If you've listened to the podcast before, you know that it takes a while for an eCommerce business to gain traction.

If you want to scale, you have to reinvest your profits, buying additional inventory and adding products to your repertoire.

But if you've got some business acumen and a little money to invest, there is a shortcut.

Empire Flippers provides a marketplace where you can buy or sell an online business, helping aspiring entrepreneurs skip right to the money-making part of owning a business…

OR offering an exit strategy to those of you with established online assets.

Co-founder and CMO Justin Cooke joins us to share the pros and cons of buying an established eCommerce site versus starting from scratch on your own.

He walks us through the math involved in determining the value of an established online business, explaining what you can do to increase profits should you decide to sell.

Justin discusses the process of using the Empire Flippers marketplace, explaining how their team guides you through the steps of buying or selling a URL—and the option to purchase or get paid in cryptocurrency.

Listen in for insight around gaining traction immediately and starting your eCommerce business with the end in mind!

So you've listened to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of articles… And you've learned a lot of great information about launching a product on Amazon.

But you wish someone would just walk you through the experience step by step, offering a concrete example of how an experienced eCommerce entrepreneur approaches the process.

It's time for another session of Real Talk with Rich where I'm offering a case study of the new product I'm launching on Amazon.

I start with a breakdown of how I used Jungle Scout to choose the right product and differentiate it from the competitors on the platform.

I describe the launch process step by step, explaining how I negotiated with suppliers and exactly how the product will make its way from China to the Amazon warehouse.

I address the listing itself, discussing the resources I use to enhance photos and write listing titles, bullet points and descriptions.

Finally, I share strategies that guarantee traffic to your listing and reviews from the first customers.

Listen in for my best advice around leveraging minor tweaks and adjustments to existing products to add value to the market and set yourself up for eCommerce success!

Understanding the competition in your chosen niche can make or break your success on Amazon.

Choose a market that is saturated and you have little chance of ever making it to the first page of search results.

But identify a product that generates revenue on Amazon yet has room for additional players, and you set yourself up for success.

Will Tjernlund has been following in his brother's eCommerce footsteps since he was fourteen years old, and to date he has had success private labeling products AND serving as the distributor for existing brands.

The Tjernlund's also run Goat Consulting, an agency that helps its clients achieve success on Amazon.

What can we learn from Will's approach? What attributes have contributed to his success? And how does he evaluate the competition?

Will sits down with me today to share an alternative to the private label option, explaining how he and his brother go about acquiring the catalogues of existing brand names and the benefits of this tactic.

He addresses the issue of competition, discussing how to talk about your Amazon business without sharing your secret sauce and how thinking outside the box can help you achieve.

Listen in for Will's insight around using 'revenue to review' to identify markets that are worth your while and generating income working with other Amazon sellers—while you get your own private label business up and running!

As Benjamin Franklin once said, nothing is certain in life but death and taxes.

Filling out paperwork for the IRS isn't anyone's idea of fun, but it is a part of your responsibility as an eCommerce entrepreneur—and it is less daunting than you think.

Today I'm addressing your questions around taxes for your Amazon FBA business.

I discuss the necessity of creating a Corporation or LLC (with Subchapter S Election) in order to establish your business as an entity separate from yourself.

I walk you through the process of filing the required 1120S, explaining how you can save money on income taxes by electing the S Corp status.

Finally, I break down the gray area that is e-Commerce sales tax, offering you my insight on what it means to have a 'business presence' and when you need to collect sales tax in a particular state.

Listen in as I demystify the process of paying taxes as a third-party seller on Amazon!

Are you down with PPC? A lot of new Amazon sellers make the mistake of turning on an automatic PPC campaign and waiting for conversions to magically appear. But Brian Johnson can tell you that it doesn't work that way. And he should know! Brian has devoted the last three years and approximately 10,000 hours to the mastery of sponsored ads on the Amazon platform. Now Brian helps sellers advertise their products on the Amazon marketplace, at the same applying this knowledge to his own thriving eCommerce enterprise. Today he shares the basics with us, explaining how to interpret the data you get from a PPC campaign. Brian covers what you can learn about your target audience, what keywords you should focus on, and how to adjust your listing accordingly to boost your position in organic search results. Listen in and learn how to leverage PPC—and you, too, can make the most of your advertising budget and increase your profits selling products on Amazon!

So you've been talking about selling products on Amazon for a while now… But you haven't taken the first few steps toward establishing an E-Commerce business. Where do you begin? Today I'm walking you through the initial steps of the process… Learn to define your WHY and get into the mindset of an entrepreneur. Find out what digital tools I use to communicate with suppliers and conduct product research. I even share a 'screenshot' of my desktop, explaining how I set up my workstation on a daily basis. Listen in to understand how to choose a product that will fly on Amazon and raise the capital to order your first inventory shipment. Follow my actionable advice, and you will be well on your way to earning the freedom that comes with being an eCommerce entrepreneur!

Being under the influence is usually a bad thing. But when it comes to promoting your Amazon business, leveraging the engaged audience of followers who trust a particular influencer can be a very profitable marketing strategy. Popular YouTubers, bloggers, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram influencers can help you get the word out about your product, build a reputation for quality, and drive a deluge of traffic to your Amazon listing. Today I'm learning from Brian Burt, a million-dollar Amazon seller and the creator of OverGrowth, a comprehensive toolkit for eCommerce entrepreneurs. Brian is also one of the very few Amazon entrepreneurs who utilizes INFLUENCER MARKETING, promoting his business through social media personalities who are willing to review the products and send followers directly to Brian's Amazon listing. On this episode, Brian shares his approach to influencer marketing, explaining how to target microinfluencers with a small, engaged following and spend very little money driving significant traffic to your Amazon site. He covers the nuances of crafting content for influencers and discusses the features of the OverGrowth platform, highlighting the automated influencer outreach component. Listen in for Brian's story and learn how he went from selling only 18 selfie sticks in 30 days to selling out the remaining 982 in 17 hours—through influencer marketing!

Making the shift from employee to entrepreneur means seeing yourself differently, taking on multiple roles and responsibilities. If your interests lie in starting an eCommerce business, step one is making the mindset shift necessary to transition from working FOR someone to working for YOURSELF.

Do you have a great product idea, but you're not sure it's the kind of thing people will buy online? Or maybe you've got a prototype that you really like, but you're not certain that consumers will feel the same way? Alex French and Andrew Healy had the same questions about the cold brew coffee they created for themselves: We like the recipe, but will enough people agree to make Bizzy Coffee a viable business? Will people even buy a coffee drink online? Alex and Andrew took a Lean Startup approach, doing market research to see if the demand was there and getting feedback from friends, family and co-workers as they worked to perfect the product. Bizzy Coffee officially launched in March of 2016, and before long they were crushing it on Amazon. On this episode, we get into the details of their story, learning how Alex and Andrew got educated about coffee and the manufacturing process. They walk us through the steps they took to build a keyword-rich profile that landed them on the front page of search results organically, giving rise to the fastest growth to a specific sales volume that their Amazon broker had ever seen. Listen in for Alex and Andrew's insight on the best online tools for team communication, and learn how you, too, can leverage Lean Startup strategies to get Bizzy on Amazon!

I've been in your shoes. Working in a stressful job because it's paying the bills. Playing it safe because the house isn't paid off yet and you have to support the family. Putting off eCommerce until that proverbial someday when the circumstances are just right. But here's the thing: Someday is today. Nobody ever achieved anything great by staying comfortable. I recently received a great email from a listener named Mona, and she, too, has been putting off her eCommerce dreams. She also had a number of great questions about getting started with selling on Amazon. Today I dig into her email and address Mona's concerns, concerns that many aspiring entrepreneurs share. I discuss the idea of reinvesting your initial earnings to scale up quickly and offer guidance around establishing profit margins for individual products. I also cover Mona's questions about selling on multiple channels in countries all over the world and employing the Open Brand concept to sell quality products. Listen in for my insight on shedding those golden handcuffs, regaining control of your time, and reaping the financial rewards of eCommerce—starting TODAY!