Staggered Listings | Merch By Amazon

Staggering MBA Listings

The old 80/20 rule really comes into play here. 80% is wasted time and energy, 10% is what actually makes money or is productive.

In Merch by Amazon, we are plagued by the 180-day rule (it used to be 90 days) meaning if it doesn't sell, it is automatically removed.

This is not a huge deal until you reach T-100 and up.

Think of your listings coming down 25 or 50 or 100 at a time!

Let's take a look at how to minimize this.

Slow Down Uploads                                                          

One of the things you will learn is to slow down how much you upload a day or week depending on you.

If you have 100 slots to fill, don't rush. You get 10 or 25 uploads a day (I don't remember exactly)

Your shirts seem to go on a carousel of sorts (I can't prove this, but there is a certain pattern to sales)

I have had ONE shirt sell the next day, I did a fast text design of a certain niche and uploaded right after a sale in that niche! (Food for Thought)

If you do 10 a week, even less, I doubt that you will lose anything. I didn't notice any change, yes I completely overhauled my account a few months back and uploaded like not even 10 a week in some cases.

Concentrate on the KEywords and Titles more.

Avoid Mass Removals

If you have gotten to this point you know exactly what's going on here. 

If you haven't take note. Designs that you have spent time uploading have exactly 180 days to sell.

This seems like a long time, but it goes by very quickly.

At that point (180 days) if you don't have at least one sale the design is removed.

To avoid this just upload less at one time. Stagger the days even week by week.

What's The Difference

If you are part-time or even a full-time designer for POD then you do not have unlimited time.

Uploads and writing out descriptions and keywords take time. Most of us don't have this time to spare and are not making enough to hire a VA or use a service for these tasks.

And If all your slots are coming down at one time or within a week or so at higher levels, well you can guess what impact that would have on your time.

Not to mention if you are still trying to tier up, you need at least 80% or more of your slots full to do so.

TO Re-list Or Not To Re-list                             

                      

That really is the question.

Consider these points as to why or why not it did not sell:

• Bad design (I still don't think that's an issue)
• Saturated Niche
• Not enough interest in a niche
• Keywords
• Bullet Points ( also some back end keywords should be used here)
• Layout Or Font selection

I have successfully relisted about 5 shirts in all.

Some Keyword issues, some were font selections.

If you believe the design was good, just rework it and see what happens.

Stay In USA

As mentioned in an earlier article it is better until you reach much higher tiers to stay in the USA marketplace.

Uk is not bad and so far .DE has produced nothing for me with around 30 designs up, which will be coming down very soon.

I haven't done many in the UK just a small 8 lifetime with around 50 up and around the 3-4 month mark. I will keep the UK but drop .DE for the time it takes.

Sales in the USA really outnumber both platforms, so your chances are better on .com, not to mention the UK and DE markets are really getting full.

Stock Pile                                                      

If at all possible build up as many drafts as you can, uploads are unlimited, as far as I know, for these.

But if you are like me, you will soon just start to design and upload. If its not a full-time thing, your time is better spent elsewhere.

I once did around 200 drafts, but by the time I had tiered up and was ready to use them, I had learned a lot more about everything and scrapped at least 150 of those. 

Again move as slowly as you can, avoid the feeling you are missing out, and continue, ignore the shiny buttons that are going to be dropped on you 24-7 from GURUS and facebook groups.

I have completely cut the noise out now and have 00 affiliations with any groups there, my sales are not hurting at all, rather they have slightly increased. 

Small by some comparisons, but considering I log on maybe once a week now, I'm still pretty impressed with the power of Merch.

Don't rush as I have stated many times in the past. Take your time and tier at least to 500 or 1000 before you think you should be making money, even then like most things margins are getting smaller.

Don't think at low tiers this stuff doesn't matter, even at tier 100, it's hard to get your slots full as you learn the ropes.

I hope this helps a bit, remember when frustration kicks in, get off facebook groups. ;)

If you have any comments or questions leave them below

All the best 

EJ