Martin Koss – thinking out loud…

A week ago I became a paid subscriber at Third Tribe, expecting that by now I’d be raving about it and writing a 100% positive review – with no intentions of canceling my subscription. However – things didn’t pan out as expected.

What I’d Heard about Third Tribe

For several months I’d heard numerous times, over at Chris Brogan’s blog and via Facebook etc., – mostly referring to this wonderful community that would be helpful and transparent without heavy hitters piling in with their get rich quick and how to blog your way to the bank sort of concept and ebooks.

So, naturally, I was expecting was a helpful community.  A bunch of good folks willing, ready and able to lend a hand to new, intermediate and seasoned bloggists alike. I expected an extremely active community where help would be detailed and specific and where the help would be presented without the noise of self-promoted links and offers.

Now that I’ve seen it I wonder what all the time was used doing and what all the ‘hype’ was about. I say ‘hype’ a little bit loosely ‘cos it’s not on the hype level of a get rich quick scam or a twitter app to get a zillion followers. I don’t think anything with CB attached would ever be real hype.

So is it Helpful? Somewhat.

Is it for beginners? I don’t think so.

Are people genuinely trying to help others? Sometimes. I saw some people getting a lot of help but I also found that a lot of the ‘answers’ were very ‘general’. What let it down for me is the lack of specifics in the community.

Is it free of noise? Well, it’s certainly not as noisy as Twitter and Facebook etc., (it only has about 3,000 subscribers but growing quickly). Third Tribe has it’s share of heavy handed marketing people who will take every opportunity to try and get readers to their website / blog and, to me, that is not ‘community spirit’ that’s marketing / selling.

My Quick Summary of Third Tribe

A lot of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours? Ehm. Okay – Yes.
Self-trumpet blowing? Yep.
My cup of tea? Nope.
Worth $47 a month? Well, many will undoubtedly say yes but my $47? No.

Ultimately, Third Tribe is a blog with a forum.

Hardly takes months to put that together, does it? It contains some interesting webinar type recordings that, if you have a few hours to spare and an interest in how some of the ‘expert’ bloggers made their millions, and then applaud them, you will, perhaps, enjoy.

I didn’t really hesitate once I’d read the intro to Third Tribe but after a day or so, after acting like a giddy school boy and singing it’s praises, I started to have my doubts.

I’d expected the forums, the Third Tribe community, to be a hype and BS free zone but, for one clear example:

I spotted this guy going on about his 5 figures a month etc., from ‘blogging’ so I sent him a message asking him what fee he would require to coach me (obviously I wasn’t going to hire him) and I also squeezed in a couple of questions about his monetization methods (Third Tribe is supposed to me transparent right?) and I even messaged the same guy via Facebook…

5 days later I’m still waiting for an answer.
My opinion: The guy was full of poop!

The faults, I must say, are not the fault of the Third Tribe creators. However, as they say in business, all problems originate from the top. I think the lure of a hundred grand a month +++ is perhaps overshadowing some kind of screening and booting out of people who only join up to use 3T as another marketing channel.

Some will find the giveaways interesting.

If you’re into trumpet blowing and mutual back rubbing – there is a lot to learn from the giveaways but they do tend to be by and about the ‘elite’ who have already made it, who have already got their ‘list’ and are already raking in the stash. But don’t expect a hand holding walk through of how they did it – with any details. The ‘guidance’ is vague and general. For example:

(1) set up a blog.
(2) consistently add interesting content.
(3) get lots of traffic.
(4) get some guest posts and do some guest posts.
(5) created a mailing list and get subscribers.
(6) ad some links to high commission paying products.
(7) form a few joint ventures / partnerships – ie: Third Tribe.
= Make shed loads of money.

I Did Ask some How and Why Questions…

I’ve asked a few questions and see that the “generics” (ie: easy answers) come flooding in but the genuinely “helpful” guidance does not.

For example I asked a specific question about starting a list, the title was actually “Would You Build a List, How and Why” which asked about a relatively new blog that is not monetized and does not sell products – it was sort of 3 parts:

(1) would ‘you’ (the 3T community) start a list with an unmonetized blog
(2) what could I offer as an incentive to get people to subscribe
(3) what tools they would recommend and -
(generally) – what recommendations would you make?

Well, it started a debate (again) about AWeber and MailChimp and a sprinkling of the “why” but no guidance on how “I” could start a list or what incentive I could (or should) offer my readers to gimme their email address.

So will I be sticking around the Third Tribe?

I won’t be sticking around after month 1 and I am actually very disappointed. I’m sure Chris Brogan had genuinely sincere intentions and maybe one or two of the other co-founders did too, but all I see is a great business model that puts another million or so in the banks of the ‘elders. As I mention further down, aside from a few encouraging and insightful words from Chris and Sonia most of the bits of ‘help’ can be found elsewhere – as long as you steer clear of the hype and heavy handed marketing guys.

Third Tribe is Not For Beginners

I realised in my first week that 3T is not necessarily for beginners. I actually feel somewhat embarrassed to discuss my situation (no list, new blog, no monetizing, etc.,) in the same room as all these guys with 10 years of blogs (which in my opinion need a vacuum cleaner to clean away loads of posts that are no longer relevant – side issue)…

So, combining all my thoughts I realise it is not for me. I’ll stay subscribed to Chris’ blog and Problogger etc., and I appreciate the giveaways – even though I’m not sure I’ll site back for umpteen hours listening to one elder stroking the other and plugging each others blogs and services…

Someone once suggested to me that without each other (of the ‘elders’) scratching each others backs, where would they be? But hey, that’s all about opinions and I think there may be a bit of that… But to me it’s more a case of would the “help” be worth $47 a month… Well, everyone has to start somewhere and I’m not making money online for many reasons but right now I do not think my prayers will be answered at Third Tribe.

Plus, I can do a lot of other things with my $47 a month ta very muchly.

At the end of the day, many of the folks who started 3T and many of the members, make their living at several thousand dollars a day teaching corporations how to enhance their business through social media and blogging etc., as if they are going to risk their clients signing up to 3T and getting tens of thousands of bucks worth of info for $47 a month.

Is Chris Brogan (of whom I am a big Fan by the way) going to give us 1 to 1 tuition for $47 a month? No. I’m sure if I offered him his $22k daily fee he’d have me monetized and in profit very quickly but he’s hardly going to share his hard earned knowledge for $47 a month now is he?

The thing is, I expected the community to be more helpful but it seems they are just as secretive with their knowledge and it makes me think of the free newsletters and auto-responder “7 days to _whatever_” type stuff you can get… They ain’t gonna give ya the best bits unless you’re ready to shell out the big bucks.

So – to wrap up my Week at Third Tribe

Disappointed. But, fortunately, most (not necessarily all) of what can be found at 3T can be found on

a. Blogs (ie: ChrisBrogan.com ProBlogger CopyBlogger)
b. Forums
c. Blog Comment Threads
d. Facebook Groups
e. Free ebooks
f. iTunes
g. YouTube, etc.,

Put together all the free webinars with all the other free stuff and there’s not a lot that 3T offers that is unique – especially since the key seller for me, the community of helpful and like-minded people all sharing help and tips is not as expected.

 

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