Amazing Selling Machine Review (2023): Scam or Legit? Exposed!

Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) is a popular Amazon FBA course that claims to be a step-by-step blueprint to scaling your Amazon FBA business to 7-figures including coaching calls and a private community. 

However, you might wonder if Amazing Selling Machine is actually a scam. After all, the course is very expensive, and to run the Amazon FBA business model, you need an initial investment of at least $10k-$20k, including inventory fees and other software costs 

Amazing Selling Machine 13 is the latest version of the course and was released in 2022. It is also known as ASM 13 or Amazing Selling Machine Evolution. This Amazing Selling Machine course is the latest in a long line of updates since 2012 and contains 60% more content than the previous version, ASM X.

You may have already read some other reviews about Amazing Selling Machine. However, did you find them sales-oriented? Most of them are affiliates of Amazon Selling Machine, which means that if you buy through their affiliate link, they get a commission. So their testimonials are not trustworthy.

To be transparent, I’m not affiliated with Amazing Selling Machine, which means I’m not paid to write this review. So you can be sure that my words are unbiased.

At the end of this review, I’ll also tell you a much better alternative that has enabled me to make a 5 figure monthly passive income over the years.

Amazing Selling Machine Review – Key Takeaways

  • Course Name: Amazing Selling Machine (aka ASM 13 or the Amazing Selling Machine Evolution)
  • Price: $5000 or payment plan of 6* $997 monthly
  • Course Creators: Rich Henderson and Mike McClary
  • Pros: Comprehensive training; regularly updated; helpful community
  • Cons: Overpriced; limited success stories; additional costs; unrealisitc claims
  • Overall Rating: 2/5

Here’s what I’ll cover in this Amazing Selling Machine review.

What is Amazing Selling Machine?

Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) is a training program that claims to teach people with no experience how to start and grow a successful Amazon FBA business. It consists of an 8-week online training course, private mentorship program (including coaching calls), global community of sellers, and private resource vault.

FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, a service that enables you to store and ship your products via Amazon’s huge warehouse network.

Simply put, the ASM training is all about guiding you through the process of creating your own private label and selling your branded products on Amazon.

Here is what you can expect to learn from this course:

  • How to select a product for selling on Amazon
  • Find suppliers and order samples
  • Drive traffic to your product page using social media and Amazon paid advertising
  • How to scale your Amazon business

Amazing Selling Machine has been regularly updated over the years. Their latest version is ASM 13. With the new version, there comes some new features and bonuses, including

  • A private sourcing agent: ASM helps you find 3 suppliers and negotiates the prices and terms on your behalf. 
  • Lead-gen Google Chrome extension: A tool that helps you find low-competition products with earning potential.
  • Free lifetime upgrades: Lifetime access to every new version of the tool.
  • Coaching calls: You can contact Mike McClary and Rich Henderson personally and ask them questions.
  • Dan Ashburn’s launch strategies: Launch strategies Dan has used to generate sales.
  • Amazon branding tool suite: A collection of tools to help you build a private label.

Learn more: best Amazon FBA courses

Who are the founders of Amazing Selling Machine?

Amazing Selling Machine Founders

ASM was founded in 2012 by Jason Katzenback and Matt Clark. Rich Henderson joined in 2013, and Mike McClary followed soon after.

Below is some background information about the founders of Amazing Selling Machine.

Jason Katzenback

After quitting his job in 2004, Jason Katzenback founded a few successful businesses, each worth millions of dollars. Amazing.com, which he co-founded with buddy Matt Clark in 2012, was a late success. In 2022, he ceased to be the owner of Amazing. 

Matt Clark

Matt Clark is the co-founder of Amazing.com and the co-inventor of the Amazing Selling Machine (ASM). Before joining Amazing, Matt Clark worked as an investment banker. He was a top seller on Amazon, taking it from 10 products to over 11,000. By the age of 26, Matt’s Amazon business was worth millions of dollars.

He met Jason Katzenback at a Tony Robbins event and decided to work together on ASM, which started as a monthly subscription course and has become one of the most popular Amazon FBA courses today.

Rich Henderson

Rich Henderson is the co-founder of Amazing Selling Machine and director of ASM training materials. He is an online marketer who has over a decade of experience in SEO and affiliate marketing. On the side, he is also in the dropshipping business.

Mike McClary

Mike McClary is a co-creator of the Amazing Selling Machine on Amazing.com (ASM). He was a successful student of the old Amazing Selling Machine course back in 2014. Shortly thereafter, he quit his job and joined ASM as a coach. 

According to Mike, he has made millions of dollars on Amazon selling his own products through several successful businesses. 

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

How does Amazing Selling Machine help you make money?

Amazing Selling Machine claims to be a step-by-step guide that can help anyone build a successful eCom business using Amazon FBA

The topics ASM covers include niche selection, product research, finding reliable suppliers, brand building, private label, inventory management, and paid advertising strategies, etc. 

In addition to the 8-week online course, there is a private mentorship program (including coaching calls), a private community of ASM students, and the Private Label Resource Vault.

Learn more:

Who is Amazing Selling Machine for?

ASM claims to be a comprehensive course that teaches you everything you need to know, even if you have zero experience.

Amazing Selling Machine sales page

But, let’s be real. Building a successful Amazon FBA business is not easy, even with the help of ASM. It takes time, effort, and dedication. Based on my research, I would suggest that ASM is not suitable for people who are new to working online.

If you’re someone who has already dipped their toes into online entrepreneurship or you’re familiar with the world of e-commerce, then ASM could be a good fit for you. The program provides a lot of valuable information and resources that can help you to build and scale your Amazon business.

It’s also important to note that ASM comes with a hefty price tag. So, if you decide to invest in the program, make sure you’re ready to commit to putting in the work and following through with the lessons.

How is the training structured?

According to their sales page, there are 5 key components to the ASM program:

  • 8-week online web class
  • ASM Mentor program
  • Private ASM community
  • Private Resource Vault
  • Software tool suite

There are 160 lessons in the web class, which is 50 hours of training. 

Listed below is a breakdown of Amazing Selling Machine’s core components:

The 8-Week Course

There are more than a hundred bite-sized video lectures covering everything from product selection to working with influencers to increasing sales. Even though you have 8 weeks to complete the task, with hard work you can do it in less time. 

The ASM Mentorship Program

The ASM Mentor Program allows you to meet other Amazon sellers. According to the ASM, the average mentor has generated nearly $2 million in sales through Amazon. However, you can never prove whether the screenshots of their income reports are real or fake.

In fact, you can find pretty much any answer to your Amazon FBA question on Google. In my opinion, ASM has bundled the mentorship program with its course to increase the perceived value of its training program.

ASM Private Community

The company calls this “the ultimate collection of intelligence” regarding Amazon FBA. However, it’s more or less a private Facebook group like you’ll find with most online business courses.

Some reviewers of ASM said that the private community around ASM is one of the best in the industry and that 99% of the time you can get help from members who have already overcome an obstacle, which seems like an exaggerated claim to me.

The Private Resource Vault

The Private Resource Vault is a collection of tools and resources that the founders have personally used to build their own Amazon stores. Tucked away in this vault are supplier templates, product evaluation templates, contact deals of services like transportation companies and photographers, and discounts to services that help you grow. 

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

Amazing Selling Machine Course Breakdown

ASM 13 is the latest version of the Amazing Selling Machine. This new version is an improvement over ASM 12 (60% new content). 

Below are the modules of this latest version of the ASM 13 course:

Module 0: Welcome and Overview

This module will teach you how to set up your Amazon seller account. Particularly, it will talk about how to navigate the course dashboard and avoid your Amazon seller account being suspended.

Although it is an introduction module, it is very long that Rich Henderson keeps repeating how good Amazon’s business is. It seems that he wants to convince you it works so that you won’t request a refund right away.

But that raises a question in my mind: why would you spend so much on teaching people Amazon business if it can make you millions of dollars already? 

I reckon it is because selling the course makes them more money than selling products on Amazon.

Module 1: Finding The Perfect Product

In this module, Rich Henderson talks about the advantages of branding. He also tells you the characteristics of a hot product.

After talking about what products are good to choose from, Henderson tells you what products to avoid selling.

The information shared in this module is very basic. It’s only valuable if you are a beginner in the Amazon business.

Module 2: Evaluating Suppliers and Samples

This was the most difficult obstacle Amazon sellers had to overcome in opening their shops.

Where to source products? What are the characteristics of a reliable supplier? What characteristics distinguish a high-quality item from an inferior one?

This module includes sample order forms, margin calculators, and proven evaluation techniques.

Module 3: Ordering Your Inventory and Creating Your Brand

This module is about selecting suppliers and how to create Amazon listings.

Rich Henderson will tell you what to bear in mind when getting product samples. Some suppliers might send you high-quality samples, but then when you order for your customers, they send the cheap knock-off. So you have to be careful in finding a reliable supplier.

Also, you will learn how to set up your listing on Amazon and get approved.

Module 4: Building Your Brand Assets

This module is all about branding tips, including how to create your website, a Facebook page, a subscriber list, and generate product reviews.

However, the content in this model is rather basic. Rich Henderson didn’t go into depth about social media strategy tailored to the Amazon FBA business. YouTube, for example, can be an effective way to increase brand awareness and drive sales on Amazon. You can post engaging and relevant videos that show how to do things, demo products, how to fix something, and so on.

The fact that Rich Henderson only teaches you some basic technical stuff is rather disappointing for such an expensive course.

Module 5: The Perfect Product Page

In this module, Rich Henderson walks you through the process of creating a product listing.

Here’s the process:

  1. Research initial keywords
  2. Write an enticing title for traffic
  3. Create a compelling product listing
  4. Calculate product pricing

Module 6: The Perfect Product Launch

In this module, Mike McClary will teach you how to propel a product into the marketplace: launch, Blitz, and Rank.

The pre-launch checklist that Mike McClary provides is quite helpful. You will have a better idea of how to execute it step-by-step.

Module 7: Advanced Marketing & Traffic Tools

This module is about the daily maintenance work that you need to do to run a successful Amazon FBA business.

You will learn how to write a list of daily business tasks, use Amazon lightning deals and improve your Amazon ads.

Module 8: Taking Your Business to the Next Level

This module is a bit short. Mike and Rich will teach you how to scale your business to the next level. They talk about how to add additional products and set a goal for your business.

Are students getting results?

When you visit the official ASM websites, you’ll come across several success stories from students who have benefited from the course. However, it’s worth noting that most of these success stories are from students who started their businesses in 2017 or earlier.

For example, there is a couple who attribute their monthly six-figure revenue on Amazon to ASM, but they started way back in 2014. 

With the increasing competition in the Amazon marketplace, it has become harder for newcomers to break through and establish a profitable business, even with the help of ASM.

It’s important to keep in mind that most Amazon sellers earn less than 20% in profit (read our research), so when you see sellers boasting about their revenue numbers, take that into consideration. 

ASM also recommends that affiliates promote the course with the following disclaimer: “These member’s results may not be typical. ASM members joining between 2013-2016 who completed the program and launched a new brand had median annual revenue of $60,750.00.”

Even with a generous 25% profit margin, this would mean that these ASM students were left with only $15,187 in annual profit (approximately $1,266 per month).

In conclusion, while ASM has helped some students achieve success in the past, it’s important to recognize that the Amazon marketplace has become more competitive, and it may be more challenging for newcomers to achieve similar results.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

How much does Amazing Selling Machine cost?

As of today, the price of Amazing Selling Machine 13 is $4,997, which may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that you’re getting full access to the latest version of the program.

It’s important to note that you’ll need additional money to buy inventory or create your product before you can start selling. 

According to an FAQ video on their sales page, most ASM students spend an average of $1,200 on inventory. However, the program recommends that you have a budget of around $2,000 for inventory and that you spend no more than $5,000 in the beginning. 

Apart from the inventory, the only other investment you’ll need is for Amazon ads, but according to ASM, those ads should be profitable right away and essentially pay for themselves. 

That being said, some ASM students suggest having at least $4,000 to spend on your business beyond the course fee. 

In fact, a few students even recommend having a budget of at least $10,000 available for inventory.

ASM Discount?

We’ve heard about the discounts being offered at the end of ASM webinars. 

You can watch the ASM free training all the way through to see if they’re currently offering a discount.

Refund Policy

On their page of terms and conditions, it specifies a 30-day money-back guarantee for Amazing Selling Machine. 

However, it doesn’t mention whether or not it is unconditional.

If you want to get a refund, you need to drop an email to [email protected]. It takes 3 business days for your refund request to be processed. 

Praise for Amazing Selling Machine

1. Comprehensive Training

The program provides practical, comprehensive, and step-by-step training that covers everything you need to know about starting a successful Amazon FBA business. You’ll learn about product research, finding suppliers, creating your brand, launching your product, and much more. With this training, you’ll be able to confidently start your own business and avoid costly mistakes.

2. Regularly Updated

The Amazon FBA market is constantly evolving, and the “Amazing Selling Machine” program is designed to keep up with those changes. The program is regularly updated with the latest information and strategies, and existing students receive these updates for free. This ensures that you always have access to the most up-to-date information and can continue to grow your business.

3. Helpful and Active Private Community

The program comes with a private community of like-minded individuals who are all working towards the same goal. The community is incredibly helpful and active, providing a great space to ask questions, get feedback, and connect with other entrepreneurs. You’ll never feel alone on your journey to success.

4. Monthly Group Coaching Calls

In addition to the comprehensive training and helpful community, the ASM program also offers monthly group coaching calls. These calls give you the opportunity to ask questions, get personalized feedback, and learn from others. The coaching calls are led by experts who have years of experience in the Amazon FBA market, ensuring that you receive the best possible advice.

Criticism of Amazing Selling Machine

1. Overpriced

Let’s face it, “Amazing Selling Machine” is not cheap. Compared to other Amazon FBA courses out there, it’s one of the most expensive options. You’ll be shelling out thousands of dollars just to access the program. While some may argue that the high cost is worth it, it’s important to consider whether you can afford it before you commit.

2. Limited Success Stories

While there are plenty of success stories out there from students who have taken the “Amazing Selling Machine” course, most of them are from before 2017. Since then, it’s been harder to find significant success stories from students who started after that time. This could be a sign that the course is no longer as effective as it once was, or that the market has become more saturated.

3. Additional Investment Required

According to some students, to give yourself a decent chance of success with “Amazing Selling Machine,” you’ll need to invest even more money beyond the price of the course. Some students report needing to spend $5,000 or more on inventory and advertising to get their business off the ground. This means that the total cost of starting an Amazon FBA business using “Amazing Selling Machine” could be even higher than you originally anticipated.

4. Unrealistic Claims

On the Amazing Selling Machine sales page, they claim that building an FBA business only takes “an hour or two a day”. This claim seems too good to be true. Building a successful business takes time, effort, and dedication. 

It’s unrealistic to expect that you can build a profitable FBA business with just an hour or two of work per day. While the course can provide valuable information, it’s important to understand that building a business requires hard work and commitment.

5. Low Trustpilot Rating

The parent company of the Amazing Selling Machine, Amazing.com, has a low rating of 2.4 on Trustpilot, with some students calling it a scam. While it’s important to take online reviews with a grain of salt, a low rating and scam allegations can be red flags. Before investing in any program, it’s essential to do your due diligence and research the company thoroughly.

Amazing.com Trustpilot rating

6. Lots of Positive Reviews Come From Their Affiliates

Many positive reviews of the Amazing Selling Machine come from affiliates who earn a commission for each referral. The course costs $5000, and these affiliates earn a $2000 commission for each sale. While it’s not inherently wrong to use affiliate marketing, it can lead to biased reviews. It’s important to seek out unbiased opinions and reviews to make an informed decision about whether the Amazing Selling Machine is right for you.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

Is Amazing Selling Machine a scam or legit?

Amazing Selling Machine isn’t a scam. However, that doesn’t mean I would recommend it.

While ASM can teach you how to launch an Amazon business, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make money quickly or at all. In fact, it could take over a year to even break even.

After reading reviews from various sources, including Reddit, I found that there are many negative reviews about the course. People have reported pushy marketing tactics and that they didn’t make any money even after following the teachings in the course.

What’s more, the affiliate marketing program of Amazing Selling Machine is quite shady. It has many affiliates who are not even students of the course. The reason for this is because it offers a whopping 50% commission, which is almost $2,500 for each sale. So it’s not surprising that many people are tempted to promote the course, regardless of its actual quality.

Because of this, it’s difficult to find an honest review of the Amazing Selling Machine course. Personally, I would not recommend purchasing it since there aren’t many verified success stories of students. It’s very likely that you’ll end up losing a lot of money.

Amazing Selling Machine Alternatives

Below are some popular Alternatives to Amazing Selling Machines. You can also check out our list of the best Amazon FBA course

Proven Amazon Course

This program is a collection of training modules and live training events that claim to help you build an Amzon FBA business. 

When you log in, you will find that there is a lot of information in the member’s area. The combination of video tutorials and written material takes you from the ground up on product sourcing, private labeling, and logistics.

One of the most attractive aspects of the course is that it includes a section dedicated to international FBA.

Many courses do not consider students who live outside of the United States or Canada, but this course does, and there are a large number of successful international students.

It costs $500 or $30 per month to join the program. 

Freedom Ticket

If you’re new to selling on Amazon or looking to launch a private label product, Freedom Ticket offered by Helium 10 is an excellent option. The program is a comprehensive guide that takes you through each aspect of selling on Amazon from the outset. You’ll have access to several hands-on videos, in-person labs, and tons of reading materials, including hand-written notes, exclusive blogs, case studies, and video guides.

But what sets Freedom Ticket apart is the personal sessions with marketing experts, which offer valuable insights into sales and competition you’ll face while selling on Amazon.

You can get access for free with a $39/month subscription to Helium 10.

Marketplace Superheroes

If you’re looking to launch yourself on a global scale, Marketplace Superheroes is an excellent option. Developed by the popular Amazon duo Stephen Somers and Robert Rickey, who have sold products worth over $1 million on Amazon, this course is designed for sellers who want to locate and launch a low-competition profitable product on a larger scale.

Over eight weeks, you’ll learn how to find fruitful products, import them, and sell them under your own name across the Amazon platform. You’ll also have access to a product discovery tool that helps you search, shortlist, select, and source high-converting products on Amazon.

The Marketplace Superheroes FBA course costs $997, or you can pay in small monthly installments of $97 for one year.

5 Challenges of Amazon FBA Business

1. Intense Competition

Amazon has millions of sellers, and many of them sell the same product. You can imagine the competition. After working for a year, you may not be able to earn a penny from your Amazon store.

What’s the chance to win when there are so many other sellers competing with you on the same platform?

Additionally, if you have a full-time job, you may find it difficult to build a successful Amazon business. At least ten hours a week are required to see a bit of progress.

This is a “get rich SLOW” scheme. In the coming years, you won’t be able to make enough money to quit your job.

Let’s face it, speed is the key to business. In this era, everything changes so rapidly. You will not be able to beat your competitor if your speed is too slow.

As an individual with little resources, you cannot compete with the big brands when you build an Amazon business. The stores of big companies are managed by a team. 

There is a claim on the sales page that it only takes “a few hours a day” to build a business, a statement that seems excessively optimistic.

Everyone only has 24 hours in a day, so no matter how hard you work, it’s unlikely to win the big competition

2. Large Upfront Cost

At least $10-20k is needed to start a business on Amazon. 

You will need to spend money on product samples and inventory, labelling and shipping costs, product launch services/pay-per-click advertising, as well as Amazon Marketing Services. 

As soon as you start selling Amazon, your first 10k will quickly be gone.

The process is time-consuming and expensive. In other words, if you are considering gambling with your hard-earned money, you must think carefully.

3. No Quick Cash Flow

A business’s cash flow is its lifeblood. Amazon FBA business model, however, requires sellers to invest a substantial amount of money in purchasing inventory from suppliers in China. 

The costs will be even higher if you intend to create a unique private label product. The cost of creating a prototype in China is usually a couple hundred dollars. You can ask for a price on Alibaba.com if you don’t trust me. 

Typically, production may take 1-2 months, depending on the nature of the products and the quantity. It takes 2 weeks for the package to arrive at Amazon’s warehouse after it has been shipped and cleared by customs.

It can take up to months for you to get paid for the inventory you bought.

4. Price War

Amazon is rife with price wars. Any time a seller lowers their prices to attract more customers, other sellers will be forced to lower their prices as well. 

In order to avoid a net loss, you might have to cut production costs. This results in lower product quality, negative feedback from customers, and a drop in sales. 

Aside from intense competition, you have to deal with changing sales tax laws, category restrictions, and Amazon policies.

Amazon might even ban your account permanently if you violate some rules by mistake. 

The margin of profit of most Amazon vendors is at best slightly higher than 10%, due to intense competition. 

Starting an Amazon FBA business requires persistence and relentless focus.

5. Strict Amazon Policy

When you are selling on Amazon, you have to comply with a lot of complicated rules and regulations set by Amazon.

If you violate any one of them, your whole store will be taken down completely by Amazon. Some are permanent bans, meaning you won’t be able to sell on Amazon again. There are many reasons that Amazon can ban your store.

Amazon seller account suspended

Amazon changes its policies from time to time, so even if you are careful, you may get banned suddenly. After all, Amazon has the final decision-maker.

That’s why when it comes to online business, I don’t recommend people build your asset on other people’s platforms. You should build your own website instead.

You lack the controlling power when you build your whole asset on Amazon. You don’t actually own the store, but Amazon does. You may lose everything overnight.

Is there a better way to make money online?

If you’re new to online business, you might wonder if there’s a better business model that doesn’t need initial capital and can do it as a side hustle.

Of all the business models I’ve tried, affiliate marketing is the easiest and most rewarding so far.  

In affiliate marketing, you can run your business at almost zero cost. Most importantly, you don’t need to invest in creating and developing any products.

Also, it is less time-consuming since you don’t have to manage inventory or handle customer service.

You can enjoy a steady stream of passive income while going on vacation or working a full-time job.

Since the world is full of uncertainty, I’d always choose a business model that has the lowest risk.

But How Much Can You Earn in Affiliate Marketing?

A 21-year-old student from my #1 recommended training platform of affiliate marketing was able to earn $7,395 in just 1 week, which means he made more than $1k a day…all while using free traffic methods and affiliate marketing.

Amazing Selling Machine Review

For more information, you can check out my full review of Wealthy Affiliate

Where to Join Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate has a very simple pricing scheme. It has a free and premium membership.

If you want to feel about Wealthy Affiliate, you can sign up for the starter membership here (no credit card required). You can select to be a free member with no time limit.

And as a starter member, you can get instant access to the community, live chat, over 500 training modules, 2 classrooms, networking, commenting, 1 free website, and access to the keyword tool.

You can enjoy all these values without paying a penny. 

So I strongly recommend you register a free account and see it yourself.

If you’d like to be the next success story and get the most out of Wealthy Affiliate, you can upgrade to the Premium Membership later. 

After that, you can get access to everything without the bother of any upsells.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

1 thought on “Amazing Selling Machine Review (2023): Scam or Legit? Exposed!”

  1. 0 stars, they are scammers!!!
    They sell you the American dream, but never mention the reality of the market. They say “get rich quick; spend 1 hour per week; quit your job in 2 months; become a millionaire in a year”. When you ARE trapped in the inventory, losing a LOT of money and facing the harsh reality and try to post it in the ASM community – they BAN you and ignore your post! They BAN you so that other “stupid” students continue paying and buying the course. SCAM! And guys, trust me and millions of other sellers – you CAN find al info on Google, there is no need to pay 5k, you won’t hear anything new there.

    Reply

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