Paid Access gives you several ways to monetize your forum. You can set a fixed price or ask for donations for access to features, your entire forum, or select categories. When a member tries to access your site or any area that you have required Paid Access for, a customizable message will be displayed asking them to pay/donate.
In a matter of clicks, you can transform your community into a social business. As Paid Access is an integrated payment system, you can create a seamless charging experience and collect the payments in real-time.
You also get to decide how to treat your existing members. You can give them complimentary access so they do not have to pay, or you can require them to pay just like the new members. If you require payment, they will be prompted to pay the next time they visit.
There are varieties of ways to use this feature:
- Paid Membership: Collect membership fees from users.
- Paid Category Access: Create exclusive categories for premium members to have a deeper conversation and access special content.
- Paid Content: Provide a category for members to access premium content such as reports and articles etc.
- Ad-Free Browsing: Paid users will not be shown any ads that you have specified in the Appearance -> Ads section.
- Donations: Ask for member donations to keep your community going or to benefit a cause.
With Paid Access, you can easily run VIP fan clubs, publish exclusive reports, and create professional networking groups. There are endless possibilities to take an advantage of this feature.
How does the payment process work?
Your members can pay for Paid Access with PayPal or with a debit or credit card. PayPal payments can be made with a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card, bank account, or PayPal balance, and card payments are entered directly on your forum's payment page. PayPal works out of the box; card payments require Connect Stripe as a payment processor.
When a member makes a paid access payment, you will be paid in real time through the payment processor you use. PayPal payments go to the PayPal email address in your settings and are tracked in your PayPal account, and card payments processed by Stripe are deposited into your connected Stripe account and tracked in the Stripe Dashboard.
If you collect payments with PayPal, you need a Verified PayPal Business Account. If you don't have a Verified PayPal account, or have no PayPal account at all, you'll need to create a new PayPal account and connect it to a bank account. Because PayPal verifies that you have connected an active bank account, it may take up to 48 hours to become verified (see Creating a Verified PayPal Business Account). If you connect Stripe instead, card payments work without a PayPal account.
We worked hard to make the Paid Access feature favorable for you. Website Toolbox does not charge anything extra for this feature. 100% of the payment made by your users goes to you. We do not charge any percentage fee on the payment. However, note that your payment processor charges its own transaction fee: PayPal charges a 2.9% transaction fee on the total sale amount plus a $0.30 fee per transaction, and Stripe charges the standard card processing rate for your account. See Are there any fees for Paid Access?.
As it relates to your members, you are solely responsible for managing and administering Paid Access on your forum. This means you must handle refunds, billing questions and other similar items. Any payment disputes will be resolved by PayPal or Stripe in accordance with their standard policies.
What will appear on a user's credit card statement?
Your member's' billing statements will reflect your site name along with the payment amount. Website Toolbox will not appear anywhere on the member's billing statements or during your member's purchase flow. Paid Access has been designed to give you total control over your brand. Log in to your PayPal account and edit your settings to modify the name that appears on a user's billing statement for PayPal payments, or adjust the statement descriptor in your Stripe account for card payments.
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