How to Create Paid Newsletter Subscription Using WordPress

Recently, many writers, bloggers, and businesses have successfully monetized their content through paid newsletters.

If you wonder where to begin while considering starting a paid newsletter subscription. Luckily, if you have a WordPress website, creating a paid newsletter is a simple process.

This article will help you in setting up a paid newsletter subscription using WordPress. This involves the process of choosing a payment gateway, designing an email subscription form for WordPress, and setting up your website to distribute content to your audience who subscribe. By the end of this article, you'll have the needed information for starting earning money from your content with a paid newsletter.

Advantages of Paid Newsletter

Providing a paid newsletter subscription brings several advantages to both content creators and subscribers. Here are some of the main benefits:

Content creators can create a reliable source of income and gain greater authority over their content and audience through the offering of a paid newsletter subscription.

They can choose what content to include in their newsletter and who to send it to without worrying about external factors such as social media algorithms.

Paid newsletter subscribers are used to be more engaged, as they allow creators to build a deeper relationship with their audience.

Additionally, creators own the data with a paid newsletter subscription, which can be used to improve their content and marketing efforts.

Through the implementation of a paid subscription model, creators can broaden their sources of income and decrease their dependence on advertising revenue, thus reducing the potential effects of alterations to advertising policies or algorithms.

How to Create Paid Newsletter Subscription with WordPress

We'll use the ProfilePress WordPress membership plugin to create user roles and membership plans for the paid newsletter. And the MailOptin automation and newsletter plugin to sends emails to paying subscribers directly from within WordPress.

Installing The ProfilePress and MailOptin Plugins

To create membership plans, we can utilize the ProfilePress plugin, which is free of cost. However, buying the premium version of the MailOptin plugin is necessary to send newsletters from WordPress. Our first step should be installing the ProfilePress plugin.

Install and Set Up ProfilePress Plugin

To install ProfilePress on your WordPress site, simply login to your dashboard and head over to the Plugins section. Afterwards, proceed by selecting the "Upload Plugin" option located at the top, and then pick the MailOptin file from your computer. The first search result should be the ProfilePress plugin, which you can install and activate easily.

To ensure that ProfilePress works properly, it is essential to have pages like Checkout, Order Confirmation, User Profile, My Account, Registration, and Login.

Fortunately, you can easily create these pages by going to the ProfilePress dashboard and selecting the Create Pages option at the top.

As soon as you will finish creating the pages, go to the plugin's settings page. From there, choose the appropriate newly created page to associate with each name.

If you are done, click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

Installing and Setting Up MailOptin

To get started with MailOptin, you'll need to have the plugin installed. You can purchase a license from the website if you don't already have it.

You will receive a download link for the plugin and a license key as soon as you've completed the purchase process. Remember to keep this license key safe, as you'll need it for future activation.

For installing MailOptin, go to your WordPress dashboard and click on Plugins, then select Add New. After that, proceed by clicking on the Upload Plugin button located at the upper part of the screen and then select the MailOptin file from your computer.

And now, click on Install Now to complete the installation process.

Creating a Paid Newsletter Plan

Are you interested in setting up a subscription plan for your newsletter? ProfilePress is a great tool to help you create different membership plans with varying prices and access levels. Let's focus on setting up a single plan for now.

To get started, head to the plugin dashboard, where you'll find a helpful 5-step guide called "Get Started." Luckily, we've already completed the first step, so let's move on to the next one.

Integrating a Payment Method

To access the Payments page, click the button that says Integrate a Payment Method or head to ProfilePress and find the Settings section where you will see a Payments option.

ProfilePress supports multiple payment gateways, although, with the free version, you can only use Stripe.

To set up Stripe on your website, choose the option and click the Configure button.

Once you've arrived at the following page, click on the "Connect with Stripe" button to establish the connection between your Stripe account and ProfilePress on the Stripe website. This will enable smooth payment processing on your website.

You'll be directed to the Stripe website, where you can either sign in to your current account or create a new one.

After filling out the form, the website page will refresh. Then, select the payment method by marking the Enable / Disable option. Furthermore, you have the option to edit the title and description displayed on the checkout page, enabling you to include your business information.

Adding Your Business Information

To modify your business details, just go to the specified page and enter your company name, address, and tax identification number. As soon as all the fields have been completed, you will need to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

Setting Your Preferred Currency

When using ProfilePress, you can select your desired currency from a dropdown menu.

By default, the currency is set to USD but can be changed to any supported currency worldwide. Moreover, you can customize the currency position, decimal, and thousands separator according to your preference.

To adjust the checkout settings, simply scroll down. You'll find an option to enable One-Time Trials, which will ensure that users can only use the free trial of a plan once. Moreover, you have the option to personalize the text adjacent to the "Agree to Terms" checkbox. Be sure to save any modifications you make and then proceed to the receipt settings.

Remember to save any changes you've made and proceed to the receipt settings.

In this section, you can disable the creation of receipts for free orders and set a specific URL for customers to be directed to if they click on the receipt logo. Additionally, you can include a personalized thank you message or modify the label on the receipt button.

To complete the process, click on the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page.

Create a Membership Plan

In order to continue, we must establish a membership plan for our paid newsletter. To achieve this, click on the "Create a Membership Plan" button, and then proceed by clicking the "Add New Plan" button.

Come up with a straightforward and clear name for your paid newsletter, and provide a brief overview of what it covers. You can also include a Purchase Note, where you can express gratitude or give instructions.

Once you're ready, select the user role associated with the membership plan. Opting for "create user role for this membership plan" is recommended to establish a new role that corresponds with the plan. This ensures that every plan subscriber is assigned a user role that can be utilized to distribute newsletters via MailOptin.

You can customize both the billing frequency and the duration of your subscription. You can bill monthly, weekly, daily, quarterly, every six months, or yearly, or make a one-time payment.

You can also decide whether to renew your subscription automatically until you cancel it or set a fixed number of payments.

For our newsletter subscription, we automatically renew it until you cancel it. Furthermore, there is an option to include a Sign-up fee, which allows you to charge a one-time fee in addition to the membership price.

Additionally, you have the flexibility to provide a free trial period for your members before charging them. If you wish not to offer a free trial, you can disable this feature.

After you've completed all the necessary modifications, simply hit the Save Plan button to finalize and publish your paid newsletter's membership plan.

Letting Users Buy the Membership

If you want to offer a paid newsletter subscription to your audience, you can easily add a membership option to the front end of your website.

Once you've created your membership plan, ProfilePress will provide you with a one-of-a-kind checkout link that you can place on any page, such as your pricing page. This way, users can click on a button or hyperlink to access the checkout and purchase your paid newsletter membership plan without hassle.

Once the user clicks on the link, they will be directed to the checkout page. Here, they can easily input their information and finalize their purchase

With the ProfilePress portion finished, it's time to focus on utilizing MailOptin to generate newsletters within WordPress and send them directly to paid subscribers.

3. Create a Newsletter using MailOptin

If you're looking to create a paid newsletter and send it to your email list, MailOptin is an excellent option. It seamlessly integrates with many popular email marketing software like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, and more.

To get started, go to MailOptin > Emails in your WordPress dashboard and click the Add New button. From there, you can easily create and send your newsletter to your subscribers.

To generate a single email, simply select the "Create Now" option under the Broadcast section.

Please input your desired email subject and choose from the available templates, or if you prefer, you can use your own HTML code to craft a custom template.

Once you have chosen your preferred template, the newsletter editor of MailOptin will appear, featuring an interface that closely resembles the WordPress customizer.

To personalize the template's appearance, utilize the navigator on the left-hand side. From there, you can modify the header by incorporating a logo, altering the header text, and adjusting the background color.

To create the main content section, simply use the drag-and-drop editor to add various elements such as text, images, buttons, dividers, spacers, and posts.

Just like the header, you have the option to personalize the footer. To ensure everything is in order, you can send a test email.

If everything appears satisfactory, go to the Settings tab and choose the connection labelled "WordPress registered users" within the recipient section.

Lastly, restrict it to the paid newsletter user role.

Once you have finished all the required tasks, click the "Save Changes" button at the top, and then proceed to click the "Send Broadcast" button. This will allow the email newsletter you created within WordPress to be sent to your paid subscribers.

Additionally, you can use MailOptin to notify your customers or subscribers in Mailchimp whenever a new post is published, send them a summary or digest of published posts, and even send one-off emails or broadcasts.

Conclusion

Are you interested in monetizing your content and providing exclusive material to your followers? Creating a subscription-based newsletter using WordPress is a great way to do this.

Various tools and plugins, like MailOptin and ProfilePress, can assist you in streamlining the process of setting up and managing subscriptions.

Follow the steps provided in this guide, and you'll be able to start earning revenue from your content in no time while establishing a reliable income source for the future.