I’ve Tried That Reviews Tribe Writers 2.0

This past Wednesday, I introduced Jeff Goins and his free e-book It’s Not Too Late.

In this e-book, Jeff defines a tribe, explains why every writer needs a tribe, and lays out the process of finding and growing that tribe.

Jeff bases his e-book on his personal journey to find his own tribe, which he succeeded in doing, but only after first quitting his blog of four years and starting a completely new one.

From 100 to 100,000 subscribers in 18 months

Jeff had maybe 100 subscribers when he started his new blog. Yet, within just 18 months, he went from 100 subscribers to 100,000. Six months into his new blog, he was being asked to sign a book contract.

This didn’t happen by accident or sheer luck. Jeff followed a methodical process of getting readers interested in his blog by first having them subscribe to his email list. Once subscribed, his followers received regular content chock full of value. Jeff also involved his subscribers in content critique and editing. This tactic not only provided Jeff with valuable feedback from his readers, it also provided those readers with a sense of pride in and ownership over what was being published.

By the time Jeff published his first book, he had amassed a loyal audience of over 100,000 readers who were more than happy to refer his work to their friends and family members. This prevented Jeff from experiencing the all-too-common problem of new authors- finding interested readers beyond a handful of close friends and relatives.

After all, the whole point of publishing is to actually publish, or to declare something to a wider audience.

But how does an aspiring author go about gathering this audience, or even declaring something worth hearing?

Welcome to Tribe Writers 2.0

The process of finding and growing a tribe is a bit more involved than what can be summed up in a single blog post- or even 10 blog posts.

To this end, Jeff developed a course called Tribe Writers that illustrates how one can go about finding, growing and nurturing a loyal base of followers.

Tribe Writers was so successful in its first launch that Jeff added even more material to the course and is now launching Tribe Writers 2.0.

I recently had the privilege of looking over this course and its materials. Jeff had granted me with full access behind the scenes and what I discovered has inspired me to pick up where I left off in my own journey to be an author. In brief, Jeff’s course was the kick in the pants I needed to get back in gear and finally publish my novel.

Tribe Writers 2.0 contains four learning modules comprised of the following subjects:

1. Honing Your Voice

In the first module, Honing Your Voice, you learn how your voice fits into the overall scheme of things. You learn that what you say isn’t as important as finding an audience with whom your message will resonate. And there is an audience out there for your message, so don’t worry about that.

Jeff describes how good writing is the kind of writing that some people will get, but not necessarily all. That’s because, in Jeff’s words, “If you’re writing for everybody, you’re writing for nobody.”

Also, good writing is brief and to the point. Finally, all good writing is actually copywriting, which is defined as writing with an outcome in mind.

2. Establishing Your Platform

In this module, Jeff states that you need to establish a platform in order to amplify your voice, communicate regularly with your tribe, and attain a level of legitimacy with your message. To this end, Jeff recommends starting a blog and, by association, a website.

Jeff identifies five different blogging platforms that you can choose from to identify your unique platform personality. After that, he discusses the process of finding your platform’s focus- in other words, what subject are you going to blog about?

The module finishes with Jeff teaching you how to write a blog post and how to craft a great headline.

But wait!

Before you leave this module, Jeff introduces his course-with-a-course, called Intentional Blog. Here, in a completely separate set of modules, Jeff offers valuable blogging lessons on topics like how to set up your autoresponder, write cornerstone content and guest posts, find and interview experts, and find photos.

This course alone spans five modules and 33 total lessons, plus four recorded coaching calls.

3. Expanding your reach

At this point, the assumption is that you’ve created your blog, chosen its focus, and have written a few posts. Now it’s time to build your email subscriber list.

Jeff goes over the email newsletter services that are available, how much they cost, and how you can use sign up forms on your website and blog to grow your list. He also talks about creating a unique incentive for people to subscribe, such as an e-book.

Granted, creating an incentive such as an e-book is a time-consuming process. Also, you have no guarantee that people will even want your incentive. How do you create demand for your promotional item?

By getting your fans involved in the process of generating it. This way, your fans are emotionally invested in your incentive and have a sense of ownership. Also, because they’ve helped you create this item, you’ve had to do a lot less work as a result.

4. Getting published and paid

The end result of all the time and effort you’ve spent setting up your blog, growing your subscriber list, creating your incentive(s), etc. has been to get published and paid for your book, article or other piece of content.

Jeff provides a process for doing this, including contacting editors at publications (e.g., magazines) and pitching them. If you want to publish a book, such as a novel, Jeff outlines how to create a book outline (i.e., a book proposal).

If you are unclear about whether you should self-publish or go with a traditional publisher, there is a full segment devoted to the pros and cons of either approach. Likewise, Jeff talks at length about literary agents and why having one is a good idea, especially as you start out in book publishing.

That leaves you with the final step- launching your book. However, you should not leave your tribe out of this phase. In fact, going to your tribe and involving it directly in your book launch (which is actually a three-phase process) is one of the best moves you can make in terms of successfully launching your book. Jeff outlines how you can approach your tribe for help- and turn your tribe members into your book’s best advocates.

What else does Tribe Writers 2.0 offer?

In addition to the 4 modules and 34 lessons provided in the Tribe Writers 2.0 course, and the course-within-a-course Intentional Blog, there is yet another meaty bundle here- a complete WordPress 101 course, which is divided into 4 modules and 23 lessons. This WP 101 course teaches you everything you need to know about setting up your WordPress-based blog and even integrating a custom Tribe Theme into it, which Jeff uses on his own website.

Add to this a member forum that is divided into separate discussion areas based on the individual modules provided by Tribe Writers 2.0. And finally, there is a separate resources area packed with interviews, additional lessons, free e-books, and product discounts and offers.

To keep everything straight and measure your progress through all these lessons and exercises, Jeff also provides Tribe Writers members with a downloadable workbook.

The Tribe Writers 2.0 tally

So, what do you get with Jeff Goins’ re-vamped Tribe Writers 2.0? Here’s the final tally:

Tribe Writers 2.0: 4 modules, 34 lessons total

Intentional Blog: 5 modules, 33 lessons total, plus 4 recorded coaching calls

WP 101: 4 modules, 23 lessons total

32-page Tribe Writers Workbook

Interviews including:

– Tim Grahl: Results-Driven Tribe-building
– Corbett Barr: It All Starts with Passion
– Brandon Clements: Using Amazon to Get Found
– Daniel Decker: Getting Published — What Does It Take?
– Joe Bunting: Living & Working as a Full-time Writer
– Marion Roach Smith: How to Get Published in Magazines & Get Featured on NPR
– Tor Constantino: How to get 12,000 Likes on Your Facebook Page
– Mary DeMuth: Managing a Fiction & Nonfiction Platform
– Paul Angone: Self-publishing Like a Pro
– Randall Payleitner: An Insider’s Perspective on Publishing
– Carol Tice: Freelance Writing & Building a Blog-based Business
– Sean Platt: Finding a Fan Base to Support You
Bonus interviews with Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and Michael Hyatt

Live Chat area

Tribe Writers Forums area

Learn more about Tribe Writers 2.0 here

If you would like to get a taste of Tribe Writers 2.0, Jeff Goins offers his e-book called Every Writer Needs a Tribe. This e-book provides a great introduction to his course. Best of all, it is completely free.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reading this inspirational e-book, which will help you launch your own plans on how to become a successful and published author. Download it here.