Internet Marketing, Make Money Online

Do you love tinkering with your car? A lot of us don't, but a few of us really do, there's nothing quite like getting under the hood and getting grease and oil on your hands. I've got a friend who is never happy unless he has black grease under his fingernails from repairing his car.

Doing car repair in your own garage or out on the drive, with a set of tools around you and spare parts cluttering up the floor is awesome, frankly it brings out the best in some people because it opens the mind and shows you how things work.

Most importantly though it's a practical expression of ingenuity, and if you know what you're doing it saves money. DIY mechanics often get a bad rap for drinking too much, playing music too loud, burning rubber in the street, but actually that's a minority. Most car repair enthusiasts are decent folk with a hobby.

But repairing a car is more than just enthusiasm and tools, you also need knowledge and how many of us are trained mechanics - probably not many mechanics know everything as well, in fact they need to read up on different models of cars if they haven't worked on them before, so there is no shame in researching specific jobs you have to do.

Take the example of needing to repair brake system or repair fuel system, these are not car repair topics that can be easily guessed at, you need to know what you're doing, if only to be safe once the car is back on the road.

A few years ago I owned a Mazda RX7, it was a series 2 model, you know the long pointy one with the short back end, small bucket seats and barely enough room in the back for a cat far less a person. But I used to tinker with that car all the time. But you can bet I always made sure I had the right information first. Fast cars need to be safe. Scratch that, all cars need to be safe.

First, this isn't a bashing article, so don't expect lots of rude words, personal attacks, or outright negativity. Instead, I'm going to talk about my thoughts on membership sites like Third Tribe Marketing started by Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, and Sonia Simone.

What is a make money online or online marketing membership site, well to put into simple terms it's a forum with extra stuff like videos and downloadable ebooks etc, some also create software (online and/or downloadable) to help you follow the steps they suggest to build your website and start getting links and traffic.

Other MMO memberships sites you may have heard about include Courtney Tuttles "Keyword Academy", SBI, Warrior Forum, Darren Rowse's own membership forum, SEO Book and now, The Third Tribe.

I find it amusing the people behind the Third Tribe are the creme de la creme of A-list bloggers and one would assume quite marketing savvy, yet they don't own the domain name thirdtribe.com, instead settling for thirdtribemarketing.com - I wonder how many customers they'll lose from this embarrassing error?

The launch of The Third Tribe was predictable, the four principals announced it on their websites and then a bunch of their fans commented about how wonderful they were and how happy they were that they had the chance to join, happy to spend $27 per month to chat and perhaps get real information about make money online.

Let me give you an example, here are a few excerpts from comments I read;

"Reading their posts in the forum and learning so much about people I have seen around on Twitter..."

"I'm a happy member of The Third Tribe and am enjoying meeting many new people, and look forward to meeting the folks at upcoming conferences as well."

"Should I say the best thing that has happened so far in 2010?"

"I know it will be successful. Your name only is enough to ensure this is a quality product."

With comments like those I don't think this forum is going to help me very much, honestly people who fawn over the A-listers are exactly the sort of people I prefer not to socialize with in public forums, and if there's a membership fee, well that means the only people going to join will be more fans.

Contrast that with free sites and other bloggers who give their secrets away free, gratis, and without ever needing to know your credit card number. Free sites like Grizzly's Make Money Online for Beginners, who has written his own Third Tribe review, or the Netbuilders forum, probably the best webmaster forum online.

So what if Darren Rowse is the most famous blogger, does that help me, does it help me to have access to him in The Third Tribe forum and be able to ask questions? Can he give me better answers than I can get from other bloggers and internet marketers who give their answers freely?

And if I can get the answers to my questions for free, well what would I be willing to pay money for. Is the Third Tribe going to give me business contacts who help me get backlinks, or are they going to buy the products I'm promoting, and if not, after all they're all trying to make a buck online as well, then what is the Third Tribe offering that makes it worth spending the money.

This for me is the central problem with paid memberships sites like the Third Tribe; I just don't know that getting to know Darren Rowse's life history and how he started his business is going to help me with mine, and I don't think watching video interviews with him is going to help.

Really, I've read his archive of blog posts and frankly the majority don't give a lot of great info, unlike Will Spencer at Netbuilders who actually is making tens of thousands of dollars a month, and who is happy to give his 'secrets' away in an open forum, and he links directly to the site he owns so you can see for yourself what he did.

Is being friends with Darren Rowse really worth $27 (soon to be $47) per month? He might be a saint, and the nicest guy in the world, but he's making money because people join his forums and pay him. I doubt he's going to be too forthcoming about sharing how to create your own Third Tribe forum.

What can you learn from the Third Tribe then? You can learn how to create a popular brand (problogger), you can learn about where Darren makes most of his money (affiliate sales on his photography site, speaking engagements, and membership forums/book sales), and you can learn how he leverages his substantial following of fans to keep making money from them.

Heck, I don't think I need to join the Third Tribe to do that, I already know how to use Twitter, facebook, forums etc to network and build a following. I already make money from selling products or advertising space to my followers. My brands are as well known as they need to be, and there is no secret to doing that.

Simply go ahead and create a brand, buy a domain name and put a blog on it, talk about the brand and spend time following all the other experts in your niche so they get to know you, then once you become a C-lister leverage your new found friendships to get links, and guest blog on their sites. You can do this without joining the Third Tribe.

Pretty soon you'll be a B-lister, then you can start writing your own books, getting paid to link to C-Listers, you'll be attending seminars and having your photo taken with A-listers which will boost your brand even more, before you know it they'll be inviting you to join them as a minority partner on projects. You can do this without joining the Third Tribe.

Before you know it you'll feel like an A-lister, but will probably never earn the kind of money they do, simply because you'll never be an A-lister. The field is too small and it's already full, there is no room for more A-listers. You can still do this without joining the Third Tribe.

An alternative approach, is to make money online without having to socialize with lots of A-lister fans, by getting search traffic. People who type something into Google aren't interested in who you are or who you know. They're interested in answering their question, and if your website does that, and gives them a solution as well, gosh, you could be making money without having to join the Third Tribe.

You could read Grizzly's blog for free, he details exactly how to build a website that gets search traffic, and the best part is you could literally be making money tomorrow. Emulating the A-listers who created the Third Tribe might mean waiting months or longer before your business starts to make money.

If you really want to spend some money though, you should check out Janet Smith's Nomad's Guide to Make Money Online, and excellent Adsense ebook that tells you absolutely everything you need to know in a systematic way (step one, step two, step three) on how to create a website that makes money now! Her ebook is just $37, a tad cheaper than $47 per month.

I was walking this morning and came across this ancient Roman road, but sadly it isn't in a good state of repair, but I thought I'd put the picture up anyway. Enjoy.