How to Make Money on Amazon Seller with Kevin Sanderson

Making money has never been so easy and you can make a lot of money selling as an Amazon Seller. Listen in as Kevin Sanderson teaches us how to be successfully unemployed how to make money on amazon.

Today, I am excited to have Kevin Sanderson on the podcast. He is able to provide for his family by buying and selling products on Amazon. Like Kevin, you can be successfully unemployed.

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How Kevin Makes Money Without Having a Job

Kevin left the corporate world and now has three main ways of making money:

Selling goods on Amazon in nine countries, including the U.S.
Teaching people how to sell goods on Amazon
Working with Scott Volker on a conference in the e-commerce space

How to Become a Seller on Amazon

On YouTube, you have the option to turn off ads, so they don’t track you. Kevin gets two types of ads now: women’s girdles and how to sell products on Amazon.

If you are thinking about selling on Amazon, if everyone else is zigging, do more zagging, because everyone is trying to sell the product that sells $100,000 a month. Kevin created a portfolio of products that, by themselves, are not home runs, but together they add up.

Think about what you can do to serve someone else and what they are looking for, and do it multiple ways. Go a little wider.

Kevin’s products are all in the same category, but he has 85 active SKUs on Amazon. Kevin is also selling them in other marketplaces as well.

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The Big Sticking Point for Everyone is What to Sell

There are tools, like Jungle Scout, that help you figure out potential demand for that type of product. Kevin suggests products that get consistent sales and don’t have too much competition.

If the top five sellers are selling a garlic press and they each have 1,000 reviews, that product probably isn’t a good niche to get into. Think about your buying behavior on Amazon.

You are looking for the social proof from reviews and would buy from the seller with more reviews.

Some People Say it is too Late to Jump Into This Business

Kevin got into the business of selling on Amazon in 2015, and it was a big debate back then of if it was too late to get started. Amazon is just a channel. If you get good at product development and sell your product on other channels, that is great.

About half of e-commerce sales are done on Amazon. In five or ten years, that might change. Worrying about what might happen in the future isn’t going to get you sales today. What you learn today you can apply down the road, even if things change.

Amazon is no different than an open-air market 2,000 years ago. The value of your product has to meet or exceed what the customer is willing to pay. Think of how you are buying products and put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

You Don’t Want to Send Your First Shipment Directly to Amazon, for Quality Control Reasons

Kevin sends all products he is selling to his house first and then to Amazon, especially for North America. The process is a little different for locations outside of North America.

Most people will send the first shipment to their house so they can physically see it. Once there is a comfort level and trust they will send it to a prep center or other place, or they send it directly to Amazon.

Selling on Amazon is Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Selling on Amazon is like a snowball. You are using the laws of compounding in your favor.

For every dollar you put into buying a product, if you can get two dollars out, you just compounded 100 percent. If you can do that two to four times a year, your money, over time, is going to grow and grow.

As you purchase more products and your business grows, some products will grow and others won’t.

What Kevin Was Doing Before Selling on Amazon

Kevin started his career climbing the corporate ladder, but he always had the entrepreneurial itch. As a kid, he went door to door selling Koolaid in Dixie cups.

However, as he got older, he thought the right path was to go to college and climb the corporate ladder.

In 2004 or 2005, Kevin bought two Nike 4-Woods golf clubs on eBay for $40. He was planning to flip them for $400 and make tons of money, because that was the suggested retail price on the Nike website.

After he received them, he realized that everybody on eBay was selling them for $40 and he ended up doing nothing with them. He regrets the decision of not trying to sell them.

A few years later, Kevin was working for a large hotel convention center in middle management, and he was managing a team of people that managed events.

When the hotel got bought out by a bigger hotel, there was a lot of pressure to cut costs. One day, Kevin received an email from the general manager to report to a meeting the next day at 8:00 am.

Watch the entire How to Make Money On Amazon Interview Here:

He thought he was going to be fired, but at the meeting, he and his team were celebrated, because customer satisfaction was up.

Later that day, he was pulled into a meeting with Human Resources and was told he could apply for other jobs in the company or take a severance package. Kevin took the severance package so he could try something different.

Kevin then went to work at his friend’s insurance agency. During that time, the company experienced tremendous growth. Kevin liked the company, but he felt like he was working for someone else’s dreams. He decided to work on his own dreams.

Kevin came across The Amazing Seller podcast, by Scott Volker, who walked through how to sell on Amazon. Kevin decided to try it and the rest is history.

How to Create a Conference and Bring People Together

Kevin met Scott and went on his podcast. When they were both at a conference, Scott said he wanted to do more for people in the intermediate to advanced range.

Kevin thought about it and told Scott that he should do a conference.

If you are thinking about creating a conference, you first need to decide where to have it.

Kevin understood hotels, because he had worked in the industry. If you don’t have the experience, there are companies that act similar to a travel agency that can help you negotiate the contract. Kevin worked with Groups360.

After you have the contract for the venue, you are on the hook for rooms and food.

The hotel will block out a number of rooms and the conference space.

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The next step is to get people to the conference and figure out how to market the event.

Kevin and Scott didn’t have testimonials or footage of the event, they had a sales page of what it was going to be. They also called people directly in order to sell the event.

To make the event profitable, you need sponsors. The conference had about 200 people attend and about eight or nine sponsors. Everybody had a great time.

They created the feeling of the event through music, speakers, lighting, and getting people to connect. People want content, but they take away the relationships. If you are going to a conference, put as much effort as possible into networking.

There is an Art to Choosing a City for the Conference

When you choose a month for the conference, think about what else can happen in that month. If you are holding a conference in September, coastal areas are not a great idea, because of hurricanes.

Outside of September, those areas are great places to be.

Think about the time of year and what might attract people to that area. Sometimes, the city itself can attract people. Think about where you want to travel.

There are certain cities known for being more expensive. Go on a travel website and see how expensive rooms are.

New York City and Chicago are more expensive than Fort Worth, Charlotte, or Orlando.

Make sure the conference is in a place where it is accessible to a big airport. If you aren’t 100 percent sure, talk to a company that can help you.

There are Two Ways to Go About Rooms

The rooms can either be paid for by the group or “on own”. Brand Accelerator Live paid for rooms for speakers, audio/visual techs, and core staff.

The hotel doesn’t care who pays, but they want to make sure a certain percentage of the room block is picked up.

If it is, you avoid paying attrition, which is the difference between the percentage promised and the percentage not booked.

If You are in Peak Season, the Hotel will Hold You to a Higher Food and Beverage Minimum

Time of year makes a difference. Generally speaking, event planners like to have conferences when kids are in school. People are more likely to spend time on vacation with their families than attend a conference. Summer, Christmas break, and Thanksgiving break are times conference planners avoid.

If you don’t offer food and beverage, the hotel may charge your attendees more for rooms. If the room cost is high, less people may pick up rooms. The hotel wants to make sure they are making the money they need.

How Kevin Found Sponsors for the Conference

Scott has built a great relationship with his audience over time, and many of them own companies. Kevin and Scott reached out to some of them and some reached out to them.

In addition, Kevin and Scott talked to people at conferences who were comparable companies they thought would be interested in being sponsors.

Kevin’s conference was profitable the first year. Conferences are not typically huge money makers for the people who own them, but they are great relationship building tools. It is all about how you manage cost and creating a great attendee experience.

Most Attendees Buy the Conference Ticket First, then Airfare, then Rooms

Most hotel contracts have a room cutoff date that is about a month before the conference. After that date, rooms are no longer guaranteed and you may still owe a fee if you don’t fill the rooms, even if the hotel rents them to other people.

Make sure people book rooms ahead of time. Many people procrastinate.

Encourage and incentivize them to book early. Set up a Facebook group for the event, so it can generate conversations and relationships. Do whatever you can to encourage people to mingle with each other.

The Advice Kevin Would Give to His Younger Self

Don’t get in your own way. If Kevin at least tried to sell the golf clubs, he would have learned something and the compounding factor would have been huge. Don’t give into the doubts.

The Advice Kevin Would Give to Anyone Who Wanted to Get into the Business of Selling Online

Think long term. Selling online is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

The Tools Kevin Uses in His Business

Pen and paper. Phones can be a distraction and there is magic that comes when you use a pen and paper. Kevin recently looked at a journal from four or five years ago, when he was getting started as an entrepreneur, and it gave him confidence to see how far he has come.