Merry Christmas everybody!
We just want to thank you guys for an awesome year, it never would have been possible without you. We did a lot of things that are new to us this year (insert shameless plug for our course) and you've stuck with us through the hiccups, providing us feedback along the way which helped us improve immensely. We can't thank you enough for that.
Since everyone will be on holiday mode for the next couple of days, we figured we'd do the same and take a break on the podcast. This is not a long term break, we're just going to skip 3 episodes and resume on the 4th of January, kicking off the new year with a goal planning episode.
We hope you have a blast during the holidays, and see you again next year!
As 2017 comes to a close, it's only fitting to devote our last episode of the year to 2018 ecommerce predictions. Dave and I listed what we think will happen in the ecommerce world next year, from sales tax to Bitcoin. It's always fun to make these predictions and then revisit them by the end of 2018 to see how many of them actually happened.
It would've been great to have Dave on the episode as well, but he is still in China as of recording this, so I will just cover his predictions here. This will also be our last full-length episode for the year and we will resume with new episodes twice a week next year. I also recorded a short special for Christmas Day next week, stay tuned for that!
Here are our predictions for ecommerce next year:
Many of these predictions bring terror to us sellers--especially Amazon FBA fee increases and sales tax--but ecommerce in general is expected to grow over the next few years and we are hoping to ride along on that growth.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Amazon FBA's Largest Ever Fee Increase Coming in 2018 - How Will it Affect You?
2-Hour EcomCrew Q&A Webinar
Registration for our first-ever webinar is still open. You can ask us anything under the sun about ecommerce for 2 hours for FREE. Go here for more details.
Thanks as always for listening. Until next year, happy selling!
I just did a podcast about my 2017 biggest struggles in our last episode and today I will cover the biggest news to ever explode in the ecommerce world this year. It definitely seems like 2017 flew us by but not without leaving news bombs that left a lot of people in ecommerce amused, worried, hopeful and wondering what's going to happen next.
We compiled a list of the biggest news in ecommerce this year, ranging from the Bitcoin explosion to the ever-so-perplexing sales tax. The items on this list are not written in any particular order. Listen to the podcast for my discussion of each.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Free 2 hour webinar
How to Hire Virtual Assistants and Open an Overseas Office in the Philippines
As part of our goal to get more reviews on iTunes, we are hosting our first-ever 2-hour Webinar on December 21st where we will answer any ecommerce questions you have and give you tips you need. I usually charge $500/hr for consulting but this webinar is free, the only thing we ask in return is for you to leave us an honest review on iTunes. Check out how to join the webinar here.
We hope you enjoy this episode and as always, happy selling!
"In general, I think that people spend too much time talking about their wins, and gloating, and how well things are going and never talk about the disarray or things that are going on behind the scenes, or things that they're struggling with. I think it's important to talk about this stuff; I think everyone goes through these types of things." - Mike Jackness on the business and life struggles he faced this year
This is that time of the year when people talk about "best-of", "top 10 of the year", and all those things that highlight the most significant things that happened to them this year. It's a great way to look back on the successes and lessons of the year that is about to end and to get ready for the year that is about to come.
In this podcast I will not do a "best of". Instead, I will talk about the struggles and the challenges I faced. Too many people talk about the glory of being an entrepreneur and sweep the mess under the rug. Being in ecommerce is not all roses and the bigger your business grows, the more problems you encounter. So in this episode, I will talk about the hardships, the confusions, the worry and all the uncertainties that we faced head on this year, and what we did to get overcome them.
I elaborate the following challenges my company and I faced head on:
It definitely has not been an easy year but with all the struggles came the fruits of our labor: explosive business growth, a great team, and happy customers. We don't expect problems to let up anytime soon since we are gearing for more growth next year, but we do know that we will be giving it all we've got. And you should, too.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Our Amazon Product Launch Strategy for 2018
Free 2-hour Webinar
If you enjoyed listening to our podcast, please leave us an honest review on iTunes. We badly need reviews to help us get discovered by other ecommerce entrepreneurs out there looking for our content and we need your help.
In connection, we are having a 2-hour coaching webinar on December 21st and attendees can ask anything under the sun and we will give our honest unbridled advice that will be really helpful for your business. Normally I charge $500/hr of my consulting time but this webinar will be for free. The only thing we ask in return is that you leave us an honest review of the podcast. You can check out the details here.
Thanks as always for tuning in. Until next episode, happy selling!
"If you put no effort into your stuff, like if you're really not contributing any value to whatever community you're in--you have crappy packaging, crappy products, crappy support--you're not going to get anywhere. So you have to make yourself stand out." - Nat Arem of Hookgrip
Here at EcomCrew we put emphasis into how important it is to build a brand and not just sell a bunch of products. It's fine if you're just starting, but building your brand needs to be a part of your long-term strategy. Having a brand makes it easier to move off of Amazon if you decide to, or if, God forbid, Amazon suspends your account.
Having a brand also makes it easier to establish a following of loyal customers. Today's guest, Nat Arem of Hookgrip, talks about how he built a brand around in a niche that is full of die-hard followers: CrossFit and weightlifting.
Nat has been a friend of mine for 10 years now and has been around when I was still neck-deep in the online poker world. We both got out of that and went separate ways but surprisingly both found ourselves in ecommerce.
In this episode Nat and I talk about our online poker days and how he turned his passion--weightlifting--into a solid brand with a loyal fanbase.
Conversation points:
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Under The Hood
Hookgrip
We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you did, please leave us an honest review on iTunes. And as a thank you for leaving a review, you are welcome to join our 2 hour webinar on December 21st. Click here for more details.
Have you heard of Under The Hood? Starting next year, we will be featuring a segment where selected listeners get an hour (up to 1.5 hrs) of FREE coaching with Mike and Dave. In exchange, the coaching session will be recorded and turned into a podcast episode. Sign up at ecomcrew.com/UnderTheHood if you’re interested.
Once again thanks for listening, and until next episode, happy selling!
"If you're never been an entrepreneur before, I would suggest starting a business. If you have done it once, I would strongly advice buying a business. It's just a lot easier." - Bill D'Alessandro of Elements Brands
If you've been listening to the podcast for a while now you might have noticed I that when I talk about my speaking engagements, I always give credit to someone who told me--back when I was unwilling to speak in front of a large crowd and would rather get a root canal--that I needed to do something that makes me uncomfortable to further my career and life. That someone is my guest in today's episode.
Bill D'Alessandro is the founder of Elements Brands, a company that acquires and scales consumer products brands. He has been buying businesses for 7 years now and currently owns 9 brands with over 130 products. We invited him to be one of the special guests of our 100th episode and if you haven't listened to that, absolutely do so--you will find nuggets of advice you won't get anywhere.
In this episode we discuss why he prefers buying businesses over starting one from scratch and when you can do the same.
Here's an overview of what we discussed:
If you want to explore the possibility of selling your business, you can reach out to Bill on Twitter or shoot him an email at bill@elementsbrands.com.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
Elements Brands
Under the Hood
We have a new segment on the show! Starting next year, we will be featuring a segment called Under the Hood, where selected listeners get an hour (up to 1.5 hrs) of FREE coaching with Mike and Dave. In exchange, the coaching session will be recorded and turned into a podcast episode.
If you want to ask Mike and Dave for ANY advice about your business absolutely for FREE and want to help put out good content for the podcast as well, we need you. Sign up at ecomcrew.com/UnderTheHood if you're interested.
Thanks as always for listening, and until next week, happy selling!
"Seeing all these things that other people ... are doing, especially the black hat sellers, and not being able to beat them by using my white hat tactics--it's a very brutal position to be in. But the thing is, one day, I want to be left with a chair when the music stops and they won't." - Mike Jackness on his long-term Amazon launch strategy
Earlier this year we came upon a chilling situation--more and more sellers are employing black hat tactics to try to win more sales on newly launched products. With so much competition on Amazon it's very tempting to do the same, even though we all know it's against Amazon's TOS and doing so is very much like playing with fire.
And we all know what happens when Amazon finds out. I haven't been suspended before, but I know what it's like to suddenly lose so much money overnight because the platform you depend on decided to basically kick you out. I've heard of so many dreadful stories of Amazon killing accounts and leaving sellers in the dumpster. I don't want this to happen to me--I certainly don't want to be stuck with a million dollar's worth of gel pens I can't pay bills with.
So I got to thinking, what does amazon really want? If I need to win in this without risking my account, I need to think of a long-term strategy that plays by Amazon's rules.
That's how I came up with the strategy that we've been using to launch our newer products. We've started to get some real traction, and with this success, we decided we will be using this strategy moving forward to 2018.
In this episode I talk about exactly how we plan to launch products next year, step by step. A word of warning though: this does not involve fast and easy tricks and gimmicks--this strategy takes longer, but is every bit worth it.
Here's the breakdown of what I discuss:
If you decide to try out ClickFunnels and want a copy of our landing pages, send us an email to let us know. ClickFunnels has made it really easy to share pages, so sign up here if you haven't done so.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
ClickFunnels
If you found this episode useful, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes or by leaving a comment below. Thanks so much for listening, and until next episode, happy selling!
"So how do you win if you're doing what everyone else is doing? If we're all using Best Selling Rank or BSR, then everyone is always going to sell the same products and we're just flooding the market with all the same products. So we try to go where the puck is going and not where the puck is." - Chad Rubin of Skubana
In our second 3 digit episode we have Chad Rubin of Skubana as our guest. "Chad Rubin of Skubana" is how I refer to him but he is so much more than that. He co-founded Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management software that we have been using for over a year now. He is a 7-figure seller who also runs the Accelerate Workshop, an exclusive one-day workshop for high-volume multi-channel ecommerce sellers.
Like Kevin Stecko of 80sTees.com, Chad is one of those we jokingly call the "grandfathers of ecommerce" because he has been in ecommerce for a very long time. At the time there was an absence of good ecommerce tools, so to satisfy his own ecommerce needs, he created his own internal tools and shared them with the world, one of which is Skubana.
In this episode we talk about a topic that is of crucial importance especially for those just venturing in ecommerce--how do you find profitable products to sell in a market that is already saturated?
Many sellers do their research: they look at BSR and probably fire up Jungle Scout to judge profitability, and that could work, but people who do that usually end up selling "me-too products". That saturates the market even more and buries their products beneath thousands of similar others.
Chad has a solution. He doesn't want to do what everybody else is doing; he instead focuses on what people are actually looking for but which Amazon does not have yet. He explains how he does this in detail and provides some examples in our conversation.
We also covered other topics, including:
This is a fully packed episode with actionable advice and lots of resources and software recommendations. We've compiled the links below so you can easily check them out.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
EcomCrew Podcast Episode 35: Chad Rubin on the Development of Skubana
Crucial Vacuum
Think Crucial
Accelerate Workshop
Shopify apps he is using:
Bold Brain
Bold Tiered Pricing
Bold Upsell
Webinar:
International Selling Secrets Direct From Amazon For Maximum ROI on International Marketplaces
That's episode 101 guys! We hope you find Chad's valuable actionable advice useful in your own business. If you do and you enjoyed this episode, we'd really love it if you'd leave us an honest review on iTunes. That will help us in our rankings and discoverability so we can reach more ecommerce entrepreneurs out there.
As always, thanks for listening. Until the next episode, happy selling!
100 episodes! Can you believe it?
Today marks a special moment in EcomCrew history. We've hit a very important milestone and we never would have done it without YOU.
I had my struggles; I can't tell you how frustrating it is not knowing whether people truly enjoyed listening to the podcast or if they got any real value out of it or not.
But then I go to these live events and people come up to me and tell me how the podcast helped them in their businesses, and I just feel stoked. It makes me feel like what we're doing makes a difference, and pushes me, and the rest of EcomCrew, to do our best in putting out even better content for you. Your comments, feedback, questions, and support keep us going.
And to celebrate our 100th episode, we have a special treat for you. I got 5 of my favorite successful ecommerce entrepreneurs in this episode and asked them one question:
"What would you have done differently if you could talk to your younger self when you were just getting started in ecommerce?"
Their answers are a mix of rookie mistakes and lessons that took them years to learn. You can use these lessons as warnings or advice and apply them to your own business, without having to go through years of trial and error.
Below is a snippet:
From Andrew Youderian of EcommerceFuel:
"The biggest thing I would probably fundamentally change in my approach about starting an ecommerce business today versus what I've done in the past is probably take something that I thought--it didn't have to be something I was madly in love with, or my soul passion but something that [I] had some kind of interest or overlap with what I enjoy or who I was."
From Bill D'Alessandro of Elements Brands:
"If I could go back in time, I would smack my 4 Hour Workweek self across the head and say, Don't be a wimp, hire people."
From Greg Mercer of Jungle Scout:
"If I were to start all over again--once I figured out how to launch the successful products, and the products themselves had good unit economics--I would've looked into using other people's money to invest in my business to start to scale it up faster."
From Scott Voelker of The Amazing Seller:
"I would focus on finding something that you know you can launch multiple products in, and then from there, taking that approach of a brand where you're able to have a face to that brand ... and then start building that following, start building that email list."
From Steve Chou of My Wife Quit Her Job:
"If there's something that you enjoy per se, that might not necessarily be the best idea for a business. Because chances are that if you have to do it for money, or you feel like it's a chore, then you're not going to enjoy it anymore."
And of course, EcomCrew will not be the same without Dave Bryant. He has been a prolific addition to the crew and has added many extremely useful content to the site. Here's what he would have done differently:
"If I can tell myself one thing to do differently at the beginning of my ecommerce journey, it would definitely be to start with an end goal in mind and reverse engineer from there."
Those are just a sneak peek of our incredibly loaded conversations. Go ahead and listen to the entire episode and find out why they came up with those answers.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
EcommerceFuel
Elements Brands
Jungle Scout
The Amazing Seller
My Wife Quit Her Job
2018 Sellers Summit
EcommerceFuel Live
And that concludes 100 episodes of the EcomCrew podcast! We invite you to stay with us for another hundred episodes of our ecommerce journey.
And from everyone at EcomCrew, THANK YOU.
"I think perpetual unhappiness with everything about an entrepreneur's business is probably the only way they're going to be successful, right? Always be thinking that something needs to be improved." - Kevin Stecko, 80sTees.com
Our guest for the last episode before we hit the 100 mark is my good friend Kevin Stecko from 80sTees.com. We jokingly call Kevin as one of the "grandfathers of ecommerce", having started his business way back in 1999. He has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in the business, and has gone with the wave of changes of what made ecommerce what it is today. In this episode we talk about his entire ecommerce journey--how everything started, where he stands in his ecommerce business now, and the joys and challenges of being in a constantly changing business for 18 years.
This episode is quite longer than usual, and that's because it's fully packed with lessons from Kevin's almost 2 decades of ecommerce experience. Below are the highlights:
This has been a really fun conversation with Kevin (especially the Secret Service stuff) and it is a good close before we hit the 100th episode. It's always great to hear about a fellow entrepreneur's ecommerce experience, but hearing from someone who's been riding the ecommerce wave for almost 2 decades is nothing short of amazing.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
80stees.com
Shopify
Thanks for listening to this episode and feel free to post any comments down below or message us at support@ecomcrew.com. Stay tuned for our special 100th episode next week!
"Definitely I would be vigilant like in an initial screening process. I know most online sellers probably don't have the luxury of being able to see all of their factories but if they do, if they do go to Canton Fair, I highly recommend it. Just so you know what you're dealing with and if you're not comfortable with that, definitely have some backup plans." - Gary Huang, founder of 80/20 Sourcing
One of the best perks of going to the Global Sources Summit is that I get to meet many people who are a wealth of knowledge for my business. One of these people is Gary Huang, founder of 80/20 Sourcing, a blog dedicated to show entrepreneurs how to source from China efficiently and cost-effectively. I heard him speak at Global Sources and I knew I just had to invite him to be a podcast guest so that I can share with you the valuable things I learned from him.
Gary lives in China and this episode was recorded via a call I made to him from California. The call quality suffered from the Chinese internet connection which, as you know, is not exactly zippy. Nevertheless, this episode is fully packed with great value for anyone who imports anything from China so it will be worth powering through the bad call quality to get to the good stuff.
Gary's topic at the Global Sources Summit is about supplier negotiation. There are so many things you can negotiate with your supplier aside from price of goods, and we talk about that a little bit in this episode. As a bonus, Gary has been awesome to give EcomCrew listeners access to his Negotiations pack, which includes the Online Seller's Guide to Negotiating with Suppliers e-book, a negotiations cheatsheet, and a "Secrets of Successful Sourcing" Masterclass video. You can get them all here for FREE.
Here are the highlights of our conversation:
We hope you find this episode useful, as I did when I listened to Gary during his Global Sources talk. Don't forget to go to 8020sourcing.com/ecomcrew to get you FREE Negotiations pack.
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
8020sourcing.com
8020sourcing.com/ecomcrew
As always, thanks for listening to this episode. We'd love to have your feedback at iTunes and if you'd like to reach us, you can do so at support@ecomcrew.com. Until next episode, happy selling!
"Sometimes you have to do something that makes you uncomfortable to further your career and your life and I really believe that." - Mike Jackness on speaking at the Global Sources Summit
This episode is a play-by-play report of my entire trip to Asia, covering the Global Sources Summit, the Canton Fair, meeting with our Philippines team -- basically everything my team and I did while we were in Asia from early October through early November.
If you're like me who doesn't like following someone's life abroad on an hour-by-hour basis, then this episode probably isn't for you. But if you are in ecommerce and have never been to these events in Asia before (or you're just curious about what we do there), this will give you a pretty good overview of what it's like to be on the road, traveling back and forth between cities to attend fairs and meet people, things you might need to do if you are serious in growing your importing business.
These are the highlights of my nearly month-long trip:
My wife Michelle, our Director of Ecommerce Jacqueline, and I crammed so many activities during our time in Asia that when we arrived back in San Diego we were all absolutely drained. These trips are very productive and rewarding, but be warned -- it can also be terribly exhausting.
Nevertheless, trips like this are very valuable for entrepreneurs looking for serious growth. The trick is laying out what you want to accomplish while you're there, which for me, are three things: meeting as many like-minded people/entrepreneurs as possible, touring as many factories as possible, and building as many relationships as you can with the people you already work with.
Resources mentioned:
Thanks for listening to this episode! If you can, please leave an honest feedback on iTunes and reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com. Until next episode, happy selling!
"I loved my job when I worked as a VA for Mike and he really made me feel like I was part of the company even though I was here in the Philippines. So I guess what I'm trying to say is to have a Mia and to have a team like what we have in Cebu, you need to be a Mike." - Mia Pamisa, Philippines Team Manager, Terran
If you've been listening to our podcast for a while now you know that we run multiple brands simultaneously and it's no secret that a vital part of our growth and keeping things together is our Philippines team. I've been mentioning them on the podcast and we get asked a lot how we put together such a great team. If you're serious about developing a virtual team, this episode is for you.
During our trip to China, we went over to the Philippines to personally meet with our team there. This episode was recorded with me, my wife Michelle, our Director of Ecommerce Jacqueline, and the entire team in one room. It's refreshing to be able talk to them in person and not just on Skype.
We went around the room and introduced every single member of the team and what they do for us. We also talked about a bunch of other things including:
I always joke that anyone who wants to build a remote team absolutely needs a Mia. She was our first hire and everything single hire was made possible because of her. She is sort of the rock in our team and finding her was a crucial part of our strategy. You can't have a Mia on Day 1 though. What you can do is get the best general VA you can find, build rapport and trust, and gradually train them. Invest a lot on training them -- it will pay off many times over.
If you don't have a VA helping you run your business, I highly suggest you get one now. VAs significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on trivial tasks and save you the mental and physical energy you need to focus on business growth strategies and decision-making.
If you're unsure which tasks you can assign to a VA, we made a list of 25 things we outsource to our VAs and 7 things we do ourselves. Get it here for FREE!
Resources mentioned:
AsiaInspection
Stamped.io
Tactical.com
ColorIt.com
Onlinejobs.ph
Digital Marketer Training
Thanks for tuning in this Monday and expect a fresh new episode on Thursday. Please leave us an honest review on iTunes and send comments/questions/suggestions our way at support@ecomcrew.com. Happy selling!
"Part of the hard part of selling a business is not just all the mechanics behind the scene, but finding a good buyer who is honest, and who has money, and who isn't pulling your chain and can actually close the deal. And is reasonable. Those are not inconsequential things to find in a buyer."
-Andrew Youderian, eCommerceFuel founder
I have an exciting episode today as I am interviewing one of the most awesome people I know, not just in ecommerce but in life in general.
Andrew Youderian is the founder of eCommerceFuel, a vetted community of high 6 and 7 figure ecommerce store owners who help each other grow their ecommerce businesses. The community hosts the annual eCommerceFuel Live event where members get to meet each other in person and share tips and actionable advice on how to successfully run their businesses.
It's one of the events I absolutely love attending and it seems I'm not the only one who shares this sentiment -- event tickets sold out hours after the event was publicly announced.
Andrew launched and sold numerous successful drop shipping ecommerce stores over the years. In this episode we talk about two stores he sold -- TrollingMotors.net and Right Channel Radios -- and a behind-the-scenes conversation about possibly the most interesting ecommerce store sale he made.
Other things we talked about:
We hope you enjoy this episode. If you own a store with a minimum of $250K in annual revenue and want access to a treasure trove of information to help grow your business, apply for eCommerceFuel membership here!
Resources mentioned today:
eCommerceFuel
eCommerceFuel Live
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
How to Sell a Business: The Open-Book Sale of My $600K Store (With Complete Financials)
You'll notice we have a different podcast format -- it's just one of the changes we are adopting moving forward. We've committed to release two episodes per week, plus we will be bring you a weekly news roundup so you don't miss anything important in ecommerce land.
Thanks for listening to Episode 95! Please leave us an honest review on iTunes; it will really help us out. You can also reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com for any comments or suggestions. Happy selling!
Many of you might have read or at least heard of Tim Ferriss' famous 4 Hour Workweek. It might seem like a crazy idea, but you've probably seen many people pull it off, quitting their day jobs and "living the dream" -- sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere in the Pacific while money continues to flow into their pockets. But for us running ecommerce businesses and probably with a family to take care of, is it even possible?
In this episode Dave and I interview an ecommerce entrepreneur who was able to make such a lifestyle possible. David Couillard (yes, that's two Daves in one episode) has been on the road for 4 years now with his wife and kid, with another one on the way, while managing his ecommerce business from his RV. He has been hanging out with us here in Hong Kong and we got a chance to ask him about how he was able pull it off.
Here are the highlights of our conversation:
It's true that such a lifestyle is not for everyone, but many of us dream of having lots of time to spend with family and maybe even to travel the world. We now have more ways than ever to automate our businesses and run it with fewer hours on our end. If you can do it now, why wait?
Resources Mentioned:
This episode is released on a Monday and we have another episode coming out on Thursday. That's right, we're upping the podcast to twice per week with new episodes released every Monday and Thursday.
Please leave us a review on iTunes and send us your thoughts over at support@ecomcrew.com; we'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening!
This week's episode is a special one, as it's one of the few episodes where I get to have Dave on the show. Better yet, we are sitting in the same room in Hong Kong, just a couple of days after the Global Sources Summit where we both had a blast. Hopefully videos of the talks will be released soon for those who were not able to attend the event.
We have many takeaways from our time in Hong Kong but one of the most eye-opening is just how much Chinese sellers are invading the Amazon market. They've grown comfortable using Amazon FBA and have become sophisticated in their marketing techniques. Adding to this is the fact that more and more of these sellers are using downright black-hat techniques to try to win more sales.
This topic is just one of the 5 key takeaways Dave and I will talk about in this episode.
Here are other conversation points:
With Chinese sellers getting on the Amazon train and recent factory crackdowns, we might be facing a challenging time ahead. You might be tempted to attempt black-hat techniques like other sellers are doing to stay on top, but keep in mind that the dire consequences make it hardly worth doing. We highly encourage you to stay on Amazon's good side.
Resources mentioned:
Global Sources
ams.amazon.com
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
We hope you enjoy Episode 93 of the EcomCrew Podcast. If you want to reach us, just email us at support@ecomcrew.com. Thanks for listening!
My guest today is Brian Johnson of the software company PPC Scope and online course Sponsor Products Academy. Brian has been selling online for a number of years now and has really found his stride on Amazon. On today’s episode, Brian talks about his selling background and explains why he dove into PPC advertising. This a really meaty episode and there is a lot of information crammed into it.
If you are an established Amazon seller or just getting started this episode will offer some golden advice to make your business grow.
Here’s what we covered in today’s episode:
If you are wanting to get started in PPC advertising on Amazon, start with Brian’s Facebook group called Amazon PPC Troubleshooting. Then check out his software PPC Scope and sign up for his course called Sponsored Products Academy. Let Brian show you the most effective way to use this valuable tool!
Resources Mentioned Today:
Amazon PPC Troubleshooting Facebook Group
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Today’s episode is a pre-recorded episode. At the time of this podcast, Dave and I are attending Global Sources. These pre-recorded episodes are a great opportunity to interview some highly successful ecom business owners. My guest today is one of those highly successful ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Here are some of the points of our conversation:
A special thank you to Dana Jaunzemis for joining us today! She and I will both be attending EcommerceFuel Live in January. For more information on that event, check out the link below. We will be getting back to live episodes on Facebook soon, but at the moment Dave and I are traveling a lot, so please follow our page for updates.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Today, Dave and I talk about the tricks and tips we have found running our businesses that have helped our bottom lines. There are a total of ten tips and we share some personal insight with each tip. If you are running your own ecommerce business, then today’s episode could be a helpful resource for you.
Here’s what we covered during this episode:
Some of these topics are covered in our online course called, Build A $1,000,000 Private Label Business Importing Kickass Products From China. Check the link out below if you are interested in taking part in it. If you are planning to get into the importing business, we tried to build a course that will get you started on the right foot!
We hope this list was useful to you and we plan to be getting back to the live episodes soon. If you want to be part of our live episodes just look for our Facebook page. That’s www.facebook.com/ecomcrew and like our page. You will get notices about when we’re about to go live.
We also have two sponsors for this episode. Stamped.io, which is a great tool if you need to get some quality reviews for your Shopify store. As well as, AsiaInspection, both Dave and I use AsiaInspection when we have to inspect a shipment from China. Both of these sponsors are great partners and we’re happy to have a relationship with them.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
We get a lot of questions about what services and applications we use in our day to day business. Today I’m going to give our listeners a list of tools and services that really help us stay on top of our business. To begin with, we have four brands under the EcomCrew umbrella. The four brands are Colorit.com, Icewraps.com, Wild Baby, and Tactical.com. We use all these tools to run every brand and keep track of our customers’ needs.
Here is a list of those tools:
So there you have it, our list of tools and services that help us keep the EcomCrew machine humming.
I recently did some traveling on the east coast and I attended an EcommerceFuel meetup and met some great people. So hello, to all of you I met up with earlier!
We have also released our first course on EcomCrew.com! The course is called Build A $1,000,000 Private Label Business Importing Kickass Products From China, if you are interested in the importing business, check out the link below.
As a reminder, I will be speaking at Global Sources (discount code: ec350) during October 17-19 and I will be attending and speaking at EcomerceFuel Live during January 11-13. Please keep in mind that with all this travel the live Facebook shows will be postponed, but there will still be pre-recorded episodes.
In closing, we also have a second sponsor for this episode, AsiaInspection. Dave and I both use AsiaInspection for our overseas shipments. They provide a very important service for anyone needing to double check the quality of their shipments.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
On today’s episode, Dave and I speak with Joe Valley. Joe works for Quiet Light Brokerage and is the Director of Business Services for the company. He joined their ranks back in 2012 after being one of their customers. Since joining Quiet Light he has closed 35 million dollars in transactions.
One of the key things to keep in mind in business is nothing lasts forever. Eventually, you will have to sell your business. Joe is here today to tell us how to make a business valuable to a future buyer. Both Dave and I have been through the selling process, so we have some insight on this subject. Dave has worked with Joe before when he sold a past business. We sort of use that as a reference point in our conversation. If you are considering or planning to sell your business, today’s episode is a must listen!
Here are today’s conversation points:
We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with Joe you can email him at joe@quietlightbrokerage.com or you can check out the company at www.quietlightbrokerage.com.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Today’s episode covers a lot of information. I want to give our listeners updates on several contests, site launches, and other business-related topics. We have a lot going on and I tried to fit as much as I could into our runtime.
Here are the topics I covered today:
That is a lot to cover in a short time, but hopefully, I answered some of your questions and satisfied some curiosities. It’s been a busy year for EcomCrew and we’re looking forward to what the future holds.
I will be going over to China on October 11th - November 4th. Anybody who plans to come to Global Sources, I would love to meet you. If you are interested in attending Global Sources (October 17-19) this year we have a special discount code (3ec50) for our listeners that will take $50 off the ticket price! I will be speaking at the event, once on the 17th and once on the 19th.
We have some sponsors to thank as well. The first is Stamped.io, which is a great tool if you need to get some quality reviews for your Shopify store. The second is AsiaInspection, both Dave and I use AsiaInspection when we have to inspect a shipment from China. Both of these sponsors are great partners and we’re happy to have a relationship with them.
Resources Mentioned Today:
Color It Ultimate Jackpot Contest
If you want to be part of our live episodes just look for our Facebook page. That’s www.facebook.com/ecomcrew and like our page. You will get notices about when we’re about to go live.
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
My guest today is Cameron Walker, the president of the Gifts, Home, and Hardware division of Global Sources. I met Cameron last year and he is a great guy who can help you get your bearings if this is your first Global Sources. As a reminder, Global Sources Summit will be October 17-19.
We will discuss the upcoming speakers, events, and new subjects that an attendee can learn about during this year’s Global Sources Summit. I have mentioned several times that I will be speaking at the summit this year. A couple of my topics this year are “10 Sourcing Fails” and “10 Ways to Increase Profitability.” Cameron and I offer some friendly advice for getting your company ready to sell in China. We also have some travel tips you might find useful. Bottom line, there is a lot of helpful and practical information in today’s episode, so don’t miss it!
Here are today’s points:
If you are interested in attending Global Resource this year we have a special discount code (3ec50) for our listeners that will take $50 off the ticket price! However, this offer will expire on September 15th, so hurry over to the site for your tickets.
I will also be speaking at EcommerceFuel Live in Laguna Beach, CA January 11-13, 2018. I believe that event is sold out, so if you got your tickets ahead of time I’ll see you there!
We have some sponsors to thank as well. The first is Stamped.io, which is a great tool if you need to get some quality reviews for your Shopify store. The second is AsiaInspection, both Dave and I use AsiaInspection when we have to inspect a shipment from China. Both of these sponsors are great partners and we’re happy to have a relationship with them.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
My guest today is C.J. Rosenbaum, C.J. is a lawyer who specializes in helping Amazon sellers reinstate their accounts with Amazon. Having an issue with Amazon can be a real headache. Unfortunately, issues will come up for any seller at any time. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, there will be complaints that Amazon will have to address. That is where C.J. comes in to help you know your rights and basically give you someone in your corner.
On today’s episode, C.J. tells us about the 3 most common issues Amazon sellers deal with when their accounts are suspended. He also tells us how to fight back.
Here are today’s conversation points:
If you find yourself in need of C.J.’s services visit www.amazonsellerslawyer.com. His email is CJ@AmazonSellersLawyer.com or you can call the office at 1-877-9-SELLER.
Remember I will be speaking at Global Sources this year. Global Sources will be during October, and if you have plans to go, you will receive a discount on your ticket by using Ecom Crew’s special discount code (2ec50.)
Today’s episode is sponsored by Stamped.io, check out their services if you need help with your reviews in your Shopify store. We use them and have been very pleased with the results.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Recently Dave posted a blog post on the Ecom Crew website. The post is called Part 1: Rebuilding a $1 Million Ecommerce and Importing Business from Scratch. Getting your own brand up and running has its ups and downs and Dave and I explain the process of getting your products to the customer from start to finish.
Here are the points from our conversation:
If you found today’s episode interesting, then you are going to enjoy our course! Go to www.ecomcrew.com/course to get updates about our progress in that launch.
Dave and I are going to be attending Global Sources, October 17-19. I will be speaking at the event. If you are interested in attending we have a special discount code (3ec50) for our listeners that will take $50 off the ticket price!
Also, make sure you follow us on Facebook. We do live episodes on our page, so go like the Ecom Crew Facebook page and you will be notified when an episode is about to start.
We have some sponsors to thank as well. The first is Stamped.io, which is a great tool if you need to get some quality reviews for your Shopify store. The second is AsiaInspection, both Dave and I use AsiaInspection when we have to inspect a shipment from China. Both of these sponsors are great partners and we’re happy to have a relationship with them.
Resources Mentioned Today:
If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast you can now email us directly at ecomcrew.com! Just send those emails to support@ecomcrew.com. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!