(with a special bonus for Wishful Thinking readers)
If you’re a Wishful Thinking reader, I’m guessing ‘creativity’ is pretty high up the list of things you love to do, and ‘sales and marketing’ are a lot further down.
And I know from talking to my coaching and training clients that the term “internet marketing” can sound a bit tacky — bringing to mind high-pressure sales pages with lots of yellow highlighter and testimonials from people you’ve never heard of. Either that or it looks incredibly complicated, requiring technical knowledge that would take a lifetime to learn. Or both at once.
I know how you feel. As an introverted poet, I’d hope I don’t fit the stereotypical image of an internet marketer. I don’t drive a Porsche, spend my days on the beach or earn millions of dollars while I sleep. And I’m not a programmer or web developer — everything I know I’ve picked up via the internet, and pretty late in my career. Trust me, it’s not rocket science.
Maybe you don’t yet have a website. Or maybe you’re one of the many people with a nice-looking website that sits there like an empty shop, waiting for customers to show up.
Maybe you’re wondering whether you should start a blog or e-mail newsletter, or whether you’re better off spending your time on Twitter, Facebook, or joining a forum. Or whether the whole thing is in fact a colossal waste of time.
Or maybe you’re a little further down the road — you’re finding your feet as a blogger, podcaster or social networker and have already seen the value to your business. What you’re looking for is some solid advice that will help you take things to the next level. As well as a bit of support and encouragement from people who ‘get’ what you’re trying to do.
Again, I know how you feel — in fact, I’ve just described the stages of the process I’ve gone through as an internet marketer. I started out with a ‘brochure’ website that gave a great description of my services — but never actually sold anything. Then four years ago, I started writing a blog here on Wishful Thinking, which was the beginning of an amazing journey…
Over the last four years I’ve developed my websites to the point where they attract tens of thousands of visitors every month, and are my main source of new coaching and training work. Last year, I launched my first-ever public training workshops via this website, and sold them out well in advance. I also launched my first e-learning programme, The Lateral Action Entrepreneur Course, in partnership with Brian Clark and Tony Clark, two very successful entrepreneurs who have forgotten more than I know about internet marketing. And I have several new projects in development, that I could never have dreamt of when I started out.
To begin with, it was very much a process of trial and error. I spent hundreds of hours sifting through blogs, e-books, forums, podcasts and courses, looking for marketing advice that actually worked for my business. Frankly, I wasted a lot of time and found plenty of dead ends.
As time went on, I kept coming back to the same few teachers — people who earned my trust by giving me valuable, actionable information that did what it said on the tin. Some of it they gave away for free on their blogs and newsletters, and some of it was training I paid for. All of it was worth my time and attention. And I don’t need a calculator to know that their advice has earned me far more money than I spent.
Prominent among this group of teachers were Brian Clark, Tony Clark, Sonia Simone, Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse. In Brian and Tony’s case, I liked their training so much I persuaded them to go into business with me, resulting in Lateral Action.
So when Sonia sent me an invitation to join Third Tribe Marketing – a new internet marketing community, founded by the people I’ve just listed – I jumped at the chance. I’ve waited several months before writing about it, because I wanted to see how it turned out. Now it’s one of the two websites I visit just about every working day, to network, learn, and promote my business. (The other one is Twitter.)
The name Third Tribe came out of an article Sonia wrote on Copyblogger.com, where she playfully stereotyped ‘two tribes’ of prominent internet users:
Sonia floated the idea of a ‘third tribe’ made up of cool kids who have figured out how to make a healthy living online without selling their souls. This sparked a lively debate in the comments and around the web, which led to the launch of Third Tribe Marketing, a private membership site comprising two main elements:
Here’s a list of the seminars delivered so far in the Third Tribe – all of which are instantly available for you do download when you join.
There are full seminar descriptions on the Third Tribe site.
If you join Third Tribe, please let me know so that I can help you make the most of your membership. Send me an e-mail [mark at wishfulthinking.co.uk] telling me what you want to get out of Third Tribe, and I’ll do my best to point you in the direction of the right seminar content, discussion threads and cool people who could help you out.
And I’ll also give you a special bonus course that will help you get started on your internet marketing journey – see below…
Third Tribe membership costs $97 for the first month – giving you instant access to over 20 hours of expert training. After that, it’s a monthly subscription of $47.
Having experienced Third Tribe at first hand, to me it seems very reasonable for the value of the teaching materials and networking connections. $47 is far less than you would pay for a monthly coaching session from an experienced coach or business adviser. And I’ve paid a lot more money for learning programmes that have delivered a lot less, in terms of quantity and quality.
Whether the monthly fee seems high or low to you will depend on how you look at it. Here’s one way.
How many of the following would you have to generate every month in order to earn more than $47?
Once you’ve worked that out, the choice should be clearer.
And remember, because Third Tribe has already been going for several months, a lot of training material has already accumulated — which you can access the moment you sign up. Right now, that means over 20 hours of audio seminars and Q&A calls, plus the transcripts and worksheets. I’ve not seen anywhere else where you can legally get hold of that amount of training by top internet marketers for less than $100.
Personally, I can’t imagine being without Third Tribe, even after only a few months. To give you just one example — my free Creative Pathfinder course is based on an idea I lifted directly from one of the seminars. The result? In less than three weeks over 2,000 students have enrolled, and it’s generating a lot of positive word-of-mouth about my business.
You can try Third Tribe risk-free — if you sign up and then decide it’s not for you, you can ask for a full refund, no questions asked, up to 30 days after joining.
To help you get the most out of your Third Tribe membership, I’m going to give a special bonus to any Wishful Thinking readers who join.
I know many of you are relatively new to Internet marketing, and could do with a solid introduction to the subject, in order to get the best value out of the Third Tribe seminars and community. So I’m going to give you just that, in the form of the online version of my popular workshop Web Marketing for Creative People.
This is an 8,000 word course that covers:
Every section has a ‘next action’ checklist to help you put the ideas into practice. And the text is littered with links to free tutorials, blogs, e-books, software tools and other resources to help you promote your business online.
I’ll give you access to the course via the Members’ Area of Wishful Thinking. You will have access to it (including future updates) as long as you are a member of Third Tribe.
To join Third Tribe and claim your bonus course Web Marketing for Creative People, sign up on the Third Tribe Website.
Important: to qualify for the special bonus, you need to sign up for Third Tribe by clicking one of the links on this page.
Firstly, in case you’re wondering, I’m an affiliate partner for Third Tribe, which means I earn a commission on membership fees from people who sign up via the links on the Wishful Thinking website.
Secondly, I’m very selective about the products and services I promote as an affiliate. (If you’ve been reading Wishful Thinking for any length of time, you’ll know I don’t do it very often.) I’ve chosen to promote Third Tribe for four reasons:
Well, there it is. Thanks for reading this far and good luck with your Internet marketing efforts, whatever you decide about Third Tribe.
P.S. — If you do decide to join Third Tribe, remember to (a) click on a link from this page, to qualify for your bonus course, and (b) tell me! E-mail me [mark at wishfulthinking.co.uk] and tell me your Third Tribe username and what you want to achieve by being a member of the community. I’ll give you access to your bonus course and do my best to point you in the direction of the most relevant resources on Third Tribe.
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