paper round to give me pocket money, i actually
had 3 paper rounds, 2 of which I subcontracted out to friends taking a small
margin for my trouble.
At 11 my parents divorced… it knocked me for 6 and i went from
straight A student to tearaway in 3 months. After that school became a way
to socialize and date girls. I didn’t bother going most of the time and when i
did I’m sure the teachers wished I wouldn’t have.
For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Join Other Online Entrepreneurs as They Learn How to Make Money on the Internet
Amazon Domination / 2
I left home at 16 and because the only subject I liked at school was home
economics (I had a crush on the teacher Mrs Hepworth*) I decided that I’d
become a chef, that and the fact I was useless at school, I think in my final
year I went to school 38 days out of the year….
My teachers opened the champagne when I left.
*Mrs Hepworth (35) went on to date someone who was 18 at the time in
the 6th form, it was quite the scandal!
So I started learning to be a chef, I went to Buxton College for 3 years
and loved it, I won chef of the year each year I was there and at nights and
the weekends worked at Baslow Hall which at the time had a Michelin star
(I think it still does). In return for working Max let me sleep in a cupboard
upstairs and eat in the kitchen, which I liked as I got to hang out with Max
a lot.
He grew all his own vegetables and I used to love getting up early to
help him pick the veg and herbs for the day, often times locals would bring
in pheasants, grouse and local fish that we’d prepare and serve that evening.
I had little time for anything else other than cooking and eating.
I went to London and Max got me a sojourn with Marco Pierre White
at Harvey’s in Wandsworth, Max was a gentle caring fatherly German…..
Marco was a creative genius, the difference could not have been more
profound.
Max played classical music into the kitchen and it was, for the most part,
tranquil…. Marco played Rock and thrash and shouted and screamed, he
was a man on a mission.
I met Gordon Ramsey at Harvey’s, he was Marcos Sous chef (read
maniacal crazy bastard) I watch Gordon on TV now and it surprises me how
much he’s calmed down. The words, “he was an a**hole” spring to mind….
talented beyond belief, but a total a**.
I worked my way through lots of 2 and 3 michelin star restaurants, la
tante claire, Le Gavroche (when it had 3 stars) and Le Manoir aux quat
saison to name a few you may have heard of, I learnt the value of hard work
and preparation. Perfection was and still is something I strive for…. she’s a
hard task mistress.

From there I went to Jersey and with a friend and girlfriend opened my
first restaurant at age 22. We knew nothing of business, the restaurant barely
broke even.
We paid our suppliers in dinners for them and their mistresses/wives.
Our rent was paid for by a stroke of luck when I learnt that our landlord
had a crush on one of the regulars, it wouldn’t be the last time i’ve played
pimp to help a business.
I remember in the mornings we’d be woken by the fisherman at the door
(we slept in the kitchen) with fresh scallops, sea bass and oysters. They’d open
a few and have a beer we’d start intravenously ingesting coffee in readiness
for another 17 hour day.
We won a bib gourmand in our first year, which still amazes me even
now. As a chef, these are my happiest memories.
I had heard that the Olympics were on in Sydney and a good mate of
mine Stuart, who was from Glasgow and thus needed me to translate for him,
was heading off to Sydney to make his fortune as a chef. As he eloquently
put it, “they’re giving any one who can hold a knife a visa” (that is a very nice
translation of something which actually went more like “ay ay nils, lets gan
shag their wee ohsie lahssies an drink thar pufter piss beer ya ken?”)
So we sold the restaurant and jumped on a plane to Sydney with our
visa’s and knives in hand. I was 23 by then.
I LOVE IT HERE!
After 7 years of 16 hour days 6 days a week I needed a break and Sydney
was the perfect respite from the crazy UK kitchens I was used too.
I tend to do everything to extremes (can anyone say neurosis) so just
like I ploughed myself into cooking, I now rushed headlong into a life of
hedonism.
Life became a blur of drink and women.
Meanwhile I had established that my michelin starred training as a chef
meant I could cook the pants of most chefs whilst hungover. Very quickly I
learnt that the people making the real money were the people who owned
the restaurant and so along with a mate and a somewhat dodgy investment
from a drug dealer we purchased our first restaurant.

It was a ramshackle thing in the heart of Darlinghurst, a mecca for party

people the world over.
Whilst our investor sold cocaine upstairs we set about turning the
restaurant around and within 6 months I had a very successful restaurant.
One day whilst particularly high on coke the “investor” came into the
kitchen with a birthday cake he wanted us to “ice” with an once of cocaine
for a big drug lord that had dropped into Sydney for his birthday from Cuba.
I iced the cake with “Happy 27th Birthday”, that night I met 5 Cuban
guys with uzi’s and the next day put the restaurant on the market so I could
get the heck outa there.
We sold the restaurant, (politely) dumped our investor and bought
another place.
We did this 4 more times until one day we had a restaurant with 150
seats doing a mill + a year….. I hated it.
Being the action taker I was at that time I ignored the feeling and drank
and slept around more.
Then 1 day a friend, in retrospect a great friend, took me aside and shook
me up.
He let me know in no uncertain terms I was ruining my life, he was right.
I told my business partner he could keep the restaurant and quit that day.
The next day I was swimming at Bondi beach thinking about my future,
when I got to shore I had a text message from a friend saying she was
desperate for help, she had booked a space at an outdoor festival call The
Peats Ridge Music Festival at Glenworth Valley, it was the Glastonbury of
Australia, she needed a chef.
I arrived to find an old girl mate there called Carla, now Carla was what
you might call a diesel dyke, more manly than Clint Eastwood and awesome
fun to be around. So I knew I’d be in for a good time for the next 3 days
perving on girls with Carla.
We had a prime spot opposite the stage and with 45,000 18 – 22 year old
girls we knew we wouldn’t sleep much either!
Natasha:
I spotted her first.

Short black hair, gorgeous pixie like features, green eyes, an ass you’d cry
for.
She was working as a volunteer, I knew the volunteer co-ordinator, Steve.
“Steve, we’re really in the shit in the kitchen, could we get some help?”
“Yeah sure Neil, I’ll send one of the guys in”
“Errrr this job is gonna need the feminine touch, how about you send
her into the kitchen (pointing at sexy green eyed girl)”
Steve looked me dead in the eye and said the words that are etched in
my memory
“Neil, there is no way in hell I’m putting Natasha in there with you 2!”
Natasha….. 8 months later we were engaged, 1 year later I married her in
the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. I thank my lucky stars everyday that I met
her, she is my soul mate in a way I cannot put into words.
Soon after I started a Psychology & Statistics degree at Sydney Uni, I had
to do a prep course first to show that my maths were good enough (lots of
maths in Behavioral Psych).
I was hooked, people fascinate me, why they do what they do, in retrospect
the Psychology degree was to understand me, I was trying to “figure myself
out” through everyone else.
I see this a lot.
I loved helping people, still do. BUT, I love helping people who help
themselves.
If you take the first step I’ll be right at your side for the next 1, 2, 1000.
But people who complain about their problems without actually doing
anything about them, I have no time for.
So I saw traditional therapy as hindering rather than helping people.
I met a guy called Dr Anthony Grant and loved what he was doing with
Coaching Psychology.
I made it my mission to learn everything about it.
I got good very quickly (that neurosis again) and started coaching some
amazing people to do even more, from lawyers and bankers to actors and

diplomats… I earnt a great reputation and started getting interest from

people who wanted to learn from me.
Our first “become a life coach” seminar was 10 of my clients, within
18 months we had a business that was making $8 million a year and we’d
franchised it all over Australia.
12 months later we’d sold master franchise rights in Australia, Singapore,
Ireland, South Africa and the UK.
Sensing the opportunity we moved to England to look after things
ourselves.
Lets just say that England proved difficult to adjust to, because a year
later we were back here in Oz, we’d sold the franchise rights to the UK and
I’d started a company called Aussiepreneur.
At that time on British TV there were LOADS of programs about moving
to Australia, so I figured I’d provide a service and help people, and because
I’d bought and sold a few businesses I thought I’d set myself up as a business
broker.
My marketing was essentially “England Sucks! Move to Australia, I’ll
help you buy a business and start a new life.”
And here in Australia I’d send letters to business owners with a £1 coin
attached to them saying “England Sucks! that’s why everyone wants to move
to Australia! Let me sell your business to a Pom and you can lie on the beach
at Bondi, see that £1 coin it’s worth $2.80 to you!”
(back when a pound was worth something, now the Aussie dollar is the
envy of the worlds currencies)
We sold $38 million dollars worth of businesses in our second year….
The business was brought by a competitor who thought my marketing
was too crass, changed everything to the same boring shit he was doing for
his other business, promptly screwed it up and closed it 2 years later 🙂
We moved back to England (sorry bout the sucking part… can we come
back please) and I decided to write a book with the intention of publishing
it. I called the book “How to buy a great business with no money down”
About that time I went to a business seminar with Jay Abraham and he
said be the expert in your field, be a trusted adviser, so I decided to give away

my book instead of publishing it…. in 1 month 12,466 people had requested

a copy!
Talk about flying start!
The 12K people who had downloaded my book seemed to like it because
I got lots of requests for help, I like helping people, moreover I like GETTING
PAID to help people, helping people for free I reserve for people who cannot
afford to pay but genuinely want the help.
So I thought I’d run a workshop and teach people face to face, cooking
is theatre and I’ve often thought acting would be fun so I’ve always enjoyed
being ‘on stage’ as a presenter. I figured I’d just copy what Jay Abraham did
and charge $25,000 for a 3 day event.
I hate to admit it but I bottled it, although I truly believed in what I was
teaching and I’d seen for myself people become millionaires using the info
I’d shown them, I still couldn’t charge that much for a seminar, this says
much more about my self confidence and money psychology than anything
else.
I settled on $5000… well $4997 (if you’re a marketer everything ends in
7).
I tentatively sent an e-mail to my list and within 90 minutes sold 100
seats… to say I was shitting myself at the prospect of doing the seminar was
an understatement!
After the seminar I did a coaching group and helped a ton of people buy
and sell businesses, geez it was fun, I LOVE the cut and thrust of business
life.
After that I got a TON of people asking me how on earth I’d sold out a
hundred seat seminar in 90 minutes.
With that my internet marketing career was launched.
In between doing all this I accidentally became the No 1 promoter for
a guy called Chris Howard I single handedly launched their UK business
for them and a VERY smart Australian lady called Karen Corban asked me
to promote Chris in the UK and on the strength of my agreement invested
three quarters of a million dollars to launch their UK business.
Turned out to be a smart move because within a year I’d put 5000 people
into a 2 1/2 day seminar with Chris.

Isabella:
Do you have kids? I honestly never thought I’d have any. I partied hard
and screwed around.
Kids were something the mums I’d sleep with had.
Then during a trip to Cape Town with Tash, Isabella was conceived.
She is my world.
If you’re a parent you’ll get that, if you’re not, you will soon enough.
I love her so much it actually hurts sometimes. She is a part of me and
I’m grateful to have her.
Charlotte:
Charlotte is my second child 🙂 she was born on the 8th of Sept 2012…
she is an incredibly cute little girl who is already showing signs of being an
independent thinker.
With my family complete (2 kids is enough!) I’m happy with my family
life.
With parenthood comes responsibility… my interpretation of that is the
responsibility to explore.
For the last 5 years we have lived in 5 different countries, Australia,
England, America, Holland and France.
We live in 1 new country a year and it’s an amazing way to live.
The internet means I can run 5 big businesses from my laptop along with
10 or so smaller ones, we have 50+ employees and I’ve met 7 of them face
to face.
That to me is freedom.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time selling other peoples products
as an affiliate, it’s become a part of my strategy to test markets by selling
other peoples products first…. In 2013 I became one of the top 100 affiliates
in the world in the click bank network of 250,000 affiliates.
I now run a business where we bring great products to market and
through my team of distributors throughout the world (England, Ireland,
Germany, Holland, France, Italy, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,
Norway, China, Singapore and Canada) we sell globally.

Currently along with 2 business partners we’ve sold 51 law firm licenses
(and ended up owning a law firm in the process) and 38 franchises for a
company called National Home Service. We helped Dave the owner of NHS
to make $1.2 million dollars in 8 months thanks to our franchise selling
strategy.
Essentially I create the marketing and business systems, once we have it
tested and working well we pass it on to our team throughout the world to
sell in their market, it works VERY well.
(I’m VERY good at selling things online, I’m VERY bad at just about
everything else!)
It also means I get to indulge my passion for travel with my family and
meeting new people.
InterpolI between this I also work with Interpol helping them to catch
online criminals, our most recent success was getting a serial conman called
Jarl Moe arrested. Jarl has stolen millions of euro’s from people (myself
included) and so I set about on a mission to catch him. Using what we know
about online marketing we were able to pinpoint where he was and get him
arrested.
Naturally this has made me a target for some strife online (criminals
don’t like getting caught!) but I love doing it and enjoy the investigative work
of finding people…. in many ways it’s the same process we’ve used to win all
those affiliate awards, and it sure beats collecting stamps for a hobby 🙂
Due to the success I’ve had as a super affiliate for businesses, lots of the
businesses I sold products for approached me directly and in doing so they
cut out the networks that took a cut for the intro to me.
This has lead me to start this digital marketing agency RoarLocal in essence I
still act as a super affiliate or outsourced marketing department for the businesses
we look after, we set up their entire digital marketing strategy, look after the PPC,
SEO and SEM do their social media marketing and create their website and landing
pages so they convert visitors into buyers.
Then we spend our time optimising the process so our clients get the
most bang for their buck.
ROARlocal is now running in the UK and Australia with a brilliant team
of people helping our clients businesses grow.

It’s a strange turn around for me and in many ways I’ve gone from
poacher to gamekeeper, where once I was learning how to sell their products
so I could create my own now I apply my skills to massively increase their
online business revenues.
So far so good!
We’ve got lots of great clients who we look after and on average we triple
their online revenue for them, our normal clients tend to be in the $10 – $25
million range and we like a max of 15 clients at a time so we can look after
them properly.
I suppose I’m growing up because I plan to float my company on the
stock exchange.
Tash says next thing you know I’ll be buying a pipe and slippers!
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading some stuff about me, warts and all.
I’m human, I screw up, I’ve made LOTS of mistakes, I’ve looked VERY
foolish, I’ve embarrassed Natasha too many times to count.
We make our own life. We create our own reality.
My overlying philosophy in life can be summed up best by the Delphic
Oracle:
Know thyself, Be Thyself, Love Thyself.
Neil Asher

MIRIAM BATTERSBY has worked

in the Internet Marketing Industry
for 20 years, owning her own Website
Consultancy Business, Mimbee
Multimedia. Her qualifications
include Diploma in Multimedia
and International Webmasters
Certification. She has experience in
Affiliate Marketing, EBay Selling,
Search Engine Optimisation,
Graphic Design, Desktop Publishing,
Photography, HTML and Multimedia.
One of Neil’s first Aussie Online
Entrepreneur students, Miriam
devoured the Amazon Domination
Course followed by the Advanced
Amazon SEO course. Seeing the need for a book explaining Neil’s system to
those who prefer this method of learning to listening to on line videos, she
offered to co-author this book.

INTRODUCTION
Amazon has had a “.com.au” website for a few years, but only selling Kindle
EBooks. Now Amazon is really coming to Australia! More than likely
sometime during 2017. Why is this important? Amazon is an Ecommerce
giant and kicks its opposition out of the park in every country it sets up in.
In USA 1 in 4 of all online sales is through Amazon. Amazon already has
clients and they want to buy.
Australians are shopping on line in huge numbers – increasing at 20%/
year currently and retail shops are closing. Research shows that “Amazon
Australia” is searched on Google around 200,000 times each month so there
are many Australians ready to buy on Amazon but are put off by the cost and
time of shipping and the alternatives such as engaging receiving companies
like Borderlinx (http://www.borderlinx.com/AU/en/) in the USA.
Soon a giant warehouse will be situated somewhere in Australia fulfilling
Amazon products to Australians without the crazy high postage cost we are
now faced with if we want to purchase an Amazon product that does ship
here. Most don’t. Why? They don’t want the cost of dealing with complaints
(which lead to negative feedback) about late, lost or damaged goods.
Australians want to receive their purchase in 2-3 days and until now
this has been impossible via Amazon. Now we have a chance to compete on
a level playing field with other Australian Ecommerce companies. This is
not for the faint-hearted and is not an instant get-rich-quick formula. Like
any new business you are going to need some startup capital. You will need
to invest considerable time and a bunch of dollars, be diligent and expect
failures and frustrations. However with this in mind, if you follow the plan,
you too can be a successful Aussie Online Entrepreneur.
Remember: “diversity = resilience”.

Be agile to change which is forever present with Amazon.

Once you have gone through this book you may want to know even more.
Help is at hand in the way of online courses (http://roarlocal.com.au/
aussie-online-entrepreneurs-2/) and the great friendly helpful Facebook
Community (members only). There is also a Monday night coaching call
with Q and A and regular special guest webinars.

1
THE MASTER PLAN
The aim is to set up your own business with your own brand, private labeled,
targeting the Australian market. Drop shipping and affiliate marketing are
other ways, not recommended here – there is very little profit in it.
Like all successful projects we start with a plan. There are many parts to
setting up your own Amazon business and unless you plan and go through
each stage methodically ticking off and moving to the next, you will get to
the point of listing and realise you have neglected an essential part of the set
up required. Get a large notebook and follow through the sequence given in
this book, chapter by chapter, using clear headings, noting things that must

be done with links where applicable and end each with a clear checklist so
you can see your progress. Note the costs of each part of the plan so there
will be no surprises.
You can do some tasks simultaneously, especially if you have a partner/
team or are outsourcing some tasks. It is then even more important to keep
track of what you have and haven’t done. Expect this lead time to take at least
3 months if you are doing each task conscientiously.
Right at the outset it needs to be said selling on selling on Amazon is
not easy and requires hard work. Most people just don’t get that selling on
Amazon is different from selling on EBay. The average price of a product
bought on EBay is $5 compared to $25 on Amazon, so there is potentially
more money in an Amazon business. The set ups and conceptions are
different too. EBay, though it may be changing, is seen as a glorified flee
market, where anyone can sell whereas with Amazon you have to be an
“Approved Seller” with “approved products” and they can kick you off, shut
you down, for noncompliance and poor performance.
Selling on Amazon also requires a good deal of initial capital.
The good thing about Amazon is that it already has clients – massive
traffic – people with buying intent. And they advertise on Google, so you are
much more likely to make sales there than from your own ecommerce store,
provided you follow the plan.
Succeeding requires active ongoing work and dedication but has much
more potential than eBay if you follow the AOE workflow. Take special note
of how to write the listing and how to get reviews and also how to manage
a launch.

No reviews=No sales=Poor ranking=Can’t be found=No sales.
You just have to stick to the method that has been worked out, through
much research, trial and error. It doesn’t just happen ‘cos you have a listing.
You have to be on page one for your major keyword and that takes effort and
an initial financial outlay. Just the way it is.
The plan is to set up now, targeting Australians, doing your own
fulfillment (you will need somewhere to store you stock and time/patience
with Australia post) or using the likes of Shipwire ( https://www.shipwire.
com/w/support/shipwire-australia-intro/) or NPF Fulfillment (http://www.
npfulfilment.com/) to send your Amazon products out. We will then be
set up and ready with a history of sales and be well placed to start using
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) which gives us a HUGE advantage - more
later. Aim to set up 10 Amazon Businesses, one at a time, getting the first
to 1k/mth than start another and so on until you have 10 businesses = 10k/
month. This is not only possible, but relatively easy of you have the drive
and dedication to follow the plan. It does that time and effort and there is a
financial outlay.
To dominate on Amazon you have to think like Amazon. Amazon is
all about making money for their share-holders and to do this they have to
make the customer experience GREAT. Everything about the way Amazon
is set up is to make it easy for the customer to buy. Amazon needs sales
and will reward sellers who make more sales. So you have to understand
the way Amazon uses CATEGORIES to sort products into departments,

each have its own particular quirks. Think how Amazon trains you to
search by drilling down and then shows you other “relevant products” and
products “frequently bought together”. We have to use this to our advantage.
Eventually we want to have multiple products in a category so that our other
products are shown together.
THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to do first I to

CHOOSE YOUR MARKET
Only then do your, PRODUCT RESEARCH. This can’t be emphasized

enough. If you choose the wrong product you could be doomed to failure.
And before you choose your first product you must choose your market.
Who will you be selling to? Dog lovers, Retirees, Parents of Babies, People
buying gifts, Home Renovators. Choose a market, then find a product that
will sell well to them. How is this done? Research and making decisions. Set
a time limit for this, (1-2 weeks), or make 60 second gut based decisions.
Don’t over think, just get started.

5 Ways to find Product Ideas
1. Browse Amazon’s Top 100 Best Seller Categories https://www.amazon.

com/bestsellers. Check what is selling best in your market. Look at their
price points and images, look for the movers and shakers in that category.
Retail therapy- wander around Coles, Woolworths, Target, Aldi,
Lidi, etc. to see what is selling and check pricing. Take photos on
your phone to record ideas.
2. Ask your suppliers for ideas – they know what is selling.
3. Go to your preferred category in Amazon and search for “add to cart”.
Savvy Amazon sellers often use those words in their descriptions.
They have already done their research. Take note of their long titles,
well optimized wording, and excellent images. Also search for “does
not ship to Australia” or “ship to Australia-no”.
4. Think about what you buy, what do your friends but, what problems
need solving. Remember always you are not selling a product but
the solution to a problem. Get to know where the problems are and
solve them.
Aim to select 15-20 product ideas per category and enter them on a
spread sheet for critical analysis. When you join AOE, you will have access
to a spreadsheet template for this.
The key criteria to select products is to use a Google search for “Amazon
Best Sellers”.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers. (/zgbs= USA). You can search for
other countries.
Choose a product that you have an affinity with. Note that there are
gated and ungated categories – gated categories require Amazon approval
– they are mostly categories where knockoffs abound bit also include health
and beauty products. It can be a VERY long and frustrating process to get
un-gated in these categories. For a full list see Appendix 2.
Approval is not usually difficult, you just have to provide every detail
that Amazon requests. When you become an AOE member your will be
invited to join the AOE Facebook page and find out from others how they
have overcome the obstacles to getting ungated.

Choose a product that has

Evergreen demand, good sales volume and best seller ranking
· Some competition but not dominated by big brand names, who
have huge marketing budgets
· A price point of $15-$40 (shown to be the sweet spot for impulse
buying)
· A shipping weight of under 1kg, which is the first price point break
· Ease of Private Labelling – so you can make your own brand
You will need about $2000 cash to start with a product you buy for $1
and sell for $4, so don’t underestimate the startup costs. The numbers are
impressive, but remember it costs money to make money and you do need
some cash to start with.
If you can sell 5 units/day at $30 = $150/day. At 50% margin = $75 profit =
$27,000/year.
Set up one product at a time, expanding to 5 products – $750/day =
$136.000/year.
Your first product doesn’t have to be your best product. It is all a learning
curve. That is why we suggest getting 1 product to 1k/mth, then start another
product, building on what you have learned. By the time you get to the 10th
it will seem easy.
10 products each making you 1k/mth =10k/month, ~1000/year. Aim
to have 10 diverse but related products within your brand. Look for what
products are frequently bought together in your category, provide bundles.
Go to webretailer.com/lean-commerce/top-amazon-marketplace-sellers .
The sellers here are ranked by feedback. Study the top Amazon sellers
and model your business on the best.
Research using Google Trends, (http://www.google.com/trends)
Uber Suggest (https://ubersuggest.io/ and Merchant Words (https://www.
merchantwords.com/), (they do offer a free account to get you started but
only 5 keywords will be displayed), and Alibaba (https://www.alibaba.com/),
for an idea of margins possible.

Key Word Research
Amazon searches are keyword driven. A key word is the word or phrase
that a person types into the search bar when looking for a product to buy.
Therefore optimizing your listing for your selected keyword is of utmost
importance. So you must choose carefully. All products have at least one
primary keyword (phrase). The better you become at keyword research and
keyword optimisation the more dollars you will make. This is the key to
success.
Prioritise you most specific/relevant keyword for buyer intent. Remember
that some products are generic, not brand driven, also that localized terms/
language should be used.
Go to your spread sheet and add the main keyword to use for each of
your 15-20 products. This is where you do your due diligence and critically
analyse the volume of potential searches for each using Merchant Words
(https://www.merchantwords.com/).
If you get this part right, everything will flow from it.
Research
1. Keyword Volume
Merchant words is a database of keywords used in Amazon searches,
showing the number of searches for a given time period. The free
version gives only 5 results/search so it is worth paying for the full
version if you are serious about this.
Type in your chosen keyword/phrase. Sort by highest search vol-
ume. Look for at least 10,000/mth to be viable. Look at other rele-
vant terms but ignore brand names.
Go to your spreadsheet and enter yes or no and the number of
searches/mth for each.
2. Go to Amazon and search using that keyword (all departments).
For each of the first 3 results note the price, customer reviews,
and best seller ranking – enter these details on your spreadsheet.
Try to select products that have a best seller ranking under
2000. If the top 3 have more than 1000 reviews it will be a

tough market to break into. Deem your closest competitor and

base your decisions on that. Look at their past performance
using the Amazon price tracker, Camelcamelcamel (http://
camelcamelcamel.com/) to see if they are getting consistent results.
Copy the entire URL from their Amazon listing page to the search
bar of camelcamelcamel.com. This will return the details of their
past sales. Look for a consistent price point for their product and
also consistent best seller ranking.
3. Use Google Trends (https://www.google.com.au/trends/) to find
historical data. Look for seasonality, trends up or down, consistency
and how old is the marketplace.
4. Go to Alibaba (https://www.alibaba.com/) and look for selling prices
to figure out if there is a margin in it for you.
Learn while doing not instead of doing.
Make informal decisions quickly. You can do all this research for one prod-
uct in one evening.
Expect to spend 10 hours and minimal $ for this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Pick a market, before choosing a product
☐☐ Research 15 product ideas
☐☐ Identify your PRIMARY KEYWORD- most relevant word for
searchers to use.
(Use the template available when you become an AOE member).
☐☐ Apply the 5 step Amazon Product Research Formula. (Use the
template available when you become an AOE member).
☐☐ Produce a short-list of 5 products
☐☐ Select your top 3 products
☐☐ Find Possible Suppliers (try Alibaba) to assess possible margin.
☐☐ Completed Date……………..
Your Notes

2
PRODUCT SOURCING
Ok, have you done all the tasks in Chapter one? Properly? Thoroughly? If
not, go back and complete ALL tasks BEFORE reading on. Believe me it’s the
only way. You will thank yourself when you bank the cashola!
When you choose a product you must be mindful of profit margin
possible. And I don’t mean figuring out how much you can rort out of
unsuspecting buyer from a product you pay $1 for! There are real costs you
have to pay to get your product from the supplier to the buyer and you have
to be able to cover these AND make a profit. The general rule is:

Selling Price = 25% Cost of Item, 25% Marketing, 25% Amazon

Costs and Shipping, 25% Profit before tax
Or, another way of calculating is to add up all the costs (TCGS=Total

Cost of Goods Sold) and markup the selling price by 50%
Then you Return on Investment (ROI) = 100%
Here is an example:
Cost of Product = $3Shipping = $2
Amazon fees = $5
TOTAL = $10
Sell price = $20 = 50 % profit or 100% Return on Investment.
· Make sure you chosen product is going to be profitable to sell on

Amazon.
· At the beginning reinvest your profits into the business or it won’t
grow.
Product Sourcing
Decide if you will source locally or internationally. Note that you will very
likely run into problems with the US Customs, and/or FDA, if you try to get
any product into USA that is ingestible (by animal as well as by human) or
applied topically. The same goes from bringing such products into Australia.
Everything else is cheaper sourced internationally, particularly from China.
Use Google. Search for your product name +”private label”+ (use quotes
around phrases). Remember it is our plan to sell Private Labeled products
and establish our own brand.
If you wish to avoid getting mostly local results, go to google.com.au/ncr
(no country redirect).
If you wish to find sources that are not on Alibaba or EBay, use the minus
sign modifier in your search query, e.g. product name +”private label” –
site:Alibaba – site:ebay. If you are searching on Alibaba use only suppliers
marked “Gold Supplier” and “Supplier Trade Visit”, to be sure, to be sure.
· Make a short list of prospective suppliers. (NB Have a large spiral

bound notebook to keep all your lists in one place).

· Note their contact details, website address etc.
· It is good to find more than one supplier for your product as you
may need a backup if stock is low or your first choice fails you in
some way.
Contact Selected Suppliers
Call, yes call by phone, the old fashioned way, each of the suppliers you
have selected. They will make more of a phone call that an email. This is your
chance to form a rapport and to ask salient questions such as:
· Do they label and bottle each unit?
· Do they provide artwork templates?
· What is their normal production and lead time for first and repeat
orders?
· What is their monthly manufacturing capacity?
· Do they have the ability to scale easily?
· What is the minimum order for a market test?
· What are their price breaks and volume thresholds?
· Will they provide Material Data Sheets (MDS) and/or ingredient
lists?
· Do they currently sell the product themselves? On Amazon?
· Are they familiar with selling on Amazon?
· How quickly can they get samples to me (get multiple to check
consistency) for testing?
· Ask for costing of samples – don’t expect to get these for nothing.
Be prepared to spend money but you can ask for it to be taken off
your first full order.
· Ask-What is the next step required of you?
When making your final selection, trust your gut instinct. Consider their
ability to scale easily, and if they are familiar with Amazon it is a big plus.
Buying from China
If you decide to source from China there may be lower manufacturing

costs but there will be other hidden costs and possible difficulties. The
Chinese generally like Big Companies, Big Contracts and Big Money.

Negotiation is VERY important to them, as is gender and respect. A male

negotiator will generally get a better price. They expect you to have a website
and a Managing Director, not a CEO. They expect to speak to someone
at their own level and the first contact should be secretary to secretary to
arrange a top level conversation, manger to manager.
In China people don’t cross ranks. Refer to your board of directors, e.g.
“my board of directors has rejected your price. Can you give me a better
offer to take to them?” This shows that you are a substantial organization
with many different layers.
It is often best to hire a Product Expert (procurement agent) directly,
from Alibaba or Upwork. Someone who speaks the language and knows the
cultural norms. They can source good products from good suppliers.
There are 3 options for sourcing from China.
1. Hire a Procurement Expert

Go to Upwork and find someone with relevant experience and good
reviews and performance. They should cost around $20/hr. Set an upper
limit of 10 hours.
Give them an example on Amazon. List factors important to you, like
no middle man, the quality you expect, use your own logo, ship to Australia
for fulfillment. Ask them to negotiate a good price and the term for getting
samples.
2. Use a China Sourcing Company

For example World Trade Concierge (http://worldtradeconcierge.com/),
an Asian sourcing company. They will charge around $200.
3. Contact a Chinese Manufacturing Company directly.

• Go to Alibaba. Use your primary keyword to search.
• Select only suppliers with “Gold Supplier” and “Onsite Check”
listed.
• Make a list of 20-40 to contact.
• Record your chat and request a quote.

• Always reject their first bid. You will lose respect otherwise.
Negotiation is expected.
• Reject their second bid also.
• When you are ready to close the deal use Skype.
• After negotiation ask for a pro-forma invoice confirming their offer.
• Reply with an official Purchase order on your letterhead. Including
your acceptance of terms.
• Always pay your deposit as agreed in a timely manner.
• Be prepared to pay 30% down and 70% on shipment (though a
20/80 split would be better if you can get it).
• They will accept payment by PayPal /credit card or by Western
Union transfer.
Tips for Dealing with China
• ALWAYS get samples first to test quality and consistency before

putting in a large order. They will cost more/unit than when you
are able to order larger volumes. Ask for a discount when you place
your second order.
• You will find there are many suppliers for the same product. You
can play them off against each other. You may need to keep a few as
backups though.
• Your Purchase Order needs to state clearly your expectation of
quality, time deadline and penalties. Also that breakages/losses
must be restored by the supplier. When you join AOE you will have
access to a template to use for this.
• Don’t aim to sell anything made in China that is ingested or applied
to your body. Customs will make it difficult to receive and send
these goods.
• Be wary of selling in the Health and Beauty category. Amazon has
very strict guidelines for accepting products in this category.
• If you are using Amazon shipping (FBA) your products must be
shipped to their warehouse. Amazon will require inspections on

landing the goods. More cost. It is very wise to also arrange for
inspection of the samples at the factory in China before the final
payment is made, or if warehousing in Australia, after arrival and
before your final payment. This is especially recommended for
larger orders. See Inspection Goods (http://www.inspectgoods.
com), charge $103 or V-Trust Inspection Services, (http://www.v-
trust.com).
• At a bare minimum request photographs to show your order
packaged and arrived, before releasing your final payment.
• A good tip is to request some extra flat packed boxes and some are
always damaged in transit.
Air v Sea shipping
• Always get your first order by air freight. You don’t have time to
wait around for the ship to dock.
• If your order is for around 250 units use the factory’s shipping
account and have them sent by air to arrive in a week.
• Your second order will be larger, maybe 2000 units. Sea cargo may
take between 60-90 days. You may be able to negotiate your own
cost or get a discounted rate. Your choice of air or sea shipping will
depend on how quickly your product is selling. Remember Amazon
does not like you to run out of stock.
Package Design
Package design REALLY MATTERS. You have to make a sale sight

unseen. The buyer has to trust you. Have your packaging, label and logo
professionally designed by a graphic designer. This is 2D (flat) art work.
Keep it simple, clear and attractive.
There are specialist packaging companies in China that you could source,
or try outsourcing to Upwork (https://www.upwork.com/) or, in the case of
logos, you could find a ready-made on Graphic River, (https://graphicriver.
net/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term=logos&as=0&referrer=homepage)
for around $30, then get someone on Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/)

to put your business name in it. For higher quality look to 99Designs
(https://99designs.com.au).
Printed product boxes will cost you around 25c from China. (Again when
searching Alibaba choose only “Gold Sellers” and “Online Check” There are
lots of specialist packaging companies in China. E.g. zeal-x-en-alibaba.com.
It is worthwhile to have your product displayed in a quality manner. You
can get an extra $5 for a packaged product and it is very worthwhile to wrap
your product professionally and not DIY.
Packages need to be supplied to the manufacturer.

Be sure to get the dimensions right!
Product Images
You must have GREAT photography. Your buyers want to know what
the product looks like and how it works. Great photography adds huge value
to your product and are the single most important factor for making sales.
Amazon requires high quality product images, on white backgrounds.
Get a professional to take your images, (e.g. http://www.
productphotography.com/) it will pay off. This is not cheap. You will pay
around $500 for 30 images. Try http://www.styleshot.com.au/. Daniel will
give you a good deal if you mention this book. (~$10 each.)
You can also have you product “rendered” in 3D, by a graphic artist, to
look like a photograph.
Find someone suitable by searching for“3D render “on Fiverr (cheapest
at US $30-$50) or Upwork (US 250-$350). At the high end, 99Designs will
charge around AU$1000 and do some very impressive work.
Your listing image must take up at least 80% of the frame and not show
your logo or any props. You are allowed 9 images and 7 will show without
the need to scroll. Include at least one action image that shows the product
in use.

Brand Creation
You will need a business name and ABN, (link), brand name and
product name. Think about how you want to set this up so that your
business is able to be versatile and expandable. It may be better to have a
parent company and a descriptive business name, with the logo not showing
the parent company. Get advice from your accountant. There is no Amazon
advantage in selling as a company or individual but there may be tax benefits
if your sales go through the roof. Australian company tax is 27%.
Take a look at wordfirst.com (tax strategy). Brainstorm using
leandomainsearch.com. You are after an aspirational and unique domain
name that hopefully contains a key word or two, but keep it short. Your
chosen brand name does not have to be the same as your business name, nor
does your domain name, though it needs to be associated.
Search on http://know.com for brand name ideas for social networks
and DO a trademark search! Don’t use any actively registered Trade Mark
terms. You don’t need to register your trade mark but you may wish to.
Register your chosen domain name and set up email addresses
within your domain (email me: admin@on-line-biz.com for help). Aim
for relevance, consistency, recognisably. Avoid using your personal email
- unprofessional! Also use Google for all your email – you can set up to
receive and send from multiple accounts and it keeps all your mail in one
place that can be accessed anywhere on any device.
You may need a live website, in order to get Amazon approval and if
you are dealing with China they will expect that you have one for credibility.
This can be a simple, easy, free Weebly or Wix site built with drag ’n drop
functionality (https://www.weebly.com/au?lang=en, www.wix.com ), a basic
WordPress site,( https://wordpress.com/create/ ) or any existing site you
have, modified to suit. Use your website. Build interaction -to upsell, cross
sell and for creating landing pages, to get subscribers for your database email
marketing. (Email me: admin@on-line-biz.com for help). Your website must
be designed to be responsive to smart phones and tablets as the percentage
of shoppers using them is growing rapidly. Hosting costs vary from around
$8/mth for a starter pack to around $60+ if you have a full ecommerce site.
For hosting check out Crazy Domains who have phone support in
Australia. They are charging around $120 for hosting and email for 1 year. If

you want someone to build you a site very cheaply look on Fiverr – you may
get a very simple one for less than $100.
It is recommended that you purchase Google Apps Integration $3.75/
user/month.
Expect to spend 10 hours and at least $1000 for this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Define your target market
☐☐ Work out your COGS
☐☐ Get a business name, domain, email address and website
☐☐ List possible suppliers
☐☐ Contact suppliers by phone
☐☐ Interview, negotiate and sign agreements
☐☐ Place order for samples
☐☐ Have packaging, label and logo designed
☐☐ Have product images taken and/or 3D rendered
Your Notes

3
YOUR AMAZON SELLER ACCOUNT
So now you have established your business, found and negotiated with
suppliers, received samples of your chosen product from your chosen
supplier and have graphic art work and a website done. If you haven’t, go
back to chapter 2 and COMPLETE ALL TASKS. This system has been tried
and tested and works. Give yourself the best chance at succeeding and do
every step, properly. It’s a process, and it works.
Our strategy is to establish sales on amazon.com, the USA market
place, AT FIRST. Note that each country where Amazon establishes itself
it a separate market place and you need a separate account with each if you
intend to sell in other markets. As soon as Amazon comes to Australia and
allows fulfillment from Australian warehouses, we will be ready to jump in
and get an amazon.com.au account as well.
As we propose to sell Australian goods to Australian people, but later
worldwide, it would be prudent to choose a brand name that reflects the
Australian origin. Australians will like that as they will see cheaper postage
and the global community, particularly Asians, consider Australian products
to be prestige and have the appeal of the “clean and green perception”.
Fulfillment
Plan to fulfill your products yourself at first, and shift to FBA when it
is possible. Note that Amazon gives ranking advantage to FBA products.
In the meantime if you don’t wish to line up at Australia Post every day
and don’t have space to warehouse stock at home, there are local fulfillment
companies such as Shipwire (https://www.shipwire.com/w/support/
shipwire-australia-intro/ ) and NPF Fulfillment (http://www.npfulfilment.

com/order-fulfilment-australia/ ) that could be considered. If you are using

Australia Post consider their click and send option, (http://auspost.com.au/
business-solutions/click-and-send.html ) where you print the parcel label at
a flat rate from $5.50 and they collect it from you.
Marketing
Plan your initial marketing strategy. It is very important to get a volume

of sales and reviews quickly, mostly from Australians. See chapter 6 and 7 for
ideas. There will be a cost involved, either financially of your time. Time is
money. Consider outsourcing these tasks. (Upwork- see chapter 8).
Seller Central Account
Amazon’s account network is distinctly different in the different country

bases it has set up. You will need a separate account for each of these you are
selling in . First set up in the amazon.com zone, later in the Australian zone
when it becomes available and others as you wish. It is best use an email with
the county extension of the zone you wish to sell in, e.g. use a .uk domain
for selling in UK.
Don’t set up your account until you have your product sourced and ready
to sell. It may take at least 30 days from your order placement to receipt of
goods. Although your first month as an Amazon Seller is free, charges start
immediately, (39.90/month for a professional seller.)
• Buyer, Affiliate, Kindle and Seller accounts are all separate on
Amazon, and you should use different email addresses for each.
• Go to http://services.amazon.com and set up a PROFESSIONAL
Seller account. You get the first month free.
• One individual can have only one Amazon seller account in each
country (marketplace).
• You will be asked many times if you are a US citizen for Tax
purposes, you are not and will need to complete a W-Ben8 form on
line.
• They require an Australian bank account to pay your earnings into,
which they do every 2 weeks.

• Your Display Name should include Australia, Aussie or OZ so that

it is immediately clear where you are selling from.
• They may ask for your website address and check it. If it is not live
you won’t be approved.
• Don’t tick the box for FBA. (You don’t want to be sending your
product to USA for fulfillment.)
• Set up your charging method ONLY when you are ready to sell.
• Add your bank account details
• You will need to buy a UPC bar code (http://cheapUPCbarcodes.
net) before you write your product listing. You will get a .pdf file
of 10 codes for $20. Each code is unique for a particular product.
YOU DON’T NEED TO USE THE BARCODE IMAGE, only the
13 digit number, when entering your product.
• IF you are doing fulfillment by Amazon, you will also need a
FNSKU bar code from Amazon, which will have to be included
on your packaging. This is used by Amazon as an inventory
number to be scanned in their warehouse. Therefore you must start
your listing to get this barcode, before your packaging is printed.
This will be important when FBA comes to Australia. Amazon
allows only 1 bar code to be displayed on any product.
• When you receive acceptance from Amazon and are ready to start
selling, and have your marketing plan in place and your discount
coupons made, you can start listing. BUT don’t do this until you
have read Chapter 4. The way you structure the product listing has
a HUGE bearing of how well your product will rank and how many
sales you will make. Remember Amazon is all about making sales
to give profits to their shareholders. If your listing doesn’t do well,
you will not be seen and won’t make sales.
• Note that some product categories are gated (see Appendix 2) and
require Amazon approval before you can list. These are mostly
categories where knock-offs abound. Amazon will want LOTS of
evidence that you are a bona fid seller of bona fid products and this
can be exhausting, but if you do as they ask approval will be given.
• To add a product go to your Seller Central account  Inventory
Add a Product  Create a New Product.

• Find the correct Category and Sub-category for your product – you
can only sell in one. Make sure the top level category is correct.
• Use the “Listing Assistant”. Enter the Product Name, Brand Name,
UPC (from your purchased barcodes). Add other details later.
• Choose “Let me skip the offer date and add it later”.
• Shipping Method – Choose “I want to ship myself ”.
• Save and finish
• If approval is required (for ingested or topically applied products)
do everything that is required without argument. E.G. you may
be asked to supply 3 invoices from your supplier which are not
date or numerically sequential, or the same amounts. They must
be addressed to the exact same details, as on your Amazon Seller
Account- name address, email. Most suppliers will do this for
you. Their phone number should also be supplied. You can and
probably will have to reapply repeatedly. Don’t give up after several
rejections, there is a way. Often their rejection process seems
inconsistent. You can escalate your complaint. Or open a new one.
Try a phone call. Be agile. You only need approval once and often it
can open doors you didn’t dream of.
• If you need to acquire a FBA FNSKU bar code, wait 15 mins after
creating the product, then go to Inventory, Manage Inventory.
On the product line click EDIT on the right then print labels.
Download and save the .pdf barcode file generated and supply it
to your graphic designer for inclusion on your packaging. Note
Amazon allows only 1 bar code to be displayed on the product. If
using the FNSKU bar code it must be visible any easily scanned.
(See video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GK5Yo4Se5o)
. Use the whole label which includes the product name and
condition when it is not obvious from the packaging what the
product is, otherwise just the code.

Shipping Plan
• You will need a shipping plan only if you are using FBA to USA,
UK etc.
• Goods made in Australia for the US market must first go to FBA
for inspection. There are several distribution centres in US and
you may elect to have your product split between them for faster
delivery.
• Print box labels – 1 per case. Email these to your supplier or FBA
inspector.
• If you are sourcing from outside USA for FBA by Amazon USA,
inspections will be required on landing, at your expense.
Expect to spend 3 hours and $<100 for this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Create your Professional Amazon Seller Account
☐☐ Purchase 10 UPC bar codes
☐☐ Create you first product listing-basic detail only at this stage.
☐☐ Generate FNSKU barcode if required.
☐☐ Send it to your graphic designer
☐☐ Create your shipping plan if using FBA
Your Notes

4
PRODUCT LISTING
Be Agile. Think outside the box, Adapt to Amazon Changes.
The quality of your product listing is one of the most important aspects to
ensure good sales volume. It may be worth your while to outsource this
aspect.
Amazon has specific guidelines which do differ between categories.
Make sure you use every aspect of the listing real-estate to your advantage.

You need to put yourself into the head of your chosen buyer and think like
them. Start will a mental image of your perfect customer typing into the
Amazon search bar. They are searching for a solution to a problem. What
are they really looking for? Is it likely to be a gift, something to pamper
themselves with, a utility item?
You must find your best keywords. They will be used in your product
title, bullet points and product description. Use a spreadsheet to store all
your ideas.
There are tools to help you with this, Merchant Words is great. Separate
your searches for descriptive words and brands. You can use competitor’s
brand names in your descriptions to make comparisons.
Go to the search bar and type in your selected keyword. Note what comes
up in the suggested box? These terms can give you further ideas. You could
also try your keyword with a space, following by an “a” – see what comes up,
then try “b” and so on through the alphabet. Consider using terms that are
relevant to you as they are all top terms that are actually used.
Also look on the left of the search page for featured keywords and
brands available. They will give you more ideas. Go to seller central, search
terms. You cannot use BRAND NAMES but you can put them into backend
keywords.
It is helpful to search on Amazon books using your target market as
the search term eg “retirees”, “mothers of toddlers”, “car enthusiasts”, “craft
workers”, “kitchen gourmets”, “hobby photographers”. This way you can see
what topics your target market is interested in, but more importantly by
reading the comments in the reviews you will pick up the language they use
when describing the issues that were addressed. This will give you ideas for
words to use in the product description and the features and benefits. Also
look at other listings similar to yours to get ideas but do not copy! Keep a
spreadsheet.
Select what will be your primary and a few secondary key word phrases
that you want to rank for. The essential keyword formula to consider is
relevancy + buying behavior.
Each part of your listing needs to be optimized for your selected keyword
so that you can be easily found and rank well.

The listing is made up of 4 parts: the title, the bullet points, the product
description and the images. Amazon imposes restrictions for each one,
which differ depending on your category.
How to Write a Powerhouse Product Title
This is the most important listing element. Again every category has its
own style guidelines and you must follow them. You can only access these
when you have a live account and are logged in. They will be presented to
you when you are accepted for a particular category.
Go to sellercentral.amazon.com.grp/hrlp/help-page.html?ieUT-
F8+itemID=1641
This gives you important information about the title style, images,
description, browse and search. It also gives a great list of Dos and Donts.
DO
• Always capitalize the first letter of each word except articles (a, an,
the), conjunctions (and, but) and short prepositions (in, on)
• Use numerals not words for numbers
• ASCII characters and symbols are not supported. (But you can use
#1)
• If the product is a bundle state the number in the pack e.g. pack of
10
• There is a 50 character limit but you can add up the 250 characters.
This is inconsistently enforced -go figure!
• The more words you can use the better for getting important words
in the title, but it must read well. Test and judge by your results.
Model from existing top sellers without copying.
• Keep your most important text within the allowed characters.
Supporting text can follow and is sometimes displayed and
sometimes truncated.
• The characters displayed are different when viewing on PC, Tablet
and Smart Phone.

DONT
• Include the price

• Use all Caps or all lowercase
• Include your seller information or promo messages like “Sale”,
“Free Shipping”. (Use the Promotion Manager Tool to include such
messages.)
• Use the Brand Name, unless you are Private Labeling
• Use subjective superlatives such as “Hot Item”, “Best Seller”
• Use phrases separated by hyphens – it must read well
Suggested Formula
Full Product Name + Best Keyword+keyword2+benefit 1+benefit

2+benefit 3+recommended for…+ better than generic competition (e.g.
cheap discount stores) +2, +3, +90% Peace of Mind Guarantee. One benefit
should be “ships from Australia”.
Look at how your competitors and listing and model yours on it, ethically.
Look at the comments others leave them and observe the emotions and
language used. Look for ideas and phrases that reveal hot buttons. This gives
you a great insight into your market – getting inside their minds, finding
their emotional hot buttons. Use their exact language and search for phrases
representing your target market. (This is why it is so important to FIRST
select your market – right at the very beginning!) Market to the consumer
needs. You are not selling a product but a solution to a problem. You need
to find out what problems your target markets have and how they express
them.
You can find your target market on Amazon books, e.g. “Solo Mum”,
“Working Girl” “Foody”, “Retired Investors”. Find books bought by these
markets and look at the comments in the reviews. Get inside their minds,
find their emotional hot buttons. Use their exact language phrases. Gather
these as key phrases for your copy writing. (A template is available to AOE
members.)

How to Write BIG Benefit Bullet Points
Bullets points are the second most important part of your listing. Only 5
bullet points are available to you, you them wisely.
They are displayed ‘above the fold’ on your product page. People generally
will read them, whereas the product description is much lower on the page,
after other Related Products, and is really there just for SEO. For help go to
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeid=1275941
Bullet points are so important to get right. This is where you get to list
the benefits (and key features) of your product.
Tips
• Phrase your benefits along the lines of… .’allows you to be……
have……..do……...’ Use an evocative word image.
• Include the main keywords and benefits that will advance you sale.
Stack them with the most important as number 1.
• Sell against generic competitors (e.g. cheaper than plastic store
brands.)
• Keep a consistent order for atll your products
• Reiterate important information from your Title and Product
Description
• Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
• Use sentence fragments and no punctuation
• Do not include promo or pricing information
• Finish with a Risk Reversal Lifetime Guarantee.
Bullet points should consist of keyword phrases, benefits and key features
(turn your features into benefits). They are viewable under the product image
on your product page, and people will read them. Include all your main key
words in readable phrases and also use words to advance sales. Use HTML
to format your bullet points with italics, bolding and underlining.

Amazon prefers shorter bullet points, but use longer ones where you
can. In some categories there is a character limit of 80, 100 or 250. Use longer
phrases if possible. Maximize your retail space!
How to Write Rock Solid Product Description
This is the least important part of the listing. It is usually “under the fold”
meaning that people need to scroll to see it and it is usually not read. Use it
for search engine optimisation. It is another place to include your keywords.
There is a maximum character limit of 2000.
• Format using HTML (see onlineeditor.net for a WYSIWYG editor
very easy to use) to include bold, colour, underline, italic etc and
white space -important for readability.
• Start with a rhetorical question and address any concerns the
reader may have.
• Follow with a benefit. Give in words an image of the result they will
get for their problem, Use as many of these question/benefit pairs
as you can. Use material for your comments and keyword research.
Stitch together the benefits and key phrases.
• Alternatively if you are an excellent writer you may do this is story
format with a real case scenario and what/how you product helped.
It is also another aspect that can be outsourced to an expert copy
writer.
How to Create Product Images that Sell Like Crazy.
Images are VITAL. You must have at least one excellent image of your
product. Amazon allows you to use up to 9 product images. 7 will be
displayed and the other 2 on scrolling. Try to use as many of the 9 spots you
are allocated. At least one should be an action photo of the product being
used.
• The first image is the most important as it is the one to be displayed
on both the search results page and your product page. Each
category has its own style guide.

• Use a professional photographer e.g. productphotography.com.

They are in the US and you will have to pay for your product to be
shipped and returned. There is also impackimages in Sydney who
do a really god job.
• It must be a photo and not a drawing. It can be a 3D render, in fact
Amazon seem to prefer it. (Search on “3D render Amazon” on
Fiverr) You will need to provide them with your flat file art work.
• It must be clear, information rich and attractive, with a pure white
background.
• The product must fill at least 85% of the space and only the item
can be included – no props, logos, watermarks, text or insets. It can
show the product being modeled.
• It should be at least 1000 x 500 pix, though 1500 x 1500 is
recommended, and it should be in the jpg format.
• Go to editproductphoto.com to get rid of backgrounds (not very
expensive). Or go to Fiverr and search for edit product photo.
• Make sure that your Product Name, which should be your main
keyword is on the product/package image and is large and VERY
CLEAR (use a serif font) in the photo, and much bigger than your
Brand Name.
• Choose colour carefully – white on black is very difficult to read.
o Green – peaceful, health
o Silver – balance, calm
o Gold,- clarity, warmth
o Red – action, food
o Though in some countries this is seen differently.
You have more freedom with the other images you put up.
• Show an image containing a related product for cross selling

• And/or different sizes for upselling
• Show the product with the product packaging.
• Show the back as well as the front.
• Show the features and benefits

• Different scenarios of use

• Before and after shots
• Compound images create images with your graphic designer
• You may use subtle sexual cues if applicable
• Show a action photo of the product being used.
• Test including an Australian flag in one corner to emphasize its
Australian origin.
• No links are allowed to be shown?
• Use all 9 opportunities if you can.
• For exceptional photos go to productphotography.com or
impackimages, Sydney
• For a 3D render (preferred by Amazon) go to Fiverr, search for “3D
Render Amazon”. You will need to provide your flat file artwork.
Tips to Optimise your Product Listing
• The ASIN Code is the Amazon Standard Identification Number,

unique for each product. It is found in the URL and in the product
detail area under the shipping weight.
• Price- Show the Sale price and % off, (e.g. 30%.) Make the end by
date a long way off, and set a calendar reminder to extend it. Your
product should ALWAYS be “on sale”.
• Customer questions and answers are undervalued, people read
them. Encourage customers to ask questions and answer as the
business owner, using key words/phrases in your answers. Get
people to ask strategic questions, e.g. “is your 20% off discount
code still available?” Add in all the questions you are asked after
purchase, as the answer will go to all who bought the product.
Use these to augment your existing sales message and important
benefits or ones you were unable to include. Use you keywords/
phrases.
• Outsource your product listing copy writing to a virtual assistant
from Fiverr or Upwork. (Search Amazon Product Description –

should cost around $20.Fivver, $50 Upwork. You could use multiple
people and pick the best or combine their work and tweak and edit
the copy afterwards for increased impact. Choose the most relevant
people with good experience in a similar field. Check the reviews
and feedback to choose a good writer. You need to know and be
able to convey to them what you consider ‘good’.
Expect to spend 10-20 hours and up to $500+for this stage

(if you outsource).

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Create your list of targeted keywords
☐☐ Write your Product Title
☐☐ Do competitor comment research
☐☐ Write your bulleted benefits
☐☐ Write your Product Description
☐☐ Produce your images
☐☐ Add normal and sales price
☐☐ Hire outsourcers to write copy and produce images
(recommended)
Your Notes

5
WAYS TO GET PRODUCT REVIEWS
Product Reviews dominate the Amazon selling mode – they are VERY
influential, having a huge impact on ecommerce purchase decisions. People
look at the Title, Image, Reviews, in that order. Subscribe to marketingland.
The number and ranking of the reviews you receive makes the difference
between selling and not selling. Negative reviews affect 80% of buyers,
positive 90%. You need to be getting 4.8 to 5 stars consistently. If you are
getting less than 4 it might as well be a dead listing.

Reviews must be from verified buyers who have paid the full price
as listed. In October 2016, just recently, Amazon has changed the rules
link. You can no longer offer free or discounted products in exchange
for reviews. The amounts to buying reviews and Amazon now has a zero
tolerance on that. Now reviewers must have spent a minimum of US $50.00.
Amazon’s Terms of Service PROHIBIT you from soliciting reviews and you
must NEVER pay someone to write a review.
Old non-compliant reviews are now disappearing from older listings.
This gives you, the new seller, a better opportunity.
There are two important metrics to keep in mind – making sales and
getting reviews. You can’t get one without the other. Amazon gives more
weight to more recent reviews and to those which others vote as helpful.
You need to create systems for getting a large quantity of ongoing quality
reviews and for managing negative reviews. Bury the bad reviews under
masses of good reviews. You will get some and you must handle them well,
but if you have none, you look false.
Amazon will remove reviews from family (with the same surname), or
traceable friends, or from people with an Amazon seller account. So leverage
online forums, groups and bloggers and use professional Amazon reviewers.
To get large numbers of quality reviews you will need to have a system,
a process and an attitude of co-operation and customer service. Focus on
what you can control and on giving your customer a top experience.
Only 2% of purchasers will leave a review voluntarily. You must work to
increase this. Aim for 5-10%, it will make a big difference to your revenue.
There are many ways to do this legally.
1. Reviews are seen and read consistently before a purchase is made.
You want them to be useful, interesting, relevant and honest. For top
quality, unbiased reviewers, search for “Amazon Top Reviewers” or
go to amazon.com/reviews/top-reviewers. These professional writers
will give unbiased, reviews that add massive credibility, plausibility
and believability to your listing. Many will include a video review
and show the product being used. These are extra good and get a lot
of visits. When choosing reviewers look at their rankings and their
reviews, also the category of products they have reviewed. Look for
the Hall of Fame Reviewers, and Top 500 reviewers, those who will

do video reviews and 5 Star reviewers. Don’t spam them! Make a

personal connection with your chosen people. Reference their prior
reviews and state what you likes about them. They are under no
obligation to you. There is a kindle eBook “How to get good reviews
on Amazon” ($4) on how to approach Top Reviewers. Aim to get
15-20 reviewer reviews to get started. Be considerate of their time
and NEVER ask for a 5 star review. You need to ask them to buy the
product at full price and refund them after you get the review. You
will have to pay for the shipping, but ensure a good experience with
2 day shipping.
2. Note there is now a Facebook page for Australian Amazon reviewers.
3. There are other third party sites like snagshout.com and sellerlabs.
com. These are also great for product research – sort by campaigns
and popularity. Snag a deal – like advertising coupon prices –
automated $1 favorite sellers. Use as you need there is no recurring
cost. 20 snags=16-18 reviews. Coupons should be I use only (so they
can’t be shared.
4. Email follow up – feedback genius http://www.feedbackgenius.
com/. They allow 4 messages /customer, you choose the timing.
There is a suggested script sequence available to AOE members.
5. Use the Amazon buyer-seller messaging system. When a sale is made
Amazon makes the customer record available to sellers – name and
phone number but not their real email address, only their Amazon
proxy address. There are clear rules to keep the buyer on the
Amazon platform. No website links, logos, marketing, promotions
or refers can be made. This is monitored. Messages from seller to
buyer can only be about service issues or reminders for reviews. So
use this system to your advantage contacting every customer via
the Amazon proxy system. Don’t try to sell them anything! You can
automate this process using feedback genius, which is free for up to
100/mth. $20 next 1000. This very powerful. You can use it to send
up to 4 timed messages per customer, at for example 7, 14, 21 and 28
days after purchase. It integrates with your Amazon Seller Central
account. Set this up when you set up your first product, you will
thank yourself for doing this later.

6. Use phone calls to resolve issues, show you care, to turn customers
into loyal fans who will buy from you forever and recommend you to
their friends. Also to get lots of 5 star reviews on autopilot and to get
the customers personal email for your database. Call yourself for a
deeper connection, but as sales increase this method is not scalable
and you will need to outsourcers to other to do the calling for you.
You may use hired help or Upwork (People from the Philippines
often have excellent English.). In Australia you could try call assist,
though it is not as good yet as Feedback Concierge in the US which
is cutting edge– more than just a call center. They offer a fantastic
service, good data and follow-ups. $1- $1.50 per call. Plans start
from $250/75 calls. They will immediately send a follow up email
asking for a review.
7. Offer Skype consultations, pdf reports, video links etc as add on
surprises
8. Use packaging inserts to remind to leave a review. Your package
inserts should also be a way of collecting emails by offering an opt-in
VIP club with discounts etc. This is a repeatable system on autopilot.
Offer life time warranty, free videos, pdf guide, inclusive offers/
discounts/coupons, a link to website landing pages for your full range
of products. Also include a script – “Thinking of leaving a negative
review?” and tell them how to contact you to put the situation right.
9. Run a launch/sale to boost the number of sales in a short period.
Be sure you review the Amazon Terms of Service, they are extremely
strict and you risk losing your account if you don’t comply.
NOTE: As of October 2016. Amazon has stopped incentivized reviews.
An incentivised review is any review where a product is given away for

free or at a discount in exchange for a review.

You could not stipulate that you wanted a positive review but that is what
you normally got and in Amazon’s test a significant amount of incentivised
reviews were 5 stars.
They have now stopped this UNLESS the reviews are through Amazons
own incentivised review program called Vine.
No doubt they saw a lot of people making money off incentivized reviews
and wanted to bring that cash back in house whilst tidying up reviews to
make them more trustworthy
Giving away products is still OK. You can still sell products to people at a
discount. So you can still product launch. You cannot expect to get a review
from those giveaways, however, clearly some people will leave a review.
These will be organic reviews, based on you as a seller following up with
your customers, (which is what you should be doing anyway.)
So what changes for us? Well nothing really changes. We still do product
launches. We still give away product. The only thing that changes is that we
do not now “expect” a review. You may or may not get one. You should, as
always follow up with you customers to ensure they’ve had a good customer
experience.
Expect to spend 10 hours and the cost of at least 20 products for

this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Identify 5 Amazon Top Reviewers you can ask to purchase your
product in the hope of a good review, without asking for one.
☐☐ Create a Snagshout Campaign in the hope of getting 20 reviews.
☐☐ Set up a Feedback genius Account.
☐☐ Send at least 1 automated, follow-up email to your customers after
7-14 days, asking for a review.
☐☐ Create a 90 day deadline to either start calling
Your Notes

6
HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC
You must get traffic to make sales. That’s a given. But how do you get people
to see your listing? Consistent sales with paid traffic – that’s the best way
to get fast results. Paid advertising generates sales, repeat customers, and
helps you achieve and maintain your organic ranking. Also the higher your
volume of paid traffic, the more highly you will rank in the organic listings
so the more free traffic you get. It’s a catch 22. Free traffic is slower and isn’t
scalable. Don’t rely on it. Balance you paid and free traffic.
You also need to consider your conversion rate. Getting traffic does not
always mean making sales. That where the quality and relevance and of your
listing comes in. Aim for a 15% conversion to sales.
You will need to see goals and set a budget – don’t let it run away on you
without measuring what your results are. You can advertise, pay per click, on
Amazon itself and it is much easier and simpler and probably more effective

than trying Google ads, though if you have a big budget go for both. These
two are the best PPC platforms for Australians.
Set Goals. Calculate your marketing spend per day, per week and per
month and take 10 mins a day to track what is happening. Start with an
educated guess, but be realistic. If you are going for 100,000/mth income you
will need to spend more than $200/day. Include what you spend on getting
reviews in your monthly marketing budget, which should be around the
same dollar figure as what your product costs are per month.
Back to that equation….
Cost of product 25% + cost of marketing 25%+ amazon & shipping

costs 25%=75% of retail price, leaving 25% profit for you (or 505 ROI)
You can choose to bid for impressions (how often you ad is displayed,
clicks, or sales. Measure your cost per click, and sales per click. There is good
sales data you can use for this inside your Amazon Seller account, but you
can also make up your own spreadsheet for analysis.

Amazon Advertising
Note that Amazon sponsored ads are only available to Amazon Sellers
and are displayed in 2 areas of the search results page – 5 down the right
hand side and 2 at the bottom – or sometimes they are at the top. That is
there are only 7 spots available and you want to aim for the top 3 places.
They can be identified by the word SPONSORED.
• Sponsored ads are marketplace specific i.e. your ad on amazon.com
will not appear in amazon India, for example, unless you list it there
as well.
• Only available to Amazon Sellers,
• Very easy to use. Not need to write copy or upload images.
• Go to services.amazon.com. It is simple and quick to set up and you
get free clicks when you sign up for your Amazon Seller account to
get you started.
• Log into your seller account and go to Sponsored Products. https://
services.amazon.com/services/sponsored-products-overview.
htm. On the top Navigation bar select Advertising then Campaign
Manager then Create Campaign.

• Name it with your primary key word and set your daily spend limit
e.g. $3.30/day - $100/mth
Manual Campaigns
• Set a start date but no end date.

• You can use both manual and automatic targeting.
• Bid high ($2-4.00 but don’t use whole numbers) to begin to see
where you need to be get the top spot.
• Put in your own keywords/phrases (max 10) from your own
research – use ones with buyer intent.
• Start with 5-10 keywords and a single manual campaign.
• Run this one ad-group for 1 week at first with no change as it takes
7 days to get good data back, as Amazon does not add in the sale
and the ACos (Amazon Cost of Sale) until after the product has
shipped. If you product has a 50% gross margin you will need to be
getting an ACos of 50% to break even. You need to be doing better
than that. Anything up to 100% is Ok, depending on your sales
strategy and lifetime customer acquisitions.
• See what it takes to make sales.
• Most will bid on whole numbers – out smart them by using
amounts like $2.57, 2.07 to beat them.
• Your goal is to get data. Set and forget for 7 days. Then analyse.
• Remember that the data is not real time – Amazon does not add a
sale until it is shipped and that often takes a day or two. Therefore
week to date data is not accurate 0 don’t use it for decisions.
• Instead look at the more accurate last week data (Amazon week
starts on Sunday).
• Longer time frames are more reliable.
• Focus on volume keywords.
• ACos - lower is better but life time value important.
• Your product should have a 60% gross margin.
• ACos to break even is 50%.

• Focus on keywords that give you the greatest volume as well as a

low ACos.
• Aim for the highest conversion rate you can get – Amazon loves it
and will promote you in the rankings for it!
• When estimating your bid for page 1 ranking be mindful that the
Amazon suggestions are over estimated – don’t use them! This is a
subjective process, based on your goals and your financials.
• When you analyse the data pause any underperforming keywords.
• Replace then with new words you want to try and test – maximum
10 at a time.
• Dump any with zero sales and 200-300% ACos.
• Start a new campaign for winners, pausing them in the first
campaign.
• Keep testing.
• Try lowering your bids until you hit a sweet spot. Look for a
balance between profitability and sales volume. This is a numbers
game.
• When you are happy with the way it is working, leave it alone for
1-2 months, then analyse your data again.
Automatic Campaigns
• Use the Automatic campaign setting only once per product and
only for 7-14 days.
• The goal here is to uncover new keywords to test further, with the
aim to bring out the best keywords into your manual campaign.
• Use the Automatic targeting report to which ones are getting clicks
and sales. Copy those over to your manual campaign to test.
• Inside Seller Central go to Reports->Advertising Reports->
Automatic Targeting. Select Auto Targeting Report, and the date
range, update, request a report, download it as a text file and open
in Excel. Sort the data by “Numbers of Orders Placed” or “Product
Sales within a week of click”.

• Pick your winners and losers.
For success, be clear on your goals, set you budget and check regularly.
Create a manual campaign with no more than 10 keywords. Set an automatic
campaign to find the best keywords to use. Review every 7 days. Drop non
performing keywords and test new ones.
Google AdWords
Google always shows products from Google Shopping at the top of a

search page. They don’t include Amazon listings here, unless you also have
a website. (Another reason to have a website.) They show 2 sponsored ads
under the shopping ads and three at the bottom – which are useless IMHO.
Note: – You can put your Amazon star rating in your Google
Sponsored Advertisement- use it. It is eye catching and will get you traffic.
Also you pay less for Google traffic when you are sending them straight
to your Amazon listing page, not your website landing page. However
Amazon related advertising is not yet available in Australia. Use special
characters such as # to stand out well and always include your price
and % savings. Conversion = Relevance + Value +Call for Action.
Your advertising words must be relevant to the audience you want to attract,
value must be shown and there should be a clear action they can take to get
your product toady.
e.g. #1 rated Hyaluronic Acid – Amazon Sale $19.90 – Today only
(Use your best keyword first.) Include a guarantee.
• Google will give you $150 free to spend on AdWords when you
spend your first $50.
• Use the search network only, not the display network, where you ad
is shown on others’ websites sites in Sponsored Ad boxes. You want
to be there on the Google search page.
• Bid 100% on Desktop and Tablet display – this is where you will
make sales. Mobiles are generally only used for searching – but this
is changing.

• The opportunity here is good as few take the time and trouble to
use it.
• Try PPC advertising on Bing and Facebook as well.
• Ultimately sell in other markets as well, e.g. India, UK, and New
Zealand.
There is no such thing as free traffic. It is either going to take you time
or money to get people to see your listing. Free traffic can be leveraged but
is not as easy to control as paid traffic. Amazon loves both slow and steady
sellers and fast high volume sellers. What it does not like is stop start sellers
and you must never run out of stock!
The take away message from this chapter is simple. Use paid traffic to
make big money or don’t and get hobby money. 5% more effort will result
in 1000% more revenue. Ultimately you will be getting free organic sales in
other markets.
Amazon ads are not yet available in Australia but they will be coming.
Sell first through amazon.com and be ready for amazon.com.au. Leap frog
the rest. Few are prepared for Amazon Australia. If you follow this system
you will have a huge advantage over other who just won’t do this and will
wonder why they don’t make sales. Figure it out. Make it work. It will bring
you dividends if you stick to it.
Expect to spend 10 hours and $at least $500, depending on your

product cost, for this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Set your goals and your marketing budget
☐☐ Do thorough keyword research
☐☐ Set up your first Amazon Manual Campaign
☐☐ Set up an Amazon Automatic Campaign
☐☐ Analyse and monitor your data
☐☐ Set up a Google AdWords Campaign
☐☐ Set up Facebook Advertising
Your Notes

7
LAUNCHING- HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC
Again, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE TRAFFIC. It costs either

your time or your money – or both. You can build a good business using only
leveraged traffic but using paid traffic is faster and much easier to control.
Amazon loves slow and steady traffic – it keeps the business chiefs happy,
but it loves fast, high volume traffic better as it keeps the stock holders happy
– and that is their main objective. In business we need to have the same
mindset. Amazon rewards us for making sales by increasing our ranking
and showing our product in the ‘related products’ box or the ‘buyers also
bought’ box.

Once you have your product listed, plan a launch. A launch sounds
like something you do when a product is first revealed on the market but
it is actually a strategy to get massive sales and can be repeated many times
throughout a products life time.
Amazon Product Launch Formula
Making a significant number of sales in a short period of time =

momentum. To do this you need to sell at a discounted price to get a rush of
buyers. This is the fastest way to get better organic ranking and be discovered
by folk who are searching “All Departments”. This is the best kind of free
traffic and Amazon loves it!
Lower Your Price-Free Traffic Method
Normally your price should be at the higher end of similar products

available. The premium price can be justified by showing perceived value
– excellent packaging, excellent images, and excellent copy. Putting your
product “on sale” for 4 weeks with a significantly reduced price will bump
up sales for that period and so your ranking. If nothing else has worked this
is a great plan B to kick start your sales. Drop the price for 30 days, then
bring it back up, step by step to get to a price point that works. An attitude
of agility, to be able to test different ideas, is the key defining factor of great
entrepreneurs. If something is not working, try something else. DON’T
GIVE UP. Focus on building a long-term business.

Check your sales results on the Amazon Price Tracker, CamelCamelCamel,

(http://camelcamelcamel.com/). Also check your Best Seller Ranking before
and after the Sale campaign. Use “search rank”, (http://www.searchrank.
sellerlabs.com/) to track your organic search rankings. Prices start at just
$10/mth to track the keywords for 2 products.
Amazon search results show 15 listings per page. Aim to be in the top
15, to be on page 1 of Amazon for your search term. Great page rank = free
sales. When your seller ranking increases you will get more sales as Amazon
will show your product to more viewers.
More Traffic = More Sales More Sales=Better Ranking = More Traffic
Amazon Product Launch Formula
A product launch is a strategy to get massively increased sales over a

short period of time. It is a fast way to kick start sales, grab market share and
get momentum within a new or existing product category. It is not only done
when the product is newly listed but at any time a sales boost is wanted.
A common approach is to offer a discount and/or bonuses during a
defined period. They are effective in that they generate organic rankings in
Amazon searches which means our products become discovered by people
searching naturally using keywords related to our product. Your listing will
then become more discoverable so more and more people will see it and go
on to buy it. You will also find that not only your primary keyword, but lots
of others will also start to rank. You will find that what a listing on Amazon
page 4, becomes and stays on page 1.
Sales beget sales.
You aim to increase sales significantly over a short period of time. There
are many ways to do this. Pick one and use it, then another. Then all 4.
1. Blogging
Valuable blogging copy influences buyers and converts. Leverage
them! Influential and trustworthy bloggers can be found on Tomoson
(https://www.tomoson.com). They have more than 70,000 bloggers
and some great tracking tools. Find bloggers with good reviews
who are interested in products such as yours. They will require a
physical product in order to write about it. Approach your selected
bloggers personally and respectfully to get their email address. Email

them a product code on a certain date that will allow them to buy
for a greatly reduced rate for 24 hours. You will get a rush of sales.
Check out https://moz.com/blog/category/blogging
2. COST: Thomson is a relatively inexpensive source for finding trusted
bloggers. They connect the business with the blogger and give you
tools to monitor and research. They give a 30 day free trial period
then it is $99/month for 10 active promotions. Build a list of bloggers
to use over and over again. Many will post a You Tube video of your
product in action which is value+++. You can outsource this task to
a VA – see the following chapter. Reduced or no product profit.
3. AMZ Tracker
Go to the Amazon review tracker, https://www.amztracker.com, and
start a campaign to give away many units (50-70) of your product for
$1. Allow a waiting list to build up, don’t approve each one initially.
When your launch is about to commence approve each one at the
same time. AMZ tracker will automatically email all of your selected
people, at the same time, a coupon code to use to buy your product
at this greatly reduced price. You should get large numbers of sales
on the same day. Amazon loves that! Membership of AMZ includes
access to the Amazon Review club and many other useful tools.
There is an excellent video available at amzhq.com/amzt
Note: In order to strictly adhere to the TOS, as of October 2016,
we can no longer require the shoppers on ART to leave reviews for
amztracker product promotions.
COST: Expensive -$50/month minimum level. It is however highly
automated and flexible and gives you a good volume of reviewers
and other tools. You will of course get a reduced or no profit on these
sales but it is well worth it to make the volume of sales and see your
ranking improve.
4. DIY Email Lists
This is a do- it-yourself method of creating a list (database) that you
own. This method requires a reasonable level of computer skill to be
successful and it an ideal job to have outsourced. Use email capture
forms on your website and Facebook advertising to send traffic to
“lead pages”. (Recommended resource, Leadpages, (https://www.
leadpages.net/ ). Leadpages offers free and paid templates if you have

an account, which makes the creation of landing pages and their

associated thankyou pages incredibly easy and just $1 each. These
are places where you can create html (web) pages designed to sell the
benefits of your product, capture email addresses and send buyers to
your Amazon listing page. They are sometimes called squeeze pages
and are seamlessly integrated into your website. The aim is to get
people to “opt-in” or in other words, agree to be marketed to.
Once people have “signed up” you need to follow up. Use Mailchimp,
http://mailchimp.com, (free for first 2000 database members) to
make this an automated campaign by sending follow up emails via
autoresponder messages set to be sent at specified times after the
first opt-in. Email everyone who has opted-in that the discount
coupon will be sent on a certain day and its expiry date. Send only
one reminder before the coupon code expiry date. After 7-10 days
ask each for an Amazon product review. Using Mailchimp, http://
mailchimp.com, (or the likes) you will build up a database of targeted
customers who you can email to again and again.
COST: You will need a website and an email service. Reduced or no
product profit.
5. Third Party
These are automated systems primed to give reviews. E.g. zoneblaster.
com. It is very important when using these that your listing is
very well optimized. Create a zonblast (https://www.zonblast.
com/) timeslot and aim to give away a minimum of 150 units.
Monitor your sales for 72 hours and watch your ranking improve.
COST: $247/month minimum plus product.
Expect to spend 10 hours and $up to 247.mth for this stage

CHECK LIST
☐☐ Choose which strategy(s) to use
☐☐ Set a deadline
☐☐ Create coupon
☐☐ Implement
Your Notes

SYSTEMISING AND OUTSOURCING
Many of the numerous tasks involved in setting up your successful Amazon

business can be outsourced, if you create systems.
At first you should do each task yourself. Get to know the most efficient
way to do it and develop a system, in step by step format, so that you can
teach someone else to do it your way. Exactly. Every time. You do the basic
bits the best. Systemize and outsource the boring bits. There are massive cost
savings to be made by outsourcing to third world countries, freeing up your
time to get onto the next project.

Aim to outsource most low value, asynchronous (don’t need to happen

at the actual time), repetitive tasks so that your business almost runs without
you, though you will still need to do the real-time (have to happen on time)
strategic activities yourself. This strategy takes you from a sole trader to
business owner quadrant of the Rich Dad formula, where real wealth is
made.
Robert Kiyosaki Explains The Cash Flow Quadrant
You can use family members, full or part-time employees, hired casual
employees or outsourcers, or outsources hired via third party online agencies
such as Fiverr, (cheapest), Upwork and 99Designs (Graphic work only)
• Keep daily “To Do” list and “Have Done” lists for several weeks.
• List all the activities/tasks involved in setting up one product from
conception to launch.
• Prioritise them by importance and time scale.
• Find tasks that can be outsourced.
• Write how they are done, step by step.
• Go to Fiverr for low end jobs, Upwork for most mid-level jobs.
They have a very easy process. Use 99 Designs for graphic artwork,

packaging, labels, logo. In this case they compete for your project
and you get to choose.
• Once you find the right person to work with you can contact them
directly.
• Choose you Virtual Assistant (VA) carefully using their ratings
and reviews. Look for “best seller”, “amazon research” and “amazon
product photo”.
• Upwork is good for general VA work - copy writing, legals, and
transcriptions etc. Their people are monitored, with a timer set and
a screen shot of their work taken regularly
• Interview prospective VAs using Skype messenger.
• Then TRAIN them to do your process – time well spent.
• It may be better to hire 3 and then you should get 1 good result.
• You can hire teams, and a supervisor – there are pros and cons.
• Send them a project description outlining your expectations and
outcomes. Ask questions and ask them to repeat back in their own
words to be sure they understand what you want. Most of these
people use English as their second language.
• Ask for an estimate of the number of hours required to complete
the task to your standards. Show them an example.
• It is better to work on a fixed price per task so there are no
surprises. You can negotiate the hourly rate you are prepared to pay.
Project creep comes from poor descriptions of what is expected.
You will save money if the job is set out in great detail. However
fixed price jobs leave no incentive to do good work or for creativity,
and can lead to disagreements. Hourly rate jobs are generally less
stress, provide ongoing work and they like it better. It is harder to
budget this way. It is best to use a mix of the two but start with a
fixed price job. Ask for a time estimate. You can negotiate a lower
hourly rate.

Evaluation
• Qualify them by their responsiveness, ability to read and

understand, attention to detail.
• Get them to repeat back to you, in their own works, what the job
involves.
• Look at their portfolio and work history. How many jobs have they
done? Are they relevant to your work? Have they previously done
similar jobs to the one you are wanting done? Look at how much
they have charged and the comments in the reviews they have got.
• Read their application carefully. How is it worded? Look at the
way they have written their interests – is it a based on a template
response?
• Check their availability – how many jobs are they currently doing?
• Consider their time zone
• Consider their responsiveness in Skype and Skype chat– they must
be engaged and “there’.
• Interview them on Skype.
• Give them a small paid job first to test/assess their suitability.
• Evaluate their former experience, the relevancy to your project,
their interest, skills and experience, their availability and response
time.
• RED FLAGS: No Skype, anxious to start immediately, too formal
or too casual in the way they deal with you, poor quality portfolio,
inconsistent response and availability.
Teams or Individuals?
Hiring a team may seem a good way, as they are supervised, however there
will be double communication, they will cost more and be less transparent.
You may have access to a greater range of skill, but your association will be
less personal. Better to hire 3 individuals – one may be excellent!
Copy what successful people do – see their project descriptions and role
titles to get ideas. If you project description is professional and you sell the

benefits to them of working on it and with you, you are more likely to find
committed people. List the requirements of the job and ask questions to see
if they have read everything.
Avoid:
Not prescreening thoroughly (also search social media).

• Not being responsive yourself.
• Falling for using subjective words such as “good” Show them
examples of what you consider “good “ to be.
• Letting feature creep take over – that is not fair to them if you have
agreed on a fixed price.
• Expecting too much for too little. They have families to feed too.
Be fair Pay more for better work. If you are only prepared to pay
peanuts you will only get monkeys.
Top Tips
• Use Skype – it is the Global instant messaging service and is used

by nearly every outsourcer.
• Use Dropbox to share/send/receive large files.
• Use Google Drive for storage and emails and calendar.
• Use Jing for screenshots and video to instruct them. techsmith.com.
• Use Asana for project and task management – free for up to 30
users.
• Use Evernote for storing webpage clippings, and to share notes etc.
• When you find excellent people do everything you can to keep
them.
Expect to spend 10 hours research and $5-$60 /hour for Out-

sourcers

CHECK LIST
☐☐ List tasks to outsource
☐☐ Decide on your platform
☐☐ Decide on your budget
☐☐ Study existing similar projects and model on them
☐☐ Review each outsourcing project with plus and minus points. Keep
notes
Your Notes

9
WHAT’S NEXT?
If this all sound rather daunting, it is. It is not a get rich quick scheme and
there are no guarantees. The world of ecommerce is ever changing and
Amazon in particular changes the rules constantly. This can either flip you
out or make you more cunning. That said, this method is tried and works.

IF YOU STICK TO THE PLAN AND FOLLOW THROUGH STEP BY

STEP.
Final Tips
• You will need some cash – at least 2,000 to get started.
• You must be prepared to think outside the box and change tactics
midstream as the rules and or circumstances change.
• It is possible to make a six figure income per month in a short time
– even a year. You just have to start with one product and one by
one work up to 10.
• You have to be prepared to spend money to make money.
• Aussie Online Entrepreneurs offer LOADS of help! Join and follow
on Facebook to benefit hugely from the combined experience of the
members.

APPENDIX 1
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
AOE Aussie Online Entrepreneur

FBA Fulfilled by Amazon
ROI Return on Investment
ACos Amazon Cost of Sale
VA Virtual Assistant
ASIN Amazon Standard Identification Number

APPENDIX 2
AMAZON GATED CATEGORIES
Automotive & Powersports View requirements

Beauty View requirements
Clothing & Accessories View requirements
Collectible Books View requirements
Collectible Coins View requirements
Entertainment Collectibles View requirements
Fine Art View requirements
Gift Cards View requirements
Grocery & Gourmet Foods View requirements
Health & Personal Care View requirements
Independent Design View requirements
Jewelry View requirements
Luggage & Travel Accessories View requirements
Major Appliances View requirements
Services View requirements
Sexual Wellness View requirements
Shoes, Handbags & Sunglasses View requirements
Sports Collectibles View requirements
We are currently not accepting new
Textbook Rentals seller applications to list products in
the Textbook Rentals category.
Video, DVD, & Blu-ray View requirements

Watches View requirements
Wine View requirements

APPENDIX 3
RESOURCES
Our Most Popular Money Making Posts

Secrets of a drunk YouTube millionaire at a strip club in Vegas
9 Steps To Find ONE Profitable Product and Sell It On Amazon In The
Aussie Market
50 Tools and Apps for The Aussie Amazon Entrepreneur
How LTV Makes Costs Coffee $1 Billion in Sales
How To Turn Doggy Waste Bags Into Serious Cash With Amazon AUS
SEO Fast Page 1 Ranking Case Study
Websites you will Need

Amazon
Alibaba
Fiverr
Upwork
Roar Local
Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs




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1. The Master Plan.............................................................................................14

Appendix 1. Glossary of Terms.......................................................................77

The guys have asked me to write

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

It was a ramshackle thing in the heart of Darlinghurst, a mecca for party

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

diplomats… I earnt a great reputation and started getting interest from

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

my book instead of publishing it…. in 1 month 12,466 people had requested

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

MIRIAM BATTERSBY has worked

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Remember: “diversity = resilience”.

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

THE MASTER PLAN

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Selling on Amazon also requires a good deal of initial capital.

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

No reviews=No sales=Poor ranking=Can’t be found=No sales.

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to do first I to

Only then do your, PRODUCT RESEARCH. This can’t be emphasized

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

5 Ways to find Product Ideas

1. Browse Amazon’s Top 100 Best Seller Categories https://www.amazon.

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Choose a product that has

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Key Word Research

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

tough market to break into. Deem your closest competitor and

Learn while doing not instead of doing.

Expect to spend 10 hours and minimal $ for this stage

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Selling Price = 25% Cost of Item, 25% Marketing, 25% Amazon

Or, another way of calculating is to add up all the costs (TCGS=Total

· Make sure you chosen product is going to be profitable to sell on

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

bound notebook to keep all your lists in one place).

Contact Selected Suppliers

Buying from China

If you decide to source from China there may be lower manufacturing

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Negotiation is VERY important to them, as is gender and respect. A male

There are 3 options for sourcing from China.

1. Hire a Procurement Expert

2. Use a China Sourcing Company

3. Contact a Chinese Manufacturing Company directly.

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs

Tips for Dealing with China

• ALWAYS get samples first to test quality and consistency before

For Amazon Domination Join Aussie Amazon Entrepreneurs