Smashers Academy is a comprehensive, step-by-step Amazon FBA private label course by Janson Smith. It has over 200 lessons that are organized into 23 modules. Smashers Academy is about creating a private label brand and selling it on Amazon FBA. What makes this course unique is that it also teaches how to sell in the European market and how to deal with 1-star reviews.
Having an Amazon FBA business is difficult. There are many risks involved in this high competition business. You have to worry about many things such as product quality and demand, supplier issues, increasing Amazon fees, etc. Black hat tactics such as listing hijacking and 1-star review attacks are also a problem.
Local lead generation is a low-risk, high-profit online business model. It works as a kind of digital real estate where you don't have to worry about issues that plague selling physical products. You keep most of the profits, and it costs very little to start and maintain. It is definitely worth checking out local lead generation if you are looking to create low-risk passive income.
Pros and Cons of Janson Smith's Smashers Academy
Pros
Janson is a proven successful Amazon seller.
Access to an exclusive member support group.
1 month free Helium 10 platinum plan. Access to tools, scripts, and other bonuses.
Teaches how to scale your business to the European Amazon market.
Cons
Parts of the training are specifically tailored to the UK market.
Course does not cover automation through outsourcing.
Price
Smashers Academy costs £995 upfront or £399/month. Residents of the UK have the option to pay over 12 months using Payl8r.
Refund Policy
Smashers Academy has a 14-day refund policy if you have consumed less than 20% of the course. Janson also offers a Smashers Guarantee, which states that if your product does not generate sales of at least the cost of the course, you will be entitled to a refund.
Origin
2020
Reputation
Very positive reviews. Verified on Trustpilot with 4.9/5 rating.
This is great if you are located in the UK
What Are 1-Star Review Attacks?
In 2019, Forbes published an article reporting that Amazon fired employees in the United States and India for selling data and deleting negative reviews for bribes. This lead some to question, is Amazon FBA safe? Amazon has since gotten strict with review manipulation, and sellers using black hat tactics have found it hard to get fake positive reviews and remove legit negative reviews.
In September 2020, Janson was featured in an interview by the BBC about Amazon 1-star review attacks. Janson also explained more in a podcast interview with Ecommerce Mindset. Sellers using black hat tactics have since found a new tactic: bringing down the competition with negative review attacks. By flooding competitors listing with negative reviews, their listings are moved higher on the list.
What to Do With 1-Star Review Attacks?
To remove 1-star reviews, report it to Amazon provided they go against Amazon's guidelines.
Here are the situations that a review goes against Amazon's guidelines:
It is reported that the "report abuse" link is unreliable and you often get no confirmation. Janson emailing Amazon’s community help team and provide them with an excerpt from the guidelines that fit your report.
Most customers decide on a purchase based on reviews rather than price, which is why negative reviews are one of the reasons selling on Amazon FBA is hard. Good marketing courses, such as PMU Launch, teach the importance of customer reviews.
Who Is Janson Smith?
Janson Smith is a British entrepreneur and Amazon FBA mentor from London, England, with a background in finance and accounting. He is a 7-figure Amazon private label earner and the mentor of his own Smashers Academy course.
Janson’s journey began in the winter of 2017, when he learned about Amazon FBA. He then got a mentor in May 2018. He created his brand in June and ordered 1,000 for £3,000; by September, his stock was completely sold out, and by the year's end, Janson had made £55K in profit from three products. In May 2020, Janson hit £500K in total sales, and in 2 years, he was making £100K a month.
Today, Janson makes 7 figures with 15 products in 2 brands. He has 8.22K subscribers on his YouTube channel, where he regularly posts educational Amazon FBA videos. He has 6.6K followers on Instagram and is an affiliate of Helium 10 ecommerce software.
Who Is Janson Smith's Smashers Academy For?
Smashers Academy is for beginners and experienced sellers alike from anywhere in the world.
- New sellers who have zero knowledge and experience with Amazon FBA.
- Experienced sellers who are looking for ways to improve the performance of their business.
- Veteran sellers who want to scale into other markets.
What Do You Get With Janson Smith's Smashers Academy?
With Smashers Academy, you get lifetime access to the 200-lesson, 23-module training and lifetime support from Janson via email or messenger. In addition, you also get the exclusive Smasher tools and script, a 1 month free Helium 10 platinum plan, the Smashers School 12-stage accelerator program, the Smashers Academy Little Black Book, access to live Q&A sessions, and access to an exclusive student support group.
Module 1 - Introduction
The introduction module gives an overview of the course and business strategy. The lesson also explains private labelling and Amazon FBA.
Module 2 - Business & Admin
The second module contains lessons on setting up your business. You will know the differences between selling as a LTD or as a sole trader. The lesson contains steps in setting up a company in the UK or US and getting a business bank account.
You will also learn how to keep a record of your business expenses and when to hire an accountant. Last parts of the lesson teaches about product liability insurance, patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
Module 3 - Setting Up Your Amazon Selling Account
This module gives you a step-by-step guide on how to set up your Amazon Seller account and walks you through Seller Central. Included in the module is a rundown of Amazon fees and common beginner mistakes.
Module 4 - Product Research | Fundamentals
Module 4 is the first part of product research. The first step is knowing what qualities to look for in a private label product. You need to know how to determine if a product is good or bad and what to avoid. Janson also shows you tools that you can use to perform product research, such as Helium 10.
Module 5 - Product Research | Practice
Once you've gone through the fundamentals, the 5th module will guide you step-by-step on how to do product research. Janson shows a live demonstration of how to analyze and use the right keywords to find a product.
Module 6 - Product Research | Discovery
Module 6 runs you through Helium 10's Black Box tool. You will also learn other ways of searching for products such as Amazon's suggestions, best sellers, new releases, viewing seller stores, and more.
Module 7 - Product Research | Verification
The 7th module is all about verifying your selected product. You can verify products by checking their Amazon sales demand and search volume, checking if the niche is saturated, calculating profitability, checking sales history, seasonality, and trends, and checking for trademarks and patents. You also need to check restrictions and differentiations.
Module 8 - Product Research | Selection
In this module, you will learn ways how to differentiate your product offer. The lessons teach how to target specific customer bases and how Janson can help you find products.
Module 9 - Branding Your Product
The lessons in this module will teach you all there is to making your own brand. You'll start by choosing a good name, logo, and packaging.
Module 10 - Sourcing Your Product
Module 10 is all about sourcing, starting with knowing the difference between manufacturer and trading companies. You'll learn how and where to find good suppliers and how to contact them. The lesson also covers bundling for physical and digital products.
Module 11 - Barcodes
Here you'll know the different barcodes of Amazon. You'll learn where to get your EAN and UPC barcodes and getting a barcode exemption.
Module 12 - Placing An Order With Your Supplier
In module 12, you'll learn the optimal amount of units you should place as well as tips on how to negotiate prices. The lesson also covers paying suppliers, product inspection, and test orders.
Module 13 - Arranging Your Shipment
Module 13 goes through shipment terms, import documentations, types of shipping, and importation costs. You'll also learn how to calculate your landed costs.
Module 14 - Shipping To Amazon
This module will guide you through shipping your products to Amazon. You will cover Amazon's shipment rules and learn how to create shipment plans and confirm storage space with Amazon.
Module 15 - Your Amazon Listing
The module covers the creation and improvement of your Amazon listing. Janson gives examples of good and bad product listings. You'll learn how to get your listing's keywords and how to optimize them.
The lessons also cover how to get images for your listings and write effective copy for your descriptions. You'll learn what you should include in your listings and what you should not.
Module 16 - Launching Your Product
Launching your product is an important moment for your Amazon business. This module will cover how to create an effective product launch strategy and how to make pre-launch preparations.
Module 17 - Pricing
Pricing is an important part of competition. In this module, you'll learn how to determine the optimal price for your product. You'll learn tactics such as using vouchers and promotions to keep on top of your competition.
Module 18 - Reviews & Ratings
Module 18 will run you through Amazon's rules about reviews and messaging customers. You will learn the most effective ways to get reviews quickly and how to deal with negative reviews. The lesson also covers how to set up your review auto-emailer.
Module 19 - Intro To Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Amazon PPC ads are important, especially for new stores, to compete for the Amazon buy box. Module 19 gives an overview of PPC ads. You'll learn the kinds of ads and how the metric works.
Module 20 - PPC Campaign Setup & Analysis
In module 20, you will learn how to launch your product with PPC. The lessons include setting up your campaign automation, optimizing PPC campaigns, and analyzing PPC results. You'll also learn how to set up your manual campaigns and how to reduce your PPC spending.
Module 21 - Maintaining Your Amazon Business
Now that you have got your business running, module 21 contains lessons on how to maintain your Amazon business. The lessons include:
- Sales conversion assesment.
- How to deal with running out of stock.
- What to do with listing hijackers.
- How to deal with returns, refunds, and replacements.
- When and how to manually send out products.
- How to remove inventory from Amazon and how to deal with missing and lost stock.
- How you get paid with Amazon. Amazon FBA pays every 2 weeks. Your first payment date will depend on when your account was created. Amazon fees are charged monthly.
- How to get VAT exemption.
Module 22 - Scaling Your Business
Module 22 is all about scaling. You'll learn what re-orders are and how they can increase your profitability, how to increase organic sales over time, and how to expand into international markets with Amazon.
Amazon's European market is currently growing fast. Janson highly recommends that sellers enter the European market. He teaches you how you can do this from anywhere in the world.
The rest of the lessons teach you how to sell your product outside of Amazon, how to leverage influencers, how to manage your cash flow while scaling, and more.
Module 23 - Miscellaneous Topics
The final module covers other useful topics that aren't part of any category. You will learn the usefulness of Amazon's Brand Registry and how it can protect your business. You'll also learn about Amazon's gated categories and how you can sell these restricted products. An additional lesson teaches about hazmat and dangerous goods.
The Seller Tools Suite is a collection of tools and copy and paste scripts for Smashers Academy members. These are designed to increase your business' performance.
- Spending Summary - Bookkeeping tool that will help you reduce your accounting bill.
- Goal Smasher - Helps determine if your chosen product is viable and will reach your profit target.
- Product Tracker Pro - Tracks your competitors' inventory level.
- Profit Tracker Pro - Helps you keep on top of your daily profits.
- Smashers Scripts - Email and letter templates for suppliers, customers, and competitors.
Smashers School is a 12-week acceleration and accountability course. This course keeps you on track in the early stages of your business. Every week for the first 12 weeks, you will receive an email with a video and a list of tasks for you to complete for that week.
Smashers Academy Little Black Book provides a network of freelancers and service providers that Janson recommends. These are trusted contacts, with some offering exclusive discounts to students of the course.
Helium 10 is used to find keywords and identify trends on Amazon. It is also used for listing optimization and streamlining advertising campaigns. Helium 10 comes with a software and Google Chrome plugin.
You can use Helium 10 for free using their limited free version. To use its full features, you will need to pay for a subscription. For students of the course, you get 1 month free platinum plan.
Helium 10 costs $39/month for the Starter Plan, $99/month for the Platinum Plan, and $249/month for the Diamond Plan. You save up to 25% when purchasing any of the plans for a year. The Helium 10s Elite Plan only has a monthly subscription of $399 and is reserved for top-tier sellers. Pick the plan for you based on your business needs, as each plan has their own features.
Are Students of Janson Smith's Smashers Academy Successful?
Students of Janson Smith's Smashers Academy are fairly successful. While there haven't been any millionaires yet, most are successful enough to make the course worth taking.
Smashers Academy is also verified on Trustpilot with a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Amazon FBA Worth It in 2024?
Amazon FBA is still worth doing in 2024 if you are willing to learn the skills needed and invest much time and money into the business. Keep in mind that many new sellers usually fail at first. Having experts as mentors will help fast track your business and avoid costly mistakes.
There are a lot of legit Amazon FBA mentors out there. Each of these mentors has their own strategies and methods based on their own unique experiences. Amazon online courses are worth your time and money if you invest enough effort in them. For example, the Freedom by FBA course by Ravi Singh and Sajid Desai can be ideal for beginners who want to understand Amazon FBA and how to run a successful business in the platform.
There isn’t one best online course to start an Amazon FBA business with. You need to pick one that fits your strategy and situation. An Amazon FBA course could cost anywhere from $20 to $15,000 and higher. The cheapest course often only comes with downloadable training, while more expensive ones come with 1-on-1 mentorships and more.
An Amazon course that is best for beginners is one that has comprehensive step-by-step training, a support group, and mentorship. The best Amazon courses for beginners, such as Private Label Masters by Tim Sanders and Passion Product Formula by Travis Marziani, excel in their field. Check out my list of the best Amazon courses for beginners for more choices.
The best Amazon FBA free courses are usually the free training you get from gurus selling their mentorship. These short courses are about 3-4 hours long. Another great way to learn for free is by asking questions on Amazon FBA forums, reading how-to blogs, or watching tutorials on YouTube.
Check out Darren Lynch's FBA Elite platform, which offers FBA information and access to a forum. Darren also offers a paid training and mentorship.
Amazon FBA cannot make you a millionaire overnight. It will take many years of a lot of hard work to make you a millionaire. There are a lot of challenges and risks involved with being an Amazon FBA seller.
You cannot start Amazon FBA with no money. You can create an Amazon Seller account for free, but there is no business model you can do on Amazon without spending a dime. Selling on FBA requires money to start. For a private label business, you will need about $4,000–$12,000 to start. This will cover the product costs, seller’s plan, marketing campaigns, etc.
You can also try Shopify courses like Timothy Dixon’s EntreBeliever. Shopify has a smaller customer base than Amazon but has less competition.
My Number 1 Online Business Recommendation for 2024
Local lead generation is my number 1 recommendation to make money online in 2024. I've tried many business models, including Amazon FBA, and found local lead generation to have the lowest risks and the highest profits. It costs as little as $500 for the initial setup, while costing very little to maintain.
It works by creating and ranking your website on Google using free tactics like SEO and renting it out to local businesses. You don't have to worry about competition in these smaller areas. As soon as your site is rented, you immediately start earning a predictable passive income.
To scale your business, all you have to do is repeat the process. You can do this as many times as you want; the sky is the limit. These qualities make local lead generation the best online business model to create time and financial freedom.
