Inbox Blueprint Review (I Bought It, Here’s How It Went Down)

I purchased Inbox Blueprint (2019 version) because I wanted to make money doing email marketing. And Anik Singal is a pretty persuasive guy, not to mention super successful, so even though I was skeptical, I decided to give it a shot.

Is it legit and worth buying?

Overall, I found Inbox Blueprint to be a high quality, comprehensive course on email marketing. And you get access to Launch Pad, which helps you build your business from scratch. So it’s legit, and potentially worth buying if you can afford the $1,497 price tag. But some aspects of the training are lacking, which might make it hard for beginners.

In this review, I’ll show you what this course is about, how it works and explain some of the things I like and don’t like, to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Overview of Email Startup Incubator (Which Includes Inbox Blueprint)

Before I get into this review, I just want to clear something up real quick…

If you buy Inbox Blueprint, you’re actually buying “Email Startup Incubator”, which includes the Inbox Blueprint course (and tools like Launch Pad), as part of the package:

So Email Startup Incubator is what you’re actually buying, and it costs $1,497 (or 3 monthly payments of $597) and gives you access to the following:

• Inbox Blueprint (course on email marketing)
• Lurn Nation (membership site where you actually take the course)
• Launch Pad (software that helps you build your business)
• The following bonuses:
  • Niche Detective (niche research tool)
  • List Academy (bonus course and email templates)
  • 6 Week Fast Start Program (training and part case study)
  • Lurn Masters Club (mon-fri Q&A webinars and bi-weekly webinars from Anik himself)

The price tag is pretty high, but you do get a lot of value for the money you’re outlaying. There are literally hours upon hours of training within Inbox Blueprint and the bonus content. And Launch Pad is quite a nifty tool when it comes to applying what you learn.

What’s Lurn and Who’s Anik Singal?

Lurn (AKA Lurn Nation) is a platform that provides digital courses, software, coaching, live events and other services, to help people create successful businesses online.

There’s literally dozens of courses on different topics related to running an online business. The most popular course is probably Inbox Blueprint, but there are other courses on email marketing, copywriting and traffic generation. Some free, some paid.

Members also get access to the Lurn community forums, coaching, software and other resources to build a business.

Who’s Anik Signal? Anik is the CEO and founder of Lurn Inc. Otherwise known as “the guy running the show”. He created and presents much of the training within Inbox Blueprint.

According to Anik’s website, he has made over $100 million online, has millions of followers and has trained over 150,000 students over the years. He’s also been featured on sites like Business Week, Inc. 500, Entrepreneur and the Huffington Post.

So he’s kind of a big deal, I guess.

With that being said, he does come across to me as a bit of a “guru”. As in, he uses his knowledge of sales and marketing to persuade people to buy as much of his stuff as possible.

I’m not saying that makes him a scammer, it doesn’t. But he’s a very clever marketer.

In any case, he’s not the only one who provides training within Lurn Nation. There’s a whole host of training from others who are considered experts within their respective industry.

For example, the Lurn website consists of training from people like Dave Kettner, Robert Kiyosaki, Jessica Leblanc and Les Brown, among others:

The way this works, kind of reminds me of another platform I’ve reviewed a while back called Knowledge Society, which is run by Tai Lopez. Similar deal really, these are both online hubs for entrepreneurs that provide an alternative style of education.

Anyway, if you do decide to purchase Email Startup Incubator, you will get access to the Lurn platform, which is where you will be going through the Inbox Blueprint course.

Inbox Blueprint

Inbox Blueprint is a course that teaches you how to build an online business with email marketing, from scratch. And it’s designed for complete beginners, who want to sell their own product or service, or promoting someone else’s as an affiliate.

Before I dive into the contents of the course, I think it makes sense to give you a brief overview of what email marketing is all about, and how it works. Because I know many of you are just starting out online, and may be unfamiliar with email marketing.

The 411 On Email Marketing

First of all, what is email marketing?

Email marketing is an internet marketing strategy where you use email to sell your products and services, or promote someone else’s.

It’s not as simple as just sending emails to make money though, there’s a lot of moving parts and it takes time and effort to become successful with this.

How does email marketing work?

The general idea is to setup a web page to collect emails from people, in exchange for something of value, like a free ebook or course. When people opt-in to your email list, they become your subscriber. Which is made possible through something called an email autoresponder.

And not only does your autoresponder store all of your email leads, but it allows you to automatically send out emails to your subscribers. Emails that are both helpful, and that you can use to sell products and services.

Is it really worth doing?

Yes. And the reason is because most people don’t buy on the first interaction with a product or service you’re selling. But when you collect that person’s email address, before presenting the offer, you have the chance to present that offer (and other offers) again.

So this can potentially increase your sales, and allow you to build trust and rapport with your subscribers, which can lead to more sales down the road.

I spent some time searching on YouTube and found a video Anik himself made, that explains the concept of email marketing and how it relates to Email Startup Incubator/ Inbox Blueprint.

This video is a bit of a sales pitch, but I think you’ll find it helpful all the same:

With that out of the way, let’s dive into what the Inbox Blueprint course consists of, so you know exactly what to expect and how it works.

Inbox Blueprint Course Modules

There’s a lot of content within the Inbox Blueprint course. There’s hours of video (and written) content within the main course modules, and (literally) days worth of video content within the bonuses and live Q&A webinar replays.

If you don’t learn something valuable here, I’d be very surprised.

And it’s not overwhelming either, as some courses are that I’ve bought over the years. Everything is laid out in a neat, orderly fashion. And there’s a “progress meter” so you know where you’re up to.

Here’s a screenshot of the members area to show you what it looks like:

The “Welcome” and “Introduction” modules are pretty self explanatory, they just welcome you to the course and prep you for what you’re about to learn.

The “meat” of the course consists of 8 modules that walk you through the process of starting an email marketing business:

• Module 1: Addiction Meter
• Module 2: The Bait
• Module 3: TYP Method
• Module 4: Email Machine
• Module 5: Emails & List Relationship
• Module 6: Payday Secrets
• Module 7: Easy Traffic
• Module 8: Unlimited Success

As you can probably tell, the module titles are a bit “click baity”. As I said earlier, Anik is a bit of a guru in the sense that he’s always trying to “sell you” on something. But the actual content within the modules is legit and full of value. And that is what matters most in my book.

Read on for an overview of what’s in each module…

Module 1: Addiction Meter

Module 1 is all about choosing a niche, which is the foundation for your entire business going forward. Pretty much every online business starts at this point.

What’s a niche?

You could get super technical with what a niche is. But the important thing to understand is that a niche is just a group of people who share a common goal or interest.

For example: People who are interested in the outdoors is a niche. People who are into quilting is a niche. People who are interested in content relating to pets, prepping, DIY renovation… anything. All of these are distinct groups of people (niches).

Within the Inbox Blueprint course, Anik focusses on the most popular niches like health, wealth and relationships. But there’s lots of other great niches you can target and he explains the criteria behind choosing one that will be profitable.

From here, he shows you how to research and choose your niche, by using sites like Clickbank, Udemy, Magazines.com, Gooogle, YouTube and Amazon for example.

Here’s a screenshot of what’s inside module 1 to give you a sneak peek:

Module 2: The Bait

This module is all about setting up your opt-in page and creating your free gift that you’re going to be using to build your email list.

What’s an opt-in page?

An opt-in page is just a simple, one-page website, that has ONE simple goal: to get the visitor to give you their email address. That’s it.

And the way you get that email address is by giving the person a free gift. So it’s kind of like an “ethical bribe” where you say “I’ll give you this free thing, if you give me your email address”.

So this module shows you how to create your opt-in page and free gift, and how to put these together in such a way that allows you to build an email list.

Module 3: TYP Method

This module is all about what happens after someone subscribes to your email list.

As soon as someone enters their email address, they are added to your email list and the free gift is email to them automatically. All of which is happening behind the scenes.

At the same time, they are taken to the next “step” in your funnel.

Which could be a sales page for a product you created yourself, or someone else’s product that you’re promoting as an affiliate. And if they buy something, you make a profit.

However, as I mentioned earlier, most people don’t buy at first.

So, a much more effective method is to send the person to a “thank you” page, before sending them to a sales page. Because this allows you to build trust and “warm” the person up to buying whatever you’re promoting.

This is what Anik refers to as the “Thank You Page” method (or TYP Method):

Opt-in Page => Thank You Page => Sales Page

When most people are just starting out, they have the tendency to want to skip all this and just send people straight to the sales page. I was the same. But adding an opt-in page and optionally a TYP is often more effective, both in the short-term and long-term.

Module 4: Email Machine

The “Email Machine” module takes the time to explain how email autoresponders work in more detail. Along with the different services available and the different types of messaging you can use within an autoresponder.

For example: You can send broadcast emails which is like sending one email to your whole list, one time. Or you can schedule automated emails to go out in any order you like, literally years in advance if you want.

Some of the most popular autoresponders are Aweber, GetResponse and MailChimp for example. I’ve used all three of these and personally prefer Aweber, but they’re all pretty good.

Anik recommends an autoresponder service he co-founded with Jimmy Kim and Zack Meftah, called Sendlane. This looks decent and I like that it’s run by an internet marketer who knows the territory. But it starts at $35 per month, which is higher than average.

You don’t have to use Sendlane to apply this training, you can use any email autoresponder service you want. But… if you want to use the Launch Pad software, which most people will, you will need to use Sendlane (more on Launch Pad shortly).

Module 5: Emails & List Relationship

This is one of the most important modules in the course.

And the reason is because the very essence of successful email marketing is about building and fostering relationships with your subscribers.

If all you do is send spammy emails to your list about buying stuff, you’re not going to build relationships. And nobody is going to trust you, which means you won’t get very far.

On the other hand, if you learn how to create valuable, helpful emails that build trust and rapport with your audience, you can sell as much as you want, for as long as you want.

This is absolutely key.

So this module is all about learning how to create both helpful and promotional content. From the headlines to the content itself, to the timing and scheduling of the emails. Because this is the foundation of any successful email marketing campaign.

Module 6: Payday Secrets

This module is all about making money. The main method of making money through email marketing that Anik teaches is affiliate marketing. Which is a business model where you earn commissions selling other people’s stuff.

Within this module, Anik walks you through how to promote offers through Clickbank and other affiliate networks. And provides insight into using webinars and bonuses to increase your sales. Which overall I think was pretty good stuff.

I’m a huge fan of affiliate marketing, because this is how I earn a living online. And I show others how to do it in this free beginner’s guide.

But it’s not for everyone. So in addition to affiliate marketing training, there’s a few lessons on selling your own products and services.

Module 7: Easy Traffic

Without traffic (visitors) coming to your opt-in page, you won’t make a dime.

So this module is super important, as it shows you how to get traffic to your opt-in page. And there’s basically only two ways you can get traffic: free and paid.

I love free traffic. And not just because it’s free either, because the quality of some types of free traffic, like from Google for example, is very high. The downside is that it takes time and a lot of effort to build up. But it’s well worth it.

Paid traffic is virtually instant, but it costs money. So it’s a lot riskier in that respect because you need to have a solid sales funnel in place to actually profit after buying traffic.

Anik gives you an overview of a bunch of different methods. Some free, some paid. For example, paid methods like Facebook ads, solo ads, YouTube and Google ads. And free methods like blog and forum commenting, social media and video marketing.

There is a lot of content here overall, but at the same time, he never really goes into any one method in enough detail that would allow you to really take full advantage of it. And that’s especially true when it comes to free traffic methods.

Which means you’re going to be relying on paid traffic, which is never a good situation to be in when you’re a beginner. Especially if you’re a beginner on a budget.

Module 8: Unlimited Success

This is the final module in the course and it’s basically about measuring and optimising your business in different ways to increase conversions.

For example, tracking open and click through rates in your emails, writing better subject lines in your emails, writing better emails, headlines and tweaking other important aspects of your business.

This is something a lot of people don’t do, but it’s very important. Because when it comes to internet marketing, a lot of what we do is testing. So knowing how to test, measure and tweak a campaign is vital and can make a huge difference to your business.

Bonus Training and Resources

There’s a lot of bonus content within the members area. And in this section, I’ll give you an overview of what each bonus contains.

Niche Detective: This is a tool you can use to do some initial niche research. It allows you to select some of the broad niches that Anik recommends, then narrow down into more targeted niches, where you can see some key stats and products you can promote.

List Academy: This is basically another email marketing course that goes over stuff you’ve already learned in the Inbox Blueprint course, but is still worth going through.

6 Week Fast Start Program: This is a training/ case study rolled into one. It starts with Anik explaining the basics, then another guy (Bob) creates an email marketing business. But not from “idea to profit” as I had hoped, so it’s really more of a tutorial than anything.

Lurn Masters Club: This is pretty cool. It gives you access to Q&A webinars that run Monday to Friday and bi-weekly webinars with Anik himself. It’s a good way to hear questions from other members and ask questions yourself.

Webinar replays: This bonus contains hundreds of hours of video replays from the above Q&A webinars.

Other: Other bonuses include Traffic Academy, Publish Academy, SEO training and some email templates. It’s mostly just going over the same stuff in the course though. And where it is new (like the SEO training for example) it’s very basic and somewhat outdated.

Launch Pad

The Launch Pad software is a software tool that Inbox Blueprint members get access to. And it basically allows you to create your entire business from start to finish.

So instead of going out and building everything yourself, or hiring someone to do it for you, you just follow the steps to get everything setup from A-Z.

How does it work?

Well there are five main steps that you follow to get your business rolling. The steps include choosing a niche, setting up the autoresponder, choosing an affiliate offer, creating the free report and finally, creating the funnel.

Let’s take a closer look at how each step works.

Configuration: This step is all about choosing a niche. You are given a list of all the niches that Anik believes is a good fit. So all you need to is select a niche from the list, name your campaign and select a domain name (opt-in page URL).

Email Campaign: This step involves signing up with Sendlane and filling out some details to integrate Launch Pad with your Sendlane autoresponder account. You must complete this step if you want to use Launch Pad, there’s no other option.

Affiliate Offer: To make money with this, you need to choose an affiliate offer to promote. And Launch Pad automatically pulls in offers from Clickbank based on the niche you choose. So, the idea is to create your CB account, connect it with Launch Pad, and select an offer.

Free Report: This step is about creating your free report, the one you’re going to give away in return for a persons email. The whole process of the front cover, to the content inside, and integrating it with affiliate links is taken care of.

Funnel Design: This step is all about setting up your email followup sequence, creating your opt-in page and thank you page. Basically the final step in setting everything up. You can choose pre-written emails, or create your own. And you can choose between a regular opt-in page or a quiz style opt-in page, which is more advanced.

That’s basically it. By the time you’ve gone through these steps within Launch Pad, you will have an email marketing funnel setup and running.

The Cool Stuff About Launch Pad

I like Launch Pad, I think it’s a really cool software.

The best thing about it is that it makes setting up an email marketing business super simple for beginners. Every aspect has been taken into consideration here, which makes it easy to get your business rolling.

There’s so many aspects of setting up a funnel that a beginner could easily get wrong, and completely lost with. Long before getting to the point of having it up and running. So I think Launch Pad is an excellent tool for beginner’s to get their first campaign rolling.

The Bad Stuff About Launch Pad

The thing I don’t like about Launch Pad, is that the quality of the funnel you create is probably not going to be very high, unless you customize everything.

This is especially true when it comes to creating the free PDF report and the email content itself. Launch Pad does make your life easier by giving you pre-written content to use. But if you take your business seriously, you’re going to want to modify these at the very least.

Which thankfully you can do with Launch Pad. There’s a lot of ways you can customize the PDF you create (free report) and the email messages you’re sending.

The other thing I don’t like is that you must purchase a subscription to Sendlane (minimum $35 per month) if you want to setup your business using Launch Pad. It is not possible to use any other autoresponder service with this. This is a bit disappointing.

Help and Support

I think the help and support you get with Inbox Blueprint is pretty good overall, especially in comparison to most course I’ve bought over the years.

You get access to a member only forum, which is full of helpful stuff. And there’s a couple other ways you can get your questions answered.

For example, as I mentioned earlier, you get access to daily (Monday – Friday) coaching webinars and a bi-weekly webinar from Anik himself. And there’s a knowledge base and email support section too, if you have questions about your account.

So overall I think this is great.

However, the forum isn’t very active. There’s lots of engagement from previous months and years, which you could learn from, but it’s generally a bit of a ghost town in there.

Does This Stuff Actually Work?

The short answer is yes, email marketing absolutely works. And it’s a large part of most online businesses for that reason. People open emails, and buy stuff, from people they trust. So if you get this formula right, over time it can be profitable.

I’ve built email lists into the 10,000’s over the years. And while I don’t consider myself to be an email marketing “guru” but I know enough to know that it works.

With that being said, there are some drawbacks to building an entire business around email marketing, in the way Email Startup Incubator/ Inbox Blueprint teaches.

And probably the biggest drawback is that you’re going to be spending a lot of money on traffic, just to promote low ticket (cheap) Clickbank offers for $20 and $30 a pop. This is going to make it very difficult to get into profit.

Related: How to Find Awesome Affiliate Products to Promote in Your Niche

If you learn how to generate free traffic to your funnels, it’s a lot easier to get into profit. Because even if your funnel sucks, and you’re promoting cheap Clickbank offers, it hasn’t cost you much, so you can still come out on top over time.

But the training on free traffic isn’t very comprehensive, so you’ll probably end up using paid traffic. Which means you’ll need to be creating air tight sales funnels, and writing lots (and I do mean lots) of high quality emails if you want to be successful.

So this stuff definitely does work. But I personally think that unless you learn how to get free traffic, it’s going to be quite difficult to get into profit as an affiliate.

Answers to Common Questions

In this section, I’m going to address some of the more common questions people have about Inbox Blueprint and recap on some of the important points I mentioned earlier.

If I missed a question you have, feel free to drop me a comment below. 🙂

How much does Inbox Blueprint cost?

Inbox Blueprint costs $1,497 one time, or 3 monthly payments of $597.

Are there any upsells?

No. But there is an eco-system of different products you can buy within the Lurn platform. For example, the eSCAPE Masterclass for $597, Copywriting Academy for $697, FB Academy for $697 and other courses.

It’s not that you need to buy these, but they are relevant to the business and are courses that naturally will help you build a better business.

What other costs should you factor in?

At the very least, you should factor in a monthly subscription to Sendlane, which starts at about $35 per month. Since you need this to use Launch Pad, it’s all but mandatory.

And you should probably factor in the cost of buying traffic, which can easily set you back $1000’s. Because the free traffic training isn’t very extensive.

Other, more optional, costs include a domain name, hosting, and design costs if you have someone create a unique cover image for your free report.

Is Inbox Blueprint a scam?

No, Inbox Blueprint is not a scam. It’s a legitimate course that teaches you how to setup an online business from scratch. It is expensive, but I don’t think that makes it a scam.

Also, Lurn has very few complaints on the Better Business Bureau website.

How long does it take to make money?

Nobody can answer this question definitively, because it depends on many factors outside of the methods taught within the course itself. Such as your willingness to learn, how much effort you put in, and your budget for traffic, among other things.

The bottom line is that it will take time and lots of effort. So if you want to succeed, the key is to think longterm. Because this is not about overnight success.

How do you sign up?

To sign up, you need to either go to the Lurn website and navigate to the course, or go to “startup.lurnbootcamp.com” which is the sales page for Email Startup Incubator/ Inbox Blueprint.

Does Anik personally present the course material?

He does present many of the videos throughout the course, but there are lots of individual lessons that are either written (not video) or presented by another member of the Lurn team.

Wealthy Affiliate vs Inbox Blueprint- which is best?

I’ve had this question popup from time to time, so thought I’d do my best to answer it, since I am a member of both Wealthy Affiliate and Inbox Blueprint.

On one hand, Inbox Blueprint is probably better for learning how to start a dedicated email marketing business. Especially since you get access to Launch Pad, which makes it super easy to setup your opt-in pages and create your entire funnel.

On the other hand, Wealthy Affiliate teaches you a more “holistic” approach to affiliate marketing. Where you learn how to build a simple website that brings you lots of quality, free traffic first. Then you focus on monetizing that traffic and using strategies like email marketing to boost your commissions as an affiliate.

To me this is the far better approach, especially for beginner’s. And it’s how I went from newbie to full-time income with affiliate marketing myself.

Wealthy Affiliate also costs a lot less ($49 per month gives you everything other than a domain name). And the community is way more active, I mean it’s chalk and cheese.

Overall, being a member of both courses/ platforms, I think Inbox Blueprint is great and will suit some people better. For example those who have a good advertising budget and those who maybe selling their own product. But Wealthy Affiliate is probably the better option for beginner’s interested in doing affiliate marketing.

You can read my full review of Wealthy Affiliate if you want to learn more.

What I Like

• Email marketing is a very powerful, sustainable way to build a profitable business online. Whether you base your entire business around it, or just use it to increase sales. It is a proven strategy that is worth learning.

• The Inbox Blueprint course material is excellent. You are getting hours of expert, step-by-step, training from Anik, who has a lot of value to share. And it is formatted in such a way that is relatively easy to follow. It also seems to be updated too, so even though the course is getting old, it’s still relevant.

• I’m a fan of Launch Pad. I think that, for the purpose of helping beginner’s get their business launched, it is very cool. Everything you need to start your business is included within the Launch Pad software, and there are tutorials to walk you through using it. That said, there are drawbacks like requiring a Sendlane account.

• The Q&A webinars add a lot of value to the course for members who want to continue learning, beyond the core material. And it’s a great way to get your questions answered.

• The bonus content you get is (overall) pretty cool. Some of it is a bit “meh” but some of it really adds to your overall education in internet marketing.

• I like the Lurn platform itself. I think it’s a great place to learn about virtually any type of online business. And there’s a lot of free content on offer too, which is cool.

What I Don’t Like

• The cost of the program itself, and the extra cost of running paid traffic, makes this an expensive way to get started online. You don’t need to spend $1,000’s to get started online.

• The training on traffic is good, but fairly limited. Especially when it comes to free traffic methods. Which means you’re probably going to be relying on paid traffic, which can make it difficult to get your business profitable. Especially if you’re wanting to do affiliate marketing.

• Copywriting is one of the most important elements of this entire business model. The copy on your opt-in page, thank you page, and emails can literally make or break your business. And there’s not much training on this. You do get access to some pre-written emails but relying on that isn’t going to cut it.

• It’s cool they have a forum for members, but it’s not very active. Which means it could take a while before you get answers to your marketing related questions.

Summing It Up

Inbox Blueprint is a great course on starting an online business with email marketing. And the tools and resources you get access to, allow you to take action on what you learn.

It is a bit expensive, but the value is definitely there. So I think if you’re willing to put the effort in, and you can afford it, then it could be worth checking out. It’s certainly one of the best courses I’ve ever bought myself.

With that being said, I do think there are better options out there for people who are looking to get started with affiliate marketing. Especially for beginner’s who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars, and who want to learn how to leverage free traffic methods.