Third Tribe Marketing (‘Inside the Third Tribe’) is the latest membership site offering on the Internet blogging/marketing landscape. ‘Third Tribe’ is the brainchild of Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Chris Brogran, and Sonia Simone. But will joining this membership site help you become a better, more successful blogger?
Background
The ‘Third Tribe’ creators use that term to describe the type of marketing they do. According to their definition, ‘Tribe One’ consists of Internet Marketers who “…use aggressive hype and obnoxious tactics to fool people into believing there really is a “get rich quick” magic bullet“. ‘Tribe 2′ is made up of the cool social media crowd that “…reject hype and aggressive sales tactics in favor of relationships, community, and value . . . and yet seem to have taken a vow of poverty along the way“.
The ‘Third Tribe’ marketing approach attempts to find the middle ground in which the marketer attempts to establish relationships with site visitors and give them lots of great free content. In turn, the visitors will trust the marketer and buy products from them directly or buy other people’s products based on the marketer’s recommendation.
My Thoughts
When I look at myself, I tend to be more of a ‘relationship person’ when it comes to the Internet game. I’m definitely not a good sales guy, and I don’t write good salespages, and I don’t have a mailing list so I don’t believe the ‘Tribe One’ guys and gals would allow me entry into their club. Furthermore, I’ve only recently started using some of the social media services (I don’t even have a Facebook account) so I don’t think I qualify for membership in ‘Tribe Two’ either.
That is why I became very interested in the message behind the ‘Third Tribe’. So interested in fact that I joined the ‘Inside the Third Tribe’ membership site. At the time, the fee was $27 per month but it has now risen to $47 per month.
Anytime I join a membership site, I expect to have immediate access to existing material (ebooks, videos, audios, software, etc.). After all, I’ve given you my money – now what are you going to give me in return? But it seems like more and more membership sites are starting to operate on the principle of :
“Join now for a low fee. I don’t really have any content to give you but once I have a lot more money from the membership fees, then I can hire some freelancers to produce content for all of you that joined.”
In other words, the site members are funding the launch of the site itself.
Unfortunately, I got the same impression with the ‘Inside the Third Tribe’ membership site. There was a little content from one “seminar”. Personally, I wouldn’t call it a “seminar” because it consisted of an audio interview with their friend and fellow blogger, Johnny Truant. They also included a PDF version of the interview transcript, a short, not very useful action steps document, and some links to free DIY blogging content located on Truant’s blog. Needless to say, I was not very impressed with the “seminar content”.
It seems the lifeblood of membership sites today is an active forum. A membership site can be profitable for years if you can get a passionate group of people together in a forum who think they are SO lucky to be part of the crowd. It appears ‘Inside the Third Tribe’ is no different. The few times I visited the forum I read post after post from people exclaiming how great it was to be part of this very special community led by these very wonderful all-star Bloggers.
Bottom line: I decided the ‘Inside the Third Tribe’ membership was not right for me. I think the creators have come up with a clever message and a clever way to deliver their message but in the end, it’s all about making money – FOR THEM. In my opinion, this membership site is not going to help you become an all-star, rich and famous Blogger like Darren and gang. It might help you learn how to establish relationships with your blog visitors but you probably don’t need to pay $47 per month to learn it.
And finally, I came across the following post today. He doesn’t hold anything back in his opinions of the ‘Third Tribe’!
Hiya Knucklehead,
Found you via Griz’s MMO blog. Enjoyed your honest review of the Third Tribe, great to hear what it’s like from the ‘inside’
Hey Big Bear! You’re welcome for the TT review. I noticed Griz put a link to my post on his site and I was shocked and honored. Thanks much for stopping by and commenting. Appreciate it!
[...] Third Tribe contention – Examination this examination from one of the members of the Third Tribe . Third Tribe Membership, Should You Become a Member? by [...]
I must admit I agree with you regarding the forums. The site is basically relying on members to create their own content – and even worse anyone can add forum sigs so its open slather dime for the less dubious marketers – like me
Yup I too saw the link on the Griz site.
Absolutely right, Darren and gang will no doubt enjoy a long term income from this forum they’re creating, but they all know they have to do this to keep up the illusion they’re offering something solid – their websites don’t, so to all the fanboys and fangirls they are effectively saying their websites offer nothing, but join the super duper forum and get the gold dust. Of course nobody will get much, or they’ll be fed the same rubbish they’ve always been fed but not know the difference.
The problem with cults (no mistake, Darren Rowse may be a nice guy, but his fans act like cultists) is that the believers don’t need anything more than an occasional nod from Darren to feed their needs. He gives them a video interview, or sneak preview of his next book, or a guest post and they cream themselves in self-congratulation. They don’t need to earn money, most have jobs, but being fanboys and fangirls they get to tell their friends they know this stuff coz they’re tight with Darren. Puke!
Hi Lis, Thanks so much for stopping by my site. I saw your name mentioned on lots of sites today that I was visiting so I’m honored you took time to visit mine. I love your comment about the forum sigs and you’re right. Maybe we should start a forum site so members can tell other forum members how to start a forum site that will teach other forum members…….Is that what they call a “circle jerk”.
Hey Carl…. This cracked me up – “…they cream themselves in self-congratulation“. Now, that’s funny! You are so right on about ‘gurus’ (or Internet gods) throwing forum members a bone. As you so eloquently put it, all they have to do is make a guest appearance and the forum members will continue paying their monthly fee. Plus, the forum members then get to tell all their other Internet friends about how Mr./Ms. Internet Guru spoke to them and said “Go forth, my children, and purchase my upcoming $97 ebook and you will possess all the knowledge needed to be like me”. (Oops, did I say that out loud?) Thanks for stopping by, Carl, and I hope you continue to visit and post.
…then I can hire some freelancers to produce content for all of you that joined.
*lol* That’s it, bang on the money! I got into MMO through trying to become a freelance writer, and that’s exactly what these people do. They either hire freelancers, or get “guest posts” for all or most of their content. And, of course, once you’ve invested a few months worth, you’re too afraid to drop your subscription because you’re so invested already, and next month just might be the month where all your questions are answered.
Great post/review, and, you guessed it, I came here from Griz’s blog.
Hi WordVixen, Thanks for the feedback and for visiting. I bet you’ve seen some pretty interesting stuff during your time as a freelance writer! Maybe you should write “The Freelancer Black Book”.
Would make for an interesting read. Thanks again.
*lol* Well, to be honest, I didn’t do a whole lot of freelance work myself. Somehow networking into the freelance area transformed almost straight into MMO! But I do keep up with a lot of my freelance friends from when I hadn’t ever heard of affiliate marketing. If you want some good dirt and rants, though, check out http://irreverentfreelancer.blogspot.com/ and http://writingfrump.wordpress.com/ Both are great reads.
And you’re most welcome! The post was both funny AND informative. What more can you ask for?
Hey, thanks for the links. I was just talking with my brother this morning about making money online and I mentioned freelance work. His background is in the newspaper industry. He said there were so many ex-newspaper writers out of work these days that the freelancers are not getting paid sh_t. (My words, not his) I sent him the ‘how to make money online’ links to Griz’s blog. Thanks again.