Evalusing s2Member

#1

Aloha. I’m looking for a membership plugin for a club I belong to, and am evaluating s2Member. I’ve wasted a few weeks trying to get Ultimate Member and Paid Memberships Pro to meet my needs, but they both need paid-for addons to function like I want them to, and I do not have enough money in the budget to purchase the addons.

So, I would like to know if s2Members can do the following: (and yes, I have done some reading, but have not seen the answers to these questions)

  • Register multiple members (e.g.: husband and wife) at one time, and pay only once
  • Register members who pay via a check
  • Integration with MailChimp where I can specify send email to only “active” members (members whose membership has not expired)
  • Export all fields from the registration form (including custom fields) to a csv file
  • Import csv file into registration database

Mahalo,

Harry Z

#2

Aloha Harry.

  • Register multiple members (e.g.: husband and wife) at one time, and pay only once

Not exactly… WordPress registration creates only one account. And s2 payment goes towards one account only. What you could do, though, is use a redemption code. The one that pays gets a code that the second one can use to register at the same level… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3N_vygowbM

  • Register members who pay via a check

You can get paid by check, but s2 won’t find out about it automatically. You can, of course, upon payment confirmation, manually change the user’s s2 access (level, capabilities) from his profile.

  • Integration with MailChimp where I can specify send email to only “active” members (members whose membership has not expired)

You can assign a different MailChimp list to each s2 level, and have the user moved between lists as his level changes. WP Admin > s2Member > API / List Servers > MailChimp and Automate

  • Export all fields from the registration form (including custom fields) to a csv file
  • Import csv file into registration database

s2Member Pro has an export/importer https://s2member.com/kb-article/advanced-importexport-tools/

:slight_smile:

#3

Aloha @clavaque. Mahalo (thank you) for the reply!

Re: registering multiple members… not sure how that would work without having someone pay twice. Each member is $30. Is there some way to ask on the registration form how many members they intend to register and then adjust the payment amount appropriately?

Re: payment by check. How would I register a new user to capture all the custom fields in the registration form?

Re: MailChimp list: I don’t have ‘levels’ of membership. Either you’re an ‘active’ member, or you are an ‘expired’ member. Maybe I set level 1 to correspond to ‘active’ members, and level 2 to ‘expired’ members?

Which brings up a new question: Is there an expiration date for the membership built-in to the s2Members?

Mahalo!

Harry Z

#4

Re: registering multiple members… not sure how that would work without having someone pay twice.

The person pays once, and then you give him the redemption code for the other family member to get the same access on his own account.

Is there some way to ask on the registration form how many members they intend to register and then adjust the payment amount appropriately?

You’d need some custom code to do that, it’s not impossible, but it’s not included in s2 at the moment. What is possible is to have a few options (e.g. 1 member, 2 members, 3 members). https://s2member.com/kb-article/how-do-i-display-multiple-checkout-options/

Re: payment by check. How would I register a new user to capture all the custom fields in the registration form?

I see. Well, you can have them register free at level 0, and upgrade them manually after confirming the payment. https://s2member.com/kb-article/how-can-i-manually-approve-user-accounts/

Re: MailChimp list: I don’t have ‘levels’ of membership. Either you’re an ‘active’ member, or you are an ‘expired’ member. Maybe I set level 1 to correspond to ‘active’ members, and level 2 to ‘expired’ members?

s2’s Level 0 is the default for free registrations, and the one higher levels are demoted to. So Level 1 would be demoted to 0 after his access expires (EOT time).

Which brings up a new question: Is there an expiration date for the membership built-in to the s2Members?

When the user pays a buy-now (single payment, fixed time), an EOT (end of term) time is immediately set in the user’s account. https://s2member.com/kb-article/when-is-an-eot-time-set-for-each-user/

At the user’s EOT time, s2 will do what you configured here: WP admin > s2Member > PayPal Options > Auto EOT Behavior

:slight_smile:

#5

Aloha @clavaque. Mahalo for the responses. I’m very pleased that there are options that might very well fit my needs.

For the multiple checkout options, this looks quite viable. For someone selecting the option to pay for more than 1 member, is there a way to direct them to a page that tells them to enter the information for the additional member(s) along with a link to the free registration page?

I really like the manually approve user accounts process as I can have the member fill out the data and I just process the check when they mail it to me. No pricey add-on needed! Hooray!

For the EOT field, can I use this with MailChimp to only send email to members who are not past their EOT date?

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

Aloha,

Harry Z

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#6

For the multiple checkout options, this looks quite viable. For someone selecting the option to pay for more than 1 member, is there a way to direct them to a page that tells them to enter the information for the additional member(s) along with a link to the free registration page?

Well, the person would have to log out of his account to register another account on the same browser, but it would be possible.

Did you watch the redemption codes video I linked to above?

I really like the manually approve user accounts process as I can have the member fill out the data and I just process the check when they mail it to me. No pricey add-on needed! Hooray!

:slight_smile:

For the EOT field, can I use this with MailChimp to only send email to members who are not past their EOT date?

Yes… You can send only to Level 1 members, for example.

See also: https://s2member.com/kb-article/integrating-mailchimp/ and https://youtu.be/3lPSTjRP0DU