Do you want to add new users and authors to your WordPress blog? Find out in this WordPress tutorial, how to add WordPress users or how to add authors in WordPress

WordPress comes with an integrated user management system. This allows you to add users with different roles and access levels.

In this article, we will show you how to add new users and authors to your WordPress website.

But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog 

Then back to why we are here.

How to Add a User or Author to a WordPress Website

There are 3 ways to add new users to your WordPress website. You can add users manually, allow users to sign up for free, or create a paid subscription website where users will pay to sign up.

Manually add a user or author to a website

If you want to add a small number of people to your website, it's easy to do with WordPress' built-in user management system.

This method is ideal for:

  • Small businesses that have several different employees running their website.
  • Organizations such as churches and nonprofits that have volunteers updating their website.
  • Blogs with multiple authors, like a fashion blog you write with friends.
  • Online stores that have multiple people managing inventory, shipping items, etc.

Just go to the page Accounts -> Add in your WordPress admin area. Then you just have to fill in the form to create a new user.

Fill out the form to add a user to your website

On the form, you must first enter a username. The user can use this address or their e-mail address to log in.

Tip: The WordPress username cannot be easily changed later, but all other details can.

Next, enter the user's email address. Check that you are using the correct email address. Users will need this to reset their passwords and receive email notifications.

After that, you can enter the first name, last name, and website URL. As these are optional fields, you can also leave them blank. Users can edit their own profiles to fill in these fields later.

In the next step, you will need to choose a password. We recommend using a strong password generator for this purpose.

Tip: You can use the "Generate password" button to automatically create a strong password.

Below the password field, you will see a checkbox to send an email to the user. If you check this box, the user will receive an email telling them how to log in. This will also have a link, so they can set a different password if they want.

The last option on the page is to choose a user role WordPress from the drop-down list.

The default WordPress user role dropdown

Each user role comes with a different set of features. Subscriber is the least powerful role, and Administrator is the most powerful role. You should choose a role based on the tasks a user will perform on your website.

You may already know what role you want to give your user. If so, select the role, then click the " Add an account " at the bottom of the screen.

Entering Your New User Details in WordPress

If you're not sure about the role, don't worry. We will do a detailed explanation of the roles in the next section of this article.

Tip: Some plugins create additional user roles. For example, WooCommerce adds “Customer” and “Shop Manager” roles. All in One SEO adds 'SEO Manager' and 'SEO Editor' roles. Just check the plugin's documentation for the additional roles you see in this list.

Additional user roles created by Memberpress and All in One SEO

Understanding User Roles in WordPress

WordPress comes with these default user roles:

  • Administrator
  • Editor
  • Author
  • Contributor
  • Subscriber

Tip: If you have a multi-site installation of WordPress, there is also a role “ Super Admin ". These users can manage all websites, while regular administrators only manage one website.

Administrator

An administrator can perform all tasks on your WordPress website.

You should only assign this role to users you fully trust. You must also have confidence in their technical skills.

With the admin role, a user can install plugins, edit themes, remove content, and even remove other users. This includes other administrators.

Editor

An editor can add, edit, publish and delete their own WordPress posts. They can also perform all of these actions for all other users' posts.

They cannot access website settings, plugins, themes, and other admin features.

This role is useful if you have an editor for your website who manages a team of authors and regularly publishes content.

Author

Authors can add, edit and publish their own posts. They can also upload files.

They cannot edit or publish other people's posts or access features such as plugins, themes, settings and tools.

You can use a plugin to restrict authors so they can only write in a specific category.

You can also let authors review their published articles. Again, you will need to use a plugin to extend the Author user role.

Contributor

A contributor can add and edit their own posts but cannot publish them.

However, they cannot edit other users' posts or access features such as plugins, themes, settings, and tools.

It is important to note that contributors cannot upload media files, such as images. The easiest way around this problem is to get contributors to upload their post's images via a file upload form.

This way images can be saved directly to the WordPress media library. This makes it easy for an editor or admin to add them to the post.

Subscriber

The Subscriber role does not allow users to add or edit posts in any way.

With default settings, subscribers can create a profile and save their contact information. This allows them to type them in faster when leaving comments.

You can also use a subscription plugin or an LMS plug-in to create content reserved for subscribed members. We will come back to this later in this article.

User management in WordPress

As an administrator, you can add and remove users from your WordPress website at any time. After adding a user, you can edit their profile at any time and change all information, including passwords.

Just click on the menu Accounts in your WordPress admin area to access the Accounts page. You can modify or delete a user at any time.

User management in WordPress

You can edit the user's profile, change their password, role, etc. You can also bulk edit the role of multiple users, for example if you want to upgrade or downgrade the role of multiple users at the same time. weather.

Users can also edit their own profile by accessing Accounts -> Profile in the WordPress dashboard. They can add a profile picture and edit most of their details, but they can't change their role.

How to set up free registration for everyone

What if you want to allow users to register on your website for free?

It would be a lot of work to add each user manually. Instead, you can let them create their own account.

First, you need to go to Settings-> General in your WordPress administrator and check the box "Anyone can register".

Enabling public registration for your website

By default, new users will receive the Subscriber role. Go ahead and replace that with any role you want using the dropdown.

Warning: We recommend that you only let users register as Subscribers or Contributors. If you allow users to register as authors, they can publish an article without approval. Never use Administrator as the default setting.

Do not forget to click on the button « Save Changes at the bottom of the page to store your changes.

You also need to add a login form to your website. The best way to do this is with the WPForms plugin.

Another way to add new users to your website is to create a paid membership program that users sign up for.

This allows you to sell members-only content, add premium content behind a paywall, sell courses onlineEtc. ...

To do this you need a Plugin WordPress of membership .

We recommend that you use MemberPress. It is the best membership and course builder plugin with all the features and flexibility you need.

Some of the configuration options in MemberPress

MemberPress allows you to lock specific posts and pages on your website so that only registered and premium users can access them. Many websites offer premium content like this as a way to earn money online.

With MemberPress, it's easy to create different levels of access. For example, you can offer a Bronze, Silver, and Gold plan. You can also create separate courses that users can enroll in.

MemberPress also allows you add scheduled content to create a subscription website.

Other recommended resources

We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.

Conclusion

So ! That's it for this article. We hope this article helped you learn how to add new users and authors to your WordPress website.

However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.

If you have some Comments or suggestions, please let us know in the reserved section. We strongly invite you to share on your favorite social networks.   

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