Should I Buy an Amazon FBA Course? I did, and this happened...

Buying an FBA course is something I considered for weeks. In the end, I decided to invest in some training, but I missed my chance and lost almost a year.

Here's what happened...

But first, let me just add that if you were to ask me today, here's what my answer would be: 

Should I buy an Amazon FBA course? If you want to succeed as an Amazon FBA seller, then learning all you can will increase your chances of success. No training course can guarantee your success, but attempting to succeed by guessing your way is a guarantee to fail.

The training course I recommend is the same one I purchased, which is The Amazing Selling Machine. This program teaches you how to source products, brand them as your own, list them on Amazon and rank them to get visibility. In a nutshell, it teaches how to set up and run your very own physical products business (also known as private label).

But as I say, something happened that cost me a lot of time, and I want to share it with you because it may help you decide if you should buy an Amazon FBA training course.

Ok. Rewind the clock back to 2015. At that point, I had never given thought to running what people call an FBA business. I say that because the correct way of thinking about it is running a private label business (or a physical products business) that happens to sell on Amazon, leveraging the fulfillment by Amazon program.

But anyway...

I wasn't even aware that Amazon FBA courses existed (seriously). I was busy doing my thing, and the whole FBA model was a different world. That is, until I got an email about this program called The Amazing Selling Machine. That email was the start of everything.

In that email, I learned about the huge opportunity that Amazon presents for online entrepreneurs (and solopreneurs like us). And I'm not exaggerating when I say 'huge'. Amazon generates billions of dollars in profit every year, and a significant portion of that is generated by private label sellers, many of who are one person businesses selling products sourced from China. 

Knowing how to sell on Amazon can create a viable business for you. The FBA model, in fact, one of the easiest business models there is, in my experience. It doesn't take much to run a private label business when you're using fulfillment by Amazon because Amazon takes care of the packaging and shipping of your product. All you need to do is keep your inventory levels up.

By the way, that's a birds' eye view of the day to day running of a private label business, and of course there's much more to it than the above paragraph, but the reality is that I spend less than 20 minutes a day running 3 physical products brands.

To be clear: you can spend 8 hours a day on this and treat it like you would a job, or a traditional business, and really push it to the max. I mean, there's always something to do: promotions, new opportunities, new products to research and explore, joint ventures, etc.

I just happen to be focused on being a content creator more than an Amazon seller, so I choose to do the minimum amount of work on my private label businesses just to keep them ticking along. 

Every so often I'll dive in and spend some quality time on that business, especially during Quarter 4 (Q4) which is the period around Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, when buyers are in a buying frenzy and sales tend to go through the roof. But other than that, I spend most of my available time blogging and creating content.

But I digress..

As I was saying, I learned of this opportunity in that email, and I was attracted to it. Some call it the Internet lifestyle, implying that you can sit on a beach with a laptop and generate enough income to support a lifestyle of leisure. Well, that's not going to happen by working 20 minutes a day, but nonetheless Amazon FBA is relatively easy work once you're all set up. Put it this way: it beats working in a cold warehouse, like I used to.

If you're interested, let me tell you what 20 minutes a day can do for you, once you're all set up: you can make money while you sleep (people buy products 24x7).

There's one caveat though: you need to advertise (i.e. spend money on adverts) in order for people to find your product. The trick then is to make sure your sale price covers the cost of goods (i.e. the cost of your product) and the cost of advertising. The rest is your profit.

Any Amazon FBA course worth its salt will teach you is what to do to rank your products on page 1. If you can rank on page 1, you get to potentially change the game, because now every sale that comes from an organic click is one sale you didn't have to pay for in advertising, which ramps your profit right up.

So there I was, aware of this new opportunity to generate an income. Then, things got more exciting when I learned that there was a 4 part free video training series. I dove straight in and watched the videos, absorbing all this new information like a sponge. I was sold. I knew this was something I had to try.

But then, doubt entered my mind. I began to wonder:

Which Amazon FBA course is the best?

The Amazing Selling Machine is my recommended FBA training course. But at that point, I didn't know enough about it. The free training was solid and I suspect I learned way more than I would have on some smaller FBA courses. But I think it's natural for most people to have that last minute hesitation, or to wonder if they're missing out on something better, like better courses.

So guess what I did?

I didn't purchase. I passed the opportunity up. In fact, I had learned enough from the free training to get started. I knew I could learn more, of course, but I had a step by step guide to get moving.

I sourced my first product and created my first Amazon listing. By the time I was done, buying the training was not optional because the program was closed. ASM, as it's known to many, only opens its doors briefly once or twice a year.

But all was good: I had my first product in Amazon and I started making sales. All was good. That is, until I ran out of inventory. The reality is that I didn't know what to expect and I was guessing my way forward. My planning was full of holes, and so I mistimed things. Running out of inventory cost me my rankings. That was the price I paid for guessing.

Now, ordering stock when your supplier has to brand your product can take some time. In my case, it took about 4 weeks to get my new stock back into Amazon. By then, the momentum I had achieved had all but died. However, I'd had a taste of success and I realised now that the way forward was to educate myself, to arm myself with as much knowledge as possible.

I needed to buy an Amazon FBA course in order to learn how to really sell on Amazon, like a pro. The fact is that selling is a skill, and selling on Amazon is no different. While you don't have to deal with the face to face drama of trying to convince somebody to buy your product, you do need to present it in the best way possible - and that's why you need education.

I had to wait almost a year for the next version of ASM to launch (ASM 5). Deciding not to buy the course ended up costing me dearly. In hindsight, the 30 money back guarantee makes the purchase a no-risk deal. I could have just refunded had I decided the program wasn't right for me.

How much does ASM cost?

The ASM course costs around $5k. It's a premium training and you get access to a members area with mentors who can help you with your queries. The price reflects the value you get from the program.

If you don't have the budget, then my second recommendation is Ben Cummings course.

Here's a video with some other thoughts regarding whether buying an Amazon FBA training course is a good idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tItHl73dOrM

Conclusion 

If you want to sell on Amazon, investing in a proven Amazon course is going to significantly increase your chances of success. Amazon FBA is a vast marketplace and it's growing year on year. This presents a real opportunity to generate income as a seller using fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), if you spend the time to learn from other Amazon sellers who have mastered the game and have achieved success. 

The easiest way to learn from others is to invest in online courses, and - in my opinion - the best Amazon FBA course for beginners is The Amazing Selling Machine (ASM). I have been a member now for many years, and I enjoy lifetime access to the course, as well as all the new updates at no extra cost.

The course itself has been updated consistently at least once a year since I purchased, so I have access to the latest techniques and information for free. When you consider the lifetime value of my purchase, this makes the fee more than reasonable.