The Selling From the Beach Newsletter

You and 4,000 others are here to enjoy this newsletter or i’ll sit in froinront of you and record an entire music concert on my phone. I swear i’ll watch it again.

Welcome back friend!
And a big welcome to the +84 new readers this week!
(Also, we’ve just passed 4000 Subscribers. Thanks again!
And remember to tell a friend, there are good benefits)

Hey, control freak!
For a while, I thought being an Amazon seller meant doing it all.
Sourcing, shipping, design, photos, accounting, ads, support, inventory. Every single piece of it.

If I wasn’t doing it myself, it felt like I wasn’t really working.
Like somehow outsourcing meant I was lazy.

But here’s what I learned the hard way. Doing everything keeps you small.

I was spending hours editing photos, manually entering my costs, fixing flat files, responding to customer messages. All things that someone else could do faster (and probably better). Meanwhile, the stuff that actually grows the business sat on a to-do list.

The turning point was when I stopped asking “How can I do this?” and started asking “Who can do this?”

Now I’ve got a VA who handles support tickets and catalog issues, a bookkeeper who actually enjoys reconciling inventory, and AI that can knock out a new A+ module in a fraction the time it used to take me.

And yeah, I’ve also got people who clean my house and do my laundry.
Because the time I buy back there goes straight into new products, better ads, and higher margins.

I stopped trying to be a hero. What about you?

Order Automator has a suite of features for Shopify stores to automate tasks + extend workflow functionality. New features are always coming out + it's customizable.

Most popular features:
- Auto fulfill Shopify orders using your FBA inventory (fast shipping)
- Send custom order notifications to staff and partners based on order contents
- Auto cancel or get notified on fraudulent orders (Free plan)
- See a quick list of use cases here

️⭐The team takes custom requests, the app is highly rated, and is often recommended by Shopify staff!

👉 Check it out here in the Shopify app store.

✅The Instant Value Section (IVS)✅

(aren't you glad you opened the email now?)

Huge thank you to Igor Nuhanovic for supplying this week’s IVS. Igor runs Amazonia PPC and has a reputation of being a No-BS knowledgable advertiser! He has a ton of great content on his youtube if you like this sort of thing.

Are you converting better than your competitors? Find out here!

In this video, Igor shows you how to use Amazon’s Campaign Manager to see how your product actually stacks up against competitors in your category. Igor walks through where to find the data and how to read it so you can tell if your listing is outperforming or lagging behind the rest. It’s a simple but powerful way to see how well you’re really converting compared to everyone else selling similar products. See the video here!

ListingOptimization.ai is… really really good.

One of my favorite new AI tools that really does it all for Amazon Sellers. They had so many signups that the software actually broke (working now, though). It’s free up to 50 images. I highly recommend giving it a spin.

Watch the video below where I create full creative in 15 minutes (copy & images).

Rainy Season aka “Green Season”

Our rainy season has begun!  If you are coming to visit now, flights and hotels are cheap, but expect to get rain each day int the evening.  Usually not too long like 20 minutes but enough to get you off the beach. The rainy season also brings mamon chino, aka rambutan fruit season with lots of roadside sellers this time of the year. Chase compares them to a grape, except the annoying seed in the middle so they are a little bit of work, but worth it! 

The Fifth Round of PPC Tools!

My good friend Anthony Nguyen over at Adscrafted has been quietly building an army of PPC tools. Here’s another one for you.

Meet the Keyword Cannibalization Checker.

I love this one. Easily identify areas where you’re using the same keyword and match type in multiple campaigns. Fix those campaign conflicts!

Try it here.

The Deep Dive (Premium Content)

My Mobile Image Size Was Really Wrong

For a guy who spends his entire life on Amazon, I really shouldn’t have missed this one. What went wrong? I broke the cardinal sin. I optimized for desktop, not mobile.

Oops.

As a reminder, the majority of the buyers on Amazon are mobile buyers. And yet, the majority of images are designed for desktop buyers. See the problem with this picture? This is what our listing looked like on Mobile vs the competitor. Small & square. Whereas his was big and rectangular (that’s what she said?)

Don’t worry. I fixed it.

How? I downloaded his image size. We altered our image to be as big as possible with that exact size. Then, re-upload.

Much better.

This One Hasn’t Made it Into the Mainstream Yet

Did you know you can rent cars from random people? 

Turo is basically Airbnb. But for vehicles. You can book anything from a beat-up Civic to a shiny Porsche, usually for less than what the rental desks charge. Insurance is included, pickup is quick, and there’s no pushy upsell or long lines.

I’ve tried this myself. Met the guy at the airport, he handed me the keys, said have fun, and I returned the car a week later, same spot. Everything is paid online, and was easy and painless.

It’s perfect if you want a specific ride for a trip or if your own car spends most of its life parked. Just remember, you’re renting from real people, not a corporation, so experiences vary. Still, it’s a solid way to skip the rental chaos and hit the road faster.

Give it a shot. 

Tree Cutting Season - Keep the Critters Away

During the rainy season plants and trees grow fast here (why else would you call it a rain forest!) This is the time of the year when you want to trim trees, brush and other plants.  Trees close to the house can lose leaves to fill up the gutters and give iguana’s easy access to your roof and they can find small ways into the ceilings! Unique problems… I know!

Brush around the house is a great home for scorpions and snakes so now is the time to clean up.  And remember, check your shoes every time before you put them on for sleeping scorpions…. no joke!

• Anvis’ account gets deactivated and asks for help.

• Shipping food items across the border is easy with Shipsavvy.

DD +7 Armageddon w/ Account Reserve (Cashflow pain)

Amazon will be implementing a blanket payout reserve period of 7 Days for all sellers as of March 12, 2026.

What’s a reserve period? A reserve period is how long Amazon holds your money before paying you out. Usually, you get paid every two weeks for sales (minus refunds). Now Amazon’s making everyone wait seven extra days after each order is delivered before those funds even show up in your balance.

They say it’s to “align with the customer experience.” …HA sure…

In reality, it’s a cash grab. You’ll take a one-time hit to your cash flow as Amazon starts holding each sale for that extra week. After the switch, payouts keep their regular rhythm, but your balance will always sit a week behind. Amazon keeps that float, earning interest while you cover ads, shipping, and inventory.

How was today's newsletter? Love it? Hate it? Just want to plot your early retirement to a personal paradise? 🏝️🏝️🏝️

• I loved it! 🏝️🏝️🏝️

• It was okay 🏝️🏝️

• Not good. 🏝️

To your unbounded success,

Rob & Max