Life has taken an abrupt turn here lately for me that has clarified many issues in my life.  Just a few weeks ago I literally felt like I was in a different world.  In my full time job in technology I had to work over 85 hours one week and 103 the next.  I literally only worked, ate (at my desk) and slept when I could.  Everything else was on hold including selling books (luckily my employees held things up), writing for and managing this blog as well as having to ignore my family.  At the same time, I didn’t realize it but my ADHD medication was, in a sense, acting like speed to me.  I was able to sustain those hours for that long simply because many ADHD medications are very similar to methamphetamine.  Talk about super-worker!  It wasn’t until the Monday afterwards that I physically became sick and now, over a week later, I’m feeling back to normal again.

It took a bout of non-stop work for me to finally realize that I had been overtaxing myself for way too long.  Like many of you, the book business is a part-time endeavor.  However, you guys being smarter than I , that’s where you stopped.  You probably realized that a full-time job and a used book business was enough for you to handle.  Not me.  I was so excited by making lots of extra cash I decided I’d then start a blog writing about my experiences, developing software applications to help other booksellers as well as take on another potential business with some of my coworkers.  You see, I either succeed or die trying.  I consider this month my “death”.  I was going 100 miles an hour all day, every day and in the midst of work I was blind to everything else.  I was blind to think that I could sustain interest in an area in which I had no previous experience.  I was blind to think I could complete the (literally) 83 projects I had lined up for myself.  I had no idea I couldn’t see two fee in front of me at the time but it’s all too clear now.  I was also constantly following others’ lead and not completely believing in myself.

I’ve been selling used books online for about 3 years now.  When I first started out I was buying up everything I could to learn about the business.  I picked up some of Craig Stark’s eBooks from Bookthink, bought Michael Mould’s book, Steve Weber’s paperback and also a book on selling on eBay by Skip McGrath.   They were all pretty good reads and I did learn a thing or two from them but I didn’t just stop there.  I also Googled terms like “online bookselling”, “used books thrift stores”, “selling books on Amazon”, etc.  I not only paid for information I also devoured a lot of the free info as well.  Honestly, if you’re patient enough and your Google skills are strong you can get 90% of the information I provide in my eBook as well as what any of the other “gurus” sell to you online for FREE.  The biggest benefit you get from buying my eBook, for example, is that it comes from someone that (hopefully) you’ve learned that you can trust, comes from my own personal experience and all of that information is provided in one, single place.

Why do I tempt you not to buy my eBook or any other product out there?  I have three reasons.

1. I don’t live off of the money I make via this blog so I’m always completely honest, up front and won’t blow smoke up your ass.
2. I loathe “selling” things.  I hate marketing, hyping up something and trying to get the word out just to make money off of something.  It just feels dirty to me.
3. I see too many people get all jazzed up about what they pay money for and then just quit.

During this moment of clarity I’ve realized you can really kid yourself.  It doesn’t become obvious to you until you reach that climatic moment to where it all comes crashing down around you.  You can “research” for new information all day or you can spend thousands of dollars on eBooks, videos, audio guides and expensive full-blown courses but it doesn’t mean a hill of beans unless you apply that knowledge.  Adam Bertram can’t give you that one “secret” source that will change everything.  Michael Mould can’t hold your hand when setting up an Amazon account.  Steve Lindhorst can’t sell you a niche WordPress site and automatically make you ten thousand dollars.  Skip McGrath, Jim Cockrum, Chris Green, JD Malik, or Nathan Holmquist can’t MAKE you succeed.  We can all only try to help.

Here’s my final advice to you: If you really want to start or continue a used book business quit Googling for the next new thing or buying up all the how-to information then forgetting about it.  No one else can make you succeed.  If you truly want to take control of your situation, step out of your comfort zone and quit pretending like the next post by Adam is going to be the one to do it all for you.  I have shared helpful advice in the past but I’m just tired of “gurus” squirting out a new product weekly to put a different spin on an obvious solution.  At the same time, I don’t want to get an email with (10) 1 paragraph questions about what you should do next.  I honestly (HONESTLY) don’t mind emails and I do answer nearly all of them but I DO mind when someone can’t think for themselves.  Put the pieces together yourself, quit believing the next secret is going to be revealed and get out there and sell some books!

P.S.  I appreciate all my readers and respect everyone else that decides to share their experience online in any kind of eProduct.  Please forgive my occasional rant if you have somehow taken offense to this post.

It’s almost been 3 years now since I first listed and sold my first book on Amazon. It seems like it was so long ago. At the time, I considered selling my used books to be as simple as holding a garage sale. Like most people, I thought I had a lot of "junk" laying around and just wanted it gone. I never would have dreamed that would turn into an actual registered business with taxes, employees, supplier relationships and everything else that comes with running a business.

Selling a used book, however, is sure a lot different than creating a business, setting up recurring sources of inventory and continually thriving to grow the business yet not go broke in the process. It’s something that I love doing. It has also sparked many more entrepreneurial interests in myself and allowed myself and my family to live a better life. I owe used books, my employees and my family a great, big thanks for the joys they have brought to my life.

I sometimes think what if I would have never tried to sell a book on Amazon. Where would I be now? Would my family and I be struggling to maintain our current lifestyle on my full-time salary or would my wife have had to get a job? I will never know but what I do know is if you’re not selling books online or at least starting up some kind of side business you’re totally missing a great opportunity.

For starters, one of the big advantages of selling used books is lots and lots of extremely cheap inventory! Used books can be bought for close to nothing if bought in bulk. Luckily, the majority of people out there still don’t even consider a book to be valuable unless it’s "old" and even then they’re probably wrong. Equipped with the right knowledge and gadgets you can easily turn a weekend of book scouting into a many hundred dollar profit weekend. Once you’ve got a system down for sourcing, listing and sending out orders it comes second nature to make those big sales numbers.

Have you sold your first book yet? If you’re reading this not because you sell books but because you may just be looking for another source of income for your family have you at least got your feet wet? Reading a blog or "researching" the opportunity can only get you so far. You can dink around on the Internet all day making yourself you’re being productive but odds are you’re probably just procrastinating and making excuses as to why you’re not ready yet. The only way to start something new in your life is to just do it. Drop a few hundred bucks on a book scouting package. Offer to buy thousands of books that you have no idea where you’re going to store them. After you’ve committed to something the mind has a way of just figuring things out.

I’ve blogged about how I’ve taken the leap off the deep end of the pool and every, single time I had no plan at all. I just relied on my gut and the fact that I believed I would find a way to make it happen. Every single time, that is exactly what I did. Obviously, it’s not going to work 100% of the time but if you’re wiling to take a little risk, it will pay off in the long run. If I would have never offered to buy 8,000 books only a few weeks after my first book on Amazon sold I would have never started a business that first has given me more than enough money to supplement my income but at the same time piqued my interest to pursue other opportunities.

Used books are just one small niche in the huge area of things that you can do to supplement your income. Start something you’re interested in. If you don’t make as much money as you had originally thought who cares? At least you should be proud of yourself you started and I promise once you get past the initial hurdles things will start to fall in your lap and you’re going to be kicking yourself you didn’t start earlier.

- Adam

Why Selling Books Online May Be the Best Decision You Ever Make [ 5:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (106)

This week I am trying something a little different. I’m writing this post from my brand new iPad! I’m excited to see what I can do from this thing that I was previously able to do with my laptop alone. So far, it has really made browsing the web, checking news and viewing movies on Netflix much more enjoyable than on my laptop. I also have been able to do some business on it also which got me thinking about how I can use this in my book business.

Here are a few ways that you can too use the iPad to help your book business:

1. The Auction Calc app – This is an iPad app that gives you a nice summary of all the fees that you’re going to pay to sell anything on Amazon, eBay, eBid, Half and just Paypal. It’s a pretty handy little app if you’re curious about what kind of profit you’ll make on an item or want a list of all the fees you’d pay if an item sells at a specific price. You also can’t beat the price which is free!

2. Using the iPad 3G for book scouting – Unfortunately, you’ll have to splurge for the higher end, more expensive iPad and pay around $30/month but this would be a great device for book scouting or just doing online research for collectible books. The iPad has the capability to get an Internet connection from the cell phone towers at 3G speeds. Couple this nearly anywhere Internet connection with the iPad large screen and on screen keyboard it would make a great, little mobile online research device to look up collectible books or even may help with those books that have no ISBN you want to look up.

3. DropBox for the iPad – The iPad also has an app calked DropBox. DropBox is a very popular free service that allows you to install on any number of computers as well as iPhones/iPads and keep all your files in sync. A great way to use this app and the iPad would be to create a text file of books you’re looking for, pictures of books you’d like to buy or really anything that you’d like to make on your computer and get to on the go. I use DropBox a lot and it works great. Once installed, simply put any file into a specific folder on your computer and it then automatically syncs that file everywhere else it’s installed. If DropBox is on your iPad or iPhone you can bring up the DropBox app and view anything that you’ve chosen to put in there. It’s a very cool service for having 2GB available absolutely free!

I’ve only had the iPad for a few days now so I hope that I can share more tips with you about it and how you can use it in your online business.

- Adam

For this post, I want to first take a step back in awe of how large the audience for SYBO has grown over the 2+ years I’ve been producing content. SYBO has went from 364 monthly viewers in April of 2009 to a record 21,268 in Sept of last year with numbers increasing all the time.  The email list has also grown dramatically to well over 3,000 readers.  I really had no idea my little idea of selling a few used books on Amazon sparked so much interest for other people.  It truly is amazing to see where my visitors are coming from all over the world and to hear so many different ways people are making money selling used books on the Internet.

Even though SYBO has really grown I feel I haven’t contributed as much as what I should to it.  You may know that SYBO is only a part time endeavor for me.  I also do sell books online like everyone else as well as hold down a full-time job in technology consulting.  As an online bookseller yourself you already know how tough it is to source books, list books and fulfill orders.  I know that a lot of people are in the same boat as me with their full-time job also.  It’s tough!  Add on a family, a blog, a newsletter and an outstanding community of fellow online booksellers expecting great content on a regular basis it gets hairy.  This is why I’m officially taking applications for regular blog post writers and a blog manager. No, this doesn’t mean that I am going away.  This simply provides you with the same content you’ve come to expect from SYBO but from many different viewpoints; not just my own.  I also hope this will spark more audio and video content as well to help you.  I will still contribute albeit less than now ie. everything.

What will being a SYBO blog post writer entail and what’s in it for me?

A SYBO post writer need not have any professional writing credentials at all nor does not even need to write extremely well (that’s what an editor is for!).  I want someone that is in the trenches.  I want someone that lives to scan a hundred dollar book and jump up and down.  I want someone that’s running this business on a shoestring that can explain to people what it’s like to stand for hours with Scoutpal at a Goodwill or negotiate that deal for the leftover books after a Friends of the Library sale.  I want someone that is passionate about this business.

I also want someone that has some business-savvy.  How many books did you sell last month?  What was your average sale price?  Show me your data to back up that decision to drop $5,000 on 50 gaylords of books.  One of the beauties of being an online bookseller is that anyone can start from nearly anywhere and at any level but you also need some business sense.  I started with 14 books on Amazon but I’m now approaching $100,000/year in sales.  However there’s also people that simply like to make some extra cash or as a hobby even.  I want to hear from you.  I want to hear your sales goals in a blog post and how you intend to get there.  This inspires people and helps them achieve their own goals.

When I first started writing blog posts I wrote for negative equity.  I was actually LOSING money to write.  However, luckily this eventually turned into a nice, little side income as well.  I don’t expect you to write for nothing (unless you really want to). I am going to offer $10 for every blog post that gets posted with a 4 post/month maximum.  Notice the fine print?  I or someone that I choose will be screening these posts prior to publishing them so even though you may write a 2,000 word diatribe and expect payment it may not necessarily happen. I’m not going to guarantee approval.  However, I assure you the qualifications won’t be too stringent.  All I ask for is at least a 500 word post relating to book-selling (offline or online)  or any other related topic such as selling DVDs, CDs, etc that is easy to read and would apply to anyone interested in online selling.

Consider a blog-post writer as freelancer.  Send in an article whenever you’d like with no commitments and get paid.  It’s that simple.

What will a SYBO blog manager do and what’s the stipulations?

A SYBO blog manager will, in a sense, be me up until now.  He or she may write posts if they choose but unpaid.  They will also be administrator of everything sellyourbooksonline.com and usedbooksbigbusiness.com.  They will be in charge of marketing, content management, newsletter submissions, forum administrator, blog sponsor management, WordPress management, hiring/firing of skilled labor, et al.  He or she will ensure SYBO continues to grow, contribute to the blog’s success and help more people than ever before succeed at selling media online.  Are you up for it?

It may sound a lot but I only put in around 15 hours/week when I began but later has required even less time.  The hours per week all depends on your attitude and how much you’d like this blog to succeed.  It also depends on how much money you’d like to generate for yourself.  As blog manager, I’m passing the reigns over to you so I also expect you to make this worth your while.  I’m offering 50% of all revenue generated from sponsorships, Google Adsense and 25% of all eBook sales.  How much is this?  This will vary widely depending on how well you’re able to market but will generally run anywhere in the range from $200/month to $500/month or more.  However, I do not guarantee any numbers as it will be purely on a percentage basis.  SYBO succeeds you succeed, SYBO fails you fail.  Email me for a complete job description.

What’s going to happen to Adam?

I will still post one article/month and may pop my head in the forum every now and then.  However, I will be hard at work writing more eBooks, developing awesome applications that will help online booksellers like eBizControl to marry my love of technology with my love for online bookselling.  I’m also always available via email or the Facebook page.

Thanks again for being part of the bookseller community and I hope to hear from you soon!

- Adam

Standard Podcast [ 3:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (130)

The following post is a guest post by Chris Green of FBAPower.  Chris has an excellent understanding of the inner workings of Amazon’s FBA program and his FBAPower application is top notch.  I thought this would be a great topic to introduce or reintroduce to some since it’ seems to be so popular.  While you’re at it also be sure to pick up a free copy of Nathan Holmquist’s eBook titled Selling on Amazon’s FBA Program.  This once paid eBook is now being offered for completely free!

Be sure to stick around for the end of the post.  I reveal the strategy that I personally use to fully take advantage of FBA. – Adam

If you have been selling books on Amazon for any period of time, you have likely seen ads or promotions for Amazon’s fulfillment service called Fulfillment By Amazon, or FBA. You may even be selling items where your competition is using FBA. The number of FBA sellers is increasing and it is changing the dynamics of the Amazon marketplace. Understanding how FBA works and how other sellers are using it will help you decide if it’s the right program for some, or all of your inventory.

So what exactly is FBA? How can it help my book selling business? Are there any downsides to FBA? We’ll answer those questions and more.

Fulfillment companies and programs are nothing new, but what makes FBA unique and powerful is that all FBA items are eligible for Amazon’s free (or discounted) shipping programs such as Free Super Saver Shipping (FSSS) on orders over $25, 4-for-3 promotions, and free 2-Day Air shipping for Amazon Prime members. This makes FBA items more appealing to Amazon’s best customers.

How can FBA help my business?  FBA can be described as a win-win-win.

Win #1. Higher prices, higher margins, higher payouts

Since items sold through FBA are eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime, FBA sellers actually raise their prices to match their competitor’s total price (price + shipping). So even with the addition of FBA fees, the FBA seller still receives a higher net payout from their Amazon sales because of the higher sale prices. For example, a seller who ships their own orders who sells an item for $10 with $3.99 shipping will show the same as an FBA seller selling the exact same item for $13.99. Actually, the FBA seller will show first because FBA is the tie breaker. The easy example is with penny books. A merchant fulfilled penny book lists for $0.01 + $3.99 shipping. An FBA seller who wants to price match the lowest price will list for $4.00. Amazon sorts the offers page by total price (price + shipping).
Use the Amazon FBA Revenue Calculator to see estimated FBA payouts for your items at certain prices.

Win #2. Less work

FBA sellers sell items 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. Items ship all hours of the day or night including weekends. They ship whether the seller is at home or on vacation. Once an FBA seller prepares their items for the FBA warehouse and sends them to Amazon, they don’t have to do anything else. They can monitor inventory levels and adjust prices as needed from anywhere with an Internet connection.  They don’t have to stock boxes, envelopes, packing materials, or print shipping labels anymore. They also don’t wait around for their UPS driver or go to the post office every day. The time you used to spend fulfilling orders can now be used to source products or on other aspects of your business.

Win #3. Happier Customers

It is estimated that 40-50% of Amazon buyers have never bought from a third party merchant. You can effectively double your customer base by offering your items through FBA. Amazon customers want to buy from FBA sellers. They trust Amazon and they know that their items will ship quickly and if there is ever a problem, Amazon will help (including an extended return policy). When your items are offered for sale through FBA, they will attract these types of Amazon buyers who are willing to pay more to get their items shipped by Amazon. This is an important point to grasp: Amazon customers are willing to pay more for the exact same item if it comes from Amazon or an FBA seller. They do this because they know they will get their item fast and that customer service will be top notch. This is how you leverage FBA status; you use FBA to market your books to these sellers and increase your margins and profits.

How Do I Get My Items To FBA?

Items sent to FBA require a special FBA label. This label has a barcode identifying the item to Amazon. It needs to cover any existing barcodes on your books. You create shipments and process them through your Amazon account. You can send one box, 10 boxes, even a full truckload of books! Bonus: you get to use Amazon’s UPS rates for inbound shipping. Once your shipment of books is received at Amazon’s FBA warehouse, they are received and offered for sale on Amazon.com.

Is The FBA Program Just For Booksellers?

No. Almost any item can be sold on Amazon using FBA. There are some exceptions such as restricted categories.  New FBA sellers should reference the FBA manual.

But What About All The Fees?

Ah yes, the fees. There are fees involved but they are all known ahead of time. This allows you to make informed decisions about what to send to FBA and how to price your items. Remember, your sales price as an FBA seller is going to be higher than a merchant fulfilled seller. This higher price is what covers the additional fees and leads to high net payout using FBA compared to a merchant fulfilled sale.

• Inbound Shipping Fees

This is the cost to get your items to Amazon’s FBA warehouses. You are able to use Amazon’s UPS rates so you get the lowest possible shipping rates.

• Storage Fees

Amazon charges $0.45 per cubic foot from January – September. $0.60 per cubic foot from October – December. This is calculated down to the hundredth of an inch. For reference, most paperback books will have a monthly storage cost of $0.01 per month. That’s eight years for less than $1. So if an item is in storage for a year before it sells, it’s an additional $0.12. You do get the first 30 days free so if you manage your inventory and only send fast moving items to FBA, your storage fees will be zero. You may decide to keep high ranking items that may take a longer time to sell at your location instead of sending them to FBA.

• Pick & Pack Fees

Amazon charges fixed fees for picking and packing your items.

• Weight Based Fees

Amazon will charge a Lose Weight Exercise based fee when shipping your items. Heavier items will cost more to ship, and therefore have higher fees. Item Lose Weight Exercise is known ahead of time so sellers should price their items with these fees in mind.

• Item Removal/Destroy Fees

If you want Amazon to return an item to you (or destroy the item), they will charge you $0.60/item. You would probably want to have customer returns returned to you for inspection (they can often be resold).

You can find a complete list of fees when using Amazon FBA here.

Can My FBA Items Only Be Sold On Amazon?

No way! While Amazon will likely be your higher volume sales channel, you can still list on other sites such as Abe and Alibris and fulfill those orders with your FBA inventory. This is called Basic Fulfillment. A half pound book will cost you $2.95 to have Amazon pick, pack, and ship this item for you anywhere in the country.

Can I Still Ship Internationally?

Yes. You can sign up for international shipping in your Amazon account. You upload an image of your signature and Amazon takes care of the rest. International customers pay for their own shipping and since Amazon does the actual shipping, they will deduct this charge from your transaction payout (it zeros out). International customers from every country that Amazon ships to will be able to order your products.

Downsides of FBA

FBA has the power to transform your business overnight, but it is important to know how it all works and the potential risks involved when handing over a significant portion of your business process to another company.

Lose Control Over Your Order Processing

You are handing over all aspects of order processing to Amazon. You are trusting them to store, pick, pack, and ship your items. This can be a scary thought for some sellers who take great pride in providing their customers with a high quality shipping process. You may decide to only send certain books to FBA and keep higher valued books or books that would require special packaging at your location to ship yourself.

Hand Over Customer Service To Amazon

Amazon will handle all customer service issues on your FBA orders. This means that you loseWeight Exercise control of the returns process (a customer can return an item without approval from you, the seller). It is possible (although unlikely) that a buyer abuses this liberal return policy at the expense of your inventory. If you suspect anything like this, report it to Amazon. They monitor excessive customer returns as well as A-Z claims.

Possibility Of Loss Or Damage To Your Products

It is possible that your items are lost or damaged either by UPS on the way to Amazon or by Amazon themselves, but that same risk is there for every item dropped off at the post office. Amazon will reimburse sellers for lost or damaged items automatically. It is important to monitor your inbound items as they are received. Amazon will send an email if there are any problems receiving your items.

Summary

FBA is a very powerful program and if used correctly, can greatly improve your margins, profits, and efficiency. It can give you back your time to focus on other parts of your business such as sourcing products or just spending more time with your family. Read as much as you can about FBA, network with other FBA sellers, and experiment with some items to see if it’s right of you.

Additional Online FBA Resources:

Amazon FBA Homepage:
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm

FBA Warehouse Tour
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/fba-tour/FBA-FC-Tour._V216203492_.html

Amazon Seller Community (FBA)
http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=29

Addendum:  How Adam Uses FBA

———————————–

I have been using Amazon’s FBA service for going on a year and a half now.  It was a game changer for me the minute I sent in my first box of books.  Little did I know it would become a regular part of my receiving process.  Many different people use FBA in different ways.  In this short snippet I’d like to share to you how I personally take advantage of FBA.

I receive unscanned books to my warehouse on a regular basis and have a process by which books can go into a number of different directions.  The books that go to FBA always have a sales rank of under one million.  I’d rather not go to the work of creating FBA shipments with very low demand books that may never sell.  The storage fees may also be pretty low but throw enough 5M+ sales rank books up there and you’ll eventually feel that monthly fee.

The second criteria I use is profit.  I’ve decided to use a profit floor of 75 cents.  This means if the book is in at least good condition and I think I can make 75 cents or more profit on a book and it’s sales rank is under a million it goes to FBA.  There is one caveat though; the Lose Weight Exercise.  As you know Amazon charges a Lose Weight Exercise fee for shipment.  Also, don’t forget about what you’re going to pay to get that 7lb monster book to Amazon in the first place!  Here’s a snippet of the code from a custom receiving application I developed.  Don’t get too confused with the major tech factor here.  It’s simply seeing if a book’s lowest FBA competitor is above or equal to a particular price and under a particular Lose Weight Exercise then let me know if it’s FBA bound or not.  If it doesn’t meet of of the criteria it’s not going FBA.  I still account for other expenses like cost to ship to Amazon and packaging material.

This is just how I use FBA.  Your mileage may vary.  Let me know in the comments how you’re using FBA!