Shiv Aiyar

Originally founded in 1974, Enagic is a multi-level marketing company that has regained traction in recent years. Hironari Oshiro launched this company decades ago but began Enagic USA back in 2004.

The company sells Kangen water filtration/alkaline ionizers that can vary in price, anywhere from $1,280 to $5,980. Some around Enagic have even claimed that the alkaline benefits derived from the product have reversed the effects of diseases.

If you choose to distribute Enagic, you’re paid commission on the units you sell as well as earning bonus money for other distributors that you bring into the company.

Can you be successful with this business model and product?

The tricky thing about MLM’s is figuring out if the product is sustainable. Take my word for it, I joined my first MLM at the age of 18 when I was a freshman in college.

I saw what I thought was a crazy opportunity to make a lot of money but what I didn’t realize is how crappy the product was.

It’s important for you to dig deep into the company’s history and what the culture is like. How ethical are it’s leaders?

You really need to do your homework because there are really good network marketing companies and there are many really bad ones.

I’m going to offer you an unbiased opinion of this opportunity in particular. I have experience in the MLM world so I’ll share what I like about this opportunity and some things that concern me.

The bottom line is that there are absolutely easier ways to make money in online business than trying to sell water filtering equipment to friends and family.

If you want to take a look at my #1 recommendation for online business opportunity then be sure to click here.

Products of Enagic

There are an array of Kangen machines that are offered by Enagic, seven in total. All of these devices can produce alkaline water except for one.

Here’s a list of them (listed from lowest price to highest):

• The Sun US $1,280
• Leveluk Junior II $2,380
• Anespa $2,390
• Leveluk DX $2,980
• Leveluk DX2 $3,280
• SD 501 $3,980
• Super SD 501 $5,980

The SD 501 happens to be their most popular product. Earlier I said that it’s important to look into the products offered so let’s break down if the $3,980 price tag of the 501 is worth it.

ORP stands for Oxidation Reduction Potential and Enagic says that their products make water -200 ORP to -400 ORP.

What does that mean though.

Well, generally water with a lower level of ORP is looked at as a higher quality of water. It leads to decreased rust on metals and deterioration of others.

Just to give you a reference, tap water has roughly +500 ORP, spring water has about +150 and bottled water has about +200.

Of course things like mineral content, vitamin content, etc also play their own roles in determine the overall quality of water as well.

So it’s important to look at things other than just the ORP levels of the water.

There are people out there on both sides of the fence when it comes to Kangen water. Many say they noticed no effect on their bodies from using it. Others have made dramatic statements like it reversed their diabetes, cancer, etc.

I don’t really know how accurate any of these are but I do know that there aren’t any scientific studies to support any of the claims. So take those statements for whatever they’re worth to you.

It’s easy to understand why Kangen water has regained traction in recent years. We live in a world that’s becoming more health conscious by the day.

Couple that with the rising popularity of online business and it’s easy to understand why this company is on the up and up.

Personally, I feel like it’s a good filtration unit. And with the claims out there about curing diseases, it could be a good product to try.

Now that we’ve seen what the product can do, let’s look into life as a distributor which is where the real business opportunity should lie.

Kangen’s Compensation Plan

Before we talk about compensation, let’s figure out how you can even become a distributor.

To get started you must purchase the $4k unit. Reason being you will use this product that you own to promote the same thing to others. Makes sense.

You’ll receive $285 for every two devices that you sell when you begin. After you’ve signed up at least eight other distributors your profits from this sale will go up.

Your profit levels will cap once you’ve recruited thirty-four additional members to your team and hit the top rank.

We discussed before that Enagic operates as an MLM which means that at this point you will earn income at multiple levels.

You will get bonus income from any sales that are made by your recruited team members as well as members that they have signed up themselves.

This can potentially go down quite a few levels but it depends on the amount of sales at each one.

The compensation plan of Enagic is like many other MLM’s out there.

You will see the highest financial potential if you work to recruit more than sell the product itself. It’s your job as the business owner to find people who like the opportunity as much as you and then coach them to be successful.

The success of your recruits leads to your own personal success of course.

Let’s look at some pros and cons of Enagic.

The Pros

• increasing interest in water purification as people become more health conscious
• Enagic has seen an it’s popularity rise since 2013 according to Google trends
• if you can find a good leader/mentor, you have the ability to do well and learn a lot, especially if you’re new to owning a business (as I was when I got into MLM)
• very fruitful earnings and compensation potential

The Cons

• high cost compared to other water filtration systems that can obtain similar ORP levels
• you’ll have to contact friends and family first about the opportunity. This can become very negative (believe me it happened to me)
• there is a statistic out there that is very discouraging. 98% of distributors will not make enough income to support their family
• at some point you will run out of friends and family to talk to, you’ll need to devise a strategy of finding others to join your team
• very hard to come up with a automatic lead gen system to keep your pipeline full

Ask Yourself This

I believe in MLM as a legitimate business model but it isn’t for most people. Therefore, ask yourself these things before jumping into the Enagic opportunity.

• are you good enough with sales? will you be comfortable talking to strangers regularly about your opportunity? are you afraid of rejection?
• is water filtration really worth the $4,000 cost? more importantly, is it worth that much to others?
• how big is the market for water filters with such a high price? will I be able to find enough interested people who see the value?

In Conclusion

MLM products tend to be priced higher than comparable products in the retail space. It’s no surprise that the Kangan filters are no different.

You’ll have to be okay with selling something that’s priced a lot higher than it’s competitors.

Generally, the product isn’t the true reason for failure when people jump into the network marketing space. I’ve seen some make millions and others lose a lot of money in this business with the exact same products.

Why?

Simple. Some are better sales people than others.

Sales is an art form. IMO you aren’t born with it. That’s the good news for new network marketers.

But you have to be willing to learn sales and realize that it won’t happen overnight. Just like anything else it takes a lot of practice no matter what you’re trying to sell.

You need to develop skills and this is no different than any other business. If you’re going to be an entrepreneur you need to master your skills.

Your income will only go as high as your skill level.

With Enagic, the two biggest skills are sales and online marketing. No doubt.

This coincides with the reason that most MLM’s get a ton of complaints online. Or why every single one of them has scam claims on the internet.

People get into this business thinking it’s easier than it really is because they were misguided from the start.

It’s not just calling up your best friend and explaining how you’re going to get rich together. Because when they say no and you’re discouraged, you start to get desperate.

Listen, network marketing is hard. Believe me. But it can be extremely rewarding. I’ve seen it.

Unfortunately, network marketing breeds these negative connotations itself just in the way that the business model operates.

The marketing is completely on the plates of the recruits. Many of these people have never done sales in their lives.

It’s important for you to understand that simply talking to your friends and family will not make you rich here. You need to get comfortable with talking to strangers about your product and opportunity.

Most importantly you need to develop skill sets that will lead to success. All of the top earners in Kangan have skills that set them apart from the pack.

Always find the person in the company that has exactly what you want. Closely pay attention to what makes them different from everyone.

Confidence? Smooth talker? Swagger?

These are all things that are developed over time. Skills.

Similar to the skill that allowed me to rank this site on Google. Or maybe it’s developing content on other social media platforms. Maybe it’s simply getting more comfortable with direct sales.

I guarantee you anyone in network marketing that has sustained a high level of income has an array of skills.

A lot of them even develop their skills once they get into network marketing. Sales and marketing are high high level skills that take a lot of time to work on.

It’s important to understand that you only get paid as much as your value is worth to the world/marketplace.

Like I said before, I joined network marketing when I was 18 and a freshman in college. Life as an entrepreneur was new to me, I lost money, but in the end it changed my life forever.

It opened my eyes to income levels I’d never seen before. So when I came across a local lead generation course when I was 24, I was able to run with it from the start.

I knew how hard I had to work but I also knew what the pay off could be. And man was I right.

After 3 months in local lead gen I was able to quit my 9 to 5 and commit to my business full time.

Life changer. A month later I was making more money per month than I ever had in my life.

I built this pool site below that’s been paying me $650/mo almost on auto-pilot since I quit my job.

All because I learned a skill that not many have and I worked at it. I continue to work at it.

I love helping small businesses because they’re always looking for more leads to grow their business.

I don’t drag my ass out of bed every Monday morning anymore. I wake up thrilled because I know I have a skill that I can offer to the world and give myself a raise almost any time I want.

Please take my word for it, don’t jump on another hype train like I did. Invest in your skills! It will change your life just like it did mine.

Check out my list to figure out which course is the best for Amazon FBA in 2019. Whether you’re a noob or someone with a little experience under your belt.

First things first, all of these courses can lead you to success. They’re all very professional, in-depth courses. They all offer devised plans to launch you to your first successful business online.

The important thing to remember is that all of these have the tools to make you successful with Amazon FBA. The difference between them is the personality that runs through their respective communities.

This is where you need to do your research to figure out which one you mesh with the best. That’s important.

Amazon FBA can be a great way for aspiring entrepreneurs to begin making money online. Entrepreneurship has increased in popularity due to the idea of working from home or anywhere across the country and world.

The internet and computers/laptops have given us the ability to do business wherever we want. Amazon FBA falls right in line with this thought process.

Full disclosure, Amazon FBA was not the first success that I personally saw in online business.

I already had a reliable stream of income coming in from my local lead generation business before I explored Amazon FBA as a way to diversify my income portfolio.

In local lead biz I get paid to deliver leads to small business owners using free traffic. I really liked Amazon FBA but I realized that my local business fit more with what I wanted in my life and it’s how I make the majority of my money online.

But let’s get to the reason you’re here. Without further ado, here’s my list of the top five Amazon FBA courses in 2019.

#5 Philip Covington’s Ultimate Amazon Seller

Philip isn’t the most flashy and in your face online mentor but his course is as solid as they come.

He doesn’t leave anything left uncovered when it comes to the Amazon business. He goes into crazy detail about everything including branding, shipping labels, taxes, etc.

He has a couple different things about his background that make him a good coach. He has an extensive background in engineering which is a good explanation for how detailed his course is.

He’s been a business owner for well over twenty years so you know that he isn’t a social media phenom that’s seen success for like two or three years.

His experience level in business is very important to note because he’s been through and seen a lot of things in his business life. Both ups and downs and he knows how to overcome them.

Also, it’s extremely important to know that the coach is still in the industry that he teaches because you don’t want to be learning from somebody who is no longer doing what they’re teaching you.

He’s not just making money off of the course when you buy it. It’s just another source of his income on top of his ability to run a successful business in the industry.

Philip covers everything in great detail. Everything from dealing with suppliers and private labeling to doing your taxes and establishing an LLC. Even selling the course.

If you’re intent on getting into Amazon FBA then you can’t go wrong with Phil.

I think the course community is extremely important. In the case of this course, the community is on the smaller side and that doesn’t fit what I like. I like being around a lot of people who are doing exactly what I do. For the support.

That’s the reason his course is at 5 and not higher up.

But hey, a smaller group might be for you and if that’s the case then you can’t go wrong here.

Cost: $497

Phil does have a steeper price for his course but IMO it is worth it. For how detailed he is and his experience level. He also includes something call “hot picks.” These are products that he’s actually been involved with and he’s done the research personally.

This doesn’t guarantee success but it does allow beginners to hit the ground running.

I think it’s worth it even if you take out the value of the hot picks.

#4 Jim Cockrum’s Proven Amazon Course

Jim has been in the eCommerce world for quite a while now. He’s very seasoned and a great mentor when it comes to Amazon FBA.

They make some wild claims saying they have 10x the success stories of any other Amazon courses out there. I don’t know how true that is because it’s almost impossible to track.

But I will say that they have a lot of active members that are a part of this course. Yes, some of that is because the course has been in existence longer than others.

It was launched in 2009 and the cost is a very reasonable $399.

They give you a valuable tool which is a software that assists students with product research, which is pretty nice.

I did slot them fourth on the list because I felt there was a little bit of disorganization. I noticed there were times there was information I was after and I had to sift through webinars and a series of videos just to find it.

Overall, I would say that Jim’s level of experience having coached a course for the last 10 years makes the program worth the price.

#3 Dan Vas’ Amazon Freedom Course

Dan absolutely fits the sterotypical “young entrepreneur” that you find on social media these days. But don’t underestimate the valuable knowledge that this guy has.

IMO he offers the best course among the young successes that get depicted on your news feeds.

There are many courses out there that leave out information or just don’t do a good job of explaining everything you need to know to operate an Amazon FBA business on a daily basis.

Not his course though.

It won’t take you long to see that Dan is a very detail-oriented guy and he almost comes off as a perfectionist. He does a very good job of covering his course material in depth, making sure to not leave anything out or skip something that would lead to confusion.

Dan talks very fast too which means he can get his point across very quickly without leaving out details. It turns long, grueling sessions into short and sweet lessons.

You can see this if you’ve ever watched one of his videos. They’re extremely short but once you watch it you feel like you understand exactly the message he’s trying to convey.

That’s actually what drew me to Dan. I know how valuable my time is in business so I don’t like to feel like people are wasting it.

The use of Youtube has launched many coaching careers in online business in recent years and Amazon FBA coaching is no different.

Video is so powerful and coaches exude a ton of confidence and do a good job of representing their lifestyle that comes with a successful business.

But when you get into some of these courses and explore their content, sometimes it doesn’t take long to realize that it lacks meat. Meaning the content just sucks.

Dan’s course has the meat. He runs a legitimate Amazon business himself and you can tell that he’s been highly successful doing so.

Don’t let his age fool you. This guy gets it.

Price $497

#2 Beau Crabill’s Online Retail Mastery

Beau looks even younger than Dan (mentioned above). Yes he’s young but after you understand this guy’s experience level you’ll be blown away.

He has over 10 years of experience running eCommerce businesses!

Wow.

According to him he’s been an entrepreneur since birth and with over 10 years at such a young age, it’s not hard to believe him.

He was a college student. Division 1 athletic scholarship. 4.24 minute mile as a runner.

And he left it all behind.

Beau was already at the forefront of an Amazon business. And a 7 figure one at that.

One of the things I like most about him is the importance that he places on building a long term business. He doesn’t push private labeling for that reason.

What makes his training unique is that it’s all about finding quality suppliers and selling big-time brands through Amazon.

When I say big brands I’m talking about those you find at big box retailers.

Selling big brands can be great because you know those products usually aren’t going anywhere but there are some additional things to keep in mind when doing this. You need to be qualified to do it as well.

Also, I think it’s a mistake to completely disregard private labeling because I do like some of the opportunities that come with it.

Price $997

#1 Matt Clark & Jason Katzenback – Amazon Selling Machine

Amazon Selling Machine was the course that I first invested in a few years back. It’s had a handful of course updates since that time and I would put it up there with the most popular Amazon FBA courses today.

Paid advertising campaigns are a large part of that. These guys do a great job of promoting their course using the FB and Youtube platforms.

They really push the use of private labeling unlike Beau (which we discussed above). Private labeling is when you create a brand yourself for a product.

A more in-depth explanation of private labeling would be rebranding a product and putting right back on Amazon. Let’s look at an example.

If you find a protein supplement that sells well on Amazon, then you find one just like it from a manufacturer and you re brand the product. Simply by putting a new label on the product.

What makes this course great is that they take this approach a little bit further. They have a teaching that they call product tuning.

This is when you find a product or products that aren’t doing well, read the reviews, and see if there is anything you can tweak about it to turn it into a winner. It’s important to note that you aren’t changing the actual product.

Some changes you could make may be repackaging the product or including directions that are simpler or more detailed.

When you read reviews on Amazon, many times the complaints are about poor directions or the product came damaged which is a result of poor packaging.

These are both things that you could change yourself to increase the success of selling the given product.

It’s evident that these guys are extremely knowledgeable because they have big community that continues to grow. If you decide to join the course you have access to the community.

You’ll quickly see that it works if you choose to ride with these guys.

Jason and Matt have a fantastic partnership and they do a good job of refreshing the course. This may be as simple as bringing in other coaches or successful sellers that have gone through their course.

It’s an interesting and inspiring way to do case studies. Very motivating as well to see others accomplishing great success after going through the same course as you.

Price $3,997

Amazon FBA Business Model – Pros and Cons

I’ve had some success when it comes to the Amazon FBA model. Don’t get me wrong, it absolutely works. But I think it’s important to discuss the pros and cons of every model because they all have them.

Also, going over these will help me to better convey why I still prefer my local lead gen business model that still pays me the most today.

We’ll start with the Pros

• this is probably the most obvious reason but Amazon FBA takes care of packaging, shipping, returns, etc. which is a huge plus. These things can absolutely keep you from scaling your business rapidly
• listen, Amazon is a massive company. The biggest in the world as a matter of fact. Their revenue grows year in and year out so this model isn’t going anywhere
• the massive customer base that visits Amazon every single month (200 million people per month)
• the ability to duplicate the process
• passive income – you can use free, organic traffic to drive your sales once your listing gets ranked
• if you are skilled with paid ads and email marketing you can have a leg up on the competition

The cons

• your competition can copy your product idea
• negative reviews are inevitable and out of your control
• rankings aren’t easy to control because customer reviews drive them
• profit margins can vary. Amazon FBA fees can be as high as 25% of the price of the product you’re selling. That on top of ad fees, shipping fees and more.
• more and more people are starting Amazon FBA businesses every single year which only leads to increased competition. It will only take longer to rank products
• preparation – it can take quite a while to get listings up. You have to find a quality supplier, try out the samples and wait for shipment from overseas at times
• since you’re working on the Amazon platform, if they ban your account you can lose your income instantly

I Still Prefer Local Lead Gen in 2019

It’s important to note that running an Amazon FBA business is a lot like running a brick and mortar physical product business. You still have to deal with some of the same things.

Competition can sell similar products as you.

Customer service.

Product returns.

A big thing for me is profit margins. I want to keep as much of my earned money as I possibly can.

The high level of competition on Amazon drives profit margins down as well as the fees that have to be paid to the platform. This means that you’ll have to sell more to make more.

Easy right? Well, that also means handling more customer complaints, reviews, returns, etc.

There is very little room for error with this model because there is so much going on and a single mistake can cost you a ton of money. Like a ton.

That’s why it’s so important to find the right program and especially mentor. That’s why it was so important for me to review the best courses out there.

At the end of the day, I think it comes down to personality. You have to mesh well with the coach and community that you align with.

Like I said before, I was already running a very successful lead gen biz before I ventured into Amazon FBA. The whole point was for me to generate another stream of income.

I did it and I had success but I got to a point where I wanted to refocus all of that attention back to my lead gen biz.

The question is why?

Well, it was really simple for me. Scalability.

When you’re trying to scale a business it’s a lot easier to do it with a business that offers digital products and/or services.

I don’t want to spend my days answering customer complaints or worrying about the next poor review that comes in.

Once I mastered a single skill with lead generation I could crank out more and more sites (like the one below that pays me every single month on auto-pilot) and continue to increase my income without having to worry about these things.

It’s important to note that in my business the profit margins I see are usually north of 90%. That’s incredibly rare to find in business.

I get to keep my money instead of dishing it out.

Just Amazon’s fees alone are enough to keep me away from it. You’d have to sell $100k a month just to come away with $15k in profits.

No thanks.

Just for reference, in my lead gen biz when I land a couple of higher paying clients I can increase my monthly by 15k/mo. And I put that on auto-pilot. No nagging customers.

When I began my lead gen business a few years back I was still working my 9 to 5. After a few short months I committed to it and went full time. I had absolutely no experience with running a business or doing sales.

I’m now a very successful business owner. I can take as many vacations as I want and most importantly when I want.

Not only that but I can have a positive effect on the lives of business owners.

Sure you can.

But let’s back up for a minute and talk about Anton. He is a drop shipping and eCom guru that’s been in the space for well over a decade now. After having success with his online business he launched Drop Ship Lifestyle (DSL) in 2013.

DSL is a course that teaches you how to start and maintain an eCommerce business by utilizing the Shopify store platform and it was rated the best eCom program by Shopify in 2019.

Not only is Anton an experienced drop shipper and online businessman but he does a great job with maintaining and updating his program on a consistent basis. Him and his team are always adding new things to the course for existing members and newcomers to his program.

This is extremely important for the health and longevity of any course. I would know because my mentor and the guy who got me into online business (local lead generation) has done a fantastic job of updating content. It brings value to the members and creates a community.

That’s why it should come as no surprise that the online reviews for Anton’s course glow with positives. When you combine his level of experience with a love for the community, there is no reason for members not to enjoy his course.

Anton’s experience level is key because it sets him apart from all of the so-called “online business gurus” that strut their stuff across your news feed every single day. He’s been there, he’s done it.

That’s the reason I was drawn to the local lead gen model that’s changed my life. You can click here for more on that.

When I first met my mentor, I knew he was the real deal. He oozes confidence and he’s a guy that you want to follow into battle. I want to surround myself with people like him and Anton.

I know you’ll appreciate my approach toward this review as I will give you my pros and cons. I’ve been in drop shipping. I’ve run a paid advertising/marketing agency. I’ve done local lead gen and marketing (which is what I do now).

I’ll give you some firsthand reviews of this business model and hopefully answer some questions like…

Is life in the drop shipping business for me?

Pros and cons of this life?

What are the challenges?

What has to be done to see success?

Is Anton’s course legit?

Is drop shipping better than other online models?

Dropship Lifestyle Course Layout

Right up front the important thing to understand about drop shipping is that you’ll be selling physical products using the internet.

You’ll be selecting a product, finding a supplier, setting up your own website and optimizing it, doing paid ads, etc.

Here’s a brief layout of the training:

• Module 1: Niche Selection
• Module 2: Market Research
• Module 3: Web Design
• Module 4: Supplier Selection & Approvals
• Module 5: Optimization for Conversions
• Module 6: Get Traffic (learn paid ad strategies)
• Module 7: Automation

It will take you a handful of hours to get through this course. Like we talked about before, he is constantly updating and adding more information to the program so expect more to be added.

He does a good job of making sure his students understand that the product they choose to sell must make sense. By that I mean that you want it to be a product that is on the expensive side. Ideally around $1000 or so per sale.

The fact that there are no upsells in the course is just fantastic. Every damn guru out there nowadays is trying to make another $100 off of prospective students. NO UPSELLS HERE.

I like that he’s consistently adding to the training and bringing more value to existing and new students alike. That’s been huge for me in my own lead gen business. Value is key.

How Do You Succeed In This eCommerce Business?

Please understand that this business model requires a lot of work. You must be prepared to do daily maintenance and take time to work on your store daily.

This is not a build it and leave it type of thing like the lead gen model that makes money for me every day with almost zero upkeep.

There are two sides to running an eCom business. Not only do you have to become a great digital marketer but you also have to understand how to run a store.

That is what you’ll be doing. You’re taking the idea of a physical store like Lowe’s or Home Depot and you’re putting it in the web space. You’re the CEO, the cashier, the stock boy or stock girl and the marketing whiz.

You’ll need to ask yourself if you can balance that or if you need an online business model that can maintain itself. For me, it was the latter.

Let’s look at the crucial elements that go into running this drop ship business.

• Niche selection
  • This is the most important step in almost any digital business. If you don’t pick a great niche, you struggle
• Research the market extensively
• Study your competition
• Locate suppliers that will give you the best products and deals
• Set up an attractive website that people will be drawn to
• You must be able to talk/sell to suppliers to get the best deal possible
• Understand how to optimize yourself and maximize possibility for conversions
• Driving the correct traffic to your site
  • Dealing with the needs of this traffic and tracking how they’re interacting with your site
• Utilize the modern live chat system
  • Potential customers need assistance 24/7 so provide them with it
• Always be prepared to answer the phone calls. Customer service is key.
• Follow up to all emails and missed calls ASAP
• Be ready to take on complaints and returns and understand how to deal with it

I hope you can see by now how much actual work it takes to run this on a daily basis. I’ve only outlined a handful of the things you’ll need to be prepared for.

With the way the internet evolves on a daily basis you’ll have to be ready for new curveballs to be thrown your way all the time.

Not only that, but selling a physical product online is a competitive space. You’ll be going up against massive companies like Amazon and other well-known stores depending on the niche and market you decide to enter.

I promise you that Amazon will have the brand advantage on you so you better do everything in your power to make sure that every other aspect of your business is tip top notch. Don’t overlook anything.

I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to dismiss drop shipping as a viable model. There are plenty of extremely successful case studies out there of people making millions with it. It cannot be discredited.

With that said, can we all admit that just those handful of reasons that I listed seem like a lot of work? Do you really want to be dealing with customer service all day long? My lead gen business doesn’t require any of this stuff.

You’re suppose to be living the laptop lifestyle baby! We both know that’s why you’re looking into this course anyway. We all want to be relaxing on a white beach somewhere while making money doing it.

It’s difficult to accomplish that while selling physical products. Unless you have a lengthy list of employees under you.

But let’s face it. That creates another list of potential issues as well.

Pros & Cons of the Dropshipping Business

I’m a positive guy so let’s go with the pros first:

• Tons of products that you can find success with
• You own the store/brand, you have more control versus selling on Amazon FBA
• High potential to grow the business once you’ve get through the initial bumps in the road
• Collect all of your own information about your customers
  • You can’t do this with Amazon FBA because Amazon essentially owns everything you do
  • This increases the prospects of you making it a long-term business
• Don’t worry about controlling the inventory. Customer orders from you and product is sent from supplier straight to the consumer
• The web designing process is made very simple and very user-friendly on the Shopify platform
• The products sell themselves meaning there is little to no contact with human life needed

Now the negatives:

• Profit margins! One thing that every business owner is worried about is their profits. Duh. You can expect to see no more than 20% margins here and I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sit well with me. It’s important to remember that you’ll see margins this small in a business that requires continuous effort, unlike the local lead generation model that I follow. Set it and forget it!
• Completing your orders will become increasingly more time consuming when your business begins to grow
• Competition can be extremely high. Never mind the big branded Amazon, even other drop shippers selling high-cost products like you do.
• Like I said before, niche selection is key. You need to find a product to sell with a sweet spot. It needs to be high-price but also lower competition.
• A lot of ongoing work! The more scaling you do, the more your work load will increase.

Final Thoughts on Drop Ship Lifestyle (DSL)

While many people have and will continue to find success using this course and model of business, it absolutely has it’s downfalls. You need to get very clear with yourself on what you can and can’t tolerate.

If you’re a busy person and want to be consumed by the business you run, then great.

If you want to constantly be on the move, travel, try new things then maybe the eCom side of things just isn’t right for you.

In my life, I like to always experience new things. I like to travel to new places, go to different locations for sporting events and go out with friends on a Tuesday night if I really want to.

This is a huge reason why I decided to go in a different direction when deciding which online business model to run full-time.

If you’re not like me and you love the idea of working IN your business all day every day then by all means go find yourself a teach. eCommerce can be great if you find the correct mentor. Trust me when I tell you, go save yourself some money and find a mentor. I think Anton would be a solid choice.

He can get you to where you want to be if the eCom Lifestyle is right for you.

Why I Turned My Focus to Local Lead Gen

This business completely changed my life. Not only was it the business, it was the mentorship. After only two months I quit my job and committed myself to local marketing and SEO.

What drew me to it and why I’m so confident in it (enough to have quit my job):

• All of the traffic is free! Once I get a site ranked and it’s generating income for me, I can essentially put it on auto-pilot
• Damn near 100% profit margins. Need I say more?
• Lower level of competition. I only have to compete with 5-20 other sites for business and most of them don’t know shit about the digital space.
• I don’t have to be concerned with products, customer complaints or returns.
• I can do business in any city or state
• I can increase my income level on a daily basis

Check out my pool site below as an example. This site has been paying me $650/mo for a couple of years now. And I haven’t touched it.

I’ve given myself the pleasure of doing something that I love to do. I love working behind my laptop every day and changing my schedule around whenever I want to.

I have five vacations planned this year and my business won’t fall apart because of it.

The best part is I could pack up tomorrow and go on a trip. The only thing I need to do is check my laptop and phone every couple of days to make sure everything is going well.

The local lead gen biz is by far my favorite business model I’ve ever done.

I owe my freedom to this. I no longer wake up dreading going into work. Instead I’m excited on Monday morning because I’m given the opportunity to increase my income level daily.

It feels amazing when people look at me weird after I tell them I don’t have a job. They get all concerned about my livelihood but in reality I make more than they do and my income potential dwarves theirs.

It feels incredible to know that I was able to change my life with the help of others. I’m now part of a growing community of entrepreneurs and freedom fighters.

If you’d like to regain your freedom then maybe you should check out our coaching course. We can teach you the exact model and techniques that I’ve used to give myself a true laptop lifestyle.

Come take care of business. Take back your life. Put your mind to it and you can’t fail. I’m an average every day guy and I did it. Why can’t you?

I actually first came across Alex Becker at a conference that I was fortunate enough to attend a few years back. He talked about not being able to scale his first online marketing business past $20-30k/mo.

Unfortunately, this is a common theme when you’re running a client-based business and working for other business owners.

For every client or business owner you bring on board, the workload increases along with your income level. Everyone loves the idea of adding income until they realize they can’t handle the amount of work with their small team of 2 or 3 anymore.

Eventually he directed his business efforts toward software development and launching products which elevated his income from $20-30k to $100k/mo. Alex noticed that selling digital products was a lot easier to scale because once you sell the product, that’s it. Game over.

Every single one of us would love to collect a check and not have to provide labor intensive work after. Collect the check and be done with it. Beautiful.

And that leads us to his model of selling multiple courses online. “How to’s” and coaching programs for many different models.

The amount of digital products that Alex has on the market today is staggering. And absolutely the most out of any digital marketing whiz. He has an array of well-made videos that drive paid traffic to his products which leads to an abundance of people to sell his products to.

I think it’s fair to say that the two most well known courses that he offers are built around the shopify eCom dropship and SEO models. So the real question ends up being if these are the two most well-known, then which of the two is better?

This becomes a double-edged sword. When you offer an abundance of courses and products it can be seen from two different angles. On one hand, you have plenty of things to offer potential and existing students/clients. On the other hand, when you spread your attention across a multitude of courses/products it becomes a lot harder to maintain a high quality across those.

There are a few things that we will go into further detail on in this article:

• We will dive into a handful of Alex’s products

• Pit them against each other and make comparisons

• Talk about how they match up against my favorite online model (local lead generation)

Reviewing H-Com 2020 Program

This is Alex’s known program that aims to teach students everything they need to know about the eCom drop shipping business model.

Drop shipping has become so popular over the last couple of years so of course there are many other courses out there around this same concept.

The unique thing that Becker offers is the fact that he packages this course with his own tracking software, Market Hero (more on that later). I like that he tries to offer some extra value by coupling these two.

To be honest, I do have mixed feelings about the drop ship model. I’ve experienced the highs it can bring as well as the very real lows. A sprinkle of success mixed in with quite a bit of… well, let’s call it failure because I don’t like to be Mr. Negativity.

I’ve always been in love with the online business world. In fact, I had already established a reliable stream of passive income with my local lead gen biz before I decided to get into eCommerce. I was simply looking for a way to diversify my online portfolio.

After some time spent in the drop ship model, I decided it was time to redirect all of the time I was spending doing labor intensive work with drop shipping back into my local biz.

There are a few different aspects of the drop ship model that stand out to me as things that I don’t like. One of these is the fact that you have to drive paid traffic. Utilizing Facebook ads can be very difficult at times. It takes a lot of time to master the detailed targeting system that the FB ads platform employs. Couple this with rising FB ad costs and all of a sudden you have some things that are eating into your profit margins.

This was a very hard pill for me to swallow since I had been making great money by utilizing FREE traffic. Obviously, when you’re able to leverage free traffic it leads to profit margins that are damn near 100%. Come on now, how good does that sound?

Another glaring issue with the drop ship model is the fact that the amount of work required to run it will go up considerably as you scale the business. This requires you to bring on more members to your team which will also eat into your profit margins.

Customer service issues simply put it over the top for me. I don’t want to deal with an abundance of customer complaints and product returns when I’m focused on scaling a business to a level that I want to be at.

Don’t be fooled, eCom drop shipping is not as easy to scale as many people are led to believe.

Reviewing Source Wave University

Ah, now we get into a major segment of my local lead gen world. But before we talk about how it differs, let’s dive into Alex’s SEO course.

Source Wave is an SEO course that was developed by Alex Becker and a couple of others including Stephen Floyd and Gregory Ortiz.

OMG Machines, a course created by Stephen, is the reason I first stumbled upon Floyd’s work.

In a nut shell this course is designed to help you bring more SEO clients into your agency/business. When you do this you’re basically getting paid to rank the client’s site for them. My question is, why wouldn’t you rank your own site and pay yourself for it (more on that later)?

If you dig into Source Wave’s case studies you’ll find many instances where students are bringing in clients paying them $1k-2k/mo. That sounds great and all but if you know anything about SEO then you’ll know the real question is, how long are they able to keep these clients?

Ah, the cold hard truth… SEO clients only work with you for about 6 months on average. The question is why?

• Marketers promise results that they can’t produce
• The client feels that the marketer is no different than anyone else and they choose to work with another agency
• The client believes you’ve gotten all the results you can deliver and decides to let you go
• Most marketers don’t set the correct level of expectations and the client gets tired of waiting because they don’t understand SEO takes a lot of time (depending on the competition)

Another issue with the SEO model is the ongoing and consistent workload. A lot like drop shipping, as you scale your SEO business the amount of work you have to get done will go up as well.

These are some of the main reasons that I don’t offer SEO services anymore. It’s just not worth the amount of work it takes to obtain and maintain a client account.

I continue to build my local lead generation biz model because I own the assets that I am trying to rank. Click here for more info.

Not ranking assets for someone else and then they cut me off when they feel I’ve served and fixed the issue they had.

It’s extremely important to remember, the beauty of my model are that these sites are mine. They are assets. Virtual real estate baby. I am the landlord and my clients are the tenants. If they don’t want to pay their rent for my leads, then I simply go find another tenant (business owner). BEAUTIFUL.

When you build these assets and own them, you continue to get paid for work that you put in one, two, four, or five years ago. Whenever it is that you took the time to build it.

And yes, I do continue to get paid from sites that I haven’t touched in years.

That’s why I know that our lead gen coaching program is better than Source Wave’s SEO program in 2019.

Reviewing Market Hero

Market Hero is a software that Alex developed to employ in his own business. It’s a lead and conversion tracker that he says will increase your eCommerce drop shipping sales. On top of that it can also do email marketing.

This is not an absolute must for you to be successful with this business model, however it is a do-it-all program if you’re getting into eCommerce. There are a handful of useful things it has going for it.

My favorite feature of Market Hero is the fact that it automates calculations and tells you the value of each lead. It may not help much at first but once your site starts driving sales this would be a fantastic tool to use.

Yes, these calculations can be figured out manually but it is a complete pain in the ass to continuously fill in Excel spreadsheets or Google sheets. Especially when you consider the fact that you’ll be tracking your FB ad sales versus your email marketing sales.

As you could imagine things can get pretty complicated when all those numbers start flying around. Market Hero really eases that pain.

Reviewing the Black File

I would say that this is the most useful “side tool” that Alex offers for a beginner starting a business in the online space. With this, Alex hands you ad examples and landing pages that he has used himself.

Having someone else’s work to go off of can be an advantage when you’re a beginner.

In all honesty, I think the Black File should be included with Alex’s coaching program. It would be nice if he offered this immense value into the programs for no extra cost.

If you’re getting into the drop shipping model then this tool is for you. It’s here and available for people who need to drive paid traffic to a store. Make sure you utilize this if you’re doing so.

Alex is essentially holding your hand and showing you the way to ad creation and funnel creation. The purpose of this is to provide you the “templates” to be used on a huge scale. Things that you can duplicate repeatedly across many different niches.

Reviewing Hero Consulting Accelerator

In this training, Jason W shares some unique and valuable strategies on how to do email marketing campaigns effectively and efficiently.

While I personally don’t like email marketing, this can be useful for those who have established a certain skill that they’re able to offer someone. Something that leads to high income like the lead gen biz.

Reviewing 8X Hero Academy

More email marketing. And more. And more. Let’s move on.

So Are Becker and His Courses Scams? Nah.

There’s one thing that I’ve learned along the way of becoming a successful entrepreneur. When you have haters, you know you’re doing something right.

Okay but for real, just because some people give his courses bad reviews doesn’t mean Alex is a scam artist. People tend to get sensitive and blame others for their own failures.

I’ve just defended Alex against scam accusations, however it doesn’t mean I’m going to jump on what he offers. I definitely think people can see success by using it but it does have it’s flaws.

IMO some of his programs are just disorganized and all over the place when you take the price into consideration. For example, the many webinars where he simply brings in another expert to teach new tactics and discuss strategies.

I’m not saying he doesn’t have good stuff, he does. It just feels like it could be better and bring more value for all of the upsells and costs for new courses and products.

If he was offering top notch programs across the board then it wouldn’t be an issue but there are a few programs being upsold that I would consider a lower quality.

Let’s discuss a few sales tactics. Tricky webinar funnels. He claims that these are live webinars when they clearly aren’t. Also, “buy my program tactics today before it’s gone forever.”

Here’s another big issue I have. There are plenty of gurus and whiz’s out there of different programs that contact Alex in hopes that they can promote themselves by using Alex’s massive audience. What does this mean?

Products, programs and courses are being promoted through Becker’s audience that he hasn’t even used himself.

His students and followers trust him as the expert. They buy said programs. It’s up to the students to educate themselves on what they’re buying.

There are positives and negatives to everything but all-in-all Alex’s flagship courses are completely solid. Those being the drop ship and SEO courses. He is a great entrepreneur and his students can learn many things from him.

I’m simply saying that I’ve tried these models and they weren’t for me. I’ve found much more success with less long-term work.

In Conclusion

If you’re adamant about joining one of Alex’s programs then I would suggest the SEO course.

Although, I may be a bit biased because the use of SEO has led me to the massive success I’ve seen using the lead generation model.

My concern is the constant addition of new products and programs. It sounds great but it has it’s negatives.

New content is needed in doses. When most people get into online business models they have shiny object syndrome.

There are so many gurus out there, every time a beginner sees something or someone new they think that it’s the answer to their struggles. Sometimes you need to put your head down, work your ass off, and overcome the adversity by becoming an expert in what you do.

You don’t need a new model/product every week when you’re just looking to find the best online model to start your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Find a model that makes sense to you. Commit to it. Work your ass off. Work your ass off some more. And more. Then you will see the results you desire.

You need to understand that you won’t see results you desire until you bring the necessary value to the marketplace that is required for those results. The only way to do this is to become an expert in your field.

You will face issues. You will stumble. And you’ll fall down. Running a successful online business is all about being able to pick yourself up and make sure that exact issue never causes you to fall again. As an entrepreneur, you’re a problem solver.

Find what inspires you. Once you have your “why” and you combine that with an expertise in one or two high income skills. Now you’ve unlocked the door my friend. Open the flood gates.

This expertise for me was my lead gen biz model. When I went through this program I was working from 9am to 630pm Monday thru Friday. It sucked.

Three months later I quit my day job and committed myself to my lead generation business full time. Going through this coaching program changed my life. I have a skill that not many other people have and that’s why my clients are willing to pay me hundreds and thousands of dollars every month, repeatedly.

Now I make my own schedule everyday.

I choose when I want to take vacations and I don’t need anyone’s approval.

I work from my laptop no matter what city or state I’m in that day.

This pool site is just one example of an asset that pays me month after month.

I love my life. I love my freedom. I love the skills I’ve acquired. But get this… I love Monday mornings because I get to wake up and give myself a raise!