Do you want to restrict some of your content to registered or paying users only? Bloggers often use subscriptions or a one-time payment model to monetize content on their websites. In this article, we will show you how to restrict content to logged in WordPress users.
We will be using Restrict Content Pro which we think is an amazing plugin for building a full membership website with paid subscriptions.
Restrict Content Pro is the premium version of an amazing free plugin with the same name Restrict Content.
If you don't want to buy the Pro version, you can simply download the free version which has limited support and features.
Here's why we've chosen Restrict Content for this guide:
The first thing you need to do is install and activate Restrict Content Pro. Upon activation, this plugin adds a new menu item called “Restrict” in the WordPress admin sidebar.
Before we move on to plugin setup, let's start by creating, login, register and manage subscriptions pages in WordPress.
The first page you need to create is the login page.
Simply go Pages »Add New to create a new WordPress page. You can give your page any title you want and enter [login_form] shortcode in the content area. After that, go ahead and publish your page.
Repeat the procedure to create a registration page with [register_form] shortcode in it.
When a user signs up for a subscription plan, they will be redirected to a confirmation page. This could be any page on your website with any content. You can simply create a page to thank users for signing up to your website. This page does not need any shortcode.
Lastly, you need to create a page where users can see their subscription plan and account details. Create a page with the shortcode [subscripción_detalles] to display the user's subscription details.
Once you've created the required pages, it's time to set up Restrict Content Pro.
Go to Restrict »Settings , and you will land in the General plugin settings page.
The first option here is to provide the plugin license key which is required for plugin updates and support.
Next, you need to select the Update Registration, Success, Account Management, and Billing pages.
After that, you need to click on the payments tab to set up your payment gateway. You will be prompted to choose a currency and then select your payment gateways. Yes, you can have more than one.
You will see a checkbox to enable sandbox mode. Keep it in check until your site is ready to launch and accept payments.
Each payment gateway has different configuration settings. You will need to provide your PayPal email address for PayPal Standard. You will need the API keys if you are using PayPal Pro or Express. Similarly, you will also need API keys for other gateways. You can obtain these keys by logging into your account with your payment service provider.
The emails tab on the settings page allows you to modify the emails sent by the plugin. If you're having trouble receiving emails, check out our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
There are some important options available in the Misc tab on the settings page. You can configure login page redirects, disable account sharing, CSS form, send IPN emails, and configure reCAPTCHA for registration form to prevent spam registrations.
We are now ready to create subscription levels for your restricted content. As the name suggests, it allows you to create different levels of subscriptions for your content.
For example, you can create a subscription level 'Premium' and set a price for it. When you are restricting content on your website, you will be able to choose the subscription level a user must have to access the restricted content.
Creating a subscription level in Restrict Content Pro is simple. Give your subscription level a title, a description and set a price for it. You can set the price to zero if you want to create a subscription level for non-paying registered users.
You can choose the duration of a subscription level or set it to 0 for unlimited duration. Lastly, you need to set the status to Active, so this subscription plan is active and available in the registration form. I like this:
Restrict Content Pro allows you to restrict content on a post by post basis. Below each new post, custom post type, or page, you'll see a Restrict this content box with options to control who can see that particular post.
You can choose to restrict content based on the user's role, access, or subscription level. You can even hide content within a post using the restriction shortcode like this:
[restringir] Tu contenido restringido va aquí ... [/ restringir]
To manage memberships in Restrict Content Pro, go to Restrict »Members . You can click on each member to view their membership details, payments received, and account status.
You can also deactivate a member's subscription at any time. This will not remove your account from your website, however your subscription will be canceled and you will be prompted to renew.
You can manage payments by going to Restrict »Payments . This will show you the payments you have received. With each payment, you will see the username, your subscription plan, the amount and the date. All payment data can also be exported in CSV format under Restrict »Export page.
Restrict Content Pro allows you to offer discount codes for your promotional activity to increase user subscriptions.
Adding a discount code is very simple. Go to Restrict »Discount codes and simply fill out the form to create a new discount code. You can offer a fixed amount discount or a percentage discount. También puede establecer una fecha de vencimiento para cada código de descuento que cree e incluso limitar la cantidad de veces que se puede usar un código de descuento..
Esperamos que este artículo le haya ayudado a restringir el contenido a los usuarios registrados con WordPress y Restrict Content Pro. También puede querer ver nuestra comparación de los 5 mejores constructores de páginas de arrastrar y soltar para WordPress.
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