Tribe Hangout 1/31/15

That's all right. Well, hey, everybody.

Hope you got to hear our little dance party. Before we started today's hangout, we figured it's a holiday, it's the final tribe hangout, so we had to honor that with some Taylor Swift mashups.

Totally logical. So Sean and I are exhausted. Sean more than me.

Because we signed. Well, we still have to sign them, but we got all our paperwork done for the sale of our company, so.

We'D like to celebrate. But really, our work hasn't slowed down at all, so we're a little exhausted. Sean more than me. So forgive us. The only thing special we have to teach you today is we can talk about the sale and how every little thing that could come up comes up. Like, we need a legal document showing how many blog posts you have.

And we need a legal document showing that you have the authority to sign this document. I own the company. Well, we need legal documents showing that you're the owner. And we need a legal document notarized showing that you have the authority to make the decision to sell the company and that you agree to the terms of the contract. That's what a contract is. So we don't get it, but it's a bunch of lawyer speak. So it's a lengthy process, but it's done. Now we can just worry about marketing and growth and removing ourselves from the operations of the company. Company, which will happen in time. Coffee? Cheers. So if you would like to know anything about that process, now would be a good time to ask us. I will be speaking at ASM next week about selling your company, positioning the company for sale, and talking about the things that I wish that we had done differently at the beginning in order to get a larger exit today, which are mostly, I wish we had been more aggressive with our marketing at the beginning, and I wish we had been better at inventory management. Those are the two things. And going through the process, we probably couldn't have done it any differently. But if I knew what I know now, I wish I could go back and do the inventory management differently and wish that we had been more aggressive with our marketing in order to get more sales going, because that would have resulted in a larger exit. So those are things I wish we had done differently. But it's done now. So we're. You can see the sleepiness in our eyes. But we are done. So if you'd like any questions on that, be happy to answer them. Otherwise, we'll just work one on one with you. I do have the meeting room done now. I'LL be posting the tribe about the meeting room for next week. I'll do that when we get off the call today so you all can stop emailing me asking for meeting rooms. I finally have them and I'll post them on the tribe after the call. So I specifically would love to hear from our neighborhood friendly Kathryn Chung and hear how business is doing because last we chatted you were selling like 500,000 units an hour.

Oh yes, I'm selling as high as 150 units per day, sometimes 100 units. Yes. And I met the factories. I had meeting with my factories today in China.

It's a very good meeting to wrap. And the fact she's already showing me a new product for me to consider.

But I still have to consider. I told her that I will only consider if I test a product by research because right now I investing a lot more money. So I can tell you my second product, I just fly to another city in China on Monday. This Monday. And the MOQ for my second product is 4,000 units. So it's a large.

Yes, 4,500 units. So it's a very big factories. It's 2,000 workers. It's the listed company. But the MOQ is so high. So of course I have to spend some money in research so that I'm comfortable to invest in this inventory. But I'm confident.

Yes. I'm not choosing product based on my own preferences. I'm choosing product based on the US Market preferences. So what can I learn from.

Customers.

Would want to buy?

Yeah, I learned from the number one player. The number one, the number one, the best BSL brand. I learned from style so I won't go against the style and design of the number one brand. I benchmark with them so that I will feel more good to invest 4,000 moq for my second product actually.

So.

It'S really a breakthrough just to jump into the second product for such high MOQ.

Kathryn, I'd like to ask you, you went from 0 to 100 pretty quickly, at least from my perspective. So so would you share with the group a little bit about how you got to that hundred unit a day mark so quickly because it seemed to come out of nowhere.

Oh yes.

Actually I came so quickly after I've done two Facebook and one successful Sun Blast. The Sun Blast effect is not so quickly but it jumped. It helped me after a week or so.

I don't have the inventory. I ran out of inventory and then when I got back inventory.

My sales push up and it dramatically goes up after The January after the Christmas time And I will recognize myself because of the I go have two keywords right now, not just the first keyword and the second keyword. I also rank quick in the page one so I saw myself the potential to grow further to offer as you said, the second keyword. I will run songblast again for my second keyword so that I can expand the usage not just from the primary keyword but also expand more usage. So my product can be used in many applications, not just the main application. So I'm now the big brand.

Was it just Zonblast that you were doing that got you up in the rankings?

Yeah, at the beginning it's not Zonblast, it's Facebook. But afterward I would just leave myself zoneblast.

I think another reason is because I have really key features, killer features, features that no one else have. So I can really grab the market share quickly. Although I don't.

A good product that you got to rank for keywords using Facebook ads and Zomblasts.

That's another thing. It's my quality product. My reviews is top. I have almost 5 star or close to I out of 220 reviews I got right now, I only have two 1 star review.

So my review are pretty good. Why? Because I have really good quality product. I manage to control the quality, not myself. I choose a good supplier and he never fails me. And I send my people to a quality check every time. Of course I set the expectation really high. Don't upset me. Give me the best product.

I don't want to have any troubles. I only choose supplier won't give me any trouble. I will spend a lot of time on qualify you but.

My life will be a lot easier if my supplier is a good supplier.

So therefore up to big things. And I'm looking forward to congratulating you and celebrating with you next week.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. Look forward seeing you next week.

Indeed.

Yes.

You know it's going to be fun next week. My partner Matt on one of my companies, we do a lot of volume on Amazon and in January did about 350,000 on Amazon in that business alone. And Matt and I have built that business almost two years and we have never seen each other. We have never seen each other in two years and we're going to see each other. We've been running a business together every day for two years. We have never seen each other in person. And we are going to be getting together at ASM next week.

Y' all will be watching History happen when Matt Davis and I get together for the tribe. In fact, the first round of the tribe we did conference calls together. Except Sean. It was Matt because Sean and I didn't have our business yet. Matt and I were doing these conference calls together for the first round. And you haven't seen each other. It's amazing. You and I do them together every Saturday.

Cool.

Who would like to go next? Who would like to give an update on where they're at and we can work on growing you from there.

Gonna start calling you out. You hang out on these hangouts for a reason.

I'll go real quick.

Cool. I was gonna anyway. All right.

So I think last time we talked that was probably in and out of inventory. Inventory is back. I got inventory restocked on the 23rd and now I have a contingency with a plant to basically send me inventory every week.

Just to keep myself in inventory. And it's a little bit easier because of course it's a US Supplier, so it's not an issue. My rankings did again drop a little bit. Based on those, I think I was out of inventory for about five days. So they dropped a little, but not that much. What actually is interesting though is.

Where I was selling like anywhere between 35 to 40 units a day prior to running out of inventory. Now I'm only selling about 20, about 25 units a day. So it's steadily going back up. It's just one of those things where once I get my rankings back and now that I have these contingencies in place to ensure I have new inventory every week, it shouldn't be an issue. The other piece that I want to report about is I received two samples from my. From on for my next product from China. And the. I'm glad I did do multiple factories because I could tell that there was a difference between quality between the two. So I'm gonna go with the latter factor. Well, I'm gonna go yeah, the ladder factory. The only issue that I'm running into now is that because of the holidays that are coming up, I won't be able to get my product in inventory until after.

Probably mid March just because of the lead time for that particular product. So they kind of bummed me out. But you know, going forward, the other. The final thing is that I'm looking for another domestic supplier for an add on product for my.

Another add on product that I have. And so I'm looking, I'm just going through, researching on Amazon to see what's there. So those are what I'm working on.

Now so that the second product is the one that won't be there until March, is that right?

Right. Because just given right now, like I talked to them last night, they said it'll be pushing it, like they could probably get it in under the radar, but they don't feel comfortable saying, hey, we can have it to you before the 16th.

Yeah. It's sometimes like a six to eight week lead time even if you're working with a domestic supplier. Why that is, I don't know, but apparently that's the case.

So.

Good. You're doing exactly what you should be doing. Looking at second products, throwing the first one, getting up on those keyword rankings, getting back to that number one spot after losing inventory. You're doing exactly what you should be doing. That second product is going to be a big breakthrough for you because you've already gone through the process. You know how to get reviews, it'll impact the sales of your first product and you're doing exactly what you should be doing. Good work.

Thanks.

I have.

About the whole selling your business process. Did you guys go to a broker to kind of form out the lookout for leads for people that may want to buy it or exactly how did that process work?

Yeah. So.

I'm going to be talking a lot about this from stage, but this person is an aggregator and they're actually ASM members. They are an aggregator. What an aggregator is is somebody who buys businesses in a very specific market. So you could have an aggregator in the healthcare field that bought a bunch of healthcare facilities. This is an aggregator of physical products businesses. So they buy, and a lot of them are Amazon based. So they buy, they'll buy Amazon businesses and other physical products businesses and then grow them and hold onto them and nurture them and use their internal system to grow them and make them easier and more profitable. So they came to us and wanted to buy us. And one of the reasons why they came to us was because they knew that by going through this process that I might recommend them to the tribe. And so that process is kind of evolving. We're completing the sale and once it completes and we get the check, then we'll be able to plan on introducing them to everybody because they want more deals, they want more people that they buy businesses from. And it's also something that I think would be really helpful for members of the tribe to have a resource that they could possibly sell their business to. So you will meet them soon.

Make sense? Jay?

Yeah.

Cool. I wanted to ask you your second product, is it more competitive or less competitive than your first?

It's definitely more competitive.

Good. So I say good because I recommend your second product being in a larger market and more competitive because now you have the account history to rank faster than.

You have got seller feedback. You've got volume through your account, and those are things that play a factor into ranking. So once you have some sales history, you will rank faster for the subsequent products.

Ah, good job. Good to know.

Mr. Shawn Coyne. Say something interesting.

Why don't you do this to me? Because I like. Because you never feel uncomfortable unless I do this.

I don't have anything interesting to say.

Nothing at all.

I love this.

There is literally nothing interesting in my.

Brain at the moment. You know, I'll give you one. I'll give you one.

I don't find that interesting. You find that interesting? We went to breakfast this morning and Ryan was very intrigued by some of the interesting titles of bagels, like Asiago. So he said asiago at least 50 times while we were checking out.

That's a great word.

We didn't get Asiago Bagels. He just felt like saying them.

Great, great word. Asiago. Say it.

Asiago.

Don't you feel better?

No.

Well, on that note, let's go to somebody else. John, I haven't heard from you in quite some time and would love to hear an update from you. And then I'm going to Kevin next.

Cool.

Hi, Ryan. Hey, everyone.

I've been slightly stalled, really, I suppose. I finally got my inventory last week into FBA in the uk.

But my account has not been approved by Amazon yet. So I've been. I'm trying to register my account for a business I already own, and they went through lots and lots of stages of. In the uk, if you register with your business, they want to see all of the paperwork. So I went through about eight returns back and forward with all of my paperwork.

And.

And at the moment, apparently they're still reviewing. I contacted them a day ago and they haven't got back to me yet.

But that's a government thing, not an Amazon thing. Sorry, that's a government thing, not an Amazon thing.

Well, it's an Amazon thing, but apparently they have to review all the companies using their paperwork or something as a government thing. So at the moment I'm just stalled until they can approve my account. So all the stocks there, literally my listings there, as soon as they approve my account, I'm live.

Make sure you've got a launch plan. Do you have a 1, 2, 3 of what you're going to be doing as soon as you're able to start taking sales.

Yeah. So I've got a small list which I've built From going to CrossFit, getting loads of get some email addresses and my initial reviews. So I've got those guys and I've written the launch emails. So I'm going to launch out to that list and then once I've got say 10, 12 reviews because the UK is not as big as us, I'm going to put the code on a hot review site. Sorry, a hot link site. So I'll give away 100 units probably in a few couple of hours through that site.

Cool. One thing I would recommend in addition to that is turning on Amazon pay per click. I know nothing about UK pay per click, but if you can compete with 12 reviews in the UK, I would definitely recommend turning on pay per click as soon as you got those.

I will do.

Yeah.

And it might be happening next week while we're actually at the event.

So we'll see how it goes. That's really exciting.

Literally log on in the breaks.

It hasn't sunk in yet that there's 101 people flying in for the trial. That has not sunk.

If anyone's from the Triath is getting there a bit earlier. I'm flying tomorrow. So if anyone's there earlier in the week next week we'll be like if you want to go or biking the desert or something like that. Pretty cool.

Cool. There's actually something I would recommend you do. There is a tour. They'll pick you up at your hotel and take you to a zip line through the desert. And it's not that expensive. I think when I did it was the two numbers coming to mind are $70 and $120. Those are very different. I think it was like $75 and you zip line for a couple hours through the desert. Like in the mountains in the desert. It was a fantastic experience. I would highly recommend. That sounds good.

Cool. So I had something important to say.

I started thinking about Justin Bieber.

That's what it was.

And I forgot.

I forgot everything.

Share the love for Justin Bieber. Yeah, I don't share the same love.

Yes.

Amazing in the UK how few reviews some products have that are actually moving. Okay. Quantity.

Say that again.

It's amazing when you look at the UK how few reviews some products have that are actually moving. Semi good quantity.

I've got a question for you, John. Since you don't have any products live yet, are you able to estimate the.

The flow of products, like how many products are being sold by the top people in a space. Are you able to estimate that?

Yeah, 999 works as well in the UK.

And what are you seeing? Could you talk a little bit about the volume that's there, comparative to the number of reviews that are there?

I mean, the interesting thing about the UK is that I think I'm as a supplement product and some supplement products, really people haven't moved to buying from Amazon all the time for all of their stuff. But, I mean, it's still moving. Amazon's growing massively in the uk.

Would you give us an example? Like in one of the supplements that you researched that you didn't pick, were you able to see what the top person was moving and how many reviews did that person have?

I'll give an example of one of the ones in the same niche I was looking at. Mine's in. There's a product which is from an American ASMR who they've shipped to the UK. It's got 29 reviews. It's on page one seventh product and it's moving maybe 15 a day.

But most of the products are rubbish, like terrible design.

There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to get my way all the way to the top one.

So, John, I want to drop just an idea in your brain. Yeah, there is.

There's going to be an increasing demand for people to go international. It's one of the next waves. So if you can, if anyone in the UK is able to make a service similar to Zonblast or. Hey, Joe, if you're watching this, go international.

To either have something in the UK or to have a list of people that want to purchase and review a product in the uk. I bet that would be a pretty cool little side business for you.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that, so that's a great idea.

Thanks.

Cool.

I want to hear from our neighborhood friendly, Kevin.

Well, on a somewhat related note, I had an Asiago bagel for lunch yesterday.

It's a great word, great work.

It was very tasty and it was also fun to order.

I don't know how it tastes, but I can imagine it was fun to order.

Things are going well. We are hovering around 65,000amonth in sales right now. Product 3 is 3 and 4 launch within the next week to 10 days and product 5 is in development and we'll start production in the next week or two on that one. So that one will launch around March 1st. The thing that I've been dealing with the past couple of weeks is a nasty competitor. And it's really the first time I've had competitors come and go. And that much we know. But this one is particularly nasty. Started out the day after Christmas. Sent me a message, found me, tracked me down, sent me a message on Facebook introducing himself as a competitor. I had never heard of him before, but this is a guy that was already selling. We were selling similar products on my first product, and when we came out with our second product, he went to our supplier and came out with a competing product. And that in and of itself is fine, but the way that he's gone about it is really underhanded. We've now got proof that he's not only trashing our name in different forms and things like that, but he's solicited people to leave us one star reviews, etc. Etc. It's getting really nasty and it's hurting sales. So the only thing that we can do other than fight him every way that we can and try to get that type of activity stopped is just to. What I've been trying to do is just focus on our business and not waste a lot of time and worrying about him. I'm a big believer in karma.

Eventually he'll get what's coming to him.

But it is a struggle every day. And to me, Ryan, it's a reminder that this is a real business. I think sometimes, especially when things are going great and sales are just up, up, up, up, it's easy to kind of get complacent and to not be as diligent as you need to be. And so this is a real reminder that, you know what, this is an awesome business model and I'm incredibly grateful.

To be involved with it.

But at the same time, there's still challenges, there's still pitfalls to overcome.

There's a couple things I'd like to.

I gotta mute somebody. I think that's you, Jessica.

A couple things. I've dealt with a lot of nasty competitors and I'm actually going to make a note to follow up with you privately.

Because I have a lot of experience dealing with competitors. There's one thing I'll talk to you about off this call, but I think you are doing the absolute right thing. I have spent a tremendous amount of energy fighting competitors and I take two rules. First rule, put more energy into growing my business than worrying about the competitor. And number two, go to the source. Meaning don't worry about the competitor. Don't worry about getting A bunch of people in on that competitor just go straight to the source of Amazon. Amazon may or may not turn a blind eye to it, but it only makes sense to go to the source. It's.

Seller supportmazon.com there's also community helpamazon.com I just stay on those people and if something gets done, it gets done. If not, put all your energy into your business. It very rarely works out. Going to the competitor and being like, I know what you're doing. I've seen it happen, usually with other people going to that person and they report back and it's like, okay, cool, I'm glad that worked. But I don't think I've ever had it happen where I go to the competitor and I'm like, look, I know this is what you're doing. Usually they give me the finger and say expletive off.

I think you're doing the right thing. The only thing I'd add is go to the source if you have documentation of them slandering you or saying things about you or going to your supplier.

I have had good success going to my supplier and getting them to stop supplying that person.

Yeah, we're working on that, too. We've been giving them evidence and putting pressure on them. The message that they sent around Christmas was actually, to my knowledge, it's attempted or suggested collusion. Because what they were saying is, hey, we sell the same product. Let's go after the number one seller in this space. And I haven't engaged with them at all. I didn't respond. But I have used that as well as the other evidence we're collecting to start putting pressure on the supply to say, hey, listen, is this really somebody that you want to be doing business with? But that's great to hear from you that you kind of take the same approach. It's tough not to want to do more and do more and do more. But at the same time, I think one of the pitfalls is if it pulls me away from working on my business and growing that, then it's not helpful.

Yeah, I don't know how to explain this, but it's like if you're here and they're here and you're putting your energy here, you're all just going to stay here. But if you put your energy up here of growing your business, this is the most horrible visual example ever. But if you put your energy here and he's staying here, you'll elevate and grow while he stays and declines. The dogs will eat themselves while you Grow. You might get some of that flack. But the minute you take your energy from up here and put it down here, you go down with the rest of them. I wish I had been able to tell myself that a year or so ago.

Kevin, are you going to be in Vegas next week?

Yes.

Excellent. Looking forward to seeing you.

Yep, same here.

Well, we had a couple new people join us. Jessica, I'm going to unmute you just in case. Like to get on maybe.

Looks like you have muted yourself.

I am unmuted. Can you hear me?

There we go. Hi, Jessica.

Hello.

How are you doing?

Good.

I got a lot of background noise. I'm at work, so I'm not sure I can hear me.

Well, okay, well, how can we help?

I'm at a stall out. I'm on a slow boat from China, so I'm working on everything else I can website, things like that. I've got 45 days until it's going to be here.

Okay, and do you have a launch plan for what's going to happen when you have the inventory in stock and are ready to go?

I'm halfway there.

The business that I currently own is like a 24 hour personal training studio gym. So I have a big client base. I've owned that for 10 years and my products can definitely be sold to them. So I'm going to reach out to them for my first sales and give them like half off coupons because I know they'll still spend about. They'll still spend to be able to still make some money. But I've got to order my product now and my product's not even here, so it will be done by the time the other one starts selling. So I'm just. Timing is everything right now. I think I'm getting there.

You're doing the right thing by having a list of people to launch to. I would just further.

Elaborate on that with what type of marketing you're going to be doing as soon as that hits store shelves. Are you going to be doing Amazon pay per click and doing a Facebook launch or doing a giveaway on your website? I'm old fashioned in the sense that I think doing a website before you've got product and inventory is a little bit.

Ahead of what's necessary. Some people disagree with me, but I'd be very clear about what your launch plan is going to be as soon as your product is ready.

Okay. I've got 4,000 followers on Facebook right now and then another page for my other business with about 350. So I'm definitely going to do a launch plan there. I've got an in house launch that I'll do. I've got friends and family, got a list of about 50 there that I'm going to try and get to help me out. So I think I can safely say within a month I can probably get about 80 reviews.

Good, good. You're doing just fine then. Good work, Jessica.

Okay, cool. Thanks. It's been a great help having you guys around.

I'm glad to hear that.

And I'm getting on a plane today, so I will see you guys next week.

Cool. You and John are going to go zip lining together in the Vegas mountains.

Nice.

Say something interesting.

So we talk about your new hobby of inventing stories.

This is not a new hobby. All right, well, go ahead.

So last night we went out to dinner with Danny.

Enie has a top business podcast. Have you ever heard of him?

And instead of allowing the members of the table to actually tell me their story, Ryan invented imaginary stories for them and shared with them what their background was.

I had never met them.

So there was the guy, Brian. I still don't know where he's from.

He's from Texas.

Oh, okay. Well, I said that he was a dairy farmer from Wisconsin who was lactose intolerant and a Denver Broncos fan.

None of that is true.

None of that was true.

All of my interesting is really just stories about you.

That's why I keep you around, inflating my ego.

All right, who would like to go next? What's up, Tom?

I got a question. How are you guys doing? I'm waiting on inventory, so I'm working on my launch plan, but I've got one strategy that I haven't really seen discussed here yet.

Cool, I would love to hear it.

I have friends on Instagram that are followers. Young, attractive, young ladies. One of them has 35,000 followers. Another one has about 26,000 followers. Now, what do you think about incorporating them as marketers for me? Having them push my product to their followers?

I think it's a fantastic idea. I don't know what type of incentive you can or want to give those people, but I think it's a fantastic idea. I personally don't have an Instagram account. I've never been on Instagram. I'm behind the times there, but I think it's a fantastic idea. In fact, I was just having lunch. We were having lunch yesterday with a buddy of ours who's launching a podcast. And the way that they're launching the podcast is by leveraging An Instagram account, getting the followers to share the podcast through that medium. I think it's a fantastic medium. I unfortunately just don't have any experience on there to tell you what's best.

Okay.

Yeah.

I haven't heard anybody mention anything about it, so I thought that might be a unique new avenue to push some products.

Absolutely.

The first time I spoke on Sage at asm, I talked about the Amazon launch formula. And my point, my message in there was, the way you get a head start on everybody else is to have an audience that you can launch to. I did it on Facebook. Some people have mailing lists, some people have blogs, some people have Instagram followings. It doesn't matter where your following is. It matters that you can reach an audience with a product and a message quickly. So Instagram absolutely meets that criteria. I've personally never done it, but it doesn't matter because I have my audience somewhere else. I think it's a fantastic idea because you're meeting the criteria of having an audience that you can launch to.

Perfect. Well, I'll venture out into that new uncharted territory and report back to you guys on how it goes.

Cool. Appreciate that. We'd love to hear about that. Thank you. Vegas next week.

Thomas, are you going to be in Vegas next week?

Yes, I will. Yep. I get there Wednesday morning.

Excellent. We'll see you then. All right.

All right, who'd like to go next?

Ryan.

Yo.

See you later.

Take care.

Thank you.

What's going on?

Good, good, good.

I'm in Dubai now. I moved from Geneva now to Dubai.

Congratulations.

Thank you. And basically, what I have a question for you is still affiliate marketing. Can I promote my product from Amazon through affiliate links so Amazon will pay my affiliate the commission? Is that possible?

You can. You actually have more experience with understanding.

How does that work? I've never seen that in the asm. Nobody's talking about that.

Sure.

So we actually use that a lot for lead tracking so we can see where the sales are coming from. So we use it as our own work. We're our own affiliate. So we have an affiliate account through Amazon, and instead of just placing the super URL, we put the Super URL with an affiliate link in it. So then I have affiliate links from our website, affiliate links from Facebook, affiliate links from Pinterest. That way I can look back and see where the sales are coming from. And you can do the exact same thing with other affiliates. The process would be no different than using Amazon Associates in general.

They would have to have their associates account Right, right, right. You couldn't have an Associates link and give it to me.

Correct. I would get the money then. I could, but I would get all the kickbacks.

Right.

So if you're selling yoga mats and I've got a yoga mats blog.

Right.

You need your own.

I need to go to Amazon and set up an associates link and then set it up to link to you.

Correct.

And the only thing you could do there is basically like, it's the Zen active yoga mat. You have to go look for it in your Amazon account.

They'll have to do all of. They'll have to generate the URL. You can't generate that URL for them step by step.

So you have a yoga mat. Ryan owns the yoga mat.

Okay.

He goes and creates the associate link in Amazon himself.

Right? No, opposite, opposite. So we switched roles here. Let's keep it consistent. If Sean is selling Yoga Max, I'm the affiliate. Yes. The affiliate has to go and set up an Amazon Associates account.

Okay, perfect. Okay.

Search for his map.

Affiliate link and place it on my blog.

Oh, I see. Okay. And who does the payment? I mean, clickbank, for example, for info product, they do the payments. Is Amazon.

Oh, okay.

Yes. So the reason here is. So the third party we're not talking about is Amazon. Amazon is actually the order taker. So Sean's not involved in this process technically at all. Because if I'm the affiliate, I'm technically selling Amazon's product, not Sean's.

Oh, I see. Okay, go ahead.

So Amazon pays me. Sean benefits from a sale and I credit for it.

And can I fix the commission rate myself or is Amazon putting the commission rate on top?

Who is giving the commission rate?

Amazon controls it all.

It changes based on the affiliate's volume. So their first sale, they might get. These are just random numbers. They might get 3%. On their 50th sale, they might get 10%. And it's not just your product, it's products on Amazon. Let's say they have a link to. Ryan has a link to my yoga mat. Someone clicks on it and buys a refrigerator. Ryan's still getting a commission on the refrigerator. I don't get anything out of it, but I'm not really involved. I don't need to consent to my product being on Amazon Associates because it can't really hurt me. Worst case, someone else is buying my product. So you, as the seller, don't really get any control over Amazon's associate account related to your products because it's more of an Amazon.

Commitment than you so.

They'Re paying a commission out of their cut. Not from my cut, actually.

Amazon's cut. Right. It won't affect Amazon. Okay, did we thoroughly confuse you?

Because they're charging me 15% right, out of my cost. So they're paying out. Out of their cut to affiliates.

Correct, Correct.

Okay, so, okay, so 3% is not very intriguing for people. You know, can I.

Do I have any kind of an.

Influence from the beginning, so I can, you know, make it a bit more. I'm giving for my cut also on top of that, or. No, there is no. I cannot play around with the commission rate or.

Well, okay, so if you want, we can do it, but it's going to get complicated. So put your thinking cap on what you could do.

I kind of lost Ryan. I don't know why.

Yeah, no, he's very, very quiet.

He got. He got scared about my question, I guess.

You know.

He said, ciao, amigos. I'm.

Are you coming to Vegas next week?

No, I'm not.

I'm not. I was the last year's event. You know, I'm an ASM3. Absolutely phenomenal. So I've seen it, you know, so probably I'm going to watch it live or so, something like that. But, you know, from Dubai to there is about 16 and a half hours. I don't think I'm going to make it this way.

Yeah, that's a flight and a half.

Yeah, yeah. Although there's a direct flight with Emirates Airlines. It's not a big issue, but, you know, I don't. I'm not very. I just want to make money now, you know, I've spent a lot of money now, so I'm considered. So I know the game plan, you know, so I'm in it. And no need for me to go there this time, but next time, for sure. But you're going to love it. Have you been there last year? You went there or.

No, no, it's my first time.

Oh, your first time. Oh, you're going to love it. Hold on.

I was in your apartment. Then you got a view out the window.

Yeah, hold on. I have a guest coming in.

So, yeah, I don't know my story or so, but, you know, I moved to Dubai from Geneva mainly for tax reasons, because in Dubai, you know, there are no taxes. And, you know, we were going to, you know, we're projecting a lot of revenues coming in.

And, you know, now I move, everything is set, and we establish our company here in Dubai, and we're going to start big time. You know, I'm doing a lot of. Not only retailing, I'm doing a lot of white labeling also. I don't know if I was talking about it like a couple of weeks ago in the webinar. Also, I'm doing a lot of white labeling also for people, meaning that my product goes very well for white labeling for their customers, branding, and so on and so forth. So my product is absolutely a product that, you know, a lot of people need that, you know, so their customers or their people who have their relationship already with them, they need this product for sure, also. So I'm doing white labeling for them. So my product goes with their packaging, with their logo, with their website, etcetera, etcetera. Etc. And I'm selling to them wholesale. So I'm retailing. So I have three customers coming in three revenue streams, if you like. One is retailing myself. Two, wholesale white labeling. So they're not selling it, reselling it, they're just buying it to give it away as a branding purpose. And number three, white labeling with the purpose of reselling. So big hotels, for example.

I don't know if you have heard of the website's.

Come in.

Where are we?

Wow. Okay.

So I really thought you were scared about my question. I said shout.

So here's what happened.

We're on my old Mac, which died in the middle of the question.

And so in a flash, I mean, within two and a half seconds, Sean and I flipped open another laptop.

And got back in. Except all of you had all the spots filled up.

So we couldn't get back to our hangout. So you know what we did next? We're like, well, someone's bound to hop off the call because we just fell off. But nobody would get off the call.

Ryan's hangout.

We had a great time, you know, no worries. You know, we were chatting and everything.

We were having, apparently, because you could. No one.

So let's answer your question.

I feel it, Ludicus.

All right, so thank you for having fun in our stead.

Sure.

Anytime. Here's the answer to your question. What you could do is you could set up your own affiliate link in your Amazon Associates link.

Give it out to your affiliates, and then manually pay them.

Oh, I'm very interested in that. How do I set up this?

Yeah.

I told him it was going to be complicated. But let's say if he only has three affiliates, he's got three major affiliates. He would just put their name in part of the tracking link. He would know how many orders came through that person, and then he'd manually pay them however he wants to pay them. He'd cut them a check, send them a PayPal or whatever it is. He's going to get credit for it. But he can give an inflated amount. But it's just a product.

It's complicated, but it'll work. Okay, if that's what you wanted to do, cool.

Yes, I want to do that, definitely.

Okay, cool.

Thank you.

There's two things that I always said were good ideas that were underutilized by Amazon entrepreneurs, including myself, and they are the utilization of affiliates and they are partnering with other people in your space that sell complimentary products. So if you sell a weight loss product and going to the person who sells exercise bands and working on an arrangement to where you put an insert in each other's products to promote one another, that's a completely underutilized thing that eventually people will do, I think, because it's just smart marketing.

You know, I'm a big, big fan of.

Having partners. I mean, to the gentleman that, you know, was talking about Instagram, I mean, absolutely. I mean, those followers follow a guy or a lady, and that guy or lady has already bound a relationship to their followers. Don't you think? If that guy says, hey, go right, they're going to go right, they're going to go left, they're going to go left. But if I'm going to market to those followers, then I need kind of a step to go inside, start a relationship. They need to trust me, et cetera, et cetera. So if you, you have followers that have a lot of followers, a guy that has a lot of followers, and you take that guy and bring it to your business man, absolutely. You're way ahead on the curve. So that comes into affiliate, for example, that comes into, if you like.

A.

Profit sharing kind of stuff because you give value to their audience and to their. Their customers, you know, so, absolutely, I'm absolutely a fan for Instagram or even YouTube. YouTube, you have a lot of people that, you know, videos that went viral and they have a lot of followers. You know, you need to target those people, those people who own those videos.

You know, first of all, I just want to comment on how pretty the top half of your face is.

That is so pretty.

And second of all, it's funny you should bring this up because the people.