Do you want to automatically and gradually distribute content in your WordPress members area?

If you have a WordPress subscription website or sell premium content, you can set up Drip Content  instead of displaying all of the course content immediately.

In this article, we will show you how to configure the Drip Content in your WordPress website.

But first, if you've never installed WordPress, find out How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog 

Then to why we are here.

What is Drip Content?

Drip Content allows you to gradually distribute content instead of giving it all at once.

It allows subscription websites to automatically serve content at regular intervals to their users. Instead of continually creating new content, website owners can effectively use their existing content.

It is also useful when selling online courses. Instead of posting after your course is complete, you can spread your course over a predefined training period, so that your students or members are not overwhelmed.

Why add Drip Content in WordPress?

Normally you can just create a website subscription and offer premium content to your paying subscribers.

However, if you are offering monthly subscriptions then you want to keep your existing customers.

Delivering content at a steady pace allows you to keep users engaged for a long time. You can reuse your existing content and deliver it sequentially.

This flow also allows you to make your content more effective. For example, if you are offering online course, this gives users the option of submitting exercises or quizzes before moving on to the next lesson.

The benefit it gives you is that it allows you to create new content, promote your business, and increase traffic and sales.

What do you need to offer Drip Content in WordPress

The first thing you need is a WordPress Plugin subscription plan that makes it easy to schedule content on your website.

It's there that MemberPress comes into play.

This is the best plugin WordPress subscription on the market. It allows you to create premium subscriptions on your website and easily set up automatic drip content in WordPress.

You will also need content that you want to deliver to your audience. You can also restrict access to any type of content using its powerful rules.

Let's go.

Adding Drip Content in WordPress

First of all, you need to install and activate the plugin MemberPress. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After its' activation, you must visit the Settings page by MemberPress » to enter your license key. You can find this information in your account on the MemberPress website.

MemberPress license key

Next, you need to choose a payment method to accept payments on your subscription website. Just switch to the tab Payments of the page Settings plugin, then click on the icon '+' to add a payment method.

MemberPress payments

MemberPress supports payments PayPal et Stripe in their plan Basic. It also supports Authorize.net, but you will need the plan More for it.

Simply select your preferred payment gateway from the drop-down menu and enter the required details. You can also add multiple payment methods by clicking on the icon again. + and adding another payment method.

Now that you've done the basic setup. It's time to add a subscription plan.

Just go to the page MemberPress »Memberships And click on the button Add New.

Add new membership

On the next screen, you need to provide a title for your subscription plan and then enter the price. MemberPress allows you to choose from different types of prices, including lifetime, expiration, and recurrence.

Membership plan

You can provide a description of the plan in the text editor. Below you can configure different settings for your subscription plan under the area Membership Options.

membership options

Once you are done setting up your subscription plan, don't forget to click on the button Publish to save your changes.

Repeat the process to create more subscription plans if needed.

Automatic Drip Content Rules Planning

MemberPress comes with a powerful set of rules. These allow you to restrict access to your content based on a user's subscription.

These rules also allow you to publish sequentially and schedule the publication of any content at your own pace.

You just have to go to the page MemberPress ”Rules  and click the button Add New.

Add new rule

On the next screen, you need to choose the rule criteria.

MemberPress offers a whole range of options. You can select posts that match certain tags, categories, pages that are under the same parent page, individual posts, or any URL.

Select posts matching criteria

For example, we have chosen all the items marked 'firstweek'. These are the articles we want to publish to course users in their first week.

Next, you need to select the subscription plan whose rules would apply to members.

Apply membership conditions

Now that you've selected the content and the subscription plan, it's time to configure when the content should be viewable.

Scroll down a bit and check the " Enable Drip ". This will reveal the Drip Content rule options.

Drip rules selection

You can select after how many days the content will become available to the user. After that, you can match it with criteria like when the user buys a specific subscription, signs up for an account, buy any product, and so on.

Drip rules

Optionally, you can also activate the Drip Content expiration rule. This allows you to make the content available for a limited time after which the content will expire and users will no longer be able to access it.

Below you can customize how to handle unauthorized access. You can choose to show users a custom snippet, message, and login form.

unauthorized access settings

Once you're done, don't forget to save to apply these settings.

You can add new rules by visiting the page MemberPress ” Rules and repeating the process.

For example, you can set up a rule for content that you want to show to course users as of their second week of membership.

How the Drip Content is displayed to users of your website

MemberPress displays the default unauthorized access message to all users, if you don't set a custom message for each rule.

That is why we recommend that you configure your own personalized message for unauthorized access to content published by Drip Content.

On our website, it displays an article snippet, personalized message, and login form.

Non-members will see an unauthorized access message

Please note: You can selectively hide that this content is not fully visible using MemberPress filters, so that users cannot see that content until it is available.

Tips on Managing Drip Content in WordPress

Drip Content is a powerful tool for growing your subscription website and online community. However, it could easily get messy and can create a bad User experience.

Here are some tips that will help you use Drip Content more effectively on your website.

1. Plan a content strategy 

Plan what content you'll post well ahead. Even if you don't want to distribute all of this content, it should be enough to keep your customers happy.

You can prepare your content and configure it before launching your campaign. However, make sure your website is in maintenance mode so that your premium content is not cached by search engines.

2. Create an email list

Integrate your Drip Content strategy with your email marketing. This allows you to set up an email campaign that automatically sends users email notifications when new content becomes available.

Email list

We recommend that you use Constant Contactt. This is one of the best email marketing services for small businesses and comes with easy automation tools that help you set up automated campaigns for new subscribers.

For more powerful marketing automation tools, you can watch Drip or ConvertKit (although they are more expensive than Constant Contact).

3. Promote products with retargeting

Many subscription websites rely on members to upgrade, purchase other products, or renew their subscriptions.

This is where you will need of OptinMonster. This is the best conversion optimization tool and helps you convert existing users through retargeting.

OptinMonster popup preview

You can show users targeted messages with lightbox pop-ups, countdowns, slides, and more.

4. Learn from user behavior

As your subscriptions grow, you need to know what encourages users to sign up for your plan and what turns them away.

You can easily follow this with MonsterInsights. This is the best plugin WordPress Google Analytics which helps you see where your users are coming from and how they are using your website.

MonsterInsights

With this data, you can make informed decisions and adjust your marketing strategy to grow your business. 

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins  

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.

We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.

1. Cube Portfolio

Cube Portfolio is a WordPress Plugin grid template that offers a powerful portfolio, beautiful animated filtering, custom captions, etc. It's perfect for portfolio projects, image galleries, team members, blog posts, or any other content organized in a grid.Cube portfolio responsive wordpress grid wordpress plugin

Thanks to the real-time authoring tool template, you can control all aspects of the plugin: colors, fonts, dimensions, spacings, borders, etc ...

Read also: 6 WordPress plugins to add auto-completion to your forms

Il est super easy to use for beginners and very customizable for advanced users.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. Facebook Recent Comments Widget 

This widget allows you to display a list of the latest Facebook comments from your WordPress blog on the first page, or anywhere there is a widget used by the website.

Facebook recent comments wordpress widget wordpress plugin for facebook comments

As features you will have among others: the display of all the latest comments of your website or WordPress blog, theAutomatic or manual approval of comments to be displayed on the widget,sending an email notification when a person comments through the Facebook comments plugin, good SEO, compatibility with any WordPress theme, ooptions to customize the widget and much more.

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3. Custom JavaScript & CSS in Pages!

Thanks to this WordPress Plugin, you can add CSS styles and custom JavaScript on specific pages. It also allows you to define rules for multiple pages. This way, you can have predefined or unique styles for specific sections.

Custom javascript css in pages wordpress plugin e1558356028853

Like any other feature offered by this WordPress plugin, you can easily include different scripts on different pages of your website.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

Recommended Resources

Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.

Conclusion

Here ! That's it for this tutorial. We hope this article has helped you learn how to automatically add drip content in WordPress. You can also see our Ultimate WordPress Security Guide to keep your subscription website secure, and our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to customize the design of your 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 WordPress blog creation.

If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments. Do not hesitate to share with your friends on your favorite social networks

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