So you’ve heard about the Amazon FBA and are looking to start a business opportunity. Thanks for stopping in to get a quick review of this deal – and a training program that advocates teaching you how to be successful with the Amazon FBA Business model before you invest your arms and legs into it.
This article is attempting to give an unbiased review on the entrepreneur named Derrick Struggle, who established his own coaching program on selling physical products digitally through the platform of Amazon; his coaching program is called Amazon FBA Heroes.
When you decide to purchase in this program, you’ll be gaining access to the following resources:
- Over four (4) hours-worth of audiovisual training, in the form of a digital video content stream
- Learn, from start to finish, how to launch your very first digital business from home in the Amazon FBA Business
- Receive permissions to access and interact with the members of the Private Facebook Group that’s specific to the coaching program of Amazon FBA Heroes
So, here’s a brief overview of his whole course. I’ll also share what I think about Amazon FBA in general and the challenges associated with the business model. Further…
You’ll get my take on the quality of the video training in the coaching program and some of my personal key takeaways.
Lastly, I’ll share with you how the Amazon FBA Heroes coaching program compares to what I have had massive success with and regard as the #1 online coaching program, which is a work from home business model popularly referred to as Local Lead Generation.
Summarizing the Coaching Program: Amazon FBA Heroes by Derrick Struggle
I have been exposed to – and even tried my hand at – the Amazon FBA Business and selling physical products online, so going into this coaching program there were some things that I was already well aware of. In that sense, there weren’t that many new basics when every Amazon FBA Coaching course needs to help newcomers understand what the layout and fundamentals of this business model really are.
In my opinion, though, Mr. Struggle performed an excellent service with the manner in which he composed his course design. In fact, he even went out on a limb and gave some interesting techniques regarding product research… and I’ve been giving these tactics a go myself, with some pretty okay results, if I do say so.
His videos are
Here’s a quick overview on what modules are presented in Derrick’s Amazon FBA Heroes course:
- Module: This is just an introduction, but an excellent one for the newcomers as it covers what you need to know about theAmazon FBA Business model, some recommendations for tax implications and also a comprehensive lesson on what fees are associated with running a business like this
- Module: A step-by-step walkthrough of your Account Setup so you can become a reseller on Amazon in no-time flat
- Module: Researching the Product you want to bring to the Market – This is perhaps the key of keys in the whole business model as you need to spend a little time investing your due diligence in product
selection, since you’ll be choosing something you wish to sell. He even introduces you to online tools to facilitate your research efforts like something called Jungle Scout; it provides key performance indicators so you’ll know whether a product is worth pursuing - Module: Reaching out to Suppliers – You’ll need to find someone that has the product you’re looking to sell, reach them to open dialogue, then fabricate packing slips, request discounts with the supplier, get samples from that same supplier, and so much more…
- Module: Designing and Posting your ProductListing – It’s imperative that you design your product listing with pictures, details, and other compelling tidbits so you can get your listing seen and have it do the heavy lifting of selling for you on the internet
- Module: Actually Launching your Very FirstProduct Listing on Amazon – this information-packed module can lead you to understanding how product rankings work, what you can do to get your product seen first in the search results, acquiring customer reviews, whether coupon codes are your best friend or even a secret weapon with this business model, offering product giveaways, and implementing Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click, also known as PPC) in order to garner more attention toward your product listing(s)
- Module: Establishing your Brand and Growing your Business Operation
- Module: This covers when using Facebook Ads (another PPC type of platform) would be a good idea
- Module: BONUS CONTENT! – Derrick opens up his bag of tricks to introduce you to items that may be seldom discussed elsewhere, like how to handle product listing hijackers, knowing when it’s time to restock your inventory, and incorporating thank you cards regularly for your buyers
It might seem like a lot, but it’s well orchestrated and ready for anyone looking to enter the physical products industry of turning profits online to invest, digest, and get started.
When I got started with the Amazon FBA Heroes course, I was already victorious in another business model online called Local Lead Generation. It’s a lot less of an involved set-up process to be in profit mode. Check out how simple it really is…
- Launch an easy to set up website
- Pin it to the top of google
- Rake in the profits from all the customers that come in
- REPEAT!!!
This business model gave me such a lucrative set up that I was raking in $50,000 monthly, walked away from my 9 to 5 and quit my full-time job to work online as a side hustle — and I had money to spend to try and figure this Amazon FBA business out.
So I’m happy to share my wisdom with ya on what’s up with the Amazon FBA industry and whether there’s benefits or drawbacks to the things here.
What I Honestly Think of Derrick Struggle’s Amazon FBA Heroes Course
I said I’d give an unbiased review here, so I have to be upfront in my perception that there are more comprehensive courses to the Amazon FBA Business than Amazon FBA Heroes – I’m just being honest here.
Here’s something to help me illustrate what I’m talking about…
In this course, you’ll receive advisement on evaluating products while leveraging a software. Without getting involved in the program, you’ll already know that investment costs are involved in any business, but how much does this software really cost you right out the gate – and in addition to all the other expenses you had to shell out for just to get set up.
Product research can be accomplished with some more, and in some cases, free strategies at an online marketplace called Alibaba – meaning you’re not confined or restricted to having your research efforts narrowed down to just what one online software would have you believe and base all of your decision on the data it feeds to you.
Since you’re in competition with everyone else
That said, this competition might suggest that you’ll need to develop your own approach to product research. Think about this… if you had an awesome, lucrative strategy to decide what product was going to be a bestseller and win the top search results position on Amazon in short order, would you really, honestly, share it with other people?!
It simply wouldn’t surprise me to assume, or even discover, that other students in the same Facebook group developed their own method of researching what they want to run within their Amazon FBA.
This business model boils down to 2 things:
- Can you make the best product research happen in a timely manner?
- Can you take immediate, massive action as soon as you’ve discovered a possible winning product?
Beyond that, the rest of the process is pretty standard and goes to getting your product listing set up and launched for customers to view, review, and buy.
If there’s a key ingredient that makes the investment in the Amazon FBAHeroes course worthwhile, it’s that you get to gain access to a wealth of like-minded business owners who now work from home, and in entrepreneurial fashion, openly communicate with one another when they hit a snag and try to find a way to conquer the hurdle they’ve run into.
It’s been said that birds of the same feather tend to flock together –and this could also imply that they profit together when masterminding on theAmazon FBA strategies. I personally tapped into this Facebook group when I got started and had some basic questions on things that just weren’t clear to me, and the immediate responses were as thorough as they were
Overarching Challenges in the Amazon FBA Business
I’m not going to lie, I’m not entirely certain where to start here, but I’ll give it the
- Tons of steps just to get your product listing launched
In reviewing the outline of the course (see above), I gave those stepson purpose here; you need to know what you’re getting into, and it’s imperative that you realize the volume of steps involved in simply taking a product from selection to launch (meaning a listing visitors can go find and make a purchase thru).
With the copious amounts of steps involved just to get to a point of predicting whether the product is going to be a success…
And then having an additional time and financial investment in discovering if the product actually is (or, in a costly turn of events – isn’t) a profitable winner…
- Weeks, months, or even years could go by before you see returns on your investment (ROI)
Some newbies worry about how long it’ll be until they see the type of ROI that they’ve been dreaming of when launching this business venture online so many weeks/months/years ago. I was a newbie once, as well, so I’ve been there and had the same concern(s)…
It’s true that one great selection of a product, hitting the marketplace like it’s in-style to turn you a handsome profit of $10,000.00 can deliver you some excellent confidence for having landed a fantastic product find!
However, not all selections from your product research are going to have the market respond in the same way; your research could have been spot on and, instead, you’re waiting even longer for a payout and questioning whether you’ve made a sound investment.
- Stiffening Competition
Remember, this isn’t the only coaching course, and Amazon isn’t restricting the
Even at the individual product entry point, there are somewhere the competition is so ridiculous that it wouldn’t be worth your time to even try to post a listing as a brand new Amazon FBA Business entrepreneur. I’m not being coy here either; look at it like this…
In order to climb the search results for products, you need to have acquired more positive reviews – yes, both quality and quantity – than your competition in order to be found as the very first option that buyers get to take a look at for product listings. As a beginner, or even as an experienced Amazon FBA person, I would shy away from physical products like that and deem it a bad choice to try and compete in the marketplace with.
- Research techniques aren’t exactly endless
When it all comes down to it, Amazon owns the listings and limits what everyone gets to know about product listings, competition, pricing changes, etc. Since the Amazon FBA entrepreneurs are, by this point, sharing in some form of similar product research methods, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Amazon game becomes more of a struggle to reach the top position than businesses who want to be found at the top of Google search results over their competition.
- One way to climb product listing results: More Reviews
See, one of the reasons that I adore Local Lead Generation as a business model over the Amazon FBA Business is that you’re able to climb the ranks of Google search results a lot faster, with more ease, and in more creative ways than what Amazon has the resellers struggling to all do at the same time.
Since it’s becoming more and more of a sincere struggle to fabricate positive reviews in mass quantities, and even the veterans of the trade are innovating ways to acquire more reviews to push their product listing to the top, the newcomer just may find more trouble than it’s worth trying to paste something to the top of search results and land a handsome payout.
See, the SEO techniques available to web properties on Google search results are so widely exploratory that you can gain the upper hand against any competition for a search term with a little creativity and good work ethic.
You can collect the results of Free Organic visitors to websites that are pasted at the top of Google, and when you have the first position that people searching for your product or service sees, you get just about all the traffic your website can handle, which means the customers don’t go to your competition…
You get all the customers, from Free, Organic, and affordable (did I mention Free) web traffic – which means virtually little to no competition — and all the profits when you get paid, all without having to shell out tons of money in research costs or PPC / Google Ads – which is why I totally dig the local lead generation business model!
Leveraging Free Traffic to Build an Online Business
So the prospect of using Google Ads / PPC for gaining immediate traffic is exciting for most people because it means you can pay a little bit of money,get instant gratification in terms of visitors actually looking at what you have online, and maybe even get a buyer or 2… or more…
However, the costs of buying traffic are increasing regularly, especially in some industries where the competition is so fierce since the price tag that a customer is willing to pay is equally thru the roof; so many people want the same massive profits from so little work required, that’s how the cost per click drives up – because tons of competitors are trying to bid on the same search term at the same time.
In the Amazon FBA business model, when your product listing reaches the coveted first position, you begin collecting free buyer traffic from Amazon –and usually without having to continue paying for ad spend in either PPC orFacebook Ads.
In the end, you’re shelling out more and more in buying your visitor traffic to your Amazon listing that it’s no longer worth the squeeze; you’ll eventually lose out on the product listing you’ve spent so much time and resources into researching, setting up, and then competing with the same entrepreneurs – who are trying to do the same things you’re doing – to get to that top spot in Amazon.
You’ll just make less money for the work you do when fulfilling the orders your customers have placed through you.
With the local lead generation business model, you don’t have to buy web traffic; you can get it all for free.
Without getting stuck with competitors bidding and fighting for the same attention and reviews from the marketplace, you get to make consistent upward mobility in the Google search results until you’re the top choice in the marketplace…
Then you get to sit back and watch all the buyers come to your website.
Think about it like this: when you see upward progress, you get excited. When was the last time you’ve seen or heard about an Amazon listing actually, successfully, reaching the top search result in Amazon in a relatively short amount of time – let alone delivering massive payouts to the person who set up that listing?
One of the biggest things that
I can throw together lead gen sites or write blog posts like the one you’re reading right now.
This can even be found online, now that it’s published, and that means it, too, can be pushed to the top of Google for a search term that people are actively searching – and that means I can have them come to my website instead of someone else’s.
…and that’s all free traffic; didn’t have to pay a cent for anyone to click on something, let alone hundreds of thousands of visitors that might have clicked on the same ad and cost me a fortune just to get people to see what I’ve put up.
Pretty cool, huh!?
Conclusion
Coaches in the Amazon FBA Coaching industry have been promising top listings with their training programs before Amazon FBA changed their policies on whether someone can make up fake reviews on their Amazon product listings.
A few years ago, it was simply easier of a game…
Less people were doing this- You could fill up reviews for your product listing on your own
- You could compete in the marketplace just on sheer tenacity and patience
- You had a shot at being the first listing – even if it only took a couple of weeks to get there
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Amazon is growing rapidly…
And partnering with that awesome reputation can be fantastic for ya.
Unfortunately, with the volume of competition that is now in the Amazon FBA business…
- Product prices are driven down
- Profit margins are becoming more scarce
- It’s harder to get your listing seen now
- Costs of buying traffic through Google Ads are enormous now
So with people entering the same coaching programs and using the same strategies for product research and achieving those coveted spots in the top listings, I think that it’ll be a bigger struggle to actually compete in Amazon FBA Business than the investment is worth.
Of course, with any challenge that you face, you can find ways to conquer them if you have a stick-to-it mentality and a great mentor with an awesome community (like a Facebook group) of entrepreneurs ready to help.
My Vote is for Local Lead Generation in 2019
So I’ve done my fair share of Amazon FBA product endeavors to try and turn a profit with this business model, and I won’t lie I’ve made an okay return on my investment…
But competing with everyone in the world that’s trying to join Amazon and get one of those top search results for physical product listings is an incredible feat.
This is a significant departure from the local lead generation business model, where you only really need to compete against about 10 or 20 companies that service your local area in the same industry.
With many cities and several industries that you can choose to work with just in the USA (not including Australia, Europe and more), your possibilities of turning a profit are significantly higher than Amazon FBA.
Also, you’ll have a lot more control over your website, as it’s only a matter of time before you land on page 1, then keep climbing to one of the top3 coveted spots where the majority of buyers on the internet are finding your competition.
Essentially you’re a middle person and refer local leads generated from search results to small businesses who will happily pay you to keep sending them more business referrals
Imagine being the most valuable person in your marketplace for delivering buyers to the business owners that have been hoping to grow their business and are waiting to meet someone just like you!
Check out the other many benefits of Local Lead Generation in 2019:
- You can quickly scale and expand your operation beyond your local city – work in any city you want and service any business owner you please, as long as you have access to the internet and a handy-dandy laptop
- Little to No Competition: it’s a lot easier to beat out 10 to 20 other companies and sweep all the Free Traffic into your money making
machine - Once your websites are ranked on Google, your Passive Income opportunity is endless
- HUGE PROFIT MARGINS – unlike Amazon FBA, you don’t have to pay anyone for the physical products and costs of goods sold, and certainly aren’t required to pay for ads anymore – what, with all that free traffic and all
- Feel proud to be making a living while making a difference and helping customers to get the services they need from business owners you are partnered with
Naturally, there are some opportunities still with the Amazon FBA business – heck, I’ve done it and I’m certain there are people who are still hitting it big in the industry right now.
However, I’ve been able to walk away from a full-time job, leave my 9to 5 and amass over $50,000 in recurring, residual monthly income after only a few short years of working for myself in the business of local lead generation for small businesses.
It’s my #1 pick for selecting an online business opportunity that you can work from the comfort of your own home. Learn more about our coaching program here.