I’ve been approached by a couple of clients recently to find-out if they can get a website with a “Members Only”section.
A quick opinion before I start…
There’s a catch with making things members-only:it actually works against page rank and your site SEO. It’s effectively what Rupert Murdoch (among others) is talking about when they say “Google is stealing content”(I’ve written about this and included article links here). The web is (other than the porn and spammers,which I’ll talk about another time) really all about the free dissemination of information. And the more quality information you get out into the web,the more likely you are to get visitors. The more visitors you get,the higher you will appear in search results (as search engines are,effectively,popularity contests). And the higher you get in search results,the more likely you are to get visitors. Ultimately,if Google can’t read it,you may as well not have it there.
In short:think carefully about your reasons for locking parts of your site away for subscribers,paying or otherwise.
First off the rank:Member access
Member Access is a plugin which allows you to lock-off specified posts and pages in your WordPress site.
Install Member Access by selecting Plugins,then Add new. Now search on “Member Access”and install.
Technical users can download Member Access from the WordPress Plugins page.
Once installed,you can find global options for the plugin in the Plugins panel. Here is where you set default behaviour,including:
- Set all pages and posts to be accessible to members only
- Redirect non-members to a specific page
- Search and RSS settings for the availability of posts
Then,once you’ve set these,you can specify pages and posts to include for members only in the editor.
Thanks to Chris Abernathy for this great plugin!
Second in line:WP-Members
WP-Members is another plugin which does effectively the same job,but you need to set-up the page excerpt (if any) that’s available for non-members to read prior to having to join-up.
This is achieved,according to the instructions which are found on the ButlerBlog,with the <!–more–>link,which you can insert in the HTML tab in any new or existing page or post. This means the usage is slightly more tricky than with Member Access.
You can install WP-Members by clicking Plugins and Add New. Then search on WP-Members and install.
Alternatively,you can download and then install the WP-Members plugin from the WordPress Plugins page.
Thanks to the ButlerBlog for this plugin!
Third we have:Members Only
Members Only appears to be the WordPress equivalent of the WebDav login you get on some sites,which locks content away from prying eyes en-masse. In other words,if you want to prevent anyone BUT members seeing anything on your site,this is the plugin to use.
Non-members are directed to the login page where they can create a login account on the site.
You can install WP-Members by clicking Plugins and Add New. Then search on Members Only and install.
Alternatively, you can download and then install the Members Only plugin from the WordPress Plugins page.
