November 24th, 2009 
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Why Membership Sites Suck and Why FTM Sites Rock?
By Deep Arora
If you are reading this, then you are likely aware of the tremendous profit opportunities that membership sites offer. It is no exaggeration to say that income streams that continue to churn out cash even when you sleep are the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing.
In fact, it’s a pretty good bet that the attraction of such profit streams that generate guaranteed income month after month is one of the reasons why you got started in Internet Marketing in the first place.
However, as you know by now, most ways to make money online fall well short of this notion. In most cases, how much money you make online is determined by the amount of effort you’re willing to put in – and the second you stop investing that effort, your income will plummet.
Membership sites are different – once you have convinced a subscriber to join, he will continue to generate income for you month after month (provided, that is, that you’re able to provide sufficient valuable content).
This is where a lot of regular membership sites struggle. If you’ve ever been a subscriber yourself, then you probably know that content tends to be great for the first few months, and usually starts to go downhill from there. Incidentally, this is also the reason why the average subscriber rarely stays for longer than 3-4 months.
Fixed-Term Membership sites - also known simply as FTM sites - are profoundly different. Just as the word “fixed” implies, the objective of such a site is not to keep a subscriber signed up continuously, but to create a consistent stream of content for them for a fixed period of time.
Unlike their regular counterparts, FTM sites build upon the idea of a course, rather than a collection of content. This is a very important distinction; because it means that content provided by FTM sites in one month inevitably builds upon the content released in the previous month.
In other words, there is what I choose to call a progression of value – every month, new content takes the previous month’s content one step further.
This is more important than you might think – so let me illustrate the difference with a specific example. Let’s say you’re running a FTM site on organic gardening. Your unique selling proposition is a 12-month long course on how to take care of your garden without using chemicals.
Since you only release new materials once a week, members need to stay subscribed for the entire 12-month period – otherwise, they will not get full value from the content you have to offer.
Now contrast that with, say, a regular membership site. A user signs up, pays their monthly fee and receives access to its monthly products. After 3-4 months, they already have more products than they know what to do with.
The result?
Predictably enough, they unsubscribe – because they’ve already gotten all the value they need from this site.
As will be discussed throughout this program, FTM sites feature some of the highest customer lifetime values found in the realm of Internet Marketing.
Let’s say you charge $39 a month for access to your site – assuming that you provide enough valuable content to compel the user to stay for the entire 12-month duration, the lifetime value of this customer would be 12 x $39 = $468. This is an incredible amount by any standard.
The simplest way to think of a FTM site is to liken it to a university degree.
For example, to get your Master’s, you need to attend a defined number of courses spanning a little bit over a year. If you stop attending or skip any of these courses, you won’t get the degree you seek – it’s as simple as that. This alone provides powerful incentive for students to keep going all the way until the end.
FTM sites are exactly the same.
Give a little more thought to the FTM concept. You need to UNLEARN about traditional membership sites before you begin your journey of FTM sites. Think about your school or college days and try to recollect how your courses were organized – in a progressive manner? Think why they were structured that way. What were the benefits? How did that progressive structure help you in your education? Most importantly, why that progressive structure is absolutely necessary?
If you are EXCITED by my FTM Idea, then you will love my Full 8-Week Mentoring Program on FTM Profits. Enroll today for my “FTM Site Development Coaching Program” on http://www.FTMProfits.com and I will see you inside.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deep_Arora
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Membership-Sites-Suck-and-Why-FTM-Sites-Rock?&id=3264479
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