WP eMember and WP eStore Integration for Membership Payment

28 October 2009

The eStore and eMember plugins are pre-integrated so you don’t need to do any manual work the integration. The only thing you need to do is specify the “Membership Level ID” in the eStore product when you create/configure an “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscribe” button.

Here is an example scenerio, You have a membership level called “Gold Pass”. The id of this membership level is 3 (The ID for each membership level is listed on the Manage Levels screen). Say for example, you want to charge $25 for this membership level. So head to the “Add/Edit Products” menu of the WP etore plugin so you can configure an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button to accept payment from potential customers. When you fill in the details of this product, just specify 3 (Membership Level ID of Gold Pass) in the “Reference Text” field which is under the “Additional Product Details” section. Now, Place this “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button you just configured on your Membership Payment/Join Us page.

When a member pays for the membership using this button the eStore plugin will know (from the Level ID you entered in the reference text) that this payment was for a “Gold Pass” and it will automatically create the appropriate member account and send an email to the customer. The email sent to the customers will contain a unique link. When they follow that link they will be brought to the registration page where they will be able to choose their Username and password to complete the registration and access the “members only” content.

If you have muliple mebership levels then create an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button for each membership level and place them on your Membership Payment/Join Us page following the above instructions.

The eStore and eMember plugins are pre-integrated so you don’t need to do any manual work for the integration. The only thing you need to do is specify the “Membership Level ID” in the eStore product’s “Reference Text” field when you create/configure an “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscribe” button to accept membership payment.

Example Scenerio

Here is an example scenerio, You have a membership level called “Gold Pass”. The id of this membership level is 3 (The ID for each membership level is listed on the Manage Levels screen). Say for example, you want to charge $25 for this membership level. So head to the “Add/Edit Products” menu of the WP etore plugin so you can configure an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button to accept payment from potential customers. When you fill in the details of this product, just specify 3 (Membership Level ID of Gold Pass) in the “Reference Text” field which is under the “Additional Product Details” section. Now, Place this “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button you just configured on your Membership Payment/Join Us page.

When a member pays for the membership using this button the eStore plugin will know (from the Level ID you entered in the reference text) that this payment was for a “Gold Pass” and it will automatically create the appropriate member account and send an email to the customer. The email sent to the customers will contain a unique link. When they follow that link they will be brought to the registration page where they will be able to choose their Username and password to complete the registration and access the “members only” content.

If you have multiple mebership levels then create an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button for each membership level and place them on your Membership Payment/Join Us page following the above instructions.

16 Comments »

Anthony said:

Amin: concerning the second to last paragraph here, a specific question. I understand that on upgrading a visitor will be able to create a new account at a higher level. The question is, if there is an existing member at the basic level who wants to upgrade, can he upgrade his existing account/username? For instance, if “Binky” is a basic member and then he wants to upgrade, he’ll be wanting to keep his existing username “Binky”. Does the software account for that?

# 9 December 2009 at 10:06 pm

admin (author) said:

Hi Anthony, I see your point and it should be doable when you use a “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button for membership payment. I am not sure if this can be done for subscription payments though cause subscription payments can’t be changed. Say for example your “silver” membership costs $10 per month and a member is subscribed on this. Now he wants to upgrade to the “Gold” membership which costs $15 per month. PayPal won’t allow you to change the existing subscription to add the extra $5. You will have to setup a complete new subscription.

# 11 December 2009 at 6:29 am

Kate said:

I have three membership types: trial, free, and paid. I’m assuming I only need a button for the “paid” payment type, correct? I’m just trying to figure out how a trial member can transition to a “free” or “paid” account. Maybe I do need a “free” button too? Similar to Anthony’s question, I’m also wondering if users can seamlessly transition from a trial or free account type, to a paid, yearly subscription type. Is this possible? If so, what’s the best way to implement it?

Thanks!

# 25 December 2009 at 10:05 am

admin (author) said:

If you want the trial membership to automatically transition to a paid membership then you don’t need a “Trial” membership level.

All you do is for your Paid Membership payment you use a subscription payment button (http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/?p=400) that has a trial period specified. So when a visitor signs up using that option they get a free trial of however many days you specify (eg. 7 days) then it will automatically start billing them for the subscription payment (eg. once per year).

So in essence you only need two “Membership Levels” Free and “Paid”. The paid one comes with a free trial period.

# 25 December 2009 at 5:44 pm

Kate said:

Okay, I was wondering if I was being redundant with the 3 types. But, on the other hand, I don’t really want them to just be charged automatically. I guess I’d prefer for them to be re-directed to the payment/registration page once their trial runs out. Then, they could just update their account information. Does that make sense?

# 25 December 2009 at 11:41 pm

admin (author) said:

Thats fine.. you can have it so they get a trial membership for a few days then can come to the payment page and pay for a premium one (if they want it) and it will automatically update their account.

# 26 December 2009 at 9:02 pm

Kate said:

Two questions: First, is the redirecting to the payment page the default? I haven’t tested it out yet.

Second, if they choose not to keep their account, will it be deleted? Perhaps after a certain period of time?

Thanks!

# 3 January 2010 at 1:23 am

admin (author) said:

Hi Kate, It will redirect to the page that you specify in the “Join Us/Membership Payment” page in the settings menu. If you wish to redirect to a different page than the payment one then specify the URL of that page in that settings option.

Accounts are kept in an inactive state by default after the subscription expires. This way if later they wish to reactivate then it is very easy to do so. You as the admin can delete any account if you want though.

# 3 January 2010 at 1:43 am

John said:

Hi

I’ve recently set up emember and estore on my site. My first member signed up today, but after paypal his “complete registration” email contained a link that didn’t work. Here is the link he received which looks incomplete. Any ideas what I have done wrong?

?member_id=5&code=67c6a1e7ce56d3d6fa748ab6d9af3fd7

Cheers

John

# 3 February 2010 at 2:01 pm

admin (author) said:

Hi John, congrats on getting your first member. Looks like you don’t have the “Registration Page URL” specified in the settings menu of the plugin. Can you please verify this for me?

# 3 February 2010 at 2:45 pm

John said:

Hey Admin

Spot on. I thought I had but when I checked of course it wasn’t there.

Great plug ins thanks a lot

John

# 4 February 2010 at 3:51 am

Kevin said:

Hi, The eStore and eMember plugin combo looks like it might just be what I need, but I have one question…

Regarding recurring payments. How does the membership plugin communicate with PayPal long term? For example, let’s say someone signs up with a monthly access plan — then cancels awhile down the road. How does eMember know to stop their access — or does it?

Thanks!

Kevin

# 19 February 2010 at 12:38 am

admin (author) said:

When a member cancels a subscription, the plugin gets a notification from PayPal and it cancels the membership automatically.

# 19 February 2010 at 10:01 pm

Kevin said:

Fantastic. That sounds great. Thanks for responding.

# 20 February 2010 at 5:11 pm

Damir said:

Hi, amazing stuff here!!!

I just watched the videos and this is the thing I need. The only question I have is, can recurring “Subscribe” buttons be made right out of eStore? So members would be re-billed monthy?

Thanks!

# 10 March 2010 at 12:15 am

admin (author) said:

@Damir, yeah you can use eStore to make subscription button that will bill the members periodically. This page will explain more:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-to-add-a-subscription-button-for-recurring-payment-400

You can also use plain paypal subscription buttons.

# 10 March 2010 at 12:24 am