A lot of people who buy Headway are interested in creating a membership site with their blog. Well, WordPress comes with a plugin called Wish List Member (affiliate link) which gives you a ridiculous amount of control over your website, and allows you to build a kick-ass membership site, free or paid.
Unfortunately, the documentation was kind of vague…it took me about two days to finally figure out what I was doing from the quick-start guides. So, I’ve written a step-by-step guide to installing Wish List Member to help all of you who are just as lost as myself!
How to Install WishList Member
Download and Install WishList Member
The first thing you need to do is purchase the plugin and follow your download link to grab a copy of Wish List Member. It will be in one of the four (yup…four) emails they send to you. It should be called “Your WishList Products License Key.” Once you’ve got your download, it’s time to head to the dashboard.
Go to admin–>Plugins–>Add New–>Upload. Click “browse” and then select the zip file with WishList Member inside. This isthe fastest way to upload and install plugins. No FTP or unzipping needed. Once it’s uploaded, click “activate.” Now the plugin is actively working…kind of.
Go to the new WL Plugins–>WL Member panel in your admin sidebar and enter your product key and the email address you used when you purchased the plugin. Click save and the plugin is activated!
Creating User Levels in WLM
Before you can start protecting content, you need to create membership levels. Go to WL Plugins–>WL Member–> Membership Levels to create your first group.
Follow these steps to create a new group:
- Enter a level name (eg. Basic Member)
- Select a role from the dropdown menu (eg. “Subscriber” to allow read-only access)
- Choose a page to send users after login (eg. A new page named “member area”)
- Choose a page to send users after registration (eg. A welcome page)
- Choose the types of content the user can access (eg. All posts, pages, comments, etc.)
- Decide how long the user has access (eg. One month)
Additional Options:
- Allowing users “continued access” will let them see content after their registration period is up.
- Checking “No Expiry” will grant users lifetime access.
Protecting Content
To protect all of your content, go to settings and scroll down until you reach “only show content for each member level.” Select “yes” and save your settings to completely protect your website.
If you just want to protect some content, you can do it by editing posts and pages and selecting “Yes, protect this content (members only).”
Adding a Login Widget
The easiest way to allow users to login to your site is to use the login widget. Go to appearance–>widgets and add the wishlist member widget to the side. I recommend disabling the registration link, as it tends to lead nowhere and there is no way to properly modify it.
Unfortunately, you can only use the login widget once. However, you can go into your visual editor and create a widgetized sidebar specifically for that widget, then copy it over to your other pages.
Creating a Registration Page
You can use the default registration link given to you on the membership level page, but some people may be interested in creating their own registration pages. To call the registration form on a page, simply insert [register_level] into your pages. “Level” should be replaced by the name of your actual registration level.
And You’re Done!
That’s basically how you setup a free membership site. To learn how to integrate paypal, you’ll have to check out Wish List Member Support.
Any Questions?
What questions do you have about WLM and Headway? Share your thoughts and opinions below!
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