Design & Usage Archives - WordPress Membership

How to Bulk Update Member’s Start Date and Membership Level with WP eMember

A feature of the eMember Plugin allows admin to bulk update their member’s start date and membership level. This tool is useful if you have many members that need to have their accounts updated or changed.

The Bulk Update Admin Functions are useful if you intend to run an upgrade promotion on your website or need to cease a number of member accounts.

When you use these functions keep in mind the changes will apply to all the members that belong to the chosen membership level.

Locating the Bulk Update Tools

The bulk update tools can be found by:

Clicking the Admin Functions menu under WP eMember.
Selecting the Bulk Operation tab.
Choosing which Bulk Operation function you would like to use (instructions of each tool can be found below).

Types of Bulk Operation Tools for the eMember Plugin

Bulk Update Subscription Start Date of Members

The subscription start date of a member is set to the day the user registers.

If for any reason you need to alter the date your user’s membership commenced, you can use this section to do so.

You can manually set a new subscription start date of all members who belong to a particular level with the click of a couple of buttons.

Select the level that the members belong to.
Choose the date that their membership should now commence. You may choose an earlier date if you wish to cease the members access, while choosing a later date will allow them further access to the site.
Click the Bulk Change Subscription Start Date button.
All members that belong to the level you chose from the drop-down menu will now have a new member start date. This new member start date will be visible in the member’s profile.

Bulk Update Membership Level of Members

You can manually change the membership level of any member by editing their record from the members menu. This is great if you only have a couple of members you wish to update.

If you find that you need to update all members within a specific level you can use the Bulk Update Member Level Tool.

For instance, you could be offering a deal where all members are upgraded free of charge. This bulk update option would allow you to make those changes in a couple of seconds.

Select the current membership level of the members that you wish to update. Note that all members within this level will be updated.
Select which level these members will be updated to. This may be an upgrade or downgrade depending on the circumstances.
Click the Bulk Change Membership Level button.
All the members from the chosen level will now be updated to the new level.

Bulk Update Auto Upgrade Starts Date of Members

The auto upgrade starts date of a member is set to the day the user registers (or the day they pay for a new membership level). You can manually set a specific date of all members who belong to a particular level using the following option.

Select the level of the members that you wish to change the auto upgrade start date of.
Enter the new auto upgrade start date for the members.
Click the Bulk Change Auto Upgrade Start Date button.
The members that belong to the chosen level will now have a new auto upgrade start date.

A Successful Bulk Update

Once you complete a bulk member update, if the process has been successful you will receive a message at the top of the screen similar to the one below.

In the case of this example, all members of the Gold level had their subscription start date updated to the 20th of September 2018. This is now reflected in the profile of each of the Gold members (displayed in the screenshot below).

Creating a PayPal Subscription Button for Membership Payment

A lot of people use the WP eStore plugin to create payment buttons for membership as it has a few advantages. However, you can also create a PayPal Subscription payment button inside eMember to accept payment for your premium memberships.

Buy Now Type Button or Subscription Type Button?

You can use PayPal buy now or subscription type buttons for your membership payment (based on how you want to setup the payment structure). Read the following post so you understand the difference between these two types of payment buttons.

Difference between “Buy Now” and “Subscription” type buttons for membership payment

Creating PayPal Subscription Button for Membership Payment

Step 1) Select PayPal Subscription Button

Go to Payments -> Create New Button interface from the admin side of the eMember plugin. Then select the PayPal Subscription option (see image below):

Step 2) Configure the Payment Details

Enter the payment details and select your membership level for the button. See example below:

Step 3) Put the Subscripiton Button on Your Membership Payment Page

You can now put this newly created payment button on your membership join us page so the visitors can pay you using this button.

The Payment Buttons tab shows you the shortcode you need to use to put your payment button on a page.

The shortcode will create a PayPal Subscription button (for the membership level you specified in the button).

Your PayPal Profile Settings

Make sure that the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) feature is enabled in your PayPal profile (this is enabled by default). You can enable it by going to the profile menu in your PayPal account.

If the IPN is disabled in your PayPal Profile then PayPal won’t send any payment notification to eMember after payment. This will cause the registration process to not work as usual and your users who pay you won’t get any email form eMember.

You can use your site’s homepage URL when enabling the IPN feature in your PayPal account.

Creating a Thank You Page

You should create a generic thank you page for your membership site. Use this page as your return page in the PayPal button (so the user goes to this page after the payment).

Explain what the user can expect next in this “Thank You” page. Instruct your users to check their email and click on the link to complete the paid membership registration.

The following is an example of the type of message you should put on your thank you page:

You will receive an email shortly which will contain the details of this transaction.

You will also receive an email containing a unique link. Click on that link in the email to complete your paid membership registration.

Customizing the Payment Button

The look and feel of the button will depend on your theme’s style/CSS.

You can use a custom image for your button to customize it. Upload your button image to the media library then specify the URL of the image in the “Button Image URL” field (by editing the button).

You can also customize the button text by specifying the value in the shortcode using the “button_text” parameter. Below is an example shortcode that uses “Subscribe Now” as the payment button text:

[emember_payment_button id="3553" button_text="Subscribe Now"]

What Happens After the Payment?

If the payment is made by a new member then the user will receive an email that contains a unique link to complete the registration. Read the registration process documentation to learn more.

If the payment is made by an existing member then the membership level (associated with this payment button) is applied to the existing member’s profile.

The member must be logged into the site as a member for this plugin to recognize the user and treat him as an existing member.

Will the Affiliate Commission be Tracked?

If you are using our WP Affiliate Platform plugin and the user was referred by an affiliate then the referrer will receive an affiliate commission after the payment.

Creating a PayPal Buy Now Button for Membership Payment

A lot of people use the WP eStore plugin to create payment buttons for membership as it has a few advantages. However, you can also create a PayPal payment button inside eMember to accept payment for your premium memberships.

Buy Now Type Button or Subscription Type Button?

Difference between “Buy Now” and “Subscription” type buttons for membership payment

Creating PayPal Buy Now Button for Membership Payment

Step 1) Select PayPal Buy Now Button

Go to Payments -> Create New Button interface from the admin side of the eMember plugin. Then select the PayPal Buy Now option (see image below):

Step 2) Configure the Payment Details

Enter the payment details and select your membership level for the button. See example below:

Step 3) Put the Payment Button on Your Membership Payment Page

You can now put this newly created payment button on your membership join us page so the visitors can pay you using this button.

The Payment Buttons tab shows you the shortcode you need to use to put your payment button on a page.

The shortcode will create a PayPal buy now button (for the membership level you specified in the button).

Your PayPal Profile Settings

Make sure that the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) feature is enabled in your PayPal profile (this is enabled by default). You can enable it by going to the profile menu in your PayPal account.

You can use your site’s homepage URL when enabling the IPN feature in your PayPal account.

PayPal IPN URL

WP eMember doesn’t require you to use any special URL for the IPN feature. The plugin just needs that the IPN feature be enabled in your PayPal account. So you can use your homepage URL to enable this feature.

Creating a Thank You Page

You should create a generic thank you page for your membership site. Use this page as your return page in the PayPal button (so the user goes to this page after the payment).

Explain what the user can expect next in this “Thank You” page. Instruct your users to check their email and click on the link to complete the paid membership registration.

The following is an example of the type of message you should put on your thank you page:

You will receive an email shortly which will contain the details of this transaction.

You will also receive an email containing a unique link. Click on that link in the email to complete your paid membership registration.

Customizing the Payment Button

The look and feel of the button will depend on your theme’s style/CSS.

You can also customize the button text by specifying the value in the shortcode using the “button_text” parameter. Below is an example shortcode that uses “Pay Now” as the payment button text:

[emember_payment_button id="3552" button_text="Pay Now"]

What Happens After the Payment?

If the payment is made by a new member then the user will receive an email that contains a unique link to complete the registration. Read the registration process documentation to learn more.

If the payment is made by an existing member then the membership level (associated with this payment button) is applied to the existing member’s profile.

The member must be logged into the site as a member for this plugin to recognize the user and treat him as an existing member.

Will the Affiliate Commission be Tracked?

If you are using our WP Affiliate Platform plugin and the user was referred by an affiliate then the referrer will receive an affiliate commission after the payment.

How to Use Google reCAPTCHA on Member Registration Form

If you offer free membership registration on your site then it can be affected by spam signups (bots completing the registration form).

You can enable Google reCAPTCHA on your member’s registration form if your site gets a lot of spam signups. Google reCAPTCHA will cut down all the spam signup attempts on your membership registration page.

Enabling Google reCAPTCHA

Go to the Google reCAPCHA settings tab from the main eMember settings menu. Then fill in the API keys to enable this option.

Disable the ‘Anyone Can Register’ Option of WordPress

WordPress has an option that allows anyone to go to WordPress’s registration page and create a WP user account. This WordPress feature can open your site up for spam user registration. If you had previously enabled this option, you should disable it.

If you are getting a lot of spam WP user registration and you are not sure where it is coming from then this option is likely the cause for it.

You can find this settings option in the General WordPress settings menu of your site.

Settings -> General -> Membership

Our WP eMember plugin Does NOT need that option to be enabled.

So you should keep the “Anyone can register” checkbox unchecked.

Spam Registration Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing spam registrations despite enabling a CAPTCHA option, follow these steps to identify and resolve the issue:

Enable Debug Logging
Turn on the debug logging feature within the plugin. This can help you analyze registration attempts, identify patterns, and determine if bots are bypassing the CAPTCHA.
Check WordPress Registration Settings
Go to WordPress Admin Dashboard → Settings → General and ensure that the “Anyone can register” option is disabled. Leaving this option enabled can allow bots to bypass membership registration restrictions.
Review API Access Settings
If you have enabled the “Create members via API“ option, double-check if it is necessary. Some users unknowingly enable this feature when working with freelancers, who might then share the API secret, making the site vulnerable to spam registrations. If you do not require API-based registrations, disable this option.
Verify CAPTCHA Integration
- Test the CAPTCHA functionality by attempting a registration yourself.
- If the CAPTCHA is not showing up, check for JavaScript errors in the browser console, as theme or plugin conflicts can prevent it from working properly.
- Ensure that you have correctly configured the CAPTCHA keys in the settings.
Check for Hidden Registration Forms
Some themes and plugins create additional registration forms that might not be protected by CAPTCHA.
- Search for hidden or alternative registration pages on your site.
- Ensure that CAPTCHA protection is enabled for all relevant forms.

Manually Approve Members on Your Site

You may have a business that requires you to review the membership application. WP eMember plugin has a feature that allows you to manually approve each member account (so you can review their application before giving access).

How to Enable Manual Approval

Step 1) Go to the settings menu of the eMember plugin.

Step 2) Check the Manually Approve Member Registration field.

enable-manual-membership-approval-option

Step 3) Save the changes by clicking the update button.

Your members will be set to a “Pending” account status after they register for an account. So they can’t log into the site until you edit their profile (from the admin side), review the details, and set the account status to “Active”.

Email Notification

The “registration complete” email is the one that gets sent to the members automatically when they successfully submit the registration form. So that email is a good place to explain to them what to expect next.

You should change the “registration complete” email notification message so it explains to the users that their account will be active after you review the application.

You can customize this email message from the following interface:

WP eMember Settings -> Email Settings -> Registration Complete Email

A message like the following should do the job:

Your application is being reviewed. You will be able to access the protected content after an admin approves the account.

Send Email When Account is Approved

You can send a notification email to the user when you approve the account.

When you review the user details and set the account status to “Active“, you can additionally check the “Send a Notification to the User” checkbox and enter an email message. This email will be sent to the user when you save the profile.

sending-account-approval-email

How to Manually Add Members to Your Site

In a standard setup, your visitors will signup for a membership account after they read your membership offers. You will use one of these registration scenarios for them to register for an account.

However, you can also manually add members to your site via the admin dashboard if you need to.

Do the following to manually add member records to your WordPress site:

Click on the Members link from the WP eMember plugin’s admin menu.
Click on the Add/Edit Member link from the top navigation menu.
Fill in the details of the member and hit the save button.

You can assign a generic password and tell the user to change it later from the profile edit page.

How to Create an Edit Profile Page for Your Members

If you want to allow your members to edit their membership profile, then simply create a profile edit page using the following instructions:

Creating an Edit Profile Page

Step 1) Create a new WordPress Page. Lets say the title of this page is “Edit Profile”.

Step 2) Enter the following shortcode on this Edit Profile page that you just created:

[wp_eMember_edit_profile]

Step 3) Save and Publish this page. Take note of the URL of this page (copy the URL).

Step 4) Go to the following eMember interface

WP eMember -> Settings -> Pages/Forms Settings -> Member Profile Edit Page

Step 5) Enter the page URL (that you copied earlier) in the “Member Profile Edit Page” field.

Step 6) Save the settings by clicking the “Update” button at the bottom.

Now, your members can go this page and edit their membership details (name, password, email address etc.)

How to Create Teaser Content for Your Membership Site

What is Teaser Content

A teaser is a short part of content to draw user in. It is used to “tease” a visitor into reading/viewing the rest of the content and in the process become a member of the site.

How to Create Teaser Content Using eMember

There are two ways you can create teaser content using eMember:

Using the More Tag Protection Feature
Using the Section/partial Content Protection Feature

Method 1) Using the More Tag Protection Feature

First, enable the more tag protection by checking the “Enable More Tag Protection” option from eMember’s settings screen.

Next, insert WordPress’s “More Tag” marker in your posts to tell eMember what content is teaser and what content is for members only.

The content before that more tag marker in a post will be visible to everyone and serve as a teaser. The content after the more tag marker will be protected/hidden and only be available to logged members.

Example:

creating-content-teaser-using-more-tag-sc-2

Teaser Content Example

Method 2) Using Section/Partial Protection Feature

You can also use eMember’s section/partial protection feature to hide certain section/area of the post or page. The section of the content that you keep open for everyone serves as a teaser.

Please check our documentation on section protection feature to learn how to use this feature.

Automatically Redirect Your Members to a Page After They Login

WP eMember has an “After Login Redirection” feature that you can use to automatically send the members to a specific page (example, members only area) when they log into the site.

How to Enable the After Login Redirection Feature

Go to the WP eMember Settings menu
Check the “Enable After login Redirection” checkbox
Save the settings by clicking the update button at the bottom of this page

How to Configure Which Page to Redirect to

There are 3 options to choose from:

You can redirect all of your members to a specific page upon login. Simply specify the URL of the page in the "eMember settings -> Pages/Forms Settings -> After Login Page" field.
You can redirect members to a specific page based on their membership levels. Specify the URL of the redirect page in the "Membership Level -> Redirect After Login" field to configure a per membership level specific redirection page.
You can also redirect on a per user basis (redirect a specific member to a specific page). Specify the URL of the redirect page in the "Members -> Edit a member's record -> After Login Page URL" field to configure a per user specific redirection page.

Can I Use a Mixture of These Available Redirections?

Yes, you can mix them up. This is how eMember will determine the after login redirection of a user when he/she logs into the site:

First, it will check if there is a user specific redirection available for the member. If it finds one then it will redirect the member to that page.
If a user specific redirection is not present, the plugin will check if a membership level specific redirection is configured. If it finds one then it will redirect the member to that membership level redirection page.
If the plugin can’t find any of the above, it will redirect the user to the global/general redirection page specified under the “Pages/Forms Settings” area.

Do Not Trigger After Login Redirection when Logging in via Inline Login Widget

This option can be used to keep the user on the current page when they are logging in via the inline login widget. The inline login widget is shown when a member clicks on the login link inside a protected post/page.

You can enable the following option in eMember plugin settings:

Prevent After Login Redirection When Logging in via Inline Login Option

When this option is enabled, the after login redirection won’t get triggered when the login action happens via the inline login widget. If the member goes to the standard login page and logs in then the redirection will work as configured in your site.

Create a Custom Link to the Login Page to Redirect to a URL

The after login redirection will honor the redirect_to query parameter in the URL. If you specify a URL value via the redirect_to parameter then it will send the user to that URL after the loging (ignoring any after login redirection that you may have configured in the settings).

Below is an example of how you can use the redirect_to parameter to create a link to the login page.

https://www.mysite.com/member-login/?redirect_to=https://www.mysite.com/special-redirect-page

If a user clicks on this link and logs into the site from the login page, he will get redirect to that specified URL.

Create a Custom Link to Override the Login Redirection

You can specify the no-redirect parameter in the login page’s URL to prevent the after login redirection.

Below is an example of how you can use the no-redirect parameter to create a link to the login page.

https://www.mysite.com/member-login/?no-redirect=1

When a member clicks on the following link and logs into the site, there will be no after login redirection for him (even if you have enabled the redirection feature).

Setting Up “Before” and “After” Member Account Expiry Notification Email

WP eMember can notify your members whose account is about to be expired or has just expired. You can use this feature to automatically prompt your members to renew their membership or take some other actions.

Do the following to use this feature:

Enable the auto expiry email feature by checking the “Enable Auto Expiry Email Notification” checkbox in the eMember settings menu
Customize the email from address, subject and the body.
Save everything

Member account expiry notification email