There has been a lot of hype created around the Rainmaker Challenge by the owners of the Rainmaker Academy, Stephen Diaz and Chelsey Diaz. Finding the Rainmaker Challenge reviews online is almost impossible as this course has not launched at the moment of publishing this post.
This article will help you understand why the Rainmaker Challenge might not be the right fit for you.
I’ve been making a living from home since 2007. Over the years I had the opportunity to venture into a large number of online business opportunities including affiliate marketing, e-commerce, Amazon selling and many others. Amazon FBA business model has been making waves in the online marketing community for the past 5+ years.
More often than not you’ll find successful people selling Amazon FBA courses, rather than actually making money through Amazon and there is a reason for that.
What is The Rainmaker Challenge?
In short, the Rainmaker Challenge is a 7 day introduction course to selling products through Amazon’s FBA program. This means that you will learn the basics of sourcing products and signing up as the third party seller through the Fulfilled by Amazon platform.
The Rainmakers Academy challenge isn’t an actual challenge but rather a short course, broken into 7 parts (hence the 7 Day Challenge).
There are hundreds of similar courses available online, free and paid. The rainmaker challenge by the Rainmakers Academy seems to be targeted at stay-at-home moms who want to start a business from home.
Amazon FBA is a viable business. I have tried it in the past with some success. A friend of mine has been doing it full time for the past 10 years. There are many ways to earn a legitimate income from home. However, I would not necessarily recommend this specific business model and this rainmaker challenge review will explain why.
What’s Inside The Rainmaker Challenge?
I have to admit that the sales page for the rainmaker challenge looks enticing. They use phrases such as “start your own “hands off” business”, and “creating wealth through a little known method of selling on Amazon” that trigger emotions and excitement.
However, since I’ve been looking at sales pitches for the past 13 years I can actually analyze such offers without getting lost into my emotions. “Little known method of selling on Amazon” did trigger me to be honest. Amazon has over 8,000,000 (yes, 8 Million) registered sellers so this method is not that unknown.
The Rainmaker Challenge Day 1
The first day you will learn about the newest gold rush: Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). Anyone can sign up to be a seller on Amazon. The platform offers 2 ways of selling: orders being fulfilled by Amazon or directly by the seller (FBN). FBA means that you will send your inventory to Amazon warehouses and they will dispatch the products to customers when they order your products.
If you let Amazon fulfill the orders they will take a much higher cut from your sale. This makes sense as they store your products, ship it and deal with returns if there are any issues. FBA sellers are also eligible for Prime program and non-FBA sellers usually aren’t eligible.
The Rainmaker Challenge Day 2
In the second day you will learn how much time you will need to invest to build this business. As the owners of Rainmaker Academy put it: “How much time does it take to make passive income happen”. I am sure they’ll tell you you can spend only a few hours a week and earn 6 figures a year but you need to be realistic. Passive Income is incredibly hard to achieve and takes years to build.
To get close to a true “passive income” you’ll need to hire a team of people who will run and manage the business for you. And even then, you’ll need to invest your time to make sure everything is running smoothly and that, my friend, is no longer a passive income.
A few years ago I interviewed Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income on my podcast. At that time Pat was earning over $100,000 per month with his brand and he was very clear that success cannot be achieved with just a few hours of work per week. In fact, over a hundred of other successful entrepreneurs who I interviewed had the same claim. If you want to earn money – get ready to put in the time. Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you snake oil.
The Rainmaker Challenge Day 3
“How Much Money Do I Need?” Starting an Amazon FBA business is becoming more and more expensive. I did my first Amazon FBA product launch in 2016 with less than $500 USD. There were a lot less competitors so I could launch small and try to scale later.
However, those days are gone. Look up any product on Amazon and you’ll find at least 10 different sellers (usually more) pushing the same item, with slightly different branding. Just look at this example:
When this happens, sellers usually end up in a race to the bottom. Everyone drops prices hoping that they can outlast the other competitors. When this happens, everyone loses money.
The seller that has the deepest pockets and can afford the most losses usually wins, as others abandon the race.
Most products require marketing and this includes paid advertising within Amazon platform. A very similar competitive scenario can occur here as well. As more and more sellers start paying for display ads, the prices for these ads go up, causing you to incur more losses.
A few recent events also caused a much higher expense for Amazon sellers. Higher tariffs on imported goods (if you are located in the USA) is one. The second is COVID-19. Shipping costs from Asia skyrocketed and some sellers are reporting that it now costs them up to 7 times more to ship products, compared to shipping costs prior to January 2020.
In my opinion you need to be able to invest at least $10,000 to start this business. As long as you understand that you also might lose this investment.
7,000+
The number of people who went through my Affiliate Marketing Training.
Want to build you own profitable niche website? Put your credit card away, this is 100% Free.
Rainmaker Challenge Day 4
Getting product ideas. “What kind of products can I sell on Amazon?” – that’s a very natural question. A quick way to get an idea of some products you could potentially sell is simply heading over to Amazon and start digging deep into their bestsellers.
Example: on Amazon go to Kitchen and Dining Department then Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets. Click on Measuring Tools & Scales, then Spoons. There, your first idea. You will see several listings of measuring spoons with thousands of reviews – this means that the product sells well. It can (potentially) be a great product because the product cost is low, size and weigh are small (this means cheaper shipping and cheaper storage). If you click on any of the listings you’ll probably see: “Fulfilled by Amazon, Sold By XYZ”. This means that the product is sold by a third party FBA seller, just like you.
You can drill very deep inside some obscure categories and you’ll generate loads of ideas for products that could be sold on Amazon. Getting ideas isn’t enough though, you need to figure out if the product is actually profitable. This is when Day 5 comes in.
Rainmaker Challenge Day 5
Finding profitable products to sell. This is a hard part of any business. If you jump into affiliate marketing – what kind of niche should you go into? Starting a YouTube channel – what kind of content should you produce? Picking the right and profitable niche is not an easy task.
There are loads of apps and services that will help you make a decision by analyzing some data. I can’t personally recommend any since I don’t use these tools. You can check out this interview I did with Greg Mercer the founder of JungleScout, one of the most popular Amazon product research tools in the market. Just remember that the numbers inside these tools are approximations and not actual sales numbers.
I’m rather sure the founders of the Rainmakers Academy will mostly talk about such tools and services in Day 5 of the Rainmaker Challenge.
Rainmaker Challenge Day 6
From product idea to the actual product. In this training the Rainmaker Academy will explain how to actually source the products. This isn’t very complicated. You can head over to Alibaba website and look up the products you wish to sell. You’ll find loads of manufacturers (or their agents) offering products of interest at ridiculously low prices.
Most will have a rather high minimum order. However you can contact those agents and ask for a sample. They can even stamp or print your logo on it. A sample would usually cost much more than the stated retail price which is normal since you’re ordering just a few units and not a whole box (or container).
Besides Alibaba and a few other known sourcing directories there are also a bunch of companies that can offer you their sourcing services. Since not everyone is on Alibaba it can be very useful to contact local agents who have contacts with different manufacturers and can help you find more unique products. This of course comes with a price.
I’m not here to teach you how to source products. I’ve done it but it’s not my specialty. Besides, there are hundreds of amazing YouTube videos and blog posts that can teach you how to find manufacturers, negotiate prices, place orders and so on.
Rainmaker Challenge Day 7
Taking your business to 6-figures. To be honest I am not sure what the Rainmaker Challenge teaches you in day 7. Since it’s about scaling your Amazon business – it could be a lot of things. It can be about launching 2nd, 3rd and more products. It can be about branching out to e-commerce. Possibly they’ll talk about running ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Rainmaker Challenge Price
This Rainmaker Challenge review wouldn’t be of much help if we didn’t talk about the cost.
The Rainmaker Academy shows you a price tag of $27 USD for the 7 day Rainmaker Challenge. It doesn’t seem like much. In fact, Udemy has loads of complete Amazon FBA courses all under $20. Many of them have 2,000+ positive reviews.
However the pricing for the Rainmaker Challenge doesn’t end at $27. At the very least you will be offered two (2) different upsells.
First: The 7 Day Rainmaker Challenge Replays at $147. Second: 1-on-1 Product Feedback Session at a not-so-modest $247 USD. If you go for the basic course and the 2 upsells, The Rainmaker Challenge is costing you $421. There are probably other upsells to join mastermind groups, more courses and so on. Be careful with your money.
From the description on the Rainmaker Challenge sales page it seems like the course is very basic and is targeted to complete beginners. There is nothing wrong with that, we all have to start somewhere. However, I’d like to point out that there are tons of great resources on this very subject available online, free of charge. Besides blogs and YouTube I highly suggest checking out the FBA Reddit community with its 60,000 members.
Is The Rainmaker Challenge Legit
Unfortunately there are a lot of scams online. However, I do not think that the Rainmaker Academy is a scam. The Rainmaker Challenge seems like a legit course without obvious red flags.
I dislike how they market their course by making it seem like success with Amazon FBA is very easily achievable and doesn’t require much work. You can certainly earn money as an Amazon seller but if you actually do, it will not be easy. Remember, there are no shortcuts to riches.
I also dislike products and services that do not explain their pricing before I make a purchase.
The rainmaker challenge website forces you to give them your name and email address, just so you could see the price of the course. This way, if you decide to not go through with the purchase they’ll still be able to contact you and try to sell harder.
The Rainmaker Academy shows you the price tag for the 7-day Rainmaker Challenge (once you give them access to your name and email) but they don’t mention that you will need to pay an extra $147 to access the replay of the course. I am suspecting other fees as well but we’ll learn about those when we get access to the rainmaker challenge reviews once the course goes live.
The Rainmaker Challenge Reviews?
The sales page also talks about some bonuses. Notably the bonus # 3:
We’ll Show You An Insider Way To Get Products From Amazon™ for $0, While Growing Your Business At The Same Time.
Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Here is how it works.
One of the ways to get your products ranking high in Amazon search is getting reviews from your customers. But if you’re a new seller, you don’t have any reviews. How do you deal with that? I imagine that the Rainmaker Academy runs a review group (or points you to one). In that group sellers offer their products to buyers completely free, in exchange of a review.
This means that you actually purchase a product on Amazon from a specific seller. Write a 5 star review for that product then the seller refunds you the full amount through PayPal, Venmo or other system (not through Amazon, obviously). A seller review club is where sellers buy each others product and leave reviews in order to boost the product rankings.
You can find such groups on Facebook and other social media platforms.
However, this review strategy is completely against Amazon’s rules. Sellers that get caught (and they do get caught) usually get kicked out of Amazon for this practice. There, you have been warned.
Can You Make Money With The Rainmaker Challenge?
The rainmaker challenge teaches you about Amazon FBA, just like hundreds if not thousands of other, similar courses. The real question should be: Can you actually make money by selling on Amazon?
The short answers is yes. But there are a few numbers to keep in mind.
8 Million Amazon Sellers
According to Marketplace Pulse there are over 8,000,000 Amazon sellers. Only 2,000,000 of them are active. Why do you think other 6 million Amazon sellers no longer have products listed for sale? It’s because they simply couldn’t make a profit.
Earning $10k per year
According to the same source:
Every year more than a million new sellers join Amazon, however less than 10% of the currently active sellers were able to achieve $100,000 in yearly sales.
The Rainmaker Challenge talks about showing you how to grow your Amazon FBA business to yearly 6 figures ($100,000+ in sales).
Profit is very different from revenue. Most Amazon sellers claim that their profit margins are around 10% – 15%. This means that top 10% of Amazon sellers actually earn $10,000 – $15,000 per year as profit. In most western countries this is around (or less than) minimum wage.
Saying that your Amazon FBA business makes $100,000 in sales is awesome. Admitting that your actual yearly profit is only $10,000 sucks. That’s the reality of it.
The Risk Is Real
We love sharing success stories but we need to look at both sides of the stick. Here are some negative experiences from people who started an Amazon FBA Business:
Filing for bankruptcy because of Amazon FBA does not sound like fun.
Ouch, $70,000 down the drain. I can’t even imagine.
This seller lost over $30,000 trying to sell sourced items through Amazon FBA. The risk is real and you need to understand it.
This person lost $8,000. Not as dramatic as $30,000 but still a huge number for many. I know I wouldn’t want to lose this much money.
Conclusion
Making money on Amazon is possible. It’s incredibly hard and only getting harder by the day. If you want to work from home I recently published a list of 12 ways to earn a legitimate income online in 2020. If I had to share a single piece of advice, it would be this: there is no shortcut to riches. You will only succeed if you are willing to invest your time and your efforts.
The Rainmaker Academy is legit however I am not sure it’s worth the money. If you would like to share your Rainmaker Challenge reviews with other readers please use the comment box below or send me a private message.
7,000+
The number of people who went through my Affiliate Marketing Training.
Want to build you own profitable niche website? Put your credit card away, this is 100% Free.
I signed up for the Rainmaker Challenge after it was recommended to me, and although Stephen and his wife, Chelsey, managed to whip many that watched their very-long-winded zoom sessions, into an excited frenzy, so that they were then willing to follow their suggestions … which included:
1/. That attendees should sell their stuff on eBay and / or to post ads for services such as ‘I will draw your portrait for [‘x’ amount]’ or any other thing(s) that one could do, in order for them to complete the Rainmaker ‘Make It Rain’ Challenge – thusly, proving to many of those that they had whipped into an excited state, whom had successfully achieved the challenge’s revenue target … that ‘earning’ money can be ‘easy’ and ‘fun’ once you know how (and providing that one sets about doing what needs to be done in order To Make It Happen); &
2/. BUY our ‘Rainmaker Course!’ (that allegedly will teach one how to sell items via Amazon’s FBA service).
Summary: many attendees were whipped into a frenzy of excitement – rather like those that get duped into buying ‘timeshare’ holiday offers found themselves … and as many know, those that peddle such, use mind bending techniques such as very-long-winded sales pitches, that for many, seem never-ending because of the amount of repetition that is delivered (by the sales teams that sell such) in order to brainwash the target(s), thus often as not, their victim’s brain becomes tired by the duration of the inane hype and sales pitching … which then results in ‘the sale’ being completed; and as with timeshare pitches, sweeteners were offered, for attending – for those that upgraded from the ‘free’ ticket for the Rainmaker Challenge to the VIP Attendee Ticket (which gets one a Fill In The Gaps Printable Workbook [PDF]), VIP Ticket attendees could try to win prizes … which were offered via the daily zoom calls (yes, their sales pitch went-on-and-on, for several days!) … all of which cumilated to one big sales pitch for their VIP Rainmaker Offer, which if I remember correctly, they wanted $4K for.
Side note: They now offer what I am guessing is a ‘Done For You’ FBA Amazon Store Service – but have proven too be shy to reveal the full details, insisting that I should apply, stating my ‘why(s)’ thusly, to hype myself up into a self-induced frenzy of excitement*, that I am likely to failover myself in order to hand over my money rather than giving their offer consideration, with a full deck! FYI, I asked for the full details to be emailed to me, however one of their assistants insisted that I must give a sob-sob story as to why I need to earn loads of money, along with my ‘why’ … the later being what I want the money for. *#SelfHypnoses
Conclusion: Don’t waste your money nor your time, if learning how to set up & operate your own FBA Amazon Store is what you wish to learn, there are courses available from people that are happy to prove that what they teach has earned them millions from running their own Amazon store (and that what they teach is working for their students) … with some teaching what you need to know, for a small fraction of what Stephen & Chelsey charge.
This is a cult! Run! The Upsell is constant. They will remove you from the group if you participate in another. I didn’t make a dime from my product. That’s not even my main complaint. These people are cult leaders. They’re making millions off of doors like me who fell for it. The information is helpful, but seek it elsewhere.
I participated in the Rainmaker 7-day challenge and purchased their membership in Feb 2020. Aside from the fact that a lot of their Amazon instruction at the time was outdated and they punted you off to coaches who might not have had successful product launches, I’ll tell you EXACTLY why I stopped trusting this couple.
In both programs, they encouraged you to sign up for “Stephen’s Free Stuff” – a private group where you get access to other Rainmakers’ Amazon products at a deep discount or for free during their launches. Part of the requirement was to install a free Chrome app so that Steven could verify and track that you purchased the items. WHAT THIS EXTENSION ACTUALLY DID was add THEIR Amazon affiliate tag to every item you looked at or purchased on Amazon. This was not revealed at the time, and when I emailed him to ask about it, he said “oh yeah, that’s correct, but Amazon didn’t like it, so it turned out not to work for us. You can uninstall it.” Or something to that effect. But the extension did not change, and as far as I know, he never revealed that it added their affiliate tag to all Amazon purchases.
Currently, the extension says that “proceeds from commissions on any sales on these ecommerce platforms goes towards helping families in need” but I have seen no evidence that this is the case or that he plainly states that the extension is actually adding an affiliate link for him. I lost all trust, and did not participate in the group after that.
There are MANY other Amazon training around that do not foster a cult-like atmosphere but do offer real value for their information. Rainmakers is not one of those groups.
Just want to share my experience because I know what everyone wants to know comes down to money and results. Here’s my honest story.
I went through the Rainmaker challenge (without any of the upgrades, which are optional) and did join the year long program (I should note I’ve never purchased a course or challenge before either and don’t tend to trust them). I decided to make the investment because 1) I found Stephen and Chelsey to be extremely honest and genuine and 2) I learned way more than I thought I would in the challenge and assumed the program would be a similar experience (it was by the way). Can you learn the basics of FBA other places? Absolutely. Will you find a better program than Rainmakers? I honestly can’t say, I’m not sure what else is out there. I just know what I got through Rainmakers and that was perfect for me.
Now, what matters. Results. First of all, I’ll say I’ve never heard of an FBA seller making 10-15% profit margins. If that’s the case, I think they could use some help. Mine are always in the 30-40% range (yes, this is after you take out cost of goods and shipping, Amazon fees, subscription fees, advertising costs, ALL the things). I’m about one year in and have profited around 30k. This is after I made all my money back, including what I paid to invest in the program. At this point, I have been profiting $3000-$4000 every single month on Amazon for the past 7 months. We are currently scaling our brand to multiple this and make our brand stronger. I was a full time middle school teacher until 2 months ago (I resigned so I can pursue my other passion now that I have another income source that has replaced my teacher salary).
How much time did I spend doing this? In the beginning, 10-15 hours per week (learning, researching, creating a product and launching it). Now I spend maybe an hour a week on maintaining it. Once you learn how to run ads you can set them on autopilot and check them periodically. Reordering is the click of a button. If I spend an lot of time on something, it’s on creating new products (which yeah, that part is not passive it is hard work, but I enjoy it. Once the product is selling stably it’s very passive).
I say all this because I was in the position of some of you reading wondering “is this legit” and “‘can someone with no experience do this”. Well, yes. That was literally me. I have nothing but good things today about Rainmakers, but this also isn’t a get rich quick scheme nor do they claim to be. It will take hard work and investment (maybe not as much as you think, I started with 2k). It will take a lot of time in the beginning to build something that is passive later. But more than anything (and this is the part that gets most people) it takes a lot of motivation and a positive mindset. You can’t just give up when it gets hard. You can’t whine and cry when something went wrong. You have to push past the walls and learn how to overcome obstacles. Which is exactly what Rainmakers is about. If that sounds like you, it might be a good fit.
I hope this helps someone who is in the position I was and just wants to know what actual results are possible without any gimmicks. You have to decide what is right for you, but I would encourage you not to be led by fear. Make informed decisions, yes – but don’t stand still because you’re afraid of failing. It’s pretty obvious that that leads no where. Best of luck ❤️
Good Evening,
Since the time of this article there have many multiple challenges available. I do find it odd that you still have not seen fit to actually experience what you are writing about. Seems like you are reviewing a concert you didn’t see.
Respectfully,
Jason
I recently took the course and this article is pretty close to nailing the bones of the “course”. I totally agree with Jess that it is a waste of time. The emotion tugging and psychological crap are just ridiculous. I hope the “moms” this program is targeting does cause more harm than good. I also asked by day 6 in a comment about how much does it cost to start a business on Amazon and no reply. Others asked repeatedly. That is the most important step to me in knowing the “cost” of this. Lots of smoke and mirrors.
They seem helpful and trustworthy, just leaving out helpful info to milk more money. The course to help after the 7 days is $5000, no pressure though, you’ll just to to work harder without their help!
I wouldn’t recommend the rainmaker course. It is a gigantic waste of time! Also if you do take it don’t ever ask a question or make a comment that isn’t kissing up to them or like me you will be kicked out after you’ve sat through the first 3 days which provides absolutely no info on selling through FBA but instead is their sad sell fulfilling, sappy life reliving bull squirt to try and “motivate you”. It’s full of spun memories and nonsense. And if, like me, you ask “when will you be getting to the info on FBA? I didn’t sign up for motivation stuff” you will find yourself kicked out. Oh and also don’t ask for them to provide any proof of their own success or any concrete details of how they did things or proof of them even having a sellers account and what they made, that also is a no go for them.
It is not a course with any info you can’t find for free and full of people who just want to be able to comment mindlessly with hearts and kisses while Steven spews egotistical nonsense.
Save your time and money!
Agree with everything Jess said. The daily “classes” are filled with current “rainmakers” who enthusiastically comment throughout the videos. No statistics are presented to show how many RMers are successful implementing what the course teaches vs how many pay for the course, affiliate earnings for the Helium 10 sign-ups, a $17 workbook that is only 24 pages long, and half those pages are blank, lined pages for “note taking,” upsells of “lifetime access” and coaching…the list goes on and on.
This was very helpful thank you !!!
Thank you Alex for putting this out there and posting all of these comments. Very insightful in all areas!
I think the $27 challenge can be super helpful and bring lots of great information – that said, the $4000 academy does not deliver what is promised, and the $10,000 upsale from the academy I also believe will be a huge let down and mistake. I believe there is money to be made on Amazon but I don’t think the rainmaker challenge is the most time or cost effective way to learn. Specifically, I recommend [name retracted]. While there is an investment to use their service – it is imperative to have a successful amazon business. They also offer an awesome training that can walk you through most of it.
The rainmaker course is full of slow speaking, giggling, and time wasters. Each day there is a minimum of 2 hours with 20 minutes worth of actual useful information.
Good luck!
Can you send me the name you do recommend? Thanks!
Just want to thank you for this post. I too was looking for scam/negative info because their marketing/ads are pretty convincing. I’m a single mom of three who happen to come across the ads on Facebook. This blog post explains the Amazon FBA in a more clear cut and straight up honest way. I also appreciate Michael’s and Jean’s experiences being shared too. All very helpful in making a more informed decision.
I too, am college educated, and I already run an at-home graphic design business for 14+ years. My ex hubby bailed on our three children and myself almost 5 years ago and money (and my time) is extremely tight. Passive income sounds great, right? Who wouldn’t be interested? But the reality detailed out in this blog post is very helpful. This Rainmaker course is definitely NOT for me.
Thank you for your comment Jena.
There are hundreds of Amazon FBA courses that cost less and do not sell any hype. I am happy this post helped you make a decision.
Best of success!
Alex
Someone I really thought was helpful in Amazon FBA is “ReezyResells” on YouTube. He gives out free info. He does sell stuff but in my opinion they are completely optional. He doesn’t urge you to buy his stuff either.
I’m not sure how EVERYBODY that left a comment about The Rainmaker Challenge not being a scam, which you said straight out, in plain English, and SEVERAL times) TOTALLY MISSED the point about the fact that making $100,00 in sales, and that is definitely not going to happen investing just a few, or even 20 hours a week, is only going to bet you $10-15,000 in profit!
Let’s break this down even simpler. At a 10-15% profit margin, that means your $100,000 in sales is going to cost YOU $85-$90,000 out of pocket, just to make another $10-15,000!. How make of us have $85-90,000 to invest, for a measly 10-15% return? That’s ludicrous!
Now that doesn’t mean your product will cost you that much. The “costs” include the YOUR cost of the product, your time invested to get that product to market, advertising, supplies, shipping, all those cool “tools” that you used to find the product in the first place, your gas to pick up those supplies and products if they aren’t shipped to you, which them involves wear and tear on your car, add that in.
From a retailer’s point of view, basic marketing will teach you that in order to make a profit on any product, you’ll need to pushes that product at a price that will allow you to mark that cost up somewhere between 2 to 3 times (200-300% markup). So let’s go back, for $100,000 in sales, that means you could only afford to spend $33,333-$50,000 on your product. Now a markup of only 2 times really isn’t realistic, and 3 times is still low, but let’s go with that. So out of $100,000 in sales, first thing is you deduct $33,333 for your cost of what you’re selling. Let’s round that to $33,000 just to make it easier. Now add that $3,000 a year membership fee for Rainmaker, and you’ve already spent $36,000 out of pocket and you still haven’t shelled out for ALL THOSE OTHER EXPENSES to get your product sold. And just to keep it simple, you’re doing this all yourself, so you’re not paying anybody else to help, or splitting your profit with anybody else. We’ll even take these highest profit of $15,000 a year and you divide that by 12 months to get $1,250 a month. And assuming your only putting in 20 hours a week to do this, that’s only $14.54 an hour you’re making, and remember that’s BEFORE your federal taxes and your FICA,, plus the employers half because you’re the employer and the Medicare tax, Heaven forbid you’re in a state with a state income tax. So realistically you’re only netting about $12.36 an hour after taxes. And we already established that your $100,000 in sales is going to cost you $85,000, or $7,083 a month out of pocket. Now all of that isn’t coming out up front, but the biggest majority of it is. Who in their right mind thinks paying $7,083 a month out of pocket to make $8,333 a month in sales is “easy, passive” income? I know they didn’t come right out and say easy, but that’s what “passive income” implies.
Thank you for such a detailed comment, Stacy.
You wrote: “Who in their right mind thinks paying $7,083 a month out of pocket to make $8,333 a month in sales”.
Don’t forget that only top 10% of Amazon Sellers will actually be able to achieve even these numbers. The other 90% will invest quite a bit and then simply cut their losses because this business is fierce and incredibly competitive.
Another point I’d like to mention.
Imagine you spent $3,000 on a masterclass. You’re hyped and ready to take on the world then all of a sudden you stumble upon this very post. Some people will ignore it. Some will think deep and hard and evaluate their options. Others will jump in the comment section and defend their decision. Some of these folks take this post as a personal attack, hence not really even reading the actual content. It’s simply human nature.
Best of success,
Alex
Hi Alex,
I just wanted share my experience with the Rainmaker challenge real quick. I’m pretty tight on a penny and had never spent a cent on a challenge group or anything on Facebook (other than marketplace 😆) before. My husband was sitting on the couch one day and saw the ad for the February challenge. He thought I could really do something like that with a little help. I was so excited! He believed in me and bought into the challenge. Little did I know, the next 7 days would change my life. Really. Even if I had only attended the first day (the “why”) I could have left with a fresh outlook and attitude on life for less than the price of a regular date night. I finished the challenge. It was so much fun! I grew as a person, pushing myself to “go live” and hang out with other folks in the same boat. Lots of beautiful mamas in there! I made friends I still have today! The group stays open as Stephen & Chelsey (and other “Rainmakers”) continue to pour in wisdom and encouragement! I know there’s a lot of skepticism around things like this, I was really cautious myself. But having been through the challenge (twice now!) I can say with full transparency, this couple is doing great things. They’re changing lives and building a beautiful legacy. Not only for their house, but also for their “Rainmakers family” and the invitation is open to anyone. 😊
Curious if you’ve launched a product? Seen not only sales but profits? When you factor in how much you spent on the challege, academy, helium 10, product, photography, giveaways, ppc and taxes do you feel that the promised “rainfall of money” is what you are getting?
Thanks!
I did this challenge and it really changed my life. I did not know anything about selling on Amazon and learned so much. I was able to continue with the whole program and now have several successful items selling on Amazon. It has been a huge financial breakthrough for our family. Stephen and Chelsey ended up doing giveaways during the whole week and I actually won an item that was way over the $27.99 price point. While Amazon FBA selling may not be for everyone, the Rainmaker program makes it fun and a tremendous resource to walk out your selling journey with others eager to help! I 💯 % recommended it!!
First, let me say I have not taken the Rainmaker Challenge nor purchased their membership. However, I have done other business training with Stephen Diaz and he’s an honest man who gives all he can to his students. Also, this is NOT an unbiased view as I will show below.
Let me also say I WAS an Amazon FBA private label seller for many years. I built and sold 3 brands on Amazon. I sold my last brand in October, 2019. I know the Amazon FBA PL game well and had some great success with it.
I’d like to clear up a few of your misconceptions and incorrect information in your “review”. I would think if you call this a “review”, you would’ve personally experienced at least the 7-day challenge before commenting, but a few of your comments lead me to believe you didn’t take the challenge.
You stated that finding reviews for the course is almost impossible as the course hasn’t launched yet. Perhaps the challenge they ran in June, 2020 hasn’t launched the course yet, but Rainmaker ran 3 other challenges and launched a course between October, 2019 and April, 2020. This is not their first challenge/course launch and there are hundreds of people who have previously bought their course and are members who have been receiving coaching & mentoring for the last several months.
1) “I am sure they’ll tell you you can spend only a few hours a week and earn 6 figures a year but you need to be realistic. “ – This statement reveals you didn’t experience the challenge, as you state something you’re sure they will tell you.
2) “I’m rather sure the founders of the Rainmakers Academy will mostly talk about such tools and services in Day 5 of the Rainmaker Challenge.” – Again, you don’t really know what they teach and talk about.
3) “There are many ways to earn a legitimate income from home. However, I would not necessarily recommend this specific business model and this rainmaker challenge review will explain why.” But when I click on your “legitimate income from home” link, I visit a blog you wrote on May 4, 2020 where you called it one of the best work from home jobs that pays. Of course, this blog ends with an invitation to take your free 5-day course. No doubt that will end with an offer to pay money for another course.
I think your readers need to be aware that your link to Greg Mercer’s interview with you has an affiliate link to Jungle Scout attached, as you labeled it as “affiliate” on that page. It’s just that when we read reviews, we should be aware that someone may be writing about a particular thing in the review to drive you to a place where they may be able to make some money.
You appear to want to steer people away from the Rainmakers challenge and toward your affiliate marketing course or blogs with affiliate links, which are money-making opportunities for you.
I’m writing this because I think the reader needs to be aware that you are not providing an honest review of the Rainmaker Challenge since you did not participate in it and make guesses about what they teach, AND because you’re trying to steer people toward your own money-making opportunities. I understand it’s a way to make a business, but people need to know this is NOT an unbiased review.
I also think they need to know that Amazon is still an opportunity to make extra money or build a very high income-producing business, depending on their strengths, personality, time invested and money invested. You can make what many would consider “good money” without working full time. I have plenty of friends making great money in the Amazon business and have lots of free time. Depending on how much you want to make, you can create a good business without working anywhere near full time.
I left the Amazon business due to life’s issues and went into real estate last year. Recently, my best friend told me “I wish you still had your Amazon business because I got to see you a lot more back then.”
If the reader is considering the Rainmaker Academy, I want you to know Stephen Diaz is a legitimate coach/mentor with success in the Amazon business. Whether the Amazon business is a fit for you, that will unfold as you step into it and work it.
Thank you for your comment Maria.
You are entitled to your opinion as much as everyone, this is why I gladly approved your comment although you’re trying to “call me out” on a few things.
You mentioned “affiliate links” and yes, I do use them. In fact I make sure that people understand whenever they’re about to click on an affiliate link on my site. I am an affiliate for only products and service that I fully trust and that I personally use or have used in the past. I am not tricking anyone to click those links and several of my posts, reviews and article often offer affiliate AND non-affiliate links for those who do not believe that I deserve a small commission.
There was not a single instance where I called this program as scam (because it is not). However, I highly dislike the empty promises on their initial sales page and I am happy I was able to help people see through the crazy promises.
There are loads of way to learn about Amazon FBA without spending 3k and people need to know that. I strongly believe that the Rainmaker Academy team should make it clear that the $27 challenge they’re selling is a simple gateway to a very expensive course which does NOT guarantee any success.
” Whether the Amazon business is a fit for you, that will unfold as you step into it and work it.” Sure, I agree with that. However it’s also very important to make it clear that the top 10% of Amazon sellers actually earn $10,000 – $15,000 per year as profit.
Hi Alex,
Reading your response to Maria still affirms that she is correct. The main issue is that you are “reviewing” something that you did not even partake in, you just watched the ad and made assumptions from there.
I did take the $27 course and got incredible value for that price point. I will likely not end up doing the mastermind, but feel with some extra time investment, I can still get an FBA business up and running with just the info from the challenge.
Maybe do the thing…THEN review it.
We just did it. We feel it was completely worth it for $27. And they don’t talk about getting reviews on your listing at all; they certainly don’t encourage any sort of review trading or farming. The big “catch” is at the end they try to sell you a $3,000 annual membership (mastermind) program. And I’ll be honest, my wife and I are considering it. We’re both college educated and love to make fun of naive people who fall for dumb scams… and we’re almost certainly going to do it.
I have been reading and looking for reviews on their course to satisfy my “what if” before paying. That is how I found your post. I also read the Reddit thread that you showed above about losing $30k. That person spent a TON of money on custom boxes and stuff for their first ever product. That’s crazy, and Stephen would tell you that. While they do talk about it being passive, they mean *after* you’ve done all the work and launched your product. They encourage doing detailed analysis of search volume, competitors, and sales figures before choosing a product to launch.
If you ask me, the 7-Day challenge is mostly a week-long advertisement for the $3,000 membership. Having said that, however, I will say that the information learned was worth much more that $27. It really was – I mean, I didn’t know about software like Helium 10 and Zonbase. I didn’t know about sourcing agents in Asia that can help with almost all aspects of getting your product delivered. The list goes on. Now, you could ask whether the on-going training is worth $3,000… and I suppose that’s debatable. But they make a really good case for it. It’s all about the community in this group. They get on weekly calls together and discuss what they’re working on and challenges they’re having… then they all talk through it to try to get resolution for that person. I mean, I’m not in there yet, but from what I’ve seen, that’s what we’re talking about.
Hi Michael.
Thank you for sharing your experience. The $3,000 upsell is certainly nothing to sneeze at and personally I do not think there is a single course worth that much but if that specific community is worth it to you, you do you. I’ve found several awesome and very helpful FBA communities that are completely free.
When it comes to “passive” income – once again, this is not it. Even after you’ve set it up. There is always new competitors, listing high-hackers, product simply no longer being in demand, and many more. I do have a relative who’s been doing FBA for many years, doing about 7 figures a year (in sales, not in profit) and his team works really hard to pick this up. This is not a passive income business by any stretch.
I am happy to hear that introduction to FBA was worth the $27 for you.
I just finished this course. I was not offered the upscale that you show. They were very clear that if you do not put in the work you would not be successful. Sometimes products do not sell. What they have been able to accomplish is everything in one place. What I mean by that is they tell you how Amazon works and how to qualify a product. You don’t have to run all over to find out how the business works. Going on You Tube and searching etc. They told us different places to source and sell. I feel that they truly want to help people to succeed. Of course there was a lot of excitement. I finally found a place where I was able to get the tools to make more money. They didn’t promise 6 or 7 figure incomes. They did say it was possible..There were many hard questions asked and answered. They offer an incredible support system to help you not make the mistakes that cost you the dollars you don’t have. It’s not for everybody and they made that clear also. It’s the first time I felt as ease with something I found on Facebook. My review is if you want a way to make passive income their course seems to be a legitimate and honest offer. If I never try to sell anything anywhere I walked away from this course having learned a lot of good clear things that will help me in my life. I do not work for them neither have they asked me to review their course. I don’t know them personally. I was actually searching to see if there were any negatives to working with them. Fraud, Scam etc. So far I haven’t found any. Just my 2 cents worth. If you find it please post it.
Thanks you for sharing your experience, Jean.
When I mentioned the promises of making 6-figure sales – it was taking directly from their sign-up page. Also their follow up emails keep asking: “Do you want to be the next Jane and make over $100,000 of sales?”. The hype is definitely there. They also tries to upsell you on a very expensive membership – I am not sure how you missed that.
Just like you mentioned, I never called them a scam or a fraud either. I am happy to hear you enjoyed your experience with the rainmaker course.