In this article, I'm going to break the entire Zen Arbitrage system down into 7 simple steps.

I get it: You login to Zen Arbitrage for the first time, there's a bazillion options and 50+ videos and you're probably thinking, "Wow, this is overwhelming."

Good news: Zen Arbitrage is extremely simple. We aim to over-deliver with our technologies and training, but by the end of this article it will be clear how simple the process is.

The premise of Zen Arbitrage can be summed up in this one sentence

"Buying cheap books on Amazon and then reselling those books back on Amazon at a higher FBA price."

With that understanding, let's go through the seven steps to making money and let's get you moving really, really quickly.

Step #1:  What do you need to get started?

An Amazon seller account with "Fulfillment by Amazon" enabled. That's it.

Most of the time, it takes less than 10 minutes to sign up. Sometimes (particularly if your'e overseas), they'll require you to submit a couple identity documents to get verified.

Resource: Getting Started With FBA guid e

Other things that are optional:

1. Keepa (free tool to aid in your buying decisions. Easy to use and strongly recommended).
2. Check Permission (paid tool that prevents you from purchasing books that Amazon restricts from being sold)

Step #2: Set the search options

You're looking for three things when you're doing a search, okay.

1. Books with a decent demand. (Recommend to start, books with an average rank of better than 500,000, or 800,000 if you don't mind waiting a little longer for a sale).
2. Selling for a price you're willing to pay.  (Decide how much you're willing to pay per book, and keep in mind that the more you're willing to spend, the easier it will be to find opportunity).
3. A selling price (FBA price) that allows room for profit. (When you buy at the non-FBA price, and sell at the FBA price of your choice, does our built-in profit calculator confirm there's profit?)

Simple as that.

Resource: How To Choose Good Books
Resource: How To Search

Step #2.5 Skip Searching & Buy Leads In Our Marketplace

If you want to skip searching completely, this option replaces Step #2. You can basically pay others to search for you in our ISBN Marketplace.

If you're not familiar with this already, check this resource:

Resource: Using the Marketplace (videos)

Step #3: Find The Cheapest Copy On The Internet

In the right-hand column is a link to Bookfinder, which scans over 40 other bookselling sites to find the cheapest copy anywhere on the internet. Amazon is usually the lowest price, but quite often this can save you significant money.

(Just beware of the dreaded "international edition").

Step #4 Run The Numbers

So you found a book. Step number four is to run the numbers.

Run the purchase price and the price you plan to sell the book for through our built-in profit calculator. We subtract all Amazon fees and give you your true net profit (minus the negligible cost to ship the book to Amazon).

Step #5: Buy the book.

This part is easy.

Buy the book and have it shipped either to you, or our prep service partner (optional, if you're in the US).

Resource: Using Our Prep Service Partner (optional)

Step #6: List It For Sale & Ship It To Amazon

Go through the (simple) steps to list and ship your book and get it live for sale on Amazon.

Once you do this the first time, it becomes second nature.

Resource: Getting Started With FBA
Resource: Pricing Strategy (videos)

Step #7: Maintain Your Prices & Wait For Sales

You bought your books, you realistically know what you're going to profit, you ship them in.

Your only job at this point is to maintain your prices. In other words, if someone under prices you, you may (or may not) choose to match them. If prices go up, you'll want to raise your prices. And then, simply wait for sales.

Resource: Repricing demo (video)
Resource: Maximizing Your Profits Post-Purchase

Bonus Option

List books that you don't buy for sale in the marketplace. This is an easy way to profit from searches you've already done anyway, by listing the ISBNs of books you don't buy in our Marketplace.

Going Deep

1. Our "Onboarding" page is a curated sample of the most important videos covering each step, just for beginners. Dive in here.
2. Our massive training portal. Not recommended when you first get started (I don't want you to get overwhelmed), but there's 50+ additional videos here.

-Peter Valley

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