Amazon Selling Queen?
Really?
Is she legit or a scam?
Let’s find out!
We will review Sophie Howard to decide if she is the best Amazon coach.
Sophie Howard’s course is pretty similar to most other FBA programs. They pitch you on the “dream” of running a profitable e-commerce business that can generate cash while you sleep.
All without having to invest much money upfront into things like inventory & advertising…
Too good to be true?
Not necessarily – Amazon FBA programs have certainly minted a few online millionaires.
It was actually one of the first online business models I made money with.
So as far as making money online goes, there are A LOT worse things you could be doing than Amazon FBA.
That being said, you shouldn’t start a business because “it’s not as bad” as some other type of business – it needs to stand on its own merits.
Choosing between the lesser of two evils always results in, ya know – evil.
So in this Sophie Howard review, we’re going to break down exactly who FBA is good for, and who should avoid it.
There are a few important things you need to keep in mind when considering FBA as a business:
- Operations
- Finding winning products
- Time (the most valuable thing of all)
Again, it’s 100% possible to make legitimate money with FBA, but it is NOT a simple business.
Let’s talk about why:
Operations: The big pitch with FBA is that you don’t really need to do much, because Amazon handles all the heavy lifting (shipping, packing, returns, etc).
That’s cool and all, except for the fact that Amazon actually has incredibly strict guidelines that you need to follow to even be able to ship out of their warehouses – something most programs don’t tell you about in their awesome marketing materials.
This process typically takes a solid 4-5 hours alone. So unless you have a very large team, this step is going to take up a lot of your time.
That doesn’t mean FBA is bad – it just means you need to know what you’re getting into. A “passive income business” is not what you’re going to get with Sophie Howard.
Some courses will teach you how to outsource all of this prep to another company, but that eats into your margins significantly. Amazon is already taking 30-40% just for being part of the FBA program, so you don’t exactly have a lot of wiggle room.
Finding winning products: “Hot” products are typically only popular for a few glorious months, and then they fall off. Again, that doesn’t make FBA a bad business – it just means you need to be constantly on the lookout for the next hot thing.
If you have a supplier that you’re on really good terms with, sometimes they’ll drop you hints and tell you what’s about to trend. But this won’t happen until you have a history of making 6-figures with one another.
What this really means is that you need to be innovative and detail-oriented when it comes to staying on top of trends. You want to be the first one to the product, not the last one struggling to turn a profit off of the big-dog’s leftovers.
There’s always the option of serving the “evergreen” markets that have always been around, but to that I say: Good Luck selling meal prep containers against the Tupperwares of the world.
So – we can safely add-on another 3-4 hours worth of time each day trying to hunt for hot products.
Time: Despite what any Amazon FBA seller tries to tell you, when it comes to FBA (or any e-commerce business model), you’re looking at about 3 months of serious trial, error, & testing before even making $1 back.
It could easily take 6 months or more before you’re even at break even.
And this all assumes you’re actually getting it right out of the gate, which isn’t impossible with a good program – but it’s not necessarily the norm.
To be honest, it’s not uncommon to operate at a LOSS for the first year of any new business, so I’m not bashing FBA here – I’m just talking facts based on my own personal experience selling on Amazon.
But what if you could build a different (non FBA) income stream, and start seeing profits within your first few days?
I’m talking about a system that doesn’t have:
- Inventory
- Crappy margins
- A 12-month wait time before you turn a profit
- A continuous guessing-wheel trying to find “hot products”
Something that you could make anywhere from $2,000 – $10,000 with consistently, month after month?
A stream of income that you can build as high (or low) as you feel like building it?
If that sounds interesting, you might want to think about becoming a Digital Landlord.
If you wanna see what Amazon FBA looks like on the inside, keep reading.
Are You Thinking About Doing Amazon FBA?
If you’ve done any research into launching an Amazon business, you’ve probably come across Sophie Howard, aka the Amazon Selling Queen.
Several companies, such as Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), continue to multiply during the Covid season. This motivates many prospective entrepreneurs to look into this global marketplace when they decide to try their hand at eCommerce.
You want a plan proven to work and is easy to replicate if you succeed with Amazon FBA.
Today, Sophie’s Blue Sky Amazon is one of the most well-known Amazon FBA courses.
“Is Sophie Howard a scam?” you might wonder.
Is the Blue Sky Amazon program worth it?
What Does Sophie Howard Sell On Amazon?
Sophie Howard now manages several online businesses, the most successful of which is currently making seven figures. She’s just launched a herbal tea to compete with Amazon’s growing “cognitive function” medicine trend.
She’s also working on a project with a partner in Auckland to create a platform that connects artisans with customers. Finally, she is developing a B2B Amazon program and a Kindle book to help budding entrepreneurs navigate the difficult early stages of launching a small business.
Who Is Sophie Howard?
Sophie is a New Zealander reared in the United Kingdom and started her FBA business in 2014 while caring for her newborn infant at home.
With the help of a team of virtual assistants, she built a seven-figure Amazon eCommerce business selling tea products in just 18 months.
Sophie is currently recognized as the “Amazon Selling Queen” and the “Aspiring Entrepreneurs” brand creator.
Her organic tea business, “Higher Tea,” is a proven private-label system. This company received an acquisition approach from this brand, which she cites several times throughout her classes.
Sophie published a book called Amazon Jetstream Income in 2016, which details her selling experiences and offers to help anyone start an Amazon business. The text reads more like a lengthy sales pitch, to be honest.
What Was Sophie Howard’s First Product?
Most other Amazon sellers were ex-internet marketing companies looking for shortcuts, following a formula, and sourcing their goods primarily from China. On the other hand, Sophie Howard chose hand-felted New Zealand wool products from Nepal.
Instead of focusing on one or two goods as she had been told, she started with 400 products in her first year. She disobeyed several of the guidelines she learned in an Amazon course that cost her $4,000.
But in the end, she was pleased she did her own thing.
Sophie Howard’s business was profitable within the first month, and she had made over a million dollars in the first year. Sophie Howard pondered selling it because she enjoyed the start-up period of business development and did not want to turn it into an empire.
She had cashed in at the peak of the market; she sold roughly 80% of the 400 things she had and kept 20%, launching three new Amazon businesses.
What Is The Blue Sky Amazon Course?
Let’s take a closer look at the Blue Sky Amazon Seller Academy. Sophie Howard created a 14-module Amazon FBA course that covers the full Amazon FBA business model. It’s divided into two sections to help students bridge the gap between lectures.
Product University is the initial curriculum, and it consists of six modules that run around 25 hours. Meanwhile, Amazon Navigator, the second program, has eight courses and a duration of roughly nine hours.
I’m sure the content of what these lessons have will pique your curiosity.
The 14 modules are mostly concerned with how mid-level sellers may design things that sell for a long time. And use virtual assistants, internet platforms like Feedback Genius, and sales funnels to scale. Beginners can benefit from the courses as well, however they will gain far more if they already have a basic understanding of how Amazon FBA operates.
Blue Sky Amazon Summary Creator: Sophie Howard Price to join: $3,495.
Product University Course Review
Module 1: Foundation
As the title suggests, the first module is designed to build a solid foundation for the program. It focuses on providing answers to common questions that newcomers may have about FBA and how to make a funnel go faster instantly.
Module 2: Product Selection Strategy
This module is designed to show how she views product selection—a high minimum order quantity (MOQ) equals fewer competitors.
Module 3: Basics Of Sales Funnels
This module covers the basics of sales funnels and their components and how to use Canva as a visual design tool, how to run a Facebook ad campaign, and FAQs.
Module 4: Hiring Virtual Assistants
This section will cover the most common concerns with outsourcing, such as what skills to look for, how to do trial projects, VA training, and analyzing their outputs.
Module 5: Selling On Amazon
This module focuses on the specifics of Sophie Howard’s Amazon journey. She was pretty honest in listing the company’s benefits and drawbacks. She also went through critical business topics, including opening a seller account, obtaining a license, working on Amazon PPC, and keyword strategy.
Module 6: Forgotten Product Sourcing Places
This module gives students the ability to find their product sources.
Amazon Navigator Course Overview
Module 1: Welcome
Sophie Howard understands that most new FBA sellers will have a lot of ups and downs in the first three to five months. As a result, she begins this course with a positive attitude toward overcoming obstacles.
How?
It all starts with creating goals. Sophie encourages her members to put their goals first and follow a simple three-step process to achieve their goals.
She wraps up this module with a few FBA basics, such as how to calculate Amazon’s costs, product costs, and profit figures and how to get a corporate license and set up a professional Amazon seller account.
Module 2: What You Don’t Know About Branding
This is the module that distinguishes Sophie Howard’s Amazon course from other FBA programs. She explains to her students how she used branding to help her grow up her Amazon stores to several seven-figure businesses in this section.
Using this specific strategy, she may separate her goods from other similar ones on the market and demand a higher margin.
Simply put, Sophie will teach you about branding and how to position your service or product in such a way that it generates higher perceived values.
While many FBA courses only teach you the basics of branding, such as creating a brand site and a Facebook page, Blue Sky Amazon will show you how to launch a complex brand to imitate and compete with.
Module 3: Selecting Products That Sell For The Long Term
Sophie Howard‘s ability to find products that can be sold for a long time is why she became profitable with Amazon FBA. This is how you can imitate her success and build a long-term FBA business.
In this section, she will show you how she finds long-term and unique goods from suppliers who aren’t visible to the general public. She reveals that she has been interacting with a variety of nations to source specific things. To mention a few, these are Bali, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and the United States.
Module 4: Are Your Listings Pristine?
Sophie Howard gives her students a demonstration of how to create a product listing that will pique the curiosity of Amazon site visitors. This applies to all parts of product sales copy, including title structure, item description, and so on.
The following are some of the topics covered:
- Searching for keywords
- The most effective method for creating names that appeal to buyers
- How to make an irresistible offer
- Descriptions of products
She focuses on the advantages of creating a product pitch that appeals to millennials, who make up the great majority of internet users.
Module 5: Do Not Get Samples, Order The Entire Shipment
This section discusses delivery, labeling, and sampling. Unlike any other Amazon FBA instructor, Sophie provides simple, concrete, and practical tips for streamlining the delivery process.
She identifies the most common delivery issues and suggests solutions for dealing with them. You’ll learn three effective strategies for shipping your things to an Amazon warehouse. This section contains all of the pertinent information.
Module 6: Promoting The Sh*T Out Of Your Product
This section discusses five tried-and-true marketing methods for launching your items. Sophie gives some advice on monitoring sales performance using seven key performance indicators.
Aside from that, she provides a step-by-step guide for creating promo codes. Sophie, for example, recommends developing a small number of coupon codes and making sure the coupons are hidden from the item description.
Module 7: Maintaining Your Account
If you want to build a long-term Amazon FBA business, you’ll need to learn how to make data-driven decisions and stay in control of your operations.
Sophie Howard demonstrates how to use Seller Central to generate company data, improve customer service, accept global payments, and request Amazon assistance in this module.
Various business reports are available in Seller Central, including sales reports, FBA business reports, removal reports, customer concessions reports, payment reports, and inventory reports.
You should keep track of these indicators and figures monthly or weekly as the proprietor. For example, you must evaluate your product profit margins and identify the best-selling products inside your membership.
If you don’t get your hands filthy, you won’t scale your business.
Module 8: Scaling Beyond Amazon & Hiring Virtual Assistants
Sophie Howard will teach you how to delegate several of the mundane tasks in this final session so that you can focus on growing your business. She advises her students to hire a few virtual assistants to help them save time and effort.
Finally, she is an authentic business coach who encourages her pupils to expand their businesses outside Amazon and plan an exit strategy so they may enjoy their lives.
How Can I Contact Sophie Howard?
You can contact Sophie Howard‘s office at (03) 9490 8888 or e-mail her support staff at customersupport@knowledgesource.com.au if you have any questions about her course.
Should You Join Sophie Howard’s Blue Sky Amazon Course?
Sophie Howard’s training is not a get-rich-quick scheme or a scam. She has significant Amazon marketing experience, having built several seven-figure enterprises on the platform.
Nonetheless, she makes it clear that starting an Amazon FBA business requires tenacity and unwavering commitment, which isn’t for the faint of heart.
It’s a lot more complicated than you believe.
So, before you leap in, be sure you’ve considered all of your options.
Continue reading if you want to learn about the program that consistently produces results and passive income for us!
Amazon Seller University (Free Alt. To Blue Sky)
You’re in luck if you’re an Amazon Seller who wants to learn how to gain more customers and develop your business. Amazon has its own “Seller University,” free and regularly updated with brand new material.
Rather than purchasing a pricey curriculum from Sophie Howard’s course, I recommend you take a look at this University; it’s free, and you’ll learn a lot.
I recognize that people aren’t Amazon Sellers but still want to learn about the industry; therefore, Amazon has created a YouTube channel. The videos don’t have the best transitions or edits, but the material is gold, and it’s also pretty good for a free service.
One disadvantage of studying at Amazon Seller University is the coaches’ repetitious teaching style, which might irritate some people. However, if you don’t want to pay for Sophie’s classes, I believe this is a better option.
Is Sophie Howard A Scam?
Time for the million-dollar question: is Sophie Howard’s course a scam?
No, it’s not a “scam”, technically speaking. They aren’t going to take your money and run away leaving you empty handed.
You can make money with the program, but not nearly as easily as Sophie Howard wants you to think it is.
As with most FBA businesses, there is A LOT of work that needs to be done up-front, and there is really no guarantee of you being successful.
You’ll need to get very lucky and find an awesome product no one’s heard of, and then pump a ton of volume into it while it lasts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big proponent of front-loading work now, so that you can make money later and sip out of coconuts on the beach.
But if I’m gonna do that, I want the rewards to be HIGH and virtually guaranteed.
I’d rather put in that same 3 months of work (in my spare time) & build a handful of Digital Rental Properties that each produce $500-$2,000 checks every single month afterward (AKA recurring income).
And the cool part is that you can do it in a lot less time than 3-months (I personally did it in my first 2 weeks of being a Digital Landlord).
Unlike Amazon FBA, you can do it from anywhere in the world, so it’s a genuine “laptop-lifestyle” business.
All you need is an internet connection.
Some of my friends are Digital Landlords that run their 6-figure businesses from:
- Camping trips at national parks
- Beachfront in Hawaii
- On the road in a camper-van (with a pet pig!)
They focus on living an enjoyable life first, and focus on income second. All thanks to this program.
They can take weeks or months off, and money keeps rolling in.
Living happily is the top priority.
If the thought of living perpetually at your dream vacation spot interests you, being a Digital Landlord might be for you!
Is Sophie Howard Legit?
Yes. Sophie Howard has made a reputation for herself, her brand, and her companies.
When it comes to starting a business, though, you have a lot of possibilities.
Even if you’re dead set on becoming an Amazon FBA seller, Sophie Howard’s classes aren’t the best solution.
Remember that I am not compensated to promote the programs I evaluate. I think Sophie Howard’s program is a brilliant business strategy, but you might be leaving a lot of money on the table.
What Is Our Top Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2022?
I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:
- I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
- I’ve drop-shipped a toilet-bowl putting green on Shopify
- I’ve sold women’s health supplements via Clickbank affiliate marketing
And I made money with all of them, so trust me when I say: there is no “perfect” business model.
That being said, my #1 recommendation for making real money online is, hands-down: being a Digital Landlord.
Whether you’re a complete newbie, or you’ve been around the block before but have never had that “big win” to propel you forward, becoming a Digital Landlord is for you.
Here’s Why:
1.Time: If you’ve got a spare hour-or-two each day, you can do this. If you want to drop everything and go all-in, you can do this. More time obviously means faster results, but even putting in a few hours per day is enough to see real success.
And because of that flexibility, you don’t need to trade your time for money. Once the income starts, it’s recurring.
That means you can take a month off, travel the country, pursue a passion project, chill on the beach, or charter a boat across the world.
But you can only do that once you’ve created an income stream that doesn’t require YOU to be there all day, every day.
2.Ownership & Control: With Amazon FBA, you don’t technically own the customer base.
Amazon could literally shut you down overnight. They have a history of kicking suppliers off their platform, or stopping payouts to affiliates for certain products once they’ve built their own.
Why pour your soul into a business that could be taken away from you at the drop of a dime?
When you’re a Digital Landlord, you literally own all of the assets, which means you have ultimate control.
3.Big Margins: With FBA, you’re often going to have really slim margins. That means you need to hit a serious scale to make serious money. This usually entails spending A LOT of money on ads and other methods for growing traffic to your product.
Being a Digital Landlord, your profit margin is nearly 100%. Watch here to learn how.
Just a reminder: these Digital Rental Properties are worth (at a minimum) $500/mo in semi-passive income. And each time you create another one, your income increases, and the effort put into creating the next property decreases.
Best case scenario, you have properties bringing in over $3,000+/mo on auto-pilot.
4.It’s Effectively Copy-Paste: Here’s my favorite part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up, you can literally copy-paste another version of it and find another willing “renter” in a few days. DOUBLING your income doesn’t get much easier than that…
If you wanted to double your income with Amazon FBA, you would need to sell twice as much inventory, or double your profit margins. And I can guarantee you (from my fidget-spinner FBA days), that’s a lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call.
5.You’re Helping REAL People: My biggest gripe with FBA is that you’re basically only helping yourself. The world doesn’t need another B.S. gadget to consume.
It’s cool in the short term to make a quick buck, but in the long-term, it gets really old, really fast.
But when you’re a Digital Landlord, you’re helping solve REAL problems that people are ASKING for help with:
Small local businesses around the world need one thing: customers. Without them, their business would fall apart. If we can provide those customers, they’re going to be really happy – and they’re going to pay you for it.
We’re not helping Jeff Bezos shoot another rocket into space – you’re helping a struggling mother or father put FOOD on the table for their families, put their kids through college, or simply live life a little bit more comfortably.
Having this type of impact on the world is what will help you sleep soundly at night.
So, the rest is up to you. You could keep looking at other FBA programs like Sophie Howard’s, which might make you money 12 months from now.
You could keep researching and researching for the next few months (or few years), never making a concrete decision.
OR, you can look deep inside, think about those dreams, hopes, & desires, and make the decision to ACTUALLY make it happen, just like it has for thousands of other students before you.
Making a fortune while actually helping real people that need it.
If this sounds like you, click here to see how it all works.
