***UPDATE: APRIL 2015***
A lot has changed since I first put this post together. If you are interested in the private label business model, I would recommend reading through a more recent post where I go over a few different alternatives.

http://www.daxdeegan.com/a/courses/amazing-selling-machine-alternatives/

For the most part, I am not recommending Proven Private Label anymore. You can read through the post below for reference if you’d like, but please be aware that it no longer reflects my current recommendation.

***End Update***

Below is my Proven Private Label Review:

Jim Cockrum has just released his brand new course Proven Private Label (“PPL”).  Just like the name suggests, it’s a course focused on how to create your own brand of private label products.

So, I guess you could consider this a Proven Private Label review, but in this post I’d also like to outline the differences between Proven Private Label vs Amazing Selling Machine (“ASM”).  I’m fully committed to the business of selling my own brand of private label items…it’s my primary source of income and what I spend most of my day thinking about.  I’ve purchased both PPL and ASM with my own money and I think I’ve got a lot of experience with this business model, so I hope that my perspective can be valuable to you.

Before I start outlining the differences, I’d like to first focus on Proven Private Label by itself.  So, let’s first take a look at who’s teaching the course and how it’s laid out.

Who’s behind Proven Private Label?

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 (“PAC”) is filled with a lot of great information, but it’s so difficult to navigate the site that it makes it hard to find value.  With that in mind, I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of PPL, so let’s take a deeper look into it.

What is Proven Private Label?

As I mentioned above, PPL is a course that teaches you how to create your own brand of private label products and sell them in various marketplaces.  Many people, myself included, saw the release of this course as a way to draw people away from Amazing Selling Machine, which is a much more expensive system and the leader in the field.  In fact, it’s been said that ASM is the best selling educational program ever.

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.

Proven Private Label vs Amazing Selling Machine

So this is the big question.  How does PPL compare to ASM.  It’s literally a fraction of the price, so I’m sure many people are wondering if it can offer similar value.

Well, I’ll say that they did a very good job of differentiating themselves from ASM.  I was expecting it to simply be a rehash of the same content, but Proven Private Label really takes a fundamentally different perspective on how to approach your private label business.  Even though the high level steps are similar, their recommended path to success is quite different.  Unfortunately, I can’t get into the specifics of how they are different without giving away what I feel would be too much information, but PPL is definitely not a copycat business model of ASM.

In addition to this, PPL also does a pretty good job of creative approaches regarding the material.  As an example, they outline a few ideas related to product research that I hadn’t considered myself.  There are also a few suggestions that I have been using in my own business for a while, but which haven’t been taught in ASM, so I give them credit for coming up with these ideas on their own.

With all this in mind, they do a good job of outlining things at a high level, but I think it’s lacking on explaining some of the fundamentals when it comes to showing you how to actually implement specific parts of the business.  I’ve coached hundreds of people on selling private label products on Amazon and my concern is that a lot of people who buy this course will go through it still feeling like they don’t quite know how to do it properly.

The one place where I think they did a wonderful job is with respect to branding.  They put a lot of focus on this, and my guess is that this is Tom Freeman’s real expertise as the content is excellent.  He talks about why it’s so important and how to properly look at your brand in the context of this business.  They covered this topic much better than ASM does, which is a nice differentiating feature for PPL.

As I mentioned above, the Proven Private Label approach is quite different than Amazing Selling Machine.  This isn’t to say that one is better than the other.  I think both approaches are actually quite valid, but I think PPL is lacking a little in the execution because the gloss over important concepts.  There are definitely some key components that are missing, so I think it’s an excellent resource if you already have some relevant experience, but I wouldn’t say it’s great for beginners.  ASM seems to do a better job of breaking things down step by step.  To be honest, I think the two approaches complement each other very well.

I should also point out that ASM has a wonderfully active community forum and Facebook page, which I’ve said many times provides most of their value.  PPL does have it’s own private forum, but as of today it’s not very active.  Of course, PPL has only been available for a few days, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to provide final judgment based on this, but I wanted to point it out.  Based on my experience coaching people in this business model, I can say with very high confidence, an active community is essential…which brings me to my bonus.

Proven Private Label Bonus

Since this is my real expertise, I’ve decided to offer something a little different here.  Further down this page is my affiliate link to purchase Proven Private Label.  If you purchase the course through this link, I will provide you with the following:

1. A “cheat sheet” summarizing key points of on each module within the course.
2. I will provide you with access to a private forum just for Proven Private Label buyers that I will personally moderate at http://community.daxdeegan.com.  Since the PPL forum is not very active, I’m confident that I can provide the value you are missing.  Anyone is welcome to join the public forum (which is just getting underway), but Proven Private Label members will have a private area.

I really want to create a killer private forum because the larger the community, the more value it provides.  I can’t stress how much this can contribute to your success, so if you know anyone who is interested in private labeling, please have them get in touch with me.  I personally answer all inquiries.

I’ve also outlined some additional thoughts on the differences between the two courses in a forum post here: http://community.daxdeegan.com/t/amazing-selling-machine-vs-proven-private-label/350

Feel free to post any questions in the comments below or in the forum post above.

Claim Your Proven Private Label Bonus, by Following These Simple Steps:

1. Before making your purchase, you must first clear your computer’s cookies. Learn how:http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2
2. Your browser must be set to accept cookies
3. Make your purchase using the order button below.
4. Email a copy of your receipt to dax [at] daxdeegan.com.

I personally respond to each bonus request, so please allow up to 24 hours for me to respond with access and details (I can usually get back to you much more quickly, though!)