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The Think Media Podcast
426: Amazon Influencer Tutorial 2025: How to Get Approved and Earn $100/Day
01:12:54
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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give you a heads up that my free YouTube strategy class is available right now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com on the class, I reveal the one YouTube strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your your growth. This class is 100% free and you can watch it now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com now let's jump into today's show. What if you could earn an extra $100 per day talking about the products that you already use and love?
- [00:44]
Kathleen Cohen
So the Amazon Influencer program, it's very similar to the Amazon Affiliate or Associates program, but Amazon does the hard part, which is the marketing.
- [00:53]
Sean Cannell
Our guest today is Kathleen Cohen, and she is an Amazon selling expert with 15 years of experience. In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain for the latest Amazon influencer strategies for 2025, including how to get approved fast.
- [01:07]
Kathleen Cohen
It took her only eight days of posting three times a day to get into the Amazon Influencer Program with a brand new TikTok account.
- [01:14]
Sean Cannell
Tap into the very powerful new features that most creators don't know exist. And whether you've got a thousand followers or 10,000 followers, this guide will show you how to build real income step by so this episode is all about you tapping into the selling side of that trend. And so let's dive in. Kathleen, welcome back to the podcast.
- [01:36]
Kathleen Cohen
Thanks so much for having me, Sean. I'm excited to chat all about this.
- [01:40]
Sean Cannell
So time codes and chapters break down, kind of all the sections we're going to be covering. Do you qualify eligibility for the Amazon Influencer Program, how to get approved step by step. And we'll even be touching kind of on, on platform and off platform because the reason you you're one of our favorite podcast guests is because anybody that's making video of any kind, even if they're just using their smartphone, can be tapping into doing YouTube content, uploading content directly to Amazon and making multiple streams of income out of that. But as we talk about this, the latest Amazon Influencer kind of eligibility requirements this year, what does it take to qualify and get approved for this opportunity? And before the qualifications, what really is the Amazon Influencer Program?
- [02:29]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes. So the Amazon Influencer Program, if you're new, you haven't heard about this, it's very similar to the Amazon Affiliate or Associates program. Where you become a part of the program. You're able to share links for basically almost anything that's available for sale on Amazon. Share those links. People click through your links, they buy the thing, and then you earn a commission, pretty much like your standard affiliate program. What makes the Amazon Influencer Program different, though, is that once you get into that side of this program, you are actually able to create and upload content directly to Amazon, which is where this content lives. And then Amazon does a lot of the legwork and really the hard part, which is the marketing. So they are putting your content in front of their customers, who are already deciding, should I buy this item that you've now created this content for? So that's the biggest difference is that with the Amazon Influencer Program, you get to create content that actually lives on Amazon.
- [03:27]
Sean Cannell
And so if you've got a smartphone and you've got Amazon stuff around your house and in your garage, basically you can start filming videos, uploading those directly to Amazon and making money.
- [03:38]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, absolutely.
- [03:40]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so how do you qualify? What are the eligibility requirements for this?
- [03:45]
Kathleen Cohen
Sure. So Amazon doesn't necessarily tell us. It's not a black or white. You need this many followers on this particular platform. We. What they are looking for is that one of your social media platforms has high engagement. So engagement is definitely more important than followers. I've had people who have 10,000 YouTube subscribers that haven't gotten in, but then I have people who have 150 TikTok followers who have gotten in because they are posting consistently and they have that engagement that Amazon is looking for.
- [04:19]
Sean Cannell
So define engagement.
- [04:21]
Kathleen Cohen
So engagement is not only you posting frequently. So Amazon does like to see that, you know, you are posting daily, maybe even two or three times a day, if you're still trying to get into the Amazon Influencer program. But they also want to see that even if you have a small amount of followers, those followers are liking your videos or your posts they're commenting, but also that you're interacting with them as well. So you want to, when you're trying to get approved, you want to create content and posts that really elicit that engagement, whether you're asking them questions or, you know, something like that, and then go respond to them. And then the nice thing about, you know, applying for the Amazon Influencer Program is you can apply as many times as you want. So I tell people, you know, post, post, get that engagement, and then apply every single day until you get in.
- [05:11]
Sean Cannell
That's great. And towards the end of the episode, we're going to be talking about, like best practices for some of this stuff because there's some content strategies I know you have to share with us that probably could create curiosity, trigger comments, trigger engagement more than other posts that wouldn't. So we'll get to that a little bit later in the episode. What are the platforms that Amazon supports? I mean, you could use any social media platform. Ultimately. This podcast is usually about YouTube. But as an Amazon influencer, which ones do they? Do they have a preference or can it really be anywhere?
- [05:41]
Kathleen Cohen
So they offer four options, YouTube being one of them, TikTok, Facebook, business page and then Instagram as well. So you can apply with any of those four. But I will say, and I've been doing this for quite a while now, and I also teach it right, so the people that are getting in with brand new accounts or with a lower follower account, those are all people coming from TikTok. So TikTok is the lowest barrier to entry right now.
- [06:08]
Sean Cannell
So if you're listening to this and maybe you haven't taken TikTok seriously in the past, what you're saying is even if YouTube is maybe your main platform, you want to be on YouTube. Starting a TikTok strategically, even if it's something that is a part of getting you approved, could be a very strategic decision. Because then once you're approved now, you could also put your affiliate links and your YouTube videos in other places, right?
- [06:34]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes, exactly. And I would say even if you have a YouTube channel, which I know most people listening do, just go ahead and apply with your YouTube channel first because you could get in, right, and not even have to worry about TikTok. But if you don't, don't worry because start a TikTok or just keep applying.
- [06:52]
Sean Cannell
Got it. And so to apply for the Amazon influencer page is affiliate-program.Amazon.com influencers. We can link that in the description and then in the show notes if you want to apply. But you basically go there and sign up and then fill out all the steps. Is there any tips in that process?
- [07:11]
Kathleen Cohen
You know, I would say just use one of your social media channels at first to start because they give you the four options. And what Amazon will do is they'll have you log into that social platform, right, so that they can go and kind of see what's going on. They can have access to it as well. So you'll apply directly through there, log in with your social platform as you're applying and then Amazon will tell you right away after the application whether you're in or not. So you'll know what your next steps are pretty quickly.
- [07:40]
Sean Cannell
So do you have any stories? You've got a private community, you've got a deeper dive course, but of someone that got approved and like what it actually took and even somebody that maybe got approved quicker than most people would think.
- [07:53]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes. I think one of one of the hardest parts is when people get so frustrated because they're just not getting in and they just don't know what to do to get approved with the Amazon Influencer program. And so like I said, I always recommend TikTok. And so I have quite a few stories, people getting in with, you know, low follower accounts. But my favorite most recent one is one woman in my group. She started a brand new tech talk. She wasn't really even on social media, so she wasn't sure if this was a good option for her. She started a brand new TikTok. She posted three times a day, just fun videos, just engaging videos. Right, where she's asking the viewers questions and she's again responding to all of their answers that they're putting in the comments there. She got into the program, she started applying or she started. Yeah, she started applying on day four. Right. She got in on day eight. So it took her only eight days of posting three times a day to get into the Amazon affiliate or influencer program with a brand new TikTok account.
- [08:54]
Sean Cannell
That's amazing. And so that speaks to this opportunity still existing right now this year. And so we're gonna keep going through these sections, but I do want people to know you are the number one expert on this. And there's an even deeper dive free class that you have@video class.com. this is breaking down how you earn over $10,000 every month by creating simple video content for Amazon. So save that for watched watching later again, that's a free class that's available at that URL that will link in the show notes and definitely watch that after this video. But we have a lot of more steps to cover. And this brings us to getting approved, which I think we've talked about here. But getting approved step by step. We're going to apply. Is there a different website for approving for Amaz Associates versus the Influencer program?
- [09:46]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, there is, there is. And so in fact, if you go through and apply for the Amazon Influencer program and they deny you right away, the next prompt will be but do you want to join the Amazon Associates program? And I recommend that everyone say yes because you can then utilize that and start using, you know, I mean, you can post on your socials, you can post, you know, links on your YouTube videos or on your YouTube descriptions. But, like, why not start know, kind of familiarizing yourself with the Associates program, which is so similar to the influencer program, and you can still earn that way. So I think, you know, Amazon likes that if you say, yes, I do want to be in the Associates program, even though you didn't let me in right away. And then you can, you know, get familiar with the, with the platform as well.
- [10:33]
Sean Cannell
So we really covered this already, but you were saying, choose one social media platform, go to Amazon Influencers, no matter what, start there. Because even if you don't get approved, then they'll say, well, do you still want to be an Amazon Associates? Again, that's gonna not allow you to upload videos to Amazon to make money, but it allows you to have your own custom links. You could put in your YouTube video descriptions, correct?
- [10:54]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, exactly.
- [10:56]
Sean Cannell
Okay. And if you do get rejected, you said you can apply as many times. What have you seen of the power of perseverance? You know, do you keep trying? Can you try every week? Do you just keep going for a couple months? For those that are maybe listening to this and have given this a shot, but they're still growing their followings, they're still growing their accounts, I would say.
- [11:14]
Kathleen Cohen
Just if it's something that you want to do, you will be able to do it if you persevere. I mean, I have, I'm thinking of one, one person in particular who's in my free Facebook group, and she told me that she applied four times a day to the Amazon Influencer program until she got in. And if that's not perseverance, I don't know what is. Right. So keep, keep posting, keep engaging on that platform that you want to get approved with and keep applying because eventually Amazon will see how hard you're trying. They will see, you know, how many times you have applied, and at some point you will be able to get in. There are also resources that you can use, you know, like, for example, we have a free Facebook group and we encourage people to list your TikTok so we can go and engage with them. Like, we're all about, you know, supporting the community and trying to get people in who really want to be in the Amazon Info Influencer program. So there are also other places where you can go and let people know you're trying to get into the program and they will help you with engagement and follows and everything you need.
- [12:20]
Sean Cannell
That's powerful. Now has there been some changes? Creator Hub was a recent trend update to kind of how you interact on your back end. Do you know when that changed over and is there anything. And this tutorial, since it's also an audio podcast, you know, we can't really show anything but anything in regards to like new dashboard quirks or updates in relation to how you interact with the interface of Amazon Influencer.
- [12:49]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes, yes. Actually there's, there's been quite a few and those are two kind of, kind of separate but very similar big changes that Amazon had. So the Creator Hub Dashboard is where I've always gone to upload my videos to Amazon. And because that particular Dashboard Dashboard has the best analytics and Amazon doesn't give us a ton as far as data goes, but that's where we would be able to see things like, you know, the watch time per video, how many people have watched it over the last 30 days and things like that. But Amazon took away this Creator Hub Dashboard for about, it was probably three or four weeks. So everyone had to adjust. There is another, it's called the Manage Content page, which is very similar to Creator Hub but just again, doesn't have those analytics. It also didn't integrate with some of the third party software tools that are very popular and especially the one that I use. And so, you know, we all kind of moved over to Manage Content and then one day Amazon said, hey guys, here's your Creator Hub Dashboard back. So they actually did give it back to us and I'm going to use it, I use it every day because I know one day they could just come and take it away again. So that was, that was a fun four weeks for everyone to kind of get acclimated with the new dashboard as far as uploading goes. But it is back and I think the biggest thing to note about that is if you're a newbie, that's where you're going to see that your on site commission is unlocked. So if you've heard, where do I find this blue lock? How do I know that I'm, you know, qualified for on site commission, meaning I can upload content directly to Amazon. The Creator Hub Dashboard is where you're going to see that you're actually unlocked for that opportunity.
- [14:36]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so what this gives vision for individuals is like once you get in, you're gonna have Creator Hub and if you're familiar with YouTube analytics or even if you're brand new, this is gonna be the place where you can kind of study results, learn, upload your videos. It disappeared For a while. But the big news as far as the update is it's back. And that's what we know right now. Am I following you?
- [14:58]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes, exactly. It's back. For we have no idea how long. There's a little alert at the top that says, you know, that it's temporary, so, so we'll see what happens.
- [15:09]
Sean Cannell
Got you. And, and we're looking for the, this blue lock because if we get approved, it doesn't mean we get the commissions yet.
- [15:16]
Kathleen Cohen
Right. So it's kind of a, it's kind of a two step approval process for the Amazon Influencer program. And the first step is getting in and getting approved for the program. That is where you know you're in. You get access to things like creator connections and your Amazon storefront. But step two is actually being unlocked to upload content directly to Amazon in order to earn what they call on site commission, meaning your content lives on Amazon. Your customer is already on Amazon when they see your content. And so that's kind of step two. You do have to submit three videos. Amazon approves those three videos. They want to make sure that you know their rules. They like your video quality and content, all that good stuff. Once they approve those first three videos, now you're unlocked and you can upload all day and all night if you want to.
- [16:09]
Sean Cannell
So you also mentioned third party tools and so serious Amazon influencers. There's popular tools like Algorithm Influencer Hero and Viral View. Do you have a favorite, what are the pros and cons of these tools?
- [16:25]
Kathleen Cohen
I do. My favorite is Fluencer Fruit because that's what I started using from the beginning. I know the woman who created it and who is behind it. She's a friend of mine. And so I know that, I know the quality of the software. And now you know, she has a whole team behind her. They're constantly developing the product. They're constantly, they really take feedback from their community as far as what to work into the software, what are changes need, what are improvements that could be needed. You know, for example, when Amazon took away that Creator Hub dashboard, Fluencer Fruit worked basically. Basically those developers work night and day to get it so that the software would integrate with the managed content page because it had only worked with Creator Hub before. So that is my favorite tool because it does a whole bunch of different stuff besides just helping you find profitable products on Amazon. I like that one. And I know Viral View is another good one. And there's, there's quite a few now, especially a lot of seller Amazon seller tools that are integrating this Amazon influencer software as well. But I just find that, that it, it helps me, it saves me time and just makes me a whole lot more money because it can pull data that I can't see.
- [17:42]
Sean Cannell
Hey, we're about to get back into the podcast in just a second, but I have a question for you. Do you want to grow your personal brand this year? Do you need more leads and sales in your business? If the answer is yes, then right now is the best time to go all in on YouTube. Today's podcast is brought to you by thinkmasterclass.com where you can get get on demand access to a one hour deep dive training revealing how to start and grow a profitable YouTube channel. This year for a limited time you can get access to this on demand class entirely for free. Where you will learn the three biggest mistakes that people make when starting a YouTube channel. The new rules and changes that have been happening on YouTube and how you can use them to create an unfair advantage. And the exact strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 350,000 organic views every single day. The data is clear. 70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. So don't wait any longer to start growing your brand and business with YouTube. Just go to thinkmasterclass.com to get access to this. No fluff, highly tactical, free on demand training. That's thinkmasterclass.com Interesting. So if we unpack this a little bit further. So Fluencer Fruit is the tool you're talking about, you actually are able to try it out free. So we'll link this up in the show notes if you want to check it out. This would be a serious tool for Amazon influencers. Would it also be useful for YouTube creators that want to earn off site commissions?
- [19:20]
Kathleen Cohen
It very much could be because one of the, I mean it's, it's definitely much more helpful for on site but some one thing that I think that would really help for the YouTube creators and creating videos off site is being able to find the products that you know sell well on Amazon because there's Amazon estimated sales data on there which is very helpful. Right. Because if you are promoting a product that only sells maybe 50 units a month versus a product that sells 5,000 units a month. Right. That's just one of the many things that this software will, will tell you on top of. Right. How what the opportunity is on Amazon and it also just helps with a lot of data. Right. I can see actually my conversion rate by video on Site, which then helps me to prioritize posting my content off site because I want to post those higher conversion videos. If they work on Amazon, they're probably more likely to work off Amazon as well.
- [20:15]
Sean Cannell
Fascinating. So these are the tools you're the expert in the Amazon Influencer program for people making on site commissions and on site videos. That's really the focus of a tool like this. But it's, I'm looking this up. If you were to pick products that actually pay better so you could identify strategic products you might want to try or cover. You can also have some tracking, but more than anything, maybe discover hidden gem products before everybody else. And that's cool. So if you want to check that out, there's going to be so many valuable resources in the show notes of this episode. But that's all about getting improved. Next, what about building your Amazon storefront? What is an Amazon storefront and what are some of your tips there?
- [21:02]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, so an Amazon storefront is like your personalized Amazon content page. So any content that you upload to Amazon will show up on your storefront. But you can do a lot of really cool things, especially, you know, like creating idealists and curation. So especially when you are promoting your content off Amazon. I actually just had one of my students was telling me that so whenever she posts a video onto YouTube, right, she'll put the affiliate link in there, but then also further down in the description, she'll link to an idealist that has related products to the product that she's talking about in her video. And so I thought that was really smart because you can create these idealists lists, you know, for example, for seasonal items, for holiday items, you know, my favorite Mother's Day gifts, best Father's Day gifts, you know, back to school items. And you can have these lists and curations on your storefront and then you're also able to pin them. Right. So you can make it relevant to what's going on now, seasonality, or you can simply just have, you know, my top Amazon finds pinned right up at the top. And it makes it much easier, especially when you're promoting off site, for your followers to be able to go to your storefront and kind of find the products that you are talking about in your content.
- [22:21]
Sean Cannell
And you can create a vanity URL.
- [22:23]
Kathleen Cohen
You can. So your URL is linked to the social media platform that you got approved with. And so you can request to get a change, but they will want to see that your, your social media is named whatever you want it to be. You Know, for example, because I got approved with my Facebook account, my shop name is Amazon.com shop my name. Right. Whereas if I were to have been approved with my, you know, my Amazon brand name is Smart Business Mom. Right. I wasn't able to get that in there because I had, I had been approved with my, you know, personal kind of Facebook page at the time. And so you can request it, but just know that that vanity URL will have your social platform, whatever it's called, when you get approved for the program.
- [23:10]
Sean Cannell
And kind of like a YouTube channel, you can have a custom banner.
- [23:13]
Kathleen Cohen
You used to be able to have a custom banner. They don't allow the banners anymore. But you can have a customized picture, right? Like, kind of like your profile picture. And you also have, you still have a description, right. So you can still talk about your niche and what kind of products you review and, you know, what kind of content you're posting and really kind of grab people's attention because you can also get followers to your storefront as well.
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Sean Cannell
And then new, a newer update was you could do up to eight pinned posts.
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Kathleen Cohen
Yes.
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Sean Cannell
So what, what's your, like, personal pin post strategy? Do you use all eight?
- [23:51]
Kathleen Cohen
You know, I, I do, because usually I'll do about half of them with ideal lists of things that are relevant that are going on. You know, if there's some sort of Amazon sale event coming up or there's a holiday, you know, where we know we're going to be buying gifts, I'll make sure those are pinned at the top. But then I'm also pinning any content, any product that is selling very well for me, that I'm then posting on, you know, either TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. Again, just to make it really easy for people to be able to find that, you know, let's say I'm talking about my favorite modular sectional couch that's going to be pinned right at the top so that I can direct people to my storefront. Because there's a lot less restrictions as far as posting your links off site. Amazon, if you link to your storefront, you don't necessarily have to have all the disclaimers that you do if you're just posting an Associates link. Because right on your storefront, it says earns commission. So you can actually share that storefront in a private message or in an email, which you can't with the Associates links.
- [24:55]
Sean Cannell
That's the kind of genius tip that makes a podcast like this so valuable. And so to break that down, you know, the FTC legally requires you to disclose that you're earning commissions from affiliate programs or from brand sponsorships. So if you're posting on social media and you're sending somebody directly from social media or YouTube to a sales page, that's why near that link or in that YouTube description or even verbally inside of that video, you need to disclose that. And so if you want to be in compliance in my videos, I'll say, and by the way, that's my affiliate link, or there's affiliate links in the description. And in the description we'll have some other language. But the tip you're giving is that if you actually send people to your storefront, you don't really need to disclose it because the storefront does. It's a step of, hey, and if you're going to go check out my storefront, check out this product. When they get to the storefront, the disclosure's there. And then you all, you definitely not. Amazon has got the big. They're huge. They're like the number one company. So obviously they need to be in compliance and they're giving you a place that is in compliance and they're not going to be upset when you land on that page. So just that idea of, when possible, sending people to your Amazon store, perhaps from a YouTube video or from a TikTok, is. Got a lot of benefits. But, but the, the smoothness of, like, less disclaimer needed is a benefit. Did I describe that right?
- [26:26]
Kathleen Cohen
You nailed it. Perfect.
- [26:27]
Sean Cannell
My one other question is, are you doing Shoppable photos? Are you using those or any other tips on the storefront side?
- [26:35]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, I, I am using shoppable photos mostly because it's just so easy to create those. If you're already doing the videos right, take a couple pictures. And the reason why I'm doing them is because they're easy. But also Amazon is constantly testing placements for all types of content, whether it's photos, shoppable videos, live streams. They're constantly testing. And so especially whenever I see photos coming through, you know, there was a while where anytime I'd buy something on Amazon on my phone, on the thank you page, it would be a bunch of influencer photos. So that's really when I was like, all right, I need to make sure that I'm, you know, uploading at least two photos for each video that I'm uploading to Amazon. Because I would see these photos, they were all relevant. If I bought, you know, a pair of shoes, they were all similar shoes. And so it was very relevant content. But it was photos, you know, and so while we can't necessarily. We don't know if a sale is coming from a photo, if it's on site. It'll just kind of get lumped into everything. Right. We don't necessarily know if they're converting if we have videos for the same products. Right. But it's just so easy. If you're already creating a video, you're doing the video work. Snap a couple photos and upload those. It's a small amount of time for potentially a few extra sales.
- [27:56]
Sean Cannell
I really love what you're talking about because it sounds, I'm hearing your workflow. You're like, you're filming videos anyways. Also have part of your checklist to film some photos because you can use them later. It makes me think of the quote from James Clear that says, we don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. And so you've got all kinds of systems that help with the filming and the content creation and all of that kind of stuff. I know you cover that more in your class that we'll have linked up in the show notes. But systems are so powerful. One of my favorite quotes is it's better to have a short, short pencil than a long memory. And so checklists, systems, routines. The people who make the most in our community with YouTube are individuals that they're not just having random scattered action throughout the week, but they're. They've got routines, they've got habits, they've got systems. And so that's a great reminder to film those, take those photos as part of the workflow. And let's talk about next then, unlocking on site commissions. We've touched on this, but this is kind of the step two. Step one, you get approved for the Amazon influencer program. Step two, now you got to unlock on site commissions and you upload your first three videos. Those get approved. Let's unpack that a little bit. Is there anything. You mentioned engagement, but that actually would be off platform to get approved. What, these are now on platform videos, correct?
- [29:28]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes.
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Sean Cannell
Is there any tips on getting these approved?
- [29:31]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes. Oh, I have lots of tips for getting these first three approved. And the first one would be, you know, when you're deciding what three products I should have for these videos. So first off, you want to do, for your first three videos, you want to do one product per video. So you're looking for three products. Create one product for each video. And in the beginning, you know, I don't. You don't need to do a whole bunch of product research for your first three videos later on when you really want to work strategically, that's when that comes into play. But for your first three, you want to find products that you already have in your home, items that you use and love, that you can speak to very honestly and authentically about why you use and love them, maybe how they've improved your life. But on top of that, you also want them to be safe products in that you're not making any sort of claims that would potentially get that video rejected by Amazon. So, you know, we say safe products, we stay away from things like supplements or even band aids. You know, anything that you would make any sort of claim about, you just want to stay away from that. So I always say do home items, kitchen items, you know, clothing, shoes, things like that you use and love that are just safe. That would be easy for you to just talk about organically for a minute or so.
- [30:50]
Sean Cannell
Because if I was to talk about like a pre workout and say it gave me energy, then it may. I made a claim there.
- [30:56]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's.
- [30:59]
Sean Cannell
And later on I might do that, even though there are terms. But later on it might be a little bit. But you're saying for these first three videos to ensure your best chance of getting approved, like focus on things where you're not claiming that, yeah, some kind of medical benefit happened or that the band aid even worked to stop your bleeding.
- [31:18]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, absolutely. Which sounds a little off, right? Because of course, that's what a band aid does. Of course that's what a pre workout would do. But just for these first three videos, keep it really safe. And once you get approved, then you can talk, you can go make videos on all that stuff. Because if you say something that Amazon doesn't like, they'll just reject the video. No problem. It's no, you know, there's no three strikes in your out. They'll just reject the video, give you a vague reason why, and then, you know, then we just go edit, you know, and take out things that we think may have caused that rejection, but that, you know, you can get a little more liberal after you get those first three videos approved.
- [31:56]
Sean Cannell
Can you walk me through a story of you and of one of your students of kind of like, take me through your routine, you get up, you make a cup of coffee. I'm not sure if you drink coffee and you figure out what the product is, you pull out your phone. Is it vertical? How long is the video? Like, when you think about some of the things your students are doing or what you've done for these first three videos. Walk me through kind of those steps.
- [32:25]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, so for the first three, you, I would say film horizontally, right? Like I said, I, I like to consult my order history. I tell people and, you know, pretty much all the students, right, in, in my programs are like, should I go buy, you know, what should I buy? What should I do? It's just look through your order history. Amazon makes it very easy. Go to your order history and type in kitchen, you know, or type in something and you'll have a whole bunch of items that you may or may not even remember that you purchased from Amazon. But find those first three items. Pick them out first. Okay. And then, and then what I always recommend doing is just however you like to write or take notes. I use post its because then I can just put it up, you know, in front of my camera or in front of my iPhone when I'm recording. Just jot down three to five things you want to talk about on that product, right? Is it durable? Was it easy to assemble? Is it easy to clean? You know, do you like the color, the size, things like that? Just again, you want to be really focused on the product. Amazon customers want to see the product. They don't want to, which is much different than, you know, when you're creating videos for YouTube, right? Where people want to see you, you're building that trust, you're building that authenticity. But really for Amazon, they want to see the product. They don't really care quite as much about you. You can be in the video or not, or you can be behind the camera if you want to. But find your first three products, jot down three to five kind of talking points and just hit record, right? Hit record. Maybe do the video once or twice just to make sure that you're saying everything you want. It can be between 30 seconds and two minutes is what I recommend. And I also recommend you film horizontally. You can do vertical if you want, especially if you're big on platforms that primarily have vertical videos. But I film horizontally because I always have been. That's the orientation that seller videos are. That's the orientation that YouTube likes, right? And those are my primary platforms. So that's why I recommend horizontal. And Amazon also took away Inspire, which was very much the vertical video, their kind of attempt at kind of social, social shopping there. So once you are, you know, you know, hit the record button, right? And don't, I just want to say, don't think too hard. Just come across authentic. Talk about the product. And don't go more than two minutes, especially for your first three. And then as far as editing goes, minimal. A minimal goes a long way because you don't want it to be too highly produced. You actually can't use music. Amazon will reject it if you have music in there. I would stay away from text on screen. Just all you need to edit out is anything you mess up, saying any ums, any kind of downtime. And like I said, minimal editing, not super highly produced. And then when you're happy with the result, upload those to Amazon.
- [35:23]
Sean Cannell
So two questions. Can I get away with not editing? Can I just hit record film for 30 seconds to two minutes and get away with not editing?
- [35:34]
Kathleen Cohen
Most definitely you can. Yes, absolutely.
- [35:36]
Sean Cannell
And so would you recommend if. If I'm actually going to go to my kitchen today, look at my order history. Look at that. I just bought an instant pot, which I did because I'm kind of doing carnivore keto vore. And most recently, I laid down a layer of bacon. I put a Chex Chuck steak on there, another layer of bacon, some butter, some bone broth, apple cider vinegar. Six and a half hours, my life was changed.
- [35:59]
Kathleen Cohen
Changed.
- [36:00]
Sean Cannell
I feel my brain is on fire in ketosis and saying that if I just got behind my phone, filmed, talked for two minutes, and they never saw me on camera and uploaded that video, would that be legitimate?
- [36:16]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, most definitely. That is definitely good enough for Amazon.
- [36:21]
Sean Cannell
Okay. And so that's like the no editing side. If I jump into editing, what app do you like?
- [36:28]
Kathleen Cohen
I personally use Camtasia because that's how.
- [36:32]
Sean Cannell
I learned Camtasia app. On your phone or on your desktop?
- [36:35]
Kathleen Cohen
Not on my phone. On desktop. Yes. If I'm editing on desktop, I'll use Camtasia. If I'm editing on my phone, I use either Cap Cut or Canva. Cap Cut If I already have the audio, Canva if I need to do a voiceover later.
- [36:49]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so there's some great tools there. I'm a huge fan of Capcut for mobile editing. I know Instagram recently launched a free editing tool that is an option and there's lots of different options. But would you. If I was going to do that, would you recommend me go selfie for the opening 10 seconds and be like, I just got an instapot. Here's three things to five things I like about it. And then flip and then show it and narrate from behind the camera and then flip back. Like, when it comes to editing, should I assemble A video like that maybe just. And should I be on camera, would that be more powerful? Even if I am going to focus on the product, should I kind of, you know, introduce myself, make that connection?
- [37:35]
Kathleen Cohen
I do think that you have a bit more credibility with the Amazon customer if they can see your face. Right. It also kind of depends on the product. To be honest, when I'm. When I'm recording a video for a product that's say like $30 or less, I don't feel like I necessarily have to have my face in the camera because it's more of a quick, impulsive purchase. Whereas when I'm filming videos for, you know, items that are 50, 100, anything over $100, I'm gonna put my face in there because they can see the person who's using it. And with those higher price items, people are watching content, right? There's a higher purchase consideration rate. So they might watch my video and someone else's, they might buy from my video. Cause I'm showing them my face and me using it and they're gonna feel more secure about spending that money.
- [38:26]
Sean Cannell
So I might set my phone up on a tripod that I could order off Amazon, you know, 20 bucks and hit record and then say, hey, let's talk about the instapot. And I'm on camera and I maybe do a little introduction. It could maybe be as simple as. As I introduce myself, you sort of see me in frame, then I grab it and I flip it towards the product. Maybe focus on the product, maybe end and breaking down for the listener that maybe just a couple different scenes. Really very simple. A short 15 second opening scene, you're on camera. If it's over $100, there's credibility. Maybe the people who would purchase it are going to relate to you as a mom. Or like life season, there's kind of a connection that's made there. Then it flips, really focuses on the product. Maybe you assemble multiple clips or you go 15, 20 seconds at the beginning, little over a minute in the middle and then maybe in the outro say so yeah. So I think this is great. And is there any calls to action? How do you get credit if someone watches your video? How do you earn that commission? Do they need to watch a percentage of it? Why would your video convert better than somebody else's?
- [39:34]
Kathleen Cohen
Sure. Well, I love the sequence that you just took everyone through because it engaging, right? If you just are making a video and it's 60 seconds and you're not moving the frame around, right. People are probably going to drop off unless they really want the product or you're saying something that's, you know, really exciting. But we, we don't know exactly how long someone has to watch our video in order for us to earn that commission. We speculate. But Amazon calls it a qualifying purchase. Right. And so something that I've noticed as I look at my analytics and sometimes I'm able to meet one on one with my students. Right. And I look at their analytics with, which just kind of verifies this. But what I see is my top. Converting the products that sell the most, the videos that promote those products. Viewers are watching more than 50% of the time, at least 50% of the time. So we speculate kind of in, in the influencer community that a person has to, a customer has to watch your video for at least 50% of the time, buy the item, and then you get credit for that sale.
- [40:44]
Sean Cannell
Okay, and then what determines if people see your video and if your video essentially ranks on Amazon?
- [40:52]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, so this is, you know, another thing that Amazon doesn't necessarily tell us. But the, but, but you can do things to kind of get the best placement. So for me, I'm always, my goal is to always be posted on the upper carousel of the product listing page. So when you go to any Amazon product listing page, you'll see usually it's on like the left side of the screen where they have some images and then there'll be a video box. So if you click on that video box and if there is no video box, it means the brand hasn't uploaded their own brand video, which means there is no upper carousel for influencers. But as long as there's a brand video on that product listing page, now I am able to tag that product and potentially get put underneath that brand video in the upper carousel of that Amazon product listing page. That's the placement I'm always going for. That's the best placement. And so Amazon will, they'll rotate in new content. They'll rotate content up. That's converting. Well, I've also had videos that convert like crazy. I'm selling 10 or 15 of that item a day, and then the next day my video's gone, you know. So like, is Amazon testing new products? So there constantly testing. We don't know exactly why, you know, this video's on top. This video is not. But the goal, that's the goal placement. And then there's other placements like the lower carousel and the thank you pages and things like that. But, you know, the, your best Option for that is to tag one product and that will ideally give you the best shot to get on that product listing page in that upper carousel, which is the most visible place where Amazon customers will see your video.
- [42:32]
Sean Cannell
We got to keep it moving. But do other things come in to play like titles and keywords at all, like how you package your video just to give it the best shot?
- [42:43]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, most definitely. You know, and if again, I feel like I keep saying I'm a broken record here. Amazon doesn't tell us, you know, what, what their algorithm is and, but if you have keywords like, if you're using a keyword like review of. Right. That tends to rank a bit higher. Right. We see more review of because it's a review video or a shoppable video. You can also use hashtags, which I've just kind of experimenting with in order to get placed on different kind of like, like category pages and things like that. So I really just kind of experimenting with that. But what I like to do is I like to put the product name and then if the brand name is something I can pronounce, I will also put that in the description because then people know that they're clicking on your video and it's actually for the product that they're looking for on the listing. I think that also helps make sure that you stay on the product page as well.
- [43:36]
Sean Cannell
This is wild. And obviously it's already like drinking from a fire hose of information. And I want to encourage listeners a few things. In the next section, we're going to talk about how to reach a hundred dollars a day, the monetization blueprint. Talk about some kind of tips and some ways to improve your results, whether you're just starting or you want to grow. But I also do want to remind you, you can see that the rabbit hole goes pretty deep on this stuff. And definitely follow Kathleen. We'll link up her stuff. She's got a community, but don't miss her deep dive class as well. She's got a free on demand class on how she is earning over $10,000 every month by creating simple video content on Amazon on. So this is like a professional business, really. It's like a professional online business. You could do it as a hobby. And imagine, you know, a year from now you're earning $100 a day. Well, that's not happening by accident. I mean, here are hearts. One of the reasons why I love Kathleen is similar to our values at Think Media. We believe in this stuff, but we are not. Get rich quick People, we are like, this is hard work. We treat this, this as a professional. This creator economy thing is real. There's some like, kind of hype. Sometimes it feels hype. You're like, it's, this is crazy. I'm making all this money online because those stories happen, that's real, but they're not happening from like no effort. It takes strategy, grit, discipline. And so that's why she's our go to expert at Think Media. And so I very much encourage you to check out the show notes so you could go deeper on some of these technical details and all of that. And so again, if you want to watch her free class, it's@videoreviewclass.com all the other links in the show notes, some of the extra tools and all of that stuff. But that brings us to how to reach a hundred dollars a day. And tell me there's a guy named Ben. You have a course, he went through your course break down a little bit of his journey. That kind of paints a picture of what's possible with the Amazon Influencer program.
- [45:42]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes. Ben is one of my favorite students and just one of my favorite stories to tell because when he came to me, he was already an Amazon influencer. So he was familiar with the program and he was already earning money, but he just wasn't able to hit that income threshold that he was hoping for. He wanted to make it his full time income. Right. But he just didn't know how to get there. And so he joined my program and, and some of the strategies even just he said, you know, with, with the first couple advanced strategy videos that he watched, he went from kind of inconsistent, like $5 one day, $20 one day, you know, maybe $30 the next day. He very quickly started making more after learning how to do product research. So after figuring out like how to look at an Amazon product page and know if creating content would actually pay you for it based on sales and you know, how long that item was on Amazon. So product research was a huge thing that he learned, implemented, and then started growing his income that way because he was picking winning products and making videos on products that were already doing well. He also was consistent with it. So instead of picking it up and putting it down, which you very much can do, it is a perk of this. But you know, if you upload a video here or there, you can make some money. But if you're constantly uploading videos, either daily or, you know, a certain amount every week, you're just giving yourself more opportunity to earn and so he went from uploading, you know, three to five videos a week to uploading like 15 to 20 videos a week. And again, these are one to two minute videos, guys. These are not, you know, 10, 20 minute, highly produced videos. Another thing he did that he said really helped him was doing things like utilizing Amazon's programs like Creator Connections, which allows influencers to opt into campaigns directly through Amazon where sellers say, hey, I have this product and I'll pay you an extra 10% for this amount of time for each sale that you make. And this includes your on site sales as well. So once he started utilizing Creator Connections, doing product research and really staying consistent with uploading content, he very quickly went to $100 a day. And he told me that his highest month, which only came, he said, about four months after implementing a lot of the advanced strategies I taught him, him, he made $12,000 four months later in one month. And so, you know, he's, he's one of my favorite people to talk about because he, he got it and he absorbed the material and then he took action. Right. Which sounds very basic, but learn it, take action and you very much can see great results if you stick with it.
- [48:33]
Sean Cannell
Man, it's such an inspiring story. And I've got kind of three more categories of how to reach a hundred dollars a day, but that just kind of speaks. I love the grit that was. It clearly took work, took discipline, took consistency, but it also took having the right information, learning how to master product research. So tell me a little bit more. I saw that one of Amazon's priorities lately is they do want off site traffic. And so, so we're talking about this opportunity to be able to upload videos to Amazon, essentially rank videos on Amazon. You know, we are obsessed with ranking YouTube videos. It's different. But the fact that your videos could be in the upper carousel or the main post of Amazon is fascinating because Amazon's such a massive website. Amazon's a website, it's a search engine. It's the number one online store. And so the idea that you can upload video content on Amazon and make money from it with all the influence and all the eyeballs they have is so wild. But also off site and Instagram, you mentioned Facebook, TikTok. We're obsessed with this at, at Think Media, YouTube. And that was actually how my life was changed personally. It was learning how to rank videos on YouTube, connected to the Amazon affiliate program, the Amazon Associates program. I'd be talking about a camera lens. People are searching for it on YouTube they watch my video, they click the link in the description, I earn a commission. That was how I originally achieved financial freedom was because of ranking videos and connecting it to the affiliate program. So any thoughts? If we're trying to hit a grow to a hundred dollars a day from Amazon, income from driving traffic, off site things you're doing, and I know your students are doing TikTok and Instagram, so we can't cover it all. Obviously you cover that deeper in your stuff, but what are just a few thoughts on the driving off site traffic.
- [50:32]
Kathleen Cohen
So I'm Sean, I'm very much in your camp as far as YouTube goes. I just, I am not consistent with Facebook and Instagram. I find it overwhelming to post multiple times a day and find all the content. So for me, my primary off site platform is YouTube. And while I'll be the first to admit I don't have all the YouTube strategies, that's why I learned from you, Sean. But it's also a reason why I film horizontally and I do my product research because I can take that video that I've created for Amazon and upload it to YouTube and now I can link with my associates link in my YouTube description. I can drive people that way. I can post an idealist underneath there to drive people to my storefront. And I like YouTube because it is a search engine, right? Just like Amazon, you know, you know Google owns YouTube, right? So when people are searching for certain products, my video or another influencer video may come up in Google search results because it's a YouTube video, right? So YouTube is my first and foremost or my best platform for posting off site because of the searchability, because the videos can, you know, they're ideally there forever. And so I've been able to consistently month over month increase my clicks and my off site earnings just by taking my Amazon videos and repurposing them on YouTube.
- [51:57]
Sean Cannell
That's why I love collabing with you. And not just because we agree, but we do. But it's like, I think it's the one, two punch like and this is why your stuff is such a perfect fit for our community. It's like go all in on YouTube, go all in on Amazon and like growth hack each other. Do both. Which one should I focus on? Well, both like they, they can so work together. So I love hearing those nuances. We've covered a few on site content tips, but is there any like one nugget of consistently high converting review videos that you've learned?
- [52:29]
Kathleen Cohen
Hmm, let's see. I, I think one of the biggest things that I've noticed. So, you know, I kind of talked about like looking at the Creator Hub dashboard and my analytics and all that. So something that I'm doing at least, you know, once a month is I'm looking to see what videos that month got the most views. And then that gives me information about not only, you know, what kind of products are, are working well for me, but I will sort that and I'll find, I'll start those videos and I'll say, what, what was the format like? What is working in these videos and how can I replicate that for my future videos for Amazon? And so there was, there was a point where I had like, you know, 10 of my most viewed videos. They were getting over 50% watch. They probably accounted for like 60% of my revenue that particular month. And it was, you know, my face wasn't in it at all. It was just me saying, you know, this is the reason why I bought the product, like right in the beginning. And then I got into actually the product and how it worked and all that. But just giving that one liner of like the reason why I bought it, it must have resonated with the customer base, right? And so then I started creating videos where I would say like, you know, I would start with the pain point, right? And it seems so obvious, right, start with the pain point because that's people are searching for this product. But just a one liner on the pain point that I had to identify with that Amazon customer. Those were the videos that converted very well for me over and over and over again. And so I would say, you know, you can take that and run with it or you can go look at your own videos and what's converting well for you and what's the structure? What did you say in the beginning? How did you hook people to make them watch for at least 50% and how can you replicate that for all of your future content?
- [54:22]
Sean Cannell
Dropping fire Genius tips. And so eventually, when you have posted 10, 20, 30, 100 videos, you could be analyzing your data, but you just gave away the secret. Start with the pain point. Start with a powerful one liner. Think about that. First thing you're going to say. It's almost like putting yourself in the shoes too of the person watching and you're making a connection first in a way. People don't even really want to buy products. What they do is they want to solve pain and the product is a solution to a pain point. So even making that connection, that's really powerful and something that even a Brand new creator could apply immediately to start getting way better results than 99% of people who don't know in this, this information. Okay, last thing, so last big tip on here for how to reach $100 a day is some of Amazon's hidden tools. Now you mentioned creator connections. I'd like to hit it again. But there's also Creator ads, Creator Ads Boost. Some of these things are invite only. There's bounty programs but give us a vision of our expanded view of like Amazon promotions. Like these different things that are deeper than just putting out a link. But Amazon's trying to kind of almost they're trying to incentivize creators, trying to give opportunities to creators and it's not just so linear like one product linked in a YouTube video and you make a commission sometimes around a certain time of year there's they raise the percentages. So how do you track with all this stuff and what are some of the opportunities that exist?
- [55:50]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, you know, I think one of the best things you can do is honestly search your email for Amazon Associates or Amazon Influencer like at least once a week just to make sure that you are seeing when they actually do email you as far as promotions go. Because that was how I learned about the Creator Ads Boost. And this was, this is an opportunity where Amazon actually allows you to link your Amazon Influencer account to your Instagram account. And then as long as you give them permission, basically Amazon, anything you post on Instagram and you give them permission. Right. Amazon can take your content, use it on their Instagram, but then they're still giving you that affiliate credit. They're still, you know, linking with your Amazon associates id. So like, how powerful is that? I know a lot of people who, I'm not huge on Instagram so I haven't made any money with it personally, full disclosure. But I know a lot of people who are very, very good at Instagram and have made a lot of money because Amazon pulled their content for this Creator ads Boost program. And they've made a lot of money because Amazon's using their ad, their content on Instagram. And maybe you guys have seen it.
- [57:05]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because it's like we just posted a video at Think Media on a new Sony camera and the Instagram post was doing pretty good organically. But essentially, and this is invite only, but if you get invited to this, you give them permission, they run ads on that post. Now the powerful thing there is now all kinds of people are going to see this. You'll, you could earn followers, you'll gain followers. You'd. The technical term for that would be brand list. And any business owner that does paid ads, you get brand because you're meeting strangers and some people are like, oh, I never knew about you. They don't buy the thing that's being advertised, but they follow you. And that's what it means. By brand lift, you get a benefit of spending money on paid ads. What's wild here is it's Amazon that's spending money on paid ads. Right. And any traffic they drive, then they would just be driving up your commissions as well. So it's such a win, win, win, win, win. Obviously, like every listed listener would want to be in this program, but a lot of that's consistency, creating some great content. And it sounds like they sort of want to get behind content that's like already doing well and they want to pay money to make it do even better. Is that true?
- [58:19]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah. That's kind of what I've seen as far as, like, who gets invited? And, you know, they're constantly changing those requirements. Right. So if you're like, I haven't been invited or how do I get invited? It's, you know, it's never too late. They're, they're always, they're always letting people. And I'm in it. And like I said, I don't post on Instagram too frequently. So, you know, it's.
- [58:40]
Sean Cannell
If you're in it, how do you let them know you posted that? They could. Or are they just going to do that without telling you? Once you give them approval, they just.
- [58:47]
Kathleen Cohen
Watch, they just do whatever they want. You go on Instagram and check like a box that says, I don't know if it's like partnerships or something, but then Amazon will, you know, put in their partnerships. You check the box that says like, yes, I'm, you know, partnered with Amazon. And then basically, Amazon can run with any kind content. They won't tell you, they won't even necessarily tag you. You'll just see that nice big, you know, commission line on your payments report and it'll say, creator ads boost income.
- [59:13]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, got it, got it. Okay. So there's things like creator Connections. And you know, my experience with that is, for example, I love this camera called the insta360link2c. It's my favorite webcam. And, and I just got a recommended Creator Connections campaign for you. The bonus commission rate is 15%. I think it might be 2 or 4% typically. So that's way higher. And what's also interesting and you got to read the terms of service, but we already have some videos out there about it. So sometimes all we have to do is accept and then we submit the video that we already have about about it. And so really it's just like we're just getting extra money for some work we've already done and videos we've already ranked and there's tons of products on there, but we would niche down and opt into the ones. And then in some cases we get inspired. Like we see a product and then we might buy it or even reach out to the brand. In the notes it might say something like is not sending out free products or is sending out free products. Campaign goal. And you know, make sure you do your disclosure. And so creator cam panes, creator connections, those would be for off site. But what you're saying is if I also did an on site video about that webcam that I love and I'm opted in, any sales that comes from my video would also be at that higher percentage instead of the lower affiliate percentage, Is that correct?
- [60:47]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, exactly. It would be. You would qualify for any on site or off site sales and the commission is on top of. So you would still earn, let's say you earn 2% off site, they would pay you that 15% in addition. So you're actually earning 17%.
- [61:04]
Sean Cannell
Oh wow.
- [61:05]
Kathleen Cohen
And one other thing, because I know we had talked about this in a previous episode, but Amazon also came out with a whole bunch of rule changes for creator connections and they're actually really good rule changes and one of them is that you don't have actually have to go now submit your content link back to the campaign. So it makes it so much easier. You can just click accept and carry on. You don't have to go back and put that content link in there. Before it was like a three strikes and you're out kind of thing and now they're saying you just accept and we'll pay you for every sale.
- [61:40]
Sean Cannell
Wow, okay, that's a cool update. And one other one and there might be others but, but there's what's called bounties and I want to encourage listeners. You know, one, this might seem daunting. You're just starting, you're trying to make your first dollar, your first $10, $100 a day. But Kathleen has committed to this for years and she's making thousands and over 10,000amonth and, and has done all of that kind of stuff. I think media similarly, we've really built up a YouTube channel and doing both of these strategies make anywhere from 12 to 25,000. I think the record in my career was almost 50,000 around the holidays in Amazon Associates commissions. But one of the things that they do, and this is kind of wild because what will happen during the holidays, I'll get an email and they'll be like, hey, by the way, for us, it's cameras. Cameras are normally 4%, but for the next two months we're moving it to 6%. And so I'm always like, wow. The fact I worked on content and ranked videos over the last six months, over the last couple of years, now there's, like, momentum coming my way. And so I want to encourage listeners. Like, there's, like, levels to the game, and if you get in and you get consistent, you just never know. And what Amazon's trying to do is they're trying to incentivize influencers and always coming up with these new ideas. And so, for example, early this year, there was like a these extra bounties or extra bonuses where if we hit a revenue threshold, to be clear, revenue would be the total amount of sales we sold for Amazon, not how much we earned. If we hit a revenue threshold and sales generated, we would get, in addition to the commissions, an extra check from Amazon. And one month we earned $11,500 just extra. And I was like, we're already getting our affiliate commission, but like, hey, we hit that threshold hold, and now they're sending us extra money. So there's not only the programs that exist now, but there's just something about, I think, the professional mindset when it comes to this and thinking about what could be possible as you build momentum over time. Is there anything else you want to speak to on that? I know that you've hit those bonuses as well, but any other, like, programs or, you know, things like that in regards to these hidden tools that a lot of creators don't know about?
- [64:01]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah. You know, I would say, you know, it's kind of like anything where you get what you put into it. Right. If you treat this like a hobby and, you know, just kind of like, oh, I'll do a video here, there, and, you know, you're gonna miss those emails, you're gonna miss those extra opportunities. But if you really want to make serious income and you treat this opportunity as the business opportunity that. That it is, there are so many ways that you can not only earn, but that you can grow this opportunity into a business. Right. You can get more incentives from Amazon. You can partner with brands off Amazon this is one of my, my newest favorite ways to kind of make money is now brands because they see videos and this goes for if you're a new influencer or you've, you know, been doing this for a while, brands will start contacting you. You know, you can connect with them through creator connections and other third party platforms like Levanta and Wayward. But I get a lot of emails and a lot of dms. Now here's our brand. We have all these products. Would you like to try any of these? Or would, can we send these to you? And how much is your rate for a paid video? Right. So you know, I love talking about my example of I work with a shoe brand. They send me five pairs of shoes every month. They don't pay me up front, but I have three kids and a husband so we all get new pairs of shoes once a month and shoes are not cheap. Right. Especially when you have little kids. And so we get five pairs of shoes every month. And, and now I don't really have to buy shoes for my family and I created contents and I'm earning on my content for those shoes too. So you can get really creative and strategic in you know, how seriously you take this opportunity. You will see the results from your efforts.
- [65:46]
Sean Cannell
Kathleen, are you kidding? That is the dream I have everybody listening. That is literally, I mean that's why I get excited about it too. It's like you have a benefit for you, your family, you're saving money, you're making money, you're tying it all together. It's YouTube, it's on Amazon on platform, it's videos and then it's leading and it leads to more opportunity. There's more like opportunity is waiting on the other side of the hard work. And as that momentum builds, yeah, then brands want to work with you and then more brands want to send you free stuff and then brands want to pay you and then it's how do you do that? Well, a lot of consistency, a lot of hard work and having the right strategy strategies. Well, we do have one more section on the this is clearly the most comprehensive Amazon influencer tutorial with a lot of powerful kind of side quests for earning more money, extra tips, juicy nuggets that almost nobody knows about. But I do want to touch on just a few pitfalls, the mistakes that people make that can harm individuals. And so what about like violating video content guidelines? Let's hit these kind of rapid fire higher. These are the things. And, and let's actually start. There's a story of One woman and then another story of if you don't, if you don't know the details, your account might get shut down. There are some things that you could do where you can miss out on an opportunity because you don't follow the rules.
- [67:12]
Kathleen Cohen
Yes, yes, it's, it's so important to know the rules because if you want this to be a long term income stream, you just have to follow Amazon's rules. They're very strict with some things and as long as you just follow them, you'll be good. Right? But ultimately it's up to you to learn them. And you can't just go back to Amazon, say I didn't know the rules, right? That doesn't really, that doesn't really work. So yeah, I have, I have someone in my group, Linda, who she got into the Amazon influencer program pretty easily, but she didn't realize a couple things, right? She didn't realize and she ended up getting shut down because she didn't realize that she had to let Amazon know where she was posting her, her links for off site, right? So when, you know, we talked about the FTC and the disclaimers and all that, Amazon wants to see where you're posting your links off Amazon and YouTube and TikTok or wherever that may be. And that's why one of the record or one of the requirements getting the influencer program is you have to have a public, accessible, you know, profile, right? So TikTok has to be public. Facebook, it has to public, you know, business page so that Amazon can see. But it's your responsibility to let Amazon know if you're going to be posting links in any other place besides what you got approved for, let's say you're posting them, you know, on your blog. You have to make sure that that URL is in your account settings with Amazon. And if they go and do an audit and they see that links are coming in from a place that you haven't let them know that that's where you're linking to. They can shut you down, down. And I had another person who, she did something similar, but she ended up getting in with her TikTok, which was public, and then she turned it private because she had an issue with a piece of content or you know, a follower or something. So she turned it private and she got an email maybe two days later from Amazon that said, you know, you're out of the influencer program because we cannot access your TikTok, which is what you got approved for. So, so knowing those rules, making sure that you're letting Amazon know where you're posting those links and that's going to be in your account settings dashboard. And then also making sure that all of your links, especially off Amazon, are available for anyone to see so that Amazon can see and know that you're following the rules.
- [69:31]
Sean Cannell
That's a big deal. I know, I see people on Instagram, they, their page is private and maybe they want to curate their following or not get followed by any weirdos or something and just approve everyone that's following them. But what you're saying is that's not cool with Amazon. What they want is a public social media platform. And so knowing their terms and service services is huge because you don't want to get started and start getting momentum and making money and then have your account shut down.
- [69:57]
Kathleen Cohen
Right, exactly. And the way that Amazon's payment terms work, you create and you earn, but you don't get paid for 60 days later. So we also see a lot of, of influencers and creators kind of breaking the rules because they think they can make a quick buck and, you know, get in and get out, but maybe not realizing that it actually takes 60 days for Amazon to pay you. So you need to make sure that you're staying compliant and following the rules so that you can make sure that this is a long term income stream for you.
- [70:28]
Sean Cannell
And so then also they probably reserve the right to not pay you if you violate their terms.
- [70:33]
Kathleen Cohen
Terms, yeah, they don't.
- [70:34]
Sean Cannell
You could earn some money and they're like say, okay, so, so definitely want to follow the rules. Well, we've covered this so much, but I know there's more that people could get into in your class and also, you know, in your class. It's a deep dive training that is absolutely the next step for individuals to watch and listen to. If you're serious about this, if you want to go deeper and really master this, this, you could go to videoreviewclass.com and Kathleen has a deep dive training and there's a link in the description that is a free on demand class. And then at the end of the class she'll tell you about her course and her community. And so whether that's right for you or not, you can take advantage of that free class or if you just go to the Show Notes, we'll make sure to link a link directly to her program as well. Maybe you're already doing this and you're ready to scale up faster. Like Ben, he was having $5 days, $20 days, and he scaled up to over a hundred dollar days. And so I know in our community we're just big believers that investing in ourselves is the best investment we can make. And paying to learn skills. My life changed when I learned that it was more powerful to buy skills than to buy stuff. Because whenever I invested in my skills, I made enough money so I could buy as much stuff as I want. Not that I need stuff, but you know what I mean? It was like, okay, I'm going to develop skills, increase my income. And that then allowed me to increase my, my lifestyle and, you know, support my family and all of those things. So. Videoreviewclass.com Other links and resources in the show notes and then Kathleen, should people follow you on Instagram too? YouTube. Where can people connect with you?
- [72:22]
Kathleen Cohen
Yeah, definitely find me on YouTube just at Kathleen Coble. Lots of free resources. Lots of. All we talk about on that channel is Amazon Influencer. We do live streams on Fridays. So you'll definitely learn something if you check out my YouTube and the Facebook group as well.
- [72:39]
Sean Cannell
Amazing. And Think Media podcast like rate, review, share wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode of the Think Media podcast.