I’m sure anyone reading this blog heard about the recent Niche Blueprint rocket launch, unless you don’t have an email account. I must have received at least five emails from five different marketers tempting me to taste the fruit.
And after telling myself to ignore them, I couldn’t. So yes, I ended up buying it – for $450! But is it worth it? In my opinion the jury is still out.
It’s become almost comical how marketers will display images on their website of their latest greatest product featuring gobs of manuals and CD cases. And the Niche Blueprint boys are no different. But the fact is, everything is digitally delivered so you won’t be seeing any of those nice looking manuals and such. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I just find it kind of funny and maybe just a tad misleading.
One thing I do find very misleading is the fact the entire course is not immediately available after paying your $450. No, they decided to deliver it in chunks. Modules 3 & 4 will be available on 1/19. Module 5 is coming on 1/27, module 6 on 2/3, etc, etc. When I expressed my disappointment in this delivery method (via their Help Desk support system), I received this reply:
“I’m sorry that you’re not pleased with the way we’re delivering the content. It really didn’t have anything to do with how we marketed the product, we just want everyone to have a very firm grip on each module before taking on the next. Plus, we’d be WAY to overwhelmed with questions, and tickets & such if everything was available day 1. It would be a mess.”
So, they’re basically saying they are holding back the material because they don’t have the staff to support it in its entirety. Hmmmmm, interesting. (Did I mention I paid $450 for the *entire* course?)
In my opinion, there are two main reasons you deliver material in pieces like this:
1. You decrease your odds of people asking for refunds because they have to stick around to see the entire course.
2. You don’t need to have all your material ready to go on launch day 1.
I think saying “(we) want everyone to have a very firm grip on each module…” is a cop out. (Do people still say “cop out” anymore?)
When I submitted my support ticket mentioned above, I also asked about getting access to the forum. Here is the reply:
“We may have a forum up soon, but we wanted to feel things out before throwing one up.”
So let’s recap what I have received for my $450:
1. Module 1 – A video and a couple of PDFs on an overview of Niche Blueprint.
2. Module 2 – Four videos and four PDFs summarizing the videos covering market research.
That’s it!
Now let’s go over the positive aspects of the system.
1. I love the idea of dropshipping and always have but I’ve never been able to put my hands on anything that covered it all from beginning to end. It appears this course *might* provide that.
2. Module 5, the one I am VERY interested in, will cover how to quickly build ecommerce sites for “maximum conversions and sales”. I definitely want to know more about quickly building ecomm sites.
That’s all the positives I can come up with right now. I’m very hopeful this system will deliver on its promise but in my opinion, they’re off to a shaky start. We’ll have to see what the next couple of weeks bring.
*** 2-18-2009 Update ***
I finally had enough of the ‘slow play method’ with Niche Blueprint and requested a refund. The clencher for me was getting access to their dropshipper database and realizing most, if not all, were already available as part of my World Wide Brands membership.
Plus, the quality of the teaching videos left a lot to be desired in my opinion. I don’t mean to be rude but the speaker kept saying “Okay?” after almost every sentence he uttered. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but after about 10 “okays”, you get kind of tired of it.
Bottom line: I cannot recommend Niche Blueprint as a solution for making money online.
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