Creating Just A Free Membership

#1

Hey all I am just starting out with S2 Member and I have a question…when setting up things up. At this time I only want a Free membership option, although I will have an upgrade but that will be before they come to the members page. in the description getting started it states
Users will go to your Membership Options Page (which you may configure; see: Dashboard → s2Member → General Options → Membership Options Page). On this Membership Options Page (that you create in WordPress) you’ll insert the PayPal Subscription Buttons that were generated for you by s2Member.

  1. A User will click on a PayPal Subscription Button from your Membership Options Page. They will be transferred over to PayPal in order to agree to your Membership terms and pricing. You can customize the Checkout Page Style, Pricing, Payment Periods, and more, whenever you generate your PayPal Buttons through s2Member.

So How do I handle the options page if I am not charging here? I am not going to be inserting a subscription button…Just a way for them to sign up for free, however the page needs to be private and they will need to be redirected to this page after the upgrade option. So if they don’t want the upgrade, then they will need to be forwarded to register for an account…So do I not use the options page at all?

#2

You just use the regular WP registration page to have users sign up as free members. They will be given the WP role of subscriber, which s2Member treats as s2Member Level 0. (Note that you must still have a MOP: s2Member will not work otherwise.)

The Login Welcome Page, to which a subscriber will be redirected on login, is automatically protected. So you don’t have to do anything more to protect it. You can then put a Billing Modification Button on that page to allow subscribers to upgrade. You could wrap that button in shortcode conditionals (see under API/Scripting) if you only want free subscribers to see that button.