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Startup #3: Feedbackz + Amazio Labs (Amazon FBA Seller Blog)

James Fake

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Hi James,

Is there anyway you can add a feature so that the person's name or order number can be added to the email subject? Is this something that Amazon would allow. My issue is that when I get responses they look like this on my G-mail.View attachment 11517

Everyone's emails get all jumbled into one big email and I can't keep track of who I've responded to. If I can have each subject different, each person's email would come in in a separate conversation.

Noted! Adding "ability to put in the Auto Fill Tags into the subject lines" project into the pipeline now..
 
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mosdef

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Thanks for the blog. Haven't read anything yet, but i will. Thanks in advance :)
 

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Did not realize my trial ended so I missed a week or two of emails. Is there a way to still email the customers I missed out on?

Also heads up, when I was on the page where you enter your desired plan and CC info, some of the text are white, cant see anything for the cc exp date and the plan.
 
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James Fake

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Hi James,

Is there anyway you can add a feature so that the person's name or order number can be added to the email subject? Is this something that Amazon would allow. My issue is that when I get responses they look like this on my G-mail.
untitled-png.11517


Everyone's emails get all jumbled into one big email and I can't keep track of who I've responded to. If I can have each subject different, each person's email would come in in a separate conversation.

Done! Should of gotten a system email about this, let me know if you didn't get it..
 
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James Fake

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Did not realize my trial ended so I missed a week or two of emails. Is there a way to still email the customers I missed out on?

Also heads up, when I was on the page where you enter your desired plan and CC info, some of the text are white, cant see anything for the cc exp date and the plan.

Thanks for the heads up; will take a look. PM sent as well.
 
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James Fake

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Long Due Update: So err... two parts without going too far into things. The re-brand is Part 1.. The technical aspects like features, new progress, etc. is Part 2..


- Part 1 Re-Brand Update
-

OUR BRAND NEW... BRAND
As mentioned before previously in this thread, I was working on some things to re-fresh... this is it. I spent a few months re-evaluating our brand, our position, OUR IDENTITY. There's a lot of other feedback software out there, and they are great... but I knew something about Feedbackz was different. I couldn't quite put a finger on it. Other fastlaners who use the software may have picked up on it too, but not sure if they knew exactly either.

After months (yes, months! crazy how really deep you have to reach for self realization even if it's obvious)... I could clearly articulate what I felt our difference was into words.

wait for it..... ...... HIGHER CONVERTING FEEDBACK REQUESTS!

That's the thoughtfully condensed short version. So... how does Feedbackz achieve "HIGHER CONVERTING"??

And that's the beauty.. because the 'act and mindset of getting towards Higher Converting' is, in itself, our difference!!! (geez I sounded like some rocket scientist)

Everything I've done from the beginning (building the MVP) was all towards this one goal without necessarily realizing. There's lots of moving parts and features and stuff that build towards that goal... but it's the ideals behind Feedbackz that make it different, and continually evolving towards it's own identity.

No one competitor can be like us, because they can't physically be us. They can imitate but unless they teleport into my body/brain; they can't become anything close. It will all be desperate attempts to copy without understanding the reasons... which equals mediocrity. So that's even better for me..

If they are smart; they will continue to do "themselves", they are great at that and have that down.., I even recommend certain interested users to my competitors because they are not a good fit for Feedbackz.

OUR USERS
With that said.... our brand trickles down to the type of users we have. Some are fastlaners and many are ones that directly connected with my thoughts and writings through the blog posts.

It's because we share a common goal and mindset... F*cking optimize shit!!

Beautiful designs is an absolute minimum to people like us, we are into everything optimization and believe all the little improvements we do adds up and pays off in folds long-term... and it does.

It directly hits our average units sold per day. Through better conversions on our listings brought by better copywriting, better, thoughtful product pictures, better CTRs to our listings, reviews, etc... and Feedbackz directly impacts the reviews portion of the equation.

So... our users who spend hours optimizing the different moving parts of ultimately increasing 'units sold per day' recognize and appreciate the ideals of Feedbackz because it allows you to be your "optimizing, marketing-savvy self" with sending feedback reviews the same way you do the other parts for your product listings.

RE-BRAND ALL THE WAY
So with all that figured out; I move like a locomotive with this new precise, clear vision.

The new brand needed to be shown.. better yet, felt... through it's designs, interaction, content, the angle at which we talk, etc...

So we accomplished:
  • Entire new user interface for the app
  • Website homepages all got re-designed
  • We adopted ZEUS (our mascot T-Rex who likes to "Hunt")
  • Changed "Email Campaigns" to be known as "Hunts"
  • A few other things I can't remember off top lol...
I spent a few months, making all of this pretty much from scratch to completely custom assets. Meanwhile, Feedbackz was at a stand-still on new features and updates because I was working on things that were abstract & didn't show on the outside.

It was a big gamble I took, but it's paid off... Both for me mentally, and towards interested users. They understand us right from the beginning... no more wasted time on deciding/trying to figure out if Feedbackz is for them out of the numerous other software.

Our users know instantly if Feedbackz stands out to them and directly aligns with what and how they are trying to accomplish things reviews wise on Amazon.
 
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James Fake

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- Part 2 Technical Update -

A few new features and things released between my last update and now... here's a quick bullet list:
  • Ability to Send To Just Orders That Used A Promo Code (shoutout to Jason!) - more on this on next post
  • Can send to older orders in "include old orders" up to 200 days ago
  • Custom Subject lines with buyer full or first name
  • Buyer's first name in Templates
  • Europe consolidation for all 5 countries under one account
  • More Hunt filters: FBM/FBA orders, Time of Day by Hour, Days to Send, Order Statuses improved
  • Faster, more powerful dedicated servers
  • 'Daily Monitoring' BCC copy of Hunts going out each day
  • Test Preview emails
That's all off the top of my head too for now lol.. but dev wise; the team I have been working with have pretty much come on-board (still 1099 contracting) but have allocated developer time so they are pretty much full on!

I lost count of how many hours was spent on those features.. Tons. Planning, mapping out features, logic, business logic, etc. etc. and then finally creating a prototype version of each feature and then getting it developed into a working version, then testing... then releasing.. then announcing/marketing that feature release.

Whoever said SAAS was easy.. dead wrong. Passively, yes the income is great as it is recurring, and physically it's not taxing.... but mentally; its about the most mind-draining work ever.

Still though; although not easy... SAAS is definitely the best business model... all this work is up-front and not wasted. The hours put in build assets and it grows organically after being done.... and things grow exponentially as well.
 
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James Fake

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Feature: SEND TO ONLY ORDERS THAT'S USED A PROMO CODE

If you're in Amazon selling; you already know about running promotions for reviews.. and finally there's a way to reach out to these folks. With what is usually a low conversion because many times; these promo code users never leave their review that they agreed to.

I launched this feature along with Feedbackz Academy (blog posts aimed at making users bad a$$ with feedback software). This is the first post:
How I Turn Lazy Promo Code Users To 90% Leaving A Review

That's about it.. right now; I am busting easy 90-100 hour work weeks with usually 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Also; working on another app as well... so grinding hard!

Note: Also; I left my job about 6 months to go full-time with Feedbackz. I was a lead web designer (self-taught btw.. also self-taught Ruby on Rails for those that's followed my other threads from years ago) for a company for 3 years and moon-lighting the entire 3 years almost every night and week ends.

On the last day before leaving; I sat in the parking lot and cried... Tears of joy, excitement for the future, dis-belief that after all these years of marketing, design, building web apps, and overall business are finally paying off. I finally built myself into a person capable of becoming a millionaire through providing value & improvement to others.

 
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BellaPippin

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Hi James! Awesome work...you nailed it. I do have a question about selling on Amazon if you don't mind (apologies if it's repeated...), probably a very newbie one (about to try it for the first time): How does the stock/ordering work when selling on Amazon? Say I buy 10 samples of something to try to sell, and it actually picks up: Will amazon say "currently unavailable" or "out of stock" after selling unit #10 to give me time to get a bigger shipment, or would I have to order before those 10 run out? I'm scared of having orders and no inventory o_o
 

James Fake

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Hi James! Awesome work...you nailed it. I do have a question about selling on Amazon if you don't mind (apologies if it's repeated...), probably a very newbie one (about to try it for the first time): How does the stock/ordering work when selling on Amazon? Say I buy 10 samples of something to try to sell, and it actually picks up: Will amazon say "currently unavailable" or "out of stock" after selling unit #10 to give me time to get a bigger shipment, or would I have to order before those 10 run out? I'm scared of having orders and no inventory o_o

Hey, thank you! If these 10 are your first "testers" to see if the product has viability then I would just let it run out of stock and then re-order your next shipment. I'd wait to see how fast all 10 would sell first before I re-ordered anything but if you sell them in a day or two, then that's a good sign.
 
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fkacam

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yo, I used to co-own amzshark.com and you were a badass competitor. I remember we were developing a directly competitive product but it never made it out of beta. Sending emails is stressful! Keep it up man! :)
 
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James Fake

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yo, I used to co-own amzshark.com and you were a badass competitor. I remember we were developing a directly competitive product but it never made it out of beta. Sending emails is stressful! Keep it up man! :)

Nice! and thanks, it is quite stressful lol. Yeah; I definitely remember you guys.. PM sent.
 

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I am hearing grumbling about some glitchiness regarding Feedbackz lately. What's new, and can you give us an update on the platform? @James A
 
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James Fake

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I am hearing grumbling about some glitchiness regarding Feedbackz lately. What's new, and can you give us an update on the platform? @James A

Hey,
Thanks for the heads up! I have heard some grumblings as well, specifically about slow support responses which is looking like it's running ALOT smoother since we added a few things.

I really need to update this thread as lots of things have been going on, and brewing. As posted in the other thread; I have to be a bit strategic in publicizing different things about Feedbackz due to competitors copying and ripping off stuff, but soon enough; FLers will be the first to know. =)
 

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Just started using Feedbackz for my FBA products. Love the simplicity of the platform and the fact that you can upload photos into templates, which I highly recommend including a picture of you and your team when asking for a review and thanking them for their purchase. Seems a lot more personal/human and not like it's coming from a robot computer.

Thanks for a Fastlaner making my life easier! Wishing you major success.
 

James Fake

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Just started using Feedbackz for my FBA products. Love the simplicity of the platform and the fact that you can upload photos into templates, which I highly recommend including a picture of you and your team when asking for a review and thanking them for their purchase. Seems a lot more personal/human and not like it's coming from a robot computer.

Thanks for a Fastlaner making my life easier! Wishing you major success.

Thanks man! and really good tip. Will have to test it out on my own funnels here soon.
 
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Hi James. I goggled something Amazon related and it took me to your blog. You're SEO is working!

Hows business?
 

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Would love to ask you some questions regarding one of your blog posts. Are you still active? No more replies here or on blog.
 

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Was it difficult becoming an Amazon tech partner? Or was it a fairly straightforward process?
 
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James Fake

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Sorry guys for the super, super late reply.

Hi James. I goggled something Amazon related and it took me to your blog. You're SEO is working!

Hows business?

Hey @Jambla - Awesome! =) I am just now getting my head above water in things, been really mia online in general.. but business is good. I'll update things here shortly!

Would love to ask you some questions regarding one of your blog posts. Are you still active? No more replies here or on blog.

Hey @NickC - I am now.

Was it difficult becoming an Amazon tech partner? Or was it a fairly straightforward process?

@Mac - by "Amazon tech partner", you mean setting up and getting approved as a developer for Amazon credentials? Not at all; you just have to meet certain criteria and follow rules. Not hard to get in and get going with full credentials..
 

James Fake

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Update 4-5-2017:

First off; I apologize for doing a lousy job at updating this thread. It's been a year and a half since my last real update; and sooo much has happened, changed, and progressed that I've been non-existent in the online community world. It would take me hours to give a solid update, so I'll try to summarize as much as possible:
  • Monthly Recurring Revenue is over the 5 figure mark.
  • Team Grew has grown to 3 member dev team including a project manager, and 2 members that handle our support tickets.
  • 2 Serious Acquisition Offers turned down.
  • Re-vamped UI on the entire app and homepage.
  • Re-vamped Support Ticket Process to better handle tickets with speed, following up, and attention.
  • More Features on the app, but due to time constraints I can't go into detail or even try to recall them. But from this point forward; a better job will be made to document thread updates.
Some struggles:

Customer Service

Took me way over guard; with the growth of users and complexity of the app - support tickets were coming in way faster than they could be handled.

A lack of resources and tutorials and such made things really hard, and I often caught myself spending crazy hours handling tickets than actually working on progressing Feedbackz.

I had to really sit one day and yell at myself to outsource and delegate this part out or Feedbackz would be doomed due to being stagnant in really important areas for progression.

Marketing

Due to customer support and trying to get on my feet with development. Marketing has slacked off tremendously, if not hit zero activity at all. All growth has been either due to word of mouth or the 6 original blog posts I made. This actually boils self-disappointment as I reflect on this, more on this down below.

Working "On The" Business, And Not "In The" Business
With those two previous points above; it really boiled down to I had to take a week off and really self-evaluate myself and my company in the big picture of things.

User growth was good organically, but I am really mad at myself for where it could really be had I spent times wisely building a company and not being inside the app all day.

When I did have time freed up; I decided to pursue another app (in the same space and launching soon, I'll create a separate progress post)... which may either be a very great decision or very bad one. It also took ALOT of time away from progressing Feedbackz in Marketing.

I had to really learn to delegate parts that I feel were my strong points and reasons why the app was doing well, in particular design and maintenance.

I learned (and still working on) the transition of a founder to a CEO. It's a delicate progress and a delicate balance, but it's going in a very good direction for 2017 and future years.

That's about it off the top of my head guys; time is super-tight now a days, so I have to get going. (which is another topic itself as well, time management was something else I had to get a handle on as I found what was already "no time" as a hustling entrepreneur to an even more "no F*cking time, not even a free 15 mins" traction gained/growth mode/hustling entrepreneur.
 

James Fake

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Update: April 27th, 2017

The usual with Feedbackz; wireframed a few features & having the dev team knock on this heavy next week. Spent most of the past weeks preparing the launch of my new app. =) That and Amazon put out the ability for a buyer to opt-out of buyer messages, so had to do some damage control and adjustments within the app to tackle that.

I have also decided to no longer go by my internet nickname/pen name of James Amazio and going with my real name for everything!

I am spending loads of time the rest of the week writing some blog content so the launch of the new app can start with a splash!

BTW: Here's a teaser, sneak peek at the new app's Logomark I created.

helpify-logo-symbol.png
 
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PaulRobert

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Hey James!

Thanks for the update. I've been using Feedbackz since January and I am so glad I did! Doubled my reviews in the past 3 months!

Looking forward to the further development of the program!
 

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Just stopping by to say that anyone who wants a simple easy to use Amazon feedback program should give this a try. Being proactive about your reviews helps A TON. I slacked and thought it wasn't necessary, then I got some negative reviews (not about the product directly but damaged item during shipping, etc) and it reminded me how important it is to actively get people to leave 5 star reviews.

Also if you added an option to remove pending emails from buyers who requested a refund THAT would BE GOLDDD.
 
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James Fake

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Just stopping by to say that anyone who wants a simple easy to use Amazon feedback program should give this a try. Being proactive about your reviews helps A TON. I slacked and thought it wasn't necessary, then I got some negative reviews (not about the product directly but damaged item during shipping, etc) and it reminded me how important it is to actively get people to leave 5 star reviews.

Also if you added an option to remove pending emails from buyers who requested a refund THAT would BE GOLDDD.

Thank you so much for your support & insights!!!

Regarding your feature suggestion, most definitely! We've actually been working on something... =)
 

James Fake

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Sept 20, 2017 Update:

Just wanted to keep updating & track my progress on this thread.. It may seem I have dialed down on the development of Feedbackz (with launching Helpify) but it's still going full steam ahead.

  1. We just launched the ability to auto delete any Pending Emails getting ready to be sent out for buyers who have opted-out of buyer messages.
  2. Got another feature that's just about complete and going through testing phases called Consolidation. This will let you add on as many Amazon accounts and marketplaces all within one Feedbackz account & billing plan.
There are a few more features being developed on as well, but can't let the cat out the bag yet!

I've also felt like I've been saying this forever, but a ton of content associated with Feedbackz, Helpify, and just selling on Amazon in general is about to be released! Since each article & video takes so long to make (since it goes deep), it takes much longer to get ready for the public to see than I would like. :bored:
 

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