Paid Access Overview

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 will be able to make their Paid Access payments exclusively through seamless integration with PayPal's secure, reliable and trusted payment platform. This means that they can pay with their Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card, bank account, or PayPal balance.

When a member makes a paid access payment, you will be paid in real time through PayPal. You can see each member's name and the amount they paid to your existing PayPal account, and track it within the PayPal reporting system you may already know.

You need a Verified PayPal account to activate the Paid Access. 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.

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 PayPal does charge a 2.9% transaction fee on the total sale amount plus a $0.30 fee per transaction for processing the payment.

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 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.

Related Articles:

• Paid Access Best Practices
• Requiring users to pay to access the forum
• Requiring users to pay to access a category

If you still need help, please contact us.