In reviewing Paybox – and actually working with it – I’d say that the first impressions are excellent. It has strong capabilities and functionality and the price is very affordable.

But second impressions are a little different. The manual leaves a lot to be desired. It tells you how to install the plugin, but it doesn’t tell you how to use it, or what to watch out for. And if you’ve never installed this kind of thing before you could soon get overwhelmed.

I’ve been installing software for over 30 years and I struggled with this. Not because the plugin is badly designed, or doesn’t work, but simply because the information you need isn’t readily at hand. And the hints and tips that are promised are ‘coming soon’. I don’t know when soon is, but I do know that if I want to buy a plugin today, I want to use it today.

I have more to say about the plugin in the other posts, but despite these initial apparently negative comments I would recommend this plugin to anyone who is looking for a cheap way to create a membership site.

Later posts will compare this solution with other membership scripts.

The very first thing you should do before you start to install is [private] make sure you’ve edited the license.txt file and put in a valide license number. Paybox won’t work without it so be sure to copy and paste carefully from your control panel at Gootix. It’s surprising just how many people manage to copy an extra space at the end of the licence key, so be very careful to avoid that. It could save you untold hours trying to hunt down a problem you can’t actually see! [/private]

So, you want to turn your own blog (or blogs) into a paid membership site as easily as possible. I’m here to help you.

Before we get started I’d just like you to review that you have everything you need to get going:

1. A self-hosted Wordpress blog

2. A copy of Paybox – if you don’t already have one buy your copy here.

3. Some kind of FTP client

That’s it. You can add your protected content later, or if you have it now you can start protecting it in the next few minutes.

You can purchase a membership for a one-time payment here. That will give you access to all the video tutorials on this site.

It’s no surprise that blogs are very popular these days. Almost everyone has one (or more) and almost everyone else will have one. But when you get past the fact that they’re good for telling the world about your hobby, or getting some search engine love from the likes of Google, can you make money from a blog?

Well, lots of people already do.  And there is a plugin called Paybox that aims to help you make more money by making some parts of your blog only available to your paid members.

After all, if you’re offering valuable content it has a worth and Paybox aims to make the process of getting paid for that content easy and automatic.

This blog reviews the Paybox membership plugin for Wordpress from start to finish, warts and all.