I recently joined the Third Tribe Marketing co-ordinated by famous, rock legends of blogging and social media – Chris Brogan (who everyone in the online world knows of, except me), Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger fame (yes, came across him and found his story interesting), Sonia Simone (never heard of her either, but she has 20 years experience doing this sort of stuff) and Brian Clark (guess what, never heard of him… he does something digital).
So why would someone who barely has heard of these legendary peeps go and join something that they are advocating?
Well most importantly, I am a joiner and a person who joins in - you can see how I enthusiastically joined in here blogging with Babs and Joe 
Secondly because I needed to move beyond my comfort zone and move away from my small circle and become involved with new people, so that I can then share my thoughts and ideas with people who didn’t know me and humour me. I also get to share my small circle with them
Since October 2009 I have started to take my blogging a bit more seriously, about the same time the frivolous blogging became serious, the blogs that promoted our businesses effectively were not as effective. As you can tell, I am not a writer. A writer thinks in paragraphs and illustrations, I think in blocks of text and images, jpegs or png images to be precise. Something needed to be done.
I brought the Problogger paperback book, I can’t recall the name but I do recall a lot of my stuff wasn’t wide of the mark, I was doing a lot of the right stuff already, well I was according to this bloke. I looked and commented on his blog a few times, but to be honest it seemed more about lots of people selling blogging and social media to other bloggers who sold information products… I started to see people who I had been on their email lists for years being mentioned, and they were big hypers but I subscribed to the newsletter. It seemed familiar.
The reason I am telling you all of this is because it will be easier to understand why I jumped in feet first…
The email newsletter I mentioned above invited me to join the newly launched Third Tribe and I did. Without hesitation. Why? Because of the first page, go and have a look and see what it says.
I joined and I joined in, and in a week or so I am going to the second London meetup. I have learned a lot, I am not an active member I am on the fringe. I have yet to listen or download any of the content, worksheets or seminars. I have yet to listen in on a Q &A that other community members rave about (because I don’t know what time 10am Central Time is). But I will do.
In joining the Third Tribe I have focused more on what I should be doing to make my content stronger (writers call it content too 
). Some of it is in practice, for example my affiliate link at the top of this post and the fact that I am telling you about it, and if you join from it I could make money and if enough people sign up through it it will pay for my membership. Why? because I don’t normally do that sort of thing, it goes against my inner British core. Not the not declaring it bit, I declare everything (including my genius ) but the fact that I added it in the first place, that’s just not the thing I do when I blog.
Some of you may recall I added an affiliate link somewhere once and was terribly thrilled when I earned £20. I put the cheque in a safe place and never saw it again… It’s just not me.
The fact that I can be in the forum and have a good understanding of what is being said there is thanks to my small circle of friends who have educated me over the years. Is my writing better? Possibly after reading through Sonia Simone’s Remarkable Communications blog and signing up for some emails which arrive at a sensible time of day and I actually read them. No affiliate links there, you’re safe this time and you don’t have to join to improve, go and sign up for the emails…
Am I earning from my blogging? I was earning already. I sell ebooks, write articles and dabble with breaking wordpress blogs and have a flavour of Adsense running through my blogs. What I am is more motivated to continue – I have a niche, I have traffic, I even have regular readers and a following on twitter mostly related to my niche.
I strongly believe in community, and community is there and it is here too. I am more confident to interact in the community which I wasn’t before, which is possibly weird behaviour from someone who joins in… I no longer care there maybe others that do what I do (there isn’t, I checked, but I am no longer bothered). It has a feeling of belonging for me which I should investigate but won’t.
What else?
I can’t think of anything else other than to say if you don’t feel happy with the hype that is often involved in internet marketing and you want to be part of a proactive community this is for you. If you are put off by the price or by the big names, I don’t know what to say… I had no idea who these people were/are.
I spend less on Pepsi Max, and if my investment pays off (remember investments can go down as well as up…) then I can will be drinking twice as much Pepsi Max . Should I really be thinking of the Third Tribe as a source of Pepsi Max? I bet I am the only one who has…
Sarah
I think it is completely sensible to think of the Third Tribe as a source of Pepsi Max!
Let us know how the next meet up goes and if it is ‘warm and toasty inside’ as promised on their website 
ps…. no idea who those people are either
@Joe, Lol, I;ll let you know about the warm and toasty Joe. What surprises me is we have no Brit names on the Third Tribe Team, plenty in the forum but how many could have been involved but didn’t bother?
Where are our rock star social meedja guru’s? Down the pub?
I think it is completely sensible to think of the Third Tribe as a source of Pepsi Max!
Let us know how the next meet up goes and if it is ‘warm and toasty inside’ as promised on their website 
ps…. no idea who those people are either
@Joe, Lol, I;ll let you know about the warm and toasty Joe. What surprises me is we have no Brit names on the Third Tribe Team, plenty in the forum but how many could have been involved but didn’t bother?
Where are our rock star social meedja guru’s? Down the pub?
hi Sarah.
Interesting review of the Third tribe. I know all of these bloggers and social media rock stars. I was drawn to them before they became rock stars to be honest because I found I was quite like-minded. I considered joining the Tird Tribe too but went against it. Like the post I did on the Birds on the Blog, I think it’s too easy to jump into a community of rock stars because of who they are and the reputation they carry – but even these rock stars know, that the web and indeed social media is transitional and they’re only as good as the knowledge they have today. TOmorrow will give birth to new rock star and new one and a new one….
So, I’ve decided – I quite fancy being my own rock star.
Doesn’t mean I don’t read what they have to say – for free.
Bianx
@Bian, yay! Go Bian, be your own rock star
Interestingly enough I was emailed about another groundbreaking social media mobile marketing product only yesterday… I thought, hmm the guy talks a lot of sense I’ll give it a go.
It doesn’t work outside of the US. The guy must have a huge email list and he hasn’t segregated it into countries or thought about how he should promote this product, he went for views instead. Guess how much I value what he says now?
If a rockstar can’t get their marketing right, why should I listen? (and it wasn’t one of the people mentioned in my blog post).
Is that me just not buying the hype? it is isn’t it.
hi Sarah.
Interesting review of the Third tribe. I know all of these bloggers and social media rock stars. I was drawn to them before they became rock stars to be honest because I found I was quite like-minded. I considered joining the Tird Tribe too but went against it. Like the post I did on the Birds on the Blog, I think it’s too easy to jump into a community of rock stars because of who they are and the reputation they carry – but even these rock stars know, that the web and indeed social media is transitional and they’re only as good as the knowledge they have today. TOmorrow will give birth to new rock star and new one and a new one….
So, I’ve decided – I quite fancy being my own rock star.
Doesn’t mean I don’t read what they have to say – for free.
Bianx
@Bian, yay! Go Bian, be your own rock star
Interestingly enough I was emailed about another groundbreaking social media mobile marketing product only yesterday… I thought, hmm the guy talks a lot of sense I’ll give it a go.
It doesn’t work outside of the US. The guy must have a huge email list and he hasn’t segregated it into countries or thought about how he should promote this product, he went for views instead. Guess how much I value what he says now?
If a rockstar can’t get their marketing right, why should I listen? (and it wasn’t one of the people mentioned in my blog post).
Is that me just not buying the hype? it is isn’t it.
I have to say (and Sarah is my wife, so I won’t get a thick ear
) that I think you are wrong about labeling them rockstar legends. They are normal people just like me and you who are passionate about what they do.
They may be offended. I know you well enough to know that no offense was intended, but think twice before pinning a label please.
Glad to see you are learning soething
stops you breaking blogs
Kev
@Kevin, point taken, yes they are passionate and committed people. It’s inspiring.
I have to say (and Sarah is my wife, so I won’t get a thick ear
) that I think you are wrong about labeling them rockstar legends. They are normal people just like me and you who are passionate about what they do.
They may be offended. I know you well enough to know that no offense was intended, but think twice before pinning a label please.
Glad to see you are learning soething
stops you breaking blogs
Kev
@Kevin, point taken, yes they are passionate and committed people. It’s inspiring.
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