Whether it’s taken you a few effortless minutes, or weeks of desk-pounding frustration, congrats on reaching this milestone!  

Now what do you do?

Ideally, you’ve been doing your diligence and are ready to list a well-researched product. But if not, there’s still lots to explore and familiarize yourself with on Seller Central while you work on the next steps.  

So here’s a short list of my favorite Seller Central elements to read, skim, and decipher while you wait on the next steps of your Amazon Journey. 

Explore Amazon’s Seller University 

When I started working at Chick-Fil-A, I was required to watch a series of online tutorials to learn the various duties and tasks I was expected to perform. 

They were a bit cheesy and lacked personality, but definitely informative. 

The tutorials on Seller University are precisely the same. 

They’re tailored based on ideal scenarios, so they might not address specific problems or strange issues that will inevitably arise.

There are also zero details on sourcing, shipping, or really any topics that take place outside Amazon. 

That being said, I recommend setting the playback speed to 1.5, and focusing on topics that you’re in the dark about or need clarification on. 

Don’t think you’ve got to sit through the entire ‘course’ before you begin selling, but don’t ignore this altogether. There’s much value here; it can just be a lot to sift through. 

 Amazon Seller’s Code of Conduct

I advise reading all of Amazon’s guidelines and policies, but becoming familiar with their code of conduct can save you from expensive blunders down the road. 

Here are a few of the high points:

• No influencing the customer’s ratings, feedback, or reviews
• No sending unsolicited or inappropriate messages
• One can’t have more than one seller central account without specific business needs 
• Providing links or messages that lead customers off the platform to make purchases is forbidden 

…And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Amazon states the following in regards to breaching guidelines:

“Violating the code of conduct or any other Amazon policies may result in actions against your account, such as cancellation of listings, suspension or forfeiture of payments, and removal of selling privileges.”

My point? Sell with extreme caution. 

While these guidelines are meant to help weed out bad actors, Amazon doesn’t always make the best judgment calls. And it’s not uncommon for healthy, rule-abiding accounts to experience the Amazon hammer.

Use these guidelines as a reference to understand what’s acceptable or not in Amazon’s eyes (and cross your fingers). 

Keep Prime Day in Mind

Want to know a secret about Amazon Prime Day?

For customers, it’s 48 hours of not-so-great deals. 

But for Amazon sellers, it’s a multi-day, colossal marketing event to cash in on. 

There are huge profits to be made on Prime Day. And Amazon recently announced an additional fall date after record sales this past July. 

If that trend continues, we can bank on two separate Prime Days per year. And seeing as how clients in my mentorship program recently hit record-breaking sales during the two-day event, Prime dates are destined to be pivotal moving forward. 

So as you start listing products, begin understanding Amazon sponsored ads,  learning how to add coupons, and managing inventory, keep Prime Day dates in mind. There’s much opportunity around these days (not to mention cyber Monday) in terms of pushing products, gaining sales, and/or making up for lost traction. 

Beware of Seller Forums

Anyone who’s ever attended a public forum, city council meeting, or watched an episode of Parks and Recreation has witnessed the carnage that unfolds when laypeople are given a public platform to voice opinions and concerns. 

Let’s just say folks typically don’t show up to give compliments, or to hand-deliver fruit baskets to city leaders. Spoiler alert; It’s a horrible experience that brings out the worst in people. 

Online forums are no different. And while Amazon forums have helped me through a handful of tough spots, I’ve had to dodge countless doomsday posts, stress-spiking responses, and just plain wrong answers from pompous jabronis pretending to be experts. 

So can you find solutions to problems on Amazon forums? Absolutely! Just don’t get drawn into all the negativity. 

Mistakes are a dime a dozen in this business, but there are plenty of ways to avoid them if you know what to look out for. 

List Your Product!

Seller Central is no fun without products to list and profits to make. 

However, there can be lots of confusion around UPCs, Amazon Barcodes, ad campaigns, or just your product listing in general. 

My YouTube channel has hundreds of both long and short-form video tutorials focusing on getting the most out of Amazon Seller Central. 

Also, check out my Amazon FBA Cheat Sheet for detailed descriptions of my favorite approaches to sponsored ads and higher organic rankings. 

As always, best of luck! 

Are You Ready to Start Selling on Amazon?

My Amazon Winners Academy (AWA) mentorship guides you through the entire Amazon FBA process and provides a community of support with others on the exact same journey. 

AWA gives you a much-needed safeguard from costly mistakes, dead ends, and failed product investments to get you to your passive income goals efficiently. 

So whether it’s solving issues with your Seller Central account, creative approaches to product research, scaling to new markets and niches, validating product ideas, customer service issues, and more, we’ve got you covered. 
Learn more about it here.