WordPress Membership

Easy to use WordPress Membership plugin

How to Offer Your Customers a Free Trial Period

A trial period allows your customers to view protected content on your site for free. The time frame of the trial period is entirely up to you, some opting to create a trial period that lasts a few days, while others wish to offer their customers a trial that lasts a few weeks. A free trial period allows your customers to test run the membership you offer without having to pay.

This documentation will outline the two ways to offer a free trial period to your customers:

  • Option 1: Providing your customers with a free period prior to charging them for a membership (using a subscription button)
  • Option 2: Offering a trial period for free with no further cost (customers will have to choose to sign up as a paid member)

Why Offer a Trial Period?

Offering a trial period to your customers allows them to get a taste of what having a paid membership would be like. If your customers like the content you are providing in their trial period, it will entice them to sign up for a paid membership.

Option 1: Creating a Free Period Prior to a Subscription Membership

This option allows you to offer a free trial period attached to a subscription membership. For example, I would like to offer my customers 2 weeks free before recurring payments are deducted from their PayPal account.

  1. Create a ‘Membership Level’ for the subscription you will offer (more details on creating a membership level here). You may wish to title this membership level ‘Gold Subscriber’ or ‘Silver Subscriber’.
  2. Now that you have created your membership level, click on the ‘Payments’ menu under the ‘WP eMember’ plugin.
  3. Select the ‘Create New Button’ tab. Choose the ‘PayPal Subscription’ option.
  4. Give the button a title and select the membership level you created from the drop down menu.
  5. Enter in your PayPal email address and choose the billing cycle and count you would like to associate with this subscription. This billing cycle will begin after the free trial period has ended.
  6. Under the ‘Trial Billing Details’ section is where you will enter in the details that relate to the ‘free trial period’. For a free trial period, enter ‘0’ in the ‘Trial Billing Amount’ field.
  7. In the ‘Trial Billing Period’ field, enter in the length of the trial period you will offer (for example, 10 days). Your customers will not be charged for this period.
  8. ‘Save Payment Data’.

trial-billing-period-wp-emember

You can now use the button shortcode to embed this payment button on a post or page. You will need to explain the terms of this subscription on the page above or below the subscription button (see example below).

entering-in-subscription-button-emember

Customers who proceed to checkout with PayPal will see ‘terms’ similar to the example below:

diamond-member-subscriber

Option 2: Offering One Standalone Free Trial

Offering a standalone free membership means you will give your customers free access to your website for a set amount of time. This option does not include charging your customers after the free membership ends. Free trial customers will need to return to your site and then purchase a paid membership.

  1. Create a membership level. You may wish to title this membership level: Free Trial Membership.
  2. In the ‘Subscription Duration’ section of the ‘Membership Level’ decide on the length of the free trial you will offer your customers. For this example, I will set my membership level expiry to 14 days. This means after 14 days my customers will no longer have access to my website.
  3. Take note of the level ID of the free trial level.
  4. Click on the ‘Settings‘ menu of ‘WP eMember’.
  5. Check the ‘Allow Free Membership‘ field.
  6. In the ‘Free Membership Level ID‘ field, enter in the ID of your free trial period.
  7. You can now use the standard registration page (that is generated on installation of this plugin) to offer the free trial period to your customers. They will be able to register for free and their account will expire after the time you have set in the ‘Subscription Duration’ field.

free-trial-period-emember

WP eMember Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • Does this plugin work with the latest version of WordPress?

Yes, all of our plugins work with the latest version of WordPress. The plugin is always kept upto date to work with the latest version of WordPress. So in the future you will always have a membership plugin that works with the latest WordPress updates.

  • Are there any ongoing fees for WP eMember plugin?

No, the WP eMember plugin is a one time purchase software.

  • Why buy a premium WordPress plugin?

See the why buy a premium WordPress plugin page.

  • Does this product integrate with WordPress’s user system?

Yes, the WP eMember can create a WordPress user log-in with the same details as the membership when the customer registers.

  • How does the member get the registration link after a purchase is made?

The member is email out a link to complete the registration process after they have completed their payment.

  • Can a customer sign up for a recurring membership if they do not have a PayPal account?

The standard PayPal subscription payment requires a PayPal account for all recurring payments. However, you can enable the enhanced recurring billing feature in your PayPal merchant account which will let your customers pay for subscription using a credit card. Your customers can sign up for a PayPal account (if they don’t have one already) when they go to make the purchase.

  • What type of license does the WP eMember have, can I use this plugin on more than one site?

Read the WP eMemeber Licensing Details.

  • Can I translate the WP eMember plugins in to my own language?

Yes, You can translate the front end of the plugin (the information that the customer sees). You can read more about this here.

  • If I buy the WP eStore, WP eMember and WP Affiliate plugins and activate and setup all 3, will I be able to run a membership site that charged a monthly RECURRING price with the affiliate program, giving the affiliate commission each month the member is signed up?

Yes

  • Is there a limit to the membership levels or members I can have?

No, there is not a limit on membership levels or the number of members you can have.

  • What forum plugin can I use with the eMember?

WP eMember will work with any forum plugin that utilizes the WordPress’s user roles. eMember has a feature for keeping the members in sync with WordPress users. BBPress and SimplePress seems to be the popular choice at the moment and our customers have been using those with eMember.

  • What payment gateways can I use for my membership site?

The WP eMember can be integrated with PayPal and ClickBank in a standalone setup. You can also integrate eMember with WP eStore which allows you to use any of the Payment Gateways offered by the eStore plugin. Read more on this on our Documentation site.

  •  What AutoResponders can the WP eMember integrate with?

The WP eMember can integrate with AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse autoresponders.

  • Can I protect only a section of a post and have some teaser content that everyone can see?

Yes you can protect just a section of a post or page. There are a few options on how you can do this, for more information on these options go here.

  • Can I drip content to my members?

Read this document for more information about the drip content feature

  • Can I use one user database to handle member login from multiple different WordPress installs?

No, this is not a supported feature of WordPress. There are some hacks out there but we do not support these hacks.

  • If I change membership plugins do my members have to recreate their recurring payments again?

Yes, PayPal does not allow you to modify a recurring payment once it is established.

  • Can I have it so members have to be approved by the admin after they sign up for a membership before they can view the content? 

Yes

  • Can I have both free and paid memberships at the same time?

Yes, you can have both free and paid memberships for your membership site.

  • Can I have a trial period with the WP eMember?

Yes, you simply create a subscription payment option with trial period.

  • If a membership level expires will it automatically transition to the free membership level?

You can allow your users to downgrade to a free membership level:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/wp-emember-downgrade-member-level-from-premium-to-free

  • Does eMembers signup process replace the default registration process used by Buddypress/Wordpress?

Yes, it is better to have one registration and log-in process for the whole site (you can still use them if you like but I think it may be confusing for your users to have to remember different login pages).