Wish You Could Sell Stuff on Amazon?  You Can!

Selling stuff on Amazon just seemed too overwhelming to me at first.  So much to learn, where do you get stuff, besides the ‘yard sale’ stuff you have been hoarding around the house for five years because you’re GOING to have that yard sale one of these days.

I can’t believe that it really isn’t all that complicated as I thought.  But, let me back up a little bit and tell you how I got started selling on Amazon.com.

About 2-3 months ago I joined a program called Pajama Affiliates.  It is a beginner’s haven for learning the ropes of what it takes to make money from home, without all the hard selling, scamming and need to ‘buy another course’ type thing.  PJA (as I like to call it) is run by a friend of mine, Robin Cockrell, and the program has introduced me to not only over a hundred people looking to break away from the rat race, but to do it smarter, and with the support of a group who want you to succeed.

Inside Pajama Affiliates, there is a lot to offer for someone who wants to add some extra income to their monthly budget for paying the bills or maybe just some mad money for a vacation, some even do it because its fun and it sure beats watching TV all day on the couch.  Making the most of your time, efforts and ideas is very satisfying to me personally, and having the cash rewards that go with it – well, that is priceless.

One of the modules that PJA offers is called Amazon Sales Ninja, a series of introductory videos that will help you in getting started on selling on Amazon.com.  When you consider that in 2012, Amazon.com had over $61 Billion dollars in online sales, and increased that number to $74.45 Billion in 2013.  You could say the volume of sales they do is impressive, and makes it a market that even small business can succeed in.

I had heard a lot of information about this from another friend of mine who has been selling on Amazon.com for well over a year.  She and her husband used to work in one of the warehouses for Amazon, and had a lot of insight that she passed along in our lengthy chats.  So I decided over a year ago to try listing some books and other items that I had laying around the house.  I think I had listed about 75 books, and in the first year, I sold a total of five of them.

So, selling them as ‘merchant fulfilled’ didn’t work out so well for me.  If a book sold, I had minimal time to run around and find packing materials, and print packing slips, and get the item out for shipment in short order, so as to keep the customer happy and get paid.  It wasn’t what I would call success, but it got my feet wet with selling on Amazon.

After joining the Pajama Affiliates program, I gained access to a private group of members on Facebook. Many of the other members had watched the Amazon Sales Ninja videos, and were starting to sell using the FBA or Fulfillment by Amazon program that Amazon.com offers.  The thing that caught my attention was another long time friend Lesley, posting her progress and paydays on her blog. Every two weeks she was posting payment after payment that she got by selling items on Amazon.com.

I let some time go by, but the lure was getting stronger.  I have been doing okay with my affiliate marketing but the paydays were erratic in dollar amounts, and with Google changing algorithms in how they rank pages in the search engine results, my income was down and I was getting discouraged.

So I watched a few videos, paid attention to what others were doing and what kinds of products I could sell. Then I went shopping.  I was going to give this FBA program a shot.

My initial shopping trip I budgeted $200 to spend on products to ship in to the Amazon warehouses.  I bought 27 items with that money and went through the process of listing, and then shipping the stuff in.  Amazon had me send the items to five different warehouses across the country, and the shipping ended up costing me another $15 or so.  So my initial investment was about $225 when you factor in the cost of boxes, packing materials and labels for the boxes. I sent in my shipment on 5/21/2014.

Once the products arrived at the warehouses, sales started happening almost immediately!  I was amazed at how different it was than my merchant fulfilled items that are mostly still sitting on a shelf in my bedroom.  In the first week, I sold about half of my 27 items, and by the end of May, I received my first payment from Amazon on May 30th, in the Amount of $212.71.  In just one week, I had basically recuperated my initial investment.  I was stunned – and hooked.

After the second payment hit my bank account two weeks later in the amount of $261.28.  I couldn’t believe I made about 100% profit on those initial sales.  I had sold 25 of my first 27 products, and still in a state of disbelief, I said okay – let’s find out if this is really how it works and went shopping again.

My second shipment in to the warehouses was shipped out on June 11, and included 7 boxes with a total of 25 more items.  Some of which were a few of those books I had laying around.  I only spent about $175 the second time around, and while that was in transit to the warehouses, I received my second Amazon payment.  The second payment was on June 13th for $261.28.  Wow!  I made 100% profit on my first shipment in.

As I write this post, I am gathering up more items that I bought for shipment number three.  But after shipment two was received, again items started selling pretty fast.  Of those second 25 items, only 15 items are left in my inventory and with a few days left before payment information is finalized for my third payment, my account is showing that I will be getting $323.48 if nothing else sells before the 27th of June. That’s a pretty impressive return on my investment.

Kind of makes you want to learn more about selling on Amazon.com yourself huh?