I'm sure you've seen his face all over your Youtube videos lately, Adam Hudson and his claim to fame, teaching you how to do the same in his Reliable Education Course.
While those videos are quite cryptic, the business model involves selling Chinese products via Amazon.com and taking a cut on each sale.
He targets middle class Australian's with ads, an Australian icon, successful entrepreneur looking to escape their 9-to-5 jobs by starting an online business.
It sounds amazing, but what about the costs? What do you actually get? Is it actually mentoring or are you simply buying access to a digital membership?
Today we'll reveal what Reliable Education really is about.
What Is It?
The Amazon Business Model Explained
Amazon doesn't actually have many of their own products and 99.9% of products sold via their platform comes from other businesses, companies and third party sellers listing on their marketplace.
Anyone can be a third party seller and create product listings.
You'll find products to sell, usually using a platform such as Aliexpress where you can buy products in bulk for dirt cheap prices. You'll buy in bulk, say 100 headphone adaptors.
You'll get the supplier to ship them directly to Amazon's warehouses across the United States or Australia. Amazon stores them for you.
You activate your products on their site choosing your prices and markup.
When a product sells, Amazon will charge you a fee (up to 20% of the sales fee) and then ship your product to the Amazon customer.
You then get paid every 2 weeks direct to your bank account minus the fees.
It sounds like a great business model but has many costs associated with it.
The point few people mention is the refund rate. Amazon prides itself on customer service.
If your customer refunds their order, your money is withdrawn from your account and you're left with the faulty goods. If you're selling products like electronics the refund rate can be exceptionally high!
Regardless, finding the right products with good profit margins can let you make serious money!
Who is Adam Hudson?
Adam Hudson is from Brisbane, Australia and claims to have become one of the most successful entrepreneurs to sell on Amazon. While he runs ads to many Australian's he doesn't actually live in Australia any more, thus when he talks about Amazon he's referring to the USA site, not the Australian one.
After starting many companies, 4 of which use Amazon to earn revenue online he started his company, Reliable Education to teach others how to start eCommerce businesses.
This platform is another one of his businesses and for every course he sells he makes an interest-free micro loan to a 3rd world entrepreneur.
According to some estimates there have been over 8,000 students in his reliable education course who've generated over $500 million of revenue as combined collective.
It's unclear how many success stories there really are though.
What is Adam Selling?
You'll likely click on an ad you've seen on Youtube, Google or Facebook that piked your interest. Adam is a smooth talker and he's got a thick Aussie accent.
You'll be directed to a landing page where you're invited to leave your email address and attend a free webinar.
This webinar is held regularly and may even be starting in the next few minutes (if that's the case it's clearly pre-recorded). You may be invited to try out Adam's free products too including a 4 module training course. You can also checkout the free blog posts on Adams website.
You're then convinced to join the premium course. Adam claims in the webinars that over 50 people bit the bullet and signed up (unlikely) and it's all a sales pitch from there on.
Reliable Education Review
Reliable Education shows you how to choose, launch and market the right products on Amazon as a 3rd party seller. It includes over the shoulder style videos, mind maps and live webinars to gain an insight into the world of Amazon and how you can make money with the world's largest marketplace.
One of the other benefits includes the community where other like minded people share tips, advice and encouragement.
In simple terms you learn how to buy in bulk and sell on Amazon.
You get access to a Facebook community of like-minded students.
You also get access to regular webinar masterclasses with other students.
How Much Does It Cost To Join?
It's not clear to the outsider looking in how much the course really costs. Many other reviewers mention the endless upsells that you're presented with after joining.
Currently the front end course costs about $3,500 AUD or $2,497 USD for lifetime access to the course. This can be split up into four monthly payments of $749 USD.
However you will be convinced into buying upsells which are owned by Adam's other companies or his affiliates channels. For example you'll need to spend $400 USD for access to his recommended software.
You'll also be recommended to buy a photography course for $700 USD which although not needed, is recommended.
As Adam mentions in his size 6 font on the checkout page, they are simply telling you what's worked for them as a 3rd party Amazon seller.
He mentions there's no silver bullet or overnight success or guarantee of success so if that's what you're looking for, the course probably isn't for you.
Why so many Australian's join?
It helps that Adam Hudson is Australian. You're far more likely to listen to an entrepreneur from your own country than some youngster driving a Lambo living in the United States claiming to show you how to start an Amazon business..
While Amazon.com.au is making waves, it's still a tiny platform in Australia with Aussies preferring to use eBay, Gumtree and official websites of popular businesses instead.
Given all the marketing (that I've seen) seems to be targeting Australia it only makes sense that most Aussies have joined Reliable Education. If you look at the site in detail, it's targeted for the Australian market, but they then display the prices in USD which happens to be much stronger than the AUD right now.
However, a lot of Australian's seem convinced this is a reliable business model and join the course.
Is this course right for me?
Firstly, the course is priced high. For most Australian's it's a lot of money for a digital course. Secondly, due to the number of other students, you're just another number and a student who must follow the rules closely.
Also this is not 1-2-1 coaching, mentoring or hand holding.
An official from Reliable Education posted online 7 months ago that this course might not be for you if you can't invest 7-10 hours per week and $5,000 startup capital over the next 6 months after joining. This post was made in the FAQ section of the 'prospective students section.' So you need that much time and capital.
Adam also mentions in the webinar that there is lots of hard work involved. This is a red flag for most people.
If you're looking for a get rich quick or cash cow scheme then this clearly isn't for you.
Despite what that other guy on Youtube says, those business models simply do not exist.
The course claims that if you can build a side-income that makes $100/day profit you've paid for the course.
If you've considered other business models such as dropshipping, affiliate marketing, freelancing or social media marketing, Amazon might be the best option for you.
The Brutal Truth About Amazon Australia FBA
Read our guide on the brutal truth about Amazon FBA in Australia. There is a huge difference between USA and Australia that you should know about!
Let me show you why it's not as lucrative as you might think.
Last Updated on January 10, 2021 by Rhys Dale
Rhys is the owner and chief editor at Im Rhys and is living in Chisinau, Moldova. With over 15 years experience in eCommerce and Affiliate Marketing he has started many successful 6 and 7 figure businesses. After successes with USA and China dropshipping, he expanded into building 70+ micro affiliate websites in 30 different niches that generate money on autopilot. He now helps his wife to run her social media agency as well as travelling the world at every opportunity.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. It means a lot for people who’s looking for a better job but tight on money. Your information thought me to think for a better way to get to my dream destination. I really appreciate it.
Mia….Adam Hudson offers no intelligent insight into education and growth of personal skills. You are a fool to follow his ideas.
As an early customer to Adam’s course and after successfully taking to market 3 products of my own. I can openly tell you that there are a number of pitfalls to watch out for here and the amazing stories that get told are misleading in nature due to only presenting revenue generated and not deducting the additional costs such as advertising and refunds.
You also have to bear-in-mind, thanks to Adam’s success what ever entry level product you come up with (I came up with one costing only $10 p/unit to manufacture and ship , selling 10 units a day with a profit margin of $4p/unit I could easily tell you I made $40/day – $1200/month. But that would be BS, after deducting my hidden costs like advertising on FB, costs associated with securing good reviews, necessary software and others, this would be closer to 50% of that. Then take into consideration, that there are 1000’s of people joining the bandwagon every month and they are using the same software analyzing your “best selling” product and copying and under-pricing it all the time.
This is ongoing hard work with you needing to be “sharp” and innovative.
I wish you all the best of luck!
PS – I also invented a wonderful product, spent $20k on manufacture and shipping, and the product lost structural stability in the cold shipping across the Atlantic ocean…now if you can afford to make mistakes like that, then you have nothing to worry about 😉 I’ve been fighting debt for the past 4 years due to it.
Hi Jim. My wife and I are looking at this and appreciate your transparency. So in essence you need a crash hot product with low returns, high margin and plenty of time make it work?
I invested in this course and found it to be a constant stream of upsells. I also find Adam deeply offensive: he’s clearly out for all he can get, has no filter and has a lot to say about the Chinese (having Chinese heritage I found that a little difficult to deal with). That said, the course is good but you can find as good or better for less cost. I’d do your research before you hand over your $2700!
Hi Morrigan don’t you have a refund option or is that not included anymore
Thank you so much i nearly fall into this trap.
I bought the Reliable Education course and it is too pricey. Unfortunately I do not feel that the course prepares a person for the pitfalls on selling on Amazon. I spent approximately close to $10-11,000 dollars (US) including Amanda Clarkson’s course. The Chinese sellers on Alibaba.com are ruthless and underhanded. I think Adam Hudson has made more money selling this course than he has had success on Amazon. As with all of you he does lure people who have had success on Amazon. It is hard to determine what is ideal to sell and even harder to source these items. I struggled with that. I think if you have an item and can get it manufactured, you will have success. But I think as soon as you do have success, the Chinese people will copy it unless you patent it. The course offered is not adequate and not only finding an item but also sourcing it as well. It is too expensive. There are other courses being offered on how to sell on Amazon that are a fraction of this price. If I can get my refund on this I would really appreciate it.
One of the quotes that he mentioned is that 99% of people who try to sell on Amazon fail which astounds me to no end. The Chinese sellers on Amazon dominate the Amazon market and that can be verified easily. Please think about it before buying reliable education course as you will thank me later. Adam Hudson does mention that people have impediments that prevent them from sellingBut realistically the odds are stacked up against you to succeed in this business. I wish you luck in all your future endeavors and if you feel that you can do it there are other cheaper ways to do it then going through this course. Save your money and feed your family with it. God bless.
Was close to buying into this course. Thanks for the heads up guys!
Thank you very much to all of you who have confirmed what I thought about Adam Hudson & he’s companies.
I was tempted to join.
I’m eternally grateful for people like you who take the time to warn us of this pitfall.
Hi all
Normally I am very mindful of how reviews can affect somebody’s business, but I felt morally obliged to write this review.
Essentially, I found the practices of Reliable Education to be extremely unethical. This is not an easy business where you can just work a few hours a week and make 40K a month.
The icing on the cake was when he tried to convert people’s seller summit tickets into a virtual summit – in other words, pay $700 per per person to attend a webinar. He even had the audacity to abuse the community members in the private facebook for trying to share a ticket – i.e. husband and wife could not convert one ticket and keep one.
STAY AWAY.
There was a character limit, so I would also add that I suspect a very small number of his students actually make money. It is all about selling a dream, with very little substance.
I paid for Adam’s course as well as the Platinum coaching.
The course itself was OK, but not worth the money. You can get a far superior course if you pay for a popular research tool. I won’t name any names so you know my review is 100% legitimate.
{Redacted} is a scammer of the biggest type.
Yep. Absolute parasite. Fake white teeth to distract you while he steals from you.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed their honest non bias experience, I was seriously considering investing into RE, if it wasn’t for you all I would’ve fallen victim to this.
I hope I can help to dispel some myths here.
Once you can get through some of the peripheral information of the reliable education courses, there is some good basic, step by step information for selling on Amazon.
Having said that, you could gather enough of the information if you are savvy enough to go through enough up to date information such as you tube videos and podcasting and opening up a seller central account and using their training. Not as easy, but it can be done to save $3-4,000 on the course. Yes there is a fair bit of up selling within the course, again you could get around not buying this if you are prepared to put in the hard yards and dig around for the information.
Access to the facebook group is useful for information and support but ultimately you are going to need to join a Mastermind group for your main support so you could pay to join a group somewhere or eventually find or form your own group of people. The reason for this is that you need other people to help support and motivate you.
If you were launching a product on Amazon 5-10 years ago it was much easier to find a product from a manufacturer and to sell it as it was and to turn a profit. Those sellers from this time period easily had greater success. Nowadays that is almost no longer possible. To return a good profit on Amazon (that is at least 29% net profit) you are going to need to redesign or reverse engineer a product so it is differentiated enough from other products; The product needs to be in high enough demand and you need to outrank most of your competitors or have a patented product so you don’t have too many competitors.
Working out what product to sell is one of the most challenging aspects of the business.
You can find a designer to reverse engineer or design products on sites such as up-works, have the design patented in the country you will sell in ($USD 3000 – 4000), have it manufactured wherever this is feasible (you will need binding contracts for the specifications and for control and exclusive use for the manufacturing mold). For this design and manufacturing process $USD 20,000 is a reasonable figure. Then you need to order your second shipment of products before all of the first lot has sold. Cash flow is the main problem of any business.
There are numerous costs making and selling products on Amazon, including but not limited to the cost of manufacturing there are freight costs, import taxes, customs, storage costs, Amazon fulfilment fees, Amazon advertising costs (pay per click), not to mention the costs when customers open, use and return your items to Amazon.
I haven’t verified this but I have heard there is a low level, something like 2% of people who actually do these courses and follow through with actually listing a product for sale.
You’re better off to make your own e-business. You don’t need RE. My daughter and her two friends established one. No one has taught them how, but they are successful. Thanks for all your comments. It helps people not to fall into Adam’s apple.
**** [Redacted] is a pearly white toothed scammer and deserves to be taken down.
Thank you thank you thank you to you all for being so honest… I nearly fell into this trap. You saved me money I could not afford.
I watched his 5 videos and was quite impressed but something kept me on high alert. I was with Amway (unfortunately) and tried my very best but unsuccessfully. Some of his wording and strategies of convincing you are exactly the same as theirs. Same strategies about freedom, etc. No Thank you but I wish everyone the best of luck in their endeavours.
Anyone here done Reliable Education Platinum Partners training. What specifically do you learn. or is it mostly a social network?
I have a few things to say.
I regret to have joined Reliable Education based on their propaganda they used in and out and I believe it is not what they really entail for their customers and their customer support is not up to standards.
Shortly after I joined reliable education I became a single dad. After several attempts trying to finish up the first module more and more commitments appeared in front of me which made me come to the realisation that I will not able to complete the course due to my extreme change of circumstances
I reached out to Reliable Education to discuss refund options and I explained the situation that I am currently at is not easy at all, I wanted to come to an agreement to at least get charged a percentage of what I’ve paid and get the remaining refunded just to be fair I was not asking for something out of the extraordinary.
But I was not able to get any assistance and was just pushed back several times by their customer support and my case was not escalated at all, they showed no empathy nor sympathy towards my situation as a single dad going through financial hardship and struggling throughout this pandemic, hey had no intentions of helping out or even to get a different opinion of someone from a different field. I was happy at first when I first signed up because they were very supportive throughout the sign up process but when it came to customer support and resolution they were zero to none I believe a business as reputable as this should not be carrying themselves out like that and push their customers away with no resolution or even the slightest of empathy. they did not follow suit or try to remedy my situation. I’ve barely watched a module and they can see that I have not been able to use the course for all this time and they did not care about it and just decided not to help me any further and leave me dead in the water with no replies to my emails, and bringing up excuses like, we are extremely busy or we are getting things ready for a summit that is why we haven’t replied to you in weeks.
Who says that to customers, obviously the businesses who don’t really care about their customers at all.
I find this utterly sad and disappointing
You know what they say, if something sounds like a rat, it generally always is. I was like many of you, went through the videos and webinar, considered buying the course. But my Gutt stopped me, which I’m so glad that it did, as reading a lot of your comments below highlighted what my concerns were. One of the big red flags for me was the lady on the webinar, who is his #1 coach. When she couldn’t really answer the questions Adam had got, she was hesitant, then Adam jumped kind of awkwardly in to add his 2 cents worth. You always have to ask yourself the question, if his Amazon business was doing so well, why would you need to start up a course like this? He doesn’t come across as an authentic person, his language during the webinar is very interesting. When you’re competing against the chinese to create profitable products, its going to be very hard work, certainly not 7 hrs of work a week. No successful business takes as little time as that. And when asked how much does it cost to start up the business, his answer was how long is a piece of string. Why not be completely transparent, and give examples. Reason why he doesn’t is because he doesn’t want to scare people away from buying the course. That’s a sign of a shitester IMO. I can only imagine the costs involved with Lawyers fees and all the other fees that a lot of you have mentioned, and upsells. Thanks but no thanks. Just be upfront and honest Adam. You tried that with the number you through out at the start of the webinar, $13k is what its going to cost you, but then flip it in FOMO, for today only, and never before has the price been this low, $2,495 USD. If you’re Australian and you’re talking about the opportunity in Australia, why is your course not is AUD, dodgy again. Way too many red flags in this for me. And also to be mentioning peoples first names and not the surnames who signed up, mmmmmm. I’ll finish my rant like this. For anyone considering doing a course like this, always do your research, and don’t allow someone put fear in to with doing something that doesn’t feel right. When emotions are high, intelligence is low. In other words never make a decision on something when you’re excited or emotional. Take a breath, and do the research to get the full picture. I didn’t do that almost 10 years ago with an NLP course through Christopher Howard. I paid $30k to do this course that I was unable to do in person, so wouldn’t refund me, big sting for me. So I always do my research with things like this. Good luck with finding your online business 🙂
Adam Hudson is a double edged sword. He has zero problems walking away from any student that he lures into his own failed products while happily taking their money. He’s a bit of a psyco tbh.
Firstly, thank you Rhys for the detailed Reliable Education review. Your full page and step by step explanations are amazing….I was easily able to make a decision to not waist my time on the Adam Hudson webinar or get fooled into buying his course.
Being able to get the full honest picture of this has enormous benefits and I am grateful that people like you build pages with these reviews…good on you!!
And also it’s great that others have added their comments to also help people from falling for this and wasting their time and money…..especially if they can’t afford it. Kudos to you all as well.
Adam Hudson is a scammer and has a long history of failed businesses and scams (selling self help material) from Melbourne Victoria.
A while ago now I purchased Reliable Education’s ‘Zero to One On Amazon’ course designed for a novice to become a professional Amazon seller.
Unfortunately, the course fails to deliver due to several different reasons: the amount of upselling that you find throughout the course, the sheer volume and length of videos included, the lack of downloadable resources, as well as an absence of content surrounding advertising on Amazon (PPC) and general extra assistance that is needed.
Throughout the course, the presenter & CEO Adam, is constantly trying to encourage you to buy more of his products as upsells. And if he is not trying to sell you one of his other products from his other businesses, services or conferences, he is encouraging you to order a programme, add on extension or a funnel from one of his mates. It’s a constant theme in the programme and it genuinely feels like he is trying to milk you dry for every pound or dollar you have!
Adam likes to talk, and this is evident in the overwhelming number of videos and duration of them that are included in the course. Many of the videos are motivational and extra that don’t really help you specifically, they also last far too long in duration, with some over 20 minutes long. They could be far more concise and help you more directly.
There are also a significant lack of extra resources such as downloadable templates, spreadsheets, checklists and such. He spouts on about either doing this yourself by searching on Google or YouTube or by paying extra for ‘intellectual content’, which is pretty poor considering you have already spent a considerable sum of money for his course, which you would expect to cover everything you need!
The module on PPC is where this course disappoints the most. This is one of the most important (and most difficult) aspects of selling once you are on Amazon and the section on this course is really weak to say it politely. It’s like it has been added as an afterthought, as a one-off useless piece of information for beginners.
The best part of the programme is on motivation and testimonials of other sellers. So, if you need motivation, maybe it will work for you, but my advice is to look elsewhere, there are plenty of other Amazon programmes out there that are significantly better, both in terms of value and in content.
Unfortunately, I wasted an awful lot of money on the course and on one of his upsells, not to mention wasting many months of my time on the course. I recommend not to do the same and look for a course somewhere else.
I’ve since joined another Amazon course which is unbelievable in comparison, it cost exactly half the price of this course, everything is included at no extra cost (i.e downloadable spreadsheets, checklists and templates) and the course provider even includes bi-weekly group video calls where you can ask him questions directly.
My advice, don’t take this course, keep looking, there are plenty of better Amazon courses out there!
RE “..I suspect a very small number of his students actually make money. ….”
Yes at a summit with a audience of a few thousand people I always though the evidence of this was how few people achieved the Rhino awards.
It is all about selling a dream, with very little substance….”
Adam is a good sales person. He said this once . Google articles on AFR newspaper site and internet archive are less than flattering.
Research on some of the higher level Reliable People shown for their success, reveals , many have long history of entrepreneurship, several already had their products before starting on Amazon.
When closing down Reliable education, he revealed he no longer sells on Amazon, although he said he was still importing.
I thought this was a rather damming action indication for people attempting to succeed on Amazon – … the master has deserted the platform
Recent Google searches show he was owner of a caravan construction business on Gold Coast “Goldie Caravans?”
And had obtained the rights for a caravan toilet from the USA inventor . which he was selling in Australia.
The frequent upsells through out the reliable course where annoying and only revealed after purchasing the course.
Amanda Clarkson course $1000, Photography at $800 a product, Amazon Seller software ( like Jungle Scout ) at $50 month etc
Before purchasing the course it was made to sound much easier than it actually is.
After purchase, we told .. you entrepreneur now , you need to get answers to certain questions elsewhere.
Also If a person divides the total Amazon Gross Sales of Reliable education students by the number of Reliable students and calculates a rough net profit it is very small
ie 1 Billon gross sales , number of students ( was about 10,000 ) ,a net profit 20% of gross is ONLY $20K – Then need to take out start up costs and risks etc NOT a very attractive business proposition ….
Of course the 1 Billion in sales would be generated by 50 or 100 people – my guess based on number and size of given Rhino awards.
The video Adam posted ( on Instagram ) of choosing the colour of his Maserati car has always stayed in my mind
There is no evidence that Adam Hudson was significantly successful with large net profits on AMAZON. In fact there is circumstantial evidence and his own comments that support poor sales for him.
The whirlpool forum , reports
“To add icing on the cake it’s another case of someone who is making more money selling courses to naive, unsophisticated people than actual success on Amazon.
He sells glassware “Ashcroft Products”, and anyone using the analytics software like Jungle Scout, Helium10 (or even his own Zonguru) to see how much he is making… and it is extremely underwhelming.
He is making no where near what he claims. There are more people on YouTube doing better numbers. ….”
See for yourself …….” Use Google to find complete thread
The Reliable Education Facebook page very quiet for most 2022
Also the video sent to all RE students who purchased the course, Adam mentioned that he had closed his business, ie NOT SOLD IT, therefore implying the profit was not existent!
( He did say he was still importing , I suspect this would be for his “Goldi Caravan” on Gold coast or the Caravan Toilet he got the Australian” sales rights too from the american inventor )
Just google “adam Hudson” afr.com for info about past history with Henry Kaye and selling financial products . Search in archiv.org and find video of selling when with Peter Sun and the BetterBusunessInsitute at https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Better+Business+Institute%22 Financial products again.