ALGO Online Retail Mastery course by Tim Hellbusch is an Amazon FBA course that teaches you how to start an Amazon business. There are so many Amazon FBA courses it feels as if none of them are worth buying because they all teach the same start-up process.
The challenge with Amazon FBA is that you will not earn a passive, predictable income every month. There are going to be off months where you make no money and some months where you make a few hundred dollars. If you're fortunate enough, you may sell out of your inventory. There will also be times where your products don't sell at all, even if you are doing Amazon PPC (expensive to run paid ads). Then you'll get stuck with all the inventory, resulting in you having to sell off everything to break even or at a loss.
In this ALGO Online Retail Mastery review, I'm going to layout the top 5 risks you take when selling on Amazon, who Tim Hellbusch is, what you learn in this course, if anyone has made a lot of money because of this course, if Amazon FBA is worth it in 2024, and how it compares to the popular local lead generation business model that offers a passive income.
Pros
Several students are having success shortly after joining the course
24 hour support hotlines
In-person training events
They keep the course updated with the latest strategies and methods that currently work in the world of Amazon FBA
Cons
There are cheaper Amazon FBA courses that teach you just as much as this course does.
You can also learn how to start your FBA business for free by going on YouTube
Amazon selling is not a business model that allows you to have the control you'd like as a business owner
Price:
Algo Online Retail Mastery costs $1,997. 5 month payment plan available ($397 per month)
Refund Policy:
Action-based, 30-day money-back guarantee
Training:
Over 20 hours of course material divided into over 150 training videos; downloadable resources
Group:
Private ALGO Business Support Group on Facebook
Reputation:
You won't find any negative reviews on this course on platforms like Reddit or Quora. Several students have solid reasons they are happy with this course.
Top 5 Risks of Selling on Amazon
1. Amazon Controls Your FBA Business
You are not in control of your Amazon FBA business. Amazon is. Why? First, you're selling products on their platform, therefore you need to play by their rules. If Amazon feels as if you are not following their terms of service, they can shut your account down. For example, if you get too many negative reviews, they can also shut it down because they will feel as if your listing is not adding value to their platform. Amazon also sides more with their customers than with Amazon sellers. Customers have no problem getting refunds, but sellers have a difficult time contacting support. This can be very frustrating.
2. High Saturation Level
According to a study by JungleScout, there are almost 4000 new Amazon sellers joining the platform each day. Hundreds of thousands of sellers have flooded Amazon and are selling many of the same products. This makes it highly difficult to standout and grow your business to a level where you can predict your income. The only way to try to standout from the rest is to private label products. This requires a larger initial investment on your behalf because you will then have to compete against larger, more established brands who have huge marketing budgets. Another reason the saturation level is high is because suppliers and manufacturers are creating Amazon Seller accounts themselves and selling products for much cheaper than other Amazon sellers. They are essentially cutting out the middlemen (other Amazon sellers). All of this makes it difficult to become financially free on Amazon in 2024.
3. Competitors Can Copy Your Product Listings
A downside of this business model is that anyone can copy your product listing. It doesn't matter how hard you worked on product research, listing optimization, and product promotion. Anyone can find your listing, see how profitable it is, and duplicate your work. They may even do it better than you. As a result, you may find yourself not getting any sales and will have to find another product to sell.
4. Expensive to Pay For Traffic
Paid traffic is getting more expensive as the years pass. According to a study, Facebook's (Meta) CPM has risen 61% each year the last few years. Google CPM has risen 75% yearly, and TikTok's CPM has gone up 185% each year. As the cost of running ads rises, the more your profits will decrease. Clearly, the trend is that ad cost across all paid traffic, social media platforms is going to continue rising, especially when you factor in the number of people becoming Amazon sellers each day. You can always look for a different strategy, and analyze the analytics, but that won't stop these platforms from increasing ad cost.
5. Price Wars for the Buy Box are Real
80%-90% of all Amazon sales go through the Buy Box. With that in mind, everyone's goal is to win the Buy Box so that they can soak up the most sales. Competition for the Buy Box isn't easy because all the sellers start to lower their pricing to beat every other seller out. These price wars result in everyone losing out on money that should be profit. New sellers can get discouraged by these price wars. This happens often and is one reason some people prefer to start an online store with dropshipping. There is still a lot of competition, but not on Amazon for a Buy Box.
Tim Hellbusch's Story
Tim Hellbusch is from American Fork, Utah. In 1989, he went to Brigham Young University. In 1992, got his Bachelor in science from the University of Utah. Ever since 1999, he was an ecommerce specialist and training expert. In 2001, he and his wife started making crafts and sold them locally. They also started selling their crafts on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.
In time, the bigger companies like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, and eBay joined the world of ecommerce as well. This forced many mom-and-pop shops to close unless they joined these larger companies. Tim and his wife did exactly that and have continued making money online. For over 5 years, they have been selling products on the Amazon marketplace.
Tim joined the ALGO Online team as the lead instructor to help thousands of new and experienced Amazon sellers take their businesses to the next level. The ALGO Online Retail YouTube channel has over 12.1K subscribers, but they have not posted videos since June 5, 2022.
What you learn in ALGO Online Retail Mastery
The ALGO team helps you setup your business legally and open your Amazon Seller account.
You learn how to source products from United States-based suppliers instead of looking overseas in countries like China.
Finding the right supplier is crucial to your success. This course will show you how to find, vet, and establish relationships with suppliers that last a long time.
For joining this course, you're provided with exclusive software, automations, and strategies that will help you scale your business faster.
They show you how to prepare your inventory so they can ship it to Amazon's warehouses.
You're taught how everything works with the logistics of Amazon fulfilling your orders.
The last part of this course is where you learn how to grow your Amazon FBA business by implementing bundles, selling on other ecommerce platforms, advertising on Facebok and more.
ALGO Online Retail Mastery Success Stories
When you watch Damon Claire's testimonial, you can see that the success he's had with this program has changed his life for the better. Damon had taken two other Amazon FBA courses prior to investing in ALGO Online Retail. He even tried Amazon Automation but lost $30K because the company who he signed up with barely did anything. After joining ALGO, he immediately saw the difference. He says the experience and partnerships that the ALGO team has as well as the education is second to none, in his opinion. In a year long span of time, Damon reached over $239K in revenue. He still has a full-time job working with adults with disabilities because he has a passion for it.
Ruben used to be a pharmacist before he started selling products on Amazon and shared a positive review. To Ruben, joining ALGO was the best decision he's made. He has been running his FBA business for over two years in a part-time capacity. Still, he is generating 6-figure months. Ruben is very grateful for all the help and support he's received from the ALGO team.
ALGO Online Retail Mastery Alternatives
Wholesale Academy by Larry Lubarsky is the best Wholesale Amazon FBA training course I've come across. This course isn't always open for enrollment, but if you get in, you'll learn how to not only start your Amazon FBA business but also how to scale it. Larry has made over 8-figures selling products on Amazon. Each of the over 50 training videos in this course are in depth and you learn each aspect of Amazon FBA well. Larry also shows you how to sell products in Europe. Twice a month, you can even join the live coaching calls.
Price: Wholesale Academy costs $1,997
More Info: Wholesale Academy Review
For more alternative courses, read my article where I list the best Amazon FBA courses you can take. On the list you'll find courses such as Tim Sanders' Private Label Masters and Amazing Selling Machine.
Is ALGO Online Retail Mastery worth it?
ALGO Online Retail is worth it if you are sold on what current students have to say about this course and the results they've achieved. Also, if you don't mind spending $1,997, then you're on track to learning and starting your Amazon FBA business. You're going to learn all aspects of the business model and the support provided in this course is some of the best support you'll find in an online course today.
If you think the price of this course is steep, you can always check out Amazon's Seller University, where Amazon teaches you how to get started with the FBA business model.
Is Amazon FBA still profitable in 2024?
Amazon FBA is still profitable in 2024, but not as much as a few years ago. Getting started as an Amazon seller is a simple process, but scaling to over 6-figures isn't easy because there are too many factors that are against you.
First, you're at Amazon's mercy. One wrong move and they can suspend your Amazon account. You don't have control over how many people buy your products and you can't predict how much money you'll make each month.
To generate any kind of traffic, you've also got to run some advertisements on Facebook or Instagram. Paid traffic is not conducive to you earning a passive income because you need to test different ad creatives and aspects of your ad often so you can find the ad that will convert the best. Accomplishing this is expensive and can be very time-consuming.
As is the case with other online business models, Amazon FBA does work, but it doesn't offer you the financial & time freedom that local lead generation does.
Final Thoughts
You have all the control when you start a local lead generation business. How much money you make is all dependant on the niche you choose to get into, the local business you choose to work with, and how much you choose to rent your lead generation site for each month.
I built this tree care site that generates $2000 per month over 7 years ago. Ever since I built, ranked on Google and rented it to a local tree care company, I've gotten paid on autopilot. I haven't had to do much else after it ranked a top the local search results in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The key to making sure you always get paid each month for each of your lead generation sites is to make sure your sites are ranked top 3 in the Google map pack. If you can accomplish that, you'll always get paid because your clients will be happy you're sending them exclusive leads consistently.
To learn how to take control of your time and income without having to deal with Amazon's rules or any physical products, check out the local lead generation training program.
Excellent points you made! Thank you for the review!
Tim Hellbusch does NOT honor any refunds. Buyer beware. It's a total scam.
This sounds really amazing and I can see it can be risky buying the best products out there and not selling anything.
I want to give this a try but ;do not have much money, I am currently unemployed