Some people have asked me how to build a membership site using WordPress for content management.
And my answer usually is to buy a membership script (like Amember) and put WordPress inside.
But now there’s a new player in town, a WordPress Membership Plugin (link deleted, not working anymore).
I haven’t tried this one, but it looks promising and flexible. The only thing I’m missing in the feature list is PayPal IPN checking. I absolutely would like to have that incorporated if I targeted the IM market.
For the rest it’s worth trying.
Although you’d better have a good reason to create such a membership.
These days they’re popping up like popcorn at the cinema and most of them will not be successful. That’s because they aren’t able to create a great community.
I found a great article about that topic and if you consider setting up a membership site (or a forum), check out The Art of Creating a Community by Guy Kawasaki.
But IF you have a good reason to build a membership site, check out the plugin.
And if you already have used it, please let me know your opinion about it. I’m curious about this one.
Check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Case
EDIT:
The WordPress Membership Plugin has been moved to new website (link deleted, not working anymore)
EDIT2
Even that site doesn’t work anymore. Check out Easy Membership Script. Not free, but at least it works.
Also check out Members Only.
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Hey Donnie,
IPN is important to prevent thieves from changing the monthly fees.
It’s easy to do that, just intercept the payment link to PayPal, change the variables in there, like price, and submit it again.
PayPal sends a notification to your IPN page and you have to send that info back to PP. So they (and you) know, the transaction was performed by PP.
All your IPN script has to do now is check the amount and if that’s ok, let the buyer in.
If anything went wrong, and you have to check that in your IPN script, you can decide not to let them in into your membership.
Just a security measure.
Hope this helps.
Case
Thanks Semmy, but it seems that’s just temporarily.
“Our store is temporarily unavailable.
The store is currently undergoing maintenance and will be available shortly.”
Sorry to hear about that Mike. At the time of writing this post, it was a great plugin.
About your IPN questions: you should download the IPN guide from the PayPal site.
In there, you can learn how you can override your account settings using the notify_url in a transaction.
There’s a great IPN script available at Belahost.
They also allow you to test it there. Great resource!
I have bough this plugin and over a week later I am still waiting for it to be activated. Then I found that they had listed the whole online business for sale. Link here: https://flippa.com/37376-many-sites-domains-for-sale-as-package
In the listing they say: “I cannot offer anymore the needed support to my clients” and then “Personally for next few months i will be working offline and fixing some health issues.”
Myself and a lot of other people have paid good money for this plugin and are now left out of pocket while GooTix.com want $20’000 for their site and software. They dont even have a programmer, he left. So anyone with a bug is doomed.
If I were you I would check these details and then remove any mention of their plugin from your site.
That’s bad news Dave.
Sorry to hear you’re in such a position.
And a shame for that plugin too. But maybe another buyer will take it up, who knows.
Hoping for the best.