Warning – I’m an IDEA guy, not a writer. Please don’t let me know how terrible my Grammar or spelling is, I already know. Dig deeper into the thoughts and ideas to get the value out of my 7th grade writing skills 😉 Read until the end to get some awesome actionable tips for how to dominate on Amazon in 2019

2018 was a crazy year, our 3rd child was born, our new SaaS business was launched (right around the same time), and my mom had cancer. Grit, defined as “courage and resolve; strength of character”, is something that I had to dig deep for in 2018. It was a rough year, and a wonderful one in the same breath. I’ve been doing some sort of startup for literally my entire adult life. I started at age 12 with a paper route, then worked at safeway as a bag boy, then as a stock boy at a big box warehouse. Then worked in college at a hobby shop, bartender, server, and then as an air traffic controller. I don’t know life without work.

Why am I telling you this? I used to hate to wake up in the morning on a day that I had to work. Why would I want to face that day of doing something I don’t enjoy? Wash and repeat this for almost my entire Adult life. Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of every job that I enjoyed, but the overall theme was that of discontent.

What kept me going? My side gigs, or what Google calls it’s “20% time”, though in my case it was more like my 50% time. I’ve almost always worked the equivalent of two jobs. It started with selling on eBay, then it morphed into my first SaaS business called “ispspider.com”. It was a service that could tell you what broadband was available at your address. I would get an affiliate payment for sending customers to DSL providers.

Fast forward, and I had done all kinds of things, including a dating website, twitter ad network, and 7 figure Android app business (which was my first big success in 2010). Why am I mentioning all of this? I want people to know that instant success is rare, and that kind of success is the exception, not the rule. Am I successful today? Many would say yes, but in my mind I’m just getting started.

My days start out with an early wake-up, generally prompted by one of my 3 children, one or more of which was most likely up during some part of the night. Sleep is a luxury in our house these days, and since I gave up caffeine a few years ago so it’s a true challenge. Most books you read about being an entrepreneur, tell you to hop out of bed, do some yoga, read and then get to work. These people must not have kids, or if they do they are some kind of mutant child that sits in the corner in absolute silence with no needs or wants. One of the most coveted parts of my day is the “family snuggles” where all 5 of us cram into our king size bed and the snuggle fest commences, usually for a minimum of 15 minutes. With 3 kids we want to make sure they all get some one on one time with my wife Molly and I. Then breakfast, then getting ready, then to the office. Arrival time at the office highly depends on how many fights the kids got in that morning.

Getting down to work

When I hit the office it’s generally a good feeling of “what is possible today”. As a single founder with a mostly virtual staff, one of the first tasks of the day is to make sure my team knows what I want them to focus on for the day. I try to focus in on that, though there are always things that try to steal your attention. When I log into my computer in the morning, the first thing I do is to kill my browser and all of the 100 tabs that I have open from the previous day. If I don’t do this, I get easily distracted.

This is something I came up with for myself a few years ago, though I’ve now seen others mention it, so I can’t claim that I’m the one who totally came up with it. In my case, it’s pretty simple. Set 3 main goals for the day, and make sure you complete them. ONLY 3! Put the most important task as #1 on your list, and then work your way down. The list items should be fairly detailed and not open-ended. EG: “Contact 10 influencers about featuring our product”, and not “Contact influencers”.

If you get through those 3, then take some time to feed your mind and soul with some learning. Some of my favorites are youtube, Audible, and Blinkist. Lately, I’ve been pushing myself to listen to books that might not be at the top of my list interest wise, but more so ones that I know will help me get past some of my weaknesses.

My focus in 2019 is of course spread between my 2 business. Because I run an Amazon FBA seller related SaaS, I feel like I need to keep selling to maintain the pulse of the Amazon marketplace and where Amazon FBA 2019 is headed. I also need to know where the SaaS market is going as well. For Amazon, I’m going to double down on branding, and driving off-site traffic. We’re also going to go into some new product categories where we see a lot of opportunities. For the SaaS business, we’re committed to growth. One of the main ways we’re trying to drive growth is through content, and growth hacking. I’ve learned through my previous SaaS business, that you can’t buy growth, and if you do it’s going to cost you a lot of money up front to do so.

At SellerSEO, we’ve gone all in on innovation and offer tools no one else has. Specifically our Traffic Titan, Day Dream, And Listing lightning tools. We know that a lot of people look to beat their competitors. We started with that premise, then with some great advice from Tony Robbins, I’m now ignoring our competition. By doing this, we’ve given ourselves a HUGE advantage. We continue to innovate, and in turn we get tons and tons of feedback from our users about how much they love our tools, and how amazing our service is. We are going all in on what WE value, and what OUR vision is for the best suite of Amazon seller tools on the planet.

As I see it, here are some of the things you NEED to do in 2019 to succeed on Amazon

1. Go all in on Branding. Make sure your brand is front and center on all of your products. If you don’t have a trademark and are not enrolled in Brand Registry, Amazon won’t take your business or your brand seriously.
2. You need to build your social! What people don’t realize, is that your social media presence should be one of, if not your primary focus in 2019. Why? You need to look at social media like a stock account or a garden. The more effort you put into it, the more your reach compounds and your garden begins to grow. If you keep tending it, that clout will grow and grow. Once you have an audience that trusts you and your brand you can sell… Anything!
3. Creative marketing will separate the successful Amazon sellers from the ones who are struggling. At a minimum, you should be testing paid traffic from: Facebook, Google, Youtube, Amazon, and influencers.
4. Diversify your manufacturing. If the scuffle with China continues, those who position themselves with alternative manufacturing locations could gain a huge advantage on sellers still sourcing in China.
5. Sell on other marketplaces using zero friction tools like joelister.com and shipstation.com These will help you leverage other sales channels while keeping your eye on the prize, which is your most likely source of revenue (Amazon).
6. Double down on Amazon optimization. If your Amazon product listing isn’t fully optimized, you will see your competition using Amazon keywords and things like reverse ASIN lookups to dominate the best keywords and how to rank them on Amazon.

What are your current goals? I would love to hear what you’re up to in 2019! What is the #1 thing you need to work on today? Let me know in the comments!

Who am I? Andy Arnott – 7 Figure Amazon Seller – Husband – Father of 3 – Amazon Rockstar. Do you need help kick starting your Amazon business? Book a one hour coaching session with me at: https://goo.gl/6dB3Nw