Don't know about the tutorial, Does tier link building still work?
Yes if you follow the steps accordingly and perfectly. Anything in the SEO done perfectly by the standard still works but as answered above most of the tier 2 and tier 3 standards are not effective much in the era of quality work & standards.
Let me share some of my knowledge about Tier Building with you-
First Tier contains - High quality content sharing, making backlinks on High PR sites and search engine submissions.
Second Tier contains - Links on relevant category sites like making blogs and posting on same category forums. For example if your website's category is women fashion shopping then you must post on relevant same categorized sites like women fashion, latest trends on women fashion. Blog commenting also play a major!
And the Third Tier contains - Quantity links, In this you have to post more and must increase the number of backlinks you are making. Syndication of articles, Web 2.0 and social profile links are examples.