Paid Memberships Pro – Limit Post Views GPL v1.0.2

Description

Paid Memberships Pro – Limit Post Views

How it Works

This Add On is inspired by sites like the New York Times, which limits users to 5-10 monthly article views before redirecting users to a paywall.

This plugin sets a cookie for each visitor to track their views. The plugin’s settings page allows you to set the number of visits per “term” for non-members as well as for each membership level. It will allow visitors or members limited access to view posts they do not already have access to view. Once the user’s view limit is reached, they are redirected to the assigned page (most people select the Membership Levels page).

You must first restrict access to the posts that are included in the limited views. This Add On does not add view limits to public posts (unprotected) on your site.

The plugin’s use of cookies means that (just like the NYTimes sites) it is incredibly easy to circumvent this protection by using a different computer, browser, or incognito mode, etc. The idea is not to completely block users from your site, but to gently nudge returning readers to sign up for an account.

Great for SEO

This add on is also a great workaround to allow search engines “in” to index your content.

If you set post views to 1, search bots can access posts and index them. We’re working on other unique code to allow search bots to scan your full site for SEO, but until that time this is the interim solution.