Hello, everybody.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
Welcome to day two, you guys.
You thought yesterday, day one was amazing.
Okay, just wait for day two
and all that Liz has to bring you guys today.
So can we just like say hello in the chat?
Can we just say welcome?
Can we give her a warm welcome again for day two?
Today is going to be exciting.
Yesterday, we kind of talked about, you know,
just getting our feet wet a little bit
about what does it look like to participate
and what Liz was talking about
and making money with just your phone, okay?
We had a lot of amazing questions as well,
which I thought was awesome, right?
And so Liz and I were talking about how we are ready
to answer even more questions today.
And today is going to get practical.
Today is going to be like,
hey, here's like some actual like next steps
that you can take today.
And we're going to, yeah, it's going to be so good.
So I'm just excited for what Liz has to bring for us today.
And just want to welcome you guys.
So without further ado, Liz, we welcome you.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
You were here with us yesterday.
Welcome back.
If you are just joining us today and tomorrow, welcome.
Glad to have you guys.
Yeah, Daniel and I talked about yesterday
was like a really cool flow
where if there's things that you guys don't be afraid
to like drop questions in the chat as we go.
And Daniel and the team are watching those.
And if it's something that like makes the most sense
to talk about in the moment,
we'll like pause and jump in and have that conversation.
And then some of them will be things
that we talk about at the end, like yesterday.
If you were here yesterday, some of this,
you're gonna be like, oh yeah, we talked about this.
Because in the questions,
we got into some of the specifics about socials
and the application processes, all of that.
So we are going to do the deep dive on that today.
So thank you for having me back.
Get my slides going.
Here we go.
Today, we are going to talk about getting into the program.
We're gonna talk about approval versus placement.
We're gonna walk through applying to the program.
We're gonna talk about getting approved for placement.
And we're gonna talk very specifically
about the different platforms
that you can get approved with.
Now, if you were not with us yesterday,
we talked about what the program is,
what type of content you create,
where it goes, the impact it has.
So I am assuming some context from yesterday
into today's conversation.
So if there are points where something I'm talking about
maybe doesn't totally line up with your understanding,
drop it in the chat.
Afterwards, maybe go back and watch yesterday's recording,
all of those things to like add that additional context.
And then tomorrow, we're gonna be talking
about making money efficiently in this program.
And I say it that way because we all want you
to make money in this program from your phone,
no other equipment needed.
And I want you to do it the most efficient way possible.
So tomorrow, we're gonna talk about product research,
commission stacking is what I call it,
and how to prioritize your content
to make sure that you're starting to make money
the fastest way possible in the program,
but also the most efficient way possible.
So let's dive into today,
and we are going to talk about approval basics first.
So to get into the Amazon Influencer Program,
you have to apply with one of the approved
four social media platforms,
and you have to have an engaged audience on that platform.
The four platforms, and we'll talk about them,
are YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Transparently, we are going to talk the most
about TikTok and Instagram,
but we are going to dive into the other two as well.
Now, one of the questions that came out of yesterday
was can you do affiliate, Amazon Affiliate,
and Amazon Influencer, and the answer is yes.
You can be in both of these programs
where you're driving traffic,
and when you're doing on-site content as well.
The good news about this is you don't have to do both.
So there's no current requirement from Amazon
for you to be driving traffic
or be a super active affiliate to get into this program,
which is really nice, right?
Like before I got into Influencer.
I'd had an Instagram account, I knew all these bloggers who were doing six-figures,
but I had never really figured out a good way to like
monetize content and
I didn't want to drive traffic from my Instagram account over so the fact that these programs are related
But totally separate is really helpful
All right
Why can I there we go?
There we go for some reason I keep getting like I can't click my slides
So this is a two-part process right and I want to drive this home
so it is probably at some points going to feel repetitive because it causes a lot of
Confusion the influencer program is a program application
Once you're into the Amazon influencer program
There is a separate process to be approved for the on-site placement that we talked about yesterday
So a lot of people will get in and they're like that's it and just start posting content
Which I love the hustle
But we have to pause once you get approved because there is a totally separate process to get that on-site placement
So I put the URL down at the bottom because the very first portion the program application
You can do this as many times as you want. There is no
limit or
Penalty for continuing to apply
So if you already have an audience on one of these platforms that we talked about today
There's no harm in just checking and seeing just go here apply
See if you can get into this part of the program right now. They do once you go to this
Link, you're gonna click on sign up
It brings you to this page and I just want to call this out because especially in this audience
We have people who are doing multiple things on Amazon whether you're doing merch
You're doing FBA you're doing affiliate whatever the case is
It says use an existing customer account
Which you can do it may also show like one of your if you are separating your accounts by function
one of those
Amazon does not love us opening multiple accounts in the ecosystem
You are able to create a new account here
And so one of the questions yesterday was which one should I do and I think the answer is
Either use an existing account or create a new one, whichever allows you to
successfully do your business
Across the platforms or across the different silos in Amazon with the least number of accounts
But you could you will actually like if you're signed into Amazon already here
It will actually just let you use that account. It's like a one-click process for the application there
All right, let's yeah, okay you're about to get into different platforms, right?
Because somebody had mentioned red note or lemon eight
I'm not sure if you were gonna mention that or not
You can't those are not approved platforms to use in the application process right now. Okay, good question
So these are the four platforms Amazon is currently only using these four platforms to get into this program
YouTube
Facebook Instagram and tick-tock
So I'm going to talk about YouTube on this slide because it is genuinely the most long play that there is
so if you currently have a YouTube channel that you have
Had for a while and it has really good engagement
Apply with YouTube for sure if you're starting from zero today
I'm not going to recommend that you go start a YouTube channel for this purpose because you're going to need to age it
YouTube is a hard algorithm to get up and get going with really solid engagement metrics
And Amazon wants long form not just shorts on YouTube for this process
So I'm this is the only thing I'm going to say about YouTube for today is if you have it
Try with YouTube if you haven't started that yet for this process. I would not recommend starting a YouTube channel
Now I'm going to touch on Facebook
We're gonna spend most of our time again over on Instagram and tick-tock
I'm going to mention Facebook because again if you have a long-standing
Facebook group page or profile that has a ton of engagement and is very active
You can definitely utilize that in the application process
The thing that I'll call out is the whichever one that you use profile page or group
It has to be public. You cannot apply with a private group
If you have had a deal group or whatever else
I know a lot of us have run things on Facebook for years and years, right if you have a group that's like super active and you're willing to make it or keep it
public, you can definitely apply for the program with that group.
The thing that you need to know is once you have made that public, if it wasn't already public,
is if you get into the program with that platform, you have to keep it public.
If you reprivate a group that you had made public just for the application process,
Amazon will actually shut off your program and you'll no longer have access to Influencer.
So just know, Facebook, you can long standing.
Similar to YouTube, if you don't have a really active Facebook group page profile up to this
point, I wouldn't go start or buy one to get into this program.
So let's talk about the good ones.
These are the ones where we get into some of the more exciting things that we can be doing.
Instagram, similar, also a meta platform, right?
You can't use your personal account.
It has to be a business or a creator account on Instagram.
That's super easy to do.
If you've got a pretty active personal account that you want to move from
being personal to business or creator, you just go into Instagram, click on the menu button,
and it will give you the opportunity to switch your profile.
It takes no time.
You're instantly a business or a creator profile, and then you can apply.
Similarly, it has to be public.
So I don't even think you can make business or creator profiles private, but I could be
wrong on that.
But in any case, it needs to be a public profile.
Similar to Facebook, you cannot reprivate it if you get in using that account on Instagram.
Now, I know that Rainmakers has a Instagram course that you guys have.
So if you've been working through that, Instagram is a good place to start for your application
process.
Some of the things that I'll call out that have been named challenges for people using
Instagram to get in currently, the age of the account, the posting, specifically the
engagement, just making sure that it's super active in your comments.
Now, if you're building on Instagram, one of the things, and this is really on TikTok
as well, which we'll talk about.
But if you're building on Instagram, some of the best ways to build that really good,
authentic engagement is for you to go and then also be engaging.
It always makes me laugh when people are like, well, you're just building an audience on
social media, or you're just having to get engagement.
As easy as we all want this to be, we can't undervalue the amount of work that it does
actually take to build an engaged community, which is what we're really going for here.
It takes a lot of time.
When I jumped over onto TikTok to start building, I have Instagram, which is how I got approved
in 2021.
I was like, oh, I forgot how much work it takes, especially on the front end, to go
and start engaging with people that you want to engage with you, being very active, posting
regularly, reposting stuff, all of the things.
I know, Rainmakers, you guys talk about it's not an overnight money.
Once we get into the monetization, it definitely gets way more fun, but there is a little bit
of a longevity to this play.
Instagram is probably, if you're already up and running or you're doing Rainmaker course,
is probably the number two option that I recommend.
If it's up and running, number one option, all of them.
If you're going to start something from new, doing the Rainmaker course, if you want the
easiest platform, I'm going to recommend, even if you want to do Instagram, that you
build that separately from the influencer if you're starting from zero, do TikTok.
All right, so let's talk about TikTok.
And this is where we're going to get into some of the more nitty gritty stuff.
So this gets tactical.
The first tactical, if you have a platform right now, just go apply.
That's the first thing you can do today.
Very real.
See if you can get into the program with a social media platform that you're already
on, right?
The second piece is going to be, if you haven't gotten started yet, go start a TikTok account.
If you have a personal TikTok account, that's okay.
There's, you can also utilize one that you already have.
There's no requirement for TikTok to Amazon for it to be any type of profile.
I also don't think that TikTok necessarily, like, other than seller and creator has different
profile types.
So there's no, you can, if you've been using it for your personal.
content up to this point, you can continue to do that. But the thing that you want to
do on TikTok is you want to post for the first, you know, like one to three months, one to
three times a day, pick a cadence that works for you. TikTok is built for engagement, and
it's built to find the audience that resonates with what you're talking about. So TikTok
is the easiest platform to get into Amazon Influencer with right now. And I, I have two
theories on this. And one of them is my business theory. And one of them is my tin hat, tin
foil hat, like conspiracy theory portion, right. But my business reason is I think that
Amazon really wants engaged audiences and TikTok's algorithm is legitimately built for
engagement, right? My tin hat, tin foil hat theory is that Amazon and TikTok are in a
little bit of a competition, right? Amazon wants you to be sending people to Amazon and
they want you to be focusing your content creation on Amazon products. TikTok in way
of like social shopping, commerce, social commerce is doing a great job. They have now
a whole ecosystem where you've got the social and the purchase all in one place. So my kind
of conspiracy theory is that Amazon wants you to get up and running early and often
on the Amazon content. And so from TikTok, they will take you with a lower follower
count than some of the other platforms. So that's my conspiracy. But I say that to say
TikTok is built for engagement. And the more opportunities you give TikTok to shop your
content for engagement, the faster you will get to where you're going, right? So if you're
posting multiple times a day on TikTok, you can probably get up to that couple of hundred
followers pretty quickly. I'll talk about follower counts here in a minute. But just
to give you an idea on TikTok, we've seen people get through that first portion of the
approval process with 200 followers, right? I saw somebody post that they had 30 followers.
I don't know that person. So I would never claim that I do personally know somebody who
got in with 200 followers. So that one I feel like I can say with authority. But that
first portion, like just start posting. If you have a personal account, just see if you
get through that first portion of the application process with what you've got. Now, sometimes
people start thinking, oh, then I need to start posting product reviews, shoppable content
type content on my TikTok. That's not actually true. One of the best parts about this program
is your off-site content does not have to do anything with your on-site content. So
in other words, on my off-site, on my TikTok, on my Instagram, I post very specifically
Olympic weightlifting content, sometimes nutrition and just about being, you know, in my mid-40s
as a female, right? So those are the things that I talk about in my off-site content.
On Amazon, I review dog products. I talk about bookshelves. I talk about a strawberry, a
glass dish for berries, right? They don't have to be related at all. So when you start
thinking about like, what you're posting on your off-site to build from zero, you can
do on-camera, you can do off-camera, you can post about something that's interesting
to you, or you can post product type video. Any of those things are okay. I just wouldn't
spend too much time in analysis paralysis thinking about like what niche you want to
be in on TikTok. Just start posting, just pick something and go. It can be something
that's interesting to you, or it can be something that you just think is going to create that
engagement as fast as possible for you.
I want to chime in here, Liz. Do you, so as you know, like in our community, a lot of
people are building their media channels around their product, or maybe haven't even started
yet. Listen, analysis paralysis, we talk about that. We do not like that because of the whole
paralysis piece. If you could, I already anticipate this question. If you could advise somebody
on, hey, should I, from scratch, do I start one on a personal brand that has nothing
to do with my Amazon? Do I start something that does have to do with my Amazon product
or brand?
That's a great question. So if you're already, if you have a product and you're selling it
on Amazon, this is the base of the question, right? Is like.
Do you relate your content to what your brand and your product is,
or do you go something more personal or unrelated?
Yeah. Like kind of starting out. Cause I,
I think a lot of people in here don't have Tik TOK. Um,
welcome to the obsession, right? I know.
By the way, it is very easy to get followers. I've seen it done. Um,
with my friends who aren't even Tiffany's shaking her head,
who's also a coach here.
I've seen it done with my friends who don't even have businesses or anything.
So what would you say to that question?
I think I would pick whatever you feel the most comfortable talking about.
So however you show up the most authentically pick that.
So if you have a product that you've developed and you're already building
media around it, one, you probably are really comfortable talking about that.
So like, uh, this is not my product,
but I did a shoppable video for this brand the other day.
Like if you want to talk about your berry bowl and why you developed it and why
the glass is better for the berries and the colander and you're developed,
like that has a lot of content that you can build from.
You can talk about why you developed the product, how you developed the product,
what the product is like, there's, you know,
I think the nice thing is, is you can have a lot to talk about,
but I want to enforce that. You don't have to focus on selling the product.
You just want to talk as a person who owns this brand.
If you're like, you know what,
I just need a place where I'm not talking about my product and I can talk about
my weightlifting or whatever that is. Right. Like do that.
So I think there's value if you want and need that media challenge or
media, like for your product in building around that.
And also if you're like,
I just can't say another word about this berry bowl right now,
go do something different. Wow. Perfect.
So again, they can be related brand and
influencer. They can be related offsite, niche,
onsite content. Like if you pick product reviewer to be your niche,
um, they, those can be related or you can be totally unrelated.
So people very often do talk about picking your niche.
And I saw this guy the other day on tech talking, he was like,
my niche is me and that's also okay. Right.
But when we talk about niches, you can choose like pet stuff,
home goods, outdoor, you can pick that type of a niche,
but your niche could also be me.
Your niche could also be products, right?
That you just full-time want to be a UGC creator.
And if that's the case and you want to use that to build that TikTok account
initially pick products around your house,
just start talking about them to build that audience. Right.
Now, number one question, how many followers do I need?
Amazon does not tell us there is zero guidance around number
of follower count for any of the platforms.
The thing that Amazon says is you need an engaged following
on one of these four social media platforms.
So I'm going to give you some anecdotal
examples of what people are currently getting approved with.
And we just have to take it with a lot of a grain of salt because since they
don't give us a lot of specifics,
we're just basically crowdsourcing the answers to this.
So in 2021, December of 2021,
I was approved for the program with 2700 followers
on Instagram.
It was an aged account with lots of really good engagement that I was posting on
regularly, but at the time I wasn't even posting like daily.
It was just regularly right now.
There's a lot more like daily and engagement and all of that.
It's a lot more, I want to say intense,
obviously because the program has fit hit more of a infrastructure build
established season now on Instagram
and it's a lot more approvals.
What we're seeing right now is you can still get approved with that
two to 3000 mark in followers if your audience is really,
really engaged.
I have recently seen people who tried to go the route of buying
like meme accounts on Instagram that had a lot of likes,
but not a lot of comments.
And Amazon just sees like right through that.
So even with really high follower counts,
I think her account had like 200,000 followers on it.
Um, and every post had a lot of likes,
but there was no comment engagement.
And so just to give you like an idea,
Amazon is really looking for engagement.
And even if you have really high followers,
if your engagement isn't showing up,
they are not approving for that.
Now on TikTok, and we talked just briefly about this,
I would say rule of thumb,
you want to be in that thousand mark.
I would try to stay away from buying accounts.
Those don't seem to be working as well anymore.
But if you want hacks, the follow trains,
people have mixed feelings about these.
But if you find one of the follow rooms
where people are talking a lot about engagement
and they're like engaging with each other
and not just following everybody,
like some of those are good ways
to just even get kind of the ball rolling
alongside your content.
So that said, aiming for around that thousand mark,
but honestly, once you hit 200 followers on TikTok,
go ahead and start applying.
It just, there's no harm in it, right?
Now, once you apply, I want you to pause.
Once you get in rather, I want you to pause
because we're gonna talk about like that second part
of the process here in a minute.
But we did name this session,
making money from your phone with no other,
like no other equipment.
And I wanna talk about that just for a minute, right?
Because we're talking, now we're shifting.
You've gotten into the program.
You've gotten into the program with this other piece.
Now you're going to start doing content creation.
So I wanna talk really fast about the equipment you need.
Your phone is all you need, right?
You don't need anything more professional than this.
I wanna add your computer is an option.
I often sit at my computer and use Zoom
and talk about the product to your computer.
It has all of the same things.
It's either vertical or vertical for this program.
So just throwing out, if you're like,
I don't love setting up my phone
and that being like my place,
you can also use your computer and do,
I call them like talking head videos, right?
As long as you're holding the product.
Now, if you were like Liz,
if I have like $20 to do one more thing with,
grab a microphone.
You can get these little lapel mics
that plug into your phone for like five to $20 on TikTok.
I don't know if TikTok is on right now,
but they're just not that expensive anymore.
And what we see is even if your video quality is not 4K,
it still needs to be not blurry and all those things.
But even if your video quality is not top, top, top,
if people can hear you,
they're more likely to stick around and watch your content.
So especially if you are not going to sit still
and do content,
I recommend this be the second thing you do, right?
And my very third is a tripod.
If you are going to pick up anything,
these are the two things that I would add to your phone
is a mic and a tripod.
I have so many tripods sitting around my house
and I will gladly admit that I still prop my phone up
next to my coffee mug on my desk a lot of times,
just praying that it's not gonna fall down.
But it is actually much easier,
especially if you're trying to demo products
or talk about things,
or you're just somebody who talks with their hands naturally
to have a tripod.
So all of this can be done using just your phone.
If you're going to add things in,
these are the things that I recommend you start with
to help make that content easier to make and even better.
All right, so we've done the initial,
the application process.
We get accepted.
It's time to start making videos, almost.
The next portion of the process
is this placement approval, right?
So as soon as you get into Influencer,
you have applied for the program and you get in,
you get a storefront.
It obviously will be blank as you get started, right?
The storefront is technically part
of the Influencer program,
but because you have a storefront
does not mean that you are approved for placement.
In the program, approved for placement, right?
So this just tends to cause a lot of confusion
as people get started.
The genesis of the Influencer program
was for affiliates driving that offsite traffic
to have a place to send that traffic
that was FTC compliant.
FTC compliance requires a disclosure of earnings,
meaning it says underneath my name here,
it says earns commission.
That's an FTC compliant disclosure.
So the very first portion of Influencer
was just the storefront as a place
for affiliates to send traffic.
Now they added this second part,
this onsite placement, right?
So this upper carousel, this product listing.
placement that we talked about yesterday as the second part of the program.
Honestly, I think Amazon was like, hey, other people are doing video and doing UGC on their pages and it's converting well.
We need to do that. And they were like, oh, we have this group of content creators over here called influencers.
Let's add on-site placement to that program.
Like, I just think they were looking around for a group of people that can do this.
But that's why it's a second part. It's like a different approval process.
So the way you get this part done is you have to create three videos.
And these three videos are going to be the time in this program where Amazon is the most critical of your content.
They are going to actually, we think they put it through AI and we believe that there are people actually watching these videos.
But we cannot prove either of those two things because they don't tell us. It is a black box, truly.
So you're going to create three videos.
Circling back to yesterday, Amazon's stated purpose for this program is to help shoppers make more confident buying decisions.
So we're going to wrap that into these first three videos, right?
The things that you want to be doing in this need to help those shoppers make more confident buying decisions.
We also need to be simple, right? So my top tips for your first three videos, stand in front of a plain wall.
Some of the top things that even like once you're approved, we get flagged for is personal information in the background.
Never shoot outside or in a parking lot because that car that drove by while you were talking just ruined your video because the AI flags it as their license plate being personal information in your video.
You just happened to be standing in front of your house. Oh, there's your house number.
Or you turned around. Oh, there's your neighbor's house number.
Like definitely for these, but even ongoing outside is tough.
For these first three videos, stand in front of a plain wall.
You won't forget that there was a bill on your refrigerator or anything else.
Personal information.
The next thing is we can't make medical claims.
Everybody's like, of course, I'm not going to say that this has solved my psoriasis or anything.
But the AI filters hit things like biodegradable, eco-friendly words that are not actually medical advice as giving medical advice or saying something derogatory about the medical field is another one of the filters.
So pick things that are going to be very simple to talk about.
So don't talk about supplements in these first three videos.
Don't talk about even Band-Aids, quite honestly, like anything that could fall into that category.
And then make sure that you are not using, honestly, like forcible words, like anything that even you can't read it off of the side of the product sometimes.
So I recommend you do something like in your kitchen that's super easy, non-controversial products, and that you say you talk about it.
You can definitely say if you like it or not.
You can talk about what it's made out of.
Just don't wander into those words that sound medical even if they aren't.
So once you've done these three products, this is our back end.
This is Creator Hub.
This is what it's going to look like.
Specifically, you'll see that it says three of three videos here with a lock.
Now you'll see in early 2022, I uploaded four videos.
Don't do that.
We know a lot more now than we did.
Amazon is going to review.
If you have three videos here, they're going to review three videos.
That's all you need to get into this approval process.
If you upload 20 videos, they're going to review all 20 videos.
So you are giving them more opportunity to decline your approval process here, right?
Here's the other thing.
If you upload 20 videos, they're just going to decline it and say video quality.
They're not going to tell you if it's all of the videos, one of the videos,
or if it's just four of the videos, right?
So if you start with just three because that's all you need,
you give them the least amount of information to turn you down for
while giving yourself the right amount of information to get into the program, right?
Now the other thing that I'll call out is they have very kindly told us
that this typically takes two business days.
This is almost never true.
I think I've seen people get in any sort of answer, acceptance or denial,
in two days, like three times maybe.
This has taken up to 12 weeks for people to get through this approval process.
So I want you to know this is a hurry up and wait portion of the process.
While you are in this section, do not stop posting at the same cadence
that you have been posting on your off site.
channel because they are watching that. They don't tell us they are, but they are, right? So,
just keep that cadence up. Once you get through the on-site approval process, you can back that
down. So, if you're posting three times a day, that doesn't have to be what you're posting ongoing
and eternal while you're in this program. Once you're through the approval for on-site, you can
back that down to once a week or whatever works for you for like longevity. I do recommend you
keep it up. Just good practice to also have your off-site still active. But yeah, while you're in
this process, just keep that posting cadence. Quick question. Yeah, ma'am. This was from what
you said right before you talked about the posting videos, but what about books? Like a good choice
and I don't, sorry if I missed this, is there a resource or something where they could find like
a list of different things or do you have one or is it kind of like, what would you say?
It's a great question. Basically, like the two words that I gave you, biodegradable and
eco-friendly, are the ones that we're hearing the most often right now. I will sometimes do videos
and see if I can like all the things that I can say. So, like I have a knee brace that's like red
light and I'll just like talk about it honestly, but I'll see how far I can go down that path.
At the moment, those two words tend to be our most frequently flagged. I think what I would
tell you is Amazon doesn't give us a list. Their filters change. I would just talk about simple
things. It's made of glass. It's dishwasher safe. You can put it in the microwave. It's made of
silver. I like this because my kids can use it. Something like that. Like just think the more
simple you can go, the better. The question about books, I would say I hadn't thought about that.
Books don't do super well for on-site, but that doesn't mean that you can create content for them
and for your first three videos. I think that would be fine. I can't think of a reason why I
would be like no. Nice. Okay. Nice question, Annemarie. Yeah, good one. I had not thought of
that. We like giving you new thoughts. I love it. I'll incorporate that next time.
All right, so this is going to be where we get nitty-gritty on that. You're in the program.
You're waiting for placement approval. When you upload those first three videos, they're going to
show up on your storefront. That means they are published. That does not mean they are placed,
right? People a lot of times are like, I'm published. My three videos are live on my
storefront. That is because you made it into the influencer program. That does not have anything
to do with the on-site placement approval. This, again, is just one of those areas where it's not
super clear on Amazon. It creates a lot of confusion. I want you guys to
know very clearly which part of the process you're in.
The number one reason that we get for rejection for the approval for the on-site placement
approval process. First of all, Amazon always says video quality. I know we talked about this
yesterday. Is it video quality? I'm sure there are people trying to get in that have terrible
audio, didn't think about their lighting, their phone fell down and they didn't edit it, whatever
the case is. I'm sure there is some of that, but it is also very common for us to go and review
videos that are obviously very well done and they got a video quality tag. I think that there is not
another reason that I've seen that people actually get for their being declined for on-site
placement. Nine times out of 10, it is actually your off-site social media engagement. We very
often get people reaching out who are like, hey, I applied with this Facebook page where somebody's
been posting memes for years and I get one or two likes, but it has 200,000 followers on it.
When you look at it, there's not real engagement. I know yesterday we had an outlier on that where
there was real engagement and they still got that decline for the program. This is not a 100%
always. This is anecdotally about 90% of the time, this is what I see, which is why I'm telling you
when you are waiting for the placement approval, you're still posting, you're still engaging,
you're still doing all those things. From a timeline perspective, because you do want
a little bit of age on your, specifically in this case, TikTok account.
If you start from zero, it's probably going to take you about four weeks to get to a place where you are approved into the program.
I would hold for another two months or so before you submit your first round of three videos, right?
Because you want enough time on that account to show consistent engagement.
So once you're in that process, keep posting, keep that engagement going, and then hopefully you end up with this, right?
So when you get to Creator Hub, which is our back end, right, I need to give a disclaimer.
In February, Amazon took away Creator Hub, and then four weeks later, they gave it back.
So in this exact moment, Creator Hub is our central location.
If something happens in the next week, I just want you guys to know that it's Amazon.
But when you log into Creator Hub, if you've been approved, you'll get this, everybody calls it the confetti announcement, right, saying congratulations.
Sometimes your confetti shows up on your Creator Hub a couple days before you get the email on the right side of this slide.
So it is worth, if you are actively in this process, checking your Creator Hub every so often just to see if you've gotten the approval.
When you get into the program, it will give you, this is your storefront, this is your Creator Hub, like all of that is included.
But this is how you know you're approved for that on-site placement.
And this is where you can start really making that money.
Which leads us to questions for today.
And tomorrow, we'll talk about making money, commission stacking, brand deals, all of the fun things.
Okay, awesome, Liz. Thank you so much.
If I understood you correctly, I just want to repeat this of, you know, starting from, let's say you're starting from scratch, whether that's whatever platform.
Does it matter if it's TikTok, Zoom, Instagram, or YouTube that you want to post for four weeks and then wait another two months after that once you have engagement to then post the three videos?
Is that across the board for anything, or is that just TikTok?
Just TikTok.
Okay. Okay, so Amy, I saw you in the chat.
This was actually only for TikTok, what she just said.
Correct.
And I believe you just mentioned she was talking about Instagram and Facebook, so they're different.
Correct, yeah.
If you're starting from zero, I would just go straight to TikTok.
It's just your best chance of getting in.
If you already have the other platforms and or are working on something on those, like apply with them and see how it goes.
There's no harm, no foul.
I wouldn't build from zero today on another platform other than TikTok.
Okay.
Again, specifically for this program.
I know a lot of people in here are also building media for their products, so I would just pull some of that apart.
If the goal is influencer from zero, TikTok.
Okay, and then for TikTok, can proven viral content be posted or should it be more personal content?
Do you know what we mean by proven viral content?
I don't.
Okay, so I'll tell you real quick.
That's what we've just also been learning in the community, which is basically the content where you grab, like maybe Tiffany, you can say this better than what I'm about to say, but you basically grab like a video and you write a caption, like a video that's going viral and you write your own caption on it that is related to your brand or your account.
Oh, yeah.
So, but like it's B-roll of me talking in the background and then I've captioned, but it's like a trend, right?
I'm not taking somebody else's video and putting captions.
Yeah, so it is other people's content.
Sometimes it's a meme type video.
Sometimes it's another creator's content, but you're adding your like hook, your caption, your maybe even like a green screen video of you talking over it.
You obviously can't just repurpose the video as is, but you're like adding your take on it or your spin on it.
I think yes, like as long as I mean, I think I understand.
Like, yeah, it's definitely not reposting, which I know is not what you're saying like that.
No.
I know just from experience TikTok is a little more like gray area on this.
So like if you're posting, we use we in the training course that we do.
We go through all of this on we're doing like templates where you like use your brand template and then we put the video inside and then you talk about like, you know, you add a caption or a hook.
And I know that when I've posted those types of posts to TikTok, it has been flagged or.
So I think if you are going to repurpose that kind of content from Instagram, you may have to do like a green screen over top where you're like showing your face or talking about it or I don't know.
I know that's just my experience TikTok can be a little more strict.
On TikTok, the other thing is, is you can do it or stitch people.
That's probably how I would do that because technically that video, unless you have that creator's permission, is their content.
So whether however you're like giving them credit for it, like on TikTok, you can stitch or do it.
So it automatically shows that it's theirs.
I wouldn't like download theirs and then upload it into your account and put your stuff over it.
I think that's different, right?
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
Like, I actually, I'm very excited about this, but I went viral for the first time on TikTok last week.
Yeah, you did.
I know I'm super excited.
I was like, I mean, like I told a girl at an event I was at and she has like millions of followers and like viral for her is like 15 million views.
I was like viral for me, I hit like 200,000 views.
So within my scope, but I think the best way on TikTok to kind of accomplish what you're talking about is finding these viral trends and putting it for your brand, your thing, but over your B-roll, right?
So like the one that I did was like people were talking about the audio is like, who takes care of you?
And then the interview audio says, huh, I do.
And then she kind of like laughs, right?
And so I have B-roll of me sitting on a stage at an event.
Fun fact, my mascara was in my eye, so I'm doing this, but it looks like I'm crying.
And then over I put POV, Gen X oldest daughter, right?
And so like it's my content with the trend audio, which on TikTok you can use the sound so it credits the audio person.
And then the actual like trend portion applies to me because I'm Gen X oldest daughter taking care of everyone, right?
So I think that's the best way.
And there are people you can follow on there where all they do is talk about current trending audio and things that you can do.
I would just include your own content.
And if you're like, I don't have B-roll, just set up your, that phone we're talking about, just set it up while you're doing the dishes or while you're at your desk or in a meeting, right?
And what is B-roll?
Oh, sorry.
Good question.
B-roll is that, great question.
B-roll is like, that's great.
What is that?
So B-roll is like, if right now, if on my phone, I had it running and just recording me, it's that background.
When I'm talking about products, if I'm like doing a talking head video, I've got B-roll running over here of me like assembling it and I'm talking about it.
So it's basically like background video.
It's just you doing whatever you do, whether that's working on the product that you can just use.
It's just a video you can use in the background of a listing or of a video.
Okay.
Awesome.
Glad we clarified that.
Okay.
If you get denied at step one, can you reapply?
Yes.
So application into the program is an unlimited number of applications.
Just keep reapplying.
You get 200 followers on TikTok, apply.
You get 500, apply.
I have people do it every day.
I just want to see if I can get in.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
We've got somebody who was approved with a Facebook account, didn't hear anything or do anything with it for about a year, haven't posted to that account in about a year.
What would you suggest in that scenario?
I think I'm already approved for the placement on Amazon.
Audrey, it looks like you were approved with a Facebook account, right?
Audrey McKeelan.
Let's see.
I'm checking the chat.
Is she on here?
Hi.
Yes, I'm here.
approved with your Facebook account?
Yes, but it was like a year ago, and then I
didn't do anything with it.
And I haven't done anything with the page.
So my question is, if I were to submit videos,
am I going to have a problem because I haven't been posting
to that Facebook page?
Or do I just start posting to the Facebook page
and then upload three videos and see what happens?
There's no harm in trying, right?
Because you've already got all in.
I think most likely, spend a month at least starting
to post again, trying to drive some engagement.
If you have $10, pay for an engagement, whatever.
My guess is you're not going to get approved for on-site
with the Facebook group because it's been dormant for a year.
They're really hard to get back active to the point
where Amazon likes it.
If I were you, and I know this is not
the question you asked me, instead
of spending four weeks trying to rebuild that Facebook
engagement, I would go start a TikTok account.
OK.
Sounds good.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
You're welcome, Audrey.
Let's see.
What about accounts that we remix on our own pages?
Can you tell me more about remixing?
Yeah.
Shannon Odell.
I think, are you on, Shannon?
I think I know what you're talking about.
Shannon Odell, are you on?
Tiffany, do you know what she would
be talking about with remix?
Is this with the using the proven viral content
and personal content?
Sorry, yeah.
I think if I'm understanding correctly,
remix in the Instagram.
What was her question?
Can you repeat it?
Shannon, you're here now.
Hi.
What did you mean by remix?
So like on Instagram, I actually,
I think it was in one of the classes
I first took on with Rainmakers in one of the five day courses.
So you create an account, and then you
can remix other people's videos, and then put it on your page.
As long as you remix it and then add something to it,
you're not just.
Yeah, the built-in feature in Instagram, right?
Is that what you're meaning, Shannon?
Right, I believe.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
My guess is that's going to fall into what Tiffany was talking
about earlier, where TikTok will probably flag it.
That's what I was thinking.
OK.
Thank you.
To kind of piggyback off that, if you
have an Instagram or a Facebook or some other place
where you were previously creating content,
you can repurpose that.
Now, maybe not the remix or the other people's content
that you haven't spliced up or anything,
but if you have the inspirational quote stuff
or you've been creating personal content on those other
platforms, they're doing photo carousels now on TikTok.
You can do that.
So from our old school Instagram days
when we used to just post pictures of what we were eating
or doing that day, you can repurpose that content
over there.
You can repurpose videos that you've
done for reels over there.
Just within that, I think Tiffany's right around TikToks
much stricter around copyright and with the things coming
from different platforms.
Yeah.
Awesome.
I want to acknowledge the time.
We have three minutes.
And I have a hard cutoff at 10 to 12 after.
So we'll try to get to what we can.
And then you guys will get to come back for day three
tomorrow, same time, same place.
And tomorrow, we will have more time for more questions.
So just letting everyone know that at the moment.
OK, this is a good question, Amanda.
I don't think this has come up yet.
But does there need to be alignment and profile
names between the social media accounts
and the Amazon influencer name?
Do they need to match?
Good question.
I think Amazon will automatically
assign your Amazon profile name.
So my Instagram handle that I applied with
is Liz on a Journey.
When I applied, Amazon just gave me
amazon.com slash shop slash Liz on a Journey.
That was the domain name they assigned me.
Now, I can change on my storefront what it says.
And they don't care.
So in order to change that domain name, like your URL,
you have to show Amazon that you've
changed it on the social that you were approved with,
like officially.
it will update your domain.
So the handle doesn't have to match,
the domain you have to, will match,
and you have to like officially change on both
in order to change that.
And then is it possible to change your vanity URL?
Only if you've changed your social
that you got approved with thing.
So like I got approved with Liz on a journey Instagram,
if I wanted to change my URL, the vanity name,
I would have to also change my Instagram
to whatever I want it to be,
then file a ticket with Amazon proving that I did that
and you can't change it back on,
like it has to, those have to match
like once you've gone through the process with Amazon.
Okay, great.
And then, okay, let me, what'd you say?
Would you say to link multiple social accounts
based on engagement, based on comments,
what would you say about that?
Is there like a-
So there's two, I think two ways,
this question can be asked
for two portions of the conversation.
When you apply, you can only apply with one account.
Sometimes it takes 24 hours,
but usually it's almost immediate
that you know if you got in with that account.
So like if I applied with my Instagram,
I'm instantaneously, sometimes again, they say 24 hours,
but for the most part, they're like in or not, right?
In that moment when I know,
then I would maybe go reapply with my TikTok
if I felt like, oh crap, like that's not,
I can try again, right?
So for the application portion,
you can only do one at a time,
but it's pretty fast, right?
For the linking on your storefront,
that's totally unrelated to your application process.
So like on my storefront, I only have my Instagram
because my others are not that impressive.
And that's the one I am the most active on, right?
But if you're active on all of them,
you can link all of them, right?
The main thing that linking out to your socials does
is give brands a place to find you off site
so they can message you.
So I pick Instagram because it's the one
that I read that DM inbox the most often.
But if you're on TikTok, put that as your first one.
If you're active on all of them,
definitely put them out there
because it does let brands know like,
oh, my YouTube is super active
and I do product reviews over here
or my TikTok has all this content about my dog
so I definitely wanna work with pet brands, right?
It's because we're not driving traffic
for the most part to our storefront,
really the only or the best part about it
is the opportunity for brands to investigate you
and come find you.
Okay, so we have a situation
where she got kind of grandfathered in through her blog
and actually have any socials linked,
but she is an influencer.
Yep, OG, love it.
Hey, hey.
Yep.
So like, would there be a goal for like number of comments
or something for good engagement in her situation or?
No, but I would love for you to tell me
like when you do the approval process for three videos,
how it goes.
So one of my good friends, Kathleen,
who actually introduced me to the program
got in with a newsletter email list years ago,
like 2017 when they launched the program.
So we have a lot of OG bloggers who got in super early
when it was just the storefront
and they were like, who cares?
And now it's like, oh, on-site placement, cool.
So there's no real guidance around this part.
Amazon is not going to have like an off-site
that's currently approved to check for you.
Since you're in, definitely do the three videos,
like from the part where we talked about
doing the placement approval forward, like start there
because you're already in, like, let's check it out.
You don't have, and they're not checking engagement
on your blog.
Okay.
And we just had somebody say in the chat,
Charis, she's an OG and she said she had no problem
getting her videos approved.
Yeah, my guess is like most of the people that I know
that are in the program from when they,
they're not checking socials, there's no connection there.
It's just, it's almost like they know that
because you built that audience that they can trust you.
It's like, you still had to, at that point,
be an affiliate who was driving some number of sales
through your affiliate stuff.
So the OGs have like a little bit of like a advantage.
from what we've seen.
OK, so Christina, you're saying you're conflicted.
You're not sure if it will hurt you to link your socials
or keep them.
Is this one of the bloggers?
Yeah, she's on the call right now.
Christina, she said because they're not active right now,
her socials.
So should she add them or not?
Yeah, but was approved through a blog.
And it was approved through a blog, right, Christina?
Yeah.
That's a good question.
I don't know, honestly.
I wish I had that answer.
I wish Amazon had more guidance around this.
Yeah.
It can't hurt.
So would it only hurt if they're inactive?
Or would, since she's already approved and in, it won't,
does it really matter, I guess?
I mean, so in the program, but not approved for on-site
placement is what I'm reading.
Right, Christina?
Correct.
OK.
And was approved with the blog.
But is the blog active?
Is your blog, OK, that's a good question.
I think what I'm reading is blog is no longer active.
Socials are not active.
Christina, also feel free to come on mute.
It's not super active, but definitely not comments.
I don't know.
I wish I could help.
I'm so sorry.
The OG stuff that got in, like, in the past,
I kind of had seen what Cherish said
was that they had this magic backdoor, basically, access.
So I'm sorry, Christina, that was not the same for you.
OK, so it just sounds like maybe I should let it be how it is.
And then there might have been some background
issues with my first videos.
That's the only thing, the only quality issue
that I think that might have been.
So I might try again with a plain background.
And then, I don't know, it's going
to take me a minute to build up socials, but.
So actually, from where you're at, Christina,
since you've gotten, you're in the program,
you have gotten one rejection for the on-site placement.
Yeah.
I would just try again.
I would link your socials to see if that helps.
I would unlink your socials, fix whatever
issues you think you had with the video quality,
because you do get three chances.
And all the while, you could go start TikTok
and start building that so you're not wasting time
while you're waiting.
But you really don't have anything
to lose by trying again from where you're at with the blog.
OK, I just wasn't sure if I would hurt my,
quote, unquote, OG status if I start linking stuff
and it's not great right now.
No.
Yeah, I would, whatever TikTok you
are building on the side for this,
I wouldn't link that one to the account that's
approved with the blog, just in case they tie those.
OK, awesome.
Love it.
OK, I've got, yep, you're welcome.
We've got two more for right now.
OK, so if our domain name is the same,
should we stick with content slash products
that are niche-specific to that domain name?
No, once you're on Amazon, they're
going to find you as they're shopping.
So I'm looking for a dog collar.
I'm going to go to this dog collar listing.
And oh, there's Liz talking about this dog collar.
I don't care if Liz talks about Olympic weightlifting
on her Instagram.
I'm not looking at her Instagram.
I'm looking at this exact listing.
It's the beauty of the program.
You can talk about anything, any product that's on Amazon,
and people will find you at that moment
at the point of purchase.
Perfect.
Awesome.
And then as far as going back to the faceless slash face
conversation with, hold on, I'm reading.
No worries.
Um.
Caitlin, can you just say very specifically what your question
is?
My question is.
Yeah, absolutely.
I know it sounds confusing.
This group is as easy as you can just ask to get your question.
I think it's about faceless.
Yeah.
Yeah, my question was just, I know that you had said
that we could be faceless, that we had our brains going
on with Instagram.
But you wouldn't be able, once you get accepted
and talking about it, and you're talking about the products
and whatnot, this is like you have to show your face
and show yourself, right?
No, you can be faceless on Amazon, too.
Oh, OK.
How would you do that if you're going to talk about a product
and then recommend it to somebody?
I'm going to look down on the product, like, point of view, and talk about it from here, like, and then I'm totally out of the shot.
So it's like a this direction perspective, talking about it. You're not required to be on video.
Okay, perfect. That was my question. Thank you.
Yay! Glad we got that.
Awesome. Um.
Okay, I don't see any other questions. I'm pretty sure I covered all the ones in the chat.
Anybody else have any last minute questions?
Okay, I think we're winning here. I think we're good.
Heck yeah, love this. Okay.
Woo, we'll take it. Okay.
All right. Yeah, so as far as replays goes, if you are in your first eight weeks, these should be on searchrainmakers.com.
I'm making, I made a comment on the back end, making sure these are uploaded in a timely manner.
So go ahead and check those. And then if you are on the app, it will be in app replay.
And if you are in the Facebook group, it's also there.
And Tiffany, just drop the searchrainmakers.com where you can find the replays.
The account is free to get into, again, if you're in the mastermind.
And then there is no attendance link, Jessica. Not today.
Okay, so tomorrow we're going to hit day three. It's going to be deeper.
It's going to be better. There's going to be more time for questions.
So you're so excited. Anything else you'd like to say, Liz?
Just thanks for hanging in with me today. I know that it can be really in the weeds with the nuance of the program.
So we made it through day two. Tomorrow we get to do the fun stuff, which is talking about the money.
Yes, we have lots of thank yous. Thank you so much, Liz.
And thank you all for showing up and taking what you need, asking questions, letting your voice be heard.
This is something we really want to partner with and have in our back pocket.
So it's why we get Liz and all of her amazing wisdom for us.
So, yay. Okay, well, we'll see you all tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Have a good Tuesday. Bye everyone. Bye.