This guide will show you how to sell instant access to a particular page or post within your WordPress/OptimizePress website.
This is particularly useful if you don’t want the user to have to create membership logins and just want to give them access to a specific page on your site which might have a download on it (for example if you want a quick way to sell an ebook without setting up a full membership area).
This process is designed for creating shorter-term access to a page and it’s content, so if you want your user to have longer term access, we do recommend utilising our normal processes and create a membership area so your members have logins they can keep ( see our guides here on this)
Please note parts of this guide are on a more advanced level, so you may need some experience of FTP in order to complete this process
Step 1: (Optional) Upload our Files
If you are planning to sell access to a PDF or to particular files on your site, we need to start by uploading these to a special directory on your server.
Via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) you need to access your website and find the /wp-content/plugins/optimizeMember-files folder.
Upload any files you want to offer for download here. This is a secure directory that is not accessible to the public directly. Ensure you make a note of the exact file names for your files e.g.
“secure-file1.pdf”
Step 2: Create our Download Page
We are going to start at the end, and create our download page first.
Go to OptimizePress > Create New Page and choose the template you wish to use for your download page (this will be the secret page you will be selling access to). It can be any page, so choose a template most suitable for your intended content.
Add any content you want to include on this page e.g. videos, text content etc using the LiveEditor.
(Optional) If you want to include a secure download:
If you have uploaded a file in step 1, you can now include a link to this file. To do this, we need to use a special OptimizeMember shortcode.
Create a button (you can use our Button Creator if you wish) or create a HTML link and add this in the URL field:
[opmFile download=”yourfile.pdf” download_key=”true” /]
Now change the yourfile.pdf to the exact name of your file including the file extension (e..g .pdf, .zip etc).
Repeat this process for any other download links you want to include for files you uploaded in step 1.
Once you are happy with your download page, save it.
Note about download page.
When using this special specific page/post access method, your buyer will granted access to the page for a limited time, and will not be sent an email with access to the page (they are redirected straight to the page).
For this reason, you may want to advise the buyer on the page that they have access for 72 hours (or however long you set – we explain this later). You may also want to advise the user to bookmark the page so they can find it again in case they close the window.
Step 3: Get the Post ID of the Page
You now need to find out the post ID of the page for the next step of this process.
Download the plugin from the following URL:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-show-ids/
Install and activate it in your WP dashboard.
Note down the Page IDs of the pages you would like to protect.
Go to the ‘Pages’ area to see the list of all of your pages. You should also see a list of all of your IDs for each one that will be displayed on the far right of the page.
Note down the ID of your product page.
Step 4: Protect Your Download Page
Next, under your OptimizeMember Plugin, go to:
Restriction Options > Specific Post/Page URL Restrictions.
Insert your ID codes you would like to protect in the area provided.
This will protect the page you just created so only a special access method will allow access to this page from now on.
Step 5: Create Your Order Button
We now need to generate the order button for your sales page for your product you are selling access to.
To do this, go to:
Paypal Buttons > Paypal Specific Post/Page (Buy Now) Buttons.
You will be taken to a section where you can select the protected pages.
Select the pages you’ve protected from the drop down box.
Set the price you would like to sell the product. You can also set your desired currency.
Give your product a description. In this case, the name of your product.
Click on the ‘Generate Button Code’ button.
Copy the code that is generated to your computer clipboard or to a text document.
Step 6: Create Your Sales Page
You now need to create your sales page for your product. You can go to OptimizePress > Create New Page and choose a suitable page for your sales page (you can pick any template you want for this – or if you prefer to have an order button on a blog post you can skip this).
Once you are on the page where you want to add your order button, you can paste the special order link shortcode from your clipboard.
If you’re using a LiveEditor page, insert a HTML/Shortcode element and then paste your code within. This will look something like this:
[optimizeMember-PayPal-Button sp=”1″ ids=”2020″ exp=”72″ desc=”Description and pricing details here.” ps=”paypal” lc=”” cc=”USD” dg=”0″ ns=”1″ custom=”optimizepresslabs.com” ra=”0.01″ image=”default” output=”button” /]
Adjusting your order Button
By default, the order button will render a Paypal button to your page. If you want to modify this, you can change the image=”default” value to the URL of a button you have uploaded to your site. So if you have a button image you want to use, upload it in the WordPress media section, copy the URL and replace “default” with the URL of your image.
You may also want to center your button which you can do by adding the <center> tag before the code and </center> after.
Adjusting the Access time
By default, your buyer will be given 72 hours access to your page. If you want to change this, change the exp=”72″ to whatever number of hours you want to give them.
Step 7: Test the process
We advise testing the process by setting the price to 0.01 and then asking a friend or colleague to go through the process and ensure everything is working including your download links.
That’s everything – you’ve now created your order process and secure downloads and are ready to go!