Hey everyone welcome! In this tutorial
I'm going to show you
how to make a membership website. Now, I've received a lot of requests from a lot of
you out there asking me to put up a tutorial 
on how to create a membership website
so here it is!
Before I really get into too much of the
details, I'm just going to show you a
demo of how everything will work if you
follow this tutorial step by step. Now,
just so you know, I will be dividing this
tutorial up in two sections. You can see
that in the description below. The first
section is setting up this website that
you see here. Everything you need to set
up this website, using WordPress and
getting you on-line and ready.
The second step will be installing and
configuring the membership functionality
so that certain pieces of information
on your site
are locked to paid members only. And I'm
going to show you exactly how to do that.
I'm going to show you how to monetize
your membership website, how to get paid
and all of that is going to be contained
within this one tutorial. So, before we
start, let me give you a quick
demonstration of how everything will
work if you follow this tutorial step by
step. So, here's a quick demo.
This is exactly what a user would see;
they would be able to see any post that
are not locked down to a particular
membership level. However, anything that
is, they would see two options: the
ability to login for people who are
already members and the ability to
register. So, if I click the register
button... so, for now, they'll say these
membership levels (yep)-
Fishing Masterclass  Gold. Wonderful! Now,  15 
per month. Yes, that sounds good. I'll select,
they will be asked to create an account.
They've already got an account. They can
login here. So, as you can see, the
interface is actually very nice and
clean and user-friendly... and the password
and enter their own email address.
And then they'd be able to check out. So,
they can pay with credit card or they
can pay via PayPal.
Ok... So, it's been authorised and now
they'll be clicking this button to
complete payment. There you go, there is a
live transaction of what the members see
from their point of view. So, they'll
receive this thank you notification:
"Thanks for joining! Below: "your membership
account details" and, furthermore, they
will receive an e-mail in their email
inbox with the member details. So, then
what I would do as a user or new member, I
would probably view my membership
account, view all of my details and now,
if I go back and access the home page,
you will see that this post that was
previously locked down I can now access.
So, this post could have been anything, it
could have been a podcast, it could have
been a video... anything that's restricted
or locked, they can access a
paid member. So, there you go! There is
a live transaction.
As I mentioned to you before, we will
create a membership website based on the
WordPress platform. So, I will teach you
how to use the WordPress platform, if you
do not already know how to use it. It's
actually a free platform, it's very easy
to use and I'm just going through a list
of notable uses on my screen.  Here you
can see there are some massive names
worldwide that rely on Wordpress for their
website. It's extremely easy to manage,
extremely user-friendly and it's very
very easy to learn. So, you'll be an
expert by the time this video is
finished.
Ok, so, here is a quick overview of what
we are going to cover in this tutorial.
First off, we will get you online. So this
is specifically for those of you who do
not currently have a website and need to
get up and running, so that you can
actually have the fundamental things
that are required for you to actually
have a website and then move on to
setting up your membership functionality.
However, if you already have a wordpress
website and you don't need to set one up,
then you can skip that step and move
straight to the second segment of this
tutorial. Just look in the description of
this video below and you'll be able to
see where I start the setting up of the
membership functionalities.  So, you can
just go and skip straight to that
section. Ok. So, for people that need to
get online first, what you're going to
need, and these are two essentials,
a domain and web hosting. A domain is
essentially your .com domain name
and web hosting is just a fancy way of
saying a computer where all of your
website files are stored, so that your
membership customers for your website
visitors can access access it 24/7.
Basically, having a domain without
having web hosting is simply a blank
page. These are two absolute essentials
you need to run any website. After we
cover, this we will move on to the
membership functionality, we will be
installing a plugin called "Paid
Memberships Pro" and that will cost you
$0.00. I'll show you how to install that for free. Then, 
we'll be setting up a PayPal account, that's another
thing that doesn't cost you any money,
and, thirdly, I'll show you how to set up and
configure everything, so you can define
your membership levels and then bill
your customers on a one off or a
recurring basis and the money will go
straight into your PayPal accounts. Also,
you how to set all of that up. Now, to do
this…
First, we'll get a domain hosting, then we
will install a website and design.
Thirdly, we will set up and configure the
membership functionality and, then,
finally, I'll come back and show you how
to set up the rest of the website. So,
I'll be showing your  all the
options that you have to make, all the
adjustments you need to make your
website look good...So, that's the order in
which I'm going to attack this tutorial.
If you want to skip to any of these
sections, just look in the description
below and you'll find the links. So, let's
start with number one.
Get a domain and hosting. The place where
I get my domain and hosting is
hostgator.com (HOSTGATOR). Now, these
are one of the world's most popular
and well-respected hosting companies and
I've been using them for around nine or
ten years for all of my websites and
blogs and one of my e-commerce stores, as
well. They've got great support as you
can see here, 24/7 support line, a toll
free number. In a nutshell, they're great
to work with and the service just works.
So, now click on the web hosting section.
You'll see that you're presented with
three plans. Now, these three differ in
very slight ways. Now, this business plan
has a free private SSL and toll-free
number -something we don't need.
The "Hatchling" and "Baby",
actually very very similar, except the "hatchling"
actually allows you to host a single
domain, whereas the "baby" allows you to
host unlimited number of domains. Now, for
our purposes, most of you out there
will have just a single domain, so the
“hatchling” plan will suffice.
Now, you can always upgrade down the
track, if you are going to be adding more
.com domains to your account for
whatever reason. So, you can always
upgrade down the track, but for now the
"hatchling" plan will suffice and it's also
the cheapest. So, click on the 'signup now'
button and you'll see this page here.
Ok. So, there are two tabs. If you already
own a domaine, enter a domain in here.
However, I think most of you will want to
register a new domain and, in that case,
enter your selected or your desired
domain name in this field here, so, let's
try, in our case, for the purposes of this
demo,
I might register one called: membershipdemo.com 
What it will do is check to
see if the domain that you entered is
available and, as you can see
here, this one is unavailable. Now, just so
you know, it's not essential that you do
purchase a .com. The .org/.net, all of
 these other extensions
function in exactly the same
way that .com functions and it will
make no difference to the setting up of
your membership site. So, if you wanted to
go ahead and select any any one of these
other extensions then do that, it won't
make any difference whatsoever, but for
me, it's just a personal preference that
I choose a .com domain. It is just something
that I personally like to do. So, this one
is not available. Maybe I will choose or
try and see if one called:
jimsmembershipdemo.com is available and,
as you can see, this one is. So, what it
will do is when it when you've entered a
domain that is available, it will add
it to your shopping cart and then you can
move on to the next step. You'll notice
here that... you've selected "hatchling", the
billing cycle: you've got a few billing
cycle options to choose from. I normally
select the twelve month options so I pay
on a yearly basis and you'll notice here
it is 20% off. In a minute I'm going to
show you what will give you a coupon code to
get even an even bigger discount than the
standard 20% off. So, bear with me, I'll
show you that in a minute. So, for now
I'll be choosing the twelve-month
billing cycle. You can do the same. You
can also choose a monthly cycle if
you're not comfortable with a 12 month
or any other any other billing cycle. So,
maybe you want to just see how this goes
and choose a one-month billing cycle.
I'll also give you a coupon code for
that in a second.  For now, let's choose
twelve months.
Enter a username and security pin.
Then go down. I'll skip this section for
the time being, I'll show you the rest of
the options. Now, in the section called
additional services, I'd like you to
deselect any of the items that are
automatically selected in this area.
That's just because they are not
absolutely essential for you to start
your membership site and, just so you
know, I don't personally use any of these
myself. So, there's no reason for you to
do that either. So, you can deselect any
of those up cells. Then go down and
you'll see a section where you've got
the option of entering a coupon code, as
well as, it will give you your amount due.
Now, keep in mind at the moment it is $79
this coupon code that will appear for
you is the default 20% off. Instead of
that use this coupon instead:
MYHOSTMOST
Click this 'validate' button over
here and you'll see this amount due is
less than it was with the other coupon.
That's because this coupon will always
give you a bigger discount then the
default that Hostgator gives you.
So, please, do take advantage of that. Now, go
up and complete all of your billing
details. Now, as you would understand
I'm just going to blur my screen here
because I do not want to share with the
public my personal billing details and
credit card details.  So, feel free to
follow along with me. Now, I'm just going
to blur my screen as I enter all
this stuff in...
And you've got the option paying by credit card or PayPal. 
Ok, so when you enter or leave your credit card
and billing info (by the way, please make
sure that the email address you enter in
these fields here are accurate because
you will receive a confirmation email
from Hostgator confirming your purchase
and giving you your new account details
for you to log in and continue with the
next steps).  Now, go down and just ensure
that everything looks right to you and,
when you're ready, click on this: Agree
to the terms and conditions
checkbox and check out.
Next, you'll receive this email from
Hostgator confirming that you have
successfully opened your new account. it
will give you your account details such
as your control panel link, your username
and password.
These are the important bits of
information we'll need to go to the next
step. By the way, if you haven't already
received this email from Hostgator
within the next 10 to 15 minutes, just
contact me on emediacoach.com/help
and give me some of
your details and I will assist you the
best I can. The next step is to
install the WordPress platform. To do
that, we'll need to access our control
panel which is this link here. So, the best
thing just 'right click' and open this
link in a new tab. On this screen here
enter the username and password that
you're given over here. So, that's our
username and that is our password. So,
enter these bits of information on this
screen here and you'll be able to log in
to your dashboard. So, I'll just copy and
paste mine in. Just make sure when you're
copying and pasting that you do not
leave any blanks after it, otherwise it
will not allow you to enter your control panel.
 
This is what your Hostgator control
panel will look like
and it's not a section that you'll
access very often. In this occasion, all  we
need to do is install the WordPress
platform and, from there on, we
probably won't access this again. You
might access it to do other things like
backing up your account which you can do
from the backup visit here or setting up
an email address- which you can do from
email accounts. But for now, go
down and in the software and services
tab, there should be a button called
Quick Install. So click on that. Next, you
should be able to see WordPress in the
side column or the top menu bar. So, click 
that and this is actually a new layout.
They give you a number of unsells  which
we don't need. All we need to do is
install the free version of WordPress.
You should be able to see this box
here, we should be able to see a section
called 'install WordPress' and it should
be free. When you see that, click install
your domain should automatically
populate in this field here. If it
doesn't, just select it from the
drop down below.
Leave this box here empty. We want our
website or we want WordPress to be
installed on this domain. Next, let's put
an admin email and make sure you put the
correct login correct email address,
perhaps your own personal email address,
because you'll be sent your login
details to that email account and, down
the track, if you for whatever reason
misplace your password, you can request a
new one and you'll be sent that in your
admin email.
Admin user it can be either 'admin' or you can
have your own name. I like to just keep
it as 'admin'.Enter your title of your
website, whatever your membership site is
about and enter your first and last name.
If you had any issues installing Wordpress or
getting up to this stage, just let me
know,
go to emediacoach.com/help 
and I will help you as
quickly as I can. So, click on the install
WordPress button. If a screen like this
pops up, just close it.There might be a
number of unsells in or during the
process, but, once it's complete, you'll
see this notification here. You
installation is complete. Click here to view
your details. Now, what I would do is just
copy this and  perhaps put it in a notepad,
just temporarily. Ok, so what this is is
your WordPress login URL. It'll be your
domain.com/ wp-admin. So, if I
just right click that and open that in a new tab...
just know that sometimes it can take
between about 15 to 20 minutes for this
page to activate and load, so, if it
doesn't load for you like it just
happened to me, just
come back in, say 10 to 15 minutes, try
again if it's still not loading, come
back in half an hour or an hour and go
to this URL: hold down CTRL and F5 on
your keyboard and it will refresh this
page. If you're on a Mac hold down
command and F5. So, I'll be coming
back in about 15 minutes to check if our
login page has activated
There you go! That is what your login page
should look like. Now, this is known as
your Wordpress dashboard or
WordPress admin login and you'll need to
access this page
anytime you want to make any changes to
your membership website. If you haven't
been able to access this page, if you've
waited a couple of hours and did not see
this page then please do get in touch
with me here
and I'll help you out.
Ok, so... the next thing to do is just get
your username and password,
perhaps just copy and paste and then
click the Log In button.
If you come across any issues like this
and you're not seeing the Wordpress
dashboard, please get in touch with
Hostgator through the live chat and they
will help you out. Otherwise, what I just
did is hold down CTRL and F5, I
refreshed the page, I refreshed my browser
and now it's coming up perfectly. On a
Mac I think its command and F5. Just
hold those two buttons down CTRL F5 or
command F5, depending if you are
using a Windows or Mac PC and it should
look for you fine, but if it doesn't please
do get in touch with Hostgator and they
will help you out.
So, welcome guys! This is your WordPress
dashboard. This is an area that I'll make
you very familiar with over the next
houror so. Basically, it's the engine
behind your entire membership website.
Now, before we go any further there may
be some of you who have purchased your
domain from somewhere else for example
GoDaddy, but purchase your hosting from
Hostgator. So now we need a way of
connecting your domain and hosting. Now,
if you purchased a domain and hosting
from Hostgator then don't worry about
this step. But this step is very important
for those of you who have purchased your
domain elsewhere. So just note down, in
this email, you'll see here two name
servers. Just note that down somewhere on
your computer. So, as you can see here
just note that down on a notepad 
or on your computer.
Alternatively, another area where you can
find your name servers is if you log
into your cPanel and scroll down, you'll see
the left-hand column. There will be your
two name servers located over here. All
we need to do now is a add these name servers
to the location where you manage your
domain. So, I'm using GoDaddy here as an
example, but it really doesn't matter
where you purchased your domain.
Just find the area where you need to
update your name servers, so will do. I'll
just sign in to demonstrate. In GoDaddy
you just manage. So, depending on where
you bought your domain, just ask those
people where you can update your
nameservers, otherwise known as DNS.
Here we go, name servers -I want to manage that and
you will need to set custom name servers
for your domain which you are using,
obviously, this is just an example to
show you what you need to do. All you
need to do is copy each one of these
name servers and add them into wherever
you're managing your domain.
Perfect! So, now this may take a couple of
hours to take effect. If your site wasn't
loading before, wait some time and it
soon will.  As you can see, name servers
it determines where your domain points
and it's very important if your hosting
domain with another register. All
it is doing is connecting your domain and
hosting. If you have any questions, get in
touch with the registry where you
registered your domain or get in touch
with me: emediacoach.com/help
and I'll let you know how you can
connect your domain and hosting.
The very first thing that I highly
recommend you do is change your password,
because you will probably notice that
this password that WordPress gives you
by default is not very memorable and
there's no chance that you will be able
to remember that. So, to change your password
go and hover over the Users tab and...
actually, just click on the Users tab,
then click on your username. Down the
bottom, you should see two fields for
entering your new password. So, just enter
your new password in there and repeat
that and then click on the Update
Profile button at the bottom. All done!
So what that's done is replace the default
password on your WordPress admin login
page, that page there. So, now, if I go back,
if i logout by dishovering this area here,  logging out.
If I go to   website.com/wp-admin dashboard
and enter the new password and
login. There you go. Now, please do keep those
details handy. You will need to log in to
this dashboard anytime you want to make
a change to your membership website.
Now that we've done that, the next thing I
want to do is install the website design.
So, on the left hand side column, just
hover over appearance and click on
themes. Now, for WordPress, theme is
basically a design. Now the theme we're
going to use, I'll show you how to access
that in a second. However, if you want to
you can look through the WordPress theme
library and install any one that you want
and a lot of them are actually free. So, by
clicking on this link here you'll be
able to see a number of hundreds and
maybe even thousands of themes that you
can install and start  configuring.
 
We are going to be using a theme called
sparkling.
What I will do to make things easy for
you is all put a link to this particular
theme in the description of the comments
below or the description of this video
below. So, you'll be easily able to access
this particular theme and be able to
download it. So, go to this URL, click on
the link I put in the description below
and click on the download button here.
Now ensure that use save this somewhere
on your computer that you can easily
access. And now I can close that screen.
The next thing we need to do is in the
'themes', in the appearance of theme
section, we want to upload a theme, we
want to browse and we want to upload
that theme that we just downloaded:
sparkling and then click on the Install
Now button. That will now upload the
theme files onto our WordPress
installation and allow you to use this
theme for your membership website. It may
take a few seconds, so, be patient. Once
that's done it will give you a
successful notification and I'd like you
to click on the Activate button. Cool.
That's all done. Now, you may be excited
to know that your website is already
live and up and running and that's what
it currently looks like. You are live and
on the web. Now, we'll be making a number
of adjustments.
This is just the beginning. Ok, so go down
to 'settings' and click on 'general'. You can
actually change the site title, so
name whatever you want your
membership website to be named as. You
can change that if you like,
remove anything in the tag line and in
this section here -WordPress address-
after this here just put 'www.'
I'll show you why... because currently your
website doesn't have a 'www' in front of
it. Now, this is just a personal
preference of mine. As you can see, it gets
rid of that. You don't have to do this, it is
just my personal preference.
Make sure you do it for both fields
otherwise gets messed up, then go down
and click on Save Changes. This will
actually prompt you to log in again.
Ok, so, the next thing you need to do,
again hover over settings and go to
permalinks. Currently when you make a
post on your website, it will give you a
URL that looks like this, it's very long
and tedious and it's not ideal. So, let's
change to this here 'post name'. So any post
you make will be simply WWW.whatever
domain is called / the title of your
post.
It's much cleaner and much much simpler
for the users as well, as well as search
engines. So, click on that posting, go
down and save. Next, go to plugins and there
are a few plugins that are installed by
default, so, I'll be deactivating the ones
we don't need. If you've got this one
installed: Hostgator WalkMe Plugin, tick
that, tick the Jetpack Plugin, tick the
MojoMarketplace and the Super Cache... you'll see
a Bulk Actions drop down, let's deactivate
and apply. So, let's deactivate all of
those. We will be installing plugins down
the track and a plugin is basically an
add-on to a website, it's another
piece of functionality that you
can achieve with WordPress. For
example, there are plugins for things
such as a photo gallery, there are
plugins for contact forms or there is a
plugin for Google Maps. There are
thousands of plugins that allow you to
do awesome things with WordPress and I'll
be showing you a handful of those, some
really good ones later on. So, for now
let's just deactivate those and what
I'll do I'll also delete them. We don't
need them to take up extra space on
our drive.
And that's it! Next, if you go to pages
you'll notice that there's a sample page
that's automatically created and you'll
see that if you go to your website. So
there's a 'hello world' sample post.  So,
what we need to do is just delete any
of those -move to trash and same for
the posts.
'hello world' post -let's trash that one.
And that's all you need to do for
configuring your initial settings for
WordPress.
Now, before diving into the membership
side of things I will give you a brief
introduction into posts and pages and
the differences between them. So, let's
start with pages. Ok, if I add a new page...
Now, pages are best used for things such
as a contact page or Frequently
 Asked Questions page, whereas
posts are best use for actual posts or
articles that you put on your website.
Now, the main fundamental reason for
this is because when you start a page up
and, for example our contact page, within
pages you cannot select what category
you want pages to exist in, because, of
course, they don't belong in one. A contact
page is just a standard page on your
membership website. On the other hand, if
you write a post and I'll do an example
post here as well. So, I'm just going to
copy and paste some texts from another
screen I have here.
Ok, so... with a post you can actually you
can actually select or add a category so
that you can categorize different posts
based on the category. So, say for this one
you add a category called in our case
'fishing bait'.
We can add that category and we can save
this post within this category. Now,
you'll see why this is extremely
important in just a second when I
explained the whole membership and
setting up membership levels for your
visitors. You'll see why this category is
extremely important. So, the main thing
for you to remember easy, for any content
that you are posting to your membership
website, they must be done as posts,
whereas pages will be used for things
such as contact, frequently asked
questions or any other standard pages
of your membership website. What I'll do...
I'll also give you a brief introduction
into the something called 'featured
images', just before we get stuck into the
membership side of things. Now, at the
moment we've added this post and if we
view our site,  this is what it looks like.
Now, we can actually add a nice big image
and to do that go down to 'Set Featured
Image'. You'll be able to select the file
or be able to drag and drop files onto
this page. So, what I'll do I've actually
got some images that are set up on
another screen here. So, what I'm going to
do is just drag one of them across and
when I do that you'll see that it
starts uploading and it gets uploaded
and stored into what's known as your
media library and that will remain there.
So, let's set that as a featured image
and then let's update
and refresh the page.
There you go! That's what it looks like
now... looks very very nice. The user can go
and click on that and see your entire
article/ post. Now, one more thing before
we get started. This editor here is a
visual editor. Whenever you're in the
visual tab you'll see all these options
available and, just like microsoft word,
what you see is what you get.
You can put headings... say if that
was a heading, you would use a heading
setting there etc etc. I'm sure you're aware of
how to use these, you can click on
something and link and inserting URL and
add a link,
it's very very simple. And if you're in
the text tab, you'll be seeing all the
code that goes behind, all the visual
stuff. So, anytime you need to enter any
code, we'll be entering it in the text
tab but for any content editing do that
the visual tab. If you want to add any
images throughout to your articles, you
can do that through 'add media'. When you
click on 'add media' you can choose from
any images already in your media library
or you can upload your files.
Say, for example, you want to embed some
YouTube video.  All you need to do is get
the YouTube embed code, go to the text
tab and paste the embed code in the text tab.
When you update that video will be
embedded. Now, I'll show you all of that
later on in this tutorial but
there is a brief overview of how to use
this content editor, how to add a
featured image and why you need to use
posts and that will be very clear to you
in the next section, because now it's
time to start setting up the membership
side of this website.
Ok. So, now that we finished the first two
items on our to-do list,
everybody's on the same page and now
it's time to set up and configure our
membership functionality. So, let's go
back into the WordPress dashboard. What
we're going to do is install a new
plug-in. Like I told you before a plugin
is basically like an extension of what
you're able to do with WordPress. So,
hover of a plugins, add new and the
plugin we're going to be using is one
called 'paid memberships pro'.  So, just
search that in the search box here 'paid
memberships pro' and it will be this one
here. Click Install Now and then activate
the plugin for now. Once the plugin is
activated
you should be able to see a section
called memberships. So, let's just click
on that.
This is the dashboard that we will be
using to set up the membership
functionality of our website.
The first thing we need to do 
is click on the pages tab. Ok, now,
here…
WordPress can actually generate each one
of these membership pages for you
automatically and you can do that by
clicking this link here. So, go ahead and
click that link. There we go... the
following pages have been created and
you should be able to see them within
your pages. There you go... they've all been
created for you automatically. So, that's
done. Now, all we need to do is go into
the membership levels tab and we need to
add our first membership level, so click
on 'add new level'. Now, you can have an
unlimited number of membership levels,
you can potentially have a free level
where people can sign up for free, you
can have, say for example, a Gold level of
platinum level where each one costs a
different amount. So, it's completely up
to you how many levels and what type of
levels you want to implement. So, let's
give a level a name. I might call mine
'Fishing Masterclass' and this can be my
Gold level. Give your level description.
Obviously, all this information on
setting up is for demo purposes.
Enter a confirmation message, this will be
shown when the user actually joins up to
you a particular membership.
Down in billing details... a strategy I
like to use personally is to have an
initial payment that is very low and
then set a recurring payment that is
slightly higher. So, it's completely up to
you how you want to establish the
billing method. You can
choose to have one off. So, say you want
them to pay $15 one off and there'll be
no recurring fee after that, so, therefore
if you don't want recurring, keep this
checkbox unticked.
However, if you do want to enable
recurring subscriptions, you'll need to
take this and there will be a few more
fills that you need to fill out. So, it
will ask for your billing amount
for every period. So, say for example $15
per one, you can choose from day/ week/
month or year and, like I said, a good
strategy is to have a low initial
payment to bring them in, get hooked
with some content and then, the next
month after that, they can be re-billed
automatically at the higher rate. So,
it's completely up to you what strategy
you want to use.  Now,
billing cycle limit -its total number of
recurring billing cycles for this
particular level, including a trial
period. If set to 0, it's unlimited 20.
You can enable a customer trial period if
you need to. I won't be doing that.
Say, for example, you wanted them to pay just
$20 for the first three subscription
payments and, in our case, it will be
months, so first three months, so you can
choose to use that if you like.
Leave the 'disable new signups'
unchecked. You would only check this if you
want to hide this level from the
membership levels page and do not want
to be visible to the public. And also
leave this 'membership exploration’
unchecked as well. That's my
recommendation. Now, this is an important
step here: categories. Remember how I said
it is very important to set a category
when you add a post. What we need to do
is for any of our posts or any of your
content that is restricted, you need to
create a new category for those
restricted posts and I'll show you what
I made. So, for now, let's just save this
level, save all the info you've entered
already. Now, if you go to posts, 'add new'...
Actually, for now, just add a 
new category in a new tab
Well, you'll see the page where you can
enter a new category
and I'll actually name this the same
thing that I named my membership level.
Then, go down and click on 'add new category'.
Now, if I go back into this membership
level that I created, you'll see that the
new category we created is now
appearing. So, click on that and click on
'save level'. Because what that is telling
this feature to do is apply this level
for any post, for any content that is
assigned to this particular category. So,
let's do that. Now, I'll show you what I mean.
Let's add a new post. Once again, I'll
just take some info I have from another
screen. What you need to do is click on
this category here that we created and
then click 'publish'.
See now that the title shows, however,
"This content is restricted for Fishing
Masterclass- Gold members only" and is
register button. What you can also do is
you can present a short excerpt to get
people hooked. So, say the first couple of
sentences are really attention-grabbing.
What you can do in the screen options
area here, that drop-down... enable excerpt
and then this area here will appear,
enter your excerpt in there and then update.
Now, when I refresh this page...
I'll give you a demo of how that works
in just a little bit. The next thing we
need to do though is go to the
'Advanced' tab. Now, leave all this as
default. The important thing to do here is
the future searches and archives. At the
moment, it's only showing posts for
people who are already members, but we
don't want that. We want to show it to
people who are not members, so that they
can see the title, they can see the
little teaser and then they can be
offered the option to register. So, I want
you to change that to "NO". Similarly, I
want you to show excerpts. So, you're
seeing a second excerpt, change
that to "YES", show excerpts. These two
settings are very very important to make
sure you get that right.
Thirdly some people like to create a
'Terms of Service' page. At the moment we
don't have a page that is 'Terms of
Service' and, if you want, you can simply
create a page. Actually, for now just save
this. What you can do is create a page.
You can have all your terms and
conditions. Now, when I refresh this... there
we go. I can select that 'Terms of Service'
page and this page is actually shown
when a person is registering as a member,
a link to this page is shown. So let's
save settings. Next, I'm sure you've
been waiting for this all along. We want
to figure out how to get paid from our
members and the way to do this is to set
up a payment gateway and that 
will be through PayPal.
So, click on the 'payment gateway' 
tab... Now, if you go to
paidmembershipspro.com/paypal-that link
there, you'll get directed to this page
here and it will give you some info on
setting up your payment gateway.
So, the one we are going to use is PayPal
Express and it's got a set up guide here.
Don't worry because I'm going to be
taking you through what you need to do,
but, just for your reference, this is
available to you if you need it.
Ok. So, in the payment gateway and SSL
we're going to be using the PayPal
Express method. That is one of the
recommended methods for this plugin. So,
it works really well, it integrates
really well with PayPal.
The gateway will be using is
Sandbox. Sandbox is basically a
testing environment. What we want is a
live environment, so that any
transactions that a user puts in will be
a real transaction and will 
get paid for it.
Now, gateway account email... If you don't
already have a PayPal account, I really
recommend you go to Paypal and sign up
for a free account. The email address you
used to sign up with PayPal will be your
PayPal account email and that will be
the email address which is associated
with your PayPal account and, therefore,
is associated with any payments that you
receive. Enter your one in there. Now,
Now, the next three fields API username,
password and signature. We actually need
to login to our PayPal account… so
basically, you need to log into your
PayPal account and I will show you the
steps you need to take to access this
information and be able to seamlessly
integrate with PayPal. So, let’s you login.
I'll just closed a couple of tabs I don't
need. obviously you'll see a lot of blurred
screens, because you'll be seeing, because
on this page there will be a lot of my
personal information.
Ok. The first thing you need to do is go
to 'profile' and 'profile settings' and then
go to 'my selling tools'. What you want to
look for is this area here that
'API access'.  Click on 'update' and the option
you want to select is the one over here.
We want to create our own API username
and password, so let's request
'API credentials'. Then we want to request an
'API signature', so let's click on that and
then 'agree' and 'submit'. Now, the
information here, when I click 'show', is
actually confidential. I'd say it's not
something I should be sharing and
neither should you,
but I'll give you an example here.  So,
when I click 'show' here, he gives me my
API password and that's one of the
fields I need here. So, basically we've
got three pieces of information: a 
username, password, signature and that's
these three items here. So, just click
'show' on each one and copy and paste
into this screen here.
And then click on 'done'.
Ok. I'm just going to remove these
details here, so that I can continue this
video without disclosing this
confidential information.  Obviously,
you'll keep yours in there and then
click ‘Save' when you're ready. The next
thing you need to do is... see this
'IPN handler ULR' here. Just copy the whole URL.
So, copy all of that.  Go back into
your PayPal account, go to profile,
'profile and settings' and you want to look
for the area for instant payment
notifications. So, click on 'update'. I have
already entered mine in here. However, you
will need to go in and paste the URL in
there and then enabled the 'receive IPN
messages' check box and then click on
'Save'.  Now, the next thing we need to do is
enable our recurring payments model.  So
to do that, back into the profile area,
'profile data and settings', in 'my selling
tools', look for your 'my automatic
payments' section and then click on
'update'. This will allow you to manage the
automatic recurring payment from your
membership subscribers.
So, the thing you need to do is look for the
'sign up for enhanced recurring payments'
link and click on that. Now, just a note,
there's one thing I found. Sometimes, this
can be a bit of an issue with PayPal.
I've noticed that when I click this link
it doesn't always work the first time
and I'll show you what I found, I'll show
you a way that I found around this issue.
So, click on that link...
See, it just redirects me to my dashboard
and it shouldn't do that. So, one way I found
around this issue, it's an issue with
PayPal, just open up while you're logged
in... just open up a new browser tab and in
Google, just search for enhanced or PayPal
enhanced recurring payments and see this
link over here.
'Enhance recurring payments sign up PayPal.
Click on that one there and that's the
page that I need to access. So, when I
click this link here and got booted off
to my PayPal summary, that was there
something wrong with PayPal. But this is
the page that I need to access. Because
I'm logged in, it is still associated with
my account. So, that's a little work
around I found... if it doesn't work for
you, just do what I did there and make
sure you can access this page. When you
do, click on the 'agree and continue'
button and that's it!
We are now signed up for enhanced
recurring payments which will simplify
the integration between membership
website and PayPal. Whenever a member
subscribes or unsubscribes, that will all
be managed automatically. So, it's pretty
cool and, believe it or not, that's all
there is to integrating your site with
PayPal. If you have any questions on the
last few steps, please do give me a yell
or just go over the steps again and make
sure you've done everything that I have
done too. So, I can log out of my PayPal
account for now.
Back in the WordPress dashboard, you will
obviously have put in all of your
information, your API username, password,
signature, copy this URL as I
demonstrated. Next, in this currency
section you can select the currency that
you want to bill your customers in. You
can also enter a sales tax, which is
optional. Now, this depends on which
country you are, in which state you're in...
it depends on a number of things, so I'd
advise you look up the laws in your own
state or country and, in turn, applicable
tax rate if you need to. I don't need to
so, I'll be leaving that black. leave 
'Force SSL' to "NO', leave everything else as
default and then click 'Save Settings'.
Next, the email tab. Ok, the 'from email' is
the email address that your new members
will receive as the 'from address' when
they sign up for a membership. So
obviously we don't want this
'wordpress.com'. Change that to your email
address that you use, so that you can
respond to any customer questions if
they reply straight back to you. And enter
a 'from name'.
Now, leave this check box unchecked, leave
all of these as default. For example,
check out... when a member checks out, we
want to send the site admin emails, we
want to be notified when users
membership level has changed or when an
admin changes a users membership
level, when a user can sell their account
or when there's a billing update. So, we
want to be notified of all of that. So
leave that all checked. I would recommend
leaving this deselected, reason being
is members will already get an email
from paid memberships pro when they
check out. So, there's no need for you to
double up on that. So, I would
leave that unchecked. When you've done
all of that, click on 'Save Settings'.
So, now that we've set everything up, you
need to know how to allocate your posts,
or  your content to the paid membership
area and that's what I'll show you next.
So, if I go to post and add a new post..
once again I've got some info here on
another screen. I'll just copy and paste
a sample post in here.
Ok, remember how we set up a category for
our membership level and it was called
Fishing Masterclass. Now, if you would
like this particular post to be hidden
from you, to be blocked from access
from non-paid users, then you need to
assign this post to this particular
membership level this particular
category which is associated with that
membership level. One more thing...  actually,
I'll publish this before showing you
that additional item and show you what
that looks like. So, currently we have
paid post... as you can see, it has a little
bit of an excerpt and has a note that
this content is for Fishing Masterclass
Gold Members Only and there's a register
button. However, these people can still
see these other posts which have not
been allocated to this particular
membership level, so they are open for
everyone to view.
What I would advise is for you to add an
excerpt and, now, if this box isn't
showing up all you need to do is click
on the 'screen options' here and make sure
the excerpt check box is selected and
you'll see this here.. what that is, it
allows you to give a little teaser to
your visitors. So, I say, for example, you
put that in the text box and click
Update.
There you go. Users will be able to see that
little teaser and then be requested to
register for accessing the entire
article.
Even if they try to read more, they
cannot. So, currently, this is what the
register page looks like. It allows... it
shows the membership level, it shows the
price and allows them to select and then
continue... there's 'the terms of payment'
which I showed you. We set up earlier and it
allows them to continue payment and
become a member, to be able to access
this content.
So, now I will do a live transaction:
how this all works from the user's
perspective. So, if I just open the side
in a private window, because I want to
make sure I'm not logged into WordPress
for this. They are not logged into
WordPress. This is exactly what a user
would see,they would be able to see any
post that are not locked down to a
particular membership level. However,
anything that is, they would see two
options the ability to login for people
who are already members and the ability
to register. So, if I click the Register
button... now, just so you know, I will be
making a few more tweaks after this demo.
We will probably help your conversion
rates or keep... So, stay tuned.
I will do that right after this live
transaction. So, for now, they'll see these
membership levels.. Yep. Fishing 
Masterclass Gold $1 now $15 per
month. Yes, that sounds good. I'll select,
they will be asked to create an account.
If they've already got an account they can
login here. So, as you can see the
interface is clean and user-friendly... so,
they would come here and enter their
preferred username and password and they'd
enter their own email address.
Now, if you set up our Terms and
Conditions page, it would show on the
screen here and then they'd be able to
check out. And, if you'd follow all the
instructions that I showed you during
the payment section and integrating the
API's and all of that stuff, this should
work and they will be able to see the
screen.  So, they can pay with credit card
or they can pay by PayPal.
Ok, it's been authorised. And now, they'll
be clicking this button to complete
payment. There we go! There is a live
transaction of what the members see from
their point of view. So, they'll receive
a 'thank you' notification: thanks for
joining, below your membership account
details and, furthermore, they will
receive an e-mail in their email inbox
with them member details. So then, what I
would do as a user new member, I would
probably view my membership account, view
all of my details and, now, if I go back
and access the home page, you will see
that this post that was previously
locked down I can now access.
So, this post could have been anything,
could have been a podcast, it could have
been a video. Anything that's restricted
or blocked access they can access as a
paid member. So, there you go there is
a live transaction. Now, I'll be making a
few more tweaks to help you make your
membership website better and smoother.
We'll be adding a login screen in the
column right hand column here, we'll be
adding signup and login links to our
menu and we will also remove this
membership bar so that when a user logs in
they don't see this ugly black bar here.
 
Meanwhile, if you have any questions
please do let me know.
The next thing that I would advise you
to do is to add some text on this page
here, just above this registration box, 
just so the member knows or the
potential member knows what they're
actually buying. So, things such as, you
know, what your membership contains, the
features, what they will get out of it. So,
to do that,
go to Edit Page and just move this
little code down a little and then here
you can enter any text you want. Once
again, I'll be taking some texts from
another screen I have here... maybe
something like this.
When you're done, click 'Save' and now
if you visit page you'll see that the text
appears just before the selection.  And
that's good because it allows you to
give a bit of a pre-sale or short sales
pitch into why this user should continue
and become a member.
The next thing I'd like to do is... see how
when they come from the home page, for
example, and go to register the title
'membership levels' doesn't mean anything
to them, it doesn't doesn't have any
meaning... so, a better title or better call
to action in this case would be
something like 'sign up here' and to do
that, simply just go back into that page
and change the title from 'membership
levels' to whatever you want it to be, then
update. There we go! Next,
I just remembered I didn't show you what
it looks like when a user comes in and
tries to login or an existing member
tries to login. So, I'll show you what
that looks like now.
So, they would come to this page here and
they would click on this login button.
What would happen is they get kicked off
onto this Wordpress plugin, that looks
identical to your WordPress dashboard
login and, to be honest, that's not a
great user experience. So, what I want to
do...what you have to do is put this login
box as part of a page on your site so
that log in box appears your actual website
and not on a different page like
you just saw. To do that, go back into
your dashboard and go to plugins 'add new'.
We want to install a new plugin called
'theme my login'. So I put 'theme my
login' and it's this one here.
Install that one and then activate the
plugin.
Now, that's done. Just go to the
'theme my login' area on the sidebar. Keep
these two checkboxes checked, go down and
we want to enable 'themed profiles'. So, make
sure you click that check box and then
'save changes'
Now, what you'll see is another area
called 'themed profile' once you've made
that change. So click on that and we want
to make sure that all of themed
profiles are selected. So, if you want
deselect administrator because that's
you... you may not want to change your own
login screen. But it doesn't really make
a difference. let's leave it selected
anyway and click on 'Save Changes'. Ok. Here
is the cool part. Now, let me log in to
the site as an existing existing member.
Now, when I click the 'Login' link, see how
can login directly from this page. I'm
not shown an ugly looking WordPress
login screen. And that's absolutely
perfect! It really amplifies and
streamlines the user experience on your
membership website. So they can come to
this login page, they can use their
username and password that they signed
up with and... there we go! They are logged
in and able to access all of your locked
content. Next, what I want to do is place
that 'sign up' form in the sidebar over here.
So, if I close that for now and back
in the dashboard. Go to appearance and
then click on widgets. Now, you'll notice
that the sidebar has a number of widgets
in. Currently, each one of these (recent posts, 
archive, categories) corresponds to
these items here. So, you can click on the
arrow there and choose to delete any
that you do not want to show. Actually, I
should have left categories in there.
Anyways... so, to add the login to your
sidebar there should be a widget called
'theme login'. That's the plugin that we
just installed. So, just go and
drag-and-drop that into your sidebar.
Leave all of these checkboxes selected.
I like to remove the Gravatar (a Gravatar
is a photo). I just like to remove that
because it looks messy, but leave the
rest in there and click 'Save'. Ok. Now,
let's have a look at the site. There we go!
This is what the user will see. They will
see the login screen available in the
sidebar and they can easily log in and
access the content. So, it really makes
the user experience from members
a lot lot better. Next, what I highly
recommend you to do is to add a 'sign up'
or 'register' and the 'login' links into
your menu. So, I know we haven't done this
before. So, I will take you through how to
do that.Basically, if you go to your
dashboard and go to 'appearance' and 'menu'.
Give you new menu and name.. so, call 
it your header menu. Create. Here you can
add any items you want in your main menu.
So, for example we already have 'pages'
here in our most recent which include
our login, our register and we can even add a
contact page and then click 'Add to menu'.
 I'll save that now and show you what
that looks like. One more thing, just come
down and select 'primary menu' links that
you just used to add new menu. Another
thing you can do is you can actually
create a custom link. So,say you wanted to
have a Homelink, so that they they can
visit the homepage very easily. You can add
that to menu and the way you can
rearrange items is just by dragging and
dropping, like you see here. If you wanted
to create a drop down menu, and this will
be really cool later on, if you've got
categories that you want to add... this is
just an example to show you how it works.
There we go! That's a drop down menu. Once
again, you can rearrange items within the
drop down.
 
For now, that's done. We have added the login 
screen to the sidebar, we have added a register
link to the top nav and it's very very
user-friendly. The next thing I want to
do is get rid of that dirty black bar
comes at the top of the screen when a
member is logged in. To do that, go back
into your dashboard and... I think I've
signed out here, so I may have to sign
back in. Your dashboard, go to plugins, add
new. Search for a plug-in called 'hide
admin bar from non admins' and that's the one
there! So, we only want to hide this black
bar for people who are not
administrators on a website. I don't want
to hide it from my account because I
actually find this bar very useful to
access various parts of my site. Or say
I'm on a page, I can edit that page
just by clicking on the Edit button like
you see there. So, hide admin bar from non
admins, install now and then activate.
And that's it! So, let's try that from a
user's point of view.
There you go! So, any member will be able to
log in and they won't see that the black
bar on top, which is just a major
distraction.
The next thing I want to
demonstrate is how to create additional
membership levels. So, say, for example, you
want to create a level where members,
can register for free membership.
So, maybe that can be like a
bronze membership. Then, the gold can be a
paid membership. So, I want to show you
how you can do that. So, go back into
memberships- 'membership' levels and then
add a new level, as before. Give this
one a name. So, in this case, let's call it
bronze.
As per before, enter a description and a
confirmation message that suits you.  Now,
if you want to create a level that is
free for members, do not put anything in
the billing details.
Leave that blank, leave these checkboxes
blank as well. Now, save the level. Will
come back and add the category; for now,
save the level. Ok. So now, let's
add a new post.
What we want to do is add a new category
and we want to apply it to a category
called 'fishing masterclass bronze'. And
this is going to be a free category. So,
once we had that category, we can even
put an excerpt as per before, so that
users can get a bit of a teaser. Ok, so
I've published that. What I need to do
now is go back into their membership
class and select the bronze category. We
want to apply this membership level the
free membership because we've put $0 as
a payment to the bronze class. And,
therefore, any posts that we apply to that
class or to that category, like the
one we just added, will be visible to
users that sign up for a free membership.
Yep, that's great... for free membership
Now, it's important to remember that
people that pay should also be granted
access to that particular post. In this
example, the bronze class we want to
leave it open for bronze members, but we
also want to leave it open for all Gold
members, as well. It only makes sense to
do that. So, now let's give this a try.
Ok, so here is our new post. This one is
the bronze for bronze members only, and
you can see that here and this one is
only for Gold members. So, what should
happen when I register here... Let's just
see what happens.
Register... Yeah, I've got two options. I can
either join this level by paying or can
join this level with a free membership.
So, let's let the free membership list.
Select username.
Obviously, there's no PayPal button
because there's no payment involve. So,
there we go!  We've become a member of
this free membership level as per before.
We have our own membership account, we
just have not paid any money to become a
member of this particular level. So, now
if I access the homepage.. Yep, there we go!
I can see this full post but I still
cannot see the post that's only visible
for Gold members. So, there we go. There is a
perfect example of how to add multiple
layers of membership on to your website.
Ok. This brings me to my next point. What
happens when a user cancels their
membership through PayPal.
Basically, they're going and cancel their
payment. So, what happens I will show you
a demonstration of how that actually
works. So, take this member, for example,
their original member Michael who signed
up for $1 front, then $15 a month.
Apparently, he's part of the
gold membership level and can access
content based on that membership level.
For example that post there. So, now say
he logs in to Paypal and then cancels
his subscription. So, I'm going to go
ahead and do that now, from the
customer's point of view. By the way, you
can also cancel a membership on their
behalf as well as. It's not just the customer
who can cancel.
That's the payment subscription and I
can click the Cancel button here to
cancel and stop any future transactions.
Very good. This profile has been
cancelled and cannot be reactivated. No
more recurring payments will be made. So,
now as the user, that's all done I'm
logging out of PayPal. Now, back on our
membership site, if I as the user come
back here and try to log on. What happens?
I still have my account, however, I cannot
access the content that I was previously
able to access. See?! There you go! The
content is now blocked. I can no longer
access that content. So, as you can see it
is highly automated; you really don't
need to do much other than putting out
good content time after time. The
administrative side of things is all
taken care of. Once a user cancels their
account or cancels the recurring payment,
they will no longer receive access to
the content. If you have any questions
about that, please, do ask in the comments
and I'll do my best to answer it for you.
Now, we will go ahead and add an image
slider on our homepage. So, back into the
dashboard... the first thing that you
should know is that the image
slider is actually based on the featured
image that you add to your posts. So, as a
reminder, this is your featured image
down here. Your image slider will pick up
the images in your featured image and
display that on the home page. And a way
to activate that is first go into
'appearance' and the 'theme options'.
First check box here 'do you want to display
image slider on the homepage',  YES. Next, we
need to select a category from which the
posts will be selected, based on those
posts or the featured images in those
posts, the image slider will display. So, I
know I've got a few posts in this
category. Select that. You can select a
maximum number of slides and then go
down and save options. Right now, if I
refresh the site, it might not look
perfect and there's a reason for that.
Let me just refresh and check. Ok, so...
here's our image slider. That's a first
slide, that's a second slide and you can
see that this image actually isn't big
enough for, or I should say wide enough,
for the screen. Ok, so... what I want to do
now is I want to go back into these
posts. So, that one there and this one here,
since they're both part of that category.
And I want to remove the featured image
there and (that's not the one)... must be
alone. This one here: remove that and
what we need to do now is or, what you
need to do, is grab some images that are
quite large,
much larger than any screen size and
then crop them to the same dimensions. So,
I've got a couple of images here. I've
already cropped before this video. So,
just keep in mind you need to crop the
images to be approximately 450 pixels
tall and the width needs to be wider
than the size of the screen. So, what i'll
do now is I'll go ahead and upload those.
So, what I need to do is go into the
featured image and upload the images
that I've cropped to about 500 pixels
tall and I'll upload them as the
featured images for these particular
articles, for this particular blog posts.
That's one done! Update and now the
second one.
Now, let's have a look at our membership
site. There you go! That's the homepage image
slider and now, both of those images
should be the same height, because we've
cropped them to exactly the same
proportions.
Next, I will talk about how you can
customize the menu over here and, also,
implement a drop down menu home. So, back in
your WordPress dashboard, under
Appearance, you'll see there's a link for
menu. Now this is a very intuitive
drag-and-drop system for any items that
you want to add. You can either select
them from the pages list. As an example,
tick that and add to menu. You can
rearrange items and then, when you save
that, will appear in that order in the
menu. You can delete just by expanding
and clicking the remove link, you can add
custom link. So, I can add a link to
anything I want. And back to menu.
So, just to give you an example... obviously,
all of the stuff that I do now is simply
for demonstration purposes just so you
can learn how this all works... so, there's
a couple of things which I would
recommend you to do once you've got a
number of posts in different categories.
What I would recommend you do is add a
menu item for that particular category.
So, if I've got categories and, say, this
item here, this category has a
number of articles and we want to we
add that category to the menu. So
that when user comes to the site they can
click on this category and see the list
of all the posts you have made within
that particular category. So ... Ok. All I
need to get is the URL for this
particular one and you can do that by
clicking 'View'. There we go!
So, that's a listing of posts that fall
within a particular category. All you
need to do is copy and paste the URL. Go
back in here,
use that as a custom link and then
name that whatever you need to name it. So,
save 'fishing masterclass'.
Add that to the menu. Another thing you
can do is actually link to specific
posts and have a drop down menu. so say
for example I want to link to a couple
of these posts. I'll open them in a new
tab just so I can get the URLs. So, that's
the URL for the first one. I'll also copying
the title to menu, then I'll drag-n-drop
that and indent at
below the parent item. Now, I'll do the
same for the other two
and we can drag and drop this. And also,
within submenus, you can also rearrange
the order in which they appear and click
Save menu. Now, if I just refresh the
site. There we go! We have a new drop down
menu and you can see how that works
right there and it looks really really
good. So, basically, use your imagination,
decide how you want to structure your
membership website and then create your
structure in that way. If you have any
questions about the menu items, please do
ask in the comments below.
That brings me on to the next topic: how
to change the hover colour of these particular
items and, also, the red of
the drop down menu, because I don't
particularly like this
default red colour. Similarly, you can also
change the colour of this icon here and
the 'read more' icon and you can do it
very very easily. Just go back into
theme options,
appearance, theme options. In the main tab
you'll see there is something called
'element colour' and that will allow you to
change the colour of this button and this
icon. So, let's change that to something a
bit nicer. Say something grey... Let's
try that. Cool, that looks a lot nicer already and then I 
can change the hover of these items here as
well. So, if you go into the header tab,
there are two things you need to change:
the top nav icon... sorry... the top nav item
colour. This one here
I recommend you make that a light colour
because it's a dark background. So, select
one and then, the other thing you need to
change is this top nav dropdown item
background. That's the drop-down
hover state and I recommend you make
that slightly darker. Ok, let's save that
and see what that looks like.
perfect! That looks much much nicer. So,
feel free to go in and customize that
any way you want. You can also customize
this grey box here, you can make that a
different colour by changing the top nav
background colour. But, of course, if you
change the colour over there, you may have
to change the colour of the rest of the
item or items, because it may blend in. So,
you may need to contrast the rest of the
items, depending on what colour you change
your top nav background colour to. But I
like this and I will leave it just as it
is.
Next, I'll show you how to customize the
sidebar that you see here. To do that,
back into your WordPress dashboard. If
you go to appearance widgets and you'll
see the sidebar section. So, if you expand
that, you'll see that there are a number
of tabs within that section. Now, you can
rearrange the order in which these tabs
appear over here, in the back end, and
that will reflect when you update your
site, in the front end. Similarly you can
remove any items you don't want. So, let's
have a look here.
Ok. So, categories: let's leave that as is...
we do want our users to navigate through
the different categories of membership
website. Recent posts - I would suggest
leaving that to. You can get rid of the
search bar, if you like. So, the way to get rid
of something is... just expand that out and
click on the 'delete' button and then that
will disappear from the front end when
you reload the site. Now, the next thing
that I'll show you how to add any other
content in the sidebar. So say want to
add some text, maybe an image or video.
Basically, you can use the side bar in the
same way that you can use posts and
pages. I will show you how you can
install a visual editor like the one you
see here. So, you can enter any text,
basically anything you want, like a word
editing software, but in the sidebar. So,
to do that, we'll need to install a new
widget, a new plugin, I should say. So, go
to plugins, new. Search for one called
'black studio' and that's the one there, the
'TinyMCE Widget'. Install that. And then
activate. Ok. Now, if you go back into
appearance and the widget section, you
should see a new item in here called
'visual editor'. So, now if I drag and drop
that visual editor into the sidebar,
you'll see now that I can enter any text
I want and basically treat this section
like a word editor. So, say I wanted to add a
video. I'll show you how you can do that.
Let's choose some as an example. Maybe
I'll choose this one. Now, if I go to the
'embed' button and I will create a custom
video size. Ok, that should be ok.  Now, if
you want to add any code, all you need to
do is go to the text tab and add in
there. It won't work if you add code in
the visual tab. So, the text tab is all
the code behind the visual stuff. So now,
if I save that
and then I refresh our website... there we go!
And we can add space after the
after the paragraph, as well. So, that's
basically how you can add anything you
want in the sidebar and customize it to
look any way you want.
If you have any questions about that,
please, don't hesitate to ask me in the
comments below.
Next, I'll show you how you can add a
beautiful image gallery to your
membership website. So, the first thing I
do is add a new page and I'll call it
'gallery'. I will set the template to be a
full width template, so it will take up the
width of the entire page. Ok, now what you
need to do is add media and here you need
to click on 'create gallery'. Now, you can
choose from images you've already
uploaded into media library or you can
upload new files. And I've got a few that
I have prepared and, just for
demonstration purposes, I'll use these
bunch  of images I have got
here. So, what I did there was click on
the first, hold down 'shift' on my
keyboard, click on the last and it will
select all. We can do that then click
open and it will upload all of your
images that you want to add.
This may take a few minutes... so, just wait
images are uploaded and then we'll go to
the next step.
Now that they have
all uploaded just go down and click
on 'create a new gallery'. In this part
down here, link to.. click on 'media file'
and then you can select the number of
columns you want and, I normally
select four or five only, I select five. You
can randomize the order, if you like and you
can choose the size of the images.
Actually, let's try something different.
Let me choose medium sized and I'll
choose three per column.I'll choose three
columns.  Here, you can drag and drop the
images if you want to rearrange the way
they appear on your gallery page. When
you're ready just click on 'insert
gallery'. Now, let's click 'publish' and see
what that looks like.
The formatting is slightly off because, I
think, some of the images of different
sizes... So, what I actually do, I go back in
here and click on the 'edit' icon,
I'll actually select thumbnail and have five
columns. Then update. Now the rendering
should be a little bit better. So now,
what happens when you click on an image...
it opens up into a larger one and the
user needs to basically click the back
button to go back to gallery. This isn't
ideal, so I'm gonna show you really cool
trick. If you just go back into your
WordPress dashboard and go to plugins, add
new, look for a plug-in called 'the simple
light box' and that's the one there...
Just install now and activate the plugin.
Now, there are few things you can do with
this simple light box. You can look at the
settings in your own time, I won't go
through all of this, but you can
customize this particular plugin. But
I'll  show you what it actually does. If I
refresh this site... now, when I click on an
image, you'll see it doesn't open up into a
random page, it actually opens up into this
beautiful light box feature and the user
can actually scroll through your entire
image gallery.  So, it's really nice, it's
really really user friendly. So,
there you go!
That is how to add an image gallery to
your membership website and, if you
notice, there's stuff like this
when you hover over an image. That's
purely because there is some data behind
the image. So, if I go back to that page,
if I edit this page,
see that there? So, I can remove that
caption and that will no longer appear.
Similarly, you can add custom captions so
that when a person hovers over the image, they
are shown the caption that you want them
to see. But, if you have any questions, as
always, just ask in the comments.
Last but not least, I'll show you how to
add a contact form to your membership
website. So, to do this go back to plugins
and add a new plugin. This plugin we use
will be extremely simple, there won't be
much set up at all. Just type in
'bws contact form'. That's the one there,
install that and activate. When you do that
you should see a section in the sidebar
column here
'BWS'. So, just click on the contact form
link and you've got a few settings that
you can change in the pro version, but
that's fine, because we don't really need
to change much. All you need to do is
enter the email address that you want
the messages to be sent to when somebody
fills out the contact form, so this would
be your own personal email address. Then
click Save Changes and, believe it or not,
that's all you need to do as far as set
up goes. Now get this little tag over
here (this is known as a short code)
including the brackets. So, grab that, copy,
if you haven't already, create a page
called 'contact form' or 'contact us'.
I've already got one here. So, what i'll
do now I will just go to this page and
paste that short code.
And that is where the forum will be
generated.  What I can also do is I can
put some text above that. And then choose
a full width template and update.
Let's see what it looks like. There we go!
There is our contact form, that's the
text we put above the form and, anywhere
you import this little tag of here, that is
where the contact form will appear. So,
you can add this on any page that you want
really. It's really up to you. So, when a
user comes in, they can type the message
and click submit.
They should receive a confirmation page
like this 'thank you for contacting us'.
And you will receive
that message in your email address that
you used to set up this plugin. So, that
email address that you put in there.
And that's all there is to it.
So that concludes
this video on how to make a membership
website. I've taken you through everything:
from setting up a site, to adding the
membership functionality, to restrict
content based on whether the user's
a member or not. So, they've got the
option of logging in if they are a
member or they can register and, after
registration, they will have access to
the locked content.
If you have any questions, please, do not
hesitate to contact me via the comments
below and, please, give this video a big
thumbs up and subscribe to my channel
because I will be putting out more
videos in the future to help you make
more money from your membership website!
Thank you for watching!
