How Thomas Edison would do an Amazon product launch

Before Elon Musk and Steve Jobs…

…there was Thomas Edison.

He’s the original American “celebrity inventor”.

“The Wizard of Menlo Park” they called him 🧙

Imagine yourself as a modern day Edison:

Launching miraculous physical products (on Amazon, and elsewhere).

You’re launching things people have never seen before.

Release after release.

To the point where they call you a “wizard”.

That was Edison.

In this email, I’ll pull the curtain back on the Wizard and inspire you to be this generation’s online Edison. If you so desire. And if you want that next $10k/mo in revenue, this will help with that, too 😉

By the time he passed away, Edison had 1093 US patents. And 500-600 other patents either unfinished or rejected. His most famous creation? The light bulb.

Here’s the crazy thing:

In Edison’s day, they already HAD lightbulbs (just as everyone already HAS competition on Amazon).

But the problem with pre-Edison bulbs is that they didn’t last very long.

They kind of sucked.

Determined to find a better way, Edison tested over 2000 different types of filament for his bulbs. Until FINALLY he found a bamboo filament that lasted long enough to be commercially viable. Bamboo has long, durable fibers that burn slowly. And boom. Well, not “boom”. That’s a poor choice of words…

You know what I find most impressive?

Edison had the tenacity to try 2000+ different variations.

No singular flash of genius.

Just hard work.

Trial and error.

And I’m happy to report that, yes, Amazon works the same way.

We work in 100s of accounts and spend $13m a year on Amazon Ads.

And we’ve seen this pattern:

1 in 5 (and at most, 1 in 10) Amazon products are “hits”. “Bread winners”. The “star players” that generate the majority of the revenue. The others will do “just OK” but won’t be stars. Amazon’s algorithm likes what it likes. So, it’s our duty as sellers to be like Edison. To have the tenacity to keep launching SKUs. The sooner you launch 5 products, the sooner you find that star. I have a theory called the “Many Fish Hooks Theory” to this effect, explained here in under 60 seconds: https://youtube.com/shorts/iGuXxYfLCyI

For new SKUs, I’d recommend negotiating for lower MOQs even if it means paying more per unit, initially.

It’s important to have many products in market.

Cut the losers.

Double down on the winners.

And lucky us: we don’t even need to take 2000 attempts to find a hit.

We just need 5-10 launches.

What a time to be alive.