Question Regarding Paid Membership Pro and Patreon Plugin

[jeranism]

First, thank you so much for this plug-in. It has gone very well for me. I have about 300 Patrons and they can all easily access my Patreon only posts and pages. So far so good. Here is my current issue…

Some people have donated in the past or even sent me a check for a years membership and claimed to either not want to use Patreon or for some other reason. This is a problem because they want me to send them links to videos, post etc. but I can’t do that. If they try and log-in, they have no Patreon credentials and so they are blocked. I looked into gifted Patron accounts or another way to allow them access to the Patrons only posts but no luck so far.

If I add PMP, am I to believe that this will create a way for people who aren’t Patrons but who sign-up at my site to access content? Another question, let’s say I have three people who I need to give access. They have already paid me. Can I use PMP to add them as members? Or is it like Patreon, where they need to actually be members? Does this make sense? For example, I cannot just add those three people to Patreon because they do not have accounts and aren’t Patrons. So, is the same true for PMP or I can add people at will even if they mailed me a check or paid me in cash?

[codebard]

If you do it with PMP, they will still have to pay somehow - like Paypal or credit card. That may not work for some of them.

If you get Patron Plugin Pro (a premium addon to the plugin), then you can give them VIP accounts (access to all) or Custom tier accounts (access to only the $ tier you give them in their profile). This allows them to access your content without them needing to do any extra payment or anything else.

They only would need to register/login to your WP site with an email and password of their choosing. Then you give them VIP or Custom $ level. That’s it.

[jeranism]

I was looking at PMP, what about giving coupon codes to these people? For free sign-ups would that work? And you are saying with Patreon Pro I can give out VIP passes for free? But only for my site correct? This would not allow them to see Patreon posts on Patreon?

[jeranism]

Okay, I think I am going to just go pro. Seems easiest. I am a bit worried that my current set-up will be broken. Can you confirm it will not be? Also, one last question… in trying to figure out how to allow these other members to see content, I did a sync with my Patreon content and everything came over fine except for images.

[jeranism]

I am going to wait for you to get back to me. I purchased the Pro plug-in. Followed the directions to install but you never say we are supposed to deactivate the previous plug-in. Now I notice I have both. So, I am going to wait until you get back to me because I don’t know what to do now.

Continue with new install? Delete old plug-in? Keep both? I have locked content I’d rather not have exposed for long. Plus I have pages and various things set-up. All I am really trying to do is keep everything as is but allow non patrons to have access to my patrons only stuff. Final thing I need is a way to alert them when content is posted on Patreon but I am sure this plugin can’t help there.

[katiedev]

@jeranism the install instructions indicate that this is an add-on for Patreon WordPress

and is installed in addition to Patreon WordPress

[jeranism]

Hi Katie. The link to the instructions you gave me never actually says that. And the image you provided I don’t think I ever saw. Most likely because I have the regular plug in already and have had it for a while. Usually when you install a pro version of a plug in, it installs over the previous. I just had never seen before where now I had both the pro plugin and the regular. So I just stopped install to get more info. As I said, I was afraid of breaking my current setup. So you are saying I need both installed and activated. And they don’t interfere?

[jeranism]

I looked again to be sure and the documentation says nothing about keeping both. Just my two cents but I would assume a majority of people paying for the pro version have been using the regular version. So just for future, it wouldn’t hurt to say something in the documentation like, “if you already have Patreon installed, leave it there and install pro on top.” Something like that. I expected to see only the pro version after install. Not both. So I take it now I just go through each tab on the pro version to see what features I want to add?

[katiedev]

Step 5 shows that Patreon is a dependency of Patreon Pro. Both plugins are visible in the screen shots from step 7 onwards.

This is where deploying to a local server or reading the instructions is highly reccomended.

[jeranism]

I read the instructions as I already said. And that screen never appeared for me as I already said. You want to keep arguing rather than admit the plug-in could have a slightly better instruction? Show me where it says that you will have both plugins installed at the end. And all I said is I would wait until further instruction because I didn’t want to break my site. But I will surely read things very carefully next time so I don’t get chewed out after paying for your plugin

[katiedev]

I’m not the plugin author, I’m simply another dev on the forum attempting to provide assistance

[jeranism]

Well thank you. I see what you are talking about now. I admit. I was looking at the text. It didn’t occur to me to check the images and see that both were installed. I was high. And I stand corrected. I apolomogize

[bob_artist]

I use the Patreon (not pro) plugin and PMP together. I gate all my content with PMP, but my patrons can still access it. I use PMP discount codes to give some non-patrons free access, and also to make test accounts for myself. Just set the discount code price to “0” and optionally set an expiration date. You can definitely do it and give those people full access; you just might need to gate the content with PMP instead of/in addition to Patreon.

Maybe a moot point since you’re going the Patron Pro route, but I just wanted to let you know it’s possible.

[codebard]

What katiedev explains is correct. Patron Pro is an addon to Patreon Wordpress. You need to keep both plugins. The setup wizard will help you sort out everything.

[jeranism]

Thanks. It appears my setup will work fine. I added Patreon Pro which allows me to create VIP members. So for now, Patreon controls the post locking. And Patrons can login w/Patreon and see the locked content and VIPs login with Wordpress and also have access. My last step is to figure out a way to notify them when Patron only posts are made. I found a solution but very expensive. What do you do to notify PMP people that you made a patron post?

[bob_artist]

I haven’t needed to set up auto emails for website updates quite yet, so I’ve barely investigated it. But I know you can do an RSS-based email campaign with Mailchimp, and probably with other bulk email clients too. This is true no matter what plugin you use, since the RSS feed comes from native Wordpress. If you have a category specifically for patrons-only posts, then you can find that category’s RSS feed at:

[your website url]/[patrons-only category slug]/feed

And then you can set up your RSS-based campaign however your bulk email client handles them per their instructions. However, I don’t know exactly how either plugin, PMP or Patreon, might affect the RSS output. (I had to disable my RSS feeds entirely because I couldn’t get Feedly to stop showing private images, even with the RSS output itself not including any images.)

If you don’t/can’t have your patrons-only posts categorized separate from public posts, I’m not sure the best way to handle it. PMP’s “Plus” plugin has a members-only RSS feed add-on, but it’s very expensive if you don’t already use their plus version for other reasons. I don’t know if the Patreon plugin has anything similar?

[jeranism]

Yes, they are separated. So it should work. Obviously Patrons receive notifications when I post on Patreon so all is good there. But now I have VIPs who are not Patrons. So I need to setup a way for them to be notified when I post new content under those categories. So I will try the RSS method. I appreciate it.

[codebard]

You need an auto mailer plugin, and also a mailing service. Mailgun may work.

[jeranism]

Can you check your support ticket site? I am going to need you to check my website or to provide a refund please. Since I have installed this plug-in my site has been destroyed. Slowed to a halt. 404 errors. Install screens for members. I sent you an image. But this plug-in is not working for me. I can find another option unless you want to try.

[codebard]

I will look into your ticket. In the meantime, you can ask your web host to restore your .htaccess file.