Notes from Chris

Episode 1738

Today’s listener has an interesting challenge: he wants to reach out to a company he bought a product from and offer to partner with them. But he’s worried about the right process for doing so. If you spot an opportunity, how can you reach out in the right way?

Good news here: it’s not that hard. Or at least it’s not hard to avoid making some simple mistakes by putting a small amount of effort into it.

Also, I love that his “day job” is selling on eBay and his side hustle is in fulfillment—he’ll tell you more.

“Hi, this is Andrew Hyam from Denton, Texas, and I’ve been listening to the show since early in the first year, my day job is selling on eBay and Amazon and my Side hustle is offering 3FL fulfillment services for smaller ecommerce and local businesses as value cube industries. So I have a few fulfillment customers currently and I’m always looking for more. I recently discovered a company selling a product that aligns with some of my passions about ecology, saving the earth and all that. I went to purchase it and try it out. The product works great and I plan to order more when I run out. But here’s the thing. It ships from Canada and I’m in the US. I paid ten US dollars for the product and I learned from a Canadian reseller, Friends, that the company probably paid 10 Canadian dollars just to ship it to me. This means they basically made no money on the transaction. So of course I want to help this company sell more and get their shipments out quicker and cheaper. The problem is I’m not a natural sales person. I contacted the company through their Facebook page and they have a customer service rep who says she passed my information on I’ve done research on the company and its key employees and found their pages on LinkedIn. Two of them only allow followers, but one employee is wide open. So here’s my question. What’s my line here? I don’t want to piss off a potential client, but I really want their business and we would be perfect for them for so many reasons. How can I approach this company in a way that I can actually get the business without coming off rude, unprofessional or like some sort of stalker?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

SEE ALSO:

• Business Besties Turn Skype Calls Into Six-Figure Podcast: After two friends create a podcast for fun, it turns into a side hustle that generates $100,000 in its first year, multiple six-figures in year two, and a book deal in year three.
• Best Friends Ink Profits By Covering Up Scars: When surgical scars keep one woman out of a bikini, she enlists the help of a friend to produce a new kind of cover-up in the form of temporary tattoos.
• Q&A: How can I get more reviews on my Amazon listing?: This listener is using Fulfillment by Amazon with some success, but she needs more reviews on her listing page. What can she do to encourage customers to sing her praises?

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 1736

Online courses have come a long way. One of the more popular practices is a cohort-based course, in which the course only opens a couple of times a year, and everyone who takes the course goes through it at the same time—thus the term cohort-based.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of structuring a course this way, both for the students and the course creator? That’s what today’s caller wants to know.

“Hi Chris this is Riley and I’ve been following your projects for a couple of years. What are the advantages (and disadvantages, if any) of offering an online course only during a certain time of year? I notice that some online sellers have their educational courses and other products available for purchase at anytime, whereas some others like Marie Forleo only release theirs once or twice a year? Wouldn’t someone like Marie make more money if students could register whenever was convenient for them? Looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thanks.”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

SEE ALSO:

• Q&A: How can I make a course delivered by text messages?: After taking my new Idea to Income course that is taught through text messaging, a listener wants to make their own. Good for them! Here’s how they—or you—can do it.
• College Lecturer Makes Money by Helping Other Instructors Teach Better: How a woman who uses skills she learned in her day job as a college lecturer to instruct other teachers how to be more successful in the classroom.
• Blogger Earns $140,000 from Beta Phase of Online Course: A blogger and podcaster earns $140,000 from her online course on rental properties before launching. After completing beta testing, the real launch does even better.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 1733

Is there such a thing as a bad idea? Absolutely! And it’s not always your fault … the way you find good ideas is by having a lot of ideas.

Is this all a setup for a listener question that I might suggest is a bad idea? You are so smart.

This listener’s dad has an extra half a million Frequent Flyer miles sitting around. The surplus has got them both thinking: is there a way they can get paid matching discounted miles with budget flyers?

This is not actually a good idea! I’ll tell you why, and what might be better in my answer.

“My dad has more than half a million Frequent Flier miles that are just sitting in his account. In the past he’s used miles to book trips for family, but he still has plenty. I noticed that there are brokers that will buy his miles and then use them to book trips for strangers. How does this marketplace work? Can anyone sell their miles or points to a broker and make a profit, and how does someone learn to become one of these brokers? I looked through the archives but couldn’t find an example of a story like this.”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

SEE ALSO:

• Q&A: Is there a way to trade plane tickets for profit?: Today’s listener has a creative idea, but also some sky-high problems to solve. Is it possible to trade unused plane tickets between passengers with different names?
• “Cheap Plane Tickets” Site Becomes Million-Dollar Hustle: How a Washington, DC political analyst used research skills to help travelers save money while attracting 275,000 email subscribers and making more than $1M.
• WEEKLY RECAP: Plane Tickets, Punk Art, and Abe Lincoln: In our eighth weekly recap, we’ll highlight the lessons learned in this week of Side Hustle School. Also: more listener Q&A!

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 1731

The Fulfillment by Amazon program is massive. At last count, it had more than two million vendors, the majority of which are small businesses and side hustlers who use Amazon’s platform to reach consumers. There are a lot of benefits to it, and we’ve featured a lot of stories in the archives of listeners just like you who’ve used it to great success.

But what’s the downside? Well, surprisingly, Jeff Bezos does not wake up every day and think, “How can I give away every advantage I have?”

Today’s caller has an important question: if you use FBA, how do you go about building your platform? After all, Amazon controls the entire customer service process and doesn’t even let you know who’s buying.

“Hey Chris this is Carly and I hear a lot about how it’s important to “build your platform” instead of relying on third-party networks, since they can always change the rules or even disappear. But I’m planning to sell on Amazon, which of course has the widest possible distribution and makes a lot of things easy. I like them for that reason, and the whole business model I’m looking at depends on selling with Amazon—but it also seems hard to collect email addresses of customers and market to them on an ongoing basis when Amazon is doing the selling. Is there a way around this? How can I build my platform while selling on the world’s largest marketplace? Thanks for your help.”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

SEE ALSO:

• WEEKLY RECAP: Retail Arbitrage with Fulfillment by Amazon: In our thirty-third recap of Season III, we’ll highlight the lessons learned in this week. Also: an audio update from a previous case study!
• Q&A: My product is selling on Amazon … but how can I get more attention?: A listener from Singapore sells biodegradable party cups with cheerful designs. She’s selling them on Amazon, and wondering how to get noticed by more people.
• Q&A: Are Amazon ads worth trying?: In addition to selling more than twelve million items, Amazon.com also sells ads. Might this be a good alternative to expensive Google and Facebook ads?

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

Notes from Chris

Episode 1729

Some online courses cost $30, others cost $1,000 or more.

What’s the difference between a lower-priced course and a higher-priced one—are the more expensive ones just “better” or is there more to the story?

You could ask this question about a lot of things: what separates a $100,000 car from a $30,000 car, for example. Is the $100k car $70k better? Presumably something is better—it’s not all smoke and mirrors—but there’s also an element of perceived value. This is always true!

“You’ve been sharing a lot of examples of online courses lately, and some of them have been very profitable. You also talked about how the pricing ranges a great deal, from $20-30 all the way to thousands of dollars. What separates a very inexpensive course from a much more premium one? I assume there are a lot of factors and it might not be a simple answer, but wouldn’t it be better for course creators to always aim for the high end—or is the thinking that they’ll sell to more people with an inexpensive price?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

SEE ALSO:

• WEEKLY RECAP: How to Design a Profitable Online Course: In our thirty-seventh recap of Season III, we’ll highlight the lessons learned in this week. Also: an audio update from a previous case study!
• Q&A: Why do online courses cost so much … or so little?: Online courses are everywhere! Some cost $20 and others cost $2,000 or more. Why is there no consistency in pricing—and how can you determine what *your* price should be?
• Q&A: Should I publish my course in more than one location?: Today’s listener from the UK is wondering about publishing an online course with a platform like Udemy or Coursera. Does she have to choose one of them, or can she cross-publish to multiple platforms?

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,