How to nail Amazon private label selling

Below is an answer by David Hamrick on Quora that won hundreds of upvoted.

Personally I find that the details he provided is amazing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon. I spend about 20–25 hours per week researching ways to make money online and I’ve yet to find anything that produces better ROI than Amazon private label selling. Here’s an example of the time and capital it takes to make an Amazon business successful:

• I spend about 4–8 hours researching a product on Amazon using a few apps/chrome extensions like JungleScout and Keepa. JungleScout costs $89 one time and Keepa is a free chrome extension.
• I have a very specific formula I use to determine if a product is worth doing and it goes against the typical Amazon seller guru grain…

• I calculate the total estimated gross profits for the product in 12-months. I do this using JungleScout’s monthly sales in units estimation plus tracking Keepa graphs. I then multiply the project sales number by the amount I plan on selling my product for, subtract 15% and $3-$5 for shipping (Amazon’s costs), and then I multiply that by 12.
• I determine what a first order will cost me by multiplying the same monthly sales in units estimation by three and adding 100 for promos. Usually, this is around 700–1300 units. Three is the average number of months for a turn.
• I divide the first order cost into the 12 month estimated gross profits number. If that number is greater than 5–6, I think it’s a good product.

• After I find a product, I spend a total of 4–5 hours contacting vendors on Alibaba, negotiating, etc.
• I order samples from the vendors. They usually cost between $40–80 per sample (mostly the cost to air freight). I get the products in about 10–14 days.
• Once I choose a sample I like, I finalize the deal with the vendor. For smaller orders, I ship air freight. For large orders, I do by boat (and even if I’m doing more than one product at a time, I’ll have all the orders trucked to the same location in China to combine shipping).
• I do a little pre-launch marketing on Instagram and Facebook. I also put together basic WordPress sites for the brands I’m using. These days, I’ve had the sites set up for the two main brands I sell for some time. This all takes about 6–8 hours.
• When the products arrive, I inspect the cases at my facility (used to be my garage), and then send them to the nearest Amazon fulfillment center. This takes about 1 hour of my time and shipping it to Amazon usually costs $7-$10 per case of product.
• After the products arrive at Amazon and all the marketing is ready to go, I start shipping out promos to accelerate SEO. I also turn on Amazon PPC advertising at the same time (didn’t use to do it this way, but since Amazon changed it’s rules for reviewing products, this is the new way to do it). I usually send no more than 50–100 promos.
• After a few weeks of tweaking advertising (I spend maybe 15 minutes per product per week for the first 12 weeks), the product runs itself and all I have to do is reorder. With my two main vendors, I just send an email with the details of which Amazon FC to send the product to and they take care of the rest.
• My current Amazon business has 10 products (with 4 more on the way) and I spend roughly 4 hours per week working on it.

---

So in review, here’s the total start-up costs:

• JungleScout app $89
• 3–5 samples ~$300
• Ordering three months worth of product ~$3500
• Shipping to Amazon after inspection ~$120
• Optional: web hosting, domain names, themes etc. ~$100

For a total of ~$4109

---

Total time spent:

• 4–8 hours researching
• 4–5 hours negotiating with overseas manufacturers
• 1–2 hours reviewing samples
• 6–8 hours doing prelaunch marketing, website building, creating Amazon page
• 30 minutes inspecting products
• 1–2 hours doing keyword research for advertising
• 15–30 minutes per week tweaking ads

For a total of ~26 hours

---

So for just a little more than a week’s worth of work at a part-time job, I can create a product that will produce roughly $20,545 in gross profits in twelve months with only a $4109 investment. The entire process takes about 90 days to go from research to income.

The reason this works so well is because Amazon does all the fulfillment, inventorying, customer service, etc. I just have to make sure everything is running smoothly and pick up a paycheck once every two weeks. Once profits roll in and I’m sure that I’ve got enough product for the next 3–4 month block, I start looking into new products to carry and continue to roll my profits in.

What’s crazy is that the original time spent on the first product is vastly reduced once you’ve got the first one going.

---

Definitely check it out. There’s a lot of great resources on the web. I really like Scott Voekler’s The Amazing Seller Podcast on YouTube. He’s got like, 200+ episodes, and it’s all free. He’s got an eBook, too, which is $2.99 or free with Kindle Unlimited. I am in no way affiliated with Scott, just like his product.

Also, I recommend reading Tim Ferriss’ The Four Hour Workweek which outlines this business model. It’s super useful and full of great hacks. And if you want more book recommendations to help you as an entrepreneur, follow me on Instagram David Hamrick (@whatdavereads) • Instagram photos and videos

---

Good luck in whatever you do and remember to always have fun and keep learning!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End

You can read the comment on quora here if they have not archive the files. Please follow Mr David Hamrick on Instagram with the link provided above.

Modafinil in Singapore

Many people remembered the movie Limitless where Eddie Morra popped a NZT 48 pill and became super smart. Well, in real life the closest magic pill you could get will be Modafinil.

Modafinil is designed for excessive sleepiness caused by sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or shift work sleep disorder. It is a great pill to take when you have a long flight jet lag. Although you won't turn into super smart genius like Eddie in Limitless but it does improve your focus and concentration by a big leap. 

Modafinil has became a trend in many leading universities around the world, UK and US. Young people used to pop pills to get high but now they pop it to get smart. You can google for information like "Modafinil university students" and you will have interviews, reviews and trend about the drug. 

It is not a magic pill where you could swallow and be a couch potato to get smart. It doesn't work this way. All it does is just improving your concentration. Everybody came across the problem when we try to read a few paragraphs and realized you didn't know what the first paragraph is about. You will have to re-read and re-read again to understand what you've been reading for the past 20 mins. Modafinil tends to improve this situation and you will be able to focus for a much longer period of time on a single subject.   

In Singapore as we know it, almost all the drugs requires prescription and so does Modafinil. I personally took it occasionally for the pass few years. Did I became smarter? I don't know, but it did put me through a few tough deadline projects over the years that I have to give credit for it. I didn't have any side effects on it but for obvious reason you would want to avoid taking it on a late afternoon. This thing can cause bad insomnia  Always take it in the morning with an empty stomach. The only way you want to get it without a prescription in Singapore is to ordered it online. I personally feels that it is way over-priced (US$2). If you really do order them online, remember NOT to order more than 50 pills per shipment. It most probably get stuck in the custom office. 

I always have some spare with me. If you want to try it, you could try to leave a comment below with a way for me to contact you. 

*I'm not a seller nor a doctor qualify to prescribe these pills. I'm just somebody that have a few in my drawer that I don't mind to share it. Please do not come placing a 500 pills order, I don't have that much.    


Dear Readers, I'm no longer stationed in Singapore thus could not help to share these pills. I do have a tip to share on how to get these pills really cheap. If you know any Indian workers going back to India for home leave, ask them to buy it at local pharmacy. It should not cost more than 50 cents per pop. I hope I could get your kind understanding. Thank you.

Magic mouse lost connection when lifted up (quick fix)

As bizarre as it sounds, Apple's Magic mouse design flawed with a weak battery cover. This article will be really short as nothing much I can talk about.

Apparently after time, the battery cover widen the gap with the battery itself and thus resulting in a split second disconnection between the battery and the terminals when you lifted your mouse and you lose the connection.

How to fix it?  

Remember using a piece of unwanted paper folding it and slip it under a 3-legged unbalance table? Well, that's exactly how you do it. Simply open up the mouse cover and put a folded paper and cover it back to eliminate the undesired gap.

Voila, you had your mouse back in no time!

Magic mouse quick fix

Using CPF monies for HDB flat purchase

It is part of many Singaporean's life event where you sign on the dotted line and commit to a life long loan repayment.

In Sept 2009 I got news that I'm eligible to choose a flat unit and given an appointment date. My wife was just about to start her CPF contribution and mine was a pathetic 17k on my OA. Nonethless we chose our unit and pay up $2000 for deposit.

We continued going about our daily life and soon enough it was mid 2012. Our house is ready for key collection and our combined OA is only $70k. Our house is priced at a whopping $260k. Instead of letting HDB wept out all the money, I parked $10k in a safe investment. I called my friend working in the bank and ask to invest my $10k on a safest stock.

Tips about engaging a Bazi Practitioner

(Disclaimer: I'm not a practitioner nor expert in any ways. I'm just sharing my point of view in this subject.)

Bazi

It's an ancient Chinese art to understand oneself using birth chart reading with symbols of nature namely Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood aka the 5 elements.

Everyone is born in blocks of 2 hours thus having 12 different timing in 24 hours. Since there are ying and yang, the element also splits into example, ying fire and yang fire. There are 12 months in 365 days creating 4 seasons represented by 5 elements thus we have 60 pillars in combinations.

Our birth chart is presented in 4 pillars in the hour, day, month and year.

I'm not going to write every detail of it because it would be impossible. I would just like to express my thoughts in this subject.

Many people engaged a Bazi reading practitioner to read their fortune and seek advice. Nothing is wrong with that but understanding what to expect is important. A practitioner (in my context) can only predict your luck to a certain extent. There is no practitioner that can tell you for sure that at a certain timing in detail what you are going to encounter. That's simply not possible. Do you know on a day within a 2 hours period how many babies are born? Are they all going to be knock down by a car at the same time? NO...

How to save money?

Saving money is easier said than done. All people agreed that it is important to save up for the raining days but with the temptations and sales going on from time to time, many fall prey to marketing strategies and end up with unnecessary stuffs.

Many people adopted a way of saving money by setting aside a predetermined amount and stick to it. Think about it, if you were to set aside $300 once you got your salary and forgetting having that money, nothing is going to stop you from saving $3600 a year. This method is when a unpredictable situation occurred that needed money, you have it. That's the purpose of it! Raining days and you have the umbrella. The problem with it is that people tends to target these saving in blocks of success. They might need $2000 for the situation and thus rendered the balance $1600 as an extra (Well at least for me). Instead of thinking that now they already had 5 months of $300 saving and 7 more months to hit the target again, they feel that the $3600 vows has broken and $1600 has to go in order to "reset" the clock for monthly $300. Another problem with this method is the inflexibility. We all need different amount of money on different month of the year (yearly road tax, insurance, property tax,etc). Saving a fixed amount of monthly seem easier for some months and not for the others.

6 years old teaches you about life

Dialogue:

“Imagine yourself 90 years old, on a porch in a rocking chair looking back on your life. Got the image? Good! Now let me tell you. Studies shows that the biggest regret from the elderly people on their deathbed is not what they did. It’s what they didn’t do. The risk they never took. How sad would it be to get to the end of your life and realized you never truly lived.

This is your life. Nobody else’s. No matter how much this society, your parents, your friends want you to live the way they want to live. You run the show. When you shut your eyes and go to sleep at night the entire world ceased to exist and when you wake up, it is born again.

This is your life. You’re in control. You gotta do what feels right in your heart. Now go back to the rocking chair and think what would your future self say about the ideas you never created, your books you never wrote, the words you never spoke because you were tired, because you were scared or you wanted to fit in and be cool.