There are a couple of different ways you can handle the registration process with Simple Membership. Read all the info on this page to understand all the available options.
Standard Membership Registration Process
The following section gives an overview of the standard membership registration process:
- Visitors click on the Join Us link (because they want to become a member of your site)
- It takes them to the Membership Join Us Page where you have explained all the different types of memberships you offer on your site. Think of this page as your landing page where the potential customers will go to and they can see all the various different membership options you offer.
- From this page, they can decide which membership option they want to choose (Example: Free, Premium, Gold or whatever you are offering)
- If they choose the Free Membership, then they just click on a link that takes them to the registration page. Anyone can go to this page directly and sign up for a free membership (if you allow free membership).
- If they choose a Paid Membership option, then they make a payment by clicking on the payment button for the appropriate membership access level.
- Once the Payment is confirmed, the plugin will create the appropriate membership account for this user (according to the payment).
- The member will receive an email that contains a special link to complete the registration.
- When the member clicks on that special link in the email it will bring them to the registration page and let them choose a “username” and “password” for their account.
Steps 7 and 8 are additional steps that allow the members to choose their own username and password (this is better than giving them randomly generated username and password).
Important Notes
The plugin will figure out which premium membership level a user is signing up to based on the payment button he used to make the payment. For example: if the user clicked on the payment button for membership level “3” then the plugin knows that this user is only allowed to have level 3. So when he clicks on the “special” link (sent to his email after the payment), the plugin will set the registration form for level 3.
The key point to understand is that the payment button the user uses to make membership payment is what determines which membership level the user is buying. So on your membership Join Us page is where you offer the various membership level choices you have for your site (not on the registration page).
Read the following documentation for more explanation:
Get Users to Register Before They Can Pay for Paid Membership
This documentation explains how you can set up the membership plugin so the registration is handled before they pay for membership.
What If I am Only Allowing Free Membership?
If you only want to have Free Membership then on your join us page simply state that you offer free membership on this site. Instruct the users to the go the registration page and signup for a free account.
If you are offering multiple free membership account option on your site then do the 2nd method explained here.
Membership Payment
Read the membership payment documentation to learn how to create payment buttons for your memberships.
Membership Renewal and Upgrade Payment
If you want to offer premium membership renewal and upgrade options then read the following two documentation:
Adding Captcha To the Registration Form
You can add captcha to the registration form using our free captcha addon.
Anyone Can Register Option of WordPress
This documentation has explanation of this option.
