Registration Before Checkout

[meets2]

Hello,
I'm trying to set up this process:
User visits website and finds some premium content. Clicking on the premium content takes him to the Membership Options Page. Here he can register for a 7 day free trial. He inserts name, surname, username, password and email and once he clicks on the confirmation email he now has access to the premium content for 7 days. He logs in and is taken to the Login Welcome Page where he sees a few payment options to upgrade to Premium and the different prices.

I've tried following what is stated below, but there is no PayPal® Button available to Free Subscribers at Level #0

Can anyone please provide some suggestions?

Registration Before Checkout? ( reversing the process )

By default, s2Member will send a Customer directly to PayPal®, and only after checkout is completed does the Customer have the ability to register a Username/Password for access to your site. This process works very well in most cases, and it has the benefit of increasing conversion rates; because there are fewer obstacles for the Customer on their way to the actual checkout process at PayPal®.

That being said, we believe the ideal approach is a combined Checkout/Registration process; in just one simple step ( available with s2Member Pro via PayPal® Pro integration ).

However, even with PayPal® Standard integration, there is a way to accomplish Registration Before Checkout, thereby reversing the process — if you prefer it that way. This is accomplished by turning Open Registration (on), and then making a PayPal® Button available to Free Subscribers at Level #0. In other words, you can let Visitors register for free at Level #0 ( where they have access to very little perhaps ), and then charge them for access to higher Member Levels [1-4]. For further details, please check your WordPress® Dashboard here: s2Member -> General Options -> Open Registration.

s2Member's Simple Conditionals can help you further integrate this process, by allowing you to integrate a special PayPal® Button on your Login Welcome Page; one that will be seen only by Free Subscribers at Level #0. Please check your WordPress® Dashboard under: s2Member -> API Scripting -> Simple Conditionals. We also suggest reading over the documentation on PayPal® Modification Buttons. See: s2Member -> PayPal® Buttons -> Subscription Modifications.

[Eduan]

In order to register at level 0, your users have to use the form on http://www.your-site-url.com/wp-login.p ... n=register . Which is the WordPress default.

Either that, or you can use pro-forms for member level 0, which the Pro version of s2Member makes possible.

Hope this helps.

[meets2]

Thank you Eduan.
I'd like to recommend making it clearer in the Quick start guide that the pro version is recommended to a register first, try for a few days and then pay user flow.
Maybe also adding a few user flow scenarios would help new users with s2member.

Thank you

[Eduan]

So what you need is a quick start guide for certain scenarios?

Confirm so that I can pass this to our Lead Developer.

Thanks.

[meets2]

Yes, I believe The Registration Process explanation is too strict and information in the forums is too dispersed.
A simple page where a few scenarios are covered would have helped me understand that I needed s2member pro a lot faster and thus made a sale of the pro version also faster.

The below flow seems to indicate this is all you can do with s2members.

The Subscription Signup/Registration Process

1. Internet Users will go to your Membership Options Page ( which you'll need to configure on the s2Member General Options panel ). On this Membership Options Page, that YOU will create in WordPress®, you'll insert the PayPal® Subscription Buttons that were generated for you by s2Member.

2. An Internet 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.

3. Once a User has completed the Subscription Signup Process at PayPal®, they'll be returned to your site, where they'll be activated by s2Member instantly, and given the opportunity to register a Username & Password for their Membership. ( Note: they'll be allowed to register a Username & Password, even if you've set 'Anyone Can Register' to `Off` in your General WordPress® options; because s2Member identifies the User as having paid for Membership access through PayPal® ).

s2Member will also send the User an email with instructions on how to register their Username & Password, just in case they missed the instructions after checkout. That email will be sent to their PayPal® email address. Much of this is handled through the PayPal® IPN service behind-the-scene, where PayPal® and s2Member communicate with each other.

4. Once a User has completed checkout and registered a Username & Password, they'll be able to log in. The first page they'll see after logging in, will be your Login Welcome Page ( which you'll need to configure on the s2Member General Options panel ). Your Login Welcome Page can contain whatever you like. You'll need to design this Page in WordPress®, and be creative!

[Cristián Lávaque]

s2Member Pro is not required at all to let users register for free first and then upgrade to a paid level. What you need is to have Open Registration enabled so they can register from the default WordPress registration page. WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> Open Registration

s2Member Pro has a free registration pro-form that you can use in any page/post, which is why Eduán mentioned it as an option.

I hope that helps.

[meets2]

I had originally done so, but this would take users to another page and every click counts to get a customer registered.
I had also noticed that the wp-login and wp-login.php?action=register pages were not resizing nicely in WPtouch.
Maybe because of the 500 by 85 logo?
The proform in the member option page resizes very nicely

[Cristián Lávaque]

Ah cool. I just wanted to make the two options clear. You got it working the way you want then?

[meets2]

s2member is such a powerful platform it may take some time for me to understand all its functions and find a stable solution.
Thank you for your help.

[Cristián Lávaque]

No problem.