I spent a couple of thousand bucks on this new shiny object affiliate

marketing program. I've got a social media account. I can put up links. And

then within like 24 hours, I was suspended for good.

I was supposed to be making millions of dollars by now. You could have a crap

product, but if Kim Kardashian holds it up on her social media, people

will buy it. You could have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about

it, no one's going to buy it. They're the two extremes. Amazon is not the reason why

your product is not profitable. how and when to

know if you should quit Amazon or

when to avoid shiny objects. They

didn't tell you this in the damn course. I'm

Matthew Fraser and this is Amazon Ecom

Secrets. I'll be sharing with you the secrets that helped me go from

millions in debt to an eight figure entrepreneur. If

you're ready to escape the nine to five and live life on your terms,

let me show you the way. In today's episode, we're

going to discuss how and when to

know if you should quit Amazon or

when to avoid shiny objects. Because

you know what? They're freaking everywhere, shiny objects. I've been

there. You know, I started in this Amazon journey in

2016 and I must admit, I wasn't looking for other things. I

sort of just came across this Amazon training program. I

thought, you know what? That's exactly what I need. I need to do this because

it just fit the bill, right? I could just send products into Amazon. I could,

I could stay at home. I didn't have to be the

face of the product. And you know, people would just buy

it and I'd be off to make millions and millions of dollars. And that's what I thought in

the beginning. Ultimately, I thought I was going to make millions of dollars and I

look, I did. But it took time, right? And I had to

stay focused the entire time because there's

shiny things popping at you along these journeys. And

I want to share with you. about that and

when you should perhaps do them or not

do them. Now you're going to say, Matt, what do you, what do you mean? What's a, what's a shiny object?

Shiny object is just things that take your attention away. So

let's just say you're doing this, you're doing an Amazon training program and

the next thing you're like, you're flicking through social media and, and

look, there's heaps of these things, right? And the one, something pops up and it's like, Hey,

the new thing now is TikTok. And if you just

like get a TikTok account, you could just sell stuff on TikTok and

there's dudes making a million dollars a month.

And you're going to be like, holy shit. I need

to be doing that because I'm doing this Amazon training and this is taking

forever. You know, I haven't, I haven't found my product yet, but if I could

just jump over to TikTok, I'll be set. And

that's just one. In my journey, there was Facebook ads,

there was affiliate marketing. And I must admit,

I fell into this trap. So I'm not putting anyone down who suffers

from this shiny object syndrome and takes action. And

what had happened was I was in the midst of doing Amazon It

was probably a couple of years into it. I wasn't a multi-millionaire yet

and this shiny object came up and it was affiliate marketing.

And I'll tell you why affiliate marketing was so attractive.

It was because I didn't have to even design my own

product. I didn't have to come up with any products. All I had to do was

just put up some links or so I thought on like social media

and when people bought products, I would just get paid. I

mean, that sounds so simple, right? I've got a social media account. I can put up links.

So I spent probably a couple of thousand bucks on this new

shiny object affiliate marketing program, and I'm

going through the program, and I start putting up links on

social media. And including, I remember I put one up on

YouTube and then within like 24 hours, I

was suspended. I get this, I get this warning from, uh,

from Facebook saying, Oh yeah, guess what? We've just suspended your account or

we've given you a black mark. And I think my YouTube account was actually

suspended, like for good. I couldn't, I couldn't

even open it up again. I was like, fucking hell. They didn't tell

you this in the damn course, right? I was

supposed to be making millions of dollars by now. That

didn't happen. And so that was lesson number

one. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But no, my lesson is actually this.

There are so many ways to make money, a

full stop, whether it's online or offline. There's

just so many ways. But it takes time. You

have to be focused and dedicated to learning the

craft. So if you're going into the Amazon space, You're probably

not going to be a multi-millionaire within 30 days. It's

going to take time. Same thing as if you go

into the affiliate marketing programs, right?

You're probably not going to be a multi-millionaire within 30 days.

And you may not even be a multi-millionaire within six months or 12 months

because a lot of people who start these journeys, they just quit.

They quit after 30 days or 60 days. They're like, oh, this didn't work and

they just throw in the towel. I'm testament to tell you, that

it does work. I have done it. I've been there. I even

went through, as I was going through, I remember going through the Amazon training

and I launched my first product and that took me one whole year to

even launch my first product. I'm thinking, man, this is not

just so simple, right? There's lots of things I have to learn. And

I even launched my first product and I started making sales.

And then it just sort of Faded

away. The sales just faded. I couldn't get the sales

volume that I needed so I started to lose money and so I

had to put that one to bed. But I didn't lose sight

though. At that point, I didn't actually divert off Amazon. I

thought, you know what, I just need to double down on the Amazon

platform. Stay focused. All I got to do now

is just find a better product. That then led me

into a knife product, which I had invented, which I

even did a pattern on. I probably sunk about 40 or 50 grand into

just the development of that product, which I didn't even

launch. That's the ongoing joke, didn't even launch that product. Because

in the meantime, I came across my now famous healthcare

product, which has now done now over $45 million

in sales. And that was the product that,

you know, set me up for life. If I quit during the first phase,

or even if I'd found a shiny object, it would have been very easy

for me to say, Oh, this Amazon thing doesn't even work. You know,

I didn't make the money. I was promised glory. I should

have been retired by now, but it hadn't happened. I

could have easily have just switched and gone, oh, look, affiliate

marketing or dropshipping. Dropshipping is a real good one. Just

do dropshipping. That'd be awesome. That one's simple. If you don't

know what dropshipping is, it's selling a product that you don't hold.

That's basically it. You just put up a website. or perhaps

you have an email list, you market on that website or email list and

sell other people's products. There's now companies that actually help you

to sell those products. Now, I'm not saying that this doesn't

work. I'm sure that there are people out there who are multi-millionaires off

the back of dropshipping, but I can near guarantee you

that they didn't become a success within 30 days. They

probably had lots of trials and tribulations along the way, just like

what I did with my Amazon journey. I had a

lot of missteps, but ultimately I stuck with it and I

didn't allow the shiny objects at that time to divert me

away from the mission. And the mission was to learn the Amazon platform.

Now, I did talk about though, I did this affiliate marketing program.

But that was kind of into the journey and I thought I was going to use that as

a supplement to help the Amazon business. But

ultimately, like I said, I got suspended and I really

did just give up on it. But I think around that time as well, in my journey,

My healthcare product just started making so much money now, I really didn't need to double

down on staying with the affiliate marketing. I was like, you know,

I'm just going to park this because shit, I'm starting to make millions of dollars out

of this healthcare product. So I'm going to just put my attention to the

one like the golden goose and just let it keep laying

those golden eggs for me. Now, I want to share this story with

you because you might be in the position right now,

you might be on your own journey and particularly if you

haven't started in the online space at all, you're looking around like

which platform or which type of What

type of business model is the one I'm looking for? Which type of

business model is the one that's going to suit you? Is it going to be Amazon? Is

it going to be Shopify? Is it going to be dropshipping?

Is it going to be affiliate marketing? There's so many different ways to

make money online. You have to research

all of them, find the one that you think is going to be the best to

suit you, and just stick with it. And forget

about all the shiny objects that you're going to find along the way. And until

you start seeing that you're making millions of dollars from

the business model that you've chosen, I wouldn't look

at anything else. Now I share this with you because I've got a client right

now. She's one of my private clients in my mentoring program and

she's now started to see some success. She's gone

from not having done Amazon whatsoever to

now just launching her very first product and

it's making sales. So it's really exciting for her because

now she can realize, hey, I found this product based

in China. It's unique. I've got it shipped all

the way to Amazon in the USA and I put it on

the marketplace and I sat back and watched and what do

you know, boom, sale. Next day, another sale. A

couple of days later, two more sales. So things are starting to build up.

But I had a meeting with her just recently and she said, oh look, I

saw this video the other day and it was on YouTube

and it was about TikTok and you could do this

and you could do that and I thought, Yeah, I'm going to check that

video out. I actually went and watched the same video, the TikTok video.

And I must admit, at first I thought, wow, this seems

awesome. But I've got a bit more of an understanding about

the online space. So I was waiting for the catch. You

know, what is it that's going to be difficult for most people? So

just so you understand, within TikTok now, they do a TikTok store,

a TikTok shop, where you can have your own account and

promote TikTok-based products and

make money. And you're like, wow, that's incredible, right? Because now I don't even have

to come up with my own product. And I just start it up on TikTok. The

people are already there, so it seems genius. But once

I dug into the fine print, you have to be based out of the USA or

UK. They don't even do it in Australia. So there's like, boom,

that one's out straight away, right? Unless you literally had like a

USA company, but maybe you even have

to be based there, which means they're going to be able to check your IP. So in

other words, it wasn't just so straightforward just to jump on

there and boom. Maybe in time in Australia, they'll open it up and you

can start on that. But I can also guarantee you

it's not going to be just simple, right? It won't be just like, oh, I just

started a TikTok account and I just started making millions of dollars. No, because

everyone would do that because it relies on a bit of creativity

with utilizing the TikTok platform and creating content.

And guess what? It turns out that not everyone is brilliant at content. It

takes time to learn how to make great content and great content

that can go viral and that people are interested in. And

so now you have to become a content creator. It's not just like, I need to become a

good at TikTok shop. I need to become awesome at content creating, how

to write titles, how to target people correctly. It's just, the list just goes on. It's

just not so simple, but it would require you focus. Okay.

You want to do that? Absolutely. So back to my client, she said

to me, I've just watched this video. I just came for the nuts and bolts of,

look, this is what it's going to take to be able to succeed in the TikTok space.

But right now you've just launched your first

product on Amazon. You're now making some sales. Let's not

turn your attention away from something that you're, you're

currently studying. Ultimately, we want to study the

Amazon marketplace And then for her, because

I looked, let's be honest, I'm not absolutely married

to Amazon. I talk about Amazon a lot. It's made me millions

and millions of dollars. I talk about Shopify as

well. It's also made me millions and millions and

millions of dollars as well. So look, whichever one,

whichever one floats your boat. In my opinion, you have

to have the Amazon marketplace as a fundamental bow

in your arsenal. Because Amazon

is so entrenched, people know it. It's an easy platform to

use. It's already got the attention, particularly in America and

other parts of the world. It's just one of those fundamental things

you have to have. And then once you've got Amazon dialed in

and you understand that platform, my suggestion then would be

move on to other things, whether it be Shopify, maybe

you then want to go down the TikTok route, but I would want to be doing something

that is symbiotic, let's call it

that, which is in the same ecosystem as

the niche that you're already doing. So let's just say you're selling like myself a healthcare product

on Amazon, First step, easy one, go

and sell that same healthcare product on Shopify. If

you've already got market validation on Amazon, it's going to be much easier

then to put on Shopify and also get market validation rather

than going to TikTok and just now becoming

a content creator to try and sell TikTok products. that

would be sort of not in cahoots with the existing

product you've already got. Maybe you want to do something else like, here's

another example, not just Shopify, but creating a content site,

a content site where you talk about health-related issues.

So you're now starting to get attention for the same issue.

Let's say it's to do with a foot disease.

You want to specialize in the foot disease on this website because your

product helps people with this foot issue. Yeah,

see how it all sort of ties together. And so therefore you could then promote your

Amazon and even your Shopify listing on

your content website. See how it all just syncs

together and starts, it can just sort of drive traffic from one

to the other and ultimately build up more sales and create this, almost this

like community of people that are interested in this foot

issue. And that's something that I would suggest to do. Once you get to

the level of making millions of dollars, I can tell you that The

shiny objects still exist. I still see things

that I'm like, oh, maybe that sounds interesting. But I can look at things now

with a bit more of an objective. viewpoint, because

I've been through a lot of those different things now. And I also think about

the workload that it's going to take, because I know

how much effort and time is going to be required to

make some of these shiny objects succeed. So

I've got to be really, really interested. Alex Hormozy

says, this is something to write down. It's

the things that you say no to that will help you become a

millionaire. It's along those lines, right? Because you don't want to do every

single thing that comes up your way. Because when you get

to my level, when you've done multi-millions of dollars, there'll

be so much opportunity and I see it now. There is just so much

opportunity that's coming my way. But if I take an example of

there might be one that comes up and I think I'm going to make $100,000 a year from

that. I'm not going to do that. Because

I'm now going to be waiting for the one that's like, actually no, this one's going

to make $5 million a year. I know this is going to be $5 million a

year profit on this one, because each one's going to require the

same amount of time and effort. So if I just keep bypassing the

ones that are making $100,000, $100,000, and then eventually I wait for

the right time and the right opportunity to say, yeah, here's

the $5 million opportunity. That's the one I'm going

to go with. And then just get rid of all the other noise. But

sometimes you have to wait. These things may not present

themselves all on one day. You might see

the $100,000 opportunity this week, and then

next month is another $100,000, and then maybe even six months time, maybe

even a year's time, then the $5 million

opportunity presents itself and you snap it up. Because you know when

they come up, this is the one. Because you've got your filter

on. get rid of this, get rid of this, no to this, no to this. And that

even includes things like partnering up with people. That also becomes another

form of a shiny object syndrome, which is like, you've got maybe a

business that's happening. Some people I know want to join into

that business, but that could become a distraction. And if you really don't need

that person in your business, don't bring them in because

it can also create more problems. I know what you're going to say to me, but

Matt, I'm in this business, but I want to quit.

And when is the right time to quit? You can feel that maybe it's time to quit. Let

me take you back to my first product. It was the car chamois. I

knew it was time to quit when the sales were just dwindling away.

I couldn't get the volume. Now, could I have potentially

just strung it right out? I could have. Let

me tell you this. You can sell

products no matter where they are. It doesn't even matter. No matter the price point,

no matter whether it's good or bad, you can sell products. What it comes

down to is how much money do you have behind you for

marketing? You could have a crap product, but if Kim Kardashian

holds it up on her social media, people will buy it. That's just

a matter of fact, right? And you could have the best product in the

world, but if no one knows about it, no one's going to buy

it. See what I'm saying? They're the two extremes. And so

you've got to find that middle ground of having an amazing product,

hopefully, and also getting the attention, the eyeballs,

which is going to be through ads and marketing. If you think about

my car chamois, it was actually pretty cool. But

I just couldn't get the sales volume. Now, back then, because it was during

my first trial of a product, I also didn't

have much money behind me. So I couldn't just say, you know what,

I'm just going to sink another $100,000 into this product. and

just ride it out, because that would have been a massive gamble. I

just didn't have that sort of money, and I certainly wasn't in a position to

take that kind of a gamble on $100,000 without

any guarantee that the sales were going to come through, because

maybe it required $500,000 of

marketing and ad spend in order to get the product to

a position where it could be viable. But again, it wasn't

worth that. So you've got to assess these things

on a case-by-case basis and understand where

you sit in the marketplace and of course for your

own personal position, do you have the marketing spent.

But that said, There's always a time where

I think you could quit, but I just think you need to

stay focused because it's not Amazon. Amazon is not the reason why

your product perhaps isn't selling or is not profitable, right?

There's other metrics that you must be looking at. Do you need to

get the price point lower from the manufacturer? That's

the simple one. Do I need to send these via sea rather

than air to reduce my shipping cost? Do

I need to change the packaging? Is my packaging just too

pretty and too detailed, but it's not important for

the customer anyway? Because some people can get wrapped up in these things, yeah? And

so these are all the little tiny things that you need to

look into to see if your product can ultimately become

viable. And if it can't, there will be a

time just like me with my car chamois, where you may just want to

put it to bed and say, enough is enough. And there's nothing

wrong with doing that. I think, do it. But

remember, you want to continue on. I didn't just quit then

and just go back to my 9 to 5 job. I parked

the chamois. I said, this isn't going to work because I'm not in

a position to make it work. And I just moved to the next product because

I'm now just trying to find something that's going to be better placed in

the market to ultimately deliver better results.

And that's what you should consider if you are in that position. So

guys, I hope you've enjoyed that episode on shiny object

syndrome and perhaps some of the things to avoid and not to avoid in

that space. It'd be great if you could leave me a five-star review. I'd really appreciate

it on Apple Podcasts and also Spotify. And also put a

question or a comment if you're watching this on YouTube. I'd love to know your

thoughts and feelings. Perhaps there's some shiny objects that you're now looking

at as we speak. Maybe it's TikTok or maybe it's dropshipping. Let

me know in the comments. and I look forward to seeing you on the very next

episode. Till then, take care. Thanks for tuning into Amazon

Ecom Secrets. If you enjoyed this episode, the best way

to show your support is to give a five-star review on

Apple Podcast and Spotify, and make sure to

subscribe on YouTube so you don't miss an episode. You

can also find more at I'm Matthew Fraser

on all social media platforms. Thanks so much. Take