Below is my Proven Amazon Course (PAC) Private Label Review
Updated: July 2017
*I decided to take a fresh look at Proven Private Label to see what’s been updated since it first launched in 2014 and was surprised to see that it has basically been untouched. If you read my previous review (which I’ve left in it’s entirety below) you know that I thought it was generally poorly done at the time.
Now, nearly three years later, in addition to being poorly done, it’s extremely outdated as well, so I highly recommend you avoid this course at any price right now. Now, they do plan on releasing an update this Fall and my assumption is that they will provide existing members with access to the new version. I don’t know for sure that they will do this, but either way I still don’t recommend purchasing the course. This business is constantly evolving, so content will quickly become outdated unless they are updating content every 6 – 12 months. If launching your business based on outdated information, it will be VERY difficult to succeed.
They do hold monthly webinars that I haven’t been listening to regularly, but I did make a point to check out their most recent one (June 2017), and it was honestly almost worthless.
As of this review date (July 2, 2017), the most recent forum post was on December 22, 2016, so there is virtually no activity.
I will make an effort to update my review again once version 2.0 is released, but the truth is that version 1.0 was so poorly done and seems so neglected that I have almost no confidence that they will be able to provide ongoing value even if the initial content looks good at launch.
I know this may sound like a harsh review, but Proven Private Label is honestly a joke relative to other available courses.
Original Review from September 2015
Proven Amazon Course (“PAC”) provides information on a variety of Amazon-related business models, so I want to be clear that this review is limited to only the private label section of the course. This section was originally released as it’s own course under the name Proven Private Label (“PPL”), so you may see reference to this from time to time. However, it has since been folded into Proven Amazon Course as the private label module.
Again, to be clear, I’m only reviewing the private label section of PAC. Accordingly, I’ll stick to referring to it as Proven Private Label (PPL for short) within this review. Any mention of PAC refers to the larger course that covers multiple business models.
You may have seen previous comments from me about PPL as there was a time when I was recommending it as an alternative to ASM. This was primarily due to the fact that (1) there were few other options; and (2) it was reasonably priced. You can read my original thoughts here. I’ve re-used a lot of the facts from this prior post; however, the marketplace has changed significantly since this time, so my thoughts/opinions have changed.
While it’s still one of the least expensive private label courses out there, I now believe it’s now a poor choice on a relative value basis. You can get more for your money with other courses.
Who is behind Proven Private Label
Proven Private Label | Jim Cockrum
Proven Private Label | Tom Freeman
The course was put out by Jim Cockrum, the man behind MySilentTeam and Proven Amazon Course, but is taught by Tom Freeman. I wasn’t familiar with Tom before purchasing PPL, but he does appear to have a long history of success selling private label products.
Jim Cockrum is considered to be one of the most *reputable* online marketers around. I’ve been around long enough and have seen enough of his stuff to say that I generally agree with this. I have had some issues with him regarding a specific situation that isn’t really relevant to this topic, but he seems to be a pretty stand-up guy.
That being said, I don’t think he’s necessarily the best content provider. Now, this is actually more a result of how he releases this content than it is about the quality of the content itself. As an example, the hugely popular Proven Amazon Course is filled with a lot of great information, but it’s so difficult to navigate the site that it makes it hard to find the value that exists.
What You Get with Proven Private Label
At a high level, PPL does cover a lot of the same material. It shows you how to:
- Research product ideas;
- Choose the best one;
- Brand your product;
- Find a supplier;
- Negotiate with suppliers;
- Take care of logistics;
- Create compelling listings;
- Further develop your brand;
- Scale and diversify your business;
The course is taught mostly through a combination of videos and PDF’s, although they do provide a few other resources. This is done through 26 separate videos (and 1 audio file) totaling about 5 hours of content.
As you probably know from reading some of my other private label reviews, I grade each course on three primary characteristics:
- Training
- Community
- Unique Selling Propolikesition (USP)
Training
While the training appears to cover everything you need to know, it doesn’t go over them in enough detail and is relatively weak. I think it’s strength lies in the branding section, but that’s hardly enough to make up for its weakness in other areas. In fact, it could probably complement some other private label courses as it addresses concepts that others don’t, but I wouldn’t expect PPL to teach you everything you need to know about private labeling.
Community
I’m really disappointed in the PPL community. Tom Freeman is the course author and designated expert, but he doesn’t seem to make students a priority. I’m sure he has other business ventures, but when I see days between responses or one sentence answers to questions that deserve more, it’s hard to feel like he’s committed to helping people succeed. This might be OK if there were other successful members picking up the slack and answering questions, but it’s just not very active in general.
I can’t really put my finger on it, but there’s something about the forum software they use that’s unappealing and not user friendly.
Unique Selling Proposition
As I mentioned above, the course’s strength lies in how well its section on branding. Although it’s an important topic and adds value, it can’t make up for the fact that the course is weak in other critical areas.
I do have to say I also like their approach to product selection, which is very important, but it’s not strong enough for me to continue recommending the course.
Proven Private Label Recap
When Proven Private Label was first released, it was a good alternative to ASM because it was one of very few options, but that’s no longer the case.
I’s still recommend PAC for people interested in other business models, but there are many better options for private labelers. You can check out my post on Amazing Selling Machine alternatives to see my current recommendations.
If you’d still like to check out PAC or PPL, you can find them at:
- Proven Amazon Course – this link will show you all the details of what PAC offers
- Proven Private Label – even though Proven Private Label is included in Proven Amazon Course, this link outlines PPL in more detail.
