The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

"Seeing all these things that other people ... are doing, especially the black hat sellers, and not being able to beat them by using my white hat tactics--it's a very brutal position to be in. But the thing is, one day, I want to be left with a chair when the music stops and they won't." - Mike Jackness on his long-term Amazon launch strategy Earlier this year we came upon a chilling situation-- m...

"So how do you win if you're doing what everyone else is doing? If we're all using Best Selling Rank or BSR, then everyone is always going to sell the same products and we're just flooding the market with all the same products. So we try to go where the puck is going and not where the puck is." - Chad Rubin of Skubana In our second 3 digit episode we have Chad Rubin of Skubana as our guest. "Chad...

100 episodes! Can you believe it? Today marks a special moment in EcomCrew history. We've hit a very important milestone and we never would have done it without YOU. I had my struggles; I can't tell you how frustrating it is not knowing whether people truly enjoyed listening to the podcast or if they got any real value out of it or not. But then I go to these live events and people come up to me a...

"I think perpetual unhappiness with everything about an entrepreneur's business is probably the only way they're going to be successful, right? Always be thinking that something needs to be improved." - Kevin Stecko, 80sTees.com Our guest for the last episode before we hit the 100 mark is my good friend Kevin Stecko from 80sTees.com . We jokingly call Kevin as one of the "grandfathers of ecommerce...

"Definitely I would be vigilant like in an initial screening process. I know most online sellers probably don't have the luxury of being able to see all of their factories but if they do, if they do go to Canton Fair, I highly recommend it. Just so you know what you're dealing with and if you're not comfortable with that, definitely have some backup plans." - Gary Huang, founder of 80/20 Sourcing...

"Sometimes you have to do something that makes you uncomfortable to further your career and your life and I really believe that." - Mike Jackness on speaking at the Global Sources Summit This episode is a play-by-play report of my entire trip to Asia, covering the Global Sources Summit, the Canton Fair, meeting with our Philippines team -- basically everything my team and I did while we were in As...

"I loved my job when I worked as a VA for Mike and he really made me feel like I was part of the company even though I was here in the Philippines. So I guess what I'm trying to say is to have a Mia and to have a team like what we have in Cebu, you need to be a Mike." - Mia Pamisa, Philippines Team Manager, Terran If you've been listening to our podcast for a while now you know that we run multipl...

"Part of the hard part of selling a business is not just all the mechanics behind the scene, but finding a good buyer who is honest, and who has money, and who isn't pulling your chain and can actually close the deal. And is reasonable. Those are not inconsequential things to find in a buyer." -Andrew Youderian, eCommerceFuel founder I have an exciting episode today as I am interviewing one of the...

Many of you might have read or at least heard of Tim Ferriss' famous 4 Hour Workweek. It might seem like a crazy idea, but you've probably seen many people pull it off, quitting their day jobs and "living the dream" -- sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere in the Pacific while money continues to flow into their pockets. But for us running ecommerce businesses and probably with a family to take c...

This week's episode is a special one, as it's one of the few episodes where I get to have Dave on the show. Better yet, we are sitting in the same room in Hong Kong, just a couple of days after the Global Sources Summit where we both had a blast. Hopefully videos of the talks will be released soon for those who were not able to attend the event. We have many takeaways from our time in Hong Kong bu...

My guest today is Brian Johnson of the software company PPC Scope and online course Sponsor Products Academy. Brian has been selling online for a number of years now and has really found his stride on Amazon. On today's episode, Brian talks about his selling background and explains why he dove into PPC advertising. This a really meaty episode and there is a lot of information crammed into it. If y...

Today's episode is a pre-recorded episode. At the time of this podcast, Dave and I are attending Global Sources. These pre-recorded episodes are a great opportunity to interview some highly successful ecom business owners. My guest today is one of those highly successful ecommerce entrepreneurs. Dana Jaunzemis is the owner of Homehealthtesting.com. She purchased the business at a time when she saw...

Today, Dave and I talk about the tricks and tips we have found running our businesses that have helped our bottom lines. There are a total of ten tips and we share some personal insight with each tip. If you are running your own ecommerce business, then today's episode could be a helpful resource for you. Here's what we covered during this episode: Why you need to keep your accounting books curren...

We get a lot of questions about what services and applications we use in our day to day business. Today I'm going to give our listeners a list of tools and services that really help us stay on top of our business. To begin with, we have four brands under the EcomCrew umbrella. The four brands are Colorit.com, Icewraps.com, Wild Baby, and Tactical.com. We use all these tools to run every brand and...

On today's episode, Dave and I speak with Joe Valley. Joe works for Quiet Light Brokerage and is the Director of Business Services for the company. He joined their ranks back in 2012 after being one of their customers. Since joining Quiet Light he has closed 35 million dollars in transactions. One of the key things to keep in mind in business is nothing lasts forever. Eventually, you will have to...

Today's episode covers a lot of information. I want to give our listeners updates on several contests, site launches, and other business-related topics. We have a lot going on and I tried to fit as much as I could into our runtime. Here are the topics I covered today: EcomCrew's new website and content offerings. Tactical.com's growth and a contest we're running at the moment. Our affiliation with...

My guest today is Cameron Walker, the president of the Gifts, Home, and Hardware division of Global Sources. I met Cameron last year and he is a great guy who can help you get your bearings if this is your first Global Sources. As a reminder, Global Sources Summit will be October 17-19. We will discuss the upcoming speakers, events, and new subjects that an attendee can learn about during this yea...

My guest today is C.J. Rosenbaum, C.J. is a lawyer who specializes in helping Amazon sellers reinstate their accounts with Amazon. Having an issue with Amazon can be a real headache. Unfortunately, issues will come up for any seller at any time. It doesn't matter how careful you are, there will be complaints that Amazon will have to address. That is where C.J. comes in to help you know your rights...

Recently Dave posted a blog post on the Ecom Crew website. The post is called Part 1: Rebuilding a $1 Million Ecommerce and Importing Business from Scratch . Getting your own brand up and running has its ups and downs and Dave and I explain the process of getting your products to the customer from start to finish. Here are the points from our conversation: Our Ecom Crew course. The new up-dated Ec...

Today I'm going to talk about a new avenue of marketing we have found here at Color It. As many Facebook users know, last year the platform pushed for Messenger to be its own stand alone app. We have found a great tool called ManyChat that creates a Facebook Messenger mailing list. This allows us to send marketing messages to potential customers through Facebook Messenger. Now, there are some rest...

Dave joins me today for a debate. Is it better to have an office space for your company or not? We have slightly different views on this subject. I personally like the professionalism of an office space and warehouse. Dave likes the freedom of working remotely and outsourcing. We compare our reasons for why we have our preferences and give our listeners some pros and cons of both business styles....

Today I'm really excited to tell you about a domain name we have purchased and all the awesome plans we have coming down the pipe. We have just purchased Survivalfood.com. If you guys remember, we purchased Tatical.com a while back. If you go back and listen to episode 72 , I talk about all our plans and some of our strategies for Tactical.com. However, today I'm going to share some of the plans w...

On today's episode I explain the process of incorporating a subscription into Color It. I also discuss tools and other opportunities our listeners might enjoy. I developed a subscription model for Color It with the subscription fee of $4.99 for 30 drawings a month. The drawings are downloadable images that we have used in other books, so it is a cost effective way to repurpose our content. By offe...

On today's episode I want to tell you about the awesome time I had up in Alaska and just take a moment to really stress the importance of vacation time. My family and I went up to the Kesugi Ridge Trail and hiked 32 miles over the course of four days. During my time away there were some issues with the business, but I have built a self-sufficient team, so I was still able to enjoy my trip. Hiking...

Welcome to the second half of our doing business in and with China Q and A session. Today we talk about the mistakes we made when we started importing goods from China. We both have examples of things catching us off guard while waiting for our shipments. The issues ranged from a high duty fee on an order, to a major cultural blindside, like Chinese New Year shuts down the whole country for a mont...