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A general belief persists among many that WordPress is only a blogging platform. In a sense it perhaps is since basically it started as one. But over the time, its main thrust has certainly shifted more to a content based site than a simple blogging platform. Apart from its vast rich contents that help many, it has served as link directory; it is utilized as photo gallery and it has extensively been used for e-commerce purpose in a general manner. But the best thing that could happen to a WordPress blog is perhaps the plugin system that converts a normal and common WordPress blog into a full featured membership website capable of supporting payment gateways.

 Membership plugin is the concept of turning a normal WordPress blog into a full featured membership website with the help of a plugin system that’s simple to configure and operate. One can guess the vast possibilities that open up when a website is connected with an ocean of contents that WordPress is and that is exactly what a WordPress blog is going to serve by plugin the blog into this new system. It means the blog will serve as a website that one buys from a hosting company with the difference that in a hosted site, one does not get the added benefit of the contents of WordPress and the simple handling that the plugin offers. It also allows the user to make multi-level membership system. And the best thing is one does not have to be a master to operate the plugin like when dealing with the control panel of a site. Here everything comes in a bundle. With a few clicks of the mouse, the user can have the site up running instantly and accepting payments, protecting posts, categories, pages etc.

There are quite a few companies that offer this system. Main features of the plugin are:

 a)     It is possible to have various membership levels with the plugin. The system manages sites with only one membership level as well as sites that need multiple membership level.

 b)    With the help of the plugin, every aspect of subscriptions in all the membership levels can be handled easily. It can even handle multiple subscriptions per membership level. One can set the timings of collecting subscription which the system does as programmed and the timing can be set from one day to ninety-nine years depending upon the requirement of the user.

 c)    The features of the system allow the user to set protection level. If a certain level of members is chosen to have access to certain part, it can be set accordingly. One can protect the whole site requiring the user to register beforehand for access, or one can protect certain parts or pages or categories by not allowing any user to go to or read those without registration. One can even make a page or post viewable by all containing a protected text with messages for users who are not logged in or registered and asking them to register to have access.

 d)     Files and links of one’s site can also be protected with the system.  Files can be protected from being accessed coupled with protection of post, page or categories. This will help in the way that even if one downloads something to some page from the membership site, the links on the downloaded page will not work, thus handicapping the download altogether.

e)     Nearly all the plugin work with PayPal and uses its Instant Payment Notification or IPN in small. This ensures that users on the site are activated after their payments are confirmed.  In this way, the chance of someone ordering and then canceling the order after downloading or accessing something is nullified really. One can download only when his payment is cleared and not before. For recurring payment options, accounts are deactivated if a user misses a payment wittingly or unwittingly. He is intimated by the system about the payment failure and can continue to access or download after the payment.

 f)     Installation of plugin is quite simple. First the plugin folder is to be uploaded to the plugin directory of WordPress blog. Then one has to click the ‘Activate’ button followed by inserting the license key numbers and it starts functioning. The plugin providers have capable and efficient support team to help the users in case of any difficulty faced.

 g)    As told earlier, the system has inbuilt security features that upon enabling protect posts, categories etc. from unauthorized, which essentially means unpaid, access. In an error state, the plugin forces the protected contents to be flagged as private and thus blocking the contents from all including search engine indexing. A user who sells access to contents is immensely benefited by this feature as he is the last person to see his contents available to all for free.

 Considering the above facts, membership plugin really is a excellent buy to convert WordPress blog into membership site. One can convert a blog into a full featured website without the usual hassles of managing the control panel, html and the like, with just a few clicks of the mouse.