How to Sell Access to a Page in WooCommerce?

Category: WooCommerce
Restriction

Do you want to sell access to a page in WooCommerce?

If yes, then you have landed at the right place!

WooCommerce is an excellent platform for eCommerce stores. You can sell physical and virtual products using it. But when it comes to selling access to a page, you need some different solutions.

So in today’s article, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process to sell access to a page in WooCommerce. You will need a few extra plugins like WooCommerce Restriction Rules and user role changer plugins.

So without further ado, let’s jump into the tutorials.

On This Page

1 How to Sell Access to a Page in WooCommerce?
2 Sell Access to Different Types of Content
3 Wrapping Up

How to Sell Access to a Page in WooCommerce?

Following is the step-by-step process to sell access to a page in WooCommerce.

Note: I have already created a page to which I want to sell access. If you haven’t created the page, you first need to create the page to follow the process.

1. Create a New User Role

First, you need to install and activate the User Role Editor plugin. It will help you to create a new user role in WordPress. Usually, WordPress comes with five user roles, so we use this plugin to create a new custom user role.

You can install it by navigating to Plugins » Add New from your WordPress dashboard and then search for the ‘user role editor.’

After that, click the ‘Install Now button to install and activate it.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, navigate to the Users » User Role Editor from your WordPress dashboard to create a new user role.

You can create a new user role by selecting the options and clicking the ‘Save’ button.

2. Install and Activate the WooCommerce Restriction Rules Plugin

Note: You can skip this step if you have already installed and activated the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin.

To install the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin, you will need to install the Woosuite Core plugin and activate it with the help of a license key. We have created a Quick Start Guide for you to figure out how to install and activate the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin.

3. Restrict the Page Access with WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, now is the time to restrict the page access. Now hide the page from public view. Ensure you do not select the user role you created in the first step.

You can add restrictions by navigating to the Woosuite » Restriction Rules from your WordPress dashboard.

Tip: Following the Restrict Purchase tutorial, you can learn more about adding restrictions.

4. Create a New Product

Next, you need to create a product that people will purchase to access the restricted page. You need to create a virtual product as you are selling access to a page.

To create a virtual product, navigate to the Products » Add New from your WordPress dashboard. You’ll redirect to the page from where you can create a new product by adding the title, image, pricing, and description.

Make sure to check the ‘Virtual’ box from the ‘Product Data’ section.

5. Give Users Access to the Restricted Page

Now you need to disable the guest checkout so only the users with an account on your site can purchase the product. You can disable the guest checkout by navigating to WooCommerce » Settings » Accounts & Privacy from your WordPress dashboard.

After that, uncheck the “Allow customers to place orders without an account” box to disable the guest checkout.

By disabling the guest checkout, WooCommerce will automatically create a user account for the buyers who buy the product that you created in the fourth step.

Additionally, WordPress will send them their login information to access the restricted area.

6. Use a Role Changer Plugin to Change the User Roles Automatically

Usually, the users who purchase a product or create an account on your site are given the user roles of subscribers. So when a user buys the product, WooCommerce will create an account with the default user role.

They won’t be able to access the page even after purchasing the product because you have restricted the page access to the custom user roles only that you created in the first step.

So to change the user role automatically, you need to use an automatic role changer plugin like YITH Automatic Role Changer for WooCommerce to change the user role of the users who purchase the specific product.

This way, only the users who purchase the product can access the page, and it will be hidden from guests and other user roles.

7. Give Access to More People Using WooCommerce Restriction Rules Plugin

You must make it simple for customers to access the restricted page of your store once they have purchased the access.

You can easily do this by navigating to Appearance » Menus and adding links to the restricted page to your website menu.

It will allow all the users to view the link, but only those who purchase the product can access the page. By default, other users will see a 404 page upon clicking it.

Instead of displaying a 404 page to them, you can redirect them with the help of the WooCommece Restriction Rules plugin to a page where it says to buy the specific product to access that page.

OR, you can redirect them to the product page where they can purchase the product to access the page.

This will allow you to get more sales because more people will get to know about the premium page.

Sell Access to Different Types of Content

The above instructions explain how to use WooCommerce to sell access to a page. However, you can also use our plugin, WooCommerce Restriction Rules, to sell access to other kinds of information.

By doing so, you can make a hidden area with WordPress content of any kind, including articles, categories, and custom post types.

Here are some links to articles that can help you limit and sell access to different WordPress content.

Password Protect the Shop Page

Create a WooCommerce Members Only Store

Wrapping Up

That’s it for today’s article.

I hope this article helped you learn to sell access to a page in WooCommerce. If you have any queries, you can ask them in the comments. I’d love to answer them.

Ready to get started? Download the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin today!