Hi Everyone…
Long time since I’ve published on the DebraConrad.com blog. I’ve been busy as a bee over on my other blog http://www.publicdomaintreasurehunter.com/.
The summer has been full of travel and new business ideas for me… how about you? Did you let the summer months pass you by? Or… did you ramp up your business to take advantage of the upcoming holiday season?
After traveling to Italy to see my son and his new family and a few weeks in Baja, Mexico (and a short jaunt to visit the “outlaws” in northern Nevada) – I’m feeling pretty lucky to have an internet business. This business just goes with me – right in my laptop and Android cell phone.
I’ve been working on several new projects – actually new streams of income… and one of them is Selling On Amazon’s FBA Program.
This means selling physical products – sort of like selling “stuff” on eBay only better in so many ways.
That will be the focus of this Debra Conrad blog for a while… I hope you will stick with me and see what a profitable opportunity Amazon has handed all of us.
What To Sell On Amazon
I started selling on Amazon in May of 2011 with just a test of a few products and was blown away by my success right off the bat. – Of course – I’ve now had some failures to match up with the successful parts and I’ll be sharing all of that with you.
You can read about my journey so far in this 54 page report:
The biggest question I had when I first got started – was what to sell???
You can “offer to sell” absolutely anything on Amazon.com – that doesn’t mean it will sell.
I was so stubborn when I started out on this journey… I was never – ever going to sell Toys, Games or Books on Amazon.
Guess What? I’m selling (as in making sales) Toys, Books and Games! As well as consumables like skin-care and dishwasher soap.
There is a lot to learn about selling on the Amazon FBA program – but it was actually pretty easy to get started. It’s not complicated… just a bit intimidating at first.
I’m here to share my journey and all the bumps along the way… so that maybe you won’t have so many bumps. 🙂
Are you ready to get your feet wet? Selling on Amazon is the very best way I know of right now to get a quick income generated. It may not be something you will do full time… but it’s nice to have a little extra income every 2 weeks. And you don’t have to buy a thing if you have some things around the house you want to get rid of.
I’ve actually started selling off some of my own books! And anything else that is still in it’s package – like Christmas presents I never used. 🙂
It’s much easier and cheaper (not one fee is charged to you until something sells) to sell on Amazon than on eBay. This is really only true if you plan to ship from home.
I’ve chosen to use the FBA program that Amazon offers – because they store all my inventory – ship it to the customer – handle all the customer service. It’s the most hands off business model I’ve found. And fun!
I had no idea that I would have so much fun shopping! I know – we all like to shop in some way… but not all of us want to get off the couch and get dressed and drive to stores. I thought I’d gotten so good at shopping online… that I wouldn’t enjoy shopping locally in the stores. I was wrong.
It’s like the “thrill of the hunt” when you are in the store – and you have to train yourself not to yell “Jack Pot” when you find real “goodies” that will bring big profits.
My Advice For You Today
Start building an inventory (shopping) budget. If you can justify spending $500 to get started building your inventory – then you are in a fine place. Trust me when I say that you can get carried away…. you need to learn some of the ropes before you go off and spend your hard earned money on products that won’t sell quickly.
If you need to build up a cash fund so you can go shopping – then you need to start gathering up stuff from your own home to sell. Look for books (not novels – but books about any “subject” that is a teaching book of some kind. I’ll get into what kinds of other books sell on Amazon soon. Also – hunt through all your games and see if you can stand to part with any of them. Remember – check on that pile of gifts that are still in original packaging… they are little gold mines.
I’ll show you how to set up your Amazon Selling Account next…
I’m here for ya,
p.s. This “selling on Amazon FBA” may be way off track for you. If you are doing well in Internet Marketing… and you don’t want another distraction – I understand perfectly. Don’t let me distract you from your success goals.
If you have been struggling to make a few bucks – anyway you can… then Selling On Amazon might be the perfect long or short term answer. Stick with me and I hope we can all profit together. 🙂
Great writeup. I am glad to hear that you are having so much fun shopping and selling. I have started putting some of our books on Amazon but most of them sell for like a penny. I hope to get more of them up soon.
I think it’s a great start to sell books on Amazon. It really does get your feet wet and you get comfortable with the entire process.
Hope you had a fun Summer… it looks like Beading Patterns are still a good “niche”???
Debra
Yes, I am earning about $25 per 2 weeks from one of my bead pattern shops. I need to get more of them up there. I also need to create some books to sell on Amazon with multiple patterns in a like type category in them.
Debra,
A few days ago you added a comment about Themed Monolopy games on a JB Malik feed. I would like to learn the PD because like you I think that the Public Domain really rocks, but it is very confusing, every once in a while I will try to figure it out. I cannot stay with it long enough other thing like (kids, bills, illness or just life in general) demand my time, which is the reason I’m focusing my time on buying and selling on eBay & AMZ. They are easy for me as long as I buy low and sell at a higher price.
Randy… I agree! Focus on one thing! If you are having success with eBay and Amazon selling – stick with it. Don’t distract yourself (even if I think that Public Domain rocks!). 🙂
Debra, I looked at your suggestion on FBAForums for adding a new colored item, otherwise matching. ASIN: B00518GR7G is dark green I have exact same: dark grey) Amazon’s George Joseph of Amazon.com Seller Support responded with a lame answer as follows:
Greetings, Thank you for contacting Amazon Seller Support.
I have reviewed into your concern and would like to inform you that since the ASIN B00518GR7G has a different UPC you can go ahead and create a new listing for this item from you seller central account.
Please do go ahead and create a separate listing for this item.
I appreciate your understanding. Have a nice day.
Did we successfully answer your question?
MY QUESTION TO YOU – WHO DO YOU SEND INFO TO AT AMAZON THAT WILL RESPOND BY CREATING A DIFFERENT ASIN FOR MY ITEM RATHER THEN TELLING ME TO GO THTU AMAZON’S DIFFICULT PROCEDURE TO ADD A NEW ITEM?
Thanks in advance, Roy Blom
Hi Roy… I know that their is some procedure for “child” (that’s what they call it) products. It’s an ordeal I’m sure!
Why don’t you do as suggested and create a new product page with using the same info but with Dark Gray in the Title and description??? It’s easy to set up a product page and add your own images right?
8)
BTW – I didn’t make any suggestions in any FBA Forums concerning this – did I?
Hi Debra,
You’re always talking about selling on amazon. That’s something I can still believe in. There was also in the news last week that a man sold for so many thousands of dollars on amazon.
What I wanted to ask you is if you also know how to sell amazon’s products on a blog or an astore, I mean as an affiliate. That’s me a complete question mark how to succeed in that. Set up a blog and promote your favorite books is not so difficult, maybe one day your visitors also will give you compliments for your great reviews, only it seems a bit classic that the ordinary visitor doesn’t allow a blogger those few pennies he would get for his sales. Or maybe you don’t occupy with affiliating at all. Have you ever tried that?
Hi Monique,
I DO have affiliate (for Amazon) websites. And I also use Google Adsense on most of them. I don’t make a ton off these sites from Amazon – but every month I get a check from both Amazon and Google for these sites which adds up to about $700 – $1000 (depends on the time of year – better during the holidays).
One of my many affiliate websites
I believe in having multiple streams of income. I never want all my income coming from one place… it’s tooooo easy to get shut down for some stupid reason. 😉