The Third Tribe – Launched [My Back Story]

Just over 48 hours ago those of you on my newsletter list would have received an email from me introducing a new venture that I’ve been working on – The Third Tribe.

Third Tribe is a new collaboration between myself, Chris Brogan, Brian Clark and Sonia Simone.

I’m going to tell some of my story of why I’m involved in this venture below – but if you want to skip straight to the offer you can read the story behind Third Tribe, what it is and how you can be involved here.

Third Tribe – A Conversation Between Two Worlds

If you were at Blog World Expo last year you might have seen a panel that the four of us were on where we began to explore the topic of our journey as online marketers trying to find our place between two groups of people who we didn’t always feel quite at home with.

Of course these two groups don’t really exist as groups – they’re generalisations and are probably more two extremes of a spectrum we all find ourselves somewhere on – but they are:

• Traditional Internet Marketers – known for their hype, at times obnoxious, annoying and manipulative tactics.
• Social Media Cool Crowd – known for their ethics, value of community and relationships – but also renowned for struggling to make what they do profitable.

Over the years I’ve felt like I’ve spent a little time in both groups. I’ve been to their conferences, tried their ‘tactics’ and ‘approaches’ and attempted to fit in. I’ve also, at different times, swung too far into either camp and done and said things that I now regret.

Tangent Time – A Story of 2 Conferences

I remember speaking at one internet marketing conference a few years back – my first – there were fireworks…. literally and figuratively. My memories of that week include

• speakers selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of coaching and product from the stage (I saw people literally run to signup)
• a presentation on how one internet marketer was setting up hundreds of meaningless blogs to game Google and make money
• one speaker make an entrance that included a light show and fireworks
• a movie star coming to sign autographs

Some of what I saw was amazing – much of it left me feeling quite uncomfortable and out of place.

Mixed in with all that there were also some amazingly genuine and smart people who made a real impression on me and taught me a lot despite being surrounded by hype.

I also remember another conference a few years ago – it was a social media event where I was invited to speak about making money from blogging and social media. In retrospect I think I was actually set up by the organizers who knew those attending would want to shoot me down in flames.

The Q&A time was filled with biting questions – the theme of which was that social media should not EVER be used for anything other than relationships, community and social good. Marketing or profit was certainly not welcome in social media in these people’s minds.

Of course at the event were also some amazing people who I also learned a lot from about the value of community and the power of social media to do good.

I tell these stories for two reasons:

1. there are things about these two groups of people that I’ve learned a lot form and resonate a lot with. Much of what I do is based upon elements that I’ve picked up along the way from a variety of people all along the spectrum.
2. there are things about both groups which leave me either uncomfortable or in some kind of conflict. I do want to make money online – but I don’t want to resort some some of the extreme, deceptive and hyped tactics I see happening around the web.

I’m not the only one who feels a little out of place between these two extremes. I meet people who grapple with these same things regularly.

Back to The Third Tribe

Brian and Sonia started blogging about these same themes last year and the idea of a ‘Third Tribe’ began to emerge as a term to describe those of us in the middle. Chris Brogan joined the conversation and then I jumped in and we began to plan a panel for Blog World.

The more we talked about the Third Tribe concept and the journey that we’d been on to find our place as online marketers the more people began to come out of the woodwork expressing similar experiences and feelings. We decided it was time to call people together and provide those wanting to explore the topic with some training on what we were learning and a place to connect with others on the journey.

As you’ll see in the story on Third Tribe – there’s an amazing group of people lined up to share their journey with Third Tribe members. What’s better still is that since launching 48 hours ago we’ve had may others join and begin to interact – the depth of what’s being shared is fantastic (there’s already over 1000 posts on a great range of topics) and I can see that there are going to be a lot of great collaborations emerge out of this.

The other reason I’m excited about Third Tribe is the mix of people involved all bring such a wonderful collection of skills, strengths and experiences. We’ve got people with experience in copy writing, social media, building membership sites, E-Book marketers, SEOs, affiliate marketers, those who use social media to market their real world businesses…. and much more.

The Offer

As we’re still growing and shaping The Third Tribe we’ve set up a discounted Charter Member Offer for those who join in the first week. This is partly to thank those in our current network but also simply because the site is still growing and those who join now help us to build it with their contributions in the forum (thus they should get a discount).

Third Tribe Marketing is a paid membership site. If you sign up before February 5th at 6PM (Central Time – GMT -6), as a Charter Member the cost is $27 USD a month (you’re locked in at that price even after the price rise). If you sign up next week, the cost jumps to $47 a month.

You can see what the deal entails and what you get on the inside of the TT here.

Of course both the topic and the deal will not fit for everyone. If you don’t resonate with where we are at or don’t find the deal is where you’re at we’re not wanting to pressure anyone to join up.

You’re welcome to sign up and trial things for up to 30 days – it it’s not where you’re at you’re welcome to a refund.

Join us Today

I’m really excited by The Third Tribe and hope you’ll consider joining us.

Check out the details here.