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[E-Course]
Set Up WordPress Pay-Per-Post With iSubscribe
POST UPDATE: If you would like to see a video of this procedure, step-by-step, consider my new premium post on the subject- Carl
In a forum post, I explanied how iDevSpot’s iSubscribe could be used to set up a membership site with WordPress. While you can use iSubcribe to protect an entire WordPress installation and have it function as a membership site, it’s also a snap to set up a Pay-Per-Post system with your existing WordPress blog with iSubscribe. In fact, I’m getting some Premium posts ready to use this method myself.
To use this method, you need the iSubscribe script from iDevSpot. It is priced very reasonably and comes with great support. To integrate with your WordPress installation, install the Exec-PHP plugin. This excellent plugin allows you to execute PHP script within your WordPress posts. You’ll need to disable the WYSIWYG editor for this plugin (set this under My Profile). You also should test your PHP-Exec plugin to make sure it is really executing php code properly.
Now create a subscription within iSubscribe - you can create your subsciption with recurring billing or not. You’ll be creating a separate subscription for each premium post or page. Copy and paste the iSubscribe generated buy button code into notepad - you’ll need to manipulate the code a bit to get it to behave in WordPress. First, move the password and submit button input fields near the top of the button code, right after the begining <form> tag. This will insure your subscribe button looks right within WordPress. You may need to adjust the width of the password field. Remove the password field if you want iSubscribe to generate passwords for your users.
Second, remove all the carriage returns from the subscription code - you want the entire form code to be on one line within notepad - this is because of the way WordPress renders html. If you don’t do this, you’ll find that your buy button code will take up several lines in your WordPress post or page.
Ok, now create your premium blog post or page in WordPress. At the begining of your post, paste the page securer code from iSubscribe, including the <?php ?> tags. If you get errors when trying to view the post - check your paths configuration in iSubscribe.
You’ll now need to tweak the authorize.php file in iSubscribe as described in my iDevSpot forum post, in order to keep iSubscribe from breaking your WordPress theme. You’ll need to take out the <style> tag at the very top of the authorize.php page.
Now edit the authorize.php form code so it looks at home within the WordPress page.
It is really amazing to me how simple this is, and how well it works. Watch this blog in the coming days and you can see this system in action.
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[…] Ringwall presents Set Up WordPress Pay-Per-Post With iSubscribe posted at Data SystemsPlus, saying, “In a forum post, I explanied how iDevSpot’s iSubscribe […]
Do I have to do this for every post that I want people to pay for?
Yes, John you’ll have to put the php code and create a subscription in iSubscribe. Thanks for your comment and interest - I’m working on a step-by-step post that shows you how to do this.
Carl
Thanks for the response Carl.
Thanks for this, Carl
I found it via your comment on Michel Fortin’s blog. I’ve been looking round for ages for a good system to integrate paid membership and/or premium content with Wordpress - and it looks like this might do exactly what I’ve been looking for!
By the way, have you tried Amember? That’s been my main contender until now, and I was wondering if you had compared them before choosing iSubscibe?
Thanks again, Jon
P.S. have you thought of adding the “subscribe to comments via email” feature to your blog? It’s very handy to be emailed when someone adds a comment in a thread you’re interested in
Jon, thanks for your comments. I’ve added a ’subscribe to comments’ link as you mentioned - great suggestion!
As far as Amember vs. iSubscribe, they are really for two different things. Amember is more robust - has more features and allows file/folder based protection as well as php page protection. Amember is well-supported and has numerous premade plugins for various applications.
On the con side - it’s a bit expensive if you just want to do what I’m doing here - offer pay per post content. I don’t need all the membership features of Amember.
My biggest strike against using Amember is the fact that the source code is encrypted- you are dependent on them for mods. As the thousands of users of the popular Article Dashboard products can attest, betting your business on an ionCubed application can be dangerous when the developers decide to check out.
[…] Ringwall presents Set Up WordPress Pay-Per-Post With iSubscribe posted at Data […]
[…] posted earlier about this topic, but have had numerous requests for more specifc instruction - so here is a detailed, step by step […]
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