"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--more and more sellers are employing black hat tactics to try to win more sales on newly launched products. With so much competition on Amazon it's very tempting to do the same, even though we all know it's against Amazon's TOS and doing so is very much like playing with fire. And we all know what happens when Amazon finds out. I haven't been suspended before, but I know what it's like to suddenly lose so much money overnight because the platform you depend on decided to basically kick you out. I've heard of so many dreadful stories of Amazon killing accounts and leaving sellers in the dumpster. I don't want this to happen to me--I certainly don't want to be stuck with a million dollar's worth of gel pens I can't pay bills with. So I got to thinking, what does amazon really want? If I need to win in this without risking my account, I need to think of a long-term strategy that plays by Amazon's rules. That's how I came up with the strategy that we've been using to launch our newer products. We've started to get some real traction, and with this success, we decided we will be using this strategy moving forward to 2018. In this episode I talk about exactly how we plan to launch products next year, step by step. A word of warning though: this does not involve fast and easy tricks and gimmicks--this strategy takes longer, but is every bit worth it. Here's the  breakdown of what I discuss: The why and the how of building an email list off of Amazon Reaching out to customers in a way that is not against Amazon TOS The purpose of contests and giveaways Using ClickFunnels to offer upsells to people who joined the contests (I will email my ClickFunnels landing pages to you for FREE when you sign up through our affiliate link) Using free plus shipping offers Developing a 5-star product How to properly use Amazon PPC when launching a product If you decide to try out ClickFunnels and want a copy of our landing pages, send us an email to let us know. ClickFunnels has made it really easy to share pages, so sign up here if you haven't done so. Resources mentioned: AsiaInspection Stamped.io ClickFunnels If you found this episode useful, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes or by leaving a comment below. Thanks so much for listening, and until next episode, happy selling!