Pay to read WP Comments on a single post?

Discussion in 'Pre-Sales Questions' started by lhd333, Jan 21, 2009.

  1. lhd333

    lhd333 New Member

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    I'm wondering if your wordpress integration can do the following:

    1. Fred signs up for free to post a question (which is a wordpress post)
    2. Bill signs in and answers the post via the comments.
    3. Fred THEN pays to view the answer.

    I suppose this is how experts (dash) exchange (dot) com works, though I've never tried it.

    4. Any way to pay Bill a percentage for answering the question?
  2. codeispoetry

    codeispoetry aMember Pro Customer

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    Nope. The integration is a single login for both WP and aMember only.

    I think the site you mentioned does it via a forum software rather than Wordpress software though.
  3. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    Agree with codeispoetry here. I wouldnt think this would be an ideal use of amember. Sorry no recommendations on other software.

    David
  4. itaweb

    itaweb New Member

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    I respectfully disagree with davidm1 and codeispoetry. If you are still listening lhd333, here are a couple of ideas based on my limited experience with aMember. Yes it is a single login on the aMember side that automatically creates an account for the user in WordPress. But here are a few creative ideas that you might be able to try, using your own install of aMember and the $40 WordPress plugin.

    1.) In your example, Fred is the user. Fred can go through aMember to select a free or trial product to gain a new WordPress subscriber account to make a post for his question to Bill.

    2.) Bill is already in your system, probably as an editor in WordPress. Once Bill see's the question from Fred, he can create a new post as a response with his answer, using the special code {++} from the memberwing.com plugin for WordPress to hide the answer from Fred's membership category.

    3.) If Fred decides he wants to see Bill's answer, he can upgrade his membership category from "gold" to "platinum" for example, by purchasing the appropriate product in aMember.

    An alternative solution would be for you to allow Bill to provide his answer through the ether.com system. This service is owned by AT&T, and is designed for consultants to charge for telephone time, or charge for reading an email inside the ether.com system. Payments in this case would be processed by ether.com but Bill could simply notate the WordPress post with a link to ether.com that leads to his hidden answer.

    Another alternative solution, using aMember, would be for Bill to post his answer using the password protect feature inside WordPress. Then for Fred to obtain the password, he can opt to purchase a product in aMember that gives him access to a subdirectory that is actually protected by aMember. Fred makes payment, goes into the special subdirectory where Bill has placed a text file with the password, Fred then uses this password to type into Bill's post, and he is able to finally see his answer.

    I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but off the top of my head those are a few ideas. Let me know if this helps. And I would be more than happy to assist you if you would like to set this up for yourself. Thank you.
  5. davidm1

    davidm1 aMember User & Partner

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    That is creative- ive done something similar to the hidepost plugin, and the incremental content plugin. hidepost checks for a field created by the incremental content plugin in the product. if the user has ordered that specific product they get access.

    But I think with all the solutions you are talking about potentially creating hundreds of products... 1 for each answer.

    David
  6. itaweb

    itaweb New Member

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    Well, I was thinking about that. Perhaps the product could be related the upper membership level, and that level would expire after the user reads the answer. Either make it expire by time or by using a button that says "do you want to ask another question?" and that button would make the upper level membership level expire. So the user is back to the regular lower level, and can ask another question that would be hidden by the plugin for different membership levels.

    There are probably other ways though. With the option to use aMember to protect a subdirectory that has a text file containing the WordPress post password, I suppose you could reuse the same product over and over, just ask the editor to change the contents of the text file. But that would also require making the product "expire" before they ask a new question, and the WordPress post would need a new password value.

    Personally, I am in favor of using ether.com since this falls pretty close in line with original question from the OP. Your payment processing would be taken care of, and there are other possibilities such as anonymous telephone time and paying to receive email attachments.

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