Niche Blueprint – Is eCommerce for you?
Earlier this week “Niche Blueprint” was launched with big fanfare. Seems like a lot of people were promoting this one.
The product is by the guys who brought us “Commission Blueprint” and focuses on setting up small niche ecommerce sites as opposed to setting up affiliate stores using affiliate feeds (such as the popular ebay affiliate websites), or the typical adsense / affiliate sites.
In the sales letter they promise that it will be a true “step-by-step” guide to setting up profitable ecommerce stores ran as a “real” business that you can either keep or flip (if you want more immediate cash returns).
I’m not one for buying a ton of products (my last big purchase was Mass Control last year), but I ended up “breaking down” and bought it on the last day it was available.
Why?
Well, I blame it on my wife.
A few weeks back she expressed an interest in building some ecommerce stores with me… so, over the last couple of weeks we’ve been doing some basic market research to see if we could find some interesting markets.
As you may know, I’m not a total stranger to setting up ecommerce sites, having done it using Yahoo stores some years ago by following Andy Jenkins’ (of Stompernet fame) book “Yahoo Store Profits” and also later using other ecommerce platforms. And since most of my internet business revolves around niche sites, it’s not a big stretch to go from niche sites to a niche ecommerce site…
And having been out of the Internet Marketing loop over the last few months, I totally missed the build-up for this product and the accompanying videos (I believe there were some videos launched prior to the actual launch of the product).
In any event, I was checking an email and a friend of mine emailed me asking my impression about the “Niche Blueprint”. Honestly… I had no idea what it was. The email came the day after the launch, so I figured it may have been sold out… but I went and checked out the sales page anyway.
Once I got through the hype, it was pretty clear to me that it was all about setting up small niche ecommerce sites, which incidentally was exactly what my wife and I were looking to do! Talk about coincidence.
So since I was about to jump into building some sites with both feet anyway, I figured Niche Blueprint might give me some good insight and education on how other more successful ecommerce owners go about their process to create a profitable site, and more importantly, how they do this QUICKLY.
And since I heard that Commission Blueprint was a pretty good product I figured “why not?”
So there you have it… it’s my wife’s fault I got tricked into buying this. 
In any event, once I got access to the membership area I went straight to look at the curriculum. It was laid out in modules and I jumped in with enthusiasm and was ready to review it all in one sitting.
Doh’! Only two of the modules were “live” and the rest had future release dates.
A total bummer…
I’ve heard some people complain about this, but personally I like it (even though I was a bit disappointed) and I can totally appreciate why they laid it out in this fashion.
Why?
Because most people, rarely – if ever, complete a course like this, and having all of the modules available at once leads to nothing ever getting done. Usually because they get overwhelmed or only browse through the material with a “closed mind”, in other words they have pre-conceived notions about the material by just viewing a few of the videos… then just toss it aside or ask for a refund.
Hopefully people will get bored stiff waiting for the next module and actually watch the available videos and manuals and actually do something!
Anyway, there are 9 modules in total and cover things like: Market Identification, Product Selection, selecting the right domain name, ecommerce site setup, conversion tactics, traffic generation (using seo), running a “real” business, outsourcing, flipping your site etc.
But let’s talk about the modules that are actually available at the moment:
Module 1 was just basic overview stuff. How it all works and what people can expect… and I don’t think they needed to create a “module” out of just this.
Module 2 is very good, and it covers market research. It includes 4 videos and 4 manuals and takes an in-depth look at how you can use Market Samurai to identify potential markets quickly. I consider myself well versed in market identification so none of the material was terribly awe-inspiring, but from a newbie perspective I think it’s priceless. What I took away from this the most was 1. the actual numbers they look at in terms of traffic vs competing number of pages; and 2. the competitive landscape in terms of the top 10 in Google.
Currently all of the steps for market identification is predicated on us (the customer/student) buying or at least downloads the trial version of Market Samurai (which incidentally is an excellent tool) in order to follow along. They have now committed to creating steps for those who don’t want to invest in the tool, which I feel they should have done before they released the product.
Also, yesterday they released their “Dropship Blueprint”, which is a directory of drop-shippers. It’s quite extensive and rivals “World Wide Brands” directory, a $200+ directory (which I am a member of as well).
And on Monday they will be releasing Module 3, which will cover the identification of products (how to find products). It includes a couple of more videos and 3 manuals.
They’ll also release another video dealing with market research based on customer feedback / questions on Monday as well, which shows that the Niche Blueprint team really stands behind the product 100%.
So, what’s my impression so far?
Well, the first thing that came to mind when reading the sales page was… “Stompernet”, or rather that this is a mini version of it. I can’t help but think that this is exactly what the Stompernet team should have done when they released their membership a few years ago. A logical roadmap to help a complete newbie (in Internet Marketing or just to eCommerce) from start to finish. And this is exactly what the Niche Blueprint team appear to have done.
But as they say: “Proof is in the pudding”.
Will people actually pull it off and build a profitable site? Who knows.
All I know is that the information to date has been very good, and I for one am taking notes and learning from these guys. I’ve also decided to use their process to build my next few ecommerce sites… why reinvent the wheel, right?
Keep tuned for further updates on the modules and my progress.
All the best,
Comments
interesting product and review. it really does remind me of stompernet.
how is the niche blueprint going for you?
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