Seth Anderson – The $100 Startup

Who Is Seth Anderson?

Seth Anderson started his entrepreneurial journey in 2012, selling garden hoses he got from a local liquidated warehouse. Anderson goes on to show you very cropped screenshots of his earnings, showing himself making a couple hundreds of thousands of dollars purely on Amazon. He doesn’t go into too much detail beyond this.

Taking what he said, there’s not much more information about Seth beyond this. His Youtube channel is miniscule, only having 13 subscribers. His initial opt-in page doesn’t even have a domain. This isn’t to say that the course is bad, it’s just not well built. Seth counters this observance by saying, “I’m a seller, but I’m new to course creating” inside the $100 Startup.

What Is “The $100 Startup”?

There are a lot of dropshipping courses out there, such as High Ticket Dropshipping Academy, so what is The $100 Startup all about? The $100 Startup is a course taught by Seth Anderson about making money dropshipping on Facebook. It’s not to be confused with the popular “$100 Startup” book by Chris Guillebeau, which Anderson named the course after.

The course aims to teach you extensive knowledge about Amazon FBA in order to generate quick profits. Anderson promises to extensively teach this, delving into product searching, sourcing, and selling on Amazon.

How Much Is The $100 Startup?

The course costs $397. It doesn’t feature any payment plans, nor any discounts or promotions. It does offer a 60 day money back guarantee that is “no questions asked”. However, there is no legal backing behind this in the terms and conditions, so be warned. It comes with a few perks such as:

• Access to Anderson’s private Facebook group where you and other students can communicate.
• Anderson’s “personal” list of vetted products
• 1 hour skype session with Anderson himself, something he “charges $300 and hour for” typically.

Seth Anderson’s Core Curriculum

The course comes with 6 different modules, each one serving as a step in creating your Amazon business. The modules can be a bit short, with the entire course totaling about 8 hours of content.

Module 1- How To Properly Get Set Up On Amazon 

This module serves as the standard introduction. Anderson starts off by telling us a little bit about his journey, then going into Amazon itself. He starts out by giving some general advice and tips about your business overall, then talking about how to “succeed in this course”. The advice isn’t bad, but it’s not anything new. It’s essentially the “take action, don’t just learn” deal.

Anderson then transitions into Amazon, giving you an overview on creating your account. A lot of it is overkill, as the sign up process is fairly simple. He then shows Amazon’s Seller Education, which is an online hub where you can learn a lot of advanced features. He explores it for a little bit, telling you to check it out.

Module 2- Product Selection

The momentum starts to build at module 2, with Anderson teaching the basics of product selection. He goes into a lot, like strategic product categories, best seller rank, profit margins, and product research. He even goes over using software like DS Quickview and Unicorn Smasher. This module is a good foundation for those unfamiliar with Amazon itself.

Anderson does give some good advice about products to avoid that are oversaturated, demonstrating that he does stay up to date about product trends.

Module 3- Product Sourcing

In this module, Anderson teaches you how to order your product. He goes over various suppliers like Alibaba, Aliexpress, and how to properly order from each of them. He gives you some very useful advice, like the terminology and jargon you need to understand in order to properly communicate with sellers. Anderson then goes into other parts of ordering, like comparing prices, negotiation, shipping, how to connect all of it to FBA.

Overall, this module proves to be quite useful. Contacting and communicating with manufacturers is a complicated process. Anderson provides very practical advice that can make the process a lot more simple.

Module 4- Product Listing

Listing your product can be just as complicated as purchasing it. Product listings have an astounding affect on your product’s sales. The keywords and images you list the product under make or break a sale, so it’s vital that you spend a good amount of time researching product listings.

For this module, Anderson breaks down product listings, then teaches you keyword research, product titling, product descriptions, images, pricing strategy, and back-end product listings. Anderson explains how coordinating all of these areas together can lead to explosive growth.

One of the best parts of this course is Anderson’s explanation of evolving your product listing. Sales and reviews are a huge factor for product listings. In order to build these while still making a profit, Anderson suggests evolving your product listing and pricing over time.

For example, if a product costs you $12 to sell,  you should list it for $13. While $1 is a lot of profit, it leads to a large amount of initial sales that will boost your product’s ranking. Overtime, as you sell more, you can slowly raise your price dollar by dollar, until you have a $20 product listing in the top page of amazon.

Module 5- Product Launch

Once you have your research, planning, and ordering finished, the hard part starts. Having to take your product from the 20th page to the 1st is a daunting task many fail at. A strong product launch won’t push you to #1, but it will help make your venture profitable.

In this module, Anderson teaches you strategies for a product launch. Some of it is pretty obvious, like emailing users to leave a review, using social media, using coupons, and product inserts.

Other than that, there’s not too much info beyond this. To its credit, these ideas may not be obvious to new FBA sellers, but it’s not anything that you can’t find online.

Module 6- Grow Your Business

This is a bonus module included by Anderson. It aims at giving you a general “where to go from here” direction. He delves into a couple of topics like refining your product, introducing new products, start branding, marketing, hiring help, and even using Facebook ads.

This section does give good on-the-surface guidance. It’s not entirely in-depth, but it gives you enough information to know where to go next.

Seth Anderson’s Course Quality

The course quality is a bit lacking. Most of it is taught through powerpoint presentations. For a $400 course, it can feel a bit cheap. Seth does address this, saying “I’m a seller, but I’m new to course creating”, but it still doesn’t fix the lackluster presentation.

Aside from the powerpoints, Anderson switches it up with screen recordings as he naviages through Amazon and Alibaba. The screen records are pretty standard. The audio quality is good, having no interruptions or static. Overall, the audio and visual quality are good, but the presentations may not be Anderson’s strong point.

Does The $100 Startup Deliver?

Overall, the course does deliver on it’s promise. It gives an extensive understanding of Amazon FBA, as well as sourcing your products from suppliers. Anderson does a good job of balancing technical walkthroughs and general principles to give students a clear understanding.

Anderson also does a good job teaching the preparation needed behind any successful business. He spends a lot of time teaching and explaining things like product research, pricing, and competitive research in order for you to go into your dropshipping business with the best product possible.

However, his expectation of getting “quick profits” and making “$1,000 per month” is blatantly false. Sure, like any course, if you manage to strike gold and use their general advice, you can make money. But the harsh reality is using Seth’s course, you’re not going to make $1,000 a month. You’re going to be able to generate some money, but how much you make is dependent on you. Although Anderson constantly advertises this, his disclaimer reads:

“There is no guarantee that you will make any income at all and you accept the risk that the earnings and income statements differ by individual” – Seth Anderson

Who Is Anderson’s Course Best For?

This course is best for absolute beginners. If you are completely new, you will find a lot of value in this course. However, for those who are looking for more advanced strategies or ways to ramp up existing storefronts, this course falls short. It lacks the advanced topics to make this course have competitive knowledge.

While it may not be suited for more advanced learners, it does give a good jumping point for beginners. Anderson gives practical and actionable advice that proves to be quite useful for those just starting out. If you are new, the $100 Startup is a good option for you.

Is The $100 Startup Worth The Money?

The real question is, is it worth $400? Well, that depends on one question: how much about FBA do you know?

If you know enough to understand a general idea, this course may not be worth the money to you. While Anderson does a good job explaining the basic principles, there’s nothing unique in his course. The knowledge he’s teaching you is something you can learn at almost every “Amazon FBA” course.

Anderson teaches his course well, but the value in the course isn’t worth the money he’s charging. For a fraction of the cost, you can get a course that teaches you the same principles that Anderson does.

$100 Startup Alternatives

Amazon FBA is a very popular topic, meaning there are plenty of alternative options. Here are a few:

• Amazon Seller University– If you’re taking this course because of the technical learning curve, consider utilizing Amazon Seller University. This is a free learning hub created by Amazon themselves. It’s designed to teach you how to use their platform and fulfill your orders. It lacks the keyword research and product research that Anderson teaches, but if all you need to learn is the fulfillment aspects of FBA, consider this.
• Amazon Product Research (Sumner Hobart)– If you are trying to learn more about product research, consider enrolling in Sumner Hobart’s course. This course comes with 8 hours focused solely on explaining product research in depth. The best part? It’s hosted on Skillshare, which offers a 2 month free trial.

• The Last Amazon FBA Course (Brock Johnson)- If you’re completely new to FBA, consider this course. It’s titled the “last” FBA course for a reason; it has 54 hours of content. This course covers every corner of FBA. From launching, sourcing, shipping, listing, even to negotiating, Johnson creates a highly extensive course that’s still cheaper than Anderson’s.

Our Final Verdict For The $100 Startup

Overall, Anderson does do a good job training new FBA entrepreneurs through setting up their store and launching. However, he provides little unique or advanced strategies to justify his pricing. If his course was found on Udemy for $10, it would be amazing. But charging $400 for what he teaches is too expensive, especially considering the lack of production quality and available alternatives. For anyone starting out, you’re better off saving your money and finding an alternative course.

 

 

 

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