Setting up Leaky Paywall

Plugin Installation

Navigate to Wordpress Dashboard > Plugins > Add Plugin. Search “Leaky Paywall” and install > activate.

You can also download Leaky Paywall core from the WordPress repository.

This core version works with all of our premium extensions.

Installation Wizard

Once you have activated the core plugin the installation wizard will launch. You can follow through these steps to configure your setup.

Create Required Pages

This will automatically create the pages required to execute Leaky Paywall functionality.

If you need to do these steps manually you can add the relative short codes to new pages in Worpdress as shown below:

1. Create a page for the login

Add the shortcode [leaky_paywall_login] to your login page and in the Leaky Paywall options select the page from the Page for Log In dropdown.

The page should now look like this:

2. Create a page for the subscribe cards

Add the shortcode [leaky_paywall_subscription] to your subscription page and on the Leaky Paywall options select the page from the Page for Subscription dropdown.

After you add your subscription level(s), the page should look like this:

3. Create a page for the register form

You will need to create a page for the Register Form if you plan to use Stripe Credit Card as your payment gateway and/or enable Paypal.

Add the shortcode [leaky_paywall_register_form] to your register page and on the Leaky Paywall options select the page from the Page for Register Form dropdown.

After adding subscription level(s), the registration form will look like this:

4. Create a My Profile or My Account page

Add the shortcode [leaky_paywall_profile] to your my profile page and on the Leaky Paywall options select the page from the Page for Profile dropdown. If using multisite, the My Account page will also show all current subscriptions that a subscriber has running in one spot regardless of which publication they are visiting.

After adding the profile page it will look like this:

On this page a subscriber can:

Change their personal info
See what they are subscribed to
Update their credit card info with Stripe. PayPal simply links them to PayPal.
Cancel their subscriptions
Log in and log out

**Note: Make sure you disable/exclude caching for all 4 page URLs if you are using a caching plugin or a host that uses heavy caching.**

List Builder

List Builder is our recommended and easiest way to get started with paywall messaging. It allows you to capture an email address in exchange for X free articles before being a paid subscriber.

Your free subscription level will be automatically created and assigned to List Builder

List builder serves as a login, registration and password reset form.

You can configure the colors and text in your Wordpress Dashboard > Leaky Paywall > Settings > General tab > List Builder

After the user has registered and exhausted their free articles, they will be served the upgrade message to be directed to your subscribe page.

Again you can configure the colors and text in your Wordpress Dashboard > Leaky Paywall > Settings > General tab > List Builder

Content Restrictions

You can now set the number of articles a new user gets for free before the first paywall message displays.

On the Restrictions tab, choose the type of content to restrict and how many views are allowed. For more detailed information on our content restrictions and how they work, please view our article ' How Leaky Paywall’s Content Restrictions Work'.

You can alter this later under Wordpress Dashboard > Settings > Restrictions tab

Paid Subscription Level

Set your first paid subscription level; enter a name, price and duration.

You can add additional levels by going to Wordpress Dashboard > Leaky Paywall > Settings > Subscriptions tab > Add New Level

Set the name of the subscription level, if it will be recurring (or one time), the price of the subscription in dollars, the subscription length, and what the user has access to with the subscription level. You can add multiple access options by clicking on “Add New Post Type”.

You can create recurring subscriptions using our Recurring Payments add-on.

Connect your Stripe account

If you want to take payments for subscriptions you can easily connect to your Stripe account. Click “Connect to Stripe” which will take you to your Stripe account, follow the instructions to verify your details.

You will see a connected status in your Leaky Paywall > Settings > Payment tab once completed.

*If you are testing (non-live mode), add test Publishable key and test Secret key from your Stripe account.

Stripe Webhooks

To receive data when a recurring payment is attempted by Stripe. Webhooks are needed in order to ensure Leaky Paywall knows when a new payment has been made.

Navigate back to Stripe to add the Webhooks. Make sure you have the new Leaky Paywall sub account selected that you just created.

1. Open up your Stripe account and use the dropdown to find your sub account that is connected to Leaky Paywall (has our logo on it)

2. Click on this link to go to the setting, and click 'Create an event destination'

3. Paste this URL into the 'Endpoint URL' field: https://YOURURL.com/?listener=stripe

4. Click on Select Events, click Select all Events

5. Click 'Add events' to add all events

Welcome Email

New subscribers will get a custom message from you. You can use HTML for a fancier email if you like.

You can customize a welcome email for each subscription level using our Per Level Emails extension. Also, make sure you have a transaction email service set up to ensure email delivery.

Once complete the wizard your full subscription experience should be live on your website.

You can click on your Dashboard to see the latest stats of new subscribers and revenue.

Set a page for the subscriber to be redirected to after they subscribe

This can be a new page or an existing page such as My Account. If you would like to redirect a subscriber to the content they were viewing before registering, use our Registration Redirect add-on.

Add links to your subscription and login pages

You could place them in your main menu or a sidebar widget for easy access for your readers.

Testing Subscription access

Adding subscribers manually

If you are adding a subscriber manually make sure the Payment Method you select is 'Manual' Otherwise Leaky Paywall will try to contact Stripe/PayPal to verify access.

*Make sure you have our reCaptcha or Turnstile extension set up to help prevent form spammers.