If the phrase “You’ll never walk alone” doesn’t mean much to you, you’re obviously not a soccer fan. It’s the theme song of Liverpool FC, one of England’s most successful teams, and you haven’t lived till you’ve heard a stadium full of supporters belting it out.

Unfortunately, a lot of Amazon sellers do walk alone. They don’t know anyone else involved in the same business. They don’t have a mentor they can ask for advice, and they have no idea whether their experiences are typical for FBA sellers, or whether they’re doing amazingly well (or perhaps, badly).

So how do you get connected? The first step, as so often, is to use the facilities that Amazon Seller Central offers you. Amazon Seller Forums let you chat with other sellers about your business and about how things work on Amazon, or to ask how to solve problems with anything from logistics to recovering your account if Two-Step Verification fails.

The seller forums are worth a browse at least once a week. Amazon announcements drop on the forums, and are usually commented on by members so you get an idea of how others are responding.

Off Amazon itself, you could join an Amazon seller Facebook group. Some of these are closed groups, so you’ll need to answer a few questions first and be approved by the admins. You may find it easiest to start searching for a local group rather than plunge into some of the bigger e-commerce groups. If you get on with a few sellers in the group you can always send a friend request, getting started with your own network.

Reddit also has an FBA subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/) which has plenty of traffic.

Remember, though, many other sellers on these groups may be total newbies rather than experienced business owners, so remember which sellers have provided useful inputs and make a point of following their advice. Don’t take ‘gurus’ at their own word, find out how long they’ve been around and whether they have a sizable FBA business of their own.

Meetup is another great resource, particularly if you prefer meeting people face-to-face rather than chatting online. Plenty of cities have Meetups for FBA sellers, where you can put faces to names and chat about your businesses. Joining a Meetup group can give you a regular and enjoyable event to look forward to.

Remember that most of the people you’ll meet will not be your direct competitors. You’re selling stationery and art supplies, but they’ll be selling dog food, fashion accessories, travel goods or home decor. Sometimes, it’s good to see what someone in a completely different product area has done; it can give you fresh ideas about how to sell your own product. And of course, as far as logistics, marketing, finance, and sourcing are concerned, you’ll have a lot in common.

The best thing about knowing other FBA sellers is the way you learn stuff that isn’t in the textbooks. For instance, you can keep up to date with Amazon and product trends that you might otherwise miss, finding out what’s hot and what’s going rapidly stale. You might pick up some interesting strategies, or learn the rules of thumb that other sellers have found most useful for running their businesses.

You’ll also get a good idea of what aspects of FBA are a problem for everybody, not just for you. If you’ve been struggling with trying to convince Amazon that you aren’t based in China, you just source from there, you’ll find out you are not the only one!

You may even be lucky enough to find yourself a mentor, or create a local network for mutual support. It’s such a luxury to just be able to pick up the phone and say “Hi, is Seller Central down or is it just me?”