POD Man

 The New Merch By Amazon Well its been a while since I've written anything.  Working full time and running an FBA biz has kept me hopping.  Designing POD hasn't been high on my list.  I check my POD accounts, only 4 left, Merch, Redbubble , Tee Public and Tee Spring, once or twice a month to keep them active. With the offer of more products from all PODS, Amazon FBA becoming harder to make money, I am taking a new look. TRUE Passive Income This is an income that is truly passive. For PODS that uploads have been done, or ongoing. Every Month I get payments  totaling approx. $200 Bucks US. Not a lot, but considering I do nothing after the initial design uploads.  Organic I do not advertise, I'm sure I could make more if I did, something I may try later. I do a little legwork , looking in the Amazon search bar, and a couple of quick google searches.  From those I make a design and have ready made keywords. All Organic . So basically, think of something H...

PODS Down Or Slow Sales Though these are very horrifying and dark days in any person`s life, and I sincerely hope anyone reading this has suffered no losses, that being said: there is always an opportunity. Amazon is booming, but Merch by Amazon has been shut down completely. Allowing only drafts to be created and saved. If your income depends on Merch you have hopefully already branched out to other PODS such as Redbubble, Teepublic or KDP journal publishing ( I can't speak to KDP as I don't publish journals there) Hopefully, since all PODS are super slow you have or will branch out. Amazon FBA As mentioned I hope you have expanded to other Ecom areas, if you weren't this should be your time to act or make a plan of action. Other Pods for me are now also affected and sales are so low it's not worth mentioning. Luckily I am doing FBA as well, and am selling essential goods so my business there has been very good.  A Few Great Points  Velocity is crazy (some items sell t...

 Diving In Lately, as Amazon  FBA has started to fall a bit, it always seems like a race to the bottom, no kidding there, I have started to look at PODs again as a viable supplement to FBA..or vice versa. Etsy has crossed my mind a lot this past month. As mentioned in an earlier article, I had a start on a store, tees, not niche related. This store was gaining traction but was time-consuming, so I put it to bed. As did I rest quite a bit with my other PODS. Looking over Etsy this past month, I see a lot of changes and possibilities that were not there before and a few I did not notice. Why Etsy                    Etsy is a very attractive platform, like Amazon it has a built-in trust factor and huge consumer base. Most users are women, looking for things they want or are attracted to in some way or another, in the "handmade" genre. It is scaleable, but there is a learning curve.  Custom...

Merch By Amazon Going Downhill Well, I decided to write this about things in the first two months of 2020 POD. While there seems to be a huge slowdown for Merch by Amazon, Redbubble stays pretty constant with sales every month. I don't follow the community anymore since they all went GURU, yes it happened, so I can only guess there is something new that is in the works or being implemented. Down by 90% since Dec 2019, I haven't seen this since the big throttle of 2018. End Of 2019                           The 4th quarter of 2019 by far was the best we (my wife's account and mine) have ever done sales- wise on Merch. All of our sales were actually generated by only a few designs, with both accounts doing well with pop sockets. Redbubble was as usual steady with no surprises. And definitely outperforming Merch by miles for the first part of quarter 1. Teespring and Teepublic wer...

FBA Bad Actors Well, it seems we all have our problems with FBA and seller support. From getting different answers from different support workers to outright seemingly fraudulent activities by some workers or Admin. as reported a couple of years ago. Amazon has always had warts, its way to big not to, but this past month, the beginning of 2020 wow. I have problems every day. And very little help from seller central. This is not to dissuade anyone from selling on Amazon, I still believe that it is still a fantastic way to make money and get in and learn eCommerce.  It is not a rant, though it sounds like such ) This is a reality check for any that think it's easy! Read on... Black January FBA                                                                       ...

App Tips I thought I would get this up so new folks into the business would have a bit of guidance. There are a few things you should do and know. This is all pretty common and can be found anywhere I think but I'm adding it anyway. Without further ado here we go.. Configure Your App This is downloadable from the play store for android or from the app store for iPhone. After you download and do your log on you will need to set your app up. To do this open your app. You will be on the sales page by default.  In the top, left corner set your country if your selling on .com or .ca or even .com.mx by tapping the 3 bars a drop-down appears.         Hit the gear to your right Next hit Product search Preferences From here you will set up a few preferences.                                          Product con...

What IS Scanning I figure if your new to this all you're probably scratching your head wondering "What the heck is scanning" I thought I would bang this out as a quick tutorial or explanation. There is a camera icon in the top right of your seller central app. Press this and a bar code scanner comes up. You scan the bar codes on the products. You can also scan the product itself. All of this on your smartphone. What's This Have To Do With FBA?                              Everything.  What you are doing here is the very basics of getting going and continuing especially for RA and OA.  What you are doing is looking for products that are already listed on Amazon!  That's why the seller central app setup is important. This is where the app or Amazons logarithm tells you if your eligible to sell the product. What DO I Look For In the beginning everythin...